“But you’re going to keep pulling.”
“I can’t let go. If I can find answers to a cold case and bring closure, then I’m going to do that. If I don’t look into it, then who will?”
“What about your job? Are you risking losing that?”
He shrugged. “I hope it won’t come to that, but if anything happens to me, you’ll know why.”
If anything happens? Nathan’s chest tightened. He didn’t like the precarious situation his father was in and was putting Nathan in as well. “What about Henry? Did you tell him?”
“No. Right now, the only person I trust is you, son.”
Seriously? Why him? Nathan wanted to tell his father that he didn’t even know him. He bit back those words but opened his mouth to ask more about the case—
His father cut him off. “In case something happens to me—”
A shot rang out in the distance and Nathan stiffened. A hunter probably.
Dad fell forward, his upper body splashing into the river.
“Dad!” The shock of the moment kept Nathan cemented to the ground.
Blood colored the water near Dad’s head. Heart pounding, Nathan stepped into the river and pulled his father out and carefully dragged him onto the bank. Nathan dropped to the ground and supported Dad’s head. Shock gripped him as he looked at the gunshot wound. Nathan pressed his shaking hand against the hole in Dad’s head, blood gushing between his trembling fingers. Sobs broke from him as he checked Dad’s pulse. It was weak, but Dad was still alive.
A gunman. A shooter out there.
If this had been intentional, Dad could still be in danger.
“If anything happens to me, you’ll know why.”
Nathan dragged Dad behind a boulder to prevent another bullet if someone had been aiming to kill. If so, they might already think he was dead.
Nathan’s whole body quaked. He couldn’t lose his father this way. He didn’t want it to end this way. Please, God, help me!
Pull yourself together, man! He yanked out his cell and held it up in the air, still behind the boulder, until he got one bar.
One lonely bar.
Then he called for emergency services—a life-flight helicopter was the only way to save Dad’s life.
If it wasn’t already too late.