Page 33 of Love Me Fearless

“Marin!” I call out from twenty feet away. She’s partially blocked by a big slab of rock, but I don’t see movement or hear anything over my racing heartbeat and the soft drizzle.

I have to lower to the side of the slab, then give myself extra slack to maneuver closer. Inside my mind, I’m closing off all my doors so I can steel myself against what I’m about to see. I need to be able to focus on helping her if it’s not too late.

By balancing and keeping enough tension in the rope, I work my way closer. She’s on her side, her dark hair matted from the rain and what I’m pretty sure is blood, with pockets of gray snow still in the cracks between the rocks around her.

Carefully, I slide two fingers to her carotid pulse point. Her skin is cold and stiff, and her chest wall is not moving. I wait, grasping the idea that I could be wrong. That she’s stillalive somehow after this cold night and the snow and the blood.

But there’s nothing.

Reluctantly, I withdraw my fingers. Shit.

With a shaky sigh, I add another wrap of the rope around my thigh to lock me in place, then slide off my pack and tug out my insulated jacket and rain pants. I do my best to cover Marin’s broken body, even though I know she’s long past being able to feel it. I have to do something to protect her, even though I know it’s too late to make a difference.

It’s not like I haven’t seen death before. But this is different. This girl isn’t a soldier who got caught in the line of fire. Or a pilot shot down behind enemy lines. She’s a nineteen-year-old college student. A girl with dreams and plans. With her whole life ahead of her.

The despair flashes to anger. Someone did this to her.

My phone chirps in my pocket, startling me back to the brutal reality. It’s Zach.

“I found her.” I resist the urge to reach out for Marin’s hand. To let her know she’s not alone anymore.

“Alive?”

“Negative.”

“Shit.” Zach sighs.

“She didn’t get here on her own,” I add.

“How bad is it?” Zach asks.

A girl found in just her underclothes with blood in her hair can only mean one thing. “Bad.”

He huffs another sigh. “I need to notify the sheriff. Can you stay with her?”

The drizzle has turned to a steady rain that’s dripping down the back of my neck. I gaze at the sea of rain-darkened granite boulders. How could someone leave her here like this?

“Of course.”

Two hours later, after the chopper has departed with Marin’s body, Iclimb back up to the road. Moving feels good after the long wait, as does leaving this granite graveyard. At the top, Captain Greely is barking into the radio, but side-eyes me as I pass. Yeah it was rash of me to rappel down there without his authorization, but I wasn’t about to wait around for it, especially when I have the exact skillset required to get the job done. If he has a problem with it, he can find me later to chew me out.

I keep walking, the road turned to soft mud from the rain.

Zach meets me at the bottom of the road, like he was waiting for me.

“I’ll give you a ride,” he says.

Marin’s truck is gone, likely towed to the sheriff’s impound lot for further processing. Probably where Everett is now.

I climb into the SUV’s passenger side. The warmth pricks my cold face and makes the bridge of my nose sting.

“You doing all right?” he asks as we pull away.

I gaze out the rain-streaked side window at the blurry forest. “Any leads?”

“Phone records came through. She’s been texting an unknown number. It started a couple of months ago, but the last two weeks it’s been more frequent.”

“Have you traced it?”

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