Coming Home to the Mountain: Complete Edition

5. Rye

CHAPTER 5

Rye

A s much as I want to sit here in this cabin, kissing—among other things—Prairie all the damn day, I know that I can't. I need to get her down this mountain and get her into urgent care.

And I need to call my brother Graham on the way down so he can get police officers up to the cabin where she was held captive.

“Prairie,” I say. “I know you want to stay here, and that the cabin is finally warming up and I'm guessing you aren't up for a long day of travel. But darlin’, I can't keep you here. You need to go to the police.”

She presses her lips together. Taking in my words. “I'm glad you're the voice of reason,” she says softly. “I feel all mixed up. And I can imagine myself getting in a warm bath and falling asleep and not waking up for a week. And oh, if there is a big warm bed here? I can imagine lying in it with you for days, weeks on end.”

I close my eyes for a moment. Just imagining that this beautiful woman, with the body of an angel, with the eyes of my soulmate, was in bed with me.

I open them though, needing to ground myself in reality.

“Prairie, as much as I want to get swept away in that fantasy, we can't do that right now. We got to go. We have to be responsible.”

“Are you always so reliable?” she asks me.

I shake my head, thinking about the last year and how my family thinks I’m anything but responsible and reliable. They think I'm a goddamn ass. Prairie sees the best in me, the true me.

But Prairie only knows me as the man I am right now. In this moment.

“Prairie, why don't we eat something, and I'll let the fire die down and then we'll get in the truck. Okay? We'll head back down the mountain. And in a few hours, I'll have good reception and I'll be able to call the police and let them know to expect us. You think you can handle all that?”

She nods. “With you by my side, I feel like I can handle anything.”

“How are you so confident with a man you just met?” I ask her.

She runs her hand through my hair, cupping my cheek. Her thumb running across the rough skin under my eyes.

“I just know that you're mine,” she says. “I told you I was dreaming about you. And I believe in fate. I believe that there's light after dark, that good wins out over evil.”

“You're this optimistic after everything that happened to you?” I ask, shaking my head, wondering how anyone can be so good. So pure.

She smiles softly. “Rye,” she says, “I'm choosing to believe all those things. Because if I didn't, those years I was locked up in that cabin, I don't think I could have gotten through them. I don't think I could have survived if I gave in to the pain. I had to stay in the light.”

I take her hand and squeeze it tight and fuck, it feels good to be grounded in someone so pure.

It's what I need.

She is what I need.

Thirty minutes later we're in my truck. The cabin’s all locked up and emptied out.

I can't imagine us coming back here anytime soon, considering the hell she went through less than five miles away.

When I start driving, she begins to marvel at all the tiny little details that I take for granted.

The leather seats of my truck, the electric windows, the heat.

“Damn,” I say. “I can't even begin to imagine what you've been through.”

“Don't,” she says, “don't try and imagine any of it. But can we please listen to some music? Because I haven't listened to any music in four years.”

“What kind of music do you like?”

“I'm not picky.”

“How about the radio?” I turn it on and she begins to turn the knob, scrolling her way through the static until the first station clearly comes through. The song, of course, is another burst of destiny. It's the Beatles. “Here Comes The Sun . ”

She begins singing along, smiling. Laughing, her head falling back on the headrest. Her fingers reach for mine and they lace together.

I drive down that mountain light as a feather.

“Tell me about Home,” she says. “It might make me less nervous to go back to civilization.”

“Fuck, I didn’t consider that. Are you scared?”

“Yes,” she says gently. “But if we’re together, I will be less so.”

“Home has good restaurants, safe streets, festivals, and my family established the town back in 1910, if you can believe it. Home is about as good as any town in the world.”

“Have you been to many places in the world?” she asks.

“Honestly, no,” I chuckle. “I’ve never left the state.”

“Me either,” she says. “I want to see places, though.”

“Where do you wanna go first?”

“Somewhere that feels like a fairy tale. Like Iceland.”

“I can dig that.” I grin, looking over at this princess. “Hot springs. Hikes. You. Me.”

She laughs. “Wow, this is moving fast.”

I swallow. Lift her hand to my lips. Kiss her soft skin. “Yeah, I guess it is, isn’t it?”

I haven't felt this way in so long, since before Luke died, and I look over at her, thanking God she came into my life. I've known her for what? An hour, and already I know this woman is a woman I cannot live without.

At urgent care, things get complicated real fucking fast.

The moment the doctors understand who Prairie Jones is, they whisk her away.

Graham shows up—of course I already called him to tell him about the man Prairie killed up in the forest.

He finds me yelling at a nurse. “Let me be with her. Can’t you hear how upset she is?”

Prairie is hysterical because they won't let me go into the examination room with her because I’m not family.

“She'd calm down,” I tell my brother, “if they’d just let me go in there with her.”

Graham forces me away from the nurses’ station and leads me into the waiting room.

“Tell me everything that happened,” Graham says. “From the beginning.”

I tell him what I know, stressed the entire time because I know that Prairie is in another room being interrogated.

Graham's eyes search mine. “Rye, what's going on? You just met her. Why are you so protective?”

“I'm just... I'm really worried about her. I really care for her. She needs me,” I tell my brother.

“You don't even know her,” Graham says.

“I know she is my person.”

Graham stares at me, taking in my intensity. I don’t back down. I know who Prairie is to me. Before we got out of my truck and came into the urgent care, I told her I would do anything she needed, forever. I would be her rock.

“We need to make sure her story is sound,” Graham says. “Make sure nothing she's saying is?—”

I growl, cutting him off. “Don't tell me she's a liar. I saw her run through the clearing. It's my duty to protect her. Do you understand?”

Graham is not having it. He shoves me back. “Don't, Rye. Don't make me do something you're going to regret. I'm the law here. You understand? There are helicopters at the cabin that she claims she came from and there are officers already at the scene. Everybody is out there. There's an FBI crew on the way. This is no small matter. This woman has been missing for four years.”

“Were people looking for her?” I ask.

Graham shakes his head. “Apparently, four years ago she aged out of the system. There's been nothing about her since. No one's been looking.”

“And now you're thinking she could be a liar. Fuck you,” I shout at my brother.

“I didn't say she's a liar. Clearly she's been through hell.” He gets a radio call from the Rough Forest. “I gotta take this.”

“Yeah, I bet you do. It's probably the fucking crew up at the cabin corroborating her story. So you should take it and then come back and tell me what you heard.”

Graham glares at me as he leaves and I pull out my phone, calling my father.

“Hey, Dad,” I say.

“How do you have reception at the cabin?” he asks.

“I'm not at the cabin. I'm here at urgent care in Home.”

“Are you okay?”

“Well, something happened.” I briefly explain what's going on.

“That why there are helicopters overhead and news reporters lining up on the streets around town?”

Damn. “I guess this story is a big one.” Already my stomach twists for Prairie. I don’t know how she will handle all of this. How would anyone? “Is Mom with you?”

“No, I've got Cash here. We are just around the corner at the office.”

“Cash?” My cousin Cash Rowdy is with my father on a workday? “What's he doing with you?”

My father clears his throat. “He's working with me, son. I figured with you gone for a few weeks, I might as well call in Cash to lend a hand.”

Why should I be surprised?

I end the phone call, trying to piece together how I feel about Cash taking my place. I love my cousin. Cash is a fuckin asshole, but then again, so am I. And he's a good enough guy. We're the same age and grew up together, just on different mountains. He's Rowdy, I'm Rough, but we're blood through and through.

Dad and Cash show up, same time as Graham makes his way back into the lobby of the urgent care.

“So was Prairie telling the truth?” I ask him, already knowing the answer but I want to make him come out and say it.

Graham nods gravely. “That girl hasn't just been through hell and back. She's been through the goddamn wringer. She wasn't lying about any of it, Rye. She's been chained to a post in a bedroom for years. I mean, officers have only been up there for an hour, but what they've seen…” He shakes his head, losing his words.

“Graham,” my father says. “Looks like you've seen a ghost.”

“Prairie is gonna need some serious help,” Graham says. “And Rye, if you care about her?—”

My father looks at me. “Care about her? I thought she was just a girl you found and brought into town for help. What does he mean, care?”

Graham and I give one another a hard look. Graham seems to understand that how I care about Prairie is bigger than that. Different. More.

She’s not just some girl I helped.

Truth is, she's the woman who's saving me.