Make Me Remember by Beth Kery Read Free Book Online Page B

with all her might. Finally, she heard it: the far distant mechanical chuffing sound.
    “What is it?” she asked Jake breathlessly.
    “I think it’s a helicopter.”
    Excitement zapped through her. She sat up partially. “A helicopter? Maybe we should start a fire to signal them!”
    “We can’t. It could signal Emmitt, too. Besides, it’s too far off. Miles probably, given the way sound travels in these mountains.”
    He urged her with his fingers, and she came down next to him again, hugging him close.
    “Don’t be so disappointed,” he said quietly after a moment. “We should be in Barterton by nightfall tomorrow.”
    “Yeah,” she whispered. Somehow, hearing that helicopter, that distant evidence of another human being, had made her feel very lonely.
    “Tomorrow is going to be another long day,” he said bracingly. “I don’t want to spend another night out in the open, so we’ll have to push hard, even with your sore foot. So try to sleep, okay?”
    “I can do it. Don’t worry. I won’t hold us back,” she whispered, going over her secret plan in her head to have Jake come live with them again, taking courage from it like she would the warmth of a fire.
    Miraculously, she fell asleep in the vastness of that terrifying night, feeling safe in the enclosure of Jake’s arms.

Chapter Four
    Twenty Years Ago
    The following day, their march through the woods went on and on. Harper had numbed herself to the pain of her heel and to her exhaustion, but she couldn’t deaden herself to Jake’s perceptive gaze as he looked over his shoulder at her. He came to an abrupt halt and spun.
    “You’re shaking,” he said tensely, coming downhill toward her in the rough brush. They’d been on the move now for six hours, Jake moving them rapidly over harsh terrain. He grasped her shoulder. “Harper, why are you shaking?”
    Helplessness nearly choked her. She hated disappointing him, being so weak when he was so strong. “My foot. It hurts so bad. I’m sorry,” she said miserably, tears pouring down her cheeks.
    He launched himself at her. Harper gasped in surprise and the impact of his body bumping into her unexpectedly. He hugged her tightly. She squeezed him back for all she was worth.
    “Don’t be sorry,” he said emphatically near her ear. “I’m sorry, for making you think you should be torturing yourself and keeping quiet about it, just because I’m so scared.”
    He pulled her tighter to him. She felt so
small
there in the middle of the vast woods and intimidating mountains, and in that moment, she knew Jake felt small, too. For a few seconds, Harper couldn’t speak, she was so overwhelmed by fear. For the first time, she started to wonder what it’d be like to die.
    But then she focused on the boy in her arms.
    “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for,” she rallied. “Jake, look at me.”
    He wouldn’t, keeping his face buried in her neck. Harper knew she was experiencing him at his most vulnerable. It broke her heart that it was
she
who had made him this way.
    “Jake, I think you should go ahead to Barterton. No,
listen
,” she said when he shook his head forcefully against hers. “We only have three or four hours before we get to town, right? I’m just holding you back. I can camp somewhere in a hidden spot. You know the woods so well, you’ll remember where I’m at. You can leave me some supplies. You can bring the police back to me!”
    She couldn’t believe she was saying this. The idea of being alone in the black forest at night terrified her. But the pain of her blistered heel had become her whole world. That and her concern for Jake. He had a chance to make it . . . while she didn’t.
    “I
ain’t
leaving you, Harper.”
    “But Jake, he wants to
kill
you.” She said her unspoken fear out loud, her voice shaking. He didn’t move for a moment. She held her breath. The tall trees surrounding them rustled eerily in the wind. Slowly, Jake lifted his head.
    “Some people