Page 26 of Force of Nature

Relief. That’s what I felt when he landed in the dirt with a sickening thud.

I bolted up the stairs, leaping over Zeb’s dead body without so much as a glance at his ugly corpse. At the top, I found Willow standing on the platform by a section without a rail. She was looking down, unmoving, as her red hair danced in the wind.

“Willow,” I said. She didn’t move. I touched her shoulder, and she spun around, hands poised and ready to strike. I caught her by the wrists. “Baby, it’s me. It’s Dad. You’re okay.”

“Dad…” Blood dripped from a small cut on her bottom lip. She blinked a few times and then sighed, lowering her arms. “I knew you’d come back.”

“Are you okay?” I drew her away from the edge of the platform so that I could look her over somewhere safe. “You’re bleeding.”

“I’m all right. It’s nothing.”

I pulled her into my arms. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone.”

“But you got Martin, right?” She gazed up at my face. I expected to see tears in her eyes, but they were dry. She offered me a small smile.

“Yeah,” I said. “I got him.”

“Then the plan worked.”

She was right. Ithadworked.

And yet…

I wiped the drop of blood from her chin and looked deep into her blue eyes.

“Did Duke touch you?”

“No. He wasn’t up here for long. I heard him coming up the stairs and then hid until I saw a chance to knock the gun out of his hand.”

“Where is the gun?”

She shrugged. “Somewhere on the ground? Anyway, he hit me, and I pretended to pass out. When he turned his back on me, I pushed him.”

My head swam as I mentally rifled through all the ways that situation could have gone differently. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse. I felt lightheaded all of a sudden, and I almost started laughing. It didn’t help that I’d had no sleep and was running on rage and adrenaline—and the trauma. Couldn’t forget about that.

I kissed her forehead and then her lips.

“I’m so proud of you, my brave girl.”

The nightmare was finally over. We had nothing else to fear out here in the wilderness. We’d survived the most difficult test of our lives.

But I had to wonder how this experience was going to change us.

Could we live with the people we’d become?

Chapter9

Willow

Despite everythingmy dad had been through, he insisted on carrying me back to our campsite. He didn’t want me to bruise my feet further by walking back barefoot through the woods. I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, lulled into a state of detachment by the reassuring crunch-crunch of his boots. Being carried through the woods felt like floating through a dream. I wished it had all been a bad dream.

Well, maybe not all of it…

It took us a few hours to reach the campsite. While neither of us said as much, I knew we both wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I couldn’t glance at the firepit without shivering. After changing our clothes and packing up the gear, we ate a quick breakfast of granola bars and then set off down the trail, back toward the ranger station. I wasn’t looking forward to the three-day hike ahead of us; I just wanted to be home, in my own bed, surrounded by familiar things.

“Speak up if you see anyone,” he said. I assumed he was just warning me to stay alert until he added, “They might have a sat phone we can use.”

“Use for what?”

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