Page 55 of Too Late

Chapter Twenty-Two

Kristinnwentovertheedge, and Josh dropped to the side of the cliff. He’d seen a hand holding Kristinn’s ankle as she fell. Kristinn hit the rocks and then fell into the water at the base of the waterfall.

“Chloe!”

Holding on with only one hand, Chloe hung off the side of the cliff.

He reached down and grasped Chloe’s forearm. He pulled her up above the ledge.

“My hand is stuck.” She pulled her hand out of the roots and then met his eyes.

He pulled her to his chest and away from the cliff.

Relief washed over him. They were both alive.

Then it hit him, what Chloe had just done. He pushed her off his chest and looked her in the eyes. “Did you climb that?”

A giant smile lit up her face. She nodded.

He crawled over and looked down. “That’s at least forty feet.”

She shrugged.

“Really? Just a shrug like it’s no big deal.”

Chloe clasped his face between her hands. “She was going to kill you. I didn’t have a choice.”

He stroked her cheek before sliding his fingers into her hair.

He drew her face toward his, her lips inches from his. “But she didn’t, thanks to you.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “You threw that rock, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was breathless, and her eyes reflected as much anticipation as he felt.

Rather than torture either of them any longer, he leaned in and met her lips.

Exposure to the elements for the last twenty hours had left their lips rough and chapped, but that didn’t matter. All the passion that had been pent up in him for years met their longing in the tenderness of the kiss.

He drew her closer to his body and wrapped his arms around her as the kiss deepened. The roaring of the waterfall faded.

She followed his lead until he pulled away. Then she reached up and tugged him back to her lips.

When they separated for need of air, both giggled.

She lowered her head to his chest, and they sat at the top of the waterfall, resting in the peace of knowing they were no longer being hunted.

Gabe clicked the leash on Poirot’s collar. “You need to stay with me, buddy. We’ll run off and find them soon enough. I promise.”

Poirot barked in opposition.

“Stop it. It’s important we don’t get lost out there too. We need to do this right, you know that.”

Aliza gripped Gabe’s arm. “You’re sounding like Chloe now.”

He rubbed Poirot’s head. “I guess I understand this guy better than ever now.”

As soon as they’d left the sheriff’s office, Gabe had called in the aid ministry that Josh and Chloe worked with, but it would be at least half an hour before they even began to roll in to start the search.

Elliot exited the house with a large map and unfolded it across the hood of the sheriff’s Jeep. “We’ve got a hundred acres, but there’s no fence, so they could easily have wandered onto neighboring properties. This is where Peter was found.” He planted his finger on the map. “She’d probably take them there because she kept saying how she wished they would understand how Peter felt in those last hours. Never mind, he died pretty suddenly, but he did have a broken ankle, so it’s possible one or both of them could be injured.”

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