I picture Cindy clinging to a panicked Nikita, holding on for dear life and then being thrown to the ground. I stop the thought before it can go any further. I don’t need the picture in my mind right now. Cindy will be fine. Nothing could have happened to her now. Not when I just found her.
I feel cold sweat run down my back as I gallop as fast as Milan will take me.
I can see the orchard in the distance and hope that’s as far as Cindy went. She could have gone to the creek again, or she could have gone in any of the other directions. I have no fucking idea which path she might have chosen.
Again, I can feel the panic rising, threatening to take over. I never fall apart when things go wrong. I’m cool and level-headed even in the most dire, life and death circumstances so I can’t understand why I am teetering on the edge of paranoia like this. I swallow the nausea and fear down, telling myself I need to be rational. My mind needs to be razor sharp. The last thing Cindy needs is for me to turn into a useless basket case.
As I close the gap between me and the orchard, I see Cindy. She’s coming towards me, and relief like I have never known floods me. She’s ok. She’s ok. God, she’s ok. I can already see that she’s limping heavily, barely daring to put any weight on her right ankle. One of her sleeves has torn away, and it’s hanging down her arm by a single thread or two.
Fuck.
I grip Milan and spur him to go even faster. I can see the relief on her face when I pull up next to her and jump down.
I don’t give her a chance to say anything before I look her up and down and run my hands all over her body. She doesn’t seem to have any serious injuries. I can’t see any blood which I take to be a good sign, and although her ankle is clearly painful, it’s not broken, or she wouldn’t have been able to walk at all. I scoop her up in my arms and bury my face in her neck. “You gave me a such a fucking scare, Cindy.” My voice sounds hoarse with fear.
“I’m fine, Alex,” she says. “I could have walked to the house myself, you know.”
I pull back and look into her white face. She stares back at me. She’s in shock. I lay her down on the grass. “You’ll be fine,” I tell her pulling my phone out. I give Boris my exact location and cut the call.
“It’s mostly just my ankle,” she says calmly. “I banged my head, but it’s fine. My shoulder hurts too, but it’s nothing major, just a bruise or two, I reckon.”
“Yes well, Doctor Ivanov will be the judge of that,” I say.
“I don’t need a doctor. I just need some ice for my ankle,” she says in that same calm voice.
I let it go. She’s getting the doctor whether she likes it or not, but I can’t achieve anything by arguing with her about it out here.
“Oh, shit! Nikita,” Cindy says suddenly. “There was a noise and it spooked her and she bolted. We have to find her, Alex.”
I can’t help but smile. Even after the accident and when she’s clearly in pain, even if she is trying to hide that fact from me, Cindy appears to be more worried about Nikita’s fate than she is about her own.
“What’s so funny?” she asks, frowning.
“Nothing. I just thought it was sweet that you were worried about Nikita. She’s fine. She made it back to the stables. It’s how I knew to come and look for you.”
“Oh, of course,” Cindy says. “I didn’t even consider how you knew to come and look for me. How did you know where to find me?”
“I followed Nikita’s hoof marks, but I had a good idea where you might be heading to as well.”
She nods and looks at me. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
I can’t stand to see her like this. Meek and quiet. It’s not her. It’s not her at all. I have to try and make her feel better somehow.
At that moment I see the truck thundering across the plains. Boris is going so fast it looks like it could turn turtle any moment. “Here comes help. If he doesn’t run us over first,” I say.
She gives a snort of laughter which, to my great relief, sounds a bit more like her.
Alex
Boris takes Milan and I carefully put her into the passenger seat then get into the driver’s seat. We don’t talk on the way back. She leans back with her eyes closed and I concentrate on driving as smoothly as possible as not to jar her ankle. When we get back to the house, I drive the truck right through the courtyard and through the grounds to the door. As soon as I stop, Cindy immediately moves to get out of the truck and winces as she turns.