“I'll explain it all later. Dad, can you get Ben and Joshua? I don't want anything to happen to Ben or Atticus.”
He already fished for his keys in his pocket. “I'm on it. A few more deputies are on their way, just like you asked, but the canyon is ugly. Might take a bit to get them here through the snow. Get her inside. I'll take care of this out here.”
Stella followed as I led her through the parking lot, Justin on her other side. Heat blasted us in the face when we shoved into the house. Justin shut the door behind us.
“Meg!” he called.
She appeared from the side room. One look at Stella and concern lit up her eyes. Only a moment passed before she'd taken the situation in and stepped forward.
“Hey Stell.”
“I'll get the shower going,” Justin said.
“I'll help her get in,” Megan said, then reached for her. “Geez, girl. You're a literal bloody popsicle. C'mon. I happen to be a professional at this. This might really suck at first, by the way. Rewarming hurts, but the fact that you're shivering and talking is an excellent sign. I hope the other guy looks worse.”
Within seconds, Stella was whisked away from me and into Megan's comforting, quiet prattle. It smoothed over the strange edges of this situation and made it not so frightening to release her. The door to the bathroom firmly shut. Justin reappeared, his expression still shocked as he stared at me.
“You all right?” he asked.
My hands shook when I collapsed into a chair, put my head in my hands, and said nothing. He put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
“Whatever happened out there, she's okay now. You did it, Mark.”
For lack of any better response, I just nodded. The whole scene replayed itself in my mind with the feeling of seeing it from a different point of view. The knife at her throat. The rage in Joshua's voice. The fear in her eyes. For several minutes, I spiraled there until Justin clapped me on the shoulder.
“Get up,” he said firmly. “Get upstairs, get a change of warm clothes. I'll get some coffee going and the fire built up. Do whatever you have to do to pull it together, all right? You can crash later, but not now.”
His commanding tone shook me from the stupor. I ran a hand through my hair. The frozen strands had thawed, and it felt wet between my fingers. He was right. Stella needed me now.
“Yeah, thanks.”
Justin extended a hand, which I took, then yanked me off the couch. He met my gaze. “You did it, Mark. You saved her.”
Relief flooded me.
“We saved each other,” I said quietly.
Justin grinned. “It's how the real ones work.” He sobered. “Get changed so you can warm up, then get back down here for coffee, all right? It sucks after all you've gone through too, but you need to get yourself together for Stella. She looks like she just about died three times over, she'll need you. You'll have time with her once we can get this sorted out. It's going to be okay now, Mark. You'll both be okay.”
31 Stella
Hours later, the final deputy nodded to Mark's dad.
“Thanks, Jim, always good to see you. Let's make it under better circumstances in the future, all right?”
With a laugh, Jim shut the door on him.
Atticus sat on the couch not far away, belly full of warmed canned chicken and rice. A special meal for the hero dog. A quick call to the vet had cleared Atty of immediate poisoning issues, but just to be sure, he had an appointment the next day. Justin kept a firm eye on his every move.
From the moment I stepped out of the bathroom, my hair blown dry at Megan's insistence, the house had been filled with Mark's family or deputies. Benjamin stayed long enough to give his version of the story, then left with a promise to be in touch soon.
“You're a wild man,” he'd said to Mark as he left. “A manimal. Can't wait to set up here.”
Now, Megan and Justin spoke quietly across the room where they snuggled near the ladder, his arms around her. The warm scent of cream of chicken soup filled the air. Crusty bread bowls littered the small table, some half-filled, thanks to the dinner JJ and Lizbeth had brought with them. Sara, Mark's mother, had puttered around the house cleaning everything while hovering over me with a loving, protective touch. Now, the three of them were in the kitchen, conspiring over a sugary dessert to keep the mood elevated before they dispersed.
Meanwhile, Mark had remained near me like a shadow while Jim orchestrated the entire crime scene investigation, retirement notwithstanding. Jim’s explanations and suppositions thumped dully around my head, and I considered for the tenth time that all of this wasn't real.
Megan's help in a warm shower had been absolutely necessary and had sped the painful rewarming process up. But I still sat by the fire now, wrapped in a pair of yoga pants under my sweats, three pairs of Mark's warmest wool socks, and several layers of long-sleeved shirts. My shivering had stopped, but my nose still ached. Bruising had already started along the bottom of both eyes, making me look like a pale raccoon.
At some point during one discussion with a police officer, Mark had dropped one of his other zippered sweatshirts around my shoulders. His smell had anchored me, brought me out of the weird disbelief that punctuated every second, and I felt instantly warmer.
Despite the heat, any touch of cold air from the storm outside came with another round of shivers. Not all of them were from the cold.
Joshua had been loaded into the first cop car that had arrived and eventually taken away. Several people had spoken with me, and I'd answered all their questions while slowly sipping whatever warm drink Justin shoved at me next. The coffee restored my mental abilities with surprising speed. The
