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Josh frowned, but he nodded. He looked to their dad. “Whereis she? Sound bounces through the woods. I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”
“She’s close,” Jack said, putting his phone back in hispocket. “I think that’s as close as we’re going to get using technology. Itcan’t pinpoint her. But I can. Look. Someone ran through here and recently.”
He looked down, and the ground showed signs of sneakerprints. Two large, one small. One backtracked. Ted. He’d walked back this wayto get to the parking lot. So Micah and Nicole had gone further into the woods.
Dad led the way, moving across the soft earth, making farless sound than a man his size should.
She was alive. Grim gripped the handle of his kit with onehand, the gun in the other. It was strictly for emergencies. He would drop thatsucker the minute they got to Nicole. He would protect her, hold her togetherif need be. In this case, his medical kit would do more good than the gun.
They moved quietly, and then they heard it. A loud shotcracked through the woods, and Grim simply ran. He and Josh ran toward theriver where the shot seemed to have come from.
His heart threatened to stop as he saw Nicole on the ground.She wasn’t the only body, but she was the only one who mattered.
Josh got to her first, falling to his knees beside her.Tears tracked down his brother’s face.
He’d never seen his brother cry. Not once in all the yearsthey’d lived together.
Grim felt stuck. Like the world stopped, and as long as hedidn’t move, it wouldn’t go further than this. He could be stuck in thismoment, pretending she might still be alive, that she wasn’t still on theground. Facedown in the mud where her abuser had put her.
“Josh, Grim, I’m so sorry,” Dad managed to get out.
“I am, too,” the sweetest voice said. “This hurts. I’d likesome drugs now.”
Nicole. The world sped up again and he rushed to her,dropping his kit beside her. “Don’t move, baby. Where are you hit? I don’t seean exit wound.”
But there was blood staining the ground. It soaked into hisjeans.
“Uhm, it’s my stomach. Or somewhere close to it.” Her eyesopened. “It hurts when I try to move.”
“Don’t,” Josh said, holding her hand. “You let Grim takecare of you.”
“I’m going to get the EMTs up here.” Their dad took off.
“Is he dead? I think I killed him this time, but I shouldmake sure. He came back. Like a bad movie. I don’t like this part of themovie,” she said, sounding a bit loopy.
Blood loss. “Nic, he’s dead, and I don’t want you to talk.”
“Harlow,” she began.
“Is alive and being taken care of,” Josh promised.
“We have to turn her over.” He didn’t want to, but he had tominimize the bleed.
“I think I should stay here,” Nicole said.
“I’m so sorry.” He nodded Josh’s way. “We’re going to moveher gently, and then we’re going to put pressure on the wound. Nic, baby, thisis going to hurt.”
She groaned as they turned her over, and Josh gasped at theamount of blood on her clothes.
Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she passed out.Grim applied pressure and prayed the EMTs got there in time.
ChapterTwenty-One
Josh held up the pudding cup as Nicole groaned.
“I would rather have a cheeseburger,” she said with a frown.“Christa will totally bring me one.”
“Says the woman who recently had abdominal surgery,” Grimreplied with a shake of his head. “You’re on a soft foods diet for the next twoweeks, and don’t think you can get our momma on your side. She used to be anurse, and she will watch you like a hawk.”
