the mountain. Could she hear him?
Seconds later, he spotted a group of branches piled at the mouth of a cave, and a pair of small crutches was lying near the entrance.
Her mother’s pleas taunted him. Please find her. She can’t walk very well….
He paused, listened. A small cry echoed from within the stone walls. The little girl was inside.
Relief whooshed through him.
He slowly inched forward, knowing she was probably frightened and that he might scare her.
“Katie?” He ducked inside the opening, scanning the gray interior, listening for sounds of her breathing. How far back was she? “Katie?”
He paused, allowing a second for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and then eased another step forward. “Katie, your mommy sent me to get you.”
A small whimper. Almost indiscernible. Still, it chilled his insides.
He glanced to the left, shined the flashlight across the interior.
“Katie, my name is Brack, honey. Your mommy’s worried about you.”
“Mommy?”
The tiny voice made his heart squeeze. She was huddled into a ball, her arms cradling a small animal close to her chest, her chest heaving with sobs. In between her gulps, the soft meow of a kitten drifted toward him.
“Yes, honey. Your mommy.” He squatted down, putting himself more at her eye level, then lowered his voice. “She wants me to bring you back to her.”
A hiccup, then she nodded, her chin still resting against her knees. “Is my mommy aw wight?”
God help him, he didn’t know. But he had to lie. “She is now, but we need to get her to a doctor.”
“It’s all my fauwt,” she cried. “My fauwt that m-monster gots her.”
“Shh, it’s all right.” He reached his hand toward her. “Come on, we have to go now, honey, before the storm gets worse.”
Her eyes were so luminous with fear that she reminded him of a small bird trapped by a predator. “Can you stand up, honey?”
She sucked in a breath that rattled with fear and then clutched the wall with one hand. But she kept the other one wrapped around the kitten.
“What’s your kitty’s name?”
“Snowball…” Her voice broke, brittle, like ice cracking in the wind. “That’s why I runs outside. To finds him.” She wobbled forward, her thin legs buckling, and he caught her. “I needs my crutches.”
“We’ll get them.” He scooped her up into his arms, letting her carry the kitten between them. God, he wished he had a blanket or something to shield her from the cold. She buried her head against his neck, shivering, but she didn’t complain as he dashed outside the cave. He stopped only long enough to grab her crutches, then tucked them under his arm and rushed through the woods back to her mother.
He just prayed the woman was still alive when they reached her.
Chapter Three
Brack dashed through the woods, battling the wind, well aware of the tiny child in his arms who had placed her trust in his hands. He couldn’t let her down.
But what if they were too late to save her mother? Did Katie have a father at home waiting for her? If so, why had the man let his wife go out into the approaching storm to search for the child alone? Where the hell was he now?
And who would take care of Katie if the woman didn’t make it?
His own memories of losing his father erupted from his past to haunt him. Even though his father hadn’t died when he’d been carted off to jail, Brack had felt as if he had. Once he had been incarcerated, his father had cut off all communication with his boys. As an adult, Brack realized that his father had done so to protect his sons, but at six, he hadn’t understood. Instead, he’d felt as if he’d been abandoned.
He cut through the patches of broken limbs and trees, grateful the falcon had led the way to Katie. Her body jerked with the cold, so he cradled her closer, using his own heat to keep her warm.
“We’re almost there, lamb chop,” he murmured.
She nodded against his chest, and his lungs tightened at her brave little face. Finally, he made it to the overhang where he’d left her mother. The woman was so still that panic squeezed the air from his lungs. She lay curled on her side, her knees hunched upward, her head buried in her arms. He quickly knelt and checked for a pulse again. Tension coiled in his muscles when he didn’t feel one, but he shifted his fingers slightly to the left. Yes, he found it. Her pulse was weak and thready, but she had one.
He eased Katie down beside her mother.
Katie tugged at the coat sleeve. “Mommy!” Katie cried. “Mommy, wake up!”
He tipped the little girl’s chin up so she’d look into his eyes. “Honey, I need for you to climb on my back and wrap your arms around my neck. I’ll carry you piggyback, then I can lift your mommy, too. Can you do that for me?”
She bobbed her head up and down, then bit down on her lip. “But what about Snowball?”
Hell, he could no more leave the kitten than he could the woman and child.
He tucked the kitten into the pocket of his coat. “There, now he’s safe and warm.”
Katie smiled at him then, so trusting, that he could have sworn a moonbeam bounced through the dark storm and lit her face like an angel.
He gestured to his back. “Now, hop aboard.” He crouched to the ground so she could wrap her arms around his neck. He grabbed her hands to secure them, and she tried to wrap her legs around his waist, but they dangled as if she didn’t have the strength. His throat convulsed, but he patted her hands. “Good girl.”
She pressed her face against his back away from the wind. He tucked Katie’s crutches below one arm pit, then scooped her mother into his arms and strode back toward Falcon Ridge.
SONYA STIRRED from the depths of unconsciousness and cold. She had to live, wake up, find Katie. Make sure her little girl was safe.
But she was so cold. So tired. Her limbs felt like dead weights and pain throbbed through her. Sleep offered a reprieve, and the darkness pulled her into its abyss. She gave in to it, but then she was trapped in a minefield where light had been obliterated by cave-like walls and where strange mythical creatures stalked the night.
Terror splintered through the fog, and she forced her eyes open. She had to escape the tunnel of darkness, find the light. Then she was being jostled, moved. Somewhere in the haze, Katie’s small voice soothed her.
Finally, she felt herself being lowered onto something soft. Warm. A blanket being tucked around her. Then another. And a fire nearby. The crackle of wood. The hiss of the flames. So cozy. She sank back into sleep, craving the peace it offered.
“Mommy,
