Page 48

The bridge shifted as more of the supporting beams that held it up collapsed. Jo’s grip slipped, and she held on with one hand now. Moisture bloomed on her palms.

I don’t want to die because of this bridge.

All this time Pop had taken her to this bridge, he hadn’t been contemplating how to fix it. Had he been contemplating the possibility of this moment when he would face off with his enemy?

“Jo, hang on. I’m coming.” Cole gasped out the words.

She reached up and pulled herself forward.

“I’ve got it. I’ve got it. Just ... you get off this bridge.

Don’t you dare go after him. Pop is right.

” She pulled herself farther, gaining traction with her feet, and glanced back at Cole.

He was still hanging precariously. How could she reach him?

Her heart might just break at that look on his face.

“Come on, Cole. You can do this. Pop is right too. That river has already taken Martin out to the ocean.”

Could he survive that? Only God knew.

She finally climbed up onto the ridge and off the bridge. Heart pounding, limbs shaking, she sat up. “Cole!”

He wasn’t going to make it. This wasn’t right. She’d found him on that beach a year ago, and she’d been able to save him then. But the rail from which he hung wasn’t going to last much longer. She couldn’t get to him. He couldn’t get to her.

The metal twisted and Cole dropped farther, hanging precariously. Jo held back a yelp. Her pulse skyrocketed. She couldn’t lose this man.

Despite the twisting railing, Cole started up, climbing toward her. Jo could meet him halfway. She had to help him. If she could just grip one of his hands and pull him onto the remaining structure. She inched toward him, now fully on the bridge again.

“What are you doing, Jo?” Pop called from across the bridge. “What’s left of the bridge isn’t going to hold you both.”

Finally, she lay flat and gripped Cole’s hand.

“He’s right, you know,” Cole said. “You shouldn’t be out here.”

Even so, Cole squeezed her hand and used it to maneuver toward the part of the bridge that remained intact though still unstable, crawling from where he hung over the rushing Pulsap River, which flowed right into the ocean only a mile or so away.

Breathing hard, Cole climbed onto the bridge and turned onto his back to catch his breath.

Jo grabbed his hand. “Let’s get off this bridge.”

He rolled to his knees to climb to his feet.

The bridge shuddered and collapsed beneath them. Jo and Cole tumbled toward the river, along with chunks of the old bridge. Pop called after them.

Jo screamed. Heart pounding, she prayed. Jesus , Jesus , Jesus! And that they would hit water and miss the rocks.

And above her, Pop stood looking down from the ledge, anguish on his features.

Fear gripped her. Tried to paralyze her. She’d already faced certain death in the fire. Had she survived that only to perish in the river?

The river current would be vicious. She had to prepare for that.

Fighting it through flailing would only increase the risk of dying.

She had no time to be afraid. Jo dragged in a breath before she hit the icy cold water.

She plunged deep, the shock engulfing her.

Beneath the surface, the river twisted her body, tumbling her around, over and over.

She fought to get to the surface as the current swept her away.

Finally, she breached the surface and frantically looked around to get a read on her surroundings. Any big threats coming up, above and beyond the river itself. She looked for Cole.

“Cole!” Jo shouted.

She had to stop fighting the river and let the current carry her.

Jo turned flat onto her back, her feet pointed downstream.

A violent undercurrent would drag her under.

She had to find a calmer part of the river and then she could swim at a forty-five-degree angle toward the riverbank, except this was a canyon that would take her all the way to the ocean and spit her out.

And the river never slowed.

Calm never happened.

She’d be washed out to the Pacific. Her limbs were already growing numb.

“Jo!” Cole appeared near her, shouting over the rapids. “We can do this. This will open up into an estuary. Swim out of it. Can you do that?”

“Yes!” Can you?

The river grew wider and more brackish toward the ocean. Only problem was the south side of the river remained an unbreachable ledge, but the north bank opened up. Jo’s limbs were so numb, she couldn’t even be sure she was still swimming as Cole urged her forward.

“We can do this,” he said. “Come on.”

Finally they crawled up onto a sandbar. A little bit farther, they would reach the shore.

Jo rolled onto her back, much like Cole had done on the bridge. The misting rain made sure she stayed wet after crawling from the river. “We have to get out of this, Cole. We both probably have hypothermia. The wind isn’t helping.”

“Okay,” he said. “Give me a minute.”

“How did you know?” she asked.

“How did I know what?”

“Where to find me?”

“I didn’t. But I wasn’t going to sit at the house and do nothing, so I started searching.

Detective Sanders put out an APB and closed the roads.

Troy Martin only had so many ways out of the Olympic Peninsula.

I thought about the R&D and that maybe there was a clue there.

I saw it burning as soon as I steered through Forestview.

It was a hunch, nothing else, but then the fire sealed it for me.

I knew he must have taken you there so he could wait for your father at his old shop.

There must have been something there he wanted. ”

“Pop’s die-cast collection. He gave Martin the space shuttle. My guess is that it had a small data drive in it. The die-cast models saved my life.”

She thought back to that moment in the shop when Martin had escorted Pop out and left her to burn. Pop had given her his last words to remember something he’d said.

Her body against the concrete, she was face-to-face with those ridiculous model cars.

Some crushed underfoot by a madman. Then she knew what Pop wanted her to remember.

Something he’d said referencing the model cars.

“The smallest details can have the biggest impact.” That was it, then.

That phrase defined his life over the last thirty years.

Those small details had been ignored and caused a disaster.

And that phrase had defined her life, her way out of the burning shop.

She’d been able to cut off her ties with the sharp edge of the smashed die-cast Lamborghini.

Cole started to get to his feet, yanking Jo’s attention back to their sandbar.

“I don’t believe it,” he said.

“What?”

“He’s alive. He made it.”

Jo rolled to look in the direction Cole stared. “That’s him limping away, isn’t it?”

“I can’t let him get away, Jo.”

Cole started, but she grabbed him and wouldn’t let him go. “He won’t get away, Cole.”

He stared at her long and hard and then dropped to his knees next to her. “You’re right. Now that the cops know who’s to blame, there’s nowhere he can hide. I just ... I want you to be free to live your life. Free ... to love.”

She sat up. “Thank you for that. Thank you. I’m free now, but ask me what I want. Go ahead.”

He drew closer to her, his face so near. Anguish filled his features. A gust of wind caused the sand to pelt his face, and he squinted to look at her. “I’m almost afraid to ask. But ... what do you want, Jo?”

“I need to know, Cole. What else were you going to tell me when you explained about being away for so long? You never finished.”

“I should have,” he said. “I don’t know why I held back. I love you, Jo. It’s as simple as that. I love you.”

That was all she wanted to hear. “I love you too. Please don’t ever leave me again.”

He quickly grabbed her up into his arms and kissed her thoroughly, warming her up. Forget hypothermia. After kissing her breathless, he released her. “I’m never leaving you, Jo. I think I loved you the first moment I saw you coming to my rescue.”