Page 87 of Rescuing Brinley

She was so thirsty. Not hungry at all, but she’d do just about anything for a huge glass of water. With ice. Cold enough it would soothe the burn every time she swallowed.

She took another shuffling step forward, her gaze glued to the ground. Taking a deep breath, she looked up. Praying that she’d see something. Anything. A car. A plane. A guy on an ATV out hunting. A freaking moose. She didn’t care what. The feeling of being absolutely alone was starting to get to her. But all she saw was the barely there dirt track. It could hardly be called a road. It didn’t seem quite so bad when she’d been driving out here, but then again, she’d been more concerned about the gun Louis was pointing at her to think about things like the condition of the road she was driving on.

Seconds later, she tripped again. Who the hell knew over what, but Brinley went down hard on her hands and knees, causing her to cry out once more. Which only exacerbated the pain in her throat. Her palms, which were already scraped all to hell from where she’d been crawling earlier, bore the brunt of her fall, and the sharp sting instantly made her arms buckle—causing her to smack her forehead into the dirt.

She lay there, panting, as waves of excruciating pain flashed through her body.

This was torture. Absolute torture.

Brinley closed her eyes, giving up. She couldn’t do this. It was impossible. She regretted ever waking up. Regretted that Louis was an idiot and hadn’t succeeded in killing her. No one should have to experience this level of agony.

As she lay there, broken and battered, Brinley thought she heard music. She tried to block it out. Tried to will her body to shut down. Figured it was angels calling her home.

But then she realized which song she was hearing. It was the one Dash had sent to her, by One Direction. “What Makes You Beautiful.”

She heard the notes and the melody as clear as day, even though they were only in her mind. Brinley could see Dash in her head, smiling down at her, smoothing a lock of hair behind her ear, pleasure in his gaze as he took her in.

And just like that, the will to live returned. She wasn’t going to give Louis and Tamika the satisfaction of succeeding in their diabolical plan.

She refused to be a statistic. She needed to get the hell up and get back to Fairbanks, if only to be able to tell the cops what happened to her and who had done it. She would see the two behind bars for kidnapping, attempted murder, and assault.

With the words of the song echoing in her head, Brinley opened her eyes—well, the one that wasn’t completely swollen shut now—and inhaled deeply. It hurt, but this time the pain gave her motivation. She moved back to her hands and knees, then slowly worked her way toward the nearest tree. Using it for leverage and balance, she forced herself to stand upright.

The world spun, and if she hadn’t been bracing herself on the tree, she would’ve fallen on her face again. But after giving it a moment, the dizziness passed enough for her to shuffle forward once more.

One step at a time. That’s all she had to do. Eventually, she’d make it back to the main interstate. Someone would see her and stop to help. Call 9-1-1. Something.

The life she wanted with Dash was what kept her going. And the desire to never be the cause of the intense grief she’d witnessed when he’d found out his mom had passed. She decided to look at this experience like something Dash had probably gone through himself to become a Delta. Okay, maybe not the almost-dying part, but the pain, the mental fuckery, the thirst…all of it. She wasn’t a special forces operative, but she could do this.

Because her reward was a life with a man who thought she was beautiful when just about everyone else thought differently. She’d fight for that with her last breath. When you found the person you were meant to be with, you didn’t just give up.

Right foot.

Left foot.

Right.

Left.

She counted her steps for a while, but that got too depressing. So Brinley kept her gaze glued to the ground. She’d learned her lesson on not paying attention to where she was placing her feet and instead counted how many rocks she saw that were bigger than her fist.

It got a bit darker for just a little while, but then the world around her lightened once more. It had to be around two or three in the morning now. A new day. She wished she could see the expressions on Louis’s and Tamika’s faces when they realized she wasn’t dead.

A noise had Brinley stopping in her tracks. She looked up, her heart in her throat, hope that it was a car threatening to overwhelm her. But it wasn’t a vehicle of any kind.

It was a moose.

And her baby.

No, three babies.

They were crossing the dirt track several yards ahead, completely ignoring her.

Brinley stared in awe. She’d seen moose before, but only from a much greater distance. She’d heard that triplets were extremely rare, and she felt this had to be some kind of sign.

Standing silently and completely still, Brinley noted that the moose seemed in no hurry to move along. Then the calves began to play. Head butting each other and kind of wrestling. They chased each other in the road and made adorable little snorting noises. Their mom snacked on leaves and grass as her calves jumped around.

How long Brinley stood there and watched the little family, she had no idea, but eventually the mama moose wandered off, followed closely by her babies. The moment was awe-inspiring, and she felt privileged to have been able to be in the right place at the right time. It was a much-needed reminder of the beauty in the world, especially considering her current circumstance.