Survive the Hunt by Diana Duncan

Author:Diana Duncan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cop romance, police romance, military romance, SWAT romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense
Publisher: Diana Duncan
Published: 2018-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

2:00 a.m.

There was no outcry. No splash. No sound except horrifying thuds from below.

“Aidan!” she screamed.

Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God. He’d fallen over the side without any outward momentum. He’d be shattered on the rocks.

Sobs tore from her throat as she crawled forward. She desperately scanned the water. Saw nothing but whitecaps. Her fingernails clawed furrows in the dirt. “Aidan!” Her broken whisper echoed into empty space.

“Zoe, stay back!” Aidan’s shout ripped into her grief.

He was alive!

Her breath staggered, and she inched the upper half of her torso over the edge. Dirt crumbled beneath her, trickled down the bluff. “Aidan?”

Gripping a protruding tree root with his good hand, he hung less than four feet below the steep drop. So near, yet it might as well be miles.

“The ground isn’t stable near the edge!” he yelled. “Dammit, stay back!”

She inched farther out, reached down. Stretched. She couldn’t quite touch him. “Let me help you.”

He looked up at her. “No.” The determined resignation in his eyes made her chest ache. “You’re not strong enough to pull me up. I can’t get a toehold in this loose dirt. Even if I had something to grab onto ... with only one good arm, I can’t let go of this root.”

She glanced down at the jagged rocks far below. He couldn’t hold on forever. When he tired, when his grip loosened, he’d plunge to his death.

No! She wouldn’t let that happen. “I’ll think of something.”

“Listen to me.” The strain of trying to hold on gave his quiet voice a ragged edge of desperation. Chopped his breaths. “Head downstream to the shoreline. Stay in the creek. Hide near the dock. Wait for a rescue helo or the Coast Guard. Or sneak onto the ferry when it returns in the morning.”

“What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll work my way down the bluff. Meet you at the dock. If I’m not there by the next ferry ... leave without me.”

Tears stung her eyes. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“You have to. It’s the only way.” His voice turned gruff. “Now get your ass moving. So I can start climbing down.”

She frowned. “Don’t you dare die on me. Do you hear me, SWAT? I won’t stand for it.”

“Do my best, honey. Go on. See you soon.”

“That’s a promise. God, Aidan,” she choked out. “Don’t fall.”

Then her sweet face disappeared from Aidan’s sight.

Aidan breathed a sigh of sorrowful relief. He didn’t want to die. But if his number was up, fucking hell, he would not take Zoe with him.

There were worse ways to go. His death would be quick, if not so clean. He stared at the stars, bright pinpoints of fire in the sooty sky. The hard, white moon spotlighted the ocean far below with an incandescent glow. As a boy, he’d loved family campouts on clear summer nights like this. Him cooking over the campfire alongside Pop, and everyone singing. Meteor showers. Mom with warm, gooey s’mores. Pop telling ghost stories.

Was Pop watching over him from beyond those stars? “Air out the spare room, Pop,” he muttered.

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