Page 11 of The Fragile Ones

“Fine?Does this look fine to you?” he complained, gesturing to the rain beyond and the trail they had entered from.

Ty spoke up. “We wouldn’t be okay if Katie hadn’t acted as quickly as she did.”

“I think you just made Butch’s point, because we wouldn’tbe hereif it wasn’t for Katie,” said Keith, chuckling. It was unclear if he was also annoyed or just liked being the devil’s advocate.

“Let’s just calm down,” said Katie. “The storm should be out of our way in about another half hour. That is…if you still want to continue.” She didn’t make any effort to hide her sarcasm.

The group remained quiet.

“We can easily go back the way we came.”

Cisco padded over to her and sat obediently at her side—calm, alert, and focused.

“I think we should wait this out and then move forward. There’s still plenty of time left today. It’s up for a vote,” said Matt looking to his crew.

Taking a break from his camera, Emir said enthusiastically, “I’m in.”

“Why not,” said Keith. “I’m in.”

“I’m in,” said Ty.

Matt looked at Butch—waiting.

“What do you think? Of course, I’m in,” said Butch with some reluctance.

“Okay,” said Matt, turning to Katie, “looks like we’re all in.”

“Good,” said Katie. “Just relax. Have some water and a snack. And…we wait.” She moved to the other side of the garage where there were several folding chairs. Grabbing one, she opened it and sat down. Cisco took his position at her side and lay down. Katie pulled her cell phone out and saw that she had a couple of voicemails and one text from McGaven.

The text read:Hey, did you get stuck in that storm? Everything okay? Do we need to send out search and rescue?

Katie decided to call McGaven as she watched the film crew settle down and eat.

McGaven answered on one ring. “You okay?”

“Yeah, we’re all fine. We’re at the ranger sub-station off Rifle Ridge waiting it out.”

“Oh yeah, that sounds like fun. Tough road.”

“It was, but we’ll be just fine,” she said.

“I feel bad for you,” he said. “That was crazy. But it does get you out of the office.” He laughed.

Katie watched the men mumbling quietly to one another—and looking over at her. Matt took out two folding chairs and gave her a smile. She wished she was anywhere but here—even testifying in court seemed like a better option.

She sighed. “It is what it is…”

“Okay, look, if you need anything or if something goes sideways—you know who to call, right?”

“Yeah, my uncle.” She smiled.

“Funny…talk later.” The connection went dead.

Katie slowly returned her cell phone to her pocket as Ty walked up to her. “Would you like some power brownies?” he said, munching on one.

“Oh, no, thank you,” she said.

“They’re really good. All organic with seeds, cacao, chopped-up fruit.”