Page 69 of Glimmer in the Darkness

“Where’d you go?” the driver asked.

While directing the driver to his Jeep, James chatted with the guys in front as if he and Cassidy had enjoyed a relatively peaceful hike punctuated by a terrible accident.

Just a few minutes later, the sedan turned onto the narrow logging road where they’d begun this journey. “Didn’t even know this road was here,” the driver said.

“Helps to be a local. If it’s too rough, we can walk it from here.”

The driver slowed, but the passenger said, “Better drive ’em all the way up. She doesn’t look like she can walk.”

Cassidy considered opening her eyes—when had she closed them?—to argue but realized the guy was probably right. Even if she could walk it, she definitely didn’t want to.

“Jeep’s there.”

The sedan braked, and Cassidy opened her eyes. Oh, yeah. James had hidden it from the road.

The driver turned back. “Why’d you hide it?”

“Teenagers come up here to drink. Didn’t want to invite vandalism.”

The guy squinted as if he weren’t sure.

James opened his car door and slid out. A minute later, her door opened, and he helped her stand. She waited while James shook the driver’s hand through the window. “There’s a turnaround just ahead on the right. You’ll see it.”

While the sedan inched forward, James swept Cassidy into his arms.

She wanted to protest that she could walk, but she couldn’t seem to make her voice work.

He carried her to the Jeep, then set her down gently and clicked it unlocked.

After yanking off the tarp, he settled her in the seat and put her seatbelt on her, though she could’ve done that herself if only she could’ve gotten her eyes to stay open.

The Jeep bounced back to the dirt road, then turned onto the state highway.

Next thing she knew, the car slowed and turned. She forced her eyes open and saw James’s house ahead.

He opened the garage door, drove inside, and then helped her into the house, where he settled her at the kitchen table and got two glasses of water. “Drink.”

She did, letting the cold liquid soothe her aching throat.

He opened a box of crackers, took out a handful, and set the box in front of her. “Munch on those while I get us something more substantial.”

The first bite of the tiny orange square and she was sure she’d never tasted anything so good. It’d been less than twenty-four hours since she’d eaten, but between the physical exertion and the injury, it might as well have been a week.

Next, he handed her a bowl of yogurt with some berries in it and a piece of cheese. “We don’t want to overdo and make ourselves sick.”

She started with the cheese—provolone, she thought—then dug into the blueberry yogurt. It tasted delicious with the raspberries he’d added.

She ate every bite, then sat back and let the food settle in her stomach.

“You okay?”

She nodded.

He crouched in front of her and gazed at her face. “You sure? You’re pale as death, and you haven’t spoken in… a while.”

Hadn’t she? She started to say something, but her voice rasped out. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I’m okay.”

He sat back on his heels. “You scared me there for a minute.”