Page 64 of One Last Promise

Hazel shifted in Tillie’s arms, and he lifted his head. Met Tillie’s eyes.

She swallowed. “Um . . .”

Kip got up, started to bark, and outside, voices and barking, and then light swept into the cave.

Then, of course, his brother hung over the edge like a crazy man and waved. “Hey, bro. You okay?”

“Yep.”

Axel grinned. “So, this is going to be a thing?”

“Just get us out of here.”

But as he looked at Tillie, Moose wanted to say yes. Yes, this was going to be a thing.

One minute Tillie was wet and cold and stuck in a cave.

The next she was out, wrapped in a blanket, aboard a chopper that arched away from the hole in the earth, Hazel held tight to herself, buckled in across from Moose, who wasgrimy but looking at her with a fierceness that reinforced his words.“And I promise, I will keep you safe.”

Oh boy, she believed him. Really believed him. And that scared her as much as the fact that she’d kissed him.

Clearly she’d lost her mind. But he’d looked down at her with such emotion in his eyes, and it’d sort of . . . indeed, she’d lost her mind. Just given into the moment.

I’m sorry, Moose.

The chopper hummed so loudly she couldn’t talk to him anyway. Axel had strapped in beside Moose, and Shep sat on the other side of Hazel, who held Kip, wiggling in her arms.

She didn’t recognize the man with dark hair at the controls. London sat in the copilot seat.

Outside, night crept over the land, the sun gone, the sky arching dark with pinpricks of starlight. Beneath them, she spotted the Copper River, a glistening silvery snake that wound around the mountain and the rocky shoreline.

They veered away and skimmed over the forest, populated here and there with lights from houses, and in the distance, the gleam of the town of Copper Mountain lit up the night like a beacon.

They touched down at the Copper Mountain airport, and Axel unbuckled and threw open the door. Another man ran out onto the tarmac and met them.

“Colt! What are you doing here?” Axel grabbed his hand as he got out.

“Tae and I came to visit the baby, and we’d just gotten into town when Dodge radioed that you were coming in. Thought we’d hitch a ride back to the ranch.”

Axel turned to pick up Hazel, who winced, her leg clearly injured. Moose had also unbuckled and held out a hand to help Tillie.

She took it, unable to stop herself.

“You look tan,” Moose said to Coltas he hopped out.

“All that Florida sunshine,” Colt said. He shook the hand of the pilot, who’d climbed out. They pulled each other in for a back slap. “Dodge. Congrats on the baby.”

Dodge grinned, and a weird pain speared through Tillie.

Nothing like the joy of a newborn. She remembered it like it was yesterday. Yeah, they’d been happy then, at least for a minute.

“What happened?” Colt said to Moose. Shep joined him, London disembarking last.

“Got trapped in a mudslide,” Moose said.

“Colt Kingston?” London came up to them. “I can’t believe it.”

Colt seemed nonplussed to see London, his mouth opening, and she gave him a hug. “So, you did survive Nigeria.”

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