Rescue Me(41)

The van had taken it out at the roots, which were thick and twisted and jutting from the ground. He took one step—the tree held—then another, and finally scrambled along the length, the needles pricking his face as he wrestled free of its grip. He tripped out onto the rocky ledge and stood up, breathing hard.

Taking the light from his mouth, he walked over to the edge of the cliff, not too close, and flashed the light into the gorge.

The tree obstructed his view, but from what he could tell, the drop could be fifty feet or more. Despite the ice in his hair and his eyes, a thin, hot trickle of sweat beaded along his back.

“Tell everyone to stay perfectly still!” he shouted to Willow. He didn’t want to tell her why.

He shined the light toward the road. The light couldn’t peel back the darkness enough to spot it, but he guessed they’d slid nearly fifty yards, maybe more, taking with them saplings, boulders, and not a few bushes.

It left a trail that any good SAR team could follow.

Which meant that if they just stayed put, the team could find them.

That was, if they knew where to look, or even that they were missing. Maybe he should hike up the hill and get help.

Come back.

Willow’s voice, soft and plaintive, whispered in his ear.

What if he tried to get the kids out? The emergency pack contained climbing rope, webbing, carabiners—everything he’d need to rig up a belay system.

Or maybe he could simply try to secure the van, buy them time.

But if he didn’t go for help, they might all freeze to death. With the cloud cover closing in and the wind gusting, the sleet could turn to snow. An early season blizzard.

He was standing there doing the math on his options—distance to help, time of exposure, probability of the van going over—when he heard the shout.

“Vi, come back here!”

He flashed the light to the driver’s window, and his entire body jerked when he spotted Violet Moore edging her way out. Sobbing, nearly hysterical, she screamed, struggling hard as she fought to free herself. The van shook with her efforts.

“Violet!” Sam climbed onto the tree, trying to get back to the van. “Get back!”

Even as he broke through the branches, he spotted Quinn Starr behind her, pulling her in.

Sam’s feet steadied on the back door handle, and he launched himself to the upward side of the van.

“Quinn—get her inside!”

His gaze connected with Quinn’s one brutal second before he heard a great, ripping crack. The tree shuddered.

Sam scrambled over the top. Come back.

Quinn pulled Violet inside, and Sam lunged for the door.

The tree started to give, and he slid forward, toward the front of the van.

Toward the edge of the abyss.

The tree began to tilt.

Sam dropped the flashlight and grabbed for a hold. His hands closed over the side mirror.

With a deafening crack, the tree surrendered and heaved the van over the edge, into the black, steel-edged night.





6


SHE JUST HAD TO STAY CALM. That one thought centered Willow as she shook herself out of the panic, the shock of plummeting—well, she didn’t know how far—into darkness.

They’d landed with a bone-jarring crash, Quinn pinning her.

She should have never let Sam leave the van. Okay, it wasn’t like she could stop him. And her pitiful “come back” had her cringing.

Of course Sam would come back. He wasn’t the kind of guy to leave her in the woods in the middle of a storm.

Willow fought to control her breathing. Her shoulder ached, her sternum burned, and her head thundered as the blood pumped against the heat of her hematoma.

“Vi! Are you here?” Vi had totally freaked out, started climbing out the window. While Willow struggled with her seat belt, Quinn had launched himself at Vi.

Which shook the entire van.

Then, Sam’s voice, and thumping across the van just before whatever held them aloft broke with a night-shattering crack as the world dropped out beneath them.

They couldn’t have fallen too far because the van still shuddered with the impact. Thankfully, they landed wheels down, but the jolt of the fall jerked her away from the door, and the pain in her shoulder had her gasping.

Especially with Quinn on her lap, his arms still around Vi.

He was already trying to untangle himself.

Except Vi was writhing, wailing in pain. “My foot—it’s caught!” Her words ended on another scream as Quinn tried to move her.

“It’s stuck,” he said.

Someone from the back flicked on a light—a phone, maybe—and it illuminated not only the wreckage but Vi’s injury.

Her foot was twisted in the steering wheel at an angle that made Willow a little queasy. Quinn struggled to stand up, his arms around Vi’s waist, then leaned over to work her ankle free.