Chapter 2
Two
Sloane
“You’re awake.”
Aspen’s eyes find me without a problem, and I’m greeted with a wide, gummy smile.
Obviously, her sunny disposition first thing in the morning is not something she inherited from me, but I’m grateful for it. That smile does more for my mood than a good jolt of java, although it’s the smell of fresh coffee that first woke me up.
Her hands come up and grab at my hair when I bend down to blow a raspberry in her neck. I smile against her skin when I hear her excited, “Gah.”
She’s really starting to vocalize, testing sounds and volume, occasionally startling herself. Already it feels like every time I look away she’s developed some new skill or hit a next milestone.
Carefully untangling my daughter’s little fingers from my hair, I look down in her pale blue eyes.
“Can you keep yourself entertained for two more minutes while Mommy gets dressed?”
I turn on the mobile Pippa dug out of a box in the garage. It turns out she kept quite a few things from when Carmi was a baby, which is helpful since most of Aspen and my things are packed in a storage facility back in Billings, waiting for me to find a place of my own.
Today is hopefully the first step in that direction.
I drop my towel and dig through the clothes I moved into the closet when we got here last week. I need something professional-looking to wear for my interview today. I finally got a call back from the sheriff’s office yesterday. The same sheriff’s office I spent nearly four years working for almost a decade ago, before I moved to Billings.
Back then Wayne Ewing was sheriff, but he retired shortly after I left. For a few years after that some other guy held office until Ewing’s son, Junior, was voted in. I remember Junior, who was a deputy back when I was. He’s who I have an appointment with this morning about a possible job.
Sully offered to talk to Jonas about me working in some office capacity for the High Mountain Trackers team, but I have a little too much pride left to allow my uncle to beg for a job for me. Let alone an office job. I’m keeping my fingers crossed I can get my old position back at the sheriff’s office. It’ll be a substantial step back for me, both career-wise and financially, but my life circumstances have changed. Besides, the cost of living is less in Libby than in the big city.
I check my reflection in the mirror on the back of the door. I think I look professional enough in navy slacks and my white dress shirt. My short hair doesn’t require more than a quick comb and I haven’t bothered with makeup in years.
“All right, baby girl, are you ready to get dressed?”
“Sloane?”
I turn my head to find Pippa standing in the doorway, a concerned look on her face.
“Hey. We were just on our way down.”
“There’s been a change of plans. Carmi just tried to slice off her finger cutting an apple. She’s going to need stitches.”
“Oh no. Is she okay?”
Stupid question, of course she’s not okay.
Shit , my interview. Pippa was going to watch Aspen.
“She’s a tough cookie, but I really should get her to the ER.”
“Of course. Go.”
I wave her off. I’ll have to take Aspen with me to the interview. Not the first impression I was hoping to make, but I have no choice. This is life as a parent, I just hope Junior is open-minded enough to not turn that into a strike against me.
“Take her to Sully. I just talked to him; he’s working at the ranch office today. Between him and Ama, they can watch Aspen while you go to your interview.”
Ama works at the High Meadow ranch. She wears many hats: she runs the kitchen, looks after housekeeping, does the ranch administration, and also happens to be married to one of my uncle’s teammates. I have no doubt she’s well-qualified to take care of my daughter.
Still, the idea of going to the ranch, when I’ve so carefully avoided showing my face there, is making me a little nervous.
One way or another, it looks like today might turn into a day of confessions.
Sully had agreed to put off talking to Mom for a week to give me a chance to get my shit together, and today would mark my cutoff. I’m hoping to at least have a job lined up before I’m forced to talk to her. It’s not going to be a fun conversation, regardless, but being able to show her I’m taking care of things will hopefully ease the way.
Mom never liked Jeff; thought he was a waste of space. Which, in hindsight, she was right about, although I hate to admit it. I think the fact he was nothing at all like any of the men who had been prominent in my life up to that point is what made him attractive to me.
He was different, all right. When I met him, he was working as a bartender at a pub down the block from the precinct. Good-looking, charismatic, funny, and he definitely had a way with words, singing poetry while slinging drinks. According to him, bartending was just to pay the bills while he pursued his dream of making it as a music artist.
What can I say? I ignored all the signs. Not even the fact he was forty-two and still rooming with two buddies was enough of a red flag. Granted, I had no illusions of any kind of long-term relationship, not until I found myself pregnant. Then everything changed.
At first it looked like he would step up to the plate, vowing to be there for me and our child. He moved in with me, quit his bartending job since he made less than I did as a detective for the Billings PD, and would work on his music from home while taking care of the baby.
He lasted a little over a month alone with Aspen at home. Then one day when I was at a doctor’s appointment with Aspen, he cleared out. By the time I got back, any and all evidence of Jeff was gone from the apartment. He did leave me a note, stating he was destined for greater things and parenthood was holding him back.
I don’t like admitting failure, and for all the mistakes I made in my life, putting my faith in that loser was the biggest mistake of all. There’s no doubt my mother will find a way to pry the whole sordid story from me. Pippa has been running interference for me with Sully, reminding him I’ll tell him what happened when I’m good and ready to, but I don’t think even Pippa can save me from my mother’s determination.
“There she is.”
I can’t even get through the door before Sully plucks my daughter from my arms. He must’ve been lying in wait for me.
Not a word for me, as he turns his back and carries Aspen down the hallway to the large ranch kitchen. I follow, carrying the diaper bag I quickly packed, but to my relief only Ama is in the kitchen.
“Oh, isn’t she precious,” Ama mutters, wiggling her fingers as she reaches for her. “Gimme that little nugget.”
Sully presses a kiss to Aspen’s downy head and reluctantly hands her over.
“It’s that I know you have an appointment,” Ama directs at me with a stern look. “But when you get back to pick her up, I’ll be waiting for an explanation.”
Shit . If there is anyone more single-minded than Mom, it’s probably Ama.
I’m afraid after today my poor life choices are going to be public knowledge.
Dan
“Don’t move.”
The young girl is shaking so hard, I’m surprised she hasn’t already fallen off the side of the cliff she’s desperately hanging on to twenty feet below me.
“I’ll be right down there to get you,” I promise.
I back away from the edge and grab the extra harness Wolff holds out for me, clipping it on to my belt. I plan to rappel down and hope to hell the girl hangs on long enough so I can get her hooked up.
When we got the notification from the sheriff’s office early this morning, I didn’t think we’d actually find someone out here. They’d gotten a call from a couple of hikers who’d walked down off Kenelty Mountain at the crack of dawn. The two had planned to spend the night on the mountain, but were woken up by screams in the middle of the night. When they went to investigate, they found a backpack, and spent some time looking for the person it might’ve belonged to, but without much success. So, they ended up packing their gear, grabbing the backpack, and hiking back to the trailhead from where they were able to call for help.
The trailhead is actually almost directly across the Fisher River from my little piece of property, so rather than loading the horses onto the trailer and driving around the long way, Wolff, James, JD, and I saddled up and crossed the river on horseback.
James Watike is part of the original High Mountain Trackers and married to Ama, who rules the roost back at the ranch. Of all of us, James is by far the best actual tracker. He could pick up the trail of a field mouse.
James, Sully, Bo, and Fletch were all part of a special ops tracking team under Jonas Harvey’s command, and when each of them aged out of special forces, they all followed Jonas to the High Meadow Ranch.
JD is James and Ama’s son, and he, Lucas Wolff, and myself are the more recent additions to the HMT team, which is now eight men strong. I know Jonas would eventually like to add one or two more, but the one person he has his sights on—his own stepson, Jackson—is playing hard to get.
“JD, did you get the rope anchored?”
I turn my head to catch him give the thumbs-up, while Wolff double-checks my gear. Then I test the rope, leaning my weight against it. It feels sturdy enough. Time is of the essence and my main concern is getting to the girl, I have to trust my teammates to get me back up.
“Ready?”
At Wolff’s nod, I step back so my heels are hanging over the edge. Then I lean my body back, letting the rope take my weight.
As I rappel down, I kick loose a few stones that bounce down the rock face, narrowly missing the girl. I freeze, worried she might startle and let her tenuous hold slip, but she doesn’t even seem to notice. The poor girl appears almost catatonic. I don’t notice until I’m at face level with her how young she really is. She’s no more than a teenager.
I can hear the clacking of her teeth chattering, and her whole body is trembling. I expected to find her eyes closed, so I’m surprised to find them wide open but empty. She appears to look right through me.
The girl’s fingers are jammed into a crevice running just above her head, and only the toes of her white sneakers rest on the narrow ledge. Very carefully I position myself behind her, bracketing her body with mine. This way, if she lets go for any reason, I can use my body to prevent her from falling.
“Hey. I’m Dan. I’m going to put a harness on you, okay? All you have to do is stay still, and I’ll have you out of here in no time.”
There is no response, and no reaction when I secure her in the extra harness. There is no way I can send her up on her own so I fasten her to my front. My legs are long enough, I’ll be able to walk us both back up the wall.
“Wolff?” I yell up.
“Yup.”
“We’re ready to come up. Together,” I add.
It takes a bit to pry her cramped fingers from the rock crevice, and once I do, her entire body goes limp in my arms. When we’re pulled over the edge a few minutes later, the only thing keeping her upright is my arm banded around her waist.
“This is Lucas,” I mumble to the girl. “He’s going to help you out of your harness, okay?”
“Spoke to Ewing,” JD says in a soft tone as he walks up. “He’ll be waiting at the trailhead with the EMTs.”
Good, because this poor kid needs medical attention. I don’t know what happened to her, or how she got out here, but I suspect it was nothing good.
While Wolff takes charge of the girl, James, JD, and I pack up the gear. Then we mount up—Wolff has the girl in front of him—and, barely half an hour later, James leads us into the small parking lot at the trailhead. An ambulance and two sheriff’s vehicles are waiting for us.
It’s not until Wolff has carefully lowered the girl into the hands of the waiting medics, and they finish securing her to the stretcher, I notice the blond woman on the far side of the ambulance, standing beside Sheriff Junior Ewing.
I’d tried hard to ignore the glimpse I caught of the blond hair behind the wheel of that Jeep last week. Sully didn’t mention anything, and I convinced myself I must’ve been wrong. It couldn’t have been her turning into the driveway.
Except, there she is.
“Is that…?” JD starts.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” James mutters beside me.
I don’t have words.
There was a time I thought we were friends, but friends don’t take off without a word, which is exactly what she did. I tried a few times to get a hold of her, maybe get an explanation from her, but she never got back to me. I may not be college-educated or book-wise, but I’m no fool, I can tell when I’m not wanted.
Since then, the few times her name came up I removed myself from the conversation. I should be long past what felt like a betrayal at the time, but seeing her standing there, just steps away, still burns in my gut.
I know the exact moment she recognizes me, when those blue eyes of hers widen slightly and she instantly pushes her shoulders back and juts out her chin.
Nothing’s changed, she’s still stubborn as fuck.
“Did you know she was back?” James asks.
“Fuck no,” I grumble.
I hope she’s only visiting, but when I see her climbing into the back of the ambulance with the sheriff, I have a nasty suspicion it won’t be the last I see of Sloane Eckhart.
Just what I needed.