Page 68 of Edge of Ruin
I jerked to a stop at the skid marks on the cliff, my heart thudding. I leaped out, staring at the jagged trough the vehicle had made as it slid down into the water. My guts were knotted with terror. My mind still rejected the most probable outcome, but the rest of me shook with raw fear.
I vaulted over the gravel slope of the road’s shoulder and slid in the loose shale to the water’s edge. I followed the current, hopping rocks, clambering on boulders, slogging through water. I had to swim through cliff-lined channels, prying myself out of the current’s grip just before getting sucked into the rapids.
I finally spotted her, all the way across the river, spread out on a rock as if she’d washed up on it. Facedown, wet hair spread around her. I screamed her name over and over. She did not move.
I dove back in, fighting the water. Got across it, God alone knew how. I crawled up on to the rock and rolled her over with shaking hands.
Her eyes opened, locked into mine. I was so relieved, I burst into tears and dropped my face against her chest. Jesus Christ, her skin was ice cold.
But she was still alive. My soul shook with terrified joy.
It took us an interminable, staggering time to get back to my truck. I would have carried her if I could, but we couldn’t go back the way we’d come, not with those channels, those sheer cliffs. I couldn’t dump her into that icy current again, and the only alternative was to climb straight up to the road far above us. Which meant that we had to scramble and claw our way up slippery rock faces, over shale and thorns and brambles. Vivi could barely keep herself upright.
My relief at finding her alive was undercut by growing fear. Her face was so white, her eyes so shadowed. She couldn’t stop shaking. She kept falling down. She could hardly speak. When we finally crawled onto the asphalt of the highway, I picked her up.
She murmured something at me, but her voice was weak and slurred.
I got back to my truck and sped to town. Squealed to a stop outside the emergency room at the hospital. We caused a big stir, and things moved with gratifying speed as the EMT techs got Vivi squared away.
I was annoyed to find some of the staff wanted to fuss over me, too. Big waste of time. I was fine. They should all concentrate on Vivi.
I begged a cell phone off one of the EMT techs and called a guy I knew in the local cop shop. “Hey, Tim? It’s Jack Kendrick.”
“Holy shit, man!” Tim exploded. “Where the hell are you?”
“Later for that. That son of a bitch who was lying unconscious in Unit 42 of Evergreen Acres. Do you guys have him in custody?”
Tim hesitated. “Uh ... are you okay, Jack?”
“I’m fine. What about the guy in Unit 42? That son of a bitch is a serial killer.”
“There was no guy in Unit 42,” Tim said. “Just a trashed room, blood on the floor, and a bunch of bullet holes. Whatever happened in there, we missed it. Would have been really helpful if you’d been around to clue us into the serial killer thing, because he didn’t hang around, either. And the chief was unthrilled with you for fucking off before you could give a statement. What were you thinking?”
I blew out a long shuddering sigh as the cold sank even more deeply into my bones. “You have no idea,” I muttered.
I closed the call as he was still talking, passed the phone back, and ripped the IV needle out of my arm, ignoring the scolding lectures. I grabbed a chair and situated it outside the curtained cubicle where Vivi lay, a vantage point that gave me a clear view of both ends of the corridor plus the lobby entrance. I was almost hoping the guy would make a move.
I wanted to fucking finish this, already.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Vivi
I drifted in and out of consciousness on the drive into Portland, but even when I was awake, I kept my eyes closed. I didn’t have the nerve to talk to Jack. To ask him how he felt. What it all meant. If he had changed his mind about the two of us, or if he was just being righteous and heroic. A guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do, yada yada and all that. His grim, taut face discouraged confidences. Didn’t seem like the right time.
He had bullied the hospital into letting me leave after only twenty-four hours, and there had been a big kerfuffle about it. Lots of shouting about security and danger and attackers. The angry doctors made me sign a waiver accepting responsibility, which I’d been glad to do, though my fingers barely felt the pen, floating in a Demerol cloud. Even stoned out of my mind, I knew what side my bread was buttered on. When it came to Snake Eyes, the doctors and nurses were no protection.
Jack Kendrick was my man. Hands down. He was my best shot.
Margaret had come by that morning, bringing Jack some clothes, and one of her own warm-up suits for me. It was eggshell blue, spattered with yellow daisies. Wow. Very special. But still, I was grateful.
“I’m flying to New York,” I announced, bracing myself.
“That’s the last place you should go!” Jack said sharply. “John told you he’d hired an army. We’ve warned Rafael, your sisters and their men. Do you want to face an army now? Those guys weren’t enough of a challenge for you?”
“It’s not that,” I said. “I just can’t live like this anymore. I have to resolve this thing. No matter what. You do what you want. I’m more grateful than I can ever say, but I’m flying to New York. I want to meet with my sisters, now that we have the necklaces back.”
Jack muttered something foul under his breath, but he gave in eventually.
