There’d been nothing. Thank God.
The small smile slipped from her lips when something in the high beams caught her attention. A black car. It was pulled over on the side of the road.
Did someone have a flat tire? Or maybe they were out of gas?
She slowed, and as she grew closer, she realized the car wasn’t parked—it had hit a tree on the side of the road.
Shit. And there was no signal to call for help. Were they hurt?
Her heart crashed against her ribs as she pulled over behind the car. It was probably dumb to not keep driving, but herconscience wouldn’t let her leave the car and any potential victims, not knowing how long it could be until she could call for help.
She jumped out and raced toward the open driver’s door, only to stop. The car was empty. The airbag was deployed and there were specks of blood on the driver’s seat and door handle, but no one in sight.
Quickly, she pulled out her phone, only to curse. Still no signal. Dammit.
She turned on the flashlight function on her phone to see the drops of blood leading into the tree line. “Hello?”
Silence.
What if they were passed out in the woods? What if they needed immediate care?
She raced back to her car, grabbed her first aid kit from the glove box, and ran into the woods, the small light from her phone the only way to see the prints in the dirt.
The rush of the river echoed through the air. When she lost the trail of footprints, she didn’t stop. She kept moving, following the sound of the water. If the person was hurt or disorientated, that was the most dangerous place for them to be.
Her feet sank into the dirt, a cool evening breeze brushing over her cheeks. She was near the bank when she saw a shoe. A high heel. But where was its owner?
She took a few more steps, the wet dirt sinking beneath her feet.
“Hello? Is someone out here?”
Another string of quiet. She scanned the woods around her, and for the first time, the adrenaline and crushing need to find the woman faltered, and she was eerily aware of how alone she was.
God, what was she doing? She should have gotten back into her car and gone for help. She wasn’t trained in search andrescue. And there were so many questions—the biggest, why had the woman run into the forest in the first place?
Her skin prickled. Had she been running from someone?
Her stomach swirled, the need to get back to her car suddenly suffocating.
She took one step away from the rocks that bordered the river when a scream pierced the air.
It was so loud Maggie jumped and spun. Her foot slipped. She hit the edge of a rock hard, the phone and first aid kit falling from her fingers. But there was nothing to grab on to and the rock was wet and slippery.
She fell into the water, cold crashing over her limbs as she was pulled downstream.
Ethan sipped his beer,the mountains beyond his back porch shrouded in darkness.
“Damn, you have a good view from here,” Connor said, eyes on the trees behind Ethan’s house.
“Yeah. I feel pretty lucky.”
“Deep River is as good as you always said it was,” Connor added quietly.
“Feels like home,” Joel agreed, throwing a chip into his mouth. “Wish Tate, Linc, and Kolby were here, though.”
“I heard from Tate yesterday,” Connor said. “He said they’re a bit jealous of what we’re doing out here.”
Ethan grinned. “Well, let’s keep doing it then so we get them here too.”
