Page 35 of Edge of Ruin (The Edge Trilogy #3)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jack

I jerked to a stop at the skid marks on the cliff, my heart thudding. I leaped out, staring at the jagged trough the vehicle had made as it slid down into the water. My guts were knotted with terror. My mind still rejected the most probable outcome, but the rest of me shook with raw fear.

I vaulted over the gravel slope of the road’s shoulder and slid in the loose shale to the water’s edge.

I followed the current, hopping rocks, clambering on boulders, slogging through water.

I had to swim through cliff-lined channels, prying myself out of the current’s grip just before getting sucked into the rapids.

I finally spotted her, all the way across the river, spread out on a rock as if she’d washed up on it. Facedown, wet hair spread around her. I screamed her name over and over. She did not move.

I dove back in, fighting the water. Got across it, God alone knew how. I crawled up on to the rock and rolled her over with shaking hands.

Her eyes opened, locked into mine. I was so relieved, I burst into tears and dropped my face against her chest. Jesus Christ, her skin was ice cold.

But she was still alive. My soul shook with terrified joy.

It took us an interminable, staggering time to get back to my truck.

I would have carried her if I could, but we couldn’t go back the way we’d come, not with those channels, those sheer cliffs.

I couldn’t dump her into that icy current again, and the only alternative was to climb straight up to the road far above us.

Which meant that we had to scramble and claw our way up slippery rock faces, over shale and thorns and brambles. Vivi could barely keep herself upright.

My relief at finding her alive was undercut by growing fear. Her face was so white, her eyes so shadowed. She couldn’t stop shaking. She kept falling down. She could hardly speak. When we finally crawled onto the asphalt of the highway, I picked her up.

She murmured something at me, but her voice was weak and slurred.

I got back to my truck and sped to town. Squealed to a stop outside the emergency room at the hospital. We caused a big stir, and things moved with gratifying speed as the EMT techs got Vivi squared away.

I was annoyed to find some of the staff wanted to fuss over me, too. Big waste of time. I was fine. They should all concentrate on Vivi.

I begged a cell phone off one of the EMT techs and called a guy I knew in the local cop shop. “Hey, Tim? It’s Jack Kendrick.”

“Holy shit, man!” Tim exploded. “Where the hell are you?”

“Later for that. That son of a bitch who was lying unconscious in Unit 42 of Evergreen Acres. Do you guys have him in custody?”

Tim hesitated. “Uh ... are you okay, Jack?”

“I’m fine. What about the guy in Unit 42? That son of a bitch is a serial killer.”

“There was no guy in Unit 42,” Tim said.

“Just a trashed room, blood on the floor, and a bunch of bullet holes. Whatever happened in there, we missed it. Would have been really helpful if you’d been around to clue us into the serial killer thing, because he didn’t hang around, either.

And the chief was unthrilled with you for fucking off before you could give a statement. What were you thinking?”

I blew out a long shuddering sigh as the cold sank even more deeply into my bones. “You have no idea,” I muttered.

I closed the call as he was still talking, passed the phone back, and ripped the IV needle out of my arm, ignoring the scolding lectures.

I grabbed a chair and situated it outside the curtained cubicle where Vivi lay, a vantage point that gave me a clear view of both ends of the corridor plus the lobby entrance.

I was almost hoping the guy would make a move.

I wanted to fucking finish this, already.