Something Wilder(51)

He looked quietly insulted, but then removed a bundle from his pack and put it back in the Jeep.

And then, they set off in relative silence. The mood was thick with hope and apprehension… but maybe the quiet energy Lily sensed in the group was also focus. They’d never done anything like this in their lives, and here there was an intermittent cairn to guide the way, but no obvious path.

“Do you remember how bad cell service was at the ranch?” Leo said, surprising her with how close he was.

She looked over her shoulder at him, confused. “What brought that up?”

“I don’t know. I was just thinking about how pissed the guests would get when they realized there was basically a square foot of space on the entire property where we could occasionally get a signal. It reminded me that I haven’t checked my phone or email or anything for days. I think that summer was the last time I was this unplugged.”

“What do you think’s happening online?” Walter said, frowning down at his feet.

“Same thing as every day,” Leo said. “Somebody’s mad. Somebody’s lecturing. Cat memes.”

“Someone’s posting a shirtless bathroom selfie on Instagram,” Bradley said.

Leo barked out a laugh. “Half your feed is shirtless bathroom selfies.”

Bradley glared at him. “Not half.”

“Those hell rectangles have turned you guys into zombies,” Nicole said. “Instagram? Twitter? If you hate ’em so much, delete them.”

“Of course we hate them.” Bradley laughed. “That’s the point. We go there to feel superior and angry.”

“Not Walt,” Leo said. “He’s got almost a million followers on TikTok; they can’t get enough of his pure animal content.” He looked over at Walter as they navigated a relatively flat section. “What was the one that went viral first?”

“The one about responsible ferret ownership,” Bradley said, laughing.

Walter shook his head. “No, it was about the mating habits of the common fro—” His words were cut off with a sharp cry as he lost his footing, crumpling to the ground and sliding a few feet down a rock face.

“Shit!” Nicole scrambled over, falling to her knees to check where he was clutching his ankle, rolling in pain. “What happened? Are you okay?”

He grimaced, pointing at a pile of loose stones hidden behind the tangled limbs of a fallen juniper. “I slipped on those rocks,” he said, voice tight through clenched teeth.

They moved him to flatter ground, and Leo kneeled at his side, gingerly working his boot and sock off.

“Oh shit,” Bradley whispered as they all stared at his quickly swelling ankle. A purple bruise was already blooming beneath Walter’s pale skin.

“How bad is it?” Lily asked.

Leo felt along the bottom of Walter’s foot. He sucked in a pained breath and swore when Leo pressed near the top of his ankle.

He pressed again and pain seemed to wash Walter out, making him look sweaty and pale. “Don’t push there again, please,” he said weakly.

Leo looked up at Lily, expression crashing. “I think it’s broken.”

“Can you move it?” Lily asked Walter.

He tried to turn his foot and immediately gasped sharply. “No.”

Lily sat back on her heels, dread creeping like fingers along her skin. “Well, that’s it, then.”

“What? What’s it?” Bradley asked.

“Walter’s hurt,” she said. “We’ll need to turn back.”

Bradley took his hat off and tossed it into the dirt. “Goddammit.”

“Brad,” Nicole barked. “Don’t be a dick.”

“You guys, I’m really sorry,” Walter said. “Maybe we can wrap it and see how it is in the morning? Help me up.”

They helped him stand, checking to see if he could put any weight on it. He cried out almost immediately. Lily met Nicole’s eyes. They both knew what it meant: No expedition. No money.

No ranch.

And a dead body in the canyon.

Disappointment felt like a punch to Lily’s gut, and she dug into Nic’s pack for the first aid kit as Leo and Nic got Walt seated again.

“We have to go back,” Lily said, squeezing the cold pack until it popped and the contents grew cool. She carefully placed it against his ankle. “I was already worried about getting everyone down there. It’s questionable whether you could make it on both feet, never mind one.” Lily gave him a sad smile, knowing how guilty he must feel. “Better safe than sorry.”

Leo and Bradley stared down at Walter while Nicole handed Lily the elastic bandage, and they worked to get his foot stabilized and wrapped.

Bradley cleared his throat. “Leo and I will go ahead on Duke’s hunt.”

“We will?” Leo said with an incredulous laugh, and Nicole snorted.

“Are you fucking crazy?” she asked Bradley. “You could barely find an outhouse.”

“Okay,” he said, considering. “If you’re worried about how it would work, how’s this: Leo and Nicole will take Walter back. They’ll let the police know Terry disappeared, but that Lily and I went looking for him. Meanwhile, we’ll keep searching for the money.”

“No,” Lily said. “We’re not splitting up.”