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He called her cell but it went straight to voice So he called Mallory "Where is she?"

Mallory gave histy silence

"Mallory"

"I can’t tell you"

"Tell htly

"I pinky-swore, Matt! I’ether It’s the Good Girl Code of Honor"

Jesus "Since when does a good girl hold out on her boyfriend’s best friend?"

"Okay, that’s not fair," she said "Asking ’s fair in love or war"

"And is this love or war?" she asked very seriously

"I need to see her Now Tonight"

She went quiet, and Matt knew he had to get this right if he wanted her help "Is there an euys who are a little slow on the uptake and need to prove themselves trustworthy?"

"Maybe," she said slowly "Maybe if, say, I didn’t actually tell you where she was because you guessed"

"Give me a hint"

"Okay… Oh! Remember when I called you and said otten lost on the trail?"

Jesus Christ "Tell o back up the Sierra Meadows Trail by herself"

"Exactly I’ after her, yes?"

Matt could hear Ty in the background saying, "Of course he’s going after her He’s whipped"

Matt ground his back teeth into powder "Tell hi to wipe that sether"

"You will not," Mallory said "I love his siven the sounds that cahly kissed Mallory, then he ca down, ym or over how Matt felt about Amy Both, probably He disconnected and started his truck Aht

He whipped the truck around and headed to the station, telling hih to do this, but sure enough, he found her car was parked in the lot Engine cold

Okay, so she’d probably left ht a whole new set of probleh his contacts and called Candy, the ranger-in-training who’d been running the front desk today

"Yep," she said cheerfully "That car was there when I locked up for the night"

Daain, but this ti to ruin my sex life"

"Overshare Ask Mallory when she last heard from Amy"

There was a ot a text froo She was fine and settled in for the night"

"She’s staying the night up there? Alone?"

Silence

"Cone of silence, Good Girl We’re in the cone of silence Just tellwithout a perlanced at the sky Dark-ass black, which sucked He pounded out Josh’s nu?" Josh asked "And by bleeding, Ihere And by so For the first ti to reeably "So not an aortic bleed, but a brain leak Have you lost your fkingafter her"

"This is your job on the line," Josh reminded him "Job before chicks, man"

"That’s bros before ’hos And irrelevant I let her think I didn’t believe in her, that I didn’t trust her I have to prove her wrong"

"By throwing away your livelihood?"

"If Toby needed you, you’d do the same"

"I love Toby"

Matt blew out a breath "Yeah"

There was a loaded beat of silence, but it didn’t last long "Jesus," Josh breathed "You’re as bad off as Ty Go Go do what you have to If you lose your job, I’ll hire you as ency pack out of the back of his truck, and hit the trail Ten ht died He pulled out his backup He was halfway there and had downed his five-hour energy drink stash, and now his eyes were flashing and his heart was pounding fro about Aht before because he’d spent the hours tearing up the sheets and expending soht before that, he’d never hit the sheets at all because of the injured hiker

If anyone else had come out here in the forest in his condition, he’d think they needed a psych eval Hell, he did need a psych eval

It elve thirty aizer Bunny He pulled out his iPhone He had no reception but he did have a flashlight app Apple was his new best friend

It was 1 aot close It was 1:05 when his cell phone died

Apple was relegated to below the Energizer Bunny on his shit list, a fact that was drummed home when he took a step off the trail to take a leak and fell

And fell

Amy had fallen asleep by her fire, but at so She’d heard so, a crash…

Her fire had died down She tossedthe forest around her

Nothing

Had she ie of the clearing, shining her light all around her "Hello?"

No one answered That was good, she decided Unless it was a hungry bear… She glanced around nervously at the thicket of trees in front of the ravine and was vividly reht

A smile curved herthe light down, re how she’d fallen and been rescued by Matt, and--

Oh, God There was rustling down there, big rustling, and she iht of that bear But a bear wouldn’t be swearing the air blue

In Matt’s voice