by Marnee Blake
* * * *
Heidi’s hands were slippery with blood and still the rope hadn’t given.
Damn Melinda Parrish and her decision to use an old hemp rope. If it had been nylon, she was sure she’d have been able to rip it open already. Instead, the thing had been covered in something hard, making it nearly impossible to cut through. By the position of the sun, it was late in the afternoon and she still had portions to cut.
It didn’t help that she’d had a hard time finding a way to position the rock, to get it to cut. It had taken all sorts of tries, but she’d finally settled on holding it between her feet and doing her best to rub her wrists against it.
The problem was that her hands had been cut so many times she’d lost count. She was bleeding pretty badly, especially from the cut right at the base of her hand.
Anger gripping her, she cried out as she wrenched the ropes against the rock once more.
The binding broke free and she laughed. Only when she’d pulled her arms apart and peeled off the ropes did she realize she was crying, too.
Frustrated with herself, she wiped at her eyes. No time for that. Panting, she pushed her hair out of her face and flexed her wrists. Wiping her hands on her pants, she calmed her racing heart, again trying to focus on what she needed to do next.
The fire.
It didn’t take her long to find kindling and twigs, a few medium logs. She tented it the best she could, but her arms were aching and tired. Her mouth had dried as the day went by, and when she rose, dizziness overtook her, and her vision blurred. Maybe it was dehydration, but she was certain now that she had a concussion.
When the firewood was prepared, she picked up two rocks. She had never done this before, but in theory, if she could strike them together, they could spark and light the kindling.
Bending down, her head swam again, and she shook it, desperate to stay focused.
Then she started striking.
* * * *
“I don’t need to tell all of you, but we are running out of time. Heidi Sinclair has been missing for over twenty-four hours now, and we don’t know if she has enough to eat or drink. Tonight, we’re expecting an unusually cold snap. It will be below freezing.” Special Agent Hernandez stood in front of the room full of first responders, search and rescue personnel, and police officers. Her aura of concern was mirrored on every face in the room. “If Heidi is outside, she could be in serious trouble. Let’s do our jobs.”
The group dispersed, then, and Lance clasped him on the arm. “How are you holding up?”
Dak could only shake his head.
When they landed at the air center, a medical helicopter had been waiting to transport Mom to Bend Hospital. As they loaded his mom, he’d tried to talk to his dad, but he had been beside himself. He had shrugged Dak off, pushing him away when he tried to stop him.
“Dad,” he called. When he didn’t stop, Dak put his hands on his hips and tried again. “Listen, you need to help me.”
His father raised his hand, waving him off again. “Hospital. I have to get to the hospital.”
“Heidi is out there. I need your help to find her.” He trotted along beside his father, trying to get ahead of him. Trying to stop him. “Mom said something. She said—” God, what was it? He exhaled in frustration, trying again. “She said it’s at the place. That’s it. She said it’s at the place.”
His father had paused, pressing one palm to his forehead and the other to his hip. “Dak, I don’t have time for this. Your mother is on her way to the hospital. I need to be with her.”
“You can’t help her now. The time is long past for her. Let them do their jobs. But Heidi? You can help her now. I love her. If you don’t feel like helping her, help me.” He motioned with his hands, his agitation overwhelming. He was wasting time, time they didn’t have. “Think, Dad. What could that mean?”
His father pinched his lips together. “Fine.” He exhaled. “What did she say again?”
“It’s at the place.” Dak emphasizing the words, as if that would help him understand it better. “That’s exactly what she said. That it’s at the place.”
Lyle Parrish shook his head. “I don’t know. What does she mean by ‘it’? I don’t understand.”
If Dak could figure that out, he wouldn’t have needed his father. Lyle’s agitation was clear, though, and he could tell that no matter what he said right now, his father wasn’t able to focus.
He could only stare at the man who had taught him how to ride a bicycle, the man who had played catch with him, and who had thrown him out of the house.
Fear and anxiety were in all his movements and his expression. This wasn’t a man who didn’t care. He looked out of his mind, completely distracted.
“You knew. All these years, didn’t you? That she was having difficulty, that she wasn’t well.” He tried to keep the accusatory tone from his voice, and to a large degree, he did. He just needed to understand.
His father seemed to sense that. “I tried to help her. Please believe that. I love your mother. She has always been the only one for me.”
“Is it true? You admitted her to the hospital for this? Not for her heart?” All these months he’d believed his mother was having heart problems.
“It was for her heart. She’d said she was having a heart attack.” His dad grimaced. “They think they were panic attacks, though. She wanted to take the medicine—an anti-depressant, some other things—but I convinced her that we could work through it with a healthy lifestyle, exercise.”
Dak wanted to lash out. Just like his father to go against doctors and his wife’s own instincts. He wanted to tell him that that wasn’t how love works. If he truly loved his wife, he should have listened to her, he should have trusted her opinion on her wellbeing.
But as he stared into his father’s broken eyes, he wondered if maybe this had been his father’s best. Maybe, in whatever part of his mind where he had decided to hide his mother’s condition, to live in denial and bury her pain, he had done the best that he could do.
Dak didn’t know. He would probably never know. And even if he was feeling forgiving, so much had happened, destruction and pain. He didn’t think they’d ever get past it.
It was obvious that Lyle Parrish regretted what had happened, and right now that was all he had.
“Fine. You should go with her. But think about it. If you can think of any reason she would’ve said that to me, call. You have my cell phone, right?”
His father nodded. “I will.”
“I’m serious. It’s important.” He wasn’t sure how he knew that, but he did. Something in those words held the answer to finding Heidi.
His father nodded again, and then he trotted away, out to the tarmac and into the waiting helicopter.
Dak watched as he climbed inside and took off with his mom.
Now, he pulled his phone from his pocket. Still nothing from him. Rubbing his jaw, he glanced at Lance.
“I can’t take this.” His voice was barely above a whisper, but he didn’t want anyone but Lance to overhear him. “What if she’s hurting? What if she hasn’t eaten or drunk anything? She could be cold, she could be…” He couldn’t even bring himself to say the words.
“You can’t think like that.” Lance put his hands on his shoulders. “They’re going to find her.”
“You don’t know that. My mom found us at a fire in the middle of the woods miles from civilization.” Dak shook his head, closing his eyes. He buried his hands in his hair. “She could be anywhere.”
Hopelessness overwhelmed him. He had been so disconnected from everyone for so long, and now that he’d found someone who made him feel alive, who made him feel connected for the first time, now that he’d found her, he could lose her just as fast. The possibility opened a hole inside him, and emptiness he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to fill seeped in.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Fumbling, he pulled it out, registered his father’s name, and swiped to answer. “Hello? Hello, Dad?”
“Where I proposed.” His father’s voice stretched across the line, strong and sure. “That’s what ‘it’s at the place’ means. I bet she took her to the place where I proposed to her.”
“What?”
His father’s exhale rang across the line. “When your mother and I were dating, I brought her here, to Warm Springs, to propose to her. She was from Portland, and I wanted to show her our mountains. I took her to the top of a ridge, and we camped, and I asked her to marry me as the sun rose.”
Dak prayed he was right. “Can you find that place again?”
“In my sleep.”
Dak closed his eyes under the weight of his relief. “Dad, we’ll pick you up on the roof. Be ready.”
He disconnected, and turned to Lance, hugging him. “We can find her. She’s in the mountains, where my dad proposed.”
“Let’s go tell Mitch.”
As they headed toward the command center for the search and rescue, he hoped to God that it would be in time.
Chapter 19
It had taken her over an hour to get a spark for the fire. Her fingers were raw, still bleeding, and she was getting more and more lightheaded.
As the twigs in her makeshift fire pit began to burn, she sat back, rubbing her forehead.
Above her, the sky was dark.
Maybe it had taken her more than an hour. The details were a little foggy, probably thanks to dehydration. It was definitely the culprit for the leg cramps she’d suffered the past hour or so.
She rubbed her arms. She’d been having a hot flash earlier, but now she felt cold. It was all becoming kind of blurry.
With a jolt, she got to her feet, stumbling a little bit. She should move the tent closer to the fire. That way, she could feed the fire while sitting inside. It would be best for her to do anything physical now before she lost complete track of what was going on around her.
Only when she stood did she notice that the moon was high above her. The sun had been down for quite some time, then.
Mrs. Parrish hadn’t tethered the tent, so it didn’t take much to shift it closer to the fire. Heidi left the flap open. She had to pause a few times while she worked, thanks to bouts of dizziness and another leg cramp. She was gasping by the time she finished moving the little pile of wood she’d managed to collect.
With a sigh, she lowered her exhausted body onto the sleeping bag, and stretched out.
As hard as she tried, it was difficult to stay focused. She kept her eyes open, repeating again and again that she couldn’t fall sleep. If she fell asleep, the fire would go out. If the fire went out, she didn’t know how anyone was going to find her. And, though she might not trust her own internal thermometer right now, she could tell from the fog she made when she breathed that it was cold tonight.
The time stretched on, an eternity of watching the waving flames in front of her. As her thoughts strayed, floating from one thing to another, she found herself returning again and again to Dak.
Was he out looking for her? Even after she’d pushed him away?
There, severely dehydrated, she admitted to herself that she should have never done that. They had definitely made some mistakes, but she had given up on him. She wouldn’t be surprised if he never wanted to see her again.
At this rate, if she didn’t get off the mountain, he wouldn’t have a choice. Neither would she.
After an endless amount of time—or maybe it hadn’t been that long after all—a new sound filled the clearing where she had camped out. It was a buzzing, like hundreds of swarms of bees.
It was late in the season for bees, wasn’t it? And it was nighttime. They didn’t come out at night. What were they doing there?
From the sleeping bag, she caught sight of the helicopter, flying slowly and low. She wondered why a helicopter was out there, on that mountain.
It struck her, alarmingly late, that they were probably looking for her. She pushed up, shaking the cobwebs out of her head, and reached for the woodpile. Throwing the last pieces on top, she poked at the embers and coaxed the flame to a roar.
Fear laced through her, sending a wave of heat. What if they hadn’t seen her? What if her fire hadn’t been burning bright enough? She had been conserving her firewood, not wanting to let the flame go out, but maybe being conservative had made her miss her chance.
Ducking her head out of the tent, she staggered to her feet. Out there, the sound of the propellers was louder. She poked again at the fire, egging it on.
Suddenly, the helicopter crested the trees, a floodlight raking the clearing. It paused, and she was suddenly squinting into the bright light. Shielding her eyes with one hand, she waved with the other. Relief flooded her.
They’d found her.
As she watched, ropes were tossed out each side of the helicopter. Then, two people hung out the sides. In unison, they dropped, rappelling along the ropes in smooth and graceful motion. Even confused and shaking with relief at the sight of them, she couldn’t help pausing to admire them.
They landed on the ground in front of her, unhooked from the lines quickly. The wind from the propellers whipped around her, stealing her breath and making her squint. She stumbled backward. The sudden movement had sent a wave of dizziness spinning through her. Blinking, she attempted to catch her balance.
“Heidi?” One of the men who’d rappelled from the helicopter stood next to her. His voice was familiar. “Heidi, are you okay?”
She glanced up and Dak came into focus. “Dak, is that you?” Was that her voice? Her words were slurred, like she’d been drinking for hours. She cleared her throat, reaching for him. But her knees were wobbly, and she stumbled. He caught her, propping her up with an arm around her waist. His steady weight beside her reaffirmed that she wasn’t having some dehydration-induced hallucination.
“Are you hurt?” He walked with her to the other rappeller—Lance, it seemed—as he checked her over.
“Nothing to drink. And”—he lifted her hands, still covered in blood—“had some difficulty getting untied.”
His mouth thinned, and he glanced over her head to Lance. “We need to get her up.”
Lance nodded. Together, they worked to get her strapped into some harness contraption. She tried to help, but her fingers weren’t working well so she let them do it.
Before long, Dak wrapped his arm around her and together, they lifted into the air.
* * * *
From the time the helicopter landed at the hospital in Bend, there was test after test, and she waited in different holding bays. They installed an IV. Apparently she was severely dehydrated, but as she moved through the check-ups, they didn’t find anything else wrong with her. Finally, when the doctors seemed to be satisfied, someone came in to patch up her hands. She’d done a real number on them with the rock. She’d needed stitches and bandages.
They decided to keep her through the night to monitor her, but the doctor who saw her said that there was no reason they wouldn’t let her go first thing in the morning.
By the time they set her up in a room, it must have been incredibly late—or very early in the morning, rather. Considering she hadn’t slept in almost forty-eight hours, she was exhausted. When she was finally alone, she closed her eyes and must have dozed off to the sound of the machines around her.
“Knock, knock.” Opening her eyes, she found Dak in the doorway.
Shifting to sit, she smiled. “Hey.”
“Can I come in?” His uneasiness reminded her that the last time they’d talked, he’d told her that he cared about her and she’d told him that she wanted to be alone.
Swallowing, she nodded. “Of course.” She tucked the sheet around her. Licking her lips, she watched him as he settle
d his rangy body into the seat beside her bed.
“How are you feeling?” Heidi didn’t think she’d ever seen him so disoriented. As he folded his hands in his lap, his discomfort touched her heart.
She didn’t want to talk about that. Instead, she said, “You came for me.”
He shrugged, and his back straightened. If she’d been trying to set him at ease, this hadn’t worked. “They needed someone to rappel out of a helicopter. I know how to do that.”
It was so humble it tugged at her. While she had been getting tests, she’d heard about the fire that Dak’s mom had started after she’d left her at the campsite. One of the nurses hadn’t given her all of the details, but she’d filled in some, about how Melinda had tried to trade Heidi for a way out of her situation.
“Were you there? At the fire?” She wanted to find out how much he’d seen, how much he’d heard. She had to know how much more damage his family had done to him.
He nodded. “Yeah.” His chin dropped, and he studied his fingers.
She was familiar with that look. It was amazing how much she’d learned about him in such a short time. Now, she could tell he was blaming himself, taking responsibility for his mother’s role in the fire.
Probably for Heidi being there in the hospital now.
“I’m so sorry. That must have been difficult.” The words weren’t enough. There wasn’t a good way to soothe him. His mother had threatened his friends, had put Heidi’s life at risk.
Again he shrugged, and she hated the movement. “I’m just glad that no one got hurt.”
“Your mom—”
“No one who didn’t deserve it, I guess.” He swallowed.
“What happened? To her?” She needed to know. The nurse hadn’t given her these details. Patient privacy, she’d said. But, it was important to Dak.
“She got shot.” His voice was dead. “She tried to steal a helicopter. One of the law enforcement officers shot her.”
“Oh God.” She covered her mouth, the bandages pulling. “Is she okay?”