Sacrificing Sloan (Sloan Series Book 3) (15 page)

I just wanted out.

I just wanted out.

I wanted Aaron and to be home.

This was stupid.

My body could not handle much more. I’d been through more in five months than most people did in a lifetime. I got it. I understood it, but oh my word! It wasn’t fun, and I wasn’t handling it well.

I saw a cave, well, it was more like an indentation, in the rocks up ahead, and I knew I needed to use it. Sitting would be good. Sitting and breathing and just taking it easy from everything going on. I just needed some time to collect my thoughts and rest.

Then I’d be fine.

We’d all be fine.

I had to hang on to a bunch of tree trunks, but I finally made it to the shelter and fell down inside of it. It was so nice to not be slammed by rain every second.

I tried to get comfortable, but the mud made it impossible.

I felt around to get some sort of ease when under the mud, my hand touched something smooth and I jumped. Nothing good could be out there! Definitely nothing smooth.

When I scooted over, the smooth thing moved a bit too, and I noticed that it looked like paper. Except what would paper be doing in a small cave in the woods?

Unless.

I steeled my nerves and just grabbed the thing, grateful it was indeed paper and not a big horrible smooth animal of some sort—if those even existed.

It was a magazine. Or was once a magazine. Some kind of fishing catalogue. It was a newer edition—last month’s actually—and from what I could tell, it had been folded in two..

Someone had been there!

My mind swirled with all sorts of possibilities. Okay, Mr. Lawrence could have thrown it out and some wild animal could have gotten it and dragged it to his or her den. Possible, but not plausible.

Two—Mr. Lawrence could have been looking at the magazine in the cave. Possible, but why?

Three—Someone could have been injured and used the magazine as a splint of some sort. In fact… I scooted around the mud until I pulled out a stick about the length of a leg. Holy cow! This was it! Someone had been injured and used it as a splint! But… if so, why were they in the hole, and why would they have left it behind, if they were too injured to walk?

I had part of the story, but not all of it. It did give me the incentive to just keep going. My heart pounded in my chest, but it wasn’t from being scared or panicking. It was from eagerness and anticipation. I wanted to solve the mystery. Someone was out there—that was for sure—who? I just prayed it was Aaron and not Boyd.

Praying! I knew I should pray before I left my little rock cave. I needed strength. I needed guidance. And most of all, I needed a direction. I had the how. Now I just needed the who and the why.

I closed my eyes. Opened my mouth.

Then I heard the screams.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Aaron

Time: Unknown

I
COULD TELL
B
OYD WAS READY
to tell me off, when we heard the screams. Up until that point, I just knew that I could talk him into coming with me. Yeah, it had been stupid of me to mention his father. I knew it was an emotional thing for him, and I should never have done it. Still, I thought I could smooth it over with him.

And then the screams, or I guess, “yells” were the more appropriate words.

Right when we heard them, Boyd’s face turned paper-white, which was a feat since it had been pale to start with. His jaw visibly clinched, and I knew…
I knew
.

Everything changed in the next few seconds. I didn’t have time to think about what I did before I did it. It was all reactions. It was all just instinct and hoping I was right.

“You…” Boyd pointed his finger in my general direction. “You called the police on me! You lied to me!”

I used the tree trunk I’d been leaning against to stand up straighter, so I could plead with him. “No… No… think about it, Boyd. When would I have had the chance to do that, huh? I’ve been with you.”

“You could have done it before we left, or last night in the cave.”

“I don’t have a cell phone on me!” The time for being calm was going away quickly, and I just wanted him to understand.

He looked like a crazy person. His eyes were bugged out, and he raked his fingers though his hair. He paced a little, but didn’t go very far before he tripped over his father’s hand and fell to the ground.

This wasn’t good.

“Get away.” His voice was low, almost primal.

“What? I can’t. I need you…”

“I said get away!” He screamed, and his voice shook.

My entire body trembled. Not from fear of Boyd. I would never be scared of him again, but fear of the situation. I took a deep breath to try to remain calm. I had to be calm. If God was testing me, he was doing a good job of it.

I’d never prayed for patience, and I hoped Sloan or Ray hadn’t prayed for it either.

“Boyd… I didn’t call the police. I swear it. We don’t even know what that sound was. It could have been an animal, for all we know. Our deal is still good. We can walk out of here. The two of us. You can punch me, and then you can get in a car and leave. I don’t care. I don’t.” But I did. That was the thing that we both knew. I did care. I cared what he did to Sloan and Ray, and Boyd wasn’t stupid enough to think that I’d actually let him go. We were at an impossible stalemate that we had to get out of soon.

“You won’t let me go.” He said dryly. I was losing him.

“I will.”

“You won’t!” He turned his back to me, but kept squatting next to his father.

Easy, Aaron
. “I will. I promise.” To show some kind of “compassion,” I tried the best I could to hobble over to him. Each step hurt more than the last, but I knew that when I reached him I could collapse and then be done with it. I could get him to see reason, if it was the last thing I did.

I wanted to cry, both from elation and fatigue, when I got to him. I placed my hand on his shoulder, and that’s when I saw what he’d been hiding from me: a rather large stick. Before I could duck out of the way, he swung it out from behind him, nearly hitting me in the broken leg. I jumped back and screamed as the pain shot up through my entire body, causing me to collapse to the ground.

“I’ll take my chances out here.” He tossed the stick down and started feeling for the tree trunks, as he tried to get away from me.

He was actually leaving me in the woods!

I couldn’t let that happen, so I sucked it up and ran toward him. I didn’t think about the pain. I didn’t think about anything, except how I had to reach Boyd. I had to make him see reason.

When I almost had him, I jumped to catch him. My arm hit his back, causing him to fall forward. He stumbled and yelled and slipped in the mud. His arms frantically reached for things to stop himself, as he just kept sliding.

I couldn’t let him get away, so I sat down and scooted down too.

Boyd hit a rock, and it tossed him to the right. He cursed and grabbed onto a tree branch. It couldn’t hold his weight, as I watched as he disappeared off a cliff.

“No… no… no!” I said more to myself than anyone else as I scooted down the hill and to the cliff. I grabbed the tree—not the branch—when I got to the bottom and peered over.

There was Boyd, hanging on to a rock, about twenty feet off the ground. Below him were sharp jagged rocks. Chapel Creek hadn’t flooded that area yet, but the water was up in the trees very close by. It wouldn’t take long.

Besides, there was no way Boyd would survive the fall.

Sure, he’d survived a twenty-foot fall, but that was different. We’d landed in the water. This… this was solid rock. Nothing to break the fall. No way out.

“Aaron!” Boyd yelled. “Aaron, where am I? How close is the ground?”

Funny how he’d call out to me when he needed something. “A long way.” I answered helpfully. I winced as I laid on my stomach and held onto the tree with one hand. With my other, I reached down and held my hand out for Boyd. I could reach him, if he’d put his hand up.

“Grab my hand, Boyd. Just reach up. I can get it.”

“Why would you want to?” Boyd grunted, as the branch started to bend.

“Stop arguing with me and grab it.” I reached down as far as I could, and by some miracle reached his wrist. “Let go of the branch. I can pull you up, but you have to let go.”

“If I let go, you’ll drop me.”

“If you don’t, you’ll fall.” I reminded him. “Come on, Boyd. I need you to do it now, or we’ll both go over.”

He scoffed. “Worked out well for us both the last time.”

“Speak for yourself.” I grunted as my grip weakened. I couldn’t do this much longer. And then what would I do with Boyd gone?

“Aaron?”

I froze.

Everything in the world disappeared except for her voice. “Aaron.”

My name.

Footsteps running toward me.

The girl.

I rose up just enough to see.

At first, I didn’t think it was real. I thought my eyes were so tired, they were playing tricks on me. Her blonde hair fell around her face out from under her hood. I’d know that hair anywhere, even if it was wet and stuck to her head.

“Sloan?” It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. That settled it. We’d both fallen over the cliff and died. I was in Heaven—which made no sense because I knew when I died, it wouldn’t be Heaven I’d go to.

She stopped a good five feet from me. “Yeah.” She smiled really big and placed her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

“You knew you couldn’t get rid of me that easily.” I wanted to rush over to her and pull her into my arms. I wanted to plant my lips on top of hers and taste her again. It felt like an eternity since I’d had my arms around her, and I needed it more than I needed air.

Except I couldn’t, until I pulled Boyd up.

Wait.

The only reason I needed Boyd was to help me walk—to be a human crutch—until I got back to the road. That was it. His only purpose. Now… Now I had Sloan. She was with me, and I could lean on her.

My eyes left Sloan and slowly moved down to Boyd. My hand was on his wrist, and I could just flick it… just one little flick and he’d be gone. He’d hit the rocks, and we never would have to think about him again. No more worry. No trial. No Sloan having to testify.

It would be over.

All over.

Boyd wasn’t as stupid as he looked, and he seemed to notice my hesitation. “Aaron… come on, now. Pull me up. See… I let go of the branch. Just you holding me, because I trust you to live up to your word. Pull me up, Aaron. Just… pull me up.”

I didn’t even flinch, but inside, my mind was going a thousand miles an hour. I could be done with him. It was really a reality. And no one would think it was “murder.”

“Aaron, don’t do this…” Sloan had her hand on my shoulder, and I wished she’d move it. All that time I’d spent wanting her to touch me, and now all I wanted her to do was let me go. I didn’t want to be reminded about how “good” I could be. I wanted to rid the world of one of its biggest problems—Boyd Lawrence.

“Aaron!” Sloan pulled on my shoulder more, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything but stare down at Boyd and think about how easy it would be to just… let him slip.

And he did. His grip loosened a bit, and I didn’t try to recover. I was just holding Boyd’s fingers when I caught him again. “Aaron, help me up. Please…. Please… I have to take care of my mother, now that my father is dead. I have to….”

“Mr. Lawrence is dead?” Sloan asked, never moving her hand from my shoulder.

“He’s up there.” I motioned with my head in the general direction of Mr. Lawrence. “Boyd found him.”

“Boyd…” Sloan peered over the side and looked down at Boyd. Whatever she was thinking, I couldn’t figure it out, but I knew what I wanted him to. I wanted him to fall.

“Is that Sloan?” Boyd sounded like it was getting harder to breathe. I had the same issues. It wasn’t easy holding him up.

“Yeah.” She answered and gripped my arm tighter. “I’m here. Ray’s here too.”

That got both of their attention. “Ray’s out here? He is out of the hospital?”

“Yeah.” She grinned, and I wanted to put my hand in her hair and pulling her to me. Soon.

“He took Mackenzie back to her car.”

“Wait…her car?”

“Mackenzie followed us here, but she didn’t have the right information. She’s sick, and Ray took her to the hospital.”

I could tell there was more to the story, but for whatever reason, she didn’t want to tell me in front of Boyd. I could understand that. “Come on, Aaron. Pull Boyd up.”

Even Sloan wanted to save him? No… nope. His usefulness to me had ended and therefore his usefulness in the history of mankind ended.

“Yeah, Aaron. Listen to the missus. Pull me up.”

That just about did me in. His smart mouth. On top of everything else.

Every good feeling I ever had about him disappeared. He wasn’t a person. He wasn’t redeemable. This was Boyd Lawrence, and the only thing he was worried about was getting out of there alive.

I’d be doing the world a favor.

His grip loosened, and I wanted more than anything to just let him drop. “You wanted me to leave you here, remember Boyd?
You
wanted to stay out here with your father. Well…” I tried to move my fingers, but he had his nails in a death grip. “I’m prepared to give you your wish.”

And…

I let go.

I opened my hand and just let go.

He clung to my hand, and I felt him slipping away.

Like a bad dream, just fading into a memory.

Sloan’s hand on my shoulder tightened, and she pulled on me. “Aaron, you can’t do this.”

“I can. It’s done.” I didn’t want her to talk me out of it. I didn’t want to feel anything. I was doing the world a favor. That was what mattered. The world would thank me, and in the end, Sloan would, too. I was protecting her. Why couldn’t she see that? Because she was a better person than I would ever be.

“Aaron!” She screamed and laid beside of me, reaching down to grab Boyd’s hand. That snapped me out of it. He was panicking. If she grabbed his hand, he’d pull her over with him. That was not going to happen.