Page 88 of Rescuing Brinley

When she began to walk again, after making sure the moose were long gone—the last thing she needed was to get attacked by an irate mama moose after everything else she’d been through—Brinley somehow felt stronger. More sure that she was going to live through this experience. Simply seeing the miracle of the triplet calves, and watching them interact and how they were thriving, gave her hope.

Dash was out there. Probably stressed beyond belief but looking for her. He wouldn’t stop either. Even if he thought she was dead, he wouldn’t give up on finding her body. And honestly, she should be dead. The fact that she wasn’t was a miracle, and she knew it.

Dash would know who was behind her disappearance. He knew where she was supposed to meet her “client,” and she had no doubt he was doing everything in his power to figure out what had happened to her. He’d find security cameras, contact the police, do anything and everything necessary to locate her. All she had to do was stay alive. And get to a place where she could be found.

With that in mind, and with renewed determination, she put one foot in front of the other. Just as slowly as before, but with more hope in her heart.

* * *

Shadow was losing hope.

He didn’t want to, but honestly, finding Brinley in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness seemed like an impossible task. She could literally be anywhere. Yes, Tex had narrowed down the search area, but it was still way too big. They could’ve dragged her out of the car and into the thick woods, killed her, and left her for mother nature to take care of. Or they could’ve dug a hole and dumped her in it. The possibilities were endless, as were the number of places she could be. The search seemed hopeless.

The cops had tried to track Tamika’s phone, but they hadn’t found it and it seemed as if the data hadn’t been uploaded to the cloud yet, so they were working blind.

The only thing they could do right this moment was split up and drive the roads looking for some sort of clue as to where Marden and Tamika might’ve taken her—skid marks on the gravel road, trampled grass, blood—then head into the trees on foot for a more thorough search. There was no way they could cover a fraction of the countryside on foot in any reasonable amount of time.

“Don’t.”

Shadow looked over at Grinder. They’d paired up, and were in his friend’s Grand Cherokee. They’d been driving on every dirt road—and every offshoot of those dirt roads—all night. But the more time that passed, and the more trees they drove by, the more he wondered if they’d already driven right past Brinley. If she was lying just out of sight, unable to call for help, drowning in despair as they passed her by.

They had their windows down and were going no more than ten miles an hour, straining to hear even the smallest sound that would alert them to her presence, and desperately trying to catch a glimpse of any signs of a struggle or a path someone might have made that led into the woods. They also frequently called her name, with no response.

The more time that passed, and the more reports they got from their teammates and the other searchers with absolutely no results, the more it sank in that he might’ve truly lost Brinley.

Shadow squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to cry.

“I mean it, don’t stop believing that she’ll be found.”

“Alive?” he asked, as he looked over at his friend.

Grinder stopped the vehicle and reached over and squeezed Shadow’s shoulder. “Brinley is tough. She’s strong. And she’s smart. I have no idea what happened out here, but if there was a way for anyone to survive whatever those assholes had in store for her, she did it.”

“People disappear without a trace every damn day,” Shadow said, looking his friend in the eye. “Their loved ones go their entire lives wondering what happened to them and where they are. I can’t do that.”

Grinder didn’t speak. Didn’t give him any more useless platitudes. They both knew the odds of finding Brinley fell with every minute that passed. They could have thousands of people out here searching and still not find her.

The police killing both Louis and Tamika meant they’d lost their best chance of finding Brinley. Shadow wanted to believe she was still alive, wanted to trust the gut feeling he had that she was out there, waiting for him to find her, but it was getting more and more difficult. Reality was setting in. He might never see her smile again. Might never see those adorable freckles on her face. Might never again sleep with her snuggled up to his side.

One thing Shadow did know was that if he found her, they weren’t spending one more night apart, ever again, outside of his deployments. He was done keeping his feelings and his needs to himself. He’d lay it out. Tell her that he wanted her to move in. That he wanted to marry her. Make sure she understood beyond a shadow of a doubt how important she was to him, how much he loved her. He should’ve already said all those things.

“Look!” Grinder whispered, as he pointed at the windshield.

Shadow’s head whipped up, hoping he’d see some clue related to Brinley…but instead he saw a huge moose with three calves trailing behind her, walking along the road.

He’d seen his share of moose since he’d been stationed in Fairbanks. Being out in the bush with the various platoons that he and his fellow Deltas trained meant they were in bear and moose territory more often than not.

But seeing triplets was a rare occurrence.

The animals didn’t even seem to notice the humans stopped in the middle of the road, which was probably a good thing, as moose were typically very protective of their young.

Neither man spoke as they watched the moose continue toward them. The windows in the vehicle were down, and Shadow could smell the musk of the animals as they slowly went by. When the mama walked past his side of the vehicle, so close that Shadow could’ve reached out and touched her, she turned her head.

She looked right at him, and Shadow held his breath. The moment was utterly surreal. Her brown eyes seemed to bore right into him. Almost as if she wanted to tell him something.

Then she was gone. Her calves scampering after her without a care in the world, secure in the knowledge that their mama would protect them from harm.

“Holy crap,” Grinder whispered.