Chapter 9

NINE

Cord shined his light into the pond but the water was murky and dark. If Ellie was injured and had fallen in, she could have died from hypothermia. His heart gave a terrified pang. What would he do without her?

Focus, McClain. If she was gone, you'd know it.

Latching onto hope, he shouted her name and crept closer, then spotted more footprints on the other side leading toward the falls.

Benji darted toward the falls, then under the overhang, barking wildly.

Cord's breath huffed out as he closed the distance to it himself. Benji had found something on the ice.

He darted behind the waterfall and went still when he spotted Ellie on the ground unconscious. Heart pounding, he ran to her and knelt to check her pulse.

"Over here!" he shouted to Derrick. Horror shot through him as he realized she was slumped over two bodies on the ice.

Two little girls. Dead.

And Ellie was so damn still. Seconds ticked by. Cord pressed his fingers to her neck to check for a pulse and leaned closer to listen for a breath. Her face was ghostly white and ice crystals clung to her eyelashes. A long, drawn-out minute slogged by.

Finally, he felt a faint pulse.

"McClain?" Derrick asked, his voice thick.

"She's alive but probably hypothermic. Clothes are soaked." He glanced back at the pond. "She must have fallen in."

Derrick muttered a curse.

"Look at this." Cord indicated the little girls Ellie had obviously tried to cover with her body as if to protect them. In vain, since they were most likely dead when she found them. But that was Ellie.

He eased her body away from the girls so Derrick could see them. Sorrow for them welled in Cord's chest.

"Hell," Derrick muttered. He skimmed his gaze over the bodies. The girls lay face down, blood on the snow behind their faces. The legs of one girl were twisted sideways and one arm on the other looked broken.

"I'm calling for help," Derrick said, then began stabbing numbers on his phone.

Cord quickly checked Ellie for wounds but saw no blood. Cord set his backpack on the ground, opened it and grabbed blankets. Knowing he needed to warm Ellie, he pulled off her wet socks and boots, then her pants and sweatshirt. Her eyes opened slightly and she looked up at him in a daze and moaned.

"You're okay, El, Fox and I are here. He's calling an ambulance."

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she passed out again. He dragged a clean sweatshirt from his pack along with dry thermal pants and socks, then dressed her and wrapped her in blankets.

Heaving a breath, he cradled her in his lap and rubbed her arms to warm her.

Fox ended the call, then glanced at Cord, his jaw clenched. "She'll make it, won't she?"

Cord was too shaken up to speak so he simply nodded. He could not think anything but that Ellie would be okay. Losing her would be unbearable.