Page 90 of The Trip

I stared at the patchy sky, shivering while catching my breath. When I turned to Beth, her eyes were closed.

“I found her.”

Beth’s eyes snapped open. “You did? Where? Is she okay?”

I sat up and told Beth about fighting with Courtney after finding her in the woods. Beth sat up too. She stared pensively at the river while I recounted my cougar encounter and how I left Courtney alone to be ravaged by the beast without so much as warning her.

“And that’s when I found you,” I concluded. “I never should’ve left her.” I was filled with too much shame to meet Beth’s gaze. “We have to go back. What if we can still save her? We have to at least try.”

Although if I had stayed to help Courtney,I thought,Beth would’ve drowned. We might all three be dead.

“No.” Beth’s tone was firm.

I turned to her in surprise.

“We’ve both almost died already.”

I swiped a stray piece of wet hair from my face. Blood dripped onto my leg from my hand.

“Look at us.” Beth gestured to my cut. “We need to join the others. Then we’ll find the van and call for help.”

I gazed upriver in the direction of where I’d left Courtney. “And leave Courtney?”

“If that cougar attacked her, then she’s already gone. It could very well attack us, too, if we go back—we have nothing to defend ourselves with. If we stay out here, we could all die,” Beth added. “It’s too dangerous.”

I stared at the river, thinking of my pocketknife at the bottom.

Beth got to her feet and held out her palm. “The best thing we can do for Courtney is call for help—professional, emergency help—as soon as we can.”

I bit my lip, studying Beth while debating what to do. Her dark waves hung flat against her face. Water dripped from her clothes onto my legs. The image of Beth closing her eyes under the log while the remaining air escaped her lungs was seared in my mind. She was lucky to be alive. A shudder passed through my upper body as I recalled the cougar’s snarl.And so am I.

“Okay, fine.” I took Beth’s hand and looked behind me after I stood, not knowing how much this decision would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Chapter Forty-One

Present: Day Six at Sea

When I open my eyes, bright morning sun gleams through the window hatch above me. I’m alone in an unfamiliar bed. I sit up, remembering drifting off in Emma’s bed as last night’s events—and Beth’s betrayal—come flooding back to me. I slide to the edge, surprised I didn’t hear Emma get up.

Emma is in the galley when I emerge into the boat’s main living quarters. Like me, she’s wearing last night’s clothes. She turns from the gas stovetop and pours steaming water from the kettle into a French press.

“Want some coffee?” she asks.

I rub my eyes. “Sure, thanks. How are you feeling?”

She shrugs. “Tired. But otherwise okay.”

I assess her as she pushes the plunger to the bottom of the French press. She looks completely recovered from last night. If she’s pissed that I stayed in her room after she told me to get out, she doesn’t show it. Perhaps she had too many pills to remember. Although, looking at her now, it’s hard to imagine she had anything in her system at all.

I glance at the closed door to the stateroom I’ve been sharing with Beth. “Who’s keeping watch?”

“Russell.” Emma fills two insulated mugs with coffee and hands one to me.

I exhale, hoping that means Beth is still asleep in our room. I’m not ready to face her again.

Emma follows my gaze. “Beth’s still asleep.”

She slides me a canister of powdered creamer after stirring some into her mug. I add a heaping spoonful to my coffee, noting that the boat doesn’t seem to be rocking as much as it was the last couple of days.