Cody's Come Home

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?”