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It was Gabriel. Nico’s blood froze in his veins. Just like he’d suspected, Gabe had been involved in Lacey’s disappearance. But where was Lacey?
Nico pulled out his gun and ran toward the doctor. “Don’t move,” he yelled. “Put your hands on your head and don’t move.”
Gabriel gave a startled jump and turned to face Nico who was still running, gun pointed at him. The van was only around twenty feet away from the edge now.
“Where’s Lacey?” Nico screamed, skidding to a halt in front of the doctor.
“In there.” Gabe pointed to Dotti.
Suddenly there was a muffled scream from inside the van. Everything seemed to slow down then. Nico ran as hard as he could, not really sure what he was going to do, but wanting to stop the van somehow. Forgetting about Gabriel. Forgetting about everything. Lacey was in that vehicle. He ran. But just as he touched the rear window, the front wheels hit the crumbling edge, and the van flew in a graceful swan dive into the waiting branches of the trees below.
He skidded to a stop, teetering on the edge himself, arms waving to keep his balance.
“No!”
“No!” he screamed again into the wind as he watched the van plunge down the drop-off, breaking through the top branches of the trees that grew up the steep slope.
Then he saw something. A figure flung itself into the treetops even as the van crashed through the thick forest, leaving a trail of broken branches as it continued its nosedive. The Kombi smashed onto the rocks below and careened down the ravine, splintering through the thick undergrowth. Then it hit a large rock and rolled end over end, like a bouncing ping-pong ball down the slope, finally coming to a cracking halt, stopped by a huge trunk of an old pine tree. The booming sound echoed around the cliff face and down into the valley below.
Just as suddenly, everything went totally still and quiet.
Nico stood on the edge of the ravine, eyes fixed on the spot in the treetops just below. Had he seen what he thought he saw? Not letting despair overtake him, he drew in a deep breath and hoped. Hoped like hell.
“Lacey,” he called out.
Nothing. There was no answer.
“Lacey,” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “Are you there? Answer me.”
A branch cracked somewhere below him.
Nico looked for a way down. The edge fell beneath him in a sheer drop for around ten feet, but then the side of the ravine began to angle outward. It was over a forty-five degree slope. More like sixty degrees. But if he could get over this first lip, he could probably climb and scramble down there.
Nico turned, looking for something he could use. He had less than twenty minutes of daylight left, judging by the sun on the horizon.
It suddenly struck him that Gabe was nowhere to be seen. And the white sedan was missing. Not surprising. But Nico didn’t have time to worry about that fucker right now.
Another branch cracked, followed by a small scream of fright.
His heart leapt into his mouth.
“Lacey,” he called, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Is that you? Can you hear me?”
After endless seconds of straining to hear, he was rewarded with a faint, “Help! Help me. I’m stuck in a tree.”
She was alive.
Lacey was alive.
“Lacey, it’s me, Nico. I’m coming. I’m coming,” he yelled, his voice cracking with emotion. Fuck. Who would’ve thought he could get choked up over the sound of a voice? But it was from the one woman who meant the most to him in the entire world. She was alive, and he was going to help her.
“Are you hurt?” Now he knew she was alive, he needed to ascertain what kind of condition she was in.
“Yes, but I don’t know how bad,” she called back, her voice drifting thinly over the distance. “I think my arm is broken.”
Not good. But anything was better than dead; he could deal with a broken arm. He tucked his gun back into its holster and ran back to his motorcycle. He always carried an emergency first aid kit in the small space under his seat. And if he was lucky… Yes, there was a set of jumper leads too. Would they be long enough for what he needed if he tied them together? Only one way to find out.
Jogging back to the cliff edge, he took out his phone and dialed Tyrell, nearly letting out a shout of joy when he saw he had reception. “I’m out at Blackpoint Lookout,” he yelled into the phone as soon as his senior constable answered. “Send a car and an ambulance now. Make that two cars, we have an assailant on the loose.”
