Chapter 4 Roan
ROAN
I strode through the deepening snow to my snowmobile, but I couldn’t help glancing over my shoulder at the barn. My back teeth ground together. The woman was in over her head.
Aspen.
The name fit her. As if she were some woodland fairy out of the storybooks my mom used to read to my siblings and me every night.
Whatever her name, she clearly didn’t have the knowledge to be doing animal rescue. Her bid to get the wire off the deer told me that much. She could have ended up hurt or killed.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I slid it out, seeing Lawson’s name flash across the screen. I tapped accept.
“Yeah?”
“Well, hello to you, too,” my brother said.
I scowled at the horizon. “What do you need, Law?”
“Got a missing hiker. Feel like going out?”
I let a series of expletives fly. “Do these people not check the weather?”
“His wife said he wanted to experience real mountain snow.”
“Tourist?” I groused.
“Yup. From Dallas. Definitely not cut out for this weather. A small team’s meeting at the Cedar Creek trailhead.”
“I’m on my way. Be there in ten.”
“Thanks, man. Bring good gear.”
I grunted in answer and hung up. Swinging a leg over my snowmobile, I cast one last look at the barn. They were still in there. Doing what? Probably messing around with the rest of their ridiculous zoo.
I forced my gaze away and started my vehicle. Sliding my helmet on, I headed down the drive. The combination of wind and snow slapped against my visor as I flew down the two-lane road. Soon, I was turning onto another mountain pass and headed toward the trailhead.
A handful of vehicles were already gathered. I recognized all but one. And that one had a rental car plate frame. Had to be our guy.
I pulled to a stop and cut the engine. Climbing off the sled, I heard a whistle.
Caden strode toward me, my sister at his side and our other siblings behind them. “Now that’s a thing of beauty. I think I might need one of those.”
Grae smacked her fiancé’s chest. “You’ve got enough toys.”
My youngest brother, Nash, grinned. “I’ve been looking at one for this season. We could race.”
Lawson groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “The last thing I need is to have to arrest you both.”
Nash waggled his eyebrows. “Good thing I’m an officer of the law and can get out of a speeding ticket.”
Our other brother, Holt, chuckled. “Somehow, I don’t think Law would let you get away with that.”
“I wouldn’t,” Lawson agreed, eldest brother through and through.
“Enough shooting the shit,” my dad called from a spot at the back of his SUV. “You guys need to get going. We’re losing daylight, and the temps are dropping.”
The tone of the group immediately changed.
Gone was the good-natured ribbing, replaced by the buzz of adrenaline that always came with a search and rescue mission.
Dad was involved in SAR long before we came along, and we’d grown up helping the volunteers, whether by working the command post with Mom or going out with Dad and his team when we got older.
“I’ll be in my vehicle, working the radio,” Dad said.
“We start with a hike straight up the trail. Hopefully, he didn’t wander off it.
Got your gear?” His gaze lingered on Grae for a beat longer than the rest of us.
He’d gotten better at not babying her because she had type 1 diabetes, but it wasn’t a habit you could break overnight.
Grae took pity on him. “I’ve got extra snacks and my emergency GlucaGen kit.”
Holt thumped Dad on the shoulder. “We’ve got it. Can you keep us up to date on the weather?”
“No problem,” Dad agreed.
“Let’s hit it,” Holt called.
Our SAR teams were typically larger. Now that our second youngest brother, Holt, had come back to Cedar Ridge and taken over the team, it’d grown nicely. But I had a feeling he’d gone with a small, core group today because he knew we needed to move quickly.
And he trusted we all knew what we were doing. That was what happened when you grew up around SAR your entire life. Thanks to our dad, it was practically in our blood.
Grae fell into step beside me. “You were already on a callout?”
I grunted at my sister.
“I’m taking that as your very verbose way of saying yes. What was it?”
I shifted my pack on my shoulders. My siblings never stopped giving me a hard time about not being talkative. What they didn’t realize was that it was easier this way. I couldn’t say the wrong thing. Didn’t hurt people.
“Injured deer.”
Grae glanced up at me. “Is it going to be okay?”
“Think so. Got her out of the cold. Dr. Miller will take a look at her tomorrow.”
She grinned. “The hottie vet, huh?”
“I heard that, Gigi,” Caden growled behind us.
“It’s just a simple fact.”
Nash smacked Caden on the arm. “What? You can’t take a little competition?”
“Oh, shove off. You can’t even take it when your thirteen-year-old nephew sits next to Maddie.”
Nash glared at Caden. “Drew hits on her all the time.”
“He’s thirteen.”
I lost myself in my family’s banter. The din of chaos was both a comfort and a torment. I’d wished for so long that I could join in instead of hovering on the outskirts. But I simply wasn’t built for it. And all the secrets I hid didn’t help.
“I see something,” Holt called.
We all picked up to a jog, slogging through the drifting snow. I caught sight of a figure huddled against a tree. They weren’t moving. My stomach plummeted.
Holt and Lawson reached the man first. They sank to their knees. Holt felt for a pulse while Lawson began asking him questions. The man’s teeth chattered.
“Can you tell us your name, sir?” Lawson asked.
Holt looked up. “Pulse is slow. Likely hypothermic.”
Grae pulled out her radio. “We’ve got him. He’s alive but possibly hypothermic. Have the ambulance meet us at the trailhead if they can get up here.”
I pulled the stretcher from Holt’s pack and quickly assembled it with Caden’s help.
“I’ve got hot packs,” Caden said as Holt and Lawson rolled the man onto the stretcher.
Caden slid the warming packs under the man’s jacket while Grae pulled out a mylar blanket and covered him.
“Let’s move,” Holt ordered. “I don’t want his pulse getting any slower.”
I grabbed hold of one stretcher handle. Holt, Lawson, and Nash took the others.
“Grae, keep checking his pulse and breathing,” Holt instructed.
We made our way down the trail as quickly as possible, still traversing safely. None of us talked or joked; there was too much at stake.
As I saw the lights of an ambulance through the trees, I breathed a little easier.
Caden ran ahead to help them ready the stretcher we’d transfer the man onto. It only took a matter of minutes. The EMTs got a line running with a warming solution as we secured the man in place.
The female EMT cast me a wary look I was used to but tried my best to ignore. Fastening the belt around the man’s chest, I stepped back and out of the way. A few moments later, they’d loaded him into the back and were off.
My siblings and Caden slipped right back into giving each other hell. This time, it was about Nash stealing the cookies that Holt’s fiancée, Wren, had made for him. I stayed back and watched.
These SAR missions were the best and the worst. They gave me a sense of purpose. Let me be a part of my family I wouldn’t otherwise have. But I still felt like I didn’t fit. Like I was…other. And at the end of the day, it left me knowing one thing.
I was so damn alone. But I needed to be. It was the only thing that was truly safe. So, I slipped away into the shadows of that loneliness all over again.