Chapter 22
22
D on’t panic. Don’t panic.
Easy to think, tough to follow through. The car bounced slowly over the rocky road, and even as Tansy switched gears and pulled the seat latch, she was picturing the cliff edge.
How far away was she?
She scrambled through the opening into the back seat and all but dove for the front. There were too many types of door latches and locks for her to know for sure she could get out of the backseat in seconds, but she could do this much.
Brakes were brakes in all vehicles.
She rolled over the top of the back rest and sprawled into the driver’s seat, foot extended to stop her forward motion as quickly as possible.
A gasp of relief escaped as the pedal depressed and Tansy finally had a second to breathe and look out the window.
The hood of the car was maybe five feet from the edge, a whole lot of open air right beyond it. God. Tansy pressed her hand to her chest to try to stop the pounding?—
“ Nooooo .”
Tansy whipped her head around to discover Melissa running at high speed toward her. “Shit.”
No time to get out safely. No keys in the ignition. Not a new enough car to be a push start, and no time to hot wire it. Tansy scrambled for the door panel and hit the power locks just as Melissa grabbed the latch.
“You bitch .” Melissa smacked her fists on the window.
Tansy jerked up the parking brake then slid over the center toward the passenger door. “Look who’s talking.”
Unfortunately, Melissa wasn’t giving up. She sprinted to the back, planted her hands on the smashed trunk and pushed.
Nothing. She rocked forward futilely a few times as Tansy held her breath, but the weight of the car combined with the shallow incline meant the brake held.
A deafening blare rang out. Melissa had set off the car alarm, which also security locked the doors, effectively sealing Tansy in.
Damn it. Tansy ducked under the dash and went rooting for the fuses she needed. Now the only way to get out was to short the system.
She peeked up every few seconds but didn’t see or hear Melissa. Then again, all she could hear was the alarm at deafening levels as she went back to work on the panel.
Pulling the plug brought sweet silence to her ears, and Tansy breathed out in relief. She reached for the door and froze.
Barreling down the road toward her was her SUV. The red taillights flickered, but Melissa had obviously had the bright idea of grabbing the vehicle to, what? Bump the car over the cliff to finish the job? Make a quick get away?
Tansy wasn’t sure.
What she did know was that ZenBaby’s brakes were even less reliable in reverse, and this trip wasn’t going to end the way Melissa hoped.
For either of them.
Jake rounded the corner and froze, slamming on the brakes so hard that a scream escaped Petra in the backseat.
In front of him, Melissa’s car was parked almost off the cliff. Above it, Tansy’s SUV bounced backward erratically, crossing the final five feet separating it from the car. A second later, the SUV made contact.
The car went sailing over the cliff toward the lake, the SUV right after it.
“Holy shit.” Panic flooded his system as he shot his truck forward another twenty feet until he was mostly off the road. Somehow he threw the thing in Park before scrambling out the door and heading for the cliff edge as fast as his feet could go. “ Tansy .”
“Watch it.” Aiden caught Jake by the arm, jerking him back when he would have raced right over the edge.
“What the hell just happened?” Jake demanded, trying to shake free from his brother. “ Tansy .”
“You falling after her doesn’t help anyone,” Aiden shouted.
Denial shot to his lips, but Jake was more interested in moving than arguing. He jerked to the left and broke away, leaping to the side of the hill where there was at least something to grab onto as he leaned toward the?—
Beyond the rocky edge, a small brown-haired boy popped into sight out of seemingly nowhere.
“Jeffrey?”
“The hell?” Aiden muttered from behind him.
Jake stayed focused on the kid, looking for a way to reach him. “Stay there, buddy. I’m coming to get you.”
“No.” Jeffrey lifted a hand, worry in his eyes. “I’ll fall.”
Shit. Jake froze. “What are you standing on?”
Jeffrey looked down. “A rock. It’s wiggly.”
Christ . “Okay, stay still. I’ll find…something.” Jake glanced up the hill, hoping for inspiration.
“I’m going down the path. I’ll try to get below him,” Aiden called, his voice fading as he ran.
“I’ll check the truck. You have booster cables if nothing else. They’ll make a decent rope,” Petra offered before turning and sprinting out of sight.
Jake took a deep breath and returned his gaze to Jeffrey. “You okay?”
The little tyke dipped his chin solemnly once before shaking his head. “Scared.”
“Me too, buddy. Stay very still, okay?” Jake used every morsel of strength to stay in place and stay calm when everything inside him was screaming to find Tansy. To go to her, to see if there was any chance?—
“Jake?”
Oh God. That was her voice, out of the empty air. “ Tansy ?”
“No, Tansy. Don’t move.” Jeffrey stared in the opposite direction now. “Stay secret so no one will see you.”
A long, dragged out groan sounded. Tansy sounded drunk or maybe semi-conscious. “‘Kay. You too, then. Shhh .”
“ Shhh ,” Jeffrey repeated back. He met Jake’s eyes. “She’s in a bush. It’s not a very big bush.”
Fuck. “Can I reach it?”
Jeffrey glanced upward to the edge of the cliff above his head. “Nope.”
The phone in Jake’s pocket rang, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. He somehow kept his footing and answered the thing on speaker. “Yeah?”
“I can see you guys, but there’s no route from here.” Aiden gasped out the words. He must have sprinted the entire way to be at the bottom already. He lowered his voice. “Ah, shit. Melissa didn’t make it.”
“She’s there?”
“Driver’s seat of Tansy’s SUV. Sort of driver’s seat—she got tossed. Christ, this is a mess.” Aiden took a deep breath. “I’ve checked again. She’s not breathing, and there’s no heartbeat. She’s gone.”
Maybe Jake should have felt something other than numb at that news, but terror and fear for Tansy and Jeffrey outweighed everything. “Keep looking for a way to access the hill. Or at the least, stop them if they fall.”
An impossible task, but Aiden was kind enough to not tell him that. “Be smart, bro. Think through every move.”
“Jake, I got the cables.” Petra inched her way toward him.
“Call for help,” Jake told Aiden before shoving his phone away and motioning Petra forward. “You feel like a little climbing?”
“Sure.” Petra stopped a foot away, watching as he pulled his belt free from his pants and offered it to her. “Excellent. Double knot the cable to it in the back, and you can anchor me so I can see what it looks like.”
“Jeffrey says he’s not on firm ground, and I heard Tansy.”
Petra’s eyes widened as she tightened the belt around her waist. “She’s here?”
“Partway down. Not out of danger yet,” Jake said softly. “You don’t take risks, okay? Just…check it out first.”
As much as he desperately needed Tansy and Jeffrey to be safe, if anything happened to Petra, Aiden wouldn’t survive.
Petra squeezed Jake’s arm. “I’ll do everything I can.”
Jake double-looped the end of the cable around his forearm and gripped the bendy plastic as tightly as possible. Bracing back slightly in case Petra slipped, he spoke to Jeffrey. “Hold on tight and watch. If anything starts to move, tell us to stop. Can you do that?”
“Yup.” Jeffrey glanced over his shoulders. “Tansy?”
“I’m here, kiddo. Just hanging out.”
God. Only Tansy could joke at a time like this.
“We’re coming to get you, Tans. Don’t move,” Jake ordered.
“Not moving is a good idea. I think I’m stuck. And partly broken.”
Petra had made it about five steps away from Jake, and she peered over the edge, a soft laugh escaping. It sounded a hell of a lot more forced than usual, but it still helped. “You’re upside down, my friend. Stuck is good for a few more minutes.”
“All the blood in my body is pooling in my brain,” Tansy began before stopping. “Maybe hurry? I just felt something shift.”
“Hurrying, I promise.” Petra eased onto her belly, one leg over the edge as she wiggled toward Jeffrey. “Hey, bud. As soon as I reach you, grab on and climb, okay? Jake has me tight, so you go right ahead and climb like a monkey.”
The booster cables were the longest on the market, but Jake was rapidly running out of his makeshift rope. “How much farther?” he asked Petra.
“Another arm’s length.” Petra cursed softly. “Jeffrey, look at me. I need you to hold out your hand.”
“The rock is wiggling,” Jeffrey whispered.
“I see it. But I’m nearly there. Hold on?—”
Sudden weight hit the cord as Petra vanished, nearly jerking Jake off his feet. Jeffrey yipped sharply before the sound cut off.
“Petra,” Jake roared.
“We’re good. I got him. I got you, kiddo. It’s okay.” Petra spoke loudly to be heard over Jeffrey’s crying. Jake ignored everything as he dug his heels into the dirt and pulled the cable up hand over hand.
Petra’s head popped over the edge, and a second later, Jeffrey scrambled over her shoulders, headed straight for Jake. A second later he had a death grip on Jake’s neck.
“Let me get Petra—” Jake began, but Petra cut him off, crawling on her hands and knees.
She coiled their makeshift rope in her arms and headed for the road above them. “We need to go from directly above. Come on. I got the line.”
Jake scooped Jeffrey up. “Tansy. You okay?”
“Peachy.” The word was soft and slurred.
“Stay awake, baby.”
“‘Kay. Jake? Love you.”
This was not happening. “Love you too. Hold on tight. We’ll get to you in a jiffy.” Ignoring the urge to head over the edge right there, Jake shot up the hill after Petra.
Time had to be running out on their luck. How much longer could Tansy’s precarious perch last?