One Night with her Bachelor(10)

He was ready to serve again.

*

Molly tightened her grip around Gabriel’s waist as trees whizzed past. She’d never been on a motorcycle before, and the fact they weren’t even on a path but zigzagging around fir trees should’ve filled her with terror.

Her terror levels were already overflowing.

Stupid. So stupid. How could she have gone somewhere out of reach? It had never occurred to her that Gabriel’s cabin would be so cut-off. She should’ve been reachable. She should’ve been at home.

The dirt bike tilted to the side, and she held him harder. He only had one helmet and he’d given it to her, so she couldn’t bury her face in his broad back and ignore reality the way she wanted to. Where was Josh? Where was he?

Not knowing made her throat spasm. She fought back the sickness that threatened to come up.

He’s okay. He’s probably just hiding. Playing a practical joke on his scout leader.

But what if he wasn’t? What if he’d had an accident? What if he’d been snatched by a predator—either the four-legged or two-legged kind?

Every frustrated word she’d ever snapped at him rushed back to haunt her. Every time she’d lost her patience or been too tired to play. Every guilty feeling she’d tried to talk herself out of feeling returned with a vengeance.

Your son needed you, and you were making out with a guy in a cabin with no cell coverage. You horrible, horrible mother.

As soon as Gabriel had told her about the lack of network, she should’ve turned around and hiked back to her truck.

Her fingers clenched, digging into his hard abs. Before they’d climbed onto the bike, he’d slung a camouflage rucksack onto his chest, presumably carrying it on his front so she could fit behind him on the saddle. Her hands were between the sack and his stomach. The bag rubbed against her knuckles with every bump in the dirt.

They reached a path, and the bike slowed before stopping. It rumbled gently beneath her as Gabriel let it idle. He leaned to the side so he could look over his shoulder. “Campground’s down this path to the right.”

“Why are we stopped?”

His jaw worked from side to side. “Up to the left, there are old copper mine shafts. My half brothers were scouts, and they used to come home from camping trips full of ghost stories about the mines. If I were a kid, I’d want to explore them.”

Oh God. Josh exploring mine shafts? Her son—her beautiful, rambunctious son—lived for excitement. If he’d heard about the mine shafts, he’d probably given in to the impulse to discover them.

Her breath came hard and fast. Gabriel watched her silently, his steady gaze leaving the decision up to her.

“Go to the mine shafts,” she ordered.

Gabriel’s right leg twitched as it kicked the bike back into gear. The bike jerked hard, and Molly gasped as she tightened her embrace to stay on. They wove their way up the rocky path that looked like it had hardly been used. Gabriel barely slowed as they crested a peak and rode around a perilous ridge. A river cut a path through the forest about a hundred feet below, and the mountain on their other side left no room for mistakes. Molly’s palms sweat and ached.

Finally the path veered onto safer ground, and they skidded to a stop. Gabriel patted her leg, as if to say Get off the bike so I can, too. She slung her leg over, but her muscles jellified as soon as she took in the scene in front of her. Josh’s friend Jake sat at the base of a tree, sobbing. And a small clearing was marred by a gigantic hole in the ground.

“Oh my God. Josh! Josh!” She started to run, but Gabriel yanked her back against his chest. She fought him with all her strength. “My baby! Let me go!”

He spun her around, backed her up against a tree and took the helmet off her. His face held no fear, only calm determination. “We’re going to find him and everything’s going to be okay, all right, Molly?”

She couldn’t speak, couldn’t do anything but dig her nails into his hard arms.

“What’s his friend’s name?”

“J-Jake.”

“Okay. I’m going to let you go, but if you go anywhere near that hole you’re not just endangering yourself but Josh, too. Got me?”

She nodded. Her boy was in a hole. In a hole in the ground.

She pressed her lips together till the metallic tang of blood swept across her tongue.

Gabriel grabbed her hand and led her to Jake, cutting a wide path around the hole. Every instinct, every fiber of her being, screamed for her to run at it and jump in head-first to be with Josh. Only the insistent pressure of Gabriel’s grip kept her moving away from it toward Jake.

“Hey, buddy. Where’s Josh?”

Jake sniffled and pointed at the hole. “We were walking around looking for the mine shaft, and the ground just… it just—”

“Has he said anything? Made any noise?”

Jake shook his head, his breath catching. “I-I called his name, but he hasn’t an-answered.”

Sobs racked Molly’s body as her strength gave out. She collapsed to her knees and hugged Jake. But he wasn’t the one she wanted in her arms. He wasn’t the one she needed to hold.

Gabriel’s hand landed on her shoulder. “Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?”

She shook her head. “Only today.”

“Okay. The path back to the campsite’s too treacherous if you don’t have experience. When we find him, we’ll have to carry him out, so I need you guys to make a stretcher.” Gabriel opened up his rucksack and dropped some canvas fabric and two metal poles on the ground next to her. “Unfold the poles so they’re as long as they can be. Lay them on the canvas next to each other with enough room for Josh in the middle. Wrap the canvas around the polls like this.” He motioned as if he were wrapping a long, thin gift twice over. “Can you do that?”