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“Tildy!” he shouted down to her. She didn’t move. “Tildy!” Still nothing. “God damn it,” he muttered, pulling back from the edge.
Without needing to discuss it, Caleb let go of Hawk’s hand and stripped off his pack. He tossed it to Shooter, who dug a climbing rope out of the main compartment, as well as a small first aid kit. Caleb unclipped the radio from his belt and began hailing the local ranger station. He gave his badge number and approximate location. Instead of an ambulance, he requested a Lifeline. Tex grabbed some flares from the front compartment and lit one.
Chapter 38
Hawk made it down to her in record time with Caleb and Shooter holding the rope from above him on the ridge. She still hadn’t moved. The moment his feet planted on the ground beside her, he dropped down and took her in his arms. “Angel,” he whispered, feeling for a pulse. “Please, Angel.”
He found it with two fingers and felt like giving a shout of relief. Instead, he called up to Caleb to report it.
“Tildy,” he said, gently shaking her.
Her arm was banged up, purple and marred with bloody scratches. The side of her face had some dried blood as well. She was also missing a shoe, and her bare foot was cut up from the rocks.
“Tildy, honey, you’ve got to wake up,” he prompted, balancing her in the crook of his arm and twisting the cap off a small bottle of water.
He felt another surge of relief when her eyes fluttered open. She looked up at him, her soft brown eyes registering his presence. She frowned.
“I dreamed of you,” she told him.
“I’m here now,” he told her softly. “Sit up. Drink this.”
“You didn’t find me.”
His heart lurched again, and the weight of guilt settled down onto it like one of the boulders that surrounded them. “I’m here, Angel. I did find you.”
“I was lost,” she mumbled, as Hawk raised her up and lifted the bottle to her lips.
“I found you,” he insisted.
He managed to get her to take a little water.
She coughed a little and then drank some more. “Garrett,” she said when she stopped to take a breath.
“I know. I know,” he told her. “How bad are you hurt?”
Hawk cursed himself for a coward. He couldn’t ask her if Garrett had hurt her, if his cousin had raped her before trying to kill her. It would just be another way that Hawk had failed her and another reason to kill Garrett.
“It’s all my fault,” Tildy whispered and began to cry.
“Oh God, Angel. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault,” he assured her, but she continued to cry anyway.
Hawk and the boys managed to get her up to flat ground before the helicopter came. Caleb traded places with Tex on the rope so that he could assess her injuries. By the time Hawk had come up out of the arroyo, Tildy was sitting in Abby’s lap, while Abby slowly rocked her and petted her hair. He couldn’t hear what Tildy was telling the other woman; he wasn’t certain he wanted to know.
The chopper arrived, and they loaded Tildy on it. Caleb insisted on flying with her, and Hawk would have demanded it anyway. There wasn’t enough room for him as well, so he hoofed it back to the truck.
“Go,” Shooter insisted, giving Hawk his keys. “We’ll stay with Garrett. The rangers called RCPD anyway. They’re on their way.”
Hawk frowned. He wanted more than anything to get to Tildy and be with her, but he didn’t want to leave the lieutenant alone to face the cops. Shooter had done so much for him already.
“I-” Hawk began while shaking his head.
“Get in the truck,” Shooter demanded. “That’s an order.” He turned his hardened gaze toward Garrett, who was in the back seat of Tex’s Hummer. “I’ll take care of him.”
The image of Shooter holding the pliers came to Hawk’s mind. All at once, he realized that, given their history, Hawk could not bring himself to kill Garrett, no matter how much he deserved it. Also, that he didn’t really care if Shooter did. As though the older man read his mind, he said, “I’m not going to kill him, but he’s not gonna be a problem. That’s a promise.”
Hawk nodded and took the keys from Shooter, giving his cousin one last look. If Garrett had anything to say to him, he didn’t speak up. The anger and bravado had finally vanished, leaving a man who looked tired and broken, and not because he was missing half an ear. Hawk realized the truth of the look. Sometimes, you just have nothing more to say to a person- ever. He turned and walked away.
At the hospital, Caleb was waiting for him. Tildy’s parents had been notified en route and were already in the room with her.
