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“If Kiley knew where she was, she’d have gone that way,” Rob said, pointing toward the woods.

Kendra looked that way briefly, torn. She wanted to go to her father. Doc Sophie was still in the cabin working on him. He was dying. He was dead, maybe. If she was still pumping his chest, that meant he was dead, didn’t it? Maybe he’d come back, but right now….

There was a Life-Flight chopper on its way to get him. Her heart was bleeding for Jack, but she had to save her sister. It’s what he came here to do. He’s be pissed if she didn’t follow through. “Why do you think she’d go that way, Rob?”

 “Edie and Wade’s place is that way. It’s not more than a mile if you cut through the woods at an angle.”

“I don’t think it was there when we were kids,” Kendra said. “Does she know about it?”

“She does,” Rob said. “We’ve been there.”

“Fourth of July Brand-McIntyre family barbeque,” Joey filled in.

“Then she might’ve gone that way. I don’t know, though, she’s always had the worst sense of direction. We need to split up. Cover more ground,” she said. She looked around, trying to sense which direction Kiley would’ve taken. “I’m going this way.” Kendra took off, stomping into the forest. Dax was on her heels.

Jimmy-police-chief Corona came to edge of the woods, calling after them. “Wait, wait, just give me two minutes so we can make sure we’re not all covering the same ground! It’ll save time later. Kendra, Dax, come back.”

Kendra stopped, turned, went back to him, held out her hand. “I want my gun back.”

“I can’t—”

“Seriously, I don’t want to end up like my old man.”

“No.”

“Kendra,” Dax called.

She looked back at him. He tapped his backside. Holy shit, Dax was armed. He’d picked up the gun Phil had dropped.

She was rubbing off on him. That’s wasn’t a good thing, and she knew it, but at this moment, she was glad. She headed into the woods. They were familiar. She’d been there before.

They were nine years old. She and Kiley had sneaked away from a nice cabin, farther down the hillside, where they’d been having a camping weekend with their Dad. He said he had permission from the owners, but Kendra knew better. He’d had to pick the lock to get them in. You didn’t pick locks when you had permission. But she understood her dad’s point of view, too. Perfectly good cabin sitting there empty most of the year. Rich people didn’t have any sense. 

At four a.m., barely daylight, she and Kiley had sneaked out to go on an adventure.

“What time you think it is now?” Kiley had asked. She was peering through the trees with her elbow over her eyes trying to see the sun, but she was looking too high up.

“It’s gotta be seven. Dad’ll be awake by eight,” Kendra told her.

Kiley dropped her arm and looked at her with wide eyes. “That’s not enough time to get back!”

“So what?” Kendra started back down the deer trail they’d followed.

“We’ll get in trouble,” Kiley said. “I hate getting in trouble.”

“It’s not a big deal. What’s he gonna do? Ground us to our rooms when we get home? Who cares? We got TVs in our rooms.”

“We’re going on that field trip to the Astrobleme Museum Friday.”

“Riiiight,” Kendra said, slowing down so Kiley could walk alongside her. “This is gonna get us out of that, for sure.”

“But I wanna go!”

“Why?”

Kiley shrugged. “Because I’ve never seen it before. A meteor crater eight miles wide? Come on. How can you not want to see that? I love seeing things I’ve never seen before.” Then she hung her head. “But now I won’t get to see it. Maybe I’ll never see it.”

Kendra sighed and looked around. “Maybe there’s a shortcut. That road was really twisty.” Then she heard the soft sounds of bubbling, tumbling water. “Streams run downhill, and streams feed the waterfall. Our cabin—”

“It’s not our cabin.”

“It is today. Our cabin is within sight of the waterfall. So we follow the stream downhill.” And off she went, feeling pretty damn good about herself because for once, she’d been smarter than Kiley. Yes, Kendra was the leader, and also the best at Jack’s lessons, but Kiley was the smart one. Most of the time.

Turned out later she hadn’t been so smart after all. They’d spotted the cabin and taken off running, and it had turned into a race, and they were so damn competitive. Kendra more so than Kiley. But this time Kiley pulled ahead of her, and then she ran right off a….

Kiley ran right off a cliff.

She’d dashed out the door of the shack, and left her poor father behind, not knowing if he would die because of it. She’d had no choice. She’d taken off at a dead run—which in her shape, was more like a headlong wobble. As she went deeper into the woods, she was mentally calculating the fastest route to Edie and Wade’s gorgeous A-frame and angling in the direction she thought it would be.

She hadn’t gone very far when the tightening sensation came again. It hurt, and she didn’t think it should, not this soon. Labor took a long time. Especially for first-timers. Every female in Big Falls who’d managed to reproduce, and most of those of those who hadn’t, had told her so.

She pressed her back to a tree until the pressure eased, and while she waited, she listened. But she didn’t hear anyone giving chase. Not yet. Maybe Caine didn’t care. God, she hoped her father was okay. That was damn heroic, what he did back there. He had to have known the risk.

Who knew he had it in him? 

She had to get to a house, to a phone, to Rob. She had to find a safe place to have her baby, and send help back for her dad. She wished she’d told him. She should have told him. He was going to be a grandfather. He wasn’t all bad. He might’ve given his life for her baby’s back there.

She loved him.

As soon as the contraction eased, she took off again, as fast as she could, and then she stopped again to let the pain pass, and then she ran again. This went on right up until a twig snapped while she was moving, which made her run even faster while looking back over her shoulder in terror.

And then suddenly, there was nothing under her feet, and she was falling. She hit the sloping side, scraping and banging over dirt and stone and continuing to plummet. She kept her arms around her belly as best she could, and prayed for it to end.

When she finally came to a stop, every part of her screamed in pain. And she laid there, panting, hurting, terrified.

She pushed herself up a little, just enough to see her baby bump and run her hands over it. “Move,” she whispered. “Move, Diana. Show Mamma you’re okay.”

Another contraction came. It was so powerful she yelped. But Diana hadn’t kicked.

She tried to breathe through it until it ebbed. She ought to be timing them, but she’d left her damn watch… oh, God, why didn’t I grab the watch from the outhouse when I left? They could’ve found me. God only knows where I am.

She licked her lips and looked around her, praying for something familiar.

And it floated back to her. This whole thing was familiar. God, why didn’t she remember sooner? How could she go running off the edge of the world in the same exact spot twice?

Another contraction came. “No. It’s too soon. They’re too close.” She held on for dear life and blew puffs of air through her lips.

Kendra stopped in her tracks as she heard her sister scream.

Dax charged past her, running like the hero he was. “Dax don’t! There’s a—” Too late. He’d vanished. She heard him grunting as he tumbled. “Drop-off,” she finished, lamely.

She ran to the edge, then skirted it until she found a slightly less vertical slope, and scrambled down, sliding, falling, catching herself, and eventually reaching the bottom. Dax was right where he’d landed, his leg bent at an impossible angle underneath him. Kiley lay not far from him, her back against a tree, her face wet with tears, her breaths coming too fast.

“You okay, Dax?” she asked as she ran to her sister and fell to her knees beside her.

He said, “Yeah. Kiley?”

Kendra brushed her sister’s hair off her face. “I’m here, Kiley. I’m here. Everything’s okay now.”

“I’m in labor,” Kiley whispered. Kendra thought her heart stopped. “Is Dax okay?”

“I’m all right,” Dax said. He was making his way to them, dragging himself along the forest floor. Kendra could see the strain on his face. He was hurting. “I lost the damn radio on the way down. Still got the gun, though.”

“Gun?” Kiley asked, wide-eyed, terrified.

“I’ve got my cell.” Kendra yanked it out, held it up. No bars. “Dammit.” She scanned the slope for the walkie-talkie, but then Kiley cried out again.

“I want Rob!” There were tears in her voice. “The baby’s coming, Kendra. She’s coming!”

Kendra looked at Dax, who’d braced himself up against an adjacent sapling. “Dax, what are we gonna do?”

“We’re gonna help your sister have a baby,” he told her. And he said it so calmly she almost believed him. He took off his coat, wincing every time he moved. She looked at his leg. It was bent in a way shin bones should not bend. Her stomach lurched. “Hey,” he said. Then he tossed her “Turn it inside out and lay that underneath her. “Then go wash your hands in the stream. I wish we had some damn soap.”

Kendra hurried to obey, helping Kily lift her hips up and sliding the coat underneath. Then she ran to the stream, nearby and thrust her hand into the icy cold water. It felt good. She heard Dax talking softly to her sister, easing Kiley’s panic as she hurried back. She tried to quell her own fear, or at least keep it hidden. She took off her own jacket, covered her sister with it.

Kiley started moaning and breathing too fast.

“Hey, hey, Kiley,” Dax said. “Look at me, look me right in the eye.” She turned to face him. “We’ve got this. You know how many foals I’ve helped into the world? We’ve got this, hon. You’re gonna be okay. So’s Diana.”

“What if she was hurt in the fall?”

“She was riding along in a liquid-filled beach ball. She’s fine. Say it now. Diana is fine.”

“Diana’s fine.” She took a few fast breaths, nodding. “She’s fine.”

“We need to get you undressed okay? Kendra, can you help with that?”

Kendra looked at him, saw him in a way she’d never seen him before. But she snapped out of it and slid Kiley’s pants off. Kiley bent her knees and pressed them to the ground, and blew rapid, short breaths.

 “God, Dax, you really think we can do this?”

“Kiley’s doin’ this. We’re just helping. I know a fair bit about birthing. Now tell me what you see, I can’t get over there very well just now.”

“I see… something,” Kendra said. “Is that her head?”

“I need to push!”

Dax said, “Kendra, you need to check the cord…”

“I need to push!” This was happening way faster than Kendra had expected. The baby’s head was already coming out.

“She’s…purple,” Kendra said.

Dax sat up straight. “Stop pushing. Blow, Kiley, blow little puffs. Don’t push. Kendra, you have to use your fingers to make sure the cord isn’t around the baby’s neck. Do it now.”

Kendra ran her fingers around the neck, found the cord wrapped tight there. “Hold back, don’t push, I mean it Kiley!” she told her sister.

Kiley panted, blew, whimpered. Kendra knelt there, freaking out, working to loosen the cord from around the baby’s neck without tearing it, which she sensed would be bad. It took some doing, but she got it loose. “Okay. Kiley, it’s okay now.”

Kiley growled and pushed, and the baby’s head emerged, followed quickly by her shoulders, and then the rest of her. Kendra caught her, and Dax tossed his shirt at her. Diana wasn’t moving. She wasn’t moving! Kendra looked at Dax, then at the baby again as she wrapped her in the shirt.

“What is it?” Kiley tried to sit up to see. “What’s wrong?”

“Turn her sideways,” Dax said. “Clear her airways. Give her good rubdown.

Kendra did everything he said. “Come on, Diana. Come on, now.”

“She’s not breathing? Why isn’t she breathing?” Kiley pushed herself upright and stared at her child. “Oh no!” She clapped a hand over her mouth.

Kendra didn’t think she’d ever willed anything the way she willed that baby to live. Impulsively, she leaned over, covered the baby’s nose and mouth with her own and gave three tiny puffs.

As she lifted her head away, the baby wiggled. And then she wailed. It was a congested, snuffly sound as was every newborn’s first cry.

Smiling so hard her face hurt, her tears flowing, Kendra gazed at the scrunched, rapidly pinkening face. “Hello, Diana. I’m your aunt Kendra. And this is your mamma.” She eased the baby into Kiley’s arms, “She’s okay. She’s okay, Kiley.”

She watched Kiley gather the baby to her, saw the bliss in her sister’s eyes, and the way Diana’s seemed to stare right into them, like she knew her. Shaking her head, she turned to Dax,  and saw a big old tear roll slowly down over his cheek.

She crawled to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and held on.

Voices came from the rim of the drop-off. Kendra looked up sharply. “Is that the rest of the gang?”

But then the sound crackled oddly, and Dax said, “That’s the walkie-talkie. I must’ve dropped it on the way down.” The sound was coming from the top of the ridge.

“Perfect timing. Stay here. Take care of them. I’ll climb up and get that radio, guide the others in.”

Kiley sniffled. “Kendra?”

Kendra went to her. “You did great. Rob’s gonna be so proud.”

“You saved us,” she whispered. “Just like always. I love you so much, Kendra.” She locked an arm around Kendra’s neck and hugged her hard.

“I love you, too.” She gazed down at the baby. Diana had stopped crying. She had an elfin face, a face like a newborn fairy child, and wide eyes of the darkest, wettest blue-black-slate she’d ever seen. They were magic, those eyes.

 “I’m gonna go get help, okay? Your doting husband is worried sick.”

“Okay. Don’t go far, Kendra. I need you.”

“Yeah,” Dax said. “Don’t go far. I need you, too.”

Kendra was in awe of Dax Russell, the guy she thought she knew already.  She hadn’t had a clue, though. She’d thought he was soft, but he was strong. She’d thought he was sweet, but he was good. He was just good. Too good for the likes of her.

She found a spot to climb up the hill. It was cold, and she’d given her jacket to her sister. Dax was down there shirtless. At least she was moving. The effort warmed her a little. She got to the top of the drop off, and then looked back and waved at the three people she loved most in the whole world. Then she moved along the ridge at the top, back to the spot where Dax had fallen over. Sure enough, the radio was there in the dirt near the edge. She picked it up and keyed the mic. “I found her. Everything’s fine. There’s a steep drop. She and Dax are at the bottom.”

“Kendra, be careful!” She didn’t recognize the voice. Was it Chief Jimmy? “Caine got away.”

“What?”

“He said, ‘Caine got away,’” Vester Caine said. He was standing behind her. She turned around slowly. She glanced at the radio.

“Not another word. Put the radio down.”

Her thumb was working the transmit button, depressing it and releasing it, 3 times quickly, 3 times slowly 3 times quickly. She got two S.O.S. sequences out before dropping the radio to ground, and then “accidentally” kicking it over the side.

“Come with me.”

“What the hell do you want, Caine? You got Jack. You had your revenge. Didn’t you see how bad off he was back there?”

“He’s still alive. Or was. They choppered him out of there after you left. Phil, too. You should’ve shot me instead of him. Why didn’t you?”

“I knew he’d talk if I hurt him. You wouldn’t have.”

He pressed his lips and nodded slowly. “You’re right, I wouldn’t.” He waved the gun barrel. “This way. Move.”

She didn’t look back. Maybe he didn’t realize Jack’s other daughter, and grandchild were so nearby. She moved quickly, to put distance between them before the baby cried or one of them called her name. But the path he made her take led around the top of the ridge, so they were circling, rather than moving away from them. Dax would take care of Kiley and the baby until help arrived. And if help didn’t arrive, he’d carry them both down off this hill on his back, one-legged. She didn’t doubt it a bit. All she had to do was keep this animal from noticing them down there.

“So you’re gonna kill me to get back at Jack for stealing your whiskey and cigars? Is that what this is?”

“I oughtta kill you for what you did to Phil. You know how hard it is to get good help these days?”

“Right. I bet soulless thugs are hard to come by.”

“They are. But no. I’m not gonna kill you. Not yet anyway. I need to get across the border.”

“Mexico?” He didn’t answer, but she was sure he had a billion-dollar spread south of the border. Heroin was big business. All this wasn’t even going to put a wrinkle in his silk sheets.

“Follow that trail there,” he said, wagging the gun.

The trail he indicated circled around drop-off, and the place at the bottom where Kiley had given birth. It kept them too close. She wanted to get him to move further away from them.

“Why this way? I think the road is over here. If we cut through—”

“The road is the way we’re going,” he said. She didn’t know if he was right or wrong, didn’t know how he thought he knew, and didn’t care. “Move it.”

She sighed, and kept walking. Maybe if she just went fast enough, they could get around the other side, and out of earshot before the baby cut loose another wail.

Dax heard Kendra’s voice on the radio, and then heard the radio tumbling and banging its way down the face of the drop-off. It followed the path he’d taken down himself.

“What was that?” Kiley asked.

He held up a hand so she’d go quiet, just in case, and scanned the ground until he spotted the walkie-talkie lying at the bottom. Then he looked up in time to see two forms moving off into the trees.

Two forms.

“Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

He glanced at Kiley. “Keep the baby as quiet as you can, okay?” Then he crawled on two hands and one knee, dragging the broken leg behind him. Pain screamed all the way to his teeth, but he kept it contained, grabbed the walkie. “Anyone there?” He spoke as softly as he could, and turned the volume down while awaiting a response.

Rob’s voice came back. “We’re on our way. Be careful, Caine got away from Jimmy. Cracked him over the head with a rock and ran off through the woods. I was just telling Kendra that when she started keying in an SOS, then went silent. What happened?”

He glanced upward again, then a twig snapped further away, drawing his gaze. He turned the radio off, scanning the trees to the right of them. And he saw them, shadows in the trees, Kendra in front, and a man behind her.

Caine.

He slid a look Kiley’s way. The look on her face told him she’d seen it, too. He nodded at her, gave a stay calm gesture with his palm. Then he got his leg out in front of him, gripped his shin with both hands, and yanked the broken bone back into place. The sound was sickening, the pain more so. Kiley clapped a hand over her mouth. He sat there, hands on the break. He didn’t have time to wait long, though. He looked around, located a long, sturdy looking limb, and slid closer. Then he got up on one leg and, using the limb as a crutch, hobbled across the little clearing.

Kendra and Caine seemed to be circling it, making their way to the lower side by going around rather than over the drop. The road must be in that direction.

He kept the gun in his jeans, its metal cold against his bare back, and moved as quickly and quietly as he could to the bottom edge of their clearing. Then he pulled the gun out, looked at it, and shaking his head, put it back. He couldn’t shoot a man.

They were coming closer. He positioned himself near the edge of the animal trail they seemed to be following, behind a crooked pine tree, stood on one leg, and picked up his crutch.

They came into sight. He waited. They moved closer. They stepped right in front of his spot. The baby started to cry. Cain and his gun swung in that direction. Kendra turned and grabbed his gun hand, getting right between it and the baby, so its barrel was aimed at her chest as she yanked on his arm. Dax hopped out and brought the crutch down like a sledge hammer on Caine’s head.

The limb broke right in half. Dax pulled out the damn gun as Cain spun around, yanking Kendra right off her feet, but she did not let go of that arm.

“Drop it or I’ll yank your arm out of its socket you dirty rotten—” She sank her teeth into his forearm. He punched her in the face with his free hand and she dropped to the ground like a sack of feed.

Dax shot him. The bullet hit him in the right shoulder, spinning him right around, and Kendra jumped up onto her feet, snatched Caine’s gun from him easily, and backed up until she was standing beside Dax. Cain dropped to his knees, clutching his bleeding shoulder. “I hate you fucking Kelloggs.”

“Should’a aimed for his head,” Kendra said. She glanced sideways at him, saw the pain on his face. He wobbled, and she wrapped her arm around his waist. “Lean on me, big guy.”

He put an arm around her. There were people running, crashing through the woods by then. Chief Jimmy Corona, a nasty wound on his head all swollen and cut. It had bled all over his face. He walked up behind Caine and handcuffed him, in spite of the shoulder wound. Caine yelped in pain but no one cared.

Rob shouted for Kiley, and she called back. He ran to her, wrapped her and the baby in his arms and held them. Dax couldn’t see his face, but he’d bet there were tears on it.

Four wheelers growled from a distance, the BFFD had come to the rescue.

Dax squeezed Kendra’s shoulders. “Long day, huh?”

She let her head fall onto his shoulder, watching her sister’s little family embracing a few yards away. “Long day,” she agreed. “You did so good, Dax.”

“So did you, Kendra. You are good. You just don’t know it, is all.”