Just One Kiss (Whisper Lake #4) - Barbara Freethy Page 0,91

as he raised the gun in his hand.

Jake blinked his eyes open. The truck had come to a crashing halt, the airbag hitting him in the chest. As he came fully awake, he realized that the vehicle was surrounded by a sea of branches, pinecones, and needles, all coated with a heavy snow. He couldn't see the road. He couldn't see anything but the tree that had engulfed them.

He glanced at his father, who was also coming back to consciousness, and he was relieved to see his eyes opening. "Are you all right, Dad?"

His father gave him a bemused look, putting a hand to his head, where blood was dripping from a cut.

"Are you hurt anywhere besides your head?" he asked. "Do you feel any pain in your legs, arms, chest?"

"No," Davis said finally. "I—I'm okay. What about you?"

"Same." He took his phone out of his pocket. He had no signal. They would not be able to call for help. He looked around as he unfastened his seat belt, trying to assess the situation. One thing was clear. "We've got to get out of here."

His father tried to take off his seat belt, but the door on his side was bent inward and had jammed the mechanism. "I can't get it off."

"It's okay." He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out an emergency box of tools, which included a pocketknife. It took him a few minutes to cut through the belt, and every second that passed added to his tension and frustration. Not only did they need to get out of this truck, they needed to get to Hannah.

Finally, the seat belt released. Then he worked on getting his door open. Once outside, he was able to cut through some branches to make some space. His dad couldn't get out of his side of the truck but was able to maneuver his way out of the driver's side, and he brought his medical bag with him.

When they were both on their feet, he could see that they were at the far end of the tree branches. The heaviest part of the tree had missed them by about ten feet, probably because they'd skidded completely off the road. Most of the tree was behind them, which was better. They couldn't go backward, but they could go forward, and that's where Hannah was.

"The cabin is that way," he told his dad.

"Are you sure we didn't get turned around?"

He wanted to be more certain than he was. But even though it was only afternoon, it was dark, and the snow was thick. It was not easy to see in any direction. "My gut tells me we need to go that way," he said, looking at his dad. "Whether I'm right or wrong, we can't stay here."

His father nodded, giving him a grim look. "No, we can't. You lead, I'll follow."

He was oddly touched by his father's trust in him. He hadn't felt that trust in a long time, maybe not ever. There had been no respect between them since he'd been seventeen years old. But now they would need to work together in order to survive and to get to Hannah and Kelly. God knew what was going on with them. But he couldn't think about them. He couldn't let fear or worry get in the way. He had to focus on one step at a time.

Using the knife at times, he was able to cut their way through some of the brush. They finally came out on the other side and made their way down the road. As they went around the next curve, they stopped abruptly. His heart sank. The bridge over the Whisper River had cracked and broken away, half of it now submerged in the icy water below. It wasn't a long bridge, just twenty feet across, but that twenty feet now seemed almost insurmountable.

"Damn," his father said, giving him a troubled look. "We're trapped."

"Not trapped," he said decisively. "We'll just have to cross over at another spot."

"There's no other spot, Jake. We can't cross the river. The ice isn't solid enough."

"Don't tell me what we can't do. Tell me what we can do," he snapped, angry at the situation more than at his father, but he was the closest target.

"Why don't you tell me?" his father countered.

"I'm thinking," he grumbled. "We're not giving up. We just have to figure it out. There has to be a way." His mind raced with possibilities, but each one seemed impossible.