He called her cell but it went straight to voicemail. He’d already checked the diner, but she wasn’t working. So he called Mallory. “Where is she?”
Mallory gave him nothing but an angsty silence.
“Mallory.”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Tell me anyway.”
More angsty silence.
“Mallory,” he said tightly.
“I pinky-swore, Matt! I’m sorry but us Chocoholics have to stick together. It’s the Good Girl Code of Honor.”
Jesus. “Since when does a good girl hold out on her boyfriend’s best friend?”
“Okay, that’s not fair,” she said. “Asking me to pick loyalties between Ty’s BFF and mine.”
“Nothing’s fair in love or war.”
“And is this love or war?” she asked very seriously.
“I need to see her. Now. Tonight.”
She went quiet, and Matt knew he had to get this right if he wanted her help. “Is there an emergency clause in that Good Girl Code?” he asked. “Say, for guys who are a little slow on the uptake and need to prove themselves trustworthy?”
“Maybe,” she said slowly. “Maybe if, say, I didn’t actually tell you where she was because you guessed.”
“Give me a hint.”
“Okay… Oh! Remember when I called you and said my friend needed a rescue because she’d gotten lost on the trail?”
Jesus Christ. “Tell me she did not go back up the Sierra Meadows Trail by herself.”
“Exactly. I’m not telling you.” She hesitated. “You’re going after her, yes?”
Matt could hear Ty in the background saying, “Of course he’s going after her. He’s whipped.”
Matt ground his back teeth into powder. “Tell him I’m going to wipe that smile off his face the next time we’re in the gym together.”
“You will not,” Mallory said. “I love his smile.”
In the background, Ty laughed, and given the sounds that came over the line next, he also thoroughly kissed Mallory, then he came on the line himself. “You’re going down, man,” Ty said. “Hard.”
Matt wasn’t sure if Ty meant in the gym or over how Matt felt about Amy. Both, probably. He disconnected and started his truck. Amy had gone to finish her grandma’s quest.
Alone.
At night.
He whipped the truck around and headed to the station, telling himself he was wrong. She wouldn’t be crazy enough to do this, but sure enough, he found her car was parked in the lot. Engine cold.
Okay, so she’d probably left much earlier in the day, which brought a whole new set of problems. Why wasn’t she back? Was she hurt? He thumbed through his contacts and called Candy, the ranger-in-training who’d been running the front desk today.
“Yep,” she said cheerfully. “That car was there when I locked up for the night.”
Damn. He called Mallory again, but this time Ty picked up.
“Man, you’re really starting to ruin my sex life.”
“Overshare. Ask Mallory when she last heard from Amy.”
There was a muffled conversation, and Mallory took the phone. “I got a text from her half an hour ago. She was fine and settled in for the night.”
“She’s staying the night up there? Alone?”
Silence.
“Cone of silence, Good Girl. We’re in the cone of silence. Just tell me.”
“Overnight camping without a permit isn’t allowed,” she said primly.
Shit. He hung up and glanced at the sky. Dark-ass black, which sucked. He pounded out Josh’s number next. “Problem.”
“Are you bleeding?” Josh asked. “And by bleeding, I mean an aorta nick because I’m in the middle of something here. And by something, I mean sleeping. For the first time in thirty-six hours.”
“I’m going to miss my inquiry in the morning.”
“Ah,” Josh said agreeably. “So not an aortic bleed, but a brain leak. Have you lost your f**king mind?”
“Amy went up to Sierra Meadows. Alone. I’m going after her.”
“This is your job on the line,” Josh reminded him. “Job before chicks, man.”
“That’s bros before ’hos. And irrelevant. I let her think I didn’t believe in her, that I didn’t trust her. I have to prove her wrong.”
“By throwing away your livelihood?”
“If Toby needed you, you’d do the same.”
“I love Toby.”
Matt blew out a breath. “Yeah.”
There was a loaded beat of silence, but it didn’t last long. “Jesus,” Josh breathed. “You’re as bad off as Ty. Go. Go do what you have to. If you lose your job, I’ll hire you as my nanny.”
Matt hung up, grabbed his emergency pack out of the back of his truck, and hit the trail. Ten minutes later, at midnight, his flashlight died. He pulled out his backup. He was halfway there and had downed his five-hour energy drink stash, and now his eyes were flashing and his heart was pounding from the caffeine. He hadn’t slept last night thinking about Amy and Riley. He hadn’t slept the night before because he’d spent the hours tearing up the sheets and expending some high-quality passion with Amy. And the night before that, he’d never hit the sheets at all because of the injured hiker.
If anyone else had come out here in the forest in his condition, he’d think they needed a psych eval. Hell, he did need a psych eval.
It was twelve thirty a.m. when his backup flashlight died. So much for the Energizer Bunny. He pulled out his iPhone. He had no reception but he did have a flashlight app. Apple was his new best friend.
It was 1 a.m. when he got close. It was 1:05 when his cell phone died.
Apple was relegated to below the Energizer Bunny on his shit list, a fact that was drummed home when he took a step off the trail to take a leak and fell.
And fell.
Amy had fallen asleep by her fire, but at some point she sat straight up, startled, heart pounding. She’d heard something. A loud something, a crash…
Her fire had died down. She tossed more wood in, then grabbed her flashlight, surveying the forest around her.
Nothing.
Had she imagined it? She stood up and walked to the edge of the clearing, shining her light all around her. “Hello?”
No one answered. That was good, she decided. Unless it was a hungry bear… She glanced around nervously at the thicket of trees in front of the ravine and was vividly reminded of what had happened last time she’d been here at night.
A smile curved her mouth in spite of herself, and she moved closer, shining the light down, remembering how she’d fallen and been rescued by Matt, and—
Oh, God. There was rustling down there, big rustling, and she immediately thought of that bear. But a bear wouldn’t be swearing the air blue.
In Matt’s voice.
Chapter 24
Love is like swallowing hot chocolate before it’s cooled off. It takes you by surprise at first, but then keeps you warm for a long time.
Matt?” Amy stared into the dark ravine with utter shock. “Is that you?”
“No, it’s f**king Tinker Bell.”
This irritated statement was followed by more rustling and more swearing.
“What are you doing down there?” she asked, flicking her light in the direction of his voice, but not seeing much. “You told me not to go down that way, remember?”
“Yes, Amy, I remember, thank you.” He paused. “I fell.”
“Oh, my God. Are you okay?”
He didn’t answer right away, and she panicked. “Matt?”
“Yeah. I just jacked up my shoulder a little bit.”
Fear joined the panic as she stared down into the inky black abyss. “I’m coming down right now.” Soon as she figured out exactly how to do that in the dark.
“Don’t,” he called up to her. “I’m fine.”
Ignoring that line, which was her own personal favorite bullshit line, she began to make her careful way down.
“Go back, Amy. I’m coming up right now.”
That’d be great, if it were true, but she couldn’t hear him moving so she kept going. This proved tricky as it was harder going down than it had been coming up. It was steep, and she needed both hands. She also needed her flashlight, so she stuck it down her top and into her bra. This mostly highlighted her own face but gave her enough of a glow that she could see.
Sort of.
“Amy, stop.”
“I’m not leaving you here—” She broke off with a startled scream as her feet slid out from beneath her on the damp, slippery slope. She fell the last few feet and hit her butt.
“You okay?” Matt demanded.
“Sure. Lots of padding.” She rushed to his side.
“You don’t listen,” he said. He was sitting up, his back to a stump, jaw tight. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Is that your flashlight down your top?”
“Yes again. Is your shoulder broken?”
“Just dislocated, I think. Lean a little closer.”
“Why?”
“So I can see down your top.”
Okay, so he wasn’t on his deathbed. “I’ll flash you when we get you back to my camp,” she promised, realizing he was breathing through clenched teeth. Pulling out her flashlight, she used it to take a good long look at him. Despite the chilly night, a drop of sweat ran down his temple, and he seemed a little green. “What can I do, Matt?”
“You could flash me now as incentive.”
“I’m serious.”
He sighed. “I’m okay, just give me a minute.”
Well isn’t that just like a man. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“No shit,” he said. “And neither should you.”
“I meant because you have your inquiry in the morning. In a few hours! Your job—” It all hit her, and she sank back on her heels to stare at him, waving her hand aimlessly. “God, Matt, you’re going to miss it. Why would you do this?”
He took her hand, caressing her wrist with his thumb right over her pulse point. Bringing her hand to his mouth, his lips pressed against her palm. “I wanted to be here with you. Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Well, yes, actually.”
“I knew you would. That was your goal, and you’re not a quitter. You finish what you start. And I came to finish what we started.”
Her heart caught. “We already finished. And for the record, I am a quitter. I quit everything and everyone. That’s who I’ve always been.”
“Don’t bring Amy-the-teenager into this,” he said. “She quit a bad life and got herself a new one. She—” He shifted and broke off with a grimace of pain.
“Oh, God, Matt. We need to—”
“Here—Hold this,” he said, and using his good hand, lifted his arm to a certain angle. “Hold tight and don’t let go.”
She wrapped her hands around his arm. His muscles were quivering. “But—”
Matt jerked, and she heard a pop, and then he sucked in a harsh breath and sagged away from her.
She followed his movement, practically straddling him to see into his face. He was sweating good now, but his color was coming back, and he offered her a weak smile. “Got it in one,” he said, and then closed his eyes.
“Matt!”
“Shh,” he said, not moving. “I’m not quite up to chasing off any curious bears at the moment. And I don’t think the ones in China heard us yet. Help me out of my shirt.”
She leaned over him and unbuttoned his shirt, then spread it open to gingerly pull it away from his bad shoulder.
“I like it when you take off my clothes,” he said.
“I thought you liked it when I took off my clothes.”
“That, too.” His voice was soft and silky. “I really like that. Tear the shirt in half for me.”
She tried but she didn’t have enough strength so he took it back from her, and holding it between his good arm and his teeth, easily tore the shirt in half.
This caused her to get a hot flash, which she ignored. Matt showed her how to fold the torn shirt into a makeshift sling for his arm.
“Better?” she asked when they’d finished.
He let out a careful breath and rolled his shoulder. “Yeah.”
“We need to get you to the ER.”
“Nah, I’m good now.”
“And you say I don’t listen.” She slid her arm around him to pull him upright, muttering to herself. “No one ever listens to me. Not that I can blame them. I believed in Riley and look how that turned out.”
Matt slid a hand to the nape of her neck and tilted her face up, his own solemn. “I’m listening to you,” he said. “I’ll always listen. I might not agree, but I swear to you, I’ll always listen. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Amy.”
Just like that, her throat clogged. Her eyes burned. “Matt—”
“I never wanted you to give up on Riley,” he went on quietly. “The kid made a mistake, that doesn’t mean she is a mistake.” He stroked her hair out of her face. “She’s making restitution. She’s finding out how to make things right when she screws up. That’s because of you, Amy. You set her up to succeed. Don’t you see? The best thing that could ever have happened to her is having you in her corner.” He paused, eyes warm as they roamed over her features. “Now more than ever, don’t give up on her.”