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Riley pushed from her end and Adam was inside now. Small flakes started to come down.
“Let’s do this.” Walker looked back at Harris. “Five-fifty in two.”
Riley looked over at him and then to Harris.
“Five-fifty in two. But seven hundred in three,” Harris replied.
Walker’s mouth fell open. “But Harris—”
“I mean it.” Harris glared at him.
Riley looked back and forth. “What the hell is all that babble about?”
Walker turned his head and gaze to his stick and gauges. “We gotta go, Riley. NOW.”
Harris buckled the gurney to the seat. “Remember Ridge. The IV, pulse, dressings. Every 3 minutes take his pulse. Every 10, check his dressing. Use the needle if his heart won’t start again.” He backed out of the copter and jumped to the round.
Riley felt the chopper move. “HARRIS!” she yelled over the sound of the whirring blades.
He looked up at her his green eyes stormy.
“I will be back!” she shouted over the sound of the blades.
Harris raised his hand and gave her a salute.
He was so tall and commanding still, even from the height of the copter. Smiling, she blew him a kiss. The chopper bumped and she grabbed the IV to steady it. She glanced back up.
He’d already disappeared.
It figures. He was always disappearing. Riley sat next to Adam as tears filled her eyes. A salute? How odd. But he did it instead of smiling. She couldn’t shake the dread inside of her. Harris had just shut himself off from her. More than he had the entire time she’d been here. She wanted to ask what that number coded message meant, but she couldn’t talk to Walker from here and she couldn’t leave Adam at all.
The helicopter rose up.
Riley peered out the widow to see the huge cabin from above. It was far larger than she’d assumed. But the trees all around it hid it well. She remembered Google earthing the place and it was barely there. Now she knew why.
The cabin got smaller and smaller. The white of snow was all around and blurred any images of the ground or trees. Her chest tightened. She felt like a part of her heart had just been cut out. She just felt the loss of being near Harris, right? She loved him, she knew this for sure now. Too afraid to admit it and now, she wouldn’t be able to until Adam was better.
She checked Adam’s pulse. It was weak, but there. Too slow for her liking.
The trip was quick. Adam looked paler by the minute and his bleeding had slowed. She’d wondered if the was a good sign or had he bled out all he could? Fear staked a place in her heart and wouldn’t leave.
Then they landed on the roof of a hospital where there was a flurry of medial teams taking over the gurney and whisking him away.
Riley found herself standing in the waiting room wringing her hands.
Walker put his arm around her.
“I h-hope…” Her voice fell away. She turned her face to his shoulder.
“He’s in good hands, kiddo. We did the best we could.”
Sniffling, she cried. “Why did he come up that mountain?”
“He loves you apparently.”
Riley felt so guilty. She left Adam after that ultimatum he’d given her. Then she never warned him that she might be gone for a while. She’d figured he was so disgusted with her that he wouldn’t even care at that point. She’d been wrong. To put a cherry on top of this sundae of guilt, she didn’t love him back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Five days later…
Adam had pulled through. He’d remained unconscious for three days. When he awoke, he had trouble remembering very much. He was too out of it and the drugs were fierce.
On day five, he finally awoke in the morning and looked over at Riley. “Tell me.”
Riley sighed and leaned forward. “I found a link to Walker. I headed up that mountain. Men were following me. They shot at me. It must have started an Avalanche and I was buried.”
Adam reached out and grasped her hand.
“I lost my memory for almost a week.”
“Who was the man in the copter?”
Walker had already debriefed her while Adam was out and she knew what to say, “I’m not sure what his real name was. He was part of Walker’s team at one time.”
Adam tightened his grasp. “I don’t want to know any of it. Despite what a badass that soldier in the copter was and dammit, he was. Like…he was like—”
“Call of Duty? Full Metal Jacket?”
Adam chuckled. “Yeah, but not in cinema-graphics, real and live. I never saw a man move like that in my life.”
Riley held still. Like a panther, like a ninja with stealth, belying his large size. She let out a sigh.
Adam went on, “If anyone asks, I never saw him or your brother or that other person. I know this was all something dangerous. I didn’t realize this when I started up that dammed mountain, but I know it now. As you know I am discreet and don’t like poking my nose into things that are better left alone. Unlike you.” He winked at her. “I’m just glad you got your brother back.”
