Retreat

by Jay Crownover

  “He shot Sutton, Leo. Right in the chest. There was so much blood.” Her voice cracked and she made a noise that sounded like heartbreak. “He fell to the ground and wouldn’t open his eyes. He has a little girl, Leo.” She was shaking so hard I could hear her teeth hit each other. “They left him on the ground bleeding. I told Cy to take him first, but he didn’t listen.”

  I shook my head and gently ran my hand over the top of her head. “Real cowboys save the girl first, Em. No way was Cy going to leave you there looking like this. He went back for his brother, didn’t he?”

  She nodded jerkily. “He helped me wrap my face up.” She pointed a wobbly finger at the blood-soaked bandage. “One of the guys yelled at me that I wouldn’t think I was too good for him when he was done with me. I didn’t stop fighting him as he was trying to take my pants off. He cut my cheek open with a dirty pocket knife. It hurts and it won’t stop bleeding.”

  I shuddered and pulled her closer to me even though she didn’t want to come. “Em, I’m so sorry, but I need you to stay strong and keep fighting. We’ll get you help, as soon as I figure out how to get both of us off this stand, without breaking our necks.” I didn’t have Cy’s brute strength to muscle her up and down that precarious, hanging ladder.

  “There is no help for what has happened the last few days.” She sounded so dejected and defeated that it made my heart sink. She was ready to give up and I needed her to fight. “There is no making this better.”

  “That’s not true and you know it. You never let me give in and wallow, even when that’s what I was convinced I wanted. I’m not going to let you surrender either.” I leaned over the ledge of the hunting stand and balked at how far away the ground seemed to be. I needed a brilliant idea, and I needed it yesterday.

  Just when I thought the only way I was going to get my friend off the ledge was to miraculously grow wings and fly her down, I heard a loud whistle that shrieked through the quiet of the woods surrounding us.

  Cautiously, I peeked my head over the edge of the hunting stand and felt my eyes go wide when I saw Webb standing below. He was holding his injured shoulder in one hand, but other than that he looked no the worse for wear. “I circled around and ran into Cy as he was heading back into the camp. He told me where he stashed the girl. I came to help her.”

  I blinked at him stupidly for a second. I was relieved to see him alive and in one piece. I forgot for a split second that other people I had grown to care a lot about were still in immediate danger and that the DEA was seconds away from laying the hurt down on everyone.

  “I saw your brother, Webb. He’s alive and he’s headed to the camp with Ten.” I wanted to smile at him but my mouth wouldn’t move upwards. It was locked in a tense frown as I looked between Webb and Emrys. “He said a DEA strike team is on the way to raid the camp. He didn’t have any way to tell them that Cy and Grady are on the ground trying to get Sutton out of there.” I swallowed hard and shifted my gaze away from Em’s fragile form. “Cy’s brother was hurt really badly. There is no way he’s going to leave him there.”

  Webb looked at the dangling ladder then back at me with a scowl. He let go of his shoulder and shook out his arm. “A couple of Wyatt’s spooks ran across me in the forest when I was leading the shooters away from the camp. They pulled their weapons on me but realized pretty quickly I was running from the bad guys and wasn’t one of them. They held me when Ten started returning fire but once the bullets stopped flying, they let me go. I think they just wanted me out of the way. They told me Wyatt had given them the intel on the camp, and that he was the one dropping the bodies in the river. I told them there were civilians in the camp. Fortunately, one of the guys who stopped me worked with Grady in the past, so he knew exactly who I was talking about. We need to figure out a way to get you girls down and back to the camp. The spooks have a copter flying in for extraction.” He pointed at his arm. “I think they called it for me but it sounds like your girl and Warner need the evac more than I do.”

  I blew out a frustrated breath and shifted so that my legs were dangling over the edge of the tree stand. “I don’t know how Cy muscled her up here, but I can’t figure out a way to get her down. She’s pretty banged up and half her face is being held together by nothing more than a makeshift bandage. I’m scared to move her.”

  He swore and put his hands on his hips looking every bit the forest rogue. I could easily picture him robbing the rich and giving the goods to the poor, while running around with a merry band of misfits.

  “I don’t think my busted wing is up to hauling both my weight and hers down that ladder, if it even holds up long enough for me to get up there.” That was exactly what I was afraid of. We weren’t getting down unless Emrys rallied and helped me help her.

  I crawled back over to her and reached out to put the backs of my fingers against her uncovered cheek. She cringed at the touch, like my fingers were throwing flames and burned her.

  “Em, you’ve got to get up. I’ll help you down the ladder and get you to help, but you’ve got to move. You can’t stay here.”

  She lifted a hand and let it fall. “Just go without me.” She sounded pathetic and forlorn.

  “We both know there isn’t a chance in hell that I’m doing that. If you stay, I stay. But if you stay and they hold that helicopter when it gets here, you could be delaying Sutton getting medical help.” That was a dirty card to play but I was getting desperate and needed something that would break through her despondency.

  “There is no help. He’s dead, Leo. They put a hole right through the center of him and let him bleed forever. Sutton is dead.” She opened her eye and looked right at me. “He died trying to save me.”

  “Hey, gorgeous!” Webb’s deep voice carried up to us and I saw Em’s eyebrow twitch in reaction. “When you care about someone, you don’t give up on them no matter what. That body in the sheriff’s morgue could very well have been my brother . . . but it wasn’t. The cowboy put up a fight for you and you need to do the same for him. Let Leo help you down here and let’s get this show on the road. I think we’ve all had enough adventure to last a lifetime.”

  Her eye welled with tears again and new tracks streaked through the blood on her battered face. “I can’t.”

  I bit back my impatience and tried to be as gentle with her as I could. “Em, you have to. I’m going to make you. I’m going to save you, just like you always save me.”

  It took longer than I wanted it to, but eventually, she started to move. Each movement was slow and deliberate, the pain etched on her features clear and haunting, as she let me guide her and maneuver her toward the ladder. I went down first. No thought or fear allowed as she crawled at a snail’s pace above me rung by rung. Her grip was weak and there were a couple of times I thought she was simply going to let go and take us both to the ground, but step by agonizing step, we made our way to the ground.

  Once her feet touched the ground, she collapsed in a heap that Webb wildly lunged for. He kept her from hitting her knees and cuddled her to his chest like she was an injured animal. My heart broke for my best friend and I wanted to storm into the grow camp and lay waste to everything and everyone who had made her hurt like this.

  I was getting ready to ask Webb how we were going to get her to the camp and to rescue when the familiar whir of an ATV broke through the trees and had him shifting Em to one side, so he could palm his weapon. He ordered me to get behind him, but I wasn’t the girl who hid behind anyone anymore. I stood right next to him and kept an eye on Emrys as the four-wheeler wove its way through the dense forest in front of us.

  There were no words to describe how badly I wanted the rider to be Cy.

  It wasn’t. It was Wyatt in the scary black grease paint looking undeniably similar to the man I was standing next to. “Good thing you didn’t blow all the machines, brother. This one came in handy when the big guy calmed down enough to tell us where he stashed the girl. He wasn’t a happy camper when our guys pulled him away from his
brother.” That wild grin died on his face when he caught sight of Emrys’s wilted body in his younger brother’s arms and he switched to all business mode really quick. “Give me the girl. The chopper is about twenty minutes out and they won’t wait once they touch down. The guy with the bullet in his chest doesn’t have a single second to spare. They already have an emergency medical team waiting for him in Billings.”

  He rubbed a hand over his face smearing the messy paint, making him look even fiercer. “The raid went off without a hitch. They rounded up most of the hired guns and a couple of them seemed like they were willing to talk. They cleared the tents and Grady actually had the guy they think is in charge of this particular spot pinned down. A sweep team will spend the next couple of days trying to locate any of the men who escaped the round up and they’ll stay behind to make sure the crop is destroyed. Other than the civilians injured, this was a pretty textbook takedown.”

  Emrys perked up at that news that Sutton was still hanging in there and allowed herself to be transferred over to the care of the special agent. She kept muttering “I can’t believe he’s alive” over and over again like a mantra. Wyatt told her that he wouldn’t be if they didn’t get a move on it. I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, but I knew they were racing against the clock. Watching her ride away with the older Bryant brother was probably the hardest thing I had ever done in my life.

  I looked at Webb and he looked down at me. We sighed in unison and I leaned into his side when he threw his arm around my shoulders. The camaraderie and bonds built in the middle of bloodshed and bullets were something else. I didn’t trust anyone . . . ever . . . but given everything that we had survived the last few days, I would give this man, this lying ex-con, the benefit of every doubt from here to the end of eternity.

  The experiences I had under my belt now forced me to be the woman I was meant to be all along, and I knew there was no going back. Not that I wanted to. But, I was also scared to move forward because straight ahead was a life without Cy and with a broken best friend.

  I knew that I was going to have to figure out a way to fix both of those things if I wanted any kind of shot at finally finding some kind of happy.

  Not On My Watch

  It took almost two full days to get back to collect all the horses and make our way back to the ranch. Once there, we barely had time to get our bearings and get cleaned up before Ten had us on a plane to Billings. The pretty ranger pushed both Webb and myself hard, barely stopping to keep Webb’s injured arm wrapped up and clean so it didn’t get infected. It was obvious she was as worried about the middle Warner brother, even though she didn’t say anything. I also knew she was worried what losing someone else he loved would do to Cyrus.

  It was a silent flight into Montana as we all finally had a few restful moments to process everything we’d seen and been through over the last week. It was an adrenaline crash. I’d never experienced anything like it before and I wasn’t aware that silent tears were trekking down my cheeks as I stared out at the vast and wild landscape racing by underneath the wings of the tiny plane. I flinched when Webb reached across the minute space between us and swiped his thumb down the tracks of moisture.

  “None of that. Everyone made it out alive and that’s the best possible outcome. No matter how deep the wound is, it can heal.” He settled back in his seat, oblivious to the wide eyed and curious look Ten was throwing his way.

  I sniffled a little bit and used the back of my hand to wipe away the rest of the evidence that revealed that my chaotic emotions were no longer being held at bay. “Some wounds are fatal, Webb. You didn’t see the look on Em’s face when she said those men hurt her. She very well could bleed from those kind of wounds forever and I don’t know what I can do to stop it.”

  He lifted an eyebrow at me, giving me a steady look full of the kind of knowledge that let me knew he firmly believed in what he was saying to me. “You apply pressure, Leo, and you don’t let up. You stem the flow for her until the bleeding stops. That’s all you can do.”

  I didn’t have a reply to that, since I was already planning on permanently attaching myself to Emrys until the light was back in her eyes. She was vacant and absent, not that I could blame her for retreating. I wouldn’t let her disappear. She was my anchor and I had no problem realizing it was time for me to hoist her up and pull her from the depths.

  When the plane landed, there was a car waiting to take us to the hospital in Billings. The vehicle moved smoothly through the sleepy streets that couldn’t even slightly compare to the hustle of San Francisco. It still held more humans than I had seen in days. The noise and commotion, even as mellow as it was, seemed overwhelming and I wondered how quickly it was going to take my senses to adjust to civilization once again. With a shiver I realized I longed for the quiet. I wanted to be able to hear what was being said and know that the words meant something. I didn’t want to go back to a place where life was so full of other things that it was easy to miss the ones that were important. I didn’t want the moments that mattered to get lost in the noise.

  When we hit the hospital, we were immediately directed to the intensive care unit. I was surprised to find the tiny waiting room full of familiar faces. Lane was propped up on one wall, straw cowboy hat pulled low over his forehead. Brynn’s unmistakable red hair fell over his arm as he held the tall woman to his chest. Her shoulders were shaking which indicated she was probably crying, but the shudder was light and barely noticeable. Wyatt was sitting in a chair on one side of Cyrus, Grady sat on the other. Both men were dressed in expensive looking suits sporting sharp creases and there wasn’t a sign of either having been adrift in the woods for weeks. They had paperwork in their hands, badges and guns clipped to their belts, and both appeared to be asking Cy questions. Minus the camo face paint, Wyatt’s resemblance to his younger brother was startling. They could pass for twins, save for the hardness in Webb, a resilience that had propelled him through the wilderness, wounded and weak with no hesitation. Wyatt grinned up at us as Cy’s eyes locked on our little party and flared to life with something that was more powerful and more important than anything anyone had ever looked at me with before.

  Irritation.

  Relief.

  Pride.

  Passion.

  Possession.

  Regret.

  It was all there, flashing between the blinks of his inky lashes as he got to his feet and took the few steps required for him to reach me. Our entire short, tragic, and triumphant relationship shone out of his eyes as he pulled me into his arms in a hug that was tight enough to crack ribs. I put my arms around his waist and squeezed him back just as hard. I dropped my head to the center of his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart, deciding it was the best sound I ever heard. I breathed what felt like the first easy breath I had had in decades. He was just as solid, just as sure and indomitable as he seemed the first minute I laid eyes on him, but now there were cracks in the mortar that held him together and I could feel his emotions leaking out of them. I also felt his lips touch the top of my head in a kiss that was meant to settle us both. It turned my insides liquid and it made my eyes well up again.

  I had to clear my throat twice before I was able to ask him which room Emrys was in. She was the only person missing from this somber gathering.

  Cy also pushed out a breath and needed to take a minute before he could make his gruff and scratchy sounding voice work. Finally looking at him with clear eyes, I could see that it looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. He had dark circles under his eyes and the lines around his eyes and mouth seemed to have dug in even deeper. I knew it was probably just a trick of the bad hospital lighting, but I also swore the silver specks in his hair had doubled and crawled up well into his hairline. He looked worn and worried, older than he had a week ago.

  “Em’s in the room with Sutton. It’s bad, Leo, really bad. Right now machines are basically keeping him alive and the room is sterile. He hasn’t opened his eyes or responde
d to anything since they loaded him onto the helicopter. His blood pressure has crashed twice and the surgeon has opted to put off a second surgery to pull pieces of the bullet out of him because he’s so unstable. They’re really worried about infection. Only one of us at a time can be in there with him and we can’t step into the room until we gown and glove up.” He shook his dark head and pulled me close so that he could rest his chin on the top of my head. His sigh sent my hair dancing and pressed his chest into mine. “Em is in a bad way, too. Out of it, not making much sense when the DEA talked to her. She was hysterical and they had to medicate her to calm her down.” I felt his fingers tense on my waist as I swallowed the lump in my throat his words raised up. “She went missing in the middle of the night last night. The nurses went in to check on her and couldn’t find her. They were getting ready to call the cops and start a floor-by-floor search when someone was smart enough to pop into Sutton’s room. Your girl was curled up in the chair next to his bed, talking to him. Who knows if he can hear her, but she just kept talking. Being around my brother got her shit straight.”

  If that wasn’t heartbreaking, I didn’t know anything that was. “She was very worried about him. She was convinced he died for her. She’s not going to let go of him without a fight.”

  He snorted. “Clearly. We’ve all been rotating turns in his room when the nurses pull her out. Sutton’s ex even managed to get it together enough to bring Daye up so she could see him. That was fucking hard. How are you supposed to explain to a five-year-old that daddy would say hello and tell you that he loved you if he could, but he can’t right now? It was so goddamn heartbreaking. He’s the only solid parent that little girl has. She doesn’t stand a chance if he doesn’t pull through.”

  “He’ll pull through.” I whispered the words into his chest.