Chapter 34 #2
“My horse, Sunny, is the easiest way to get you home,” Jonah continued, “but you won’t be able to ride her on your own.
You’re too tired, and these woods are rough.
I’d need to ride with you. Hold you up against me in the saddle.
But I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.
Is that all right? Will you ride with me? ”
Alice opened her eyes and stared at him.
Jonah didn’t move. Didn’t fill the space with more talk. Just stayed in his crouch with his hands open on his knees and let her take what she needed to take.
Finally, she nodded.
“Thank you,” Jonah said. “I’m going to stand up now. Then I’m going to come a little closer. If you want me to stop, you put your hand up, and I’ll stop. All right?”
He unfolded from the crouch, and Alice watched him rise. When he took a step forward, she tensed, but she didn’t raise her hand, didn’t make that wounded animal sound again. She just watched.
Jonah closed the distance to her and crouched again. “I’m going to put my arm around your back. Help you get your feet under you. Is that all right?”
Her jaw worked. No sound came out, but after a beat, she nodded once.
He slid an arm around her back, the motion telegraphed and slow, and helped her lean forward. She was shaking — full-body tremors visible from where Evander stood. Her bare feet scrabbled in the wet sand, slipping once, and Jonah steadied her, taking her weight without rushing.
“There you go,” he murmured. “Take your time.”
It took three tries before she was upright, leaning heavily on him, the coat wrapped around her shoulders.
Her legs did not want to hold her. Jonah kept his arm around her back and guided her through the narrow space between the willows and the water, back toward where Sunny stood ground-tied in the scrub.
Evander moved with them, six feet back, scanning the tree line and the far bank out of habit. Tilly fell in beside him, body relaxed now that she considered the job done.
Sunny stood where Jonah had left her, reins trailing, head low and calm. When Jonah brought Alice into the open, the mare lifted her head and snorted softly.
“Sunny, this is Alice,” Jonah said. “Alice, Sunny. Hold out your hand.”
Alice hesitated, then stretched her hand out to the mare. Sunny snuffled at her palm, earning the faintest of smiles.
“There you go. She likes you. Okay, now, I’m going to get on her first. Then my friend Evander, here, is going to lift you up to me. I’ll have you the whole time. You’re not going to fall.” He glanced over at Evander as he spoke, and the look said, Don’t fucking scare her.
How could the guy speak so gently while skewering a man with his gaze like that?
It was an impressive skill.
Evander stepped in and took Alice’s weight without speaking, sliding an arm around her back where Jonah’s had been. She flinched at the change of hands, a full-body lock-up that ran through her like a current.
Jesus, I’m not going to hurt you.
He almost snarled it, but pressed his lips together at the last second.
Fuck it. What did it matter if she was afraid of him?
Jonah swung up into the saddle. Sunny shifted once under him, settling her weight, then went still. He leaned forward, one hand on the horn, the other reaching down for Alice.
“Lift her up to me,” he said quietly.
Evander bent and got an arm under her knees and the other around her back.
She was tiny and too light. Bird-boned. A woman who had not eaten enough for a long time, and he was suddenly so fucking afraid of breaking her.
He lifted her up to Jonah, taking it slow, telegraphing every inch of motion the way Jonah had with the coat.
Jonah took her against his chest and settled her sideways across his lap, her legs draped over his right thigh, her face turned in toward his shoulder. He worked his coat closer around her with his free hand and wrapped his arm around her back to hold her in place against him.
She didn’t make a sound.
But her hand came up and gripped the front of Jonah’s shirt, twisting the fabric in her fingers, and stayed there.
“I’ve got you,” Jonah murmured. “I’ve got you.”
Evander stepped back, suddenly feeling like he didn’t belong in this moment. It was too… intimate or something.
Alice’s hair had fallen away from her face when Jonah settled her against his chest, and the sight of it hit Evander in the chest like a horse’s kick.
It was Greta’s face.
Thinner, but the same nose, same eyes, same mouth.
She was a paler shadow of the woman he’d long considered his only friend. He opened his mouth to say… something, but like Alice, no sound came out. He cleared his throat and pulled his radio off his vest.
“Bear.”
The response came back right away. “Go ahead.”
He looked at Alice again. At the woman with Greta’s face. She watched him with wide, exhausted eyes, her fist still tangled in Jonah’s shirt, hanging on for dear life. He turned away and raised the radio to his mouth again.
“Tell Greta we’ve got Alice. She’s alive. We’re bringing her in.”