Nat narrowed her eyes. “What did you find?”
“Guest rooms. Nearly half of them have two twins in the room. One bedroom with a double bed, then an adjacent room for the kids, I imagine.”
“What are you suggesting?” Mia asked, still lying facedown on the settee, the wolf’s claw marks in her snow pants a steadfast reminder of what lurked around outside.
“We pair up. Two per room.”
“But the fire...” Mia said.
“That’s the beautiful part. Each room has a fireplace, and with the rooms being smaller—”
“They’ll heat a lot quicker,” Devon said. “Smart plan.”
“Thanks.”
“You start assigning rooms, and me and the guys will get fires going. We piled a ton of wood on the side porch under the overhang, and there is more under the large tarps we found.”
“I can go down.” Jayce argued against the decision they’d already made.
Ignoring him, Joel tied the rope around the smaller tree trunk that sat beside the large oak. He retied the other end around his waist and cinched it tight. Jayce stood on the cliff’s edge, clasping the rope.
“You sure about this?” Jayce said.
“Dude.” He cocked his head.
“Okay. You’ve got it.” He tightened his grip on the rope. “I’ve got you. I’ll feed it down as you go.”
Joel nodded on an inhale, the frigid air burning his lungs. He put both feet over the edge and rappelled down. Reaching the bottom of the drop, he grasped his flashlight. Swallowing hard, he turned, swiping the light over the snow-covered boulders at the cliff’s base.
He stilled as he hit red saturating the snow beneath the overhang. Squeezing his eyes shut on a prayer, he opened them and stepped forward.
Brady lay, arms and legs askew, red-stained snow encircling his head.
Joel’s chest compressed. His friend couldn’t be dead. Not like this. Not someone so full of life.
“You find him?” Jayce asked.
“Yeah,” he hollered up.
“Is he...?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh man, what do we do?”
“I’ll tie the rope around him,” Joel said. “You pull him up, then send the rope back to me.”
“Got it.”
Joel bent beside his friend’s body, snapping pictures of the scene, then trying to determine the best way to lift him. He set the flashlight on the ground, ready to heave him over his shoulder, when something red caught in his flashlight’s beam.
He squinted. It couldn’t be blood all the way over there. He straightened, and, grabbing his flashlight, headed for it.
Whaton earth?
A red sled. How had it gotten down there?
“You sending him up?” Jayce asked.
