An eagle or hawk screeched overhead. Blinding light seared her eyes and made the pounding in her head worse. She tried tomove her arms, but a searing pain shot through her shoulder, so sharp and piercing it sent her down into the black abyss again.
Night again. The cold. The throbbing pain. The ache in her belly. The desperate need for water. Her lips cracked as she tried to call out, her voice nothing but a rasp.
She opened her eyes and stared at the black ooze on the rock she lay on. It hurt like hell, but she lifted her head and stared at the tree root that had stabbed through her shoulder. She was lying in a pool of her own dried blood. Ignoring the pain, she shifted her shoulder, hoping to break the root so she could move, maybe sit up and eventually try to find help. But the thick root kept her trapped. The best she could do was curl her left arm into a makeshift pillow and wait.
For what, she wasn’t sure.
No one is coming.
I'm alone.
Like Always.
Night turned into day, turned into night, then day again. Maybe.
It was hard to keep track of time when she spent so much of it unconscious. Her tongue felt thick and dry. Everything hurt, including her hair, even her fingertips and toes. Everything in between. She tried to catalogue her injuries. Her head. Hershoulder. Something was wrong with her knee and thigh. Her back and side.
An animal skittered nearby.
Smelled like a skunk. Or maybe that was just her.
Something thrashed through the brush. Maybe it was only the wind. She tried to move her head, but it was too heavy. Her neck and back were sore from lying in the precarious position on the downslope of the hill. She’d landed in front of two trees growing out of the hill before it dropped about five feet down to another level spot that looked like a creek bed or an abandoned trail of some kind.
She had no idea where she was or how long she’d been here.
Too long.
Too isolated.
She hadn’t heard a car or person, a plane or ATV. Not even a hunter or hiker.
Whatever happened, whoever left her here, knew exactly what they were doing.
I’m alone.
No one is coming.
Another wave of nausea and thirst hit her.
She repositioned her head on her arm and was just about to close her eyes, probably for the last time when she spotted something red bobbing far ahead of her. Her vision was blurry at best, but in a sea of greens and browns, that red ball cap stood out.
In her desperation, she used the last of her energy and called out before she passed out, knowing she probably wouldn’t make it out of here alive, but at least she wouldn’t die alone.
“I’m here. Help me! I’m here. Help me!”
Chapter Two
Hawk wanted to kill his brother. Not the first time he’d felt that way. Wouldn’t be the last. But as he stared at his brother, knowing he’d probably done something to piss off the woman who cleaned his house, he wanted to wrap his hands around Lincoln’s throat and strangle him to death.
He didn’t have a lot of good things in his life. The bad seemed to squeeze out all the good. But he had his family, the businesses they ran, his work with the local search and rescue team, and he had Lucky.
She made his life, his week, his black heart brighter.
And Lincoln had somehow fucked that up.
“Listen, man, it’s like I said. I saw her at the bar on Saturday night. I asked her to clean my place. We were supposed to meet on Sunday. She didn’t show or respond to my texts. I was nice to her. I don’t know why she blew me off.”
“Not just you. Me. She didn’t clean my place yesterday like she always does. Every Monday like clockwork. No exceptions.”
