“You win,” Drew said, extending a hand.
“Excuse me, but aren’t you the one rescuing me right now?” Camellia took her hand, stepped up onto a barrel, and then onto the roof with Drew’s help.
“Yeah, true.Butwe were both on the same case. You found my cousin before I did.”
“I wasn’t looking for your cousin. I was looking for his family. Wait,cousin?”
“And we’re a tight family, too.” They walked across the roof and climbed up onto the boulder that stood above it. Drew boosted her up, then Camellia reached back to pull her up in return. “It would be something if we wound up related,” Drew said. Then she crooked an eyebrow. “How close are you two?”
“Not as close as I want us to be,” Camellia muttered.
“Ohhh, I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Drew said, glancing back at the group.
Camellia figured they were all kin, but she only had eyes for Wolf. He was gazing back at her, and it felt like he was already holding her in his arms, just from the look in his eyes. The shirt he wore was torn and bloody, but he was on his feet and appeared to be okay. She and Drew jumped from boulder to boulder until they could climb down clear of Earl’s booby traps, and then she ran right into Wolf’s arms.
He grunted when she hit him but held her close, “Thank God you’re okay,” he said.
“Thank God you are,” she said back, her face buried near his neck as he held her. “Wolf, I realized something back there, when you were shot. I?—”
He wasn’t hugging her back anymore, and there was dampness forming between his chest and hers.
“Wolf?”
He sank to the ground. “No! Nonononono, Wolf.”
A woman with red curls came quickly and knelt beside him. “He’s bleeding again.” Then she looked behind them. “We need to get him out of here. He needs blood, but I don’t think he’s going to die.”
“Mmm-nah-gone-die,” Wolf muttered, sitting up.
Drew said, “Wait, wait, my phone vibrated when we were crossing the boulders. There must be a signal up there.”
“I’ve got it,” said a big man with dark hair, who reminded Camellia of a country singer whose name she couldn’t recall. He climbed up onto the rocks, holding his phone high.
And the Native woman said, “Wait, where’s Earl?”
For Camellia, it unfolded in slow motion, even though it was happening at high speed. She rose and turned, chills racing up and down her spine again, and Earl was running at her like a bull. His eyes were fixed on hers as if he didn’t even see anyone else. He crossed the junk-strewn yard, leaping from one spot to the next to avoid his own traps, like a gorilla doing parkour. The final leap would bring him right down on her, and there wasn’t even time to move.
Wolf surged to his feet, bringing his fist with him in an uppercut as Earl descended. The big man’s head snapped back, and Wolf’s other fist smashed him in the face. Then wolf sagged and Camellia caught him in her arms. Earl had flipped backward into the waiting arms of a large golden-haired man with eyeglasses, who said, “Trevor, you got that rope?”
“Can’t bind him with a lasso, cuz. That’s not how they work,” she a younger man.
“That’s okay,” Camellia said. “He has zip ties in his pockets.” She was easing Wolf back down. He wore a goofy smile and was feeling no pain.
Ethan had been ready to jump in from his perch atop the boulders, but now he turned and held up his phone. “Got a bar,” he announced. “I’ll get a chopper in here for Wolf and—oh Lord!Oh Lord!”
“Bubba, for God’s sake, what?” the redhead cried.
“Lily’s in labor!” the big guy shouted.
“Drew, you’d best take over the phone calls,” said a the Native woman, as Camellia realized she looked an awful lot like Wolf.…
The woman noticed her looking and smiled. “I’m Willow. I’m his sister,” she said.
Her nemesis-turned-rescuer, Nancy Drew, climbed the rock, and Willow called out, “Don’t tell the family about Wolf. Not on the phone. I need to be more careful with Mom this time.”
Everyone murmured in agreement.
Wolf
