“He’s a liar,” Hastings spat, color rising to the parts of his face that weren’t covered in hair. “He can’t be trusted. I was in the process of terminating his employment in the park. He had no business being a ranger, but he had ambitions, with grand plans to rise to the top.”
“Doesn’t everyone?” Riley blurted, chuckling nervously. “What does that have to do with time travel? How did Dan even know about it?”
John Hastings seemed as volatile now as she remembered him from before. He scoffed, his gray eyes blazing. His far-off stare made it appear as if he were reliving the events in his head. If they were still so fresh in his mind after so many years, he’d had plenty of time to build up his resentment.
“He deceived a young woman into helping him find that snakehead, so he could come to the past.”
Riley shook her head. She blinked away her confusion.
“How did he even know about the snakehead? And who was this woman?”
“Her name was Jana Evans. He met her in Yellowstone, and she apparently told him a story of how her friend had time traveled to the past, stayed there, and married a trapper named Daniel Osborne. Her friend left a journal that detailed her life in the past, and Jana Evans gave that journal to Dan, because she assumed he was their descendant.”
Riley blinked. “There was certainly a lot of time traveling going on without anyone realizing it.” She didn’t disguise the note of sarcasm in her voice to alleviate the tension in the air.
Keep him talking, Riley.
“Why did Dan want to go to the past?”
“There was information in that journal that impacted Dan and his future.” Hastings sniggered. With every word, the anger in him grew. “He’s always been ambitious. Never liked authority, or following orders. Always outspoken against my policies in the park. He was going to go to the past and kill one of his own ancestors, so that his future in the park was secure.”
“What? That makes no sense.”
Riley mentally shook her head. That was far from the impression she’d gotten from Dan Osborne. He wasn’t a killer. This man, John Hastings, on the other hand… a cold chill raced down her spine.
I killed you.
Those were the words John Hastings had said to Dan Osborne in that ranger station. Or had she been mistaken in assuming it was Hastings? Had Dan said those words?
“And what was your involvement? What did you gain by going to the past?” she blurted.
Hastings cackled, his laugh raspy and cold. “Suffice to say, it would have been easy to change the future by altering the past. When my plan failed, I was more than happy to try again when that elder, Mukua offered me the chance.”
Riley’s fingers inched toward the knife in the belt at her hip, and her hand closed over the handle.
“And what did you have to do for him in return? Surely this elder didn’t just come to you and make that offer out of the blue?”
Hastings smiled, his cold eyes turning even more hateful.
“He explained to me about the Sky People. He sent me to the past to kill a shaman and a leader of, what he called, the Bear Clan, along with their families. He promised me that all my plans for the future would be secure.” He ran a hand over his face. “The Osborne name has been a thorn to my family for generations, always interfering with management of the Yellowstone Park, and apparently, Mukua hates them, too.”
Hastings glanced off into the distance for a second, before his eyes returned to her. A wave of sadness passed through his eyes, and his features changed, making him look even older.
“When I failed to find and kill several of the children that were left, he didn’t send me back home. He got angry, and told me I was stuck here forever for my failure.” Hate and anger blazed in his eyes again, replacing the loneliness she’d glimpsed.
"When I found Cam and Mat after years of wandering alone through this wilderness, I thought they might hold the answer to getting home, but it turned out that Cameron was just as frustrated as I was."
He laughed bitterly, then his face broke out in a triumphant smile. “Not until a few days ago had it even occurred to me that they were the kids I was supposed to kill.”
Hastings paused, his eyes studying her with a calculating stare.
"Mukua came to me a few days ago, the first time I'd seen him in twenty-five years. Imagine my surprise when he said he was giving me one final chance."
“What chance?” She had to keep him talking, even though the answer was obvious. Where was Cameron?
“You arrived, and for some reason, you’re a threat to him,” Hastings leered. “He told me to kill you, and he’d send me back to the future, for a do-over of the life I had, and of the life I’d wanted. He said if I eliminated you, Dan Osborne would no longer stand in my way of achieving my goals in the park.”
He grabbed for her arm before she had a chance to react, faster than she gave him credit for as an old man. Riley squirmed, but his hand clamped around her wrist, and the knife she’d pulled from her belt fell to the ground. Hastings kicked it a safe distance away.
“I understand now what he meant.” His eyes gleamed like a predator going in for the kill.
Riley pushed her back against the tree, as far away from his leering face as possible.
“I was unaware that Cameron was an Osborne. And with you here, that starts the family line through the generations, doesn’t it? Without you, there won’t be future Osbornes as history knows it. You and Cameron are the origin of the family line that sets everything in motion for the future of Yellowstone. That’s why Mukua wants you dead.” He looked almost giddy at his revelation.
“My husband won’t let you get away with this.” Riley struggled against his hold, her eyes darting around for any sign of Cameron. Her knife was too far out of reach. “Even if you kill me, you’re not going to be alive to see your plans come to fruition in the future.”
Hastings laughed. “Husband? Is that what he has you believing? That he loves you? I’ve lived with Cameron for many years, Miss Bernard, and I can tell you, he’s consumed with bitterness and hate, and if he married you, it’s not out of love.”
“I don’t believe a word you’re telling me, Mr. Hastings.”
“It makes no difference whether you believe me or not. You’re going to die either way.”
Riley yanked on her arm. Although he was old, he still had a lot of strength, and his fingers bit painfully into her skin. She caught her breath, while her mind frantically searched for a way out of her predicament. There was no reasoning with a madman.
She raised her foot to kick out at him, when movement behind Hastings caught her eye. A gasp escaped her mouth when her eyes fell to the figure of another old man, standing near a tree close to the riverbank, calmly observing her struggles. A few steps closer, and she could reach out and touch him.
“Is that your pal, Mukua, come to watch you finish me off?” she asked between gritted teeth.
Hastings must not have seen the Indian, until she asked her question. It had obviously startled him, and his hold on her eased. Riley seized the chance and kicked at the old man’s shin, eliciting a loud curse from him. He eased his grip in surprise, and her elbow came up, catching him in the nose.
Wasting no time, Riley tore her arms away from his grasp, then darted away from him. In her haste, she tripped over a tree root and fell, her head hitting a hard object on the ground. She cried out, struggling to remain conscious. Blackness swirled before her eyes, and she blinked to stay awake.
Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out.
She rolled to the side when her eye caught Hastings lunging at her, his knife raised above his head. The ground suddenly gave way, and she fell over the riverbank into the frigid water. Grasping for anything - a tree root or some grasses - she struggled against the swift current.
“Riley,” a familiar voice yelled from what seemed like far away, at the same moment she lost her hold on a feeble tree root. A strong arm reached for her, and pulled her from
the water, just as the force of the river was about to sweep her away.
“Cameron,” she gasped.
He dropped her to the ground a safe distance away from the river’s edge, but didn’t linger. Riley raised her head, holding her hand against her throbbing temple. Her fingers were stained crimson when she pulled them away.
Cameron lunged at Mukua, who, by the wide-eyed look on his face, hadn’t expected the attack.
“You’ve harmed enough members of my family,” Cameron growled, and hauled the feeble-looking old man off his feet, grabbing the front of the elder’s shirt. In the process, he tore away a pouch that hung around Mukua’s neck. Hastings charged at Cameron.
“No,” he roared.
The momentum of Hastings’ impact sent both him and Cameron into the river. Riley struggled to her feet, calling Cameron’s name. She staggered toward the water, which quickly swept the two men downstream.
“Cameron,” she called again, her heart racing wildly. Ignoring the pain in her head, she stumbled along the riverbank, tripping over rocks and trees to keep up with the swift current of the water, which only seemed to be getting stronger. The roar of the nearby Upper Falls grew louder.
Cameron and Hastings continued to struggle in the water, apparently oblivious to the upcoming danger. Cameron appeared to be battling the current, trying to pull Hastings toward shore.
“Cameron,” Riley continued to call out to him. “You can make it. Please, you can make it.” Tears streamed down her face. She couldn’t keep up with the force of the river as it swept the man she loved to a certain death. She reached an area of the riverbank, just before the falls, where the trees and vegetation were too dense for her to continue on.
Dizziness threatened to overtake her. She blinked away the sensation of passing out, and caught one final glimpse of the two men, just as the river flowed around a bend for its first plunge into the Yellowstone Canyon.
“No,” she called, her voice drowned out by the roar of the water. “No, Cameron. Please. . . God, no!”
Frantically, Riley’s eyes darted around, searching for any possible way to get to the bottom of the canyon, but it was futile. The rocks were too jagged and steep, and would only get steeper, when the Yellowstone plunged a second time down an even longer waterfall into the heart of this grand canyon.
No one survives a plunge over the falls.
After what seemed like an eternity, she sank to her knees along a rocky stretch of river, exhausted and breathing hard. She sobbed uncontrollably, her body shivering from cold and fear. Her head pounded from when she’d hit it on a rock after breaking free of Hastings’ grasp.
She stared out at the river, the mighty roar of the falls sounding surreal. Repeatedly, she called Cameron’s name into the wind. The world tilted, and blackness threatened to overtake her. Her fingers dug into the ground, scraped raw along the rocks. She threw several into the water in her grief and anger.
“You can’t leave me, Cameron. You said you’d always be with me.” Riley cried until no more tears came. The dizziness finally won out, and she lay down along the rocks.
Time stopped while she cried uncontrollably, until she finally gave in to the swirling in her brain. She rested her head on a hard stone, and her last glimpse before she closed her eyes was of Mukua, standing over her with a satisfied smile on his face.
* * *
“Riley?”
A faint voice echoed in her head, as if it came through a tunnel.
"Riley? Oh, thank goodness I found you."
Someone lifted her awkwardly off the ground, and shifted her roughly, as if he wasn’t strong enough to fully pick her up. Her eyes fluttered open.
“Jeffrey?” she mumbled, guessing at the voice, and blinked to focus. Jeffrey’s familiar face swirled in and out of focus.
“I’m going to take you home, Riley. Just hang on, and I’ll get you to a hospital.”
“No,” she sobbed. “I’m not leaving. I can’t leave. I have to find Cameron.” The image of him going over the falls, together with Hastings, came back full force, sending a sharp jab of pain to her heart, and she shuddered with grief. Cameron was dead. No one survived being swept over the falls.
“I belong here. Don’t make me go back.”
“Riley, you’re talking nonsense. Hang on. We’ll be safe in just a moment.”
Riley pushed against Jeffrey’s chest, but her world was unfocused, and his image swirled in and out of view. Jeffrey fumbled with an object in his hand; a snakehead with red eyes.
“No, please. No,” she begged, and then everything went black again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“It’s a miracle that you found her, Mr. Callahan. Missing hikers in the wilderness don’t always make it out alive.”
“Will she be all right?”
Riley forced her eyes open. The bright lights overhead seemed unnatural. Jeffrey’s words blended with someone else’s unfamiliar voice. She moved her head to the side, straining her eyes to focus. Everything around her was white, and the steady beeping in the background made her head pound even more.
“The nurse reported that she’s been talking incoherently in her sleep. Last night she fought us so much that she pulled out her IV, so we had to start a new one. The nurses had a heck of a time calming her down. We couldn’t give her a sedative because of her head injury. We still need to contact her next of kin.”
“She only has me,” Jeffrey said quickly. “Her next of kin is her grandmother, who is in a nursing home in California. She has Alzheimer’s.”
“And what’s your relationship to the patient?”
“I’m a close friend,” came the quick reply. “I’d like to be informed about her condition. I’m all she has.”
Riley shook her head, but it was too much of an effort. Everything around her moved in slow motion, and the voices drifted in and out of her subconscious. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. What was going on?
"She's got a concussion and several other injuries in various stages of healing. How long did you say she was missing?"
There was a slight hesitation before Jeffrey spoke again. “She . . . ah, left to go on a research trip to Yellowstone. When I didn’t hear from her after a few days, I went looking for her.”
“Did you notify the park service?”
“She didn’t file a hiking permit. I didn’t want her to get in trouble, so I looked for her myself.”
Riley squirmed on the bed. “No,” she rasped. Why was Jeffrey lying to the other man?
It was clear that she was in a hospital bed. Jeffrey had brought her back from the past, even though she’d insisted that he leave her alone. How had he even found her?
Tears filled her eyes and spilled down the sides of her head. She raised a heavy hand to swipe at one that tickled her ear, but her hands were in restraints, tied to the bed. Riley cursed under her breath.
Cameron
The voices close to her faded away, replaced by the roaring sound of a mighty waterfall. John Hastings’ face flashed before her eyes, then Mukua’s, and finally the one face she’d lost forever.
The events that had happened played over and over in her mind. Hastings had been ready to kill her, then she’d fallen into the river, and Cameron had saved her life again.
Riley shuddered. He’d saved her, but she hadn’t been able to save him. No one could have saved him. Her eyes flooded with tears, pain and despair filled her heart, and breathing became difficult. She squeezed her lids shut.
“She’s awake, Dr. Armin,” a woman called, her voice drumming in Riley’s ears, making her head pound.
She opened her eyes to stare up at two strangers. A light shone in her eyes, momentarily blinding her.
“I want to go home,” she mumbled weakly. Had anyone even heard her words?
“You took quite a hit to the head, Miss Bernard. As soon as you’re fully awake, we can assess you better. Then we can talk about releasing you.”
The doctor turne
d to the nurse in the room. “She seems calm enough. You can remove her restraints.”
Riley sucked in a deep breath. Her body tensed, and she raised her arm once she was free, ready to grab the man’s white lab coat, and demand that he release her. She dropped it again. No. It wouldn’t do any good to act disagreeable. She couldn’t risk being tied to the bed again.
“Can I see Jeffrey?” she croaked. “I need to talk to him.”
“Are you in any pain right now?” the doctor asked, and touched her tender forehead, ignoring her request.
“No,” she lied quickly. “I don’t want any drugs.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Riley gritted her teeth. She fought to keep the tears from falling again. This doctor didn’t need to see the pain she was in – not the physical pain, but her broken heart.
“I was hiking, and I slipped and fell. Jeffrey found me, and brought me here,” she responded mechanically. It was best to keep her story similar to what she’d heard Jeffrey tell this man.
“How long were you out in the woods?”
“A few days. I was doing research for a project.” She stared up at the doctor. “I’m fine, really. I had a mishap, that’s all. I’ll be all right.”
The doctor patted her arm and smiled indulgently. "You're a lucky young lady, and obviously you have a lot of grit, but we just want to make sure you'll be a hundred percent well before we send you home."
Riley bit back the retort she wanted to throw at this man, but she pressed her lips together to keep quiet.
“I’ll send in your friend. He’s been very worried about you.”
As soon as the doctor left, Riley glanced around and pushed the button on her bed to raise it into a sitting position. Not a second later, Jeffrey walked in the room. Riley sat up, ignoring the dizziness in her head.
"I'm so glad to see you're all right." Jeffrey rushed to the bed and gave her hand a squeeze.
“What did you do, Jeffrey? Why did you bring me here?” Riley hissed. She shot a quick glance to the door.
Yellowstone Origins: Yellowstone Romance Series, Book 6 Page 25
