Even though she insisted she wasn’t badly hurt, I’d held Indi on my lap for the ride home, needing to feel my woman–alive and breathing–against my body. I’d pressed my lips against her shoulder, her nape, her temple, reassuring myself she was safe. That she was mine.
Tully had touched her. Almost killed her. Bad guys weren’t supposed to get to Indi. Ever. My past… Buck’s past, neither were supposed to touch our families. As SEALs, it was our job to keep everyone safe. What every minute of our training was for.
Except I hadn’t done it for Indi, and that was going to take a while to reconcile.
Indi had saved herself. Like she’d said, she could handle her own in the wilderness. She’d steered Tully away from the innocent, then gut-stabbed the man. He wouldn’t have survived the wound out in the wilderness. She’d have gotten away. I was so fucking proud of her.
Yet I wasn’t sure if I’d let her go out in the wilderness without me ever again.
We exited the bird after allowing the outdoor adventure clients to exit first and get shuttled back to town by Brandon. The fucker could deal with that and most likely their request for a refund.
“Indigo!” Page Buchanan rushed forward to claim Indi after I helped her down. Sam hovered nearby, his face ashen and stricken. I was glad she’d changed out of her bloody shirt before her parents saw her, or they would’ve freaked out. I wasn’t sure how they’d gotten the news, whether it was through the gossip grapevine or by Megan or someone else at the sheriff’s department. Either way, it had to have been rough. After Buck…
They deserved to be panicky and over-the-top frantic.
To my shock, Sam stepped forward and wrapped me in a man-hug, thumping my back. “You got her out safely, Ford. Thank God.”
For some inexplicable reason, my eyes burned. Perhaps with the knowledge that while I may have gotten Indi off the mountain, I’d failed to get their son home to them alive. Perhaps because Sam didn’t seem to be holding me responsible for the danger she’d been in to begin with. Either way, I accepted the hug as some small sliver of redemption.
There was evil in the world, and I knew firsthand it touched innocent people. The Buchanan’s more than most. I wasn’t perfect, and it seemed their family didn’t expect me to be.
“We can clear Buck’s name now, Mr. Buchanan. We have the evidence,” I told him, my voice rough with emotion.
Sam nodded. “Taft told me when he explained the situation to the sheriff.” He clasped my shoulder. “That was good work.”
“No, it was pretty shoddy, actually,” I countered. The rotors of the helicopter were slowing now that the engine was shut off. The wind dropped, and so did the noise. “Indi had the evidence the whole time, and Buck had given me the clue, but I didn’t put it together. Not until it was almost too late.”
Sheriff Tate approached and cleared his throat. “I need to get a report, Ford,” he said, tucking his thumbs into his utility belt. In his fifties, he was well respected in the county and had held his elected position for over twenty years.
“Yes, sir. Of course.” I stepped aside with the sheriff. Hayes stood by Megan beside her patrol car, apparently giving his story to her. Huh. Were they standing a little closer to each other than necessary? Did he have to reach out and tug on her ponytail?
“I already got the story from your man Taft, but I’d like to hear what happened up on the mountain,” the sheriff said.
I debriefed him as succinctly as possible. Quickly, too, because I wanted–no, needed–to get back to Indi. She was safe with her mother, but still. I needed her in my arms. Beneath me.
“He just fell off the cliff?” Tate asked, raising a brow.
I nodded. “Yes, sir. He stumbled right off the edge.”
“You didn’t help him at all with that?”
I shrugged. “I may have thrown a few punches when I pulled him off Indi.”
The sheriff wrote in his notebook. “Self-defense, then.”
“Yes, sir.” I wasn’t going to tell the man Indi had stabbed Tully with her multipurpose tool. She hadn’t killed Tully–even though he’d have died from the injury if I hadn’t tossed him off a ravine–and I didn’t want the thought of that tainting her forever. It was my job to kill–not hers.
“Are you sure he's dead?”
I gave him a look. Did a SEAL know when someone was dead by his hand? “I'm sure,” I said. I'd definitely checked. With the angle of his neck, there was no way he'd survived the fall.
“We'll have to send the helicopter back to fish that body out of the ravine,” the sheriff said. “Can you show me the location on a map?”