The impact jerked my entire body, but it was pretty anticlimactic as far as car accidents went.
“Fantastic.” I let my head fall against the headrest for a second, hoping the adrenaline would cycle out and calm my racing heart.
The headlights shone but only tracked the snow as it streaked from the sky. If I hadn’t known the terrain, I’d have no clue if I were in the field or on the edge of the drop-off before the switchbacks that led to the Rose Rowan Mine.
I put the car into reverse and went nowhere, so I stopped before I spun myself even deeper.
My cell phone had 70 percent battery, and my tank was half full, so at least I had that going for me. It took me a few minutes to get the canvas tow straps I kept in the back seat looped around my waist at one end and tied to my seat at the other. Once I was tethered to the car, I grabbed the bag Dad had preached about carrying since I was little and put on a thick winter hat and spare gloves.
“Seriously, is this karma for sticking up for your brother?” I asked Sullivan. Naturally, he didn’t respond. I wasn’t nuts.
I mentally prepared myself for this to suck, zipped my coat to my chin, then got out of the car, carrying the bulk of the strap with me and quickly shutting my door to keep the snow out. It was deeper up here, coming almost to the top of my boot.
My very thin, not-snow-friendly boot.
Ignoring the biting cold, I crouched and used my cell phone as a flashlight to inspect the damage.
The front left had taken the impact, leaving me with a flat tire and a busted rim. I cursed softly. Without the snow, it would have been a hell of a spot to change a flat, but with the snow, it was impossible.
I was so freaking screwed.
Keeping one hand on the car, I walked toward the back. I was close to the drop-off. Another twenty feet and I would have seen Sullivan way sooner than I’d planned on.
I checked to make sure the tailpipe was clear and dug out a space underneath it to keep snow from overtaking it. Then I opened the hatch and retrieved the snow boots I’d left there after taking Rosie sledding last week. I got back into the car and gritted my teeth against the pain that assaulted my feet as heat returned to my toes.
There were not enough swear words in the English language for this moment.
I could call Dad.
He’d be pissed, but he’d come.
As long as the deer didn’t ambush him, he’d probably make it. But the snow was deep and only coming faster.
There was no way I was risking Charity up here or asking Pat to leave Thea and Jacob.
I opened the contacts on my phone and scrolled slowly, then paused.
Call him.
I balked at my own inner voice.
“He probably changed his number a dozen times over the years,” I muttered. Okay, maybe I was going a little nuts if I was responding to myself.
I tapped his name before I could second-guess myself and prepared to hear the ear-blistering disconnected announcement.
“Willow?” Cam answered.
“Cam.” I sagged in my seat as relief hit me smack in the chest.
“What’s going on?”
I could almost see his puckered brow from here, that concerned look he got when things went wrong.
“I seem to have gotten myself in a little situation,” I said as the wipers slowed. The snow was getting too heavy for them.
“Of course you did. Where are you?”
I cringed but forged ahead, because I didn’t want to end up as the headline tomorrow.
“I got into an accident. Right after the first ridge. You know, where it curves instead of going to the springs? Right before the Rose Rowan turn?”
“Send me a GPS pin. I’m on my way.”
Chapter Eleven
Camden
I was going to throttle her. As soon as I found her.
This storm wasn’t playing around.
I paused at the ridgeline between our properties and checked the pin she’d sent me with her location against my own. Dropping another fifty feet of elevation should bring her into visibility.
What the hell was she doing out in this? Okay, granted, the weatherman screwed up and said the storm was passing to the north of us, but then again, by saying we weren’t getting snow, they had a 50 percent shot at being right. Snow was accumulating fast, and even the Cat wasn’t going to be a sure thing pretty soon.
“Just let her be okay,” I begged. I hadn’t asked if she was injured because it wouldn’t have made a difference. I could only get there as fast as possible, and I was already doing that.
I zipped my phone into my pocket and turned the snowmobile down the ridge, giving the Cat some throttle. It was a damn good thing I knew this land like the back of my hand, because visibility was shit, and what I could see hid the dips and rises that could get me into some major trouble.
Not that we weren’t already in trouble.
I passed the grouping of pines that marked where the road turned, and a pair of streaming headlights came into view.
“Thank you,” I whispered into the gator that covered my mouth, then carefully made my way down the slope.
Damn, she was close to the cliff. I blocked out everything that could have happened and focused on what did as I left the engine to idle and climbed off.
I flung open the passenger door of her 4Runner and ripped at my helmet. “Are you hurt?” I asked before I had it all the way off.
“No,” she promised with a shake of her head. “You came all the way in this on the snowmobile?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t cutting across the property in the Jeep, and to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have made it. I don’t know how you made it.” Snow hit the exposed back of my neck as I leaned in.
“I didn’t. Hence me calling,” she admitted with a sheepish crinkle in her nose. “I’m so sorry you had to come.”
“I didn’t have to, Willow. I chose to.” That was partly a lie. Sure, there was some freewill argument to be had, but all my choices when it came to Willow had been made decades ago. She called. I came. It was that simple. And that complicated.
“The front left tire is flat—” she started.
“Doesn’t matter. We can’t get to it in this anyway. Now, let’s go. The snow is only getting deeper.” I scanned her frame as I talked, taking in her hat, coat, and gloves, down to— “Holy shit, are you wearing a skirt?”
That crinkle was back. “Well, yes. I was—”
“Again, doesn’t matter. Shit. Wait here.” I closed the door and pivoted to face the Cat. Unbuckling the saddlebags was a pain with my gloves, but I wasn’t risking losing them in this. I’d get frostbite before we could make it back to the house.