Pru looked to her sister, wondering if she blamed her friend. “No, not at all. I agreed to all of this. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me for wanting one last thing for me before the adoption.” She looked back to the trail. “I feel like I’m being punished.” And didn’t she deserve that for being so selfish?
Kennedy stopped in her tracks, reaching out to grab her by the arm. “Pru.” Absolute horror was etched on her face. “No one expected you to stop living your own life when you decided to adopt Ari. Of course, you deserve someone.”
She’d believed she did deserve someone. It was the thing that had pushed her so far out of character as to pursue Flynn. “But at this cost?” She’d been thinking about it all afternoon as they searched, between bouts of panic over whether her child was safe. No amount of logic would change the fact that, if she hadn’t broken out of the pigeon hole everyone kept her in, none of this would have happened. “If anything’s happened to her, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“We’re going to find her, and she’s going to be fine.” Kennedy’s voice held a savage edge, as if daring the Universe to contradict her.
“And the rest?” Finding her didn’t mean they got to keep her. And because of their deception and Kennedy’s collusion, it wasn’t as if Lydia Coogan would look at any member of their family as an option.
“We’ll deal with the rest as it comes. As a family. A united front.”
Pru didn’t know if that would be enough.
One problem at a time. It was how she’d gotten through her mother’s death. Compartmentalizing. Facing only what was right in front of her. Right now, that was simply getting through however many hours passed until they found her daughter.
Up ahead, Chris paused and pulled a bowl and water from her pack, pouring some for Dash. The dog eagerly lapped it up. He’d worked as tirelessly as the rest of them.
Kennedy pulled water from her own pack and shoved it at Pru. “Here. Drink.”
Pru didn’t argue, gulping it down. She didn’t dare sit. If she sat, her muscles would seize up. She was that kind of tired.
Xander appeared out of the woods, conferring with Chris in a tone too low for Pru to hear. She asked him something, and when he shook his head, she pulled out another flag, this one a neon green instead of the orange she’d been using for the points where Dash had alerted.
“Something’s up,” Pru said, already heading toward them when Xander broke away. She didn’t like the look on his face.
“How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine.” She’d have said the same through injury or illness, just to keep searching.
“Night’s falling. We have to pull everybody in until morning.”
Panic reached up to claw at her throat. “We have flashlights,” she insisted. “You said the volunteer fire department had those big search lights.”
“They’re vehicle mounted, and we can’t get vehicles down here. It’s not safe for everybody else to be out here after dark.”
“We’re just going to leave the defenseless child out here on her own?” Flynn demanded. “Fuck that.”
“I understand your frustration. I don’t want to go in either. But blundering around in the dark is more likely to lead to injury and muck up any trail she’s left. There’s no sign she’s hurt, and she’s smart enough to find somewhere to stop for the night. There’s no rain in the forecast, and this late in the summer, there’s no concern about hypothermia from exposure. We’ll be back out at first light, with more people to search for a broader range.”
“I’m not going back,” Pru said.
Xander’s expression shifted to one that clearly said be reasonable. “Pru—”
“If you’re going to make me stop searching for the night, fine. I’ll camp out here. I don’t want to waste time having to get all this way in the morning. You said yourself, we can’t get vehicles out here.”
“You’re not packed to camp,” he pointed out.
“Neither is she. My daughter is about to be spending the night on the mountain, alone, in the d
ark. She’s going to be terrified. I’m not going back, Xander.”
He looked to Flynn, who crossed his arms with a belligerent scowl. “I’m staying, too.”
“I’m packed for overnight,” Chris said. “Though I don’t have enough gear for multiple people.”
Xander divided a look between them. “I let you stay out here, you stay put. I don’t want this to turn into multiple missing persons.”
“We won’t be stupid,” Pru promised.