Page 20 of Searching Blind

“Rescue.”

“And what if they don’t come?” Chuck demanded. “What then? My boy can’t walk off this mountain in his state.”

“Dad…” Joel protested.

“They’ll come.” It was Sawyer who spoke this time. “I know my team. They’ll come.”

“But they don’t know where we are,” Joel pointed out.

“They’ll figure it out.”

“But how long will it take?” Theodore’s gaze darted nervously behind his glasses. “How long do we just sit here?”

Lucy looked at Sawyer, seeing in him the calm she wished she could feel.

“As long as we need to,” he answered.

“Easy for you to say,” Chuck muttered under his breath.

Bea shot him a reproachful look. “What about food? We didn’t bring much more than snacks. We were only supposed to be gone for six hours.”

Lucy glanced toward Ethan’s stockpile of canned food on the shelves of the tiny kitchenette. If this went on longer than a couple of days, it wouldn’t nearly be enough for nine people. “All right, listen. We’re not going to solve anything by staying awake through the night. We have shelter, and people are looking for us. In the morning, we’ll figure out our supply situation, but for now, we all need sleep.”

“But what about Maya?” Joel asked, worry creasing his forehead.

“That’s out of our hands now. What she needs is rest, and so do you,” Lucy said, laying her hand gently on Joel’s shoulder.

The others settled down, using their backpacks as makeshift pillows and curling up in whatever available floor space remained. Sawyer guided Zelda over to a spot near the door. After making sure everyone was settled, she crossed to him and sat on the floor next to him.

“Gonna be a long night,” Sawyer murmured.

A chill crept up her spine, icy fingers tracing her vertebrae one by one. No radio, dwindling supplies, no way off this peak until help arrived... if it arrived.

“Yes. It is.” She exhaled hard and ran her hands over her face. Only then did she realize they were caked in mud and blood. She couldn’t help the small, distressed sound that escaped her as she tried to rub it off.

A hand gently covered her own, and she looked up to see Sawyer’s face, his eyes focused somewhere over her shoulder. He was so calm, so steady, even in the face of utter uncertainty. He gently moved his fingers over the dried blood and grime, tracing every scrape and bruise.

“It’s going to be all right, Luce,” he said softly.

She swallowed thickly, her heart pounding in her chest as she met his unfocused gaze. This was not the time for this, but the warmth of his touch, the familiar comfort of his presence, was something she desperately needed.

She had so many conflicting emotions when it came to this man—relief that he was here by her side again, anger that he had disappeared without a word, and an undeniable draw to him that both frightened and excited her.

“Why did you leave?” she whispered, unable to stop herself from voicing the question that had haunted her for a year.

Sawyer’s brow furrowed. He opened his mouth but hesitated.

“You didn’t need me anymore,” he said finally.

“What?”

“You were healing, and I thought if I stayed around…” He shrugged one shoulder. “I didn’t want to be a reminder of what happened to you.”

Lucy blinked in surprise. “Sawyer, you were the reason I survived. If you hadn’t found me...” She trailed off, unable to voice what would have happened if he hadn’t shown up when he did.

He was silent, head bowed. She studied his profile, taking in the strong line of his jaw and the furrow between his brows.

“I know I was a mess afterward,” she continued, finding her voice again. “The panic attacks, the nightmares… but I wouldn’t have gotten through that without you. And then, when I finally started to feel like myself again, you were just gone.”

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