They kept going. An hour later, Aidan stopped again. Shoving his sunglasses up on top of his head, he crouched down next to a low-lying manzanita bush and stared at the shoe that matched the one they’d already found, this one dotted with some blood. “Shit.”

Hudson echoed the sentiment and radioed it in.

A few minutes later they heard the thumping beat of the search chopper flying overhead.

Their radios crackled in stereo as the report came in from the helo. The missing girl had just been spotted one hundred yards north of Aidan and Hudson’s position, off the side of the trail, where she’d apparently fallen and was clinging to some undergrowth.

Aidan and Hudson raced to the spot and peered over the side.

Yep, there she was, twenty feet down, conscious and hyperventilating by the looks of things. “Shannon,” Aidan called down while Hudson prepared the rope, harness, and attachment point. “How you doing?”

She burst into loud sobs while simultaneously cussing out her coed sisters with enviable creativity.

“It’s okay, we’ve got you now,” Aidan told her. “Just hang tight, we’ll be right there.” He looked at Hudson. “Hit it.”

“Not me,” Hudson said, nudging the harness at Aidan. “You know I don’t do criers. This one has your name all over it.”

Aidan snatched the harness. “What makes you think I do criers?”

“Have you met the women you date? Teri, Breanne, Molly, Shelly—” Hudson ticked off Adrian’s exes on his fingers.

“I never dated Shelly,” Aidan said, slapping Hudson’s helping hands away.

“Banged then,” Hudson said.

Aidan straightened the harness and narrowed his eyes at Hudson. “And how is it you get to escape all the crazy?”

“It’s a talent I picked up by watching you and doing the opposite,” Hudson said.

The rest of the team arrived. As Hudson belayed him down, Aidan kept his eyes on the girl. “Keep your head down,” he told her. “Don’t look up or you’ll get rock dust in your eyes.”

So of course she promptly looked up and got rock dust in her eyes. She screamed and slid down another few feet. “Omigod, I’m losing my grip! I—”

Aidan snatched her just as she let go. “Got ya.”

Still screaming, she managed to climb his body, gripping him with both arms and legs like a monkey.

Déjà vu …

“Shannon,” he said firmly while keeping his voice purposely low so that she’d have to strain to hear, theoretically shutting up in the process. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

She stopped screaming. With a noisy sniff, she met his gaze, her face puffy and mascara ravaged, as the team pulled them up. “Are you married?” she asked.

“No.”

“Do you want to be?”