When he bent down to make sure the wind wasn't knocked out of her, Ess reacted. She put her hands to his chest to shove him away, and flailed her legs so that she could kick him if he came within the vicinity of them.

Max quickly countered this pandemonious self defense. He grabbed her wrists, shoving them to the ground, while he used his own legs to pin hers down. She still struggled for several seconds longer, but exhausted her already fatigued limbs very quickly.

He could hear her sobs as she realized she couldn't struggle anymore, and he felt her shake with fright and cold. Pinning her down like this was not the best way to earn her trust. In fact, it appeared to be the exact opposite. He didn't know what else to do, though.

"Sshhh." He tried to sooth her. "Sshh. Esther. Esther, it will be all right. Just calm down." She heard him, but was she listening?

"Ess," Max continued, "I know you don't believe me, but I won't hurt you. Please let me help you. Please."

He felt her submit a little more to him. If she would only relax a little further, they could return to the car. "Ess, we need to get you back to the car. Your nose is bleeding. Let's go take care of your injuries. Okay?"

It took Ess several moments to respond. Here he had her at his mercy, and he wasn't taking advantage of it? He wanted to get her back to the car to bandage her up? Then she felt it. Her nose was throbbing. Really throbbing! Her tailbone ached, and a sharp pain pierced at her shoulder. She winced and nodded at the same time.

With that reply, Max loosened his grasp and helped her to her feet. She stumbled forward. Obviously, her equilibrium was off, so he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. When she gasped, he realized that her shoulder received an injury. Unsure of how she would react, he placed his arm around her waist so that he could carry most of her weight. To the astonishment of both, she let him do this.

Slowly, they made their way back to the car. Max was very careful to ease Ess's way as well as he could. Ess's head ached more than ever and she could feel the blood slipping down her nose.

"Keep your head down." Max cautioned. "You don't want the blood running down your throat."

Ess did as he said, but it made the pain in her shoulder sharpen, and she wasn't able to keep her head down for long. Soon enough, she tasted blood in her mouth, and felt it trickling down her throat. This made her stomach queasy, and added to her present misery.

They made it to the car, and Max helped her lower her bruised tailbone into the front passenger seat. She shifted around to relieve the ache that spread throughout her lower back, but there was no position that she could sit in that made her more comfortable.

Max grabbed a paper napkin from the glove compartment and held it up to her nose to catch the blood. A few seconds later, the bleeding finally seemed to stop.

"Well, you're a fast coagulator."

"What?" Ess creased her eyebrows in a rather adorable way.

"Ah, sorry," Max felt silly, "Just trying to be witty."

Ess suddenly snorted a small laugh, which immediately started the bleeding again.

"Oh, shoot. I'm sorry," Max reacted, putting the napkin back to her face. "I'm so sorry."

"Really, you shouldn't apologize so much." Ess said. Her voice was nasally because of the pressure Max placed on her nose. This caused Max to grin, which made Ess realize how funny she sounded. The sensitive state of her nose kept her from snorting again, and she fought to keep a smile from forming on her face. She couldn't show any weakness to this man.

"That's better." Max grinned again as the blood stopped gushing for the second time. "How's your shoulder?"

"Hurts like hell." Ess was careful not to breathe through her nose for a while. She could feel it swelling, and at the moment, that pain outweighed the soreness in her shoulder and in her backside. "But I'll live."

Max laughed. "Yeah, I think you will."

"So, now what?" Ess had no idea where to go from here. So far he didn't seem intent on harming her, but she still didn't know what to expect.

"Well, it's late." Max glanced at the clock on the dash. It glowed 1:48. "Or early, depending on how you want to look at it. It's cold, and your covered in blood. There's a cabin not to far from here. Can you walk?"

"Ah, I think so." Ess still felt dazed and tired, not to mention cold and confused.

"Good. I'll get the bags, if you'll hold the flashlight."

"How far is it? I mean, I don't see a cabin, and this road, or whatever it is, looks like it continues on. So, where are we going?"

"That way," Max pointed in a direction that ran almost perpendicular to the road. There was no path. "It's about two-thirds of a mile from here. I don't want to park the car too near to our location. It might draw some attention we don't want."

Attention he doesn't want, Ess thought. She, on the other hand, would be better off if she could point others in the right direction. Maybe she'd have a better chance of being rescued. She thought about what she could do while Max opened the trunk and began retrieving bags.

He fished through a suitcase - her suitcase - and pulled something out. It was her winter coat. He offered it to her with the intent of helping her put it on. Rather than accepting this gesture, Ess grabbed the coat and began to place her arms through it herself. Her shoulder protested vehemently, but she ignored the pain so she wouldn't look like a fool for refusing his help.

As she went to zip the coat up, Ess realized that she still had the bloodied napkin in her hand. This gave her an idea. "Do you have any more napkins?" she asked, then quickly added a good reason. "In case the bleeding starts up again."

Max was quick to oblige. "Of course." He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a handful of napkins, handing them to Ess along with the flashlight.

Soon they were off on foot, side by side: Max with his burden and Ess with the light to guide them. It wasn't long before she began carrying out her plan. Max kept close and watched her scrupulously, eager to help if she showed the slightest sign of faltering. It wasn't easy to tear the napkins into smaller pieces inside her coat pocket as she went along, and drop them on the sly so that Max couldn't see what she was doing. It worked for Hansel and Gretel, so Ess hoped that it would work for her. Of course, using breadcrumbs didn't didn't do very much good for the fairytale siblings and Ess wasn't sure if the wind would carry her paper trail away, but it was worth a try.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The wilderness preserve was a long drive north, and Roden's BMW began to run low on gas. Fortunately, the old gas station near the entrance to the preserve was still there, just as Roden had recalled from years ago. Good thing, he observed, otherwise he would have to turn around and attempt to make it to some other distant station. That would have cost him time . . . and peace. He knew Manda would be all over him for that little screw up, and he'd had enough of that already.

He was lucky that the dilapidated old place was open at nearly three in the morning. There were no other customers around. In fact, he hadn't passed anyone on the road in hours. The lack of traffic couldn't be good for business.

As he pulled up to the only pump the station had, Manda stirred from her uncomfortable sleeping position in the front passenger seat. Her bobble-head doze couldn't have been very restful, but she had exhausted herself with her emotional outbursts and could no longer stay awake. Martin stayed quiet in the back seat. Roden imagined that he had probably fallen asleep over the past few hours, as well. The doctor himself was alert. His worry kept him wide-awake.