Chapter 58
Keara was beside herself.
“It’s not your fault.” Tina pulled her in close for a hug amid the chaos of the unfinished section. “Keara. Listen to me. It’s not your doing.”
“Oh god, oh god,” she moaned. She’d kept it together where the guests could see her, especially where the kids were. But here, back in the unfinished area, she could be herself.
Worse? It was scary letting go, because she didn’t know who she was, in this particular situation. This had never happened to her before, where someone so incredibly and so foolishly…was putting her first. One hundred percent first.
It just about turned her inside out. And not in a good way. She looked at the thesis. She’d managed another three pages. A miracle, in itself. But it had been horribly difficult, and she didn’t have it in her to do any more. The thesis was done.
“He’s risking his life for me. Oh, Tina,” she caught herself on a sob. “What if he dies out there tonight?”
The tears fell. Big, retching sobs. All the angst, all the tightly held in constraints of living with criminals for over a year poured out of her. Worrying about her mother. Worrying about all the animals that were being hurt.
She’d had to keep all those souls at the forefront of her mind constantly so she wouldn’t face the real truth, the real worry, as she carried out her mission with law enforcement.
Her life, and Buddy’s. They’d both been in real danger.
Now, here she was again, worrying about someone she loved. Who’d put himself in real danger. For her.
“He won’t die.” Tina hugged her. “He knows these mountains like no one else. He’s part of the damn patrol, for crap’s sake. He’s an experienced skier, a fair mountaineer, and stunning in the search and rescue area. It’s what he did in Special Ops. He’s not stupid and he’s for sure not foolhardy.”
Keara melted into her comfort, the words dropping on her tattered spirit like healing balm. But deep inside, she still worried.
Her heart ached. She wanted him back, so bad. Even if he wasn’t in love with her, she needed him back. Safe and sound.
But no matter what happened, she’d always know. He’d done this huge, self-sacrificing thing for her. And that would never be diminished, no matter the outcome. No matter whether or not he loved her that way, he’d done this for her.
It was huge.
She bent, gathered Jake into her arms. Tried to stop his nervous quivering.
She didn’t know how the puppy knew something was wrong, but he was acting different. He and Sven had been separated before, so it couldn’t be that. When Sven was working at the chalet, and couldn’t participate in his training. It was a routine occurrence.
But somehow, that pup knew something was wrong. She saw the stark worry in its eyes. How he couldn’t seem to settle since Sven had left. He’d taken to doing little doggy yips, little moans. She’d think he’d finally let go, was even sleeping.
Then he’d emit a moan. A queer little squiggle, one almost with a question mark at the end. It sounded curiously like where is he? Where’s Sven?
Fear crowded her heart, pushed out hope.
If he didn’t come back tonight, would that pup be waiting for him for the rest of his life? She’d read accounts like that. The master dies, and the dog still goes, every day, to meet him. And waits.
Waits at the assigned spot for the man who will never come home again.
Loyal to a fault. Love, in action. Showing that the master, the object of his love, would never die for him. She couldn’t bear for that to happen to this little pup.
She hugged him even tighter, with one arm still around Tina, too. A three-way hug. Tina, her, and little Jake.
And despite Williams hating the dog—she’d found out he was planning on cutting him from the program, and from Sven, the bastard—she wasn’t going to hide the fact that he was going to stay by her side tonight, here in the chalet.
It might cost her her job, but she wasn’t going to abandon Sven’s little dog—the one she also loved, now—no matter what it cost her.