Treacherous by Barbara Taylor Bradford

cell phone and hit redial, expecting to go to voicemail once again.
Miraculously, Mikey picked up, home no doubt from a night of drinking and
gambling, and God knows what else. And on her money.
    “Hayley, hey
there. What are you doing up so early?”
    “Did you just
get home, you creep? Did you have fun with my money? Or rather the money you
stole from me?”
    Mikey sounded
hurt. “What are you talking about? I’d never steal from you! You’re my sister!”
    “Just wait
until I see you. Meantime, did you forget that Luke and Fiona went over a cliff
last night? That they're probably dead?”
    Silence.
    “You did! You
forgot! You shit! What is wrong with you? Are you hanging around with Eddie
Rivers again?”
    “No, course
not. I learned my lesson last time.”
    “You’re lying.
I know that , because your lips are moving. I need you to do something
for me. Call Professor Chambers, Fiona’s dad. You’ll find his number in my
address book in the apartment. Tell him I’m at the crash site, and I’ll call
him the minute I know something.”
    “You call him,
Hayley. He doesn’t like me.”
    “A Professor
of Ethics not like you? What a surprise. Call him and I might not kill
you.”
    She hung up
quickly before he could make another excuse. She couldn’t bear to be the one to
tell that kind and loving man that his only daughter was most likely dead.
    The first red
streaks of dawn were beginning to filter through the night sky. The colonel in
charge of coordinating the searchers addressed those gathered.
    “We are ready
to move out. Remember your orders. Stick to the paths down to the river that have
been cleared for you. We don’t want to have to stop our search, to pull you out
of the drink. You’ve each been given an area to search, and issued a whistle.
If you see anything, and that includes train debris, clothing, shoes, tracks,
body parts, anything at all, give two long blasts on the whistle. Got it? Two
blasts . Touch nothing. Do nothing. Wait until help arrives. If it is a
false alarm, you will hear three short blasts, three long. That means keep searching.
Understood?”
    “Yes, Sir!” the
guardsmen answered in unison.
    Hayley was too
busy praying for a miracle to respond. She tried to shut out the words, but all
the talk of broken bones at impact, and death by hypothermia, crept into her
consciousness, despite her efforts to stay positive.
    She clutched
the whistle that hung around her neck and followed the first group of searchers
toward the riverbank. She would not listen to the so-called experts. They didn’t
know Fiona and they didn’t know Luke. They would find a way to survive.
    Hayley made
her way down the path to the riverbank, which the National Guard had cut out of
the tangle of undergrowth. The hill was steep and the river far below. She pushed
down the thought of her two friends falling…falling toward the brown swirling
water below her.
    Guilt flooded
her. I could have had a hand in this, she thought. I sent all those hateful,
envious, angry feelings I had about Fiona out into the universe. If they were
found alive…She corrected her thought. When they were found alive
there would be no more negative thoughts from her. When Luke was found alive
she was going to tell him she loved him, that she had loved him since she was
eight years old.
    And she was
going to apologize to Fiona for pretending he was just an old pal. Maybe Luke
thought the same thing. Hayley was always one of the boys when she was with him.
Perhaps he never knew how she longed for him to take her in his arms. It was
time for her to dare to speak the truth.
    But first she
had to find them.
    Once Hayley
reached the bottom of the hill, she checked the directions to the area she was
assigned to search. How they could end up so far downstream she had no idea,
but search she would.
    She took off at
a jog.

EIGHTEEN
    The
lovemaking began without design or intent. Fiona awakened slowly from what felt
like the deepest, warmest