Chapter 19 #2
She chuckled at him. “Well, it was my house, too. But if you’d rather, I can just bring the raincoat out.”
“No, I’ll come in,” he said as curiosity filled him. Maybe he wanted the distraction from what they were about to do, but he wanted to see where she’d lived.
“Okay,” she said as she swung her door open. He did the same, and they hurried through the rain to the porch, arriving as Alicia pushed through the front door with Kyle behind her.
“You don’t lock your door?” Kyle asked as they piled into the small foyer.
“Why would I?” Alicia asked.
“Crime?” Kyle asked.
Alicia chuckled as she took a step toward the stairs. “Yeah, right. Crime. City people.”
She darted up the stairs as Julia followed her. “I’ll be right back.”
He stood there with Kyle.
“This is weird, huh?” Kyle asked.
“I can’t wait until we find Sierra,” Grant said with a shake of his head as Kyle stepped into the living room. “Hey, where are you going?”
“Into the living room.” He twisted, the corners of his lips tugging up as he poked a finger at something Grant couldn’t see. “For this.”
Grant flicked a gaze up the stairs before he followed him. Pictures crowded the fireplace mantel. He studied a wedding photo of Ethan and Alicia, his mind returning to the wedding photo of him and Julia.
The image dissolved as he spotted a picture of Julia and Luke grinning at the camera. A picture of the two sisters with their respective significant others around a fire followed by one of the two sisters painted a vivid image of small-town life.
His heart ached as he searched every one of Julia’s smiles, trying to recall if any of the ones she’d given him looked so genuine.
Footsteps on the stairs announced the arrival of the two women.
“Let’s go,” Grant said as he strode back to the foyer. Kyle followed behind him.
Within minutes they were suited for a trek through the rain and back in their respective vehicles.
His stomach twisted and turned as they navigated the winding roads toward a large, flat peak rising in the distance.
Sheer rock faces surrounded it, and he swallowed hard, wondering if Sierra had tumbled from the top.
“Where did Alicia go?” he asked as Julia whipped the car into a small parking lot that seemed to lead to nothing.
“South side,” Julia answered as she slid her seatbelt off and tugged her hood up over her head.
“It’s that big that she had to go a different way?”
“It’s that big,” Julia answered him as she climbed from the car and tightened the hood around her. “Come on.”
The rain pounded the pavement around them as she led him from the parking lot to a barely-there trail marked with a wooden sign announcing it led to the north ridge. With the heavy rain, it was a muddy mess.
He stared at it like it’d come out of a horror movie.
“You good?” she asked. “If you want to wait here, I can–”
“No, I don’t want you going alone.”
She smiled at him as she reached for his hand. “Okay, let’s go. I’m going to go fast, but if you need to slow down, just let me know, okay?”
“Slow down? I’d really like to get to wherever we’re going and see if Sierra is there.”
“Okay, just…in case.”
They started down the messy trail, calling for Sierra as they went. Twenty minutes into the hike, Julia showed no signs of slowing, but Grant was beginning to understand why she’d given him the option to slow down.
He pushed himself, hoping they would arrive soon, but the path took a steep turn, requiring scrambling up them to continue.
“Careful, these rocks will be really slippery when they’re wet.”
“Right,” he said, setting his hand on them, only to have it slide off as if he’d set it on ice.
“Told you. Just take your time and try to follow the path I take.” With ease, she scrambled up the steep side using a tiny foothold.
She reached for him and pulled him up as he set his foot on the solitary spot available to climb. He arrived on the path nearly on top of her.
She grinned up at him as she patted his chest. “Good job. You good to keep going?”
“Yes.” As he followed behind her, he imagined her doing this with Luke, though he assumed the sailor probably didn’t need her help to climb up the path.
He probably helped her up. Grant wrinkled his nose.
The man probably carried her up. They were all so outdoorsy, so used to wandering around in nature.
He wondered if Julia hated living in New Orleans as they continued upward. The climb grew intense a few times until they finally reached a wooded plateau at the top. Land spread out below them in a dizzying array.
If Sierra hadn’t been missing and it wasn’t pouring rain with wind gusts and thunder and lightning, he would have enjoyed the view. If only they had climbed this before all hell had broken loose, he may have cracked open the ring box and made sure he didn’t lose the woman he loved.
“Sierra!” Julia called, cupping her hands around her lips.
He strained his ears but heard nothing.
She stalked further across the top toward an opening with no trees. “Sierra!”
No one answered. He heard nothing outside of the rain beating against the trees and the ground.
She twisted to face him, her eyes still searching before she pressed her lips together, her features pinching. “Damn it.”
No one was here. They’d hit a dead end.
“Okay, we can head down to the T and up the other side toward the east face. Maybe someone found something there.”
He searched his mind for a T in the path, not recalling one, though he was certain she knew what she was doing.
He wondered how far back it was and how much of a climb it was in the other direction.
His muscles ached already, and he felt soaked through.
He wouldn’t rest until they’d found Sierra, but the thought of another climb exhausted him.
“Okay,” he said with a nod, “just give me a second.”
“Okay,” she said as she closed the distance between them, absentmindedly grabbing his hand as she searched the horizon.
The warmth of her hand sent a flood of emotions through him from gratefulness to the deep love he never thought he’d feel for anyone. As rain soaked them, he tightened his fingers around hers. “Julia…”
She snapped her gaze to him. “We’ll find her.”
He shook his head and scrubbed his face with a hand to remove some of the water. “No, it’s not that. I mean, it is that. I’m terrified for Sierra, but there’s something else.”
She studied him, rain streaming down her cheeks and sliding down the pink hood of her raincoat.
As the precipitation blurred the world around them, his thoughts swirled in turmoil.
Each droplet echoed his regret, the way he wished he could rewind time, hold onto her and change the outcome of their argument.
The rhythmic patter of rain echoed her laughter, glimpses of her smile, and pieces of tender moments they’d shared, all of which were a painful reminder of what he feared he’d lost forever. “There’s something I really need to say.”
“Okay,” she said, her brows knitting.
His stomach tumbled as they stood in the pouring rain, their hands clasped. “Julia, I…”
He sucked in a deep breath, trying to force the words that terrified him so much out of his mouth. “I…”
The crease between her eyebrows deepened, and her eyes slid sideways. “Shh.”
“No, Julia, I really, really need to say–”
“Shh,” she insisted, pressing a hand over his mouth.
Did she know what he was going to say and was that certain she didn’t want to hear it? The idea made his heart ache until she said something else.
“I hear something.”
His heart stopped as he strained to listen while she pulled her hand away from his lips. He didn’t hear anything outside of the rain smacking the earth and trees.
They stood in silence as she stared at the ground for a moment before she snapped her gaze up to him. “There. Did you hear that?”
He shook his head. She pulled her hood off, allowing the rain to soak her hair as she closed her eyes. He did the same, hoping he could hear better without the vinyl fabric covering his head.
“There,” she said, snapping her gaze sideways.
His heart stopped. He’d heard something, too. It sounded like a bleating animal. Was there a hurt creature somewhere in the vicinity?
“Sierra?” Julia called as she stepped away from him, heading toward the edge of the mountaintop.
The sound split the air again. His heart sped as he followed behind her.
“Sierra?” she called again.
The cry reached his ears again, twisting his insides in knots. Where was she?
“Oh, no,” Julia murmured as they stepped onto the rocky edge of the plateau. “Careful, this will be slippery.”
She tightened her grip on his hand as they inched toward the edge. She dropped to her knees as they reached the edge.
“Careful,” she said as he knelt next to her. “Don’t get too close.”
He lifted his chin to peer over the edge.
“Sierra!” Julia shouted before her voice turned forlorn. “Oh, no.”
His heart skipped a beat as he followed the direction of her gaze. When he spotted what had elicited her heartsick statement, his heart stopped, his breath catching in his throat. “Oh my God.”
Several feet down the almost sheer rocky face of the mountain, Sierra desperately clung to two small fir trees that had managed to grow out of the jagged rocks. The wind howled, whipping around her, threatening to rip her from her fragile perch.
A surge of primal fear coursed through him, his heart pounding against his chest as the realization hit him–one slip, and they could lose her forever.
Soaked through, she stared up at them with pinched features. “Help.”