When she got about halfway home, she veered off on another trail, one she hadn’t taken before.
I’m not ready to face Jason yet.
The path was more challenging, the steep, rocky inclines making her pick her way carefully downward.
Lost in her own thoughts, she just kept moving on until the path wove her through some rock formations, and she ended up in a canyon, an area with no other way out.
Her eyes searched for another opening in the vertical rock faces as she walked around the large canyon, but she saw none. She was going to be forced to go back the way she had come in.
“Damn,” she whispered, angry with herself for letting her wayward thoughts distract her, make her walk off the beaten paths.
Heading back to the other side of the canyon after finding no escape, her foot slipped on a sloped rock incline, and she went down instantly with a cry of pain.
Sitting up, she stretched out the ankle she had turned going down, the pain almost unbearable. She scrambled to her feet, but she went down again, unable to bear any weight on her injured leg.
She’d left without a cell phone—not that she’d get any reception at the bottom of a canyon anyway. As she crawled to an area without the painful rocks underneath her, she bit her lip to keep from crying out in pain. Planting her ass on a grassy area, she panted and wondered what the hell she was going to do. She wasn’t that far from the guesthouse. She’d vaguely been paying attention to the direction she headed as her mind had wandered.
“It’s getting there that’s going to be the problem,” she mumbled to herself.
Trying to rise once more, she failed when she tried to walk, and she had to take off her hiking boot due to the swelling of her injured ankle.
As she saw the size of her ankle, she knew the injury wasn’t going to allow her to walk anytime soon. Her options limited, Hope decided she’d rest a few minutes and attempt to crawl back as close as she could to the main trail. She’d have more chance of being found.
Please care enough to be looking for me, Jason.
It could take Tate quite some time to realize she was missing—possibly days, or even a week—and by then, it could be too late.
She shook off her fear. Hope prepared herself for a very long, very painful attempt to save herself.
It was going to be getting dark soon, and Jason was panicked. Okay…maybe he’d gone past panic and right to desperation.
He’d hiked to Tate’s house, where he’d found out that Hope had been there and left.
Hope knows the whole story.
Colter had already informed him that he’d told Hope the truth because she’d already found the receipt for the rings, and had guessed most of the plot anyway. Tate had even chewed Jason’s ass for not telling her sooner, which he supposed he deserved, but not coming from Colter. He’d rather get raked over the coals by Hope. Honestly, he just wanted to see Hope, even if she did give him hell.
Grady had called to let Jason know none of his brothers had heard a word from Hope.
He’d left Colter’s place and sprinted back to the guesthouse, only to find it still empty. He’d called Tate, and they’d started a search party. There was really no possibility that Hope could be anywhere except out here in the wilderness. There wasn’t really another direct route back to the guesthouse from Colter’s place, so she must have veered off the main path.
Currently, the search party had been looking for her for hours, and nobody had seen any sign of her. Tate had taken to the air in his helicopter, but there were areas he couldn’t see from above, areas with thick woods that had to be searched on foot. All of Tate’s brothers and Chloe were looking, and Jason knew from the map he’d gotten from Tate that he must be near the end of his assigned area. Once he hit the edge of the canyon, he’d hike down to the one opening in the canyon and head back.
He bellowed Hope’s name as he swiped aside the tree branches. His heart stopped while he waited for an answer. All he’d heard so far was…silence.
Colter had sworn that Hope had seemed okay by the time she’d left his house, saying she needed a walk alone to think. Jason hoped that she wasn’t thinking about how she could get out of their marriage.
I’m sorry, baby. So sorry. Answer me.
His emotions swung from fear, to remorse, to annoyance that she’d left the main path and put herself in danger. Something was wrong; he could sense it. It was almost as if his emotions were tied to Hope’s, and his gut told him she wasn’t just sitting somewhere, thinking about their relationship. She knew better than to be off the beaten path after dark. She hadn’t taken any equipment: no flashlight, not even her cell phone. He’d found it sitting on the kitchen cupboard, plugged in and charged.