She shook her head. “I’m afraid to let go, but I don’t think I can hold on much longer.”
Lance aimed the flashlight on the slope below her feet. “There’s a boulder nine inches from your right foot. If your foot is at six o’clock, the rock is at two o’clock. Prop your foot on it, then reach for my hand.”
Haley raised her leg. Her bare toes felt for and found the rock. She braced against it, then looked up at him. Her eyes were white-rimmed with fear.
Lance reached for her hand. “You can do it.”
Their gazes met. Haley swallowed, and determination tightened her jaw.
She pushed off the boulder, released one hand from the barrier, and stretched toward him. Lance caught her by the wrist and pulled her up and over the rail. Her feet hit the earth, her knees buckled, and she began to sob.
Lance turned his attention to Isaac, forced him to his knees, and secured his hands behind his back with a zip tie.
Morgan rushed to the girl’s side, wrapped her arms around her, and told her, “It’s all right. It’s all over.”
Morgan supported Haley with an arm around her waist. “Let’s get you out of here. You’re freezing.”
“Where did you come from?” Lance asked Morgan.
The breeze blew her hair across her face, and she shoved it back. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch you, so I drove to the other end of the trail and circled down from the road.”
She was so smart, he thought with a giddy burst of pride.
Haley was wearing only thin yoga pants and a T-shirt. She’d used her sweatshirt to stem Sharp’s bleeding. Lance took off his jacket and wrapped it around her. Looking at Haley’s bare feet made him think of his own, and his stitches began to throb. He suspected his dash down the trail had torn them.
A small price to pay for surviving. Not that he’d had much to do with that in the end. Morgan had saved them.
Esposito and two state troopers ran into the clearing. Lance handed Isaac over. Then he moved to Haley’s other side to support her. She was moving gingerly, both of her feet hurting. The cold, rocky trail must have been brutal in bare feet.
He caught Morgan’s eye over the girl’s shoulders, then scooped Haley into his arms. She weighed nothing. But she’d survived. Toughness had nothing to do with bulk and brawn and everything to do with determination and the ability to think under duress.
He glanced at Morgan. She defined grace under pressure. As she fell into step beside him, he knew that was exactly the way he wanted to spend the rest of his life: with her at his side.
Morgan grabbed Esposito’s arm. “How is Sharp?”
“I don’t know.” The ADA looked at the ground and shook his head. “He didn’t look good. I’m sorry.”
Lance’s heart squeezed as he carried Haley up the trail to the road. He couldn’t imagine life without Sharp. Dread fisted in his gut.
“Obviously, I shot Chase, so I can’t leave the scene,” Morgan said to him. “You take Haley to the hospital. You both should be checked out. I’ll come as soon as I can.”
“I love you.” Lance kissed her. Even through the grief that threatened to take hold of him, he was more grateful than ever that she’d come into his life. He couldn’t imagine facing this without her.
“Love you back.” She opened the passenger door. “Don’t discount Sharp just yet. He’s tough.”
Lance set Haley in the car, rounded the vehicle, and slid behind the wheel. Morgan crossed her arms and stepped back. The wind blew her hair across her face, but he could see the worry in her eyes. They both knew how much blood Sharp had lost.
Chapter Forty-Five
In the corner of the ICU, Morgan filled two Styrofoam cups with coffee. Across the way, she could see through the glass partition into Sharp’s room, where Lance sat at the bedside. She rooted through a drawer and found a stash of shortbread cookies.
Her stomach rumbled. Daylight filtered through the blinds, and she blinked. She hadn’t even noticed that the sun had risen.
The door opened, and Esposito walked into the unit. He spotted her and altered his course. He set a cup on the pod-style machine and pressed “Brew.” “How’s Sharp?”
“He had a lacerated liver and lost a lot of blood. But the surgery went well. He made it through the night, and the doctors are hopeful.” Morgan filled her pocket with little packs of cookies. “Who else survived the night?”
Her bullet had caught Chase in the center of the back and had penetrated his heart. He’d been dead when he’d hit the ground. She wasn’t sure how she felt about killing him, and she imagined her conscience would trouble her when she fully processed it. But she’d made the right decision. Chase would have shot Haley, and Morgan couldn’t have let that happen. Lance’s opinion had been good riddance.
Morgan picked up the two coffee cups and walked back toward Sharp’s room. Lance spotted them through the window and walked out into the hallway to join them. He turned, keeping one eye on Sharp through the open door, as he’d done all night long.
Morgan did a quick scan of Sharp’s machines. Nothing had changed. He was breathing. His heart was beating. She said a prayer that he continued to do those things. She handed Lance his coffee and offered him a pack of cookies from her pocket.
“No, thanks.” He shook his head.
Morgan opened the plastic with her teeth and ate a shortbread.
Lance sniffed his coffee and lowered the cup. “I don’t suppose Isaac has started talking,” he said to the ADA.
“No. The only words Isaac spoke were to request his lawyer.” Esposito drank his coffee and made a disgusted face. The ADA must have stopped home to shower and change his clothes, because he was wearing a suit instead of jeans. The only signs of the night before were a burn on his jaw and the shadows under his eyes. He tossed his half-full cup in a nearby trash can. “But Justin woke up during the night, and his mouth has been on a confession marathon. He got lucky. The bullet grazed him. Lots of blood, no real damage.”
Morgan’s sister had brought her a change of clothes, and Lance wore a pair of hospital scrubs donated by an orderly.
Lance perked up. “He seemed ready to break.”
“He’s so guilt ridden, it’s pathetic,” Esposito said. “He signed a ten-page confession. Justin and Isaac are both going to prison forever.”
“Justin, Chase, and Isaac were in it together?” Morgan had been pondering possibilities all night.
“Yes.” Esposito took a deep breath. “Justin says it all began last summer at a music festival. Noah wasn’t with them. He ditched them to spend the day with a girl. Isaac, Chase, and Justin were all pretty steamed that he’d blown them off again. They ran across a very drunk woman named Adele Smith in the parking lot and decided to have sex with her. They took her to a secluded spot and gave her more alcohol. Isaac slipped a few of Justin’s Ambiens into her vodka, but he wasn’t patient enough to wait for the pills to work. They all raped her. She struggled and yelled a little at first. Isaac smacked her around and even half choked her to make her shut up. Eventually, they all passed out. When they woke up, she was dead. They’d given her too much Ambien on top of all the booze. They’d used condoms, and none of them had any felony convictions. Their DNA was not in the system. They thought they were in the clear. They left her body by the side of the road and went home.”
“Shit.” Lance drank his coffee and crushed the empty cup. “They’re animals.”
“There’s more.” Esposito folded his arms. “They took pictures.”
Appalled, Morgan felt her mouth drop open. She wasn’t sure if she was more surprised by their callousness or stupidity.
“And Noah saw some of the pictures,” Esposito continued. “They lied to Noah, telling him it was an accident. They were all drunk and didn’t even remember most of it.”
“Obviously that was bullshit.” Lance’s arms tensed.
“How could it have been an accident?” Morgan needed more coffee for her brain to make all the connections. “They gave her Ambien.”