The chalk marks guide our way until an hour later when they don’t. A quick glance at my screen tells me Hailey and Chloe veered left, so that’s where we go.
“Mark the trees,” I tell Levi.
He whips the can of spray paint out of his back pocket while Frederick checks in over the radio. My focus narrows to the red dot on the screen, the distance between Hailey and me diminishing with every step.
Still, it takes another fifteen minutes before we’re close enough for her to hear me.
“Hailey!”
“Chloe!” Levi yells a minute later.
Leaves rustle ahead, and a soft, tentative “Nash?” follows, sending my pulse skyrocketing.
All four flashlights follow her voice, illuminating a fallen tree a hundred yards ahead. Chloe’s on the ground, resting against the bough and Hailey’s up on her feet, relief flooding her features.
“You’re so fucking irresponsible,” I growl, closing in on her. Anger takes the stage, hot and violent.
Her face is scratched.
Long, thin, red lines on her cheeks and neck. I grab her chin, turning her head every which way, inspecting every tiny cut while the other three tend to Chloe.
“You’re hurt. Where else?” My shaking hands roam her body, checking for injuries. I can’t control the worry frying my nerve endings. “Where does it hurt?”
“It’s just a few scratches,” she sighs. “I’m fine.”
“I decide that.”
Wrapping her fingers around my wrists, she stops me checking her over, and leans forward, nuzzling into my chest, her body cold against mine. “I’m sorry... we got lost.”
No shit. She got lost in the woods while looking for the scum who would have date-raped her if not for me.
Fuck. Between Hailey, Boston, Chicago, and Jensen I didn’t think to sort an alibi for what I did to him.
Hailey’s frying my brain. I’veneverdone anything this sloppy.
“Fuckingreckless,” I clip, stripping off my hoodie to pull it over her head, even though she’s already wearing one. “You’re freezing, Hailey.”
“I’m... exhausted,” she whispers into my chest, her voice breaking, the emotions she’s kept in surging to the surface.
I pull her closer, pressing small kisses to the top of her head, reassuring her and myself. “You’re okay, pretty girl. You’re with me. I’ve got you.”
Chloe’s with Levi a few steps away, her face white, lips blue from the cold.
“We found them. No sign of the missing male. We’re heading back now,” Frederick says into his radio.
I haul Hailey into my arms, her legs cinching my waist.
“I can walk,” she whispers, though it sounds like she’s only arguing for the sake of arguing. “I’m fine.”
“Don’tplay this down. You came out here to look for that scumbag and you got hurt. You gotlost. Why did you stop marking the trees?”
“We heard noises. Chloe thought it was Jensen, and we ran, but—” She pauses, letting out a calming breath. “It was a fox caught in a snare.”
“I swear if you say you helped that fucking fox...”
Now she smiles. I don’t have to see her face, her lips curling against the curve of my neck is enough.
“You’re worried again,” she sighs, awe in her tone.
