Back where he belongs

Bad choices have dominated Cody Jordan’s life since leaving home ten years ago. Grieving a broken marriage and the death of his baby, he’s back in his hometown of Accord, looking for redemption and a fresh start.

Old friend Aiyana Pearce and her little girl are a breath of fresh air. Aiyana quickly steals his heart. Being with her reminds him of the man he once was and could be again. Cody’s not ready for a relationship, though—not yet. But when a threat to Aiyana’s life resurfaces, putting his heart on the line is the least of his worries.

Cody Jordan.

Where on earth had he come from when Aiyana needed him most?

She hadn’t seen him in years, yet here he was in the middle of nowhere helping her out of the worst situation she’d ever been in.

Cody had rescued her once in adolescence and was rescuing her again. All these years later, Cody was about to become her hero...and she didn’t want that.

She needed to take control. She couldn’t afford to become swamped, overtaken by another man. Her ex-husband had taught her that lesson.

But, God, it was good to have Cody here to help. Those overwhelming feelings of despair that had haunted her all night had abated the second she’d recognized his voice.

“We need to move on,” she said.

He glanced up at her, those blue eyes of his as startling now as they had been all those years ago. But lurking in their depths was a new darkness he hid with his phony smile and fake grins.

Yes, Aiyana was glad to see him, but where was the Cody she used to know?

Dear Reader,

I’m fascinated with the passage of time and how it affects people, drawn in by whether they become better or worse once they enter the wide-open world of adulthood.

What happens to all of our bright promise as teenagers? Do we utilize it and grow into fine human beings? Or might we lose our way?

My hero, Cody, has lost his way and doesn’t have a clue how to return to the young boy who had such huge potential.

This is a redemption story about a couple who were not-quite-a-couple in high school, but had tremendous affection and respect for each other. My heroine, Aiyana, was too young for a relationship when Cody left to attend college. How could she have known he would come home ten years later as a lost stranger?

The second I wrote about these two adolescents in Always Emily, I loved both characters and knew I had to write their grown-up story. Cody was a great guy. What, I wondered, would happen if life changed him and left him cynical and unhappy?

Aiyana, the young girl who idolized him, wants to help him now as an adult, but has problems of her own. Maybe Cody isn’t the only one in this new relationship who needs help.

I truly enjoyed finding Cody’s and Aiyana’s happy ending and absolutely adored writing about Aiyana’s charming little daughter!

I love to hear from readers. Contact me through www.marysullivanbooks.com.

Mary Sullivan

Cody’s Come Home
Mary Sullivan

www.millsandboon.co.uk

A Canadian girl born and raised in a large city, MARY SULLIVAN loves to write about small towns, perhaps because of the countless hours spent as a child listening to her mother’s fascinating stories about her rural childhood. Since her days working in commercial darkrooms, Mary has gravitated toward careers that involve creativity. After a bit of a rural hiatus, Mary is back living in a large city again and loving it! Her interests are simple: exploring the city, cooking, entertaining, reading and taking long walks on nature trails. And puzzles! She can’t get enough of cryptic crosswords. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website, www.marysullivanbooks.com, where readers can also sign up for her newsletter.

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

THE GUNSHOT EXPLODED against a tree so close to Aiyana Pearce that a woodchip seared her cheek.

She veered away, farther into the forest. She had no choice. Using bullets and her own fear against her, he’d bullied, hectored and directed her away from her normal route through the park.

Anger gripped her. She didn’t even know who her pursuer was.

Why was he doing this?

She’d just been minding her own business taking landscape photos...

Her biceps burned where the first bullet had cut through her jacket, sweater and long-sleeved top to bite into her like a swarm of wasps.

Heart hammering, legs burning, she ran for all she was worth. Only one thought slammed through her. Get away!

She stumbled on a root, grasped a tree trunk to steady herself and kept running.

Behind her, footsteps crashed through the undergrowth, but slower than hers. Or was that her imagination? She tried to listen, but couldn’t hear over her hammering heart.

Was he still chasing her?

Her pulse pounded. Her feet flew over rough terrain. She plowed through branches, flinging sticks and leaves every which way.

Behind her, nothing sounded.

Dear God, had she managed to outrun him?

For five more minutes she ran without hearing the hunter.

She gulped air, trying to swallow it whole, but still couldn’t get enough.

Stopping, she bent over to rub the stitch in her side, ears pricked for the slightest sound in the stillness of the woods.

Too wildly, she checked her surroundings. She should be methodical, but how could she stay calm when someone hunted her down like an animal?

If she could reach the upper trail, she might make it to safety. From there, she could phone for help.

She hadn’t caught her breath yet, but couldn’t stay here like a sitting duck, her bright pink jacket like a flag waving, shouting, Here I am! If she ditched it, she’d freeze. Even in the last week of October, the sun was already dropping beyond the horizon at only four-thirty in the afternoon. Drying sweat raised goose bumps.

She lurched forward.

A bird burst out of the undergrowth, flying so close its wings fanned her face.

She pressed a shaky hand to her stomach.

It’s only a bird, Aiyana. Calm down.

But she couldn’t. Not while he might still be out there.

Why?

Long shadows crept across the forest floor.

She’d never been in this section of the park before. Where exactly was she and how could she get to the parking lot from here? To safety? There wasn’t even the barest hint of other hikers.

Wait! There was something, someone nearby. Wasn’t there? Or was she imagining things? She didn’t know.

Another bird took flight.

Move!

A moment later, she detected in the distance what the bird had heard first...footsteps breaking twigs underfoot.

He was coming!

She hadn’t outrun him. She bit back a sob. Weakness would do her no good.

She ran straight uphill, slipping and sliding, grasping branches until she hauled herself up and over the lip of the upper trail.

At the top, she stopped again to catch her breath, sucking oxygen into her deprived lungs. She pulled her phone from her pocket and tried to dial, but her hands shook.

She dropped her phone.

“No!”

Shhh. Quiet.

This time, she heard him without animal warnings. Apparently he didn’t care how much noise he made. The hunt had become overt and he was way too close.

She picked up her phone and began running again, heedless of how narrow the path was. Falling over the side or getting shot? No-brainer. The next bullet might find its mark.

She had to live. Annie waited for her, depending on mommy to come home.

Come hell or high water, she would make it home to her daughter—

One moment she stood solidly on terra firma, and the next the ground disappeared beneath her feet, an entire section of trail crumbling down the side of the mountain. She jumped to safety, but the edge of the overhang gave way and she fell.

A sharp-edged rock sent pain bursting through her shoulder. She bounced against the disappearing edge of the hiking trail, then tumbled down a long, steep incline, her head, her hip, her shoulder hitting hard-packed earth and undergrowth. Flailing, she grasped for something to stop the slide.

Her fingers plowed furrows into mulch and leaf mold. Branches hit her legs. She closed her eyes, covering them with her forearms. She screamed. Dirt flew into her mouth.

The fall went on forever. When she landed, she hit so hard she bit the inside of her cheek and tasted blood. Her knapsack bounced over her head, pulling her hair and pinning her down.

Fire burned in her chest and spread outward, raging.

Compressed lungs begged for air. She couldn’t... She tried... Air. She needed air.

Stars flickered behind her eyelids. Just when she thought she would pass out, her body took over, finally sucking in a breath. Oh, sweet heavens, it hurt. A hot blade had been driven into her chest.

Small branches, dirt and pebbles rained down on her. She tried to cover her head, but only one armed worked. When the debris stopped falling, only her pounding pulse echoed in the sudden silence.

Like an unforgiving enemy, pain visited every cell in her body. Her shoulder ached. Her ankle throbbed.

She lay still, playing possum, in case he was up top watching her. She listened for footsteps, too hurt to defend herself if he came down. Her heart pounded against the constricted wall of her chest like a boxer battering a speed bag.

For what felt like a good ten minutes, she lay still.

He was gone. He must be by now.

She peeked up the hill, but the trees and vegetation were too thick to see if anyone stood on the ridge.

The ravine was deeper here than farther along. Getting out would be hard. She refused to cry.

She struggled to shrug out of her backpack, but a searing ache shot through her shoulder. It felt as if it had been ripped from its socket.

“Damn!” she shouted.

So dumb, Aiyana. Be quiet! What if he’s biding his time waiting for you to betray your position? She clamped down on the impulse to moan.

Squirming, sweating, swearing when it hurt, she managed to get the pack off her back and toss it aside so she could sit up. The minute she did, her ankle screamed bloody murder, and she flopped back down.

Pain, so sharp her eyes watered, shot up her leg.

She rose onto one elbow, gingerly, while her shoulder sent out a banshee wail of protest. She peered along the length of her body. No broken bones, but she’d hit the ground hard enough to jam her foot under and between two boulders. What were the chances? Close to nil, but somehow Aiyana had managed it.

Story of her life these days.

No. Don’t think that way.

“I’m not a victim,” she muttered, when what she really wanted was to shout to the world, to scream at the monster with no face who had chased her here, “Never again.”

I will never be a victim again.

But, of course, she didn’t scream. She might be defiant, but she wasn’t stupid.

A squirrel argued with her from a tree ten feet up the hill. Otherwise the woods were silent.

She lay on her back, panting.

Okay. Calm down, Aiyana. How bad is it? Take stock of your injuries.

Why did her chest hurt so much? She touched herself with her good hand.

Her camera had twisted around her neck in the fall and she’d landed directly on it, the lens jammed against her breast.

She took if off and studied it. Her body had sustained damage, but not the camera. She placed it on top of her knapsack.

Alone at the bottom of a mountain—okay, a very long hill—injured and stuck, she would have to pry herself loose and crawl back up. Tentatively, she sat up, but the motion torqued her leg and ankle awkwardly, increasing the pain by a quantum leap. She had to ignore the agony and get that foot unstuck. She had to do something. Dusk settled over the valley like a damp blanket. With it, a chill seeped into her bones. She wanted to be back up that hill and on her way home before darkness fell.

No, that wasn’t true. What she really wanted was to call the police to send someone here to get her unstuck and to arrest whoever was chasing her.

She reached for her phone, but her hand came up empty. What...? Where...? She distinctly remembered clutching it when she’d started her fall.

Her heart sank. She must have lost it on the way down. Somewhere between here and the top of the ridge lay her only lifeline to the outside world.

Panic clawed at her.

You can cope, Ai. You’ve learned powerful lessons. You will do whatever needs to be done to survive. You’re strong.

She would get herself out of here.

Fury wrapped around her like a shawl, powerful and dark, and she cursed the man who’d put her here. Rage gave her strength.

Reaching for the boulders trapping her foot, she pushed. She pulled. She prodded. They didn’t budge.

Refusing to be beaten, she snagged a heavy branch and pulled it to her, then nudged the end between the soil and one of the rocks. She leaned her weight onto it with her good arm, prying the rock, straining until sweat bloomed on her forehead.

“Nnnnggggg.” The boulder moved a fraction of an inch. Yes! Then the branch snapped.

“Nooooo!” She cursed long and creatively. The squirrel scolded.

“Be quiet,” she yelled, and threw the stump of the branch as far as she could. Angered beyond bearing, she cared less and less if that guy was still here. She needed this night settled, one way or another.

Up on the ridge, the sun cast its last remaining rays over the treetops, almost horizontal now. In the valley below, dusk roared in with a vengeance, changing the light from mauve to purple to black too quickly.

The damp mustiness of the woods around her was familiar in a threatening way. She’d been here before. Not in this ravine, but here in her fear-ravaged psyche.

Get a grip, Ai. This won’t kill you.

No, not in fact, but it felt like it would.

She picked up a clod of earth and threw it with all of her strength, choking on her frustration.

Retrieving a cotton handkerchief, she wiped her face. Sweat chilled her as the temperature dipped.

She called for help, screaming for all she was worth. She waited. Silence mocked her. Whoever had been chasing her was gone. She was alone.

“No panicking allowed, Aiyana. Take stock.”

The squirrel complained again and Aiyana shot back, “I’m not talking to you.”

She looked through her bag for every speck of extra clothing she had brought with her. She tried to get out of her jacket to put on her wool sweater, but her shoulder hurt too much.

She’d have to use her good arm to lay the sweater over herself and tuck it around her sides as best she could.

Done. Next she took stock of her provisions. One protein bar and half a bottle of water. She unwrapped the bar and bit off a small portion, chewing slowly, making it last. She ate only half of it and took only two sips of water.

She lay back down on the undergrowth, studiously ignoring whatever creepy-crawlies might be hidden under the redolent leaf mold. It smelled of death. Maybe by October all the insects had gone into hibernation, or whatever they did for the winter.

A nerd who loved science and all things natural, Aiyana’s stepmom, Emily, would know for sure, but she wasn’t here to advise Aiyana, or to help her.

She hoped Emily came soon, or her dad. They knew where she’d gone this afternoon. They would search for her when she didn’t return.

Her sister, Mika, would stay home with little Annie. At the thought of her daughter, every motherly instinct Aiyana possessed kicked in, glad that she hadn’t brought her with her today.

What if Aiyana died here tonight? What would happen to Annie?

Oh, cut the self-pity, Ai. You are not going to die. You are going to get out of this and go home to your daughter.

Slashing her arms across the ground, she gathered leaf mold against and around her until she was covered with it. Gross, maybe, but it provided warmth even as the ground beneath her chilled her back. As best she could with her good arm, she shoved her pack underneath her to lift her away from the damp earth. A lumpy bed, sure, but not as cold.

Darkness closed in around her. Creatures scurried. Her imagination bloomed and ran riot. The fear coursing through her veins was an old and too familiar enemy threatening to annihilate her common sense.

She wouldn’t die here. She would survive. Memories were funny things, though, with willpower of their own, crawling into her bones along with the cold.

She covered her face and breathed into her hands. She hummed a tuneless song. She counted backward from a hundred, by threes. Nothing helped. It was twelve years later, but the woods and the encroaching darkness brought back those desperate memories of her naive fifteen-year-old self.

They flooded her, barreling past every dam and barrier she erected.

“I don’t want to do this,” Aiyana said.

“Can’t you feel what you do to me, princess?” A part of Justin’s anatomy jutted hard against her thigh.

“Don’t call me princess.” Aiyana’s voice shook. “I don’t want you touching me there.”

“You said you wanted to be my girlfriend.”

“I do.”

“This is what dudes and girls do, Aiyana.”

“It’s too soon.” Cripes, this was only their first date and Justin hadn’t even taken her out for ice cream like he’d said he would. Instead, he’d brought her down here into the ravine.

Some small creature moved on the other side of the tarp behind her head. Aiyana shivered.

“Grow up.” Justin pulled his hand out of her pants with a hard flick, hurting her. She winced.

“I can’t believe how ungrateful you are.” He downed the rest of the beer. How many beers made a boy drunk? She didn’t know. She scrambled to put distance between them.

“I went to a lot of trouble to make this place for us.” Justin adjusted himself inside his pants. Justin’s place, his makeshift tent at the bottom of the ravine, didn’t feel safe, not to her, but more like a black hole in the dark woods.

“I want to go home.” Her fingers trembled when she pulled up her pant zipper, but shook too much to do up her button. She yanked her jacket down over it. “Don’t tell anyone about this,” she begged. “I don’t want people to think I’m easy.”

He thrust his fingers through his hair. Even mussed it looked good. What she could see of it. There was hardly any light left in the tent.

“Easy,” he scoffed. “That’s a laugh. Find your own damn way home.” With that, he bolted.

Aiyana sat stunned. How could Justin do this? He’d seemed so nice. He was the most popular boy in school, for Pete’s sake.

As though living a bad dream, she crawled out. The woods were dark and foreign. Hostile. Every rattling tree branch, every bush, was a monster coming to get her. Justin must have run up the hill because she couldn’t see or hear him. He’d left her alone in the ravine at nighttime. What kind of boy did that? Terrified, she ran up the hill.

When she was only halfway up, scrambling in the darkness toward the glimpses of street lamps flickering through the trees, the rain started. The bushes beside her rustled and she cried out, scrabbling to catch branches to help her up the steep incline.

Her feet slipped and slid in the muck.

Rain streamed down her face, ruining the makeup she’d applied so carefully to look good for Justin. At least the rain hid her tears.

She ran home, past their meeting place two houses down from hers. He’d refused to pick her up at her front door. Cripes, Aiyana, that should have been your first clue. You’ve been so dumb.

She rushed into the house, careful to close the door quietly, even though she ached to throw and break things.

She tiptoed along the hallway and into her room. Closing her bedroom door, she leaned against it and let her tears flow.

Justin hadn’t really wanted her. He’d just wanted an easy lay.

What made him think she would be? She didn’t go out with boys. She was quiet at school. Was it because of her heritage?

In her mirror, she saw the reflection of a fifteen-year-old girl with dark raccoon eyes due to her ruined mascara. She swiped it with tissues until it was all gone.

Her hair, usually midnight black and shiny, hung in wet strings. With the broad cheekbones she’d inherited from her dad, there was no mistaking her heritage.

Native American. Ute.

She hated her face and her name.

Would Justin have attacked her if her name had been Brittany? Or Madison? If she were white, would he have tried to make her drink beer and have sex?

She grasped the corners of the heavy blankets decorated with the symbols of her heritage and hauled them from her bed, wadding them into a ball and tossing them into the corner.

It took forever to get out of her wet clothes, to haul the clinging denim down her legs. She crammed them into her laundry basket. Dad would be mad that she hadn’t hung them to dry. So what? It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

She curled into a ball on her plain white bedsheets and shivered.

She hadn’t thought about that incident in years, but here in the suffocating darkness, it came flooding back. She, and the whole town, had learned how truly indiscriminate Justin had been. He hadn’t tried to take advantage of Aiyana because of her heritage. He had targeted all kinds of girls at school, not just her.

They’d gotten their revenge, though.

Since then she had learned to handle and face down her fears, but here in the dark woods, reason and logic flew out the window. She had just fallen back into her nightmare full force.

She laughed without humor. Fallen. Literally. She shivered, and it had nothing to do with the chill creeping across the land.

Emily. Dad. Someone. Help.

Stop freaking out!

She fought her demons. She was no longer a helpless young teenager. She tried meditating, visualizing walking out of this cold, dark place, but her shivering deepened.

Find the beauty, Emily would say.

Now too dark to see, Aiyana could still hear. Ignoring the scurrying of a small creature on her right, she filtered the sounds until she found ones that soothed.

A breeze whispered through the trees above her, singing songs of longing. Nearby, a stream laughed sweetly, trickling over rocks. She closed her eyes and let the breeze and running water rock her into a gentle doze, but when she slept, she dreamed about things sneaking up on her, about hands pawing at her, about rocks burying her.

A great clap of thunder startled her awake. Darkness shrouded the land. Nothing stirred. How long had she slept? It felt like the middle of the night.

The heavens opened. It started to rain hard and fast.

* * *

PERSISTENT KNOCKING ROUSED Cody Jordan from a troubled sleep. He rolled over and stared at the ceiling. Home, but not home.

Where was he?

Oh, yeah. Back in Accord, in his childhood bedroom, not in his big house in LA. At thirty, he was back where he’d started. Talk about eating humble pie.

Thoughts of yesterday’s and last night’s marathon sixteen hours on the road from LA to Colorado—a brutal drive—swirled in. Loneliest drive of my life.

Mile after endless mile through the darkness had echoed the bankrupt emptiness of his life.

Someone pounded on the front door downstairs. Ah. That’s what had awakened him.

He reached for the jeans he’d dropped on the floor last night and hauled his sorry bag of bones out of bed. A full-body stretch worked out some of the kinks.

Swift footsteps alerted him to his parents rushing down the stairs.

He stumbled to his old desk, took a moment to touch the small blue urn and said a brief prayer. He turned away before he broke down.

In the bathroom he splashed cold water onto his face. Too bad he couldn’t wash away the past. Strong coffee and a hot shower might help.

Heading downstairs to find out what was going on, he noticed Mom and Dad were already at the door letting someone in.

Hearing him on the stairs behind them, they turned and glanced up.

“Cody!” his mom exclaimed, rushing to him with a rib-crushing hug. “You came home. I’m so glad.”

He suffered the hug stiffly. He no longer took affection. He no longer gave it.

His mom released him by increments. He disliked how her eyes probed, how she needed to see into his soul. No. That was open to no one but him. Even then, most days it was closed off. Better that way.

“When did you get in?” she asked, her expression sober and loving.

“About two this morning.” His tone forbade further questioning. Gently, he extracted himself from her hands on his arms and avoided her penetrating gaze. He knew what she saw when she studied him, a son too old and worn-out for his years.

“What’s up?” He directed the question to Salem Pearce, who stood in the foyer.

Salem lived in Accord. He and Dad were good friends. Dad had given Salem his first job as a teenager, probably thirty years ago.

Where was the time going? He glanced at his parents. Laura Cameron and Nick Jordan were institutions in the town of Accord, and well respected. Mom was in her early seventies. Had Dad turned seventy, too? Cody couldn’t remember.

He directed his attention to Salem and the open door. Outside, the rain he’d driven through last night had abated, but a gray curtain of cloud absorbed light. He glanced at the clock on the mantel in the living room. Six thirty and it still looked like nighttime.

“What are you doing out here this far from town at the crack of dawn?” Cody’s voice came out morning rough.

The frown and the anxiety on Salem’s face set Cody’s alarms into overdrive. Salem was normally as serene as an empty pond, but Cody knew still waters could roil beneath the surface with this guy. Once Salem got upset, it ran deep and strong, slow to heat up but even slower to cool down.

“It’s Aiyana.”

Salem’s eldest daughter. Cody hadn’t heard that name in a long time.

Images flashed of hair as dark as a raven’s wing and clear, tanned skin taut over high cheekbones. Even now, his fingers had an imprint of desire, an itchiness to run through hair that had hung straight and thick to her waist.

He had never acted on his desire. She’d been too young. But they had meant something to each other once upon a time. A lifetime ago.

“She’s missing,” Salem said.

Cody had been leaning against the newel post with his arms folded across his chest, flushes of memories warming his raw soul, but straightened away at Salem’s words, his hands falling to his sides.

“Missing?”

Don’t worry, he told himself to defuse his burgeoning fear, she’s no longer a vulnerable teenager. She’s a grown woman who can take care of herself. Yeah? Tell that to her dad who looked like he hadn’t slept all night.

“What do you mean, missing? Since when?”

Salem rubbed the back of his neck. “Since yesterday. She went hiking in Paintbrush State Park, but didn’t come home last night.”

Cody stilled. His first instinct, in the heat of panic, was to run out the door to find her. A cooler head had to prevail. They needed to organize and be smart.

Even so, a witchy dread whispered through him.

Cody’s mom directed them toward the kitchen. She turned on the coffeepot.

“Sit,” Cody’s dad ordered Salem.

“Thanks, Nick.” Salem fell into a chair he edged away from the kitchen table.

“You’ll have something warm before you go back out there,” Nick said. “I’m assuming you’ve already been.”

Salem’s limp hands hung between his spread knees. “Yeah. When she didn’t return last night we went to the park after dark.”

Laura turned on the pendant lamp hanging over the table, highlighting how haggard Salem looked. A handsome man with warm Native American skin, at the moment he looked like death warmed over.

Parched, Cody poured himself a glass of water straight from the tap and gulped it down. It tasted pure and clear.

In LA, he’d filtered his water twice, once from the faucet and again with a Brita. Here, even without filtering, the water tasted fine. Better than fine.

He’d missed the simple pleasure of purity, of clean air and uncomplicated food.

LA appealed to all kinds of people, but it had never been Cody’s kind of town. God knew he’d tried to like living there.

He drank another glass of water while ignoring his mother’s intent gaze. He sat down at the table, so damned relieved to have someone else’s problems to worry about.

The fact that Salem was so full of worry for his daughter’s safety that he’d forgotten about Cody’s recent tragedy and didn’t look at him as though he thought he might shatter was a relief.

“We found Aiyana’s car in the parking lot,” Salem’s dull voice intoned. “Park personnel wouldn’t let us mount a search in the dark.” He slammed his hand on the table. Spoons danced. “She’s been out there all night, but they were afraid one of us would get lost.”

“Fair enough,” Nick said.

“No, it isn’t,” Salem shouted. He covered his eyes with one hand. “I’m sorry, Nick. I’m so sorry.”

“Believe me, I understand.” Nick squeezed Salem’s shoulder. “It would be unnatural if you weren’t upset.”

Salem dropped his hand. His eyes brimmed with tears. “My little girl’s out there alone in the dark. She won’t like that.”

No, Aiyana wouldn’t like that at all. Cody knew that much about her, remembering how upset she had been that summer before she turned sixteen. Urgency built inside him to find her and bring her home safely.

“So you want us to come with you now.” It wasn’t a question on Cody’s part. He would go. They all would.

Laura put mugs of coffee on the table.

They doctored them while the bacon she’d put on to fry sizzled in a couple of pans. She took a dozen eggs out of the fridge.

“Don’t cook—” Salem started.

“You’ll eat, Salem,” she said, in a no-nonsense tone they knew well.

Nick’s raised eyebrow intimated, Don’t even bother trying to resist. “You’re going to need your strength. We all will.”

While Laura cooked, Cody retrieved a notepad and pen from a drawer then sat back down.

“Right. So we have to gather at least a dozen volunteers for a park that size. At least. We’ll need supplies. Maybe the park authorities can get us maps. Salem, do you know where she went within the park?”

No one answered. He glanced up from his furious scribbling. They were staring at him, mouths open.

“What?”

“You’re taking control,” Salem said.

Disgusted with himself, Cody threw the pen onto the table. “Yeah, I’ve been accused of that a lot lately.” He sounded bitter. He was. “Sorry. Bad habit.”

“No. It’s good.” Salem rubbed his chest as though a bad case of heartburn had settled in. “I’m not myself. I’m panicking too much to be useful. What’ve you written so far?”

“Supplies we’ll need. I’ll raid Pearl’s closet for dry clothes.” His sister had to have something that would fit Aiyana. “Pearl’s petite, though.”

“Nothing from my closet will fit Aiyana.” They all turned at the voice. Pearl stood in the doorway, rubbing her eyes. “I gather she’s lost in the woods and you’re putting together a search party? I’m in.”

Even freshly out of bed and rumpled, with creases on her cheek, Cody’s sister was supernaturally beautiful. Angelic.

She poured herself a coffee and put on a couple of eggs to boil. Pearl didn’t do bacon.

While her eggs boiled, she stood behind him and rubbed his shoulders. No questions. No concerns expressed. She dug her sharp thumbs into his neck, where he carried tension.

When he was a teenager, she used to do the same, especially after his football games.

“You’re still the world’s best massage therapist,” he said, making a joke to keep his emotions tamped down.

“I’ll give you some of my clothing,” his mom said. “It’ll be too big, but still warm and dry.”

“You should consider bringing clothes from home, too, Salem.”

“Good call, Cody. It’s only the end of October, but I’ll pack winter clothes.”

They got into the nitty-gritty of how this was going to run and who was going to help look for Aiyana. They would call on another half-dozen families.

Salem pulled a list from his pocket. “Emily’s phoning everyone now. The Colantonios, for sure. Aiyana’s been hanging out with Sophie since she came home. And her friend Alyx’s family. Also the Walkers.”

“How is Iris doing?” Cody asked quietly. Iris Walker had had a tough adolescence.

“She’s good. Aiyana has helped her through a lot.”

“Then she’ll come out for sure. How many people can you get altogether?”

“I’m guessing fifteen or twenty.”

Laura put heaping plates of food in front of them and then sat down with one of her own.

They ate in silence, Cody all but shoveling the food into his mouth. He needed to get out there.

When he was done, he rinsed his plate, put it into the dishwasher and sat back down to finish the list. “I’ll call Noah and get him to open the surplus store early for me. I’ll pick up plenty of protein bars for the searchers. Flashlights, too. Don’t know how late we’ll be.”

At Salem’s expression, Cody rushed on, “I’m sure we’ll find her soon. This is just in case. We need to prepare for every eventuality. What else will we want?”

“First-aid kits,” Nick said.

“First aid?” Salem paled.

“Just in case,” Cody said quietly.

“How about a couple of thermal blankets?” Nick took everyone else’s plates. “Laura, we’ll clean up later. We need to get out there.”

“What will we need blankets for?” Salem stood. “As soon as we find her, I’m taking her home.”

“She’ll be chilled, Salem,” Nick said. “We’ll need them to warm her quickly. It rained last night. She’ll be wet.”

“Will she have hypothermia?” Salem’s voice rose.

“No,” Cody answered. “It wasn’t that cold. Only cool.” Salem knew all of this, but as the man had said, he was too distraught to think straight.

“Where’s Annie?” Laura asked.

“Annie?” Cody glanced at everyone. “Who’s Annie?”

As one, they stared at him. By the way Salem stiffened beside him, Cody could tell he’d just remembered Cody’s loss.

“She’s—” Salem swallowed.

“She’s Aiyana’s daughter,” Pearl said, cutting through the tension.

“Daughter?” he said faintly. “Aiyana has a daughter?”

Beside him, Salem nodded. “Yes. She was married for five years. They had a little girl. Named her after her natural mother. Ai is divorced now.”

Cody had been so mired in his own troubles for so long, he hadn’t kept up with old friends.

He jumped to his feet, sending his chair skidding across the floor. “I’ll shower and dress.” Aiyana had a child. A living child. “I’ll take my own car into town and meet everyone at the park.” He rushed from the kitchen. On his way up the stairs, he heard Salem’s quiet voice.

“Mika is at home with Annie while we search. Annie loves her aunt Mika.”

Annie. Aiyana had a child named Annie. A living child.

The blackness in Cody’s heart twisted until he couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t go out searching for her like this, not as an emotional wreck. He jumped into the shower and let the water run as hot as he could bear until he gave in to his secret shame. He cried in the shower every day. How else could he go on?

When done, he cleaned himself and got dressed.

With a Herculean effort, he set aside his troubles and grabbed his cell from the bedside table, calling Noah Cameron, his mom’s brother, at home. A sleepy voice answered.

Forcing his own voice to sound normal, Cody explained the problem.

“I can be at the store in twenty minutes.” Good old Noah.

“See you there.”

Cody pulled up in front of the Army Surplus on Main Street in Accord at the same time as his uncle. The other shops were still closed and the town was quiet. Noah got out of his ancient Toyota, ponytail damp from his shower. Gray hair threaded through the red, and his rugged face showed a few more wrinkles than the last time Cody had seen him, but he still looked strong and lean.

“Hey, Unc, thanks for coming out so early.”

Noah waved away his thanks and unlocked the front door. Cody followed him inside.

“What do you need?”

Cody handed him a list. Noah scanned it and started filling a basket.

“How many first-aid kits?”

“Eight, I guess. I imagine we’ll go out in pairs.”

“It says here bottled water. Man, I don’t do plastic. I sell reusable bottles—glass or stainless steel.”

“Okay, give me a dozen of whichever is cheaper. Some people will likely bring their own water. Can I fill the bottles here?”

“Sure. It’ll take me a while to filter it, though. I have only one Brita in the back.”

“No time. I’ll use tap water.”

Noah grimaced, but didn’t complain.

Because Cody had arrived home in the middle of the night and was buying for so many volunteers, he didn’t have cash on him. He used his credit card, hoping against hope it wouldn’t bring him over the limit.

When the transaction went through, a breath burst out of him.

“Thanks for opening, Noah. I appreciate it. Everyone else will, too, once I start handing this stuff out.”

“No problem, Cody. You know that. Hope you find her quickly. If you need anything else, I’m a phone call away. The store’s closed today, but I can put together more supplies and be up there in no time.”

Cody was about to step out of the shop when Noah stopped him with one more question. “Do you have a Swiss Army knife? Those things are handy in the woods.”

“I have a Leatherman. Dad bought it for my twelfth birthday.”

“That’s right! I sold it to him. You have it on you?”

“You bet.”

Cody arrived at the park while the air was still early-morning chilly and the shadows long.

A gorgeous piece of protected land, the park was a pristine, untouched gem. Except for trails cut out of the woods for hiking, the rest had been left in its natural glory.

Everywhere Cody looked, pines towered over the parking lot, some with their dark green spires hidden in swirling fog.

He stepped out of his SUV right into a huge puddle.

Thank God he’d picked up thermal blankets.

He zipped up his jacket against a cool breeze and noted the unmistakable scent of rain on the wind. The air smelled piney and fresh. Not a whiff of smog polluted the atmosphere.

Aiyana must be chilled through to the bone. They had to find her soon.

He remembered her as a sweet girl, timid but starting to grow into her character. Why hadn’t she come home last night?

Cody used to be an optimist at heart. Not so anymore. He stared at the dark woods and worried about what nature and the elements could do to someone like Aiyana.

CHAPTER TWO

CODY STUDIED THE map lying open on the hood of a forest ranger’s vehicle. He tried to think like Aiyana, but it had been too long since he’d known her—since she’d shared her young ambitions, thoughts and dreams.

They’d spent one summer together, an innocent couple of months. Aiyana had only just turned sixteen and he’d been nineteen and heading to college in September. That was more than a dozen years ago. He’d seen her only sporadically since, but he remembered her well.

That summer, she’d been a gentle, thoughtful girl. He’d found her quiet intelligence attractive.

Who was she now?

People changed. He certainly had.

What would she do? Where would she go?

“What have you set up so far?” Cody asked Salem.

Aiyana’s father pointed out the trails people were searching. Most had already paired up and been assigned.

Salem handed out the supplies to the volunteers before they set off. Cody had snagged a couple of thermal blankets and tarps along with a first-aid kit for himself. His backpack was full of bars and water.

Sensing that he didn’t have all of the information, he asked, “Does Aiyana often hike late in the evening?”

“No!” The response burst from Salem. “That’s why we got so worried. She always comes home in time for dinner.”

“If she was injured, why didn’t anyone notice her and help her? It was Saturday. The place would’ve been busy. What was the weather like?”

“Cool but clear.”

“How adventurous is she?” The girl he remembered hadn’t been very.

“More than she used to be, but not extremely. Not in the woods.”

“So she wasn’t likely to do anything dangerous.”

“Definitely not. She would have stayed on well-traveled paths. Aiyana is a cautious woman.”

Still didn’t make sense. If she’d been on one of the popular trails, someone would have seen her if she’d been in trouble.

“Why was she out here alone?” Cody asked. “Why not hike with a friend?”

“Because she stops every five seconds to take photos.” Although Salem’s voice was filled with frustration, within it lingered a warm thread of love. “That’s why she comes out here. She’s a photographer. Makes her living at it. Has a website, a—what do you call it?—an image bank. None of us have the patience to go out with her. We want to walk. She wants to commune with nature and record it.”

Cody mulled that over then beckoned the ranger closer. “Where are the most picturesque views in the park?”

The man pointed to the map. “Here, here and here.”

Cody rested his finger on one of the spots. “That one is away from the more popular trails.”

“Yes. It overlooks a ravine and the views are spectacular.”

“If the views are so great, why isn’t it more popular?”

“It’s a serious hike in.”

“Dangerous?”

“Not really.” The man frowned. “Maybe. The path’s narrow. In a couple spots, it butts right up against the side of a steep hill. Most people who come out here are social and want to take well-traveled trails.”

“Okay, I’ll take that one,” Cody decided.

“Who are you going with?” the ranger asked. “We don’t want anyone out there alone.”

Cody glanced around. Only Mom and Dad were left. He didn’t want either of them out on that trail for that long of a hike at their ages. “I’m fine on my own.”

“You sure?” The ranger didn’t look happy.

“Yep. I have my cell. Battery’s fully charged. Can I get service out here?”

“We’ve got most of the perimeter covered.” He pointed to a cell tower across the lot. “Unless you go deep into the middle of the park where there’s no service, you’ll be fine, but she wouldn’t have been able to do that in an afternoon’s hike.”

The ranger gave him a quick once-over. Cody knew he looked strong and reliable. He worked out regularly. During the past year, his weight workouts and pounding on the heavy bag had kept him sane. They had also made him stronger. He’d always been athletic. Lately he’d kicked it up a notch. There wasn’t much he wouldn’t be able to handle on a hike.

“Okay,” the ranger said. “Go on alone. My phone will be on. Here’s my number. Call if you find her, or if you need anything.”

“Will do.” Cody programmed the number into his phone along with his dad’s cell and Salem’s. He studied the sky. “Looks like we’ve got weather coming in.”

“Yeah, that’s why we’re out here early urging everyone to get out and back quickly.” The ranger peered into the distance. “It’s a ways off yet.”

Cody hoisted his knapsack onto his back then felt someone fiddle with it. “Who is it and what are you doing?”

“Food,” his mom said from behind him. “I stopped at the bakery on the way here. I got some day-old baked goods.”

Good old Mom. “Any cinnamon buns?” Mom’s bakery-cum-café was famous for them.

“God, no, Cody. We never have any of those left and today’s weren’t out of the ovens yet.” He heard a smile in her voice. “The Colantonios also brought crusty rolls, salami and cheeses from their store. The salami is cured. With the weather this cool, the cheese won’t go bad in your bag.”

Tonio’s, the organic Italian market on Main, had the best food around. His lunch was going to be pretty spectacular for an impromptu meal.

When she finished, Laura walked around to face him. “It’s good to have you home, but—” she took his face between her hands and kissed both of his cheeks “—when this is over, we’re having a serious talk, you and I.”

When she used that parent tone, he knew she meant business. She walked away.

He wished he could avoid their talk. Parents were great at protecting children while they grew up, but there came a time in a man’s life when the child wanted to protect the parent.

“Okay, I’m headed out,” he called to the few people left. “I’ll phone if I find her.”

An hour later, thunder rumbled in the distance. He could smell rain. Electricity shimmered on the cooling air.

He called the ranger for an update. No one had reported finding Aiyana. She was still out here somewhere. He studied the sky. Dark clouds fomented above.

The storm was heading in faster than predicted. “Great. Just great.” Cody retrieved a poncho from his backpack and covered himself just in time. Heavy rain pelted him. Visibility diminished. An enormous crack of thunder shook the air at almost the same moment a streak of lightning snapped. Too close. Cody figured it might have hit the parking lot.

He debated calling back to make sure everyone was okay, but he needed to use his time to find Aiyana. He could only hope everyone was safe.

This storm was a bad one.

Where was Aiyana? Was she sheltered? Protected? He examined every side shoot of the trail. Would she go off trail? The trail was halfway up the side of a low mountain. If she wanted to shoot scenery, wouldn’t she opt for views of the valley below?

He couldn’t chance not checking out everything. Maybe she decided to take one of these paths to shoot nature up close.

A couple of hours later, frustration ate away at him because he hadn’t covered as much ground as he would have liked, even though he’d done a fair bit of running instead of walking.

He took out his cell to call the ranger. Nada. Not even a dial tone. What the heck? He wasn’t that far into the park.

Oh, crap. That huge crack of thunder probably hit the tower. Cody had no way of knowing whether Aiyana had been found and no way of calling for help if he found her.

He wouldn’t stop looking. He had to go at least as far as the ranger said she would have been able to get in one afternoon.

After a foray into yet another offshoot, he stepped back out onto the main trail and started forward again.

In the nick of time, he caught himself from tumbling into a break in the path. A three-foot gap of earth had disappeared down into a ravine.

His heart rate kicked up. Could this have been the spot where she disappeared? If she’d come this way, could she have fallen here?

“Aiyana!” he yelled.

Nothing.

“Aiy-aaa-naaaa.” He pitched his voice to travel as far as possible.

He thought he heard something and crouched down on the edge of the path.

“Aiyana,” he shouted again.

“Down here.”

The voice was faint, feminine. Thank God! She was here and conscious.

He slipped and slid down the wall of rocks, trees and dirt until he got to the bottom. She was lying half in, half out of a fast-moving creek. His heart lurched into his throat.

“Aiyana!”

“Who’s there?” She picked up a stick and held it across her chest, the gesture both defensive and aggressive.

Cody wondered about the fear in her voice, but maybe it made sense. She’d been in the woods all night alone. “Aiyana, it’s me. Cody Jordan.”

He bent down beside her and removed the hood of his poncho so she could see his face.

“C-C-Cody?” Her face registered her surprise. If he were she, he would be shocked, too. She must be wondering where he’d come from. He hadn’t been home in six months and she hadn’t been here at that time.

A sigh of relief whooshed out of him.

He touched her icy cheek, her normally golden skin currently gray, and her thick dark hair soaking wet and plastered against her scalp. She looked like hell...and he drank in the sight of her like a parched man in the desert. She was found, maybe not in a great situation, but alive. He could handle whatever needed to be done to get her out of here.

He breathed out, his relief so great he only now realized how deep his worry had been. He’d half expected to find her dead. Sure, he hadn’t seen her in years, but he knew that Aiyana would have fought tooth and nail to get out of whatever predicament she was in to save her dad and Emily from worry last night.

This was a girl who cared more about others than herself.

He studied her. She was no longer a girl. Even with straggly hair and pale skin, she was a sight to behold, imperfect but lovely and all herself. No Botox or pouty lips or unnaturally taut skin.

Aiyana was still Aiyana.

“Why are you staring at me?”

He shook himself out of his musings. “Sorry.”

She shivered and rubbed her hands.

Protective instincts on high alert, he soothed, “Hey, hey, I’m here now. I’ll take care of you. First let’s warm you up.”

He wrapped her in his arms, but there was no chance of warming her properly without building a fire, or getting her out of this ravine.

Thank God she was safe.

He pulled back.

When he pushed wet hair from her forehead, his hand shook.

She looked bewildered by his presence. “I’ve been praying for someone to find me, but you, Cody? Where’d you come from?”

“I got in late last night. Drove in from LA. Your dad came to the house at first light to enlist our help. He’s worried sick.”

“Oh, p-p-poor Dad.”

See? Here she was, obviously feeling like hell, and her sympathy was for her father.

“There’s an entire search party out looking for you.”

She groaned.

“What happened? Are you hurt?”

“My f-f-foot is jammed between a couple of boulders. I c-c-can’t get it out.” She sounded exhausted. “There was no water here when I fell down last night, just a little stream nearby, but it’s been raining hard. Look at it now. My foot’s been underwater for a couple of hours.”

Her teeth chattered and her words came out jerky, her sentences in bits and pieces. He silently cursed long and fluently. He could tell she was putting on a brave face, but she had to be freaking out on the inside—had to have had a miserable night out here alone, freezing in the dark. And in pain.

He didn’t like the way she kept glancing around and the fear that lingered in her eyes. She should be relieved that she’d been located.

“What is it, Aiyana? What are you afraid of?”

Her frightened gaze shot to him. “N-n-nothing. Get m-m-me out of the water and then we’ll t-t-talk.”

The tops of the two boulders crested the fast-moving stream. He sat down and took off his hiking boots—the rain had soaked the outer layer, but at least they were still dry inside. He removed his socks.

“What are you doing?” Aiyana asked, clearly flagging.

“I’m getting into the water to assess the situation. I need this stuff to stay dry.”

“Your feet will freeze.”

“How are your feet?”

“I can’t feel them anymore.”

“Then this needs to be done. We need to get you out of here and warmed up.”

“Oh, God, I s-s-so want to be w-w-warm.” She sounded this side of tears, but held them back.

He rolled up the legs of his pants to his knees and stepped into the water. “Frig, that’s cold! How have you stood it all morning?”

“L-l-last of October hit with a vengeance last night. It was so n-n-nice y-y-y-est—” Talking was too hard for her and she gave up, laying an arm across her eyes to keep out the rain.

Cody felt around under the water, his hand smoothing down her jean-clad calf until he reached her foot. It was jammed, all right.

“Okay, listen, I can get you out, but the second I release your foot, blood is going to rush into it. It’ll hurt like a son of a b—” He cut himself off.

“Cody, it’s okay. I know how to s-s-swear. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve been saying all n-night.” She tried to laugh. “Anyway, you c-c-can’t move those boulders by yourself.”

He grinned at her. “I can.”

“Must be n-n-nice to be strong.”

“I’m gonna push the boulder to the left. The second I do, you need to pull out your leg.”

“D-d-don’t know if I c-can. I can’t feel much down there.”

“Put your hands behind your knee now. Use them to pull your leg. Okay?”

“I’m having trouble sitting up. S-sorry.”

“Here.” He adjusted his knapsack on top of hers underneath her back, pushing her a little higher, then helped her grasp her leg behind her knee.

“Ready?”

She nodded.

“On the count of three. One. Two. Three!” Cody put his back into moving the boulder. He heaved and felt it give.

“Now!”

Aiyana pulled her leg and her foot popped out of the water. She screamed. Cody dropped the rock, spraying both of them. He knelt beside her and hauled her into his arms. Jeez, poor Aiyana. She turned the air blue with an inventive onslaught of swearwords.

“Yeah, you can curse, all right, and not just in English. I’m impressed.”

She grimaced. He wasn’t sure, but it might have been her attempt at a smile.

Grasping her under the arms, he dragged her uphill under a tree, where he settled her back against the trunk. He crouched in front of her.

The tears she’d been holding back overflowed.

“I didn’t think it would hurt so much.” She swiped her palms across her face, leaving streaks of dirt on her cheeks.

He brushed the dirt away with his thumbs, wishing he could take her pain onto himself. He remembered the affection he’d had for her. It came flooding back.

She tried to nestle against him, and he wanted to hold her forever, but he had work to do. “The blood’s rushing back in your foot. I need to get it wrapped before it swells up.” He dragged their bags over beside her and unfolded the tarpaulin.

Once he got the tarp opened, he sheltered both of them. “Hold this over us so the dressing won’t get wet.”

He retrieved his socks and boots and tucked them in beside her. He opened one of the thermal blankets and tucked it around her shoulders. He needed to get her into dry clothes, but that ankle would swell like a melon if he didn’t wrap it now.

He got Aiyana’s soaked boot and sock off. Her foot was black-and-blue. He palpated the ankle. She winced. “I know it hurts, but I don’t think it’s broken.”

“Neither do I. When I first fell, before the rain started, it didn’t feel broken, just really sore. Sitting up was hard because it torqued it the wrong way.”

Cody rubbed her toes and the sole of her foot to get the circulation flowing. Her toes were too white, and wrinkled from being underwater.

Rain beat against the tarpaulin over their heads. Rivulets of water ran down the hill, in and around rocks, rushing past and under them. At least the tarp cut out the rain. It had eased up from its earlier mad onslaught, but still fell steadily.

“It’s swelling already.” He got out the first-aid kit and wrapped her ankle snugly, applying just enough pressure without cutting off circulation.

Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a pair of his own spare hiking socks and covered her foot with one of them, giving her toes one more quick massage. Again, he went into the knapsack and retrieved one of the plastic bags his mom had slipped in. “Ha! She lied.” Inside sat two day-old cinnamon buns. That’s what the smile in her voice had been about.

He handed one to Aiyana. “Eat this. It’s yesterday’s so it’ll be a bit stale.”

“Like I care. I could eat a horse. Raw.”

Cody bit into the second one. “Not bad for day-old.”

“It’s incredible. Your mom’s bakery makes the best cinnamon buns on earth. What did you mean she lied?”

“She said they were all out of yesterday’s buns.”

Aiyana smiled, her lips blue against her white teeth. “She wanted to surprise you.”

Cody rubbed his palms together then cupped her cheeks. They were ice cubes. “I don’t like how cold you look.” He hoped his heat would help warm her. He ran his thumb across her lips and she stopped chewing and stared at him with huge eyes.

The silence between them lengthened. Their summer together way back when had been innocent, but he remembered teaching her how to kiss. She’d had the sweetest mouth.

Wrong thought. Don’t go there. Keep it cool, Cody.

He dropped his hand.

“Sorry,” he said. “But your lips are blue.” He’d wanted to touch her lips, but there was no reason to tell her that. He was having trouble enough as it was not holding her.

He took the empty plastic bag, sticky sugar residue and all, and wrapped the sock-covered bandage, then used tape to seal it closed around the ankle.

“There. It won’t get wet.” He picked up her boot. “We won’t be able to put this back on, though.”

“Walking up that hill will shred the bag and the bandage.”

Cody shook his head. “You won’t be walking anywhere. There’s no way that ankle will support your weight.”

Aiyana picked up a rock and threw it hard and far. “I hate feeling helpless.” She sounded disheartened but also angry, and that was good. He liked her spirit. She tried to smile. “I threw a lot of rocks and chunks of soil last night. I was angry.”

Cody rubbed her shoulder. She hissed and flinched away from him. “What’s up?”

“My shoulder got wrenched when I rolled down the hill.”

“Sorry. Need me to take a look at it?”

“No. It’s not dislocated, just sore.” She met his gaze with brown eyes so dark in the shade of the tarp they looked black. She’d inherited a lot of her dad’s good looks. Cody had always thought her pretty, but she’d become downright handsome with age.

Aiyana had grown up well, but at the moment, just looked at the end of her rope.

“We need to get you out of here.” He whipped his cell phone out of his pocket. No service. He couldn’t call for assistance.

“There was a lightning strike. Seems it hit the cell tower.”

“We can’t phone anyone?” He hated the disappointment in her voice.

“Afraid not.” At her crestfallen expression, he pulled himself together. “You’re not alone, Aiyana. We’ll get through this.”

He didn’t like the way she looked at him, with something akin to hero worship. He was no hero, not by a long shot, but he’d get her out of here, or die trying.

He had a thought. “You didn’t come out hiking without a cell phone, did you?”

“Of course not.” He liked the spunk of her response. “I always carry my phone, but it was in my hand when I fell. I lost it on the way down.”

“We need a plan.” He looked up the hill. It was a long way to carry her, and steep, too. He was in great shape, but that climb would be serious business with him piggybacking her.

She’d wolfed down the bun. “You still hungry, Aiyana?”

“Yes. I’ve eaten only a protein bar since yesterday’s lunch. I think shivering uses a lot of calories.” She was trying to make light of things, but he could see it cost her.

“Let’s find a better spot and I’ll make us lunch. Stay here.”

He pulled up his hood and stepped out from under the tarpaulin, scouting the area until he found a large flat rock on which they could perch without sitting in one of the many rivulets coursing down the hill.

He returned to Aiyana. “Put on your knapsack. I’ve found a better spot.”

“I don’t think I can get it on fully, but I can pull both straps up onto my good shoulder.”

Cody put his pack across his chest and shot his arms through the straps. He positioned himself in front of Aiyana. “Hop on my back.”

“Cody, really, that isn’t necessary.” She stood up and cried out. “Oh, crud. You’re right. I can’t walk.” Again she sounded on the verge of breaking down, but she stiffened behind him. He sensed her bucking up. She tied two of the corners of the thermal blanket at her throat, wearing it like a cape. Next, he took her weight when she boosted herself onto his back. She wrapped her good arm around him and as far across his chest as she could.

He dragged the tarp behind him to the large rock he’d found. He eased her onto the rock’s surface, up out of the water cascading down the slope. Then he set up the tarp as a shelter using two nearby trees and some rope he’d brought with him. Next he took the second still-dry tarp from his bag and helped Aiyana to her feet so he could spread it beneath her across the rock.

When she sat back down, she sighed. “First dry thing I’ve touched since the middle of the night. You came prepared.”

“With Noah Cameron’s help. If I ever get stranded in the wilderness, I want my uncle with me.”

“What can I do?”

“There are sandwich fixings in my bag. Can you make us a couple?”

By the time he finished and sat on the rock beside her under the tarp, she had two crusty rolls filled with salami and cheese.

“Sorry there’s no mustard or mayo.”

“What are you talking about?” She held up a small plastic container of mustard and a plastic knife.

“Wow, the Colantonios came prepared.”

She’d already bitten into her sandwich. “This is heaven on earth. I’ve never tasted anything so good.”

Cody watched her chew with lips that were full and warming up. To distract himself, he took out a thermos he’d filled with the last of the second pot of coffee Mom had made this morning. He’d doctored it with plenty of sugar and cream. He poured half into the lid cup and handed it to her.

“It’s barely warm,” he warned.

She accepted it and took two gulps. “It’s wonderful.”

He poured the rest into the cup and tried to get her to take it, too.

“No. You drink it.”

“I brought it for you.” When she hesitated, he ordered, “Drink.”

She did, sipping this time while she ate the rest of her sandwich. When she finished eating, she brushed crumbs from her lap, her fastidious behavior at odds with the reality of her soaked, mud-covered clothes. Cody hid his smile.

She sighed. “That was the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten.” Her smile warmed him to his toes. All these years later and she was so much lovelier than he could have imagined. All of her realized potential was a miracle, while he’d lost his.

Don’t go there. Concentrate on getting her out of here.

While he ate, Cody took in his surroundings.

“Going up to the ridge here isn’t an option. It’s too steep.” He could do it alone, but not with Aiyana on his back. He kept that last part to himself. “So we’ll follow the ravine along the river until we reach a shallower incline.”

She’d been watching him make his assessment. “You could leave me here and walk out for help.”

She was being brave. His protective instincts kicked him in the ribs. True, in the past, they’d gotten him into trouble—Stacey came to mind—but there was no way he was leaving Aiyana alone.

“Nope,” he said, rejecting her idea.

“Just like that. No argument?” She’d stiffened. “You’re being stubborn. You can’t carry me out of this ravine.”

He set his jaw. “I can and I will. I’m not leaving you. If anything happened to me on the way back, you’d be out here alone for another night. I’m not taking that chance.”

Her mood shifted as if being out here another night alone terrified her. She nodded and said, “Okay. Thanks.” Beneath that simple word hovered profound relief.

Again he disliked the way she looked at him as though he were some kind of hero. He wasn’t. He hadn’t been worthy of that kind of designation in years, not since he’d left his hometown.

He’d left Accord to attend school in California. Many times since then, he wished he’d taken another road, one that had led to a different destination. He should have made better choices.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Let it go, Jordan. Concentrate on this, the here and now.

He roused himself. Now was a time for action, not thought.

“First things first,” he said, rummaging in the bag. He pulled out sweaters and a pair of pants.

It was obvious she’d sensed his withdrawal, but she smiled gamely. “What is that? Some kind of magician’s bag? It seems to be bottomless.”

He grinned, but it probably looked fake. He hated that he’d come to deal with people on only a surface level. When was the last time he’d been himself with someone? Truly himself?

“Now that you’re fed, we need to get you out of those wet clothes and into dry ones.”

Her dark-eyed gaze slid away. “I’m—I’m going to need help. With the shape my shoulder’s in, I don’t think I can get out of these.”

He liked her shyness. “I can help. Let’s start with your jacket.”

After only one touch, he realized how difficult the task was going to be. “You’re hurt pretty bad everywhere, aren’t you?”

“It was a hard fall.”

Five minutes later, with great care, he’d managed to take off her jacket and sweater. He reached for the buttons of her blouse.

She brushed his hands away. “I can at least do that.”

When she’d finished, he took over because she couldn’t shrug out of it without using her shoulder. Underneath, she wore a mauve bra. A livid, dark, round bruise colored her chest between and onto her breasts. Cody hissed in a breath. “How did that happen?”

“I landed on my camera, on the lens.”

“Christ, that must have hurt.”

Her cheeks, he noticed, were pink against the slowly warming gray of her skin. In college, he’d had plenty of girlfriends. Seeing a woman in her bra was not a big deal for him. Being in front of him in her underwear was apparently a big deal for Aiyana. Obviously, showing herself to a man was not something she did often, or casually.

“It hurt.” An understatement, he was sure. “I couldn’t breathe for a long time after I hit bottom.”

He palpated her bruised shoulder, tested it to see how far she could move it. Not far. “This will be cold, but it has to be done.”

He took her damp sweater, ran back to the rushing stream and dunked it into the icy water then returned and pushed her bra strap aside to place the wet sweater on Aiyana’s shoulder. She flinched.

“I know, it’s cold.”

“It isn’t that.” She hesitated before pushing the sweater aside. “It’s...this.”

A red slash across her upper arm looked sore. “A sharp tree branch on the way down?”

She bit her lip and glanced away.

His hair stood on end. “What is it?”

A lungful of air gusted out of her. “I didn’t want to say anything, but...it’s a graze from a bullet. Someone shot at me.”

“What?”

“I said someone shot at me.”

“I heard you.” He’d said it too sharply and moderated his tone. “What do you mean, someone shot at you? That’s not possible.”

“It is. It happened, Cody.” Her expression had closed, flattened.

He rummaged in the first-aid kit and dabbed at the graze with a sterile wipe. She winced. “Gunshots? Out here? That’s outlandish.”

“It happened.”

He went cold.

She could have been seriously hurt, or killed. “It must have been hunters. They need to be more careful. Why didn’t the guy apologize, or even help you? Maybe because he would have been hunting illegally.” He covered the cut with antibiotic cream and taped gauze into place. “There shouldn’t have been hunters in the park. It’s illegal, especially given the heavy foot traffic this place gets. This is exactly what the law is meant to protect against—someone being shot by accident.”

“It wasn’t an accident.”

He’d been checking out her arm, front and back, but stopped to sit back and look into her eyes. Everything inside him stilled. He was afraid to think what he was actually thinking—that someone shot this woman on purpose. “What are you saying?”

“I thought it was an accident, too, until the man started chasing me. He shot at me more than once, but luckily missed.”

Icy, icy breath caught in his lungs. “In the name of God, why?”

“I don’t know. I just started running and he kept right on chasing me.”

Cody couldn’t wrap his head around it.

“You don’t believe me.” Her voice sounded flat.

“Of course I do.” His voice sounded fake.

“No, Cody, I can see in your eyes that you doubt me.” She grasped fists full of his jacket and leaned forward, willing him to believe her. “I’m not hysterical. This was no accident. He chased me away from the popular paths. Whenever I tried to head somewhere safe, he shot at me. I was terrified because it was real.”

Cody turned away and packed his bag, afraid to let her see his rage. She’d been intimidated yesterday, frightened out of her wits. He didn’t need to make her afraid of another man.

“Why didn’t you phone out?”

“I didn’t have time! Whenever I stopped to catch my breath, he was right there behind me.”

“Did you yell for help?”

“I tried, but he chased me into this remote area of the park. There was no one here. And then I figured it was best to stay silent because the only person who’d hear my screams would be him. I was frightened. And then the trail fell away right from under my feet—I lost my phone, hurt myself. I was angry by that point.”

“What happened after you fell?”

“I lay still for a long time hoping he would leave.”

Cody’s blood rushed through his veins. He wanted to find the guy and hurt him. Badly. He couldn’t imagine the sheer terror she must have felt while waiting to see whether her pursuer was going to come down to kill her. He cursed under his breath.

“I guess he either didn’t want to climb down to check on me,” Aiyana said, “or he assumed I was dead.”

Cody still couldn’t wrap his head around this. It was so far outside anything that should be happening in Accord, Colorado. LA? Yeah, sure. Violence was a fact of life there. But Accord? Never.

Of all the scenarios he’d been ready to face if he found Aiyana, this was so far out of the box he didn’t know how to deal with it.

He glanced around, but all he saw were trees and brush. He wanted to steer the conversation to something positive, but he also had to know what he was dealing with here. “Is that why you were defensive when I showed up?”

She nodded. “I prayed it was help but also thought it might be him coming back to finish me off.”

He hated that she looked so scared. “Has there been any trace of him today?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t heard or seen a thing.”

“That’s good, okay? I’m here now. Nothing’s going to happen to you. Okay?”

She nodded. Her worried frown eased. A bit.

He held her hands until they warmed and she smiled, weakly, but at least she seemed less frightened.

Using the strength of his will to calm her, he set about cataloging her injuries: badly bruised chest and wrenched shoulder, serious bullet graze on arm, useless ankle, not to mention a whole host of bruises all over her body.

Anger churned in him as riotously as the stream whose banks had overflowed through the night. That someone, anyone, would do this to a girl as wonderful as Aiyana...

Not a girl. A woman. He turned away from the golden skin tempting him. Wanting her was the last thing he should be feeling at a time like this.

“Sorry to do this to you, but we have to get you out of those soaking jeans. The last thing we want is for you to get hypothermia.”

“I don’t know how we can, though—not with the way you’ve bandaged my ankle.”

“I know, and I’m not going to undo it. We need to keep the swelling down as much as possible.”

He took his Leatherman out of his pocket and grasped the hem of one of the pant legs. “I hope you aren’t in love with these. They’re about to be toast.”

“I can’t go out of here without pants.”

“I brought clothing for you.”

He flipped out the small, sharp scissors and lifted one eyebrow.

She nodded. “Do it.”

He cut a straight line up the outside of one leg and then the other. Aiyana lay down and raised her hips. Together, they slipped the jeans out from under her butt.

Her underpants, Cody noted, were the same mauve as her bra, the color beautiful against her naturally tanned skin.

“If I turn my back, can you get out of your wet underwear on your own?”

“I’ll try.”

Facing away from her and studying the rugged splendor of the forest around him, he listened to her struggle. “How are you doing?”

“I can’t— Damn. I can’t do this.”

“I’m going to help you. Okay?”

She didn’t answer.

“Okay, Aiyana?”

“Let’s just leave them on me.”

“No. I don’t know how long it’s going to take us to walk out. We need you warm and dry.”

She didn’t respond, but after a while said, “Cody, let me do this my way. I’m more comfortable leaving them on.”

“But,” he started before realizing he was being overbearing. “You’re right. Of course. I’m going to dry you off though before we get you into clean clothes. Is that okay?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

He took his mom’s dry sweater and ran it briskly over all of her, deadening his senses, adopting as much of a clinical attitude as he could. At the moment, he needed to be less of a man and more of a friend.

Goose bumps crawled across her skin.

Gingerly, he pulled an undershirt over her head and threaded her arm through the sleeves. She didn’t utter so much as a peep, even though her lips thinned and turned white at the edges.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Her smile wobbled.

His mother had given him a pair of large cotton underpants and he pulled them up Aiyana’s legs, smoothing them over her hips beneath the shirt.

The waist was too wide. “These were made for a larger seventy-year-old woman.”

Aiyana huffed out an embarrassed laugh. “They’re dry. That’s all that matters.” She shivered.

“Yeah.” He dressed her in a flannel shirt and a heavy sweater, but had to go slowly. It was taking a while.

“Sorry it’s all too big,” he said. “It’s my mom’s. I figured Pearl’s clothing wouldn’t fit you.”

“You’re right. Pearl’s clothes wouldn’t have fit me. She’s so tiny. I tower over her.”

Tower? Not.

“It doesn’t matter, Cody. I’m just happy to be warm.”

“Good. You and my mom don’t exactly have the same style. Mom’s an old hippie at heart.”

“I love your mother’s style. She’s so uniquely her.”

He detected something in her tone. Envy, maybe? Why on earth would a woman as striking and handsome as Aiyana envy another woman?

Her teeth were chattering again. “I got chilled to the bone last night. I can’t seem to warm up.”

“Especially not when your skin is bare. I’ll hurry.”

He grabbed a pair of long johns and eased them onto her feet and legs. She winced when he accidentally touched her ankle.

“I’m trying to be gentle,” he said as he snugged them up over her hips.

“This is ridiculous,” she burst out, smacking her palm on the rock. “I feel like a child with you dressing me.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But we need to do this, while disturbing your injuries as little as possible.”

“I get it, Cody. I’m just frustrated by this whole situation.”

“Fortunately, Mom’s jeans will be loose on you. They’ll go on right over your ankle.”

They did.

Aiyana grasped the loose fabric around her trim waist. “How am I going to keep them up?”

He took her blouse and twisted it. “I’ll thread this through the belt loops and tie it snugly.”

She smiled. “That’ll work.” It worried him that she was still shivering.

“We need to get you warmed up. Even these clothes aren’t doing it.”

He unbuttoned his jacket and unzipped his sweater then lifted her onto his lap, snugging her against his chest. Taking his mom’s bulky winter jacket, he wrapped it across her back and held it in place with one hand while with his other he abraded her limbs wherever she wasn’t hurt.

“How can you still have so much body heat when it’s cold and rainy?” She leaned into him as though she wanted to burrow inside his body.

She felt good.

“I built up a real sweat when I was looking for you.”

“I need your warmth.”

I need yours, too.

Whoa. Where had that thought come from, that he needed anything from her?

Warmth? From Aiyana, who was a virtual stranger these days? And the warmth he meant was different from her version. He needed absolution.

He rubbed her back briskly and felt her start to relax, to melt into him. He’d never felt anything as sweet as the trust she had in him.

For the briefest nanosecond, he rested his chin on her head and bit back a sigh. The urge to give in, to take what he needed from this erstwhile friend, sent a shock wave through him.

He denied himself, lifting his head away, because, really, how could he possibly think he deserved it? Or her.

“Cody...”

Alerted by her suddenly serious tone, he tensed, knowing what was coming, the sympathy that killed him every time. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.

He set her away from him, the intimate moment broken.

“Thank you,” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t found me. I appreciate all of this.”

The air whooshed out of him. She hadn’t mentioned Ben. Thank God.

“Except for your trapped foot, you were holding it together.” He grinned, but it felt fake again, like everything in his life these days. Except for the grief. That was real. “Besides, if it hadn’t been me who found you, it would’ve been someone else.”

“Don’t do that,” she said sharply.

He startled. “Do what?”

“Put down what you’re doing here.” Her tone was harsh. The woman had claws.

He had to put himself down. She didn’t know his history, all of the things he’d done. Taking her right hand in his, he helped her sit up.

She still looked stern and ordered, “Just say ‘thank you, Aiyana.’”

He smiled, impressed by how bravely she was dealing with this adversity. She had to be in agony from her injuries.

“Thank you, Aiyana,” he said gently, and her pique eased. She smiled.

He used her damp sweater to wipe his dirty feet.

He packed everything back into the knapsack, putting her wet clothes into plastic bags.

Last, he put on his socks and shoes.

“We need to move on.”

Cody glanced at her face, alerted by a new determination in her voice.

He picked up her backpack. “Do you think your shoulder can bear this?”

“Yes.”

Carefully, he threaded her arms through the straps and settled it onto her shoulders.

“Why is it so light?” She watched him over her shoulder with a puzzled frown.

“All of your clothes and camera are in my pack. There isn’t anything left in yours. It’s empty.”

He put his knapsack on across his front and turned so she could climb onto his back. Once she was settled he took the two tarps and crammed them into a plastic shopping bag. “Can you take this with your good hand?”

“Yes.”

He hoped she was telling the truth. He wondered if she would say yes to everything he asked just to prove she could handle it.

“Okay, let’s go.”

He started off quickly but soon realized he would have to pace himself on the rough, slippery terrain. The last thing they needed was for him to get injured, too.

Aiyana felt unnatural on his back. “Don’t hold yourself so stiffly, Ai.”

Ai. He’d forgotten that old nickname. He shouldn’t use it. It felt too intimate.

“I don’t want to be a burden,” she said.

“You aren’t. You’re a friend in need.” When she still didn’t relax, he told her the truth. “Holding yourself stiffly makes it harder for me.”

She relaxed against him and he felt her chest against his back.

“Better?” she asked.

“Yes.” No. Having her body so close to his was a lot of hell, but even more of heaven.

He walked on, closing off his mind to Aiyana’s femininity on his back—as he did most days, shutting himself off from everything around him.

He plodded, one foot in front of the other. Left, right. Left, right.

While Aiyana might not be a big woman—he would guesstimate her weight at one twenty-five—he felt the effects of not being on top of his game. He was tired. He’d gotten maybe three hours’ sleep, and it had been a troubled sleep.

But that was the norm. He didn’t know how it felt to wake up refreshed anymore.

He grasped Aiyana’s thighs and trudged forward until he nearly reached his limit. He didn’t know how far they’d come, but figured he’d been carrying her for about an hour.

He was so tired he started thinking crazy thoughts, like maybe this was a metaphor for his life, that from now on he would always carry this heavy burden of unrealized potential, of memories, grief and the stress of a damaged life.

Was it damaged beyond repair? Damned if he knew.

“I have to stop,” he told Aiyana. He meant more than putting her down for a few minutes. He wanted it all to stop, every single part of his life.

CHAPTER THREE

CODY JORDAN.

Where on earth had he come from when Aiyana needed him most? Cody, an astounding, delicious...sad-looking blast from the past.

Ai hadn’t seen him in years, yet here he was, deep in the forest helping her out of the worst bind she’d ever been in.

And let’s not forget, Aiyana, seeing you in next to nothing.

Tomorrow she would be embarrassed. At the moment, all that mattered was getting warm and finding a way out of this ravine.

He warmed you a bit, though.

Oh, yikes, did he ever. Sweetly. When he’d taken her onto his lap, he’d handled her with a tenderness at odds with his honed-to-bare-bones face and body.

She couldn’t let it go to her head.

She’d been infatuated with Cody once. She couldn’t be so again.

She had often wondered if all of her romantic relationships had gone wrong because Cody had set the standard too high. Maybe things would have been better with her ex-husband if she hadn’t wanted him to be the great guy Cody had been.

On second thought, her problems with Trevor had nothing to do with Cody.

Even so, Cody had rescued her once in adolescence and was rescuing her again. All these years later, Cody was about to become her hero again...and she didn’t want that. She needed to take control.

She couldn’t become swamped, overtaken and overshadowed by another man.

But, God, it was good to have Cody here. Those overwhelming feelings of despair that had haunted her all night had abated the second she’d recognized his voice.

When it became time to assert herself, she’d said, “We need to move on,” taking back the control she needed, or as much as she could get at the moment.

He’d glanced up at her, those blue eyes as startling now as they had been twelve years ago, especially in contrast to his dark hair. It was too long and curling at the edge. Clearly he wasn’t taking care of himself.

Lurking in the depths of his eyes was a new darkness he hid with his phony smile and fake grins.

But was there any wonder? She’d heard about his son. Just the thought of losing Annie caused unimaginable pain. Cody had actually lived it. How had he survived? How was he functioning?

Maybe he wasn’t. He seemed hollow, a man without a core. The Cody Jordan she used to know was solid as a rock.

Yes, she was glad to see him, but where was her Cody?

Lean, hard edges defined this Cody, with nothing soft or forgiving about him, trimmed of every ounce of fat and softness. He looked tired, exhausted. Sadness enveloped him like a haze.

Her first impression of Cody? A man skirting too close to the edge, faking it to appear normal.

The Cody Jordan she’d known in high school had the sweetest, sexiest, most real smile.

There was a distance between old Cody and new Cody that was miles wide.

She pushed away the sorrow that particular truth caused. Cody used to be the greatest guy, but above all, he used to be her friend.

This Cody seemed to be a good, reliable man, but he wasn’t her Cody. She felt that loss keenly. Best not to dwell on what was lost and to move forward.

The gentle motion of Cody’s steady, deliberate steps soothed her.

If she weren’t careful she would fall asleep. Last night had been awful. Now she had this big, strong man to lean on and the temptation to give in was great—to give herself over completely to his control—but she wouldn’t.

She’d fought long and hard for her independence. She wouldn’t give it away at the first sign of trouble.

What a ridiculous situation to find herself in. An odd kind of quiet intimacy developed between them, without conversation—her because of her pain and Cody to preserve energy for walking, no doubt.

They traveled slowly. They had no other choice.

He carried her for an hour before having to stop, finding another large flat boulder for them to sit on.

When he put her down, Aiyana could only shake her head. “You didn’t exaggerate. You are strong.”

Bending over, he sucked in air.

“I can’t believe how long you lasted.” Aiyana settled onto the rock and grimaced. Everything hurt. Everything.

He didn’t respond—he was still catching his breath.

“You should go on without me, Cody. We’re close enough now for you to run out for help.”

“No.”

“You can’t keep carrying me.” She pointed toward the hill. “You can’t carry me up that!”

“I can. I will. Aiyana?”

“Yes?”

Still bent over, he peered at her through thick lashes. “Just say ‘thank you, Cody.’” His smile was more real, more like her old Cody, using her earlier words against her.

How could she not respond to the tiniest sparkle of mischief in his smile?

“Thank you, Cody.” Bereft of his warmth, she shivered, chilly again. “I really don’t want to be outdoors for another night.”

“It would be hard on us, but on the searchers, too. Your dad is really worried.”

Concern twisted her gut. “I feel so bad.”

“Aiyana, you’ve got nothing to feel bad about.” He paused before speaking again. “Now let’s just focus on getting out of here, okay?”

“Okay.” She studied the side of the tree-covered hill. “The incline up out of the ravine isn’t as bad here.”

“The ground’s been rising steadily.”

“It’ll be harder because of the trees.” She pointed. “There are some bare spots, though.”

“Yeah. This is where we’ll go up. Let’s eat first. If I’m going to carry you up—” he gestured toward the slope “—I need to refuel.”

“I can’t believe you carried me this far.”

His chest still rose and fell in sharp attempts at getting back his wind. “Yeah, well, thank God it stopped raining.”

That statement was so heartfelt that Aiyana laughed. “True. The highlight of my day.”

Not quite. Seeing Cody again was truly the best part of this day.

He fell onto the rock beside her, the surface so small their shoulders touched.

They finished off the rest of the pastries Laura had packed, with Aiyana leaving the remainder of the cheese and salami for Cody, along with the last protein bar.

She studied his defined profile and the way his strong jaw moved while he ate, everything about him assertive.

She worked out in the gym a couple of times a week and hiked whenever she could, so she was no couch potato. Cody, on the other hand, must work out constantly to be in such buff shape.

He was beautiful.

She started packing his bag. “Annie loves Laura’s cinnamon rolls. I should have saved her some.”

Cody flinched. Oh. Oh. What had she been thinking to mention her daughter so carelessly, knowing he was grieving?

“You can buy her one tomorrow,” he said, tone lifeless. “Today you need your energy.”

She missed Annie. She wanted to see her now, this very moment. How must Cody feel?

Sorrow seeped from him like a dark fog, despite his shallow smiles and brittle grins. She shouldn’t have mentioned Annie. What a foolish thing to do. But she could no longer ignore what had happened to him and pretend that she hadn’t heard about the death of his son.

“Cody,” she began, but he cut her off.

“Don’t.” The intensity of the order stunned her. His expression hardened before softening into a silent plea.

She opened her mouth again to speak, but he leaned forward and grasped the back of her head, closing his eyes.

He urged her closer. “Please, don’t say anything,” he whispered, so close she couldn’t see all of his face. She wanted to see him, wanted to understand everything about Cody. “No sympathy. No pity. Please. It will kill me, Ai.”

He was breaking her heart. A need to erase all of his pain surged through her, but he didn’t want her help.

His breath on her face sent wisps of hair flying, tickling her forehead and neck. He smelled like soap—simple, honest and basic.

“Just...let it go. Okay?”

She tried to nod, but his fingers gripped her too tightly.

The noise that came out of him sounded suspiciously like a sob and she regretted everything. She should have left it alone.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He eased back and stared at her, the distance between them pregnant with regret. She sensed desire in him along with grief.

When he leaned toward her, his lips hovering above hers, she remembered his kisses. Their sweetness. Was he going to—

The crack of the gunshot sent shards of rock flying. Cody pulled her against him, his hard arms strapping across her back, and rolled both of them off the rock.

“Nooooo,” she screamed. Not again.

He landed half on and half off her. Excruciating pain overwhelmed her.

Her heart started a crazy staccato beat.

“What the hell?” Cody pressed as much of his body over hers as he could. His heartbeat battled with hers, wild and crazy.

“Where’d it come from?” Between the pain and his weight, she could barely breathe. “Do you know which direction?”

“No. Goddamn!” He eased up on her and peeked around the boulder. “I can’t see anyone. The growth’s thick here. He could be behind any tree and I wouldn’t know it.”

He moved off her, only slightly, turning her onto her uninjured side. He helped her move back against the rock and flattened himself in front of her.

“You’re shaking.” He held her head against his chest, his big hand firm, cupping her as though she were precious.

“Yeah,” she admitted to the obvious. “Being used for target practice does that to me.”

He leaned against her, using the full force of his body’s warmth to reassure her. “We’ll get out of this. I’ll keep you safe.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but I’m so pissed off I could tear apart whoever is doing this with my bare hands.” And yet, despite his anger, those hands made her feel safe.

“It’s an unfair fight. I wish we had a gun.”

“Me, too, Aiyana.” He peeked around the boulder again then lay back down on top of her.

She missed his hand on her head. She could almost see the wheels spinning beneath his intelligent brow. “What are you thinking?”

“Just trying to figure out how to get us out of here alive.”

“I know that, Cody. I mean specifically. You look like you’re coming up with a plan.”

“Yeah. I’m trying to. We might be able to get lost in the bush. The problem is that you can’t run.”

“You should go. Leave me. Get help.”

He pressed his palm over her mouth. Sparks of anger flashed in his blue eyes. “Stop with that kind of talk. It’s foolish.”

She jerked her head away from his hand. “It isn’t. It makes sense and you know it.”

“Yeah, it does, but there’s no way in hell I’m leaving you behind, so just quit. If you go down, so do I.”

She should be quiet and grateful. She was grateful, but above all, relieved. What she wouldn’t do, though, was leave everything to Cody.

She wouldn’t play the distressed damsel to his big, strong knight. He was brittle and on edge, about to shatter even while he did his best to protect her. A man like Cody would probably die protecting her.

Getting out of this predicament would take all of the wits both of them possessed.

The problem, of course, was her ankle.

Slowing her heart rate, she looked at the situation dispassionately. Whoever was shooting at them hadn’t come around to attack from this side. They would have seen him walk up the creek. Coming down from above them through trees and brush wasn’t an option, either. In the stillness of the woods, they would have definitely heard him.

So, he had shot at them from behind—he’d followed them. She shivered, but kept control of herself, refusing to allow fear to overtake her. The ways ahead and above were clear. They could do this, except that the shooter was sitting waiting for them to move.

“Can you reach our bags?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah. And if I’m quick, I won’t get killed.” His chest rumbled with the depth of his voice.

Cody might be big and strong, but judging by the tightness around his eyes and the lines around his mouth, he was dead tired. He’d already carried her for an hour. He’d said he’d arrived home in the middle of the night, so he’d had little sleep.

He might try not to show his exhaustion, but she was fully aware of it.

He exhaled, lunged and snatched both bags, falling back on top of her. She grunted.

“Sorry.” He held up their knapsacks and grinned, a true grin this time. Triumphant.

A split second later, a shot rang out, hitting the rock surface, chipping it. The ricochet hit a tree trunk above them.

“He’s wasting his ammunition.” Aiyana wriggled away from a stone digging into her back. “Why?”

“I don’t think he wants to kill either of us. Not yet. He’s playing with us. He has all of the power and we have none.”

“So we’re dealing with a bully.”

“Looks like.”

“Let’s switch up the balance of power. I have a plan.”

“What is it?”

She used her hand to illustrate a path up the hill, showing him where they could wriggle through holes in the underbrush. “Look. We can get out of here on our bellies, zigzag so we disturb the vegetation as little as possible.”

He nodded. “That could work. You’ll go first.”

In response to her fierce Why me? reaction, he answered, “Because it will give the shooter a chance to aim. You’ll get away. If anyone gets hit this time, it’ll be me.”

“But—”

He placed a finger against her lips. Again with the tenderness even while he was taking control. “You’re already wounded all over your body because of him.”

She finally recognized the expression she’d been trying to decipher since the shot rang out. Regret. Self-reproach.

“Why are you taking the blame for what this guy is doing?”

“I should have taken this more seriously.” He brushed damp hair from her cheek. His eyes softened. “I should have been more diligent.”

“You couldn’t have known he would show up again. Neither could I.”

“The behavior you described is not that of an animal hunter. We’ve got a criminal out there. I should have been more aware of our surroundings.”

“So should I. Neither of us is responsible for this maniac’s actions. Okay?”

He nodded, but vestiges of remorse lingered.

“We’re getting out of this, Cody.”

He flashed a smile that looked more real. “I like your spunk. You’ve changed.”

“I’ve had to. Anyway, let’s get out of here.”

“You’re going first,” he asserted again.

Her mouth tightened. “And if you get hit? I can’t carry you out.”

“We’ll take that chance. You’re injured enough already.” After that one lovely real grin a moment ago, he’d closed himself off again. He wasn’t budging.

She gave in. “Okay, but we’ll hurry.” She grasped his coat with both fists, shooting pain up to her injured shoulder. She didn’t care. She had a point to make. “We’re both getting out of this alive, Cody. Don’t do anything heroic.”

She didn’t like the ironic half smile that hovered around his lips. What was he planning? “I mean it, Cody. No standing up to draw fire away from me. You follow me quickly on your belly or we don’t leave here at all.” She let go of his jacket. “Which will it be? Stay or go safely?”

“Go.”

“Safely.”

“Safely.” He mimicked her emphasis.

She searched his eyes, but he was closed off to her. She didn’t like it, but would have to take him at his word.

She rolled onto her stomach so he could ease the straps of her backpack up her arms. He helped with her injured shoulder. He was beyond gentle. Still it hurt and she couldn’t help sucking in air.

“How are you going to support your weight on that arm?” he hissed.

She set her jaw. “Willpower. I won’t let that animal win.” A fire burned in her belly with anger and defiance, but also with the resolve to get home to her daughter. She would make it out of here. She would hold Annie again.

Beside her, Cody wriggled into his pack.

She took a moment to plan her route around bushes and trees. Farther up the hill, there were bare patches where they might be spotted, but if they moved quickly and got a head start before the shooter realized they had left this spot behind the rock, they could make it through.

Thank goodness the ravine had become shallower and this slope was not as steep or long as the one she’d fallen down.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“Yep.” He touched her arm to hold her back. “Aiyana—” He seemed to struggle with his thoughts. “Please be careful.”

She felt something on her hair, the lightest butterfly touch of...his lips?

But she had no time to wonder.

The first few pulls forward almost killed her shoulder. Sweat broke out on her upper lip. She kept going, slowly, movements small while she hunted out bare spots. Nothing rustled around her, so maybe this would work.

Cody came next, as silently as a wraith. Had he done army training?

She bit her lip against the pain and tried to put more support on her good arm, but couldn’t avoid using her injured shoulder altogether.

About halfway up she had to stop. She rested her head on her crossed arms. Her pulse pounded deeply while her breath became more and more shallow.

“Aiyana,” Cody whispered. “Can you roll onto your good side?”

She did.

He crept up beside her in the space she’d left clear by leaning against a tree. After one glimpse of her face he rolled onto his back. Hands around her waist, he lifted and stretched her full length on top of his dry body, away from the damp earth.

A breath whispered out of her, his body beyond wonderful beneath her, solid and invincible. His palm wrapped around her head and held her against his chest. His heart beat a steady rhythm in her ear.

After catching her breath, she said, low and quietly, “I’m trying to be strong.”

“There’s no trying about it, Aiyana. You did well.” Even as he monitored their surroundings for signs of danger, his eyes sparkled when they returned to her. “I can’t believe how far you got before stopping.”

“Do you think we got away?” she whispered. “I haven’t heard a thing.”

“Me, either. We moved quietly. I’m not sure we even rustled those bushes. You picked a good route. Maybe he thinks we’re still hiding behind the rocks.”

“Give me a minute to catch my breath then we can move again.”

She felt him move beneath her, sensed him twisting his head to check uphill.

“You made it more than two-thirds of the way up.”

He grasped her face and kissed her forehead, hard and quick. An impulse, she thought—and a glorious one at that. “You’re amazing. If the shooter was coming, we would have heard him by now. I can carry you from here.”

“No.”

At her emphatic tone, his arms tightened across her back. “Why not? I can.”

“I know. You’ve proven how strong you are.”

He stiffened.

“I mean it, Cody. As much as you think I’ve been amazing? Double it for you.”

His hands rubbed her back and she melted into him, still chilled deep within by the night and the rain and the danger.

“We’d better get going,” she whispered.

He released her slowly. Was that reluctance she sensed? She didn’t have time to explore it. They had to get out of this ravine alive. They sat up and listened. They heard nothing.

Cody brushed a hand across her cheek and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The action felt as sad as his eyes looked.

“It seems that he might have given up.”

He stood and Aiyana followed, helping to lift herself when he took her onto his back.

Fifteen minutes later, moving slowly, they reached the path that ran along the top of the ravine. Cody set her on her feet.

She leaned against him, her ankle throbbing. Glancing up and down the path, she said, “I think we’re home free. Cody, leave me here and go for help.”

“We’re really going through this again? Read my lips. I’m not leaving you alone.”

“Okay, fine. Be a bloody hero and knock yourself out.”

For a long moment, they stared at each other. Then Cody started to laugh, and she couldn’t help herself but had to join in.

“I’m sorry.” She groaned and gently rubbed her chest above the bruise. “You’ve been selfless and here I am giving you a hard time.”

“We’re both tired. This has been stressful.”

“No fooling. It’s kind of unprecedented. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in Accord.”

Cody took a map out of his back pocket.

“Well, we’re pretty close now. The shooter wouldn’t dare fire at us here. Everyone would hear and come running.”

A gigantic balloon of relief swelled inside her, and a heartfelt “Thank God” burst out of her. “And thank you, Cody. I can’t thank you enough.” Her voice broke.

He grasped her arm. “Buck up. We’re almost there.”

“I just want to get home so badly.”

“I hope this hasn’t ruined the park for you. Your dad says you come here all the time.”

“I do. I love it.” She glanced around while a poignant sadness filled her. “But I’ll have to take a break.”

Could she ever come back? She didn’t know.

Cody watched her, concern written like braille on his brow. He turned his back, picked her up and carried her along the trail. They heard someone coming ahead and tensed. Cody leaned against the upper hill, shielding as much of her as he could with his body.

A moment later, a park ranger rounded the curve.

Aiyana let out the breath she’d been holding. They were truly safe!

The ranger’s frowned eased. “You found her!”

“Yeah, but she’s injured. She can’t walk.”

“I can see that.” He stared hard at Cody. “You look like you’re about to drop. I can take her from here. The parking lot’s only a few hundred yards ahead.”

“No. I’m fine.” His grip tightened around her thighs. “I can carry her out.”

When Cody stepped around the park ranger, Aiyana gave the man a delicate shrug. She had no idea why Cody wouldn’t hand her off.

He frowned at Cody then raised his eyebrows at Aiyana and smiled. “Interesting,” he said, for her ears only.

Interesting, indeed. Aiyana knew she couldn’t handle romance right now and Cody couldn’t possibly want to start a relationship, and yet...

She rested her forehead against his back and smiled, enjoying these last few moments with him.

They rounded a corner and there was the parking lot ahead.

In the distance, Aiyana saw her dad, his back to her.

Before the hubbub started, Aiyana whispered, “Cody—” She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. The day had been momentous, strange and unlike any she’d ever experienced.

She had prayed someone would find her—a friend, family member, stranger. But it hadn’t been a friend or a family member or a stranger.

It had been Cody.

He stopped walking. “Aiyana—” He sounded serious.

But he didn’t finish his thought; instead he cursed abruptly.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Not what. Who.” He sounded miserable.

As best she could, she peeked around Cody.

Across the long parking lot, a woman dressed in knee-high black leather boots, a long tan leather coat and a thick white turtleneck above a black pencil skirt started toward them. She was gorgeous. Black hair framed flawless pale skin, high cheekbones and red lips.

“Cody!” she called.

Hearing his name, everyone else in the parking lot noticed Cody with Aiyana on his back. Pandemonium broke out.

Before everyone reached them, Aiyana said, “Cody, what’s wrong? Who is she?”

“She’s my wife.”

Ah, yes. His wife.

“My ex. We divorced six months ago.”

Aiyana stared at the beautiful woman whose hungry gaze devoured Cody.

“Cody, I don’t think she got the memo.”

His sigh rumbled through her.

Yep, Aiyana thought, best not to let her pesky infatuation get out of hand. Good thing she wasn’t anywhere close to the right headspace to start anything right now.

For a brief moment, she tightened her grip on the beautiful man in her arms, but eased up when her father ran over.

* * *

CODY CURSED HIMSELF, his wife and his life from here to eternity. How much more was he supposed to bear?

The big question looming—What is she doing here?—was lost in the confusion of the searchers converging on them. Salem reached them first, grasping Aiyana’s face and kissing her cheeks, her forehead, over and over. He couldn’t seem to stop.

“We were afraid to hope that you were okay,” Salem said, voice raw, face ravaged. “It was taking so long... Then Cody disappeared, too. We wanted to believe he was with you.”

He smiled at Cody, the effort wobbly. “Thank you. I’ll never forget this.”

Emily ran up. “Bro, you’re my hero. Aiyana, why was Cody carrying you?”

“I hurt my ankle. I can’t walk on it.”

Emily motioned to the paramedics, who were already wheeling a stretcher over.

Careful with their actions, they took her from Cody’s back. For some strange reason, he had trouble letting her go.

She’d been a burden, physically, but he missed her warmth against his back, the solid real weight of her that took his mind off his many other amorphous burdens. If only he could rid himself of them as easily as handing Aiyana off to her family.

Salem held her hand as though she were a fine china doll. She didn’t mention the gunshots.

The paramedics wheeled her toward the ambulance.

Cody made to follow. His wife appeared in front of him, blocking his path, enveloping him in a perfume-scented hug. He extricated himself from her arms. She knew it was over. The divorce proceedings had been final for six months.

“Why are you here, Stacey?” Hands on her upper arms, he put distance between them.

Her hesitant smile surprised him. Stacey wasn’t a hesitant person. “I’d like to talk.”

“Why? What’s left to discuss?”

She bit her lower lip. Tears formed in her luminous eyes. “Please. I need to talk to you.”

Cody held back a sigh, drawing on the last vestige of patience he had.

“Fine. We’ll talk. Again.”

From the corner of his eye, he noticed his mother approaching. Cody stepped away from his ex-wife.

“Cody,” Laura said, voice etched with worry. “We were anxious when you didn’t call or return.” She hugged him, holding him longer than she should have, but he understood. The tension in her arms, in her concerned frown, spoke the language of his childhood and motherly love.

While she fostered independence in her children, his mother had always been there for them, waiting in the background in case they needed her.

He’d outgrown his need, but not his yearning for her reassuring hugs.

“Lightning must’ve knocked out the cell tower.” He patted her back, hoping to offer as much reassurance as she gave him. “I couldn’t call—”

Stacey slipped her arm through Laura’s, essentially stopping their conversation. “Your mom and I had a nice talk. She agrees that marriages need to be worked on.”

Cody’s mother glanced at Stacey sharply. Cody saw red. Stacey had the ability to see only her own point of view and to think everyone else agreed with her.

He grasped Stacey’s elbow, physically removed her hand from his mother’s arm and all but dragged her away from onlookers to the other side of his SUV.

“Don’t look to make allies here.” He leaned close, intent on laying down the law of this land. His land. “These are my people. You have no standing here. Our marriage is over. You know that.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but he ran roughshod over her. He knew what she needed from him—forgiveness—but absolution was out of the question.

“We can’t be friends, Stacey. We can’t have anything more to do with each other.”

She stared at him with pleading eyes. “Can’t you try, for me? I need you, Cody.”

He hung his head.

“Know what, Stace? I’m too tired to do this right now. I need about twelve hours’ sleep.”

How long did she plan to stay?

“Did you book a room at the B and B?”

“Of course not. I’m staying with you, at your parents’ house.”

“No.” Out of the question.

“Why not?”

“I’m not trying to be heartless, but I can’t handle this right now. I left California to get away from everything. We’re divorced. It’s over.”

She chewed on her lip. “But I—”

“Stop!” A few people turned at his raised voice. He lowered it. “I’m sorry you came all this way, I truly am, but we aren’t together and never will be again.”

He opened her door. “I’ll take you to the B and B. They’ll have room.”

“But it will cost me.”

“Yeah. I’m afraid so.”

“I don’t want it to be over, Cody.”

“I know, but we’ve gone around this a hundred times. Please, get in the car.”

When he noticed how unhappy she looked, he softened his tone. He was taking his fatigue out on her. “Let’s get a good night’s sleep and talk in the morning. Okay?”

She nodded and slipped into the car.

He walked toward Aiyana to find out how she was doing, but drew up short. Salem and Emily hovered like mother hens, showering her with care and tenderness, exactly as she deserved. Exactly where she belonged. He was an interloper.

They said when one door closed, another opened, but here Cody was, back in his hometown, and all of the doors were old and already known. There were no doors that hadn’t always been open to him. For a few precious moments in the wilderness with Aiyana, he’d wondered whether there might be a new door opening, but no. She had her life ahead of her. And he had a lot of repair work in front of him to make his life worth anything at all.

As for his doors back in LA? They were closed for good. But his mind hadn’t yet left that world behind, and wouldn’t for a while. This feeling of straddling two worlds might be the death of him. He needed to sort out Stacey once and for all.

He asked, “How did you get to the park?”

“I rented a car at the airport and made my way to your parents’ house. Your uncle was there dropping off stuff in case the search went into a second day. He offered to drive me here.”

Thanks, Noah, Cody thought with an uncharacteristic bitterness toward his uncle.

He was being unfair. It wasn’t Noah’s fault; his uncle had merely exercised his basic decency.

Cody drove her into town, stopping to retrieve her suitcases from her rental car on the way, and parked in front of the big old Victorian originally owned by the town’s founding father well over a hundred years ago.

Physically taking her right into the B and B and making sure she rented a room was the only way to guarantee she wouldn’t end up back at his house.

Cody carried her luggage in for her and waited while she registered. In her room, he set it all onto the floor and turned to her.

“I’ll bring your rental car and see you off in the morning.”

“Can’t we at least have dinner?”

“Stacey, I need a clean break. I’m sorry.” He knew he sounded frustrated. To soften the blow of his honesty—they’d been around this too many times—he kissed her forehead. “I can’t do this anymore and you shouldn’t want to, either. It isn’t healthy.”

He opened the door to leave.

“We’ll talk tomorrow. I promise.”

Back in his parents’ house, he showered, closed the blinds in the bedroom he’d grown up in and crawled into bed, pulling the covers over his head.

With a little luck, when he woke up, the past dozen years would have all been a bad dream.

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