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“A monumental error,” he said, and she looked up at him, seemingly surprised by his honesty. “I was so focused on the shooter I didn’t realize I was so close to the cliffs. I didn’t even hear the waterfalls—I had one sole focus. I realized it a few seconds too late. The shooter went over the edge, and I followed him. Somehow I managed to grab hold of a rock ledge and haul my ass back up. My radio, sweater, and phone... not so lucky.”
Her jaw dropped open. “You went over the edge?”
He shrugged. “My hobby as a child was rock climbing. I guess it prepared me for that very moment.”
She exhaled a shaky breath then paused.
“Was it your blood on the cliff or the shooter’s?” she asked, looking over him again.
“The shooter’s,” Lachlan confirmed. “Did they find his body?”
“No,” Bethenny said, but she didn’t look concerned. “But those rapids are strong. He might have been carried farther upstream, or he might have been snagged underneath...” She didn’t finish the sentence, and Lachlan wondered why not.
“They’ll find him tomorrow,” she said confidently. “It was ahe, right?”
Lachlan nodded. “I think so, but honestly I didn’t get a good look.”
She gently took his wrist, her touch sending bolts of energy through him. He hadn’t felt that transfer of energy in a long time.
He watched her, mesmerized, as she bandaged his arm in a splint.
When she’d finished, she looked up. “How does that feel?”
“Better,” he said, answering a different question entirely.
She sat back on her heels, taking one more look over him like she wasn’t sure if she’d missed an injury.
“Now we wait until sunrise,” she said with a lopsided smile.
“Where is the rest of the team?” he asked, suddenly wondering why she was alone.
She rolled her lips over one another. “The search was called off. The weather was too wild and they thought...” She cleared her throat. “They thought you’d gone over the edge.”
He raised an eyebrow, but he wasn’t surprised at that—he was surprised she was sitting here in front of him. “But you stayed, on your own?”
She gave him a small smile. “Good thing I did.”
He beamed her a smile. “Thank you,” he said, and he’d never meant those words more. He suppressed a shiver and she looked at her pack with a frown.
“I don’t have a blanket, and I’m assuming you couldn’t find anything dry to burn.”
He shook his head.
She nodded, then surprised him when she came to sit beside him. Her body immediately warmed his.
He exhaled a contented sigh.
Being stuck in the woods was a lot better when you weren’t alone.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“Do you have some snacks in that bag? Or are you planning to catch something for us to eat?” he joked, but didn’t put it past this woman to do just that.
She rewarded him with a soft laugh, one that bordered on a giggle. “I think I spotted a grizzly a yard back. How hungry are you?”
His laugh was strained, his energy depleted.
She put an arm on his bicep. “Get some sleep,” she said, keeping her hand there.
