Building Her Throne Burying My Heart (Claire) novel Chapter 68

The heart she’d sworn was hardened by hate was now a mystery even to herself. Claire gazed out the window, her eyes steady and distant. “We can’t leave anyway, so let’s just wait,” she said. “I brought some hot water with me. Here, have some.”

Garrison watched the worry creasing Claire’s brow and felt a familiar sense of defeat. No matter what happened, Claire still cared about Lambert. Even after seeing him at his lowest, Garrison could never quite take Lambert’s place in her heart.

A moment later, Laird pushed his way through the crowd and hurried to Claire’s car, his face tense like he’d just heard something big. He stumbled up to her window, breathless. “Claire, I think it’s a guest from the mountain hotel. The guy’s unconscious up in a tree. Rescuing him won’t be easy, especially since it rained last night and everything’s slippery, but they’ve already sent people down.”

Claire’s heart clenched. A guest from the hotel? Could that be Lambert?

She quickly checked her car’s GPS on her phone and saw the last signal was right here. The realization stabbed at her.

Could it really be Lambert down there?

No, it couldn’t be. She tried to convince herself. That’s impossible.

Just then, the rescue vehicles moved to clear a path. Garrison jumped at the chance. “It’s probably someone else. We should just head down the mountain. I’m really not feeling well. If there’s any news, the police will call you first.”

He started coughing again, sounding worse than before.

Laird never liked Garrison. “Maybe I should go check again. Maybe they’re bringing the person up right now.”

Before Claire could respond, Garrison started coughing even harder, his face turning red. She rolled her eyes and gave in. “Fine, let’s go. There’s nothing to see here. If it really is him, then he’s lucky to be alive. If it’s not, I’ll hunt him down no matter where he runs. Let’s just get down the mountain.”

Laird had no choice but to get in and carefully drive through the narrow gap.

As their car pulled away, the rescue team finally managed to get the man down from the tree. They eased him onto a stretcher and slowly lifted him up through the thick brush. By then, the cold, exhaustion, and pain had already pushed me into unconsciousness.