Page 53 of One Last Shot

“Really?”

“You want to deploy on a real rescue someday? You need to watch and learn.” Then she winked.

What?

She walked away then, grabbing a walkie and clipping into the semi-static line.

“Let’s get the rollercoaster on the edge here for the ropes,” London said, and as Oaken donned his harness, Moose set down a metal roller at the edge.

London then walked over, checked his harness, and snapped him into a static line. “It’s separate and attached to a different anchor point, but we need you to shine this down the cliff face as they descend.” She handed him a massive Maglite.

“I’m on it.”

She patted his shoulder. “I knew you’d come in handy.”

He looked over and Boo’s gaze was on him. She looked away, however, and he watched as she and Axel backed up, the litter in front of them, and steppedover the edge.

He walked right up to the edge, too, and shone the light down near them, just enough to illuminate the cliff.

At the bottom, A woman dressed in a puffy white jacket lay prone, her leg bent at a painful angle. He caught himself holding his breath as they walked down the side, the wall falling another hundred feet beyond the cliff. Mist from the water rose around them, dampening the air.

Her boyfriend stood not far away, such pain on his face that Oaken had to look away.

But he got it. Especially when the team—okay, Boo—landed safely and his chest released.

Calm down. He barely knew the woman.

Except somehow, tonight, she’d started to trust him. And her laughter—even better than her smile. And those eyes—when she’d looked at him under the stars...

It was just Alaska and the sense that, up here, he might leave everything behind.

Moose decided then to whisper in his head.“There’s the story we create, and the story we’re created for. Maybe that’s what this adventure is all about.”

“Moose! Slack!” The falls nearly ate her words, but he relayed Boo’s shout. Maybe London had picked it up on the radio too, because Moose and Shep eased up on the line.

Boo and Axel had unclipped from the litter, relying on their secondary, and Boo had affixed a C collar onto the woman. They rolled her onto a backboard, eased her onto the litter, then strapped her in.

“How’s that pulley reset coming?” London asked. She was on the radio with Axel.

“Almost reset,” Moose said.

Below, Boo and Axel reclipped into the AZTEK rigs.

“Okay, pulley is set.”

“Let’s get them up.”

Moose and Shep stood up, each on a line, gloved and belayed in, and began to pull. Axel and Boo held the litter steady and walked up the cliff.

Textbook.

And he was a part of it. Okay, he was holding a flashlight, but he was learning.“Whatever is going on, you’re here now. And from my view, I think it’s not by accident.”

And then there was the music. The smallest trickle of a melody inside. He hadn’t been kidding when he looked at Boo and called her his muse. And yes, it was meant to be funny, but maybe not.

Boo and Axel reached the top, and London helped pull them in. He stepped back as Boo got to work, taking the woman’s vitals?—

“Her name is Amber,” the man kept saying.