Page 55 of One Last Shot
“A person. A woman. I think the state troopers went back to check it out. But that sort of thing happens here sometimes. Someone goes missing during the winter, is never found, and then in the spring, during the thaw...” She made a face.
He popped up his speed, settled into a jog.
“Huxley is pretty steamed.”
“Yep.” A flatscreen played the morning news, the sound off, closed captions on. They were reporting on the weather—a few days of thaw with a snow front coming in.
“They’d really fine you for not doing the show?”
“It’s in the contract—so maybe.”
“Who’s Maggie, and what’s her miracle?”
He glanced at her through the mirror.
She had her head down, pedaling hard.
He popped up his speed and let the sound of his slapping feet fill the room.
When he reached the two-mile mark, he lowered the speed to a walk, then finally stepped off the treadmill, his pulse thundering. He checked it and then grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from his face.
She’d slowed her pedaling too.
“Maggie Bloom and her mother were in the carthat my sister hit on the highway. They spun off onto the other side of the road. Maggie was eight and suffered a spinal-cord injury. Because it took so long for anyone to find them, by the time they did, she had so much swelling—the injury paralyzed her.”
He said it all without looking at her. But she’d gotten off her bike and now came to stand in front of him, holding her water bottle.
“Maggie’s mom was a single mom, so their church and community really came around them, and because of it, Maggie got great care. She’s been in rehabilitation for eight years and now has full use of her upper body. She got some kind of stimulation implant a while back, and that’s helping. Because of all of it, Maggie’s mom started a charitable organization to help others with similar injuries.”
“You were doingGo Wild with Grizzto donate to that.”
“Fifty thousand, if I could finish the fifty hours. Which I didn’t. And apparently they aren’t into charity. Funds are tight over at Grizz Productions. But they’ll honor their commitment if...”
“If you and Moose let them film their show—which means coming on a real rescue.”
“Yeah.”
She took a drink, then wiped her mouth, her gaze on him. “Well then, I think we need to give them a show.”
Then she smiled, and despite the fatigue and the dour day, the sunshine came out and filled his soul.
CHAPTER 7
No one had to know.
Okay, the team knew. And Oaken knew.
And of course her cousin Larke and her husband, Riley, knew, but so far they’d kept the operation details on the DL from Huxley and Beto.
Maybe they’d even pull it off.
“I see him!” Boo held on to the winch at the top of the open door of the chopper, the cold air buffeting her jumpsuit as she searched the river gorge for their “victim,” a.k.a. her cousin-in-law, Riley McCord. But his security clearance as an active-duty SEAL meant he had a steel vault for secrets.
And the Air One team was diving full-on into her brilliant plan to put on a show using her cousins from the north.
Please, let it be brilliant.
Below, the raucous rush of the Copper River dropped some thirty feet from a rocky waterfall to a pool below, where rocky islands jutted to the surface like so many stepping stones. A frothy pool of foam and whitewater jettied around them, dangerouswhirlpools.