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Blood drifted through the water, and long blonde hair floated around the woman on the far side.
But right in front of him was a child.
A baby in a rear-facing car seat.
He fumbled to get his buckles free, and he nearly gasped when he had him in his arms.
River swam with him to the surface, lifting him above.
But he didn’t think the child was moving.
Horror clanged through River, and he kicked his legs to propel them the short distance back to the bank of the river. He climbed up, gasping and shaking.
Freezing cold.
He laid the baby out on the wild grasses, his hands shaking as his fingers went to the child’s neck.
A pulse.
He had a pulse.
“Oh my God.”
River ripped his shirt off and tucked the baby to his chest to give him warmth, and he climbed back to his feet.
He looked back to where the tail end of the car was still tippedin the air and watched as it fully turned over and was swallowed by the river.
Guilt constricted. A death sentence. It rang in his ears and beat through his blood.
He struggled to breathe.
He’d failed these people.
Failed.
Suddenly, the baby wailed. Wailed in his arms. River choked and held him closer. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
River jogged back to the car, ripped open the back door, and laid the child on the seat so he could pull him out of his wet clothes. He quickly buckled him into the car seat that he’d already purchased to be ready for the extraction, covered the child with a blanket, and got back into the driver’s seat.
He turned the heat on full blast.
Then he drove.
FIFTY-FIVE
RIVER
My pulse roaredin my ears as I stared at Charleigh. She stood across the lobby, face full of tears, eyes puffy and red, cheeks chapped and raw.
My mind fucking reeled, trying to make sense of what she was saying. I kept looking between her face and the stuffed animal she had clutched in her hand.
Stones sank to the pit of my stomach as I tried to process through her demands. Wondering why the fuck she had that stuffed animal. Why she’d gone through my things.
Why the fuck she could barely stand.
She swayed from side to side, clinging to that stuffed puppy like it was a lifeline. A buoy when she was drowning in a sea of misery.
My throat thickened, and my chest stretched tight. The protectiveness I’d always felt for the child built in intensity. Steel barricades I would never let anyone through.
