Chapter 32 #2
“If I’d gotten to him first…” Hawk raised an eyebrow, then shrugged with a half-smile. “But I didn’t, so we’ll do this your way.”
For a split second, I wished I were a different man.
One more like Hawk, who made up the rules as I went.
A man who’d let Hawk take Cole Haywood for a private conversation before I brought him to jail.
But this had to be done right. The last thing I wanted was for Cole Haywood to walk on a technicality.
I watched as Hawk hauled Cole to his feet, his grip tight on Haywood’s cuffed hands as he shoved him down the path. I tossed Hawk the keys to my SUV.
“Hold up,” Hawk said after he caught and pocketed the keys. “Take this.” He tossed me back a compact walkie-talkie. “Not always great in the mountains, but more useful than your cell. If you need help when you find her, call.”
I shoved the walkie into my pocket and nodded, hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
I stood, watching Hawk march Haywood back to where we’d left our vehicles.
In the silence of the forest, I set off on the deer path in the direction Haywood had come from.
Had he shot her and left her up ahead somewhere?
I’d gone less than a hundred feet when the trail widened into a clearing. “Avery!” I called out. “Avery!”
No answer. The grasses and weeds in the clearing had been trampled, following a path to the far corner where they’d flattened a wide circle with their footsteps.
“Avery!” I shouted again, scanning the ground as I moved closer. My chest tightened as I saw the wooden circle resting on top of the weeds. It had been moved recently based on the overturned leaves and dirt at the edges.
“Avery!” I went to my knees at the edge of the well cover, yanking it off and peering into the dark.
“West?” Avery’s voice drifted up from the dark hole in the earth, weak and pained, but alert.
“I’m going to get you out of there. You okay?” I pulled the flashlight from my belt, flicking it on.
“He shot me,” she said weakly. The bright white beam of light caught her, and my heart stopped.
She was caught in the well, her back braced against the uneven stone wall, her feet jammed into the wall opposite, barely holding herself in place, her legs straining with effort.
She looked down her side into the dark below.
“I don’t know how deep it is,” she said.
“But I don’t think I can hold this much longer. ”
Her voice trailed off as her foot slipped, the pressure of it dragging a stone from the side of the well. A high scream erupted from her lungs, her feet scraping and body sliding down half a foot. “West!”
“I’ve got you!” I threw myself on my stomach, reaching as far into the well as I could. My fingers almost grazed the top of her head. Not close enough. I sat back up, yanking the walkie from my pocket.
“Hawk, you got me?” I waited, every second an eternity, before he answered.
“You find her?”
“She’s in a well and she’s slipping. Grab the rope in the back of my SUV and follow the deer path.”
“Got it.” Hawk clicked off.
I leaned back over the edge. “Avery, I can’t reach you, but Hawk is coming with a rope. We’ll get you out.”
“Cole?” she asked, her voice strained.
“Under arrest. Hawk’s locking him in the cage in my SUV.
” I thought about my belt. Sitting up, I unfastened it and pulled it free of my pants.
Feeding the end back through the buckle, I lowered the loop to Avery.
“Wrap that around your arm,” I said. “I have the other end. Just in case you slip again before Hawk gets here with the rope.”
Moving slowly, using her legs to brace her back harder into the side of the well, Avery shifted just enough to pull the belt loop over her right arm, wrapping the length around her forearm for better grip. I saw with horror that her left arm was covered in blood.
“He shot you in the arm?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t take the cover off the well,” she said in answer.
“How much are you bleeding?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
“Not a lot, I think,” she said, her voice strained. “I can’t really tell.”
“Okay, we’ll see when we get you out.” Leaves crackled close by. A branch snapped, and Hawk was there, leaning over the side of the well, the climbing rope from my SUV slung over his shoulder.
Straightening, he began to tie a slipknot at the end, creating a wide loop. He leaned over the edge of the well. “Avery, see if you can get this over your head.”
She let go of my belt, and I pulled it up, watching as she ducked her head to catch it in the loop and worked it over her shoulders. “That’s it, Avery,” I said, tossing my belt behind me. “Now get an arm through the loop. Both, if you can.”
My racing heart calmed a fraction when her bloody arm cleared the loop along with the other, and Hawk tugged the rope tight around her chest. Standing, I grabbed the rope beside Hawk. “Drop your feet from the wall, Ave. We’re going to pull you up.”
She shifted, her feet slipping, a short scream escaping as she dropped a foot, almost out of sight in the dark below. The rope jerked in our hands, my feet skidding in the dirt. I hauled back, stopping her fall. “We have you,” I promised, and pulled with everything I had.
We walked back, step by step, dragging Avery up until she hit the edge. Hawk braced his feet. “Pull her up,” he grunted.
I let go of the rope, waiting a second to make sure Hawk had Avery’s weight, and moved to the side of the well, hooking my hands under her arms and lifting her clear.
I stood there, Avery in my arms, solid ground under our feet, rocking her back and forth, breathing in the scent of her hair, feeling her heart pound against me.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered, over and over. “I’ve got you.”
From my left, Hawk said, “That arm’s still bleeding. You need to get her to the hospital.”
I eased back, turning Avery to look at her arm. The sleeve of her shirt was torn in a jagged line, exposing a bloody gouge in her bicep. “He grazed you,” I said to Avery. “Any other injuries?”
She shivered and shook her head. Her eyes shot to the deer path leading back to the vehicles. “Cole?”
“Haywood’s secured,” Hawk answered.”He’s not going anywhere.”
“He still breathing?” I asked. There was a pause before Hawk replied.
“Mostly.”
“Good enough for me,” I said.
Avery might be able to handle the walk back to the SUV, but she was shaky and pale.
Blood loss or shock? I didn’t know. “Hold still.” I lifted her into my arms. We’d move faster this way, and after the last hour, I needed her close, next to my heart.
She rested her head on my shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut.
I followed Hawk back down the trail, the distance so much shorter now that we knew where we were going. The clearing appeared, with Haywood’s sedan and my SUV exactly where we’d left them. Hawk turned as we reached the SUV, handing me his keys.
“I’m right behind you,” he said. “You take Avery to the ER, and I’ll deliver Haywood to the station.”
“I’ll let them know you’re on the way,” I agreed, taking his keys. If I were doing everything by the book, it should have been the other way around, with me handling the prisoner and Hawk taking Avery to the hospital, but now that I had Avery back, there was no way in hell I was letting her go.
She was alert as I set her on her feet beside the door of Hawk’s oversized black SUV, but still squinting, shielding her eyes from the rays of light that penetrated the canopy of leaves above.
“Everything’s going to be okay now,” I said. “We’ve got Haywood, and I’ve got you.”
Avery leaned into me. “I knew you’d find me. I just had to buy enough time, and you’d find me.”
“I’ll always find you,” I said, helping her into the passenger seat and buckling her seatbelt. “No matter what. Always.”