Drake Sisters 02 - The Twilight Before Christmas

could have endless patience when needed, but he had to know what he was doing.
    It seemed a hundred years until Jackson cal ed out. “Found! I’l keep cal ing out so you both can get a direction. She’s not going to be able to hang on, so I’m going down after her. I’ve tied off a safety rope.”
    Even with the fog distorting the voice, Matt got a sense of Jackson’s direction and moved toward him. Jackson’s voice was far more distant the second time he cal ed out, and Matt knew he’d gone over the side of the cliff to try to get to El e before she plunged into the sea. He’d been in combat with Jackson, had served on many covert missions with him. He wasn’t a man to rush headlong into anything. If he was already going over the cliff to get to El e, she needed the help. He was counting on Jonas and Matt to rescue them both. He knew they’d come for him.
    Matt felt the crushed grass with his hand and flattened his body, bel y down, reaching along the crumbling edge of the cliff until he found the rope.
    Jackson had tied off the end, using an old fence post. Matt sucked in his breath. The fence post was rotted and already coming out of the ground. “I’m tying off again, Jackson, give me a minute,” Matt cal ed down to him. He peered over the cliff.
    Jackson was climbing down almost blind, feeling with his hands and toes for a grip. El e lay sprawled out on a smal ledge, clinging to a flimsy tree. He caught only glimpses of her as the fog was pushed out toward the sea. The heavy mist crawled down below the cliff line, hovering stubbornly in the more protected pocket to obscure the vision of the rescuers.
    “Pass the rope back to me,” Jonas said, coming up behind Matt.
    Matt did so immediately, not taking his eyes from the scene unfolding below him. The fog was thick and churning, but the wind kept attacking it, driving it out in feathery clumps. It was the only thing that provided him with glimpses of the action. Jackson made his way, with painstaking care, down the sheer side of the cliff. Jonas tied off the rope to a much more secure anchor behind them, where Matt couldn’t see.
    “We’re ready up here, Jackson, say the word,” Matt cal ed when Jonas signaled him the rope was safe to use. “El e, I’m not hearing anything from you.” He hadn’t. Not a moan, not a cal for help. It was alarming. He thought he could see her actively holding on to the smal tree growing out of the side of the cliff, but the more he tried to pierce the veil of the fog, the more he was certain El e wasn’t moving.
    As Jackson reached her, Matt held his breath, waiting. Afraid to hear, afraid not to hear. His heart beat loudly over the sound of the sea.
    “She’s alive,” Jackson cal ed up. “She has a nasty bump on the head, and she’s bruised from head to toe, but she’s alive.”
    Matt leaned farther over the cliff to hear the conversation below him. Jackson’s voice drifted up to him. “Lie stil , let me examine you for broken bones. I’m Jackson Deveau, the deputy sheriff.”
    “This ledge is crumbling.” El e’s voice trembled. “Someone pushed me. I didn’t hear them, but they pushed me.”
    “It’s al right. Don’t move. You’re safe now.” Jackson’s voice was soothing. “Do you remember me? We met once a long time ago.”
    Matt recognized instantly the calming quality to Jackson’s voice. He was talking to keep her from being agitated. “Jonas, I think El e’s injured. I can tel by the way Jackson’s acting.” Keeping his voice low, he gave the news to the sheriff, aware that Jonas was anxious to know El e’s condition.
    “I heard your voice, in a dream,” El e said. Her words blurred around the edges, sending Matt’s heart tripping. “You were in pain. Terrible pain.
    Someone was torturing you. You were in a smal closet of a room. I remember.”
    Matt went stil . Jonas froze behind him, obviously hearing El e’s response.
    “Then you know you’re safe with me. You helped me when I needed it. I’l get you out of this. That’s the way the buddy system works.”

    It was the most Matt had ever heard Jackson say to anyone. He glanced back to look at Jonas’s face. The fog along the highway was clearing.
    The wind gusted, careening off the cliff face in order to push the heavy mist away from El e and Jackson. Jackson never talked about being captured.
    Never talked about the treatment he’d endured. He never spoke of the escape that fol owed or how difficult it had been