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Swinging my head to him, I try to avoid focusing on the sheer desolation and alarm plastered to his features. My stomach drops while my heart shatters...he can't find a pulse.
Think, think, THINK!
My burning eyes latch onto her bound hands, peeking out from beneath her head. Leaning over, I, as gently as possible, take her dainty wrist between my fingers and push down, praying to anything fucking listening, that her heart is still fucking beating.
Beat, damn you! Come on, Eve. Fight! We are here now! Stay with me...come back to me...FIGHT!
"Is-is she..." My brother's voice wavers, causing my focus to deviate for a moment.
"I-"
Was that a thump I just felt against my thumb?
"Come on, Eve, do it again. Please," my plea breaks as I stare at her bruised face. Korren must have swooped her hair away, giving us a better view in case she opened her golden eyes.
Thump.
"Again!" I urge her above the roaring wind of the helicopter that now hovers above us.
Thump.
"She's alive. It's weak and inconsistent, but she's alive!" I holler to Korren, his shoulder slumping at the news. Sobs begin to rack his body as his hands flutter around her, not knowing if he should touch her.
I don't notice the two men landing behind us with a gurney until they yell at us to move. We stand reluctantly and press ourselves against the rock wall. One turns around and forces us into vests, hooks a wire onto multiple straps, and ushers us to the ladder they dropped down.
He must notice our hesitation to leave Eve because he gives us a gentle nudge. "We've got her. We have to strap her in and need space. She will be up in a minute, I promise." With that parting yell, he turns, dismissing us.
Locking eyes with my brother, the tremble of his chin and the vulnerability in his eyes is like a punch in the gut. My strong brother needs me to take care of him now. The time for my own emotions will have to come later; I have a family that needs me to take the lead and get them to safety.
Which won't happen, until we leave Eve on this ledge with two unknown rescue officers currently working on rearranging her limbs in the most gentle way they possibly can.
In order for my family to be whole again, we need to walk away from her while she's in her most vulnerable and broken state, barely hanging on to survival.
So I do...I decide to usher Korren up the ladder and take one final glance down at the woman who stole my heart a long time ago. I send her a silent promise that I will see her up there in a few minutes.
Please, keep beating.
Ryan
"Let me go!"
Nolan's wail pierces my ears, causing my emotions to go haywire and my body to double over at the complete and utter heartbreak radiating on top of this goddamn cliff.
"Stop!" Smith's bark has me cringing while I recoil from Brown's gentle touch on my back.
"You can't go down; there's no room." He tries to reason with Nol, but he's completely lost to the trauma of seeing our beautiful girl so broken and immobile.
The cries, threats, and pleas keep coming, but Dom never budges.
"Look! Just fucking look!" His grip on Nolan's jaw is firm as he forces his gaze to the scene below us. Our brothers are climbing a ladder to the large rescue chopper, and Eve's form is being gently tucked into the gurney. "We can't go down there, and I'm not letting you up the next fucking ladder that's about to drop down if you can't control yourself!"
Nolan stops moving completely, slowly turning and squaring up to the lead detective. My pulse thunders at the rage flicking through his eyes.
"Where is he?" His voice is deathly calm, sending chills down my shaking spine.
"We lost him-"
"WHAT?" Nolan roars and lunges at him. Meanwhile, I just stand there, completely fucking useless.
