The worst part about it was that there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
Kelly wasn’t sure how long they walked. It could have been an hour. It could have been two. For all she knew it could have been five. After a while, the dust on the trail, the trees and rock formations started to blend together. The smoke blocked out the sun, like storm clouds filled with violence and rain.
She knew it was important to remain alert. But she was so exhausted she could barely walk. Every inch of her body ached. Her legs felt as if they’d been emptied of bone and muscle and refilled with lead. The kind that would shatter with just the right impact.
Kelly would never admit she’d reached the end of her physical endurance. She wouldn’t leave these mountains until she held Eddie in her arms. Or else someone would have to forcibly carry her out.
She prayed to God it didn’t come to that.
It was the second time they’d walked this trail. The same trail where they’d found the candy wrapper the evening before. They headed north, where the smoke lay thick and black above the treetops. To her right, the stream slowly dropped away into a gorge. Kelly wasn’t sure what prompted her to look down into the gorge at that moment, but the flash of blue amongst the green and brown of the forest stopped her dead in her tracks.
Her heart jolted once hard in her chest, then sprinted into a wild staccato. She squinted, and without even realizing she was moving, her legs took her to the edge of the gorge. “Buzz! I see something! Over there!”
She never took her eyes from the small speck of blue fifty feet down the ravine. “It’s blue. Over by that boulder.”
Quickly, Buzz worked the backpack from his shoulders, dropped it to the ground and dug out a tiny pair of field binoculars. He put them to his eyes, focused. “Looks like a piece of cloth.”
“Let me see.”
He passed the glasses to her.
Kelly put them to her eyes, squinted, focused. The sight hit her like a ramrod to the solar plexus. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God!”
“What is it?”
Terror and shock exploded inside her, taking her voice so that she couldn’t answer, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even draw a breath. Her hands began to shake. She lost her focus, struggled with the binoculars to find the speck again.
“Kel.” Gently, he took the binoculars from her. “Talk to me, Kel. What is it? What did you see?”
“Oh, God, Buzz. It’s Eddie’s stuffed animal. His bear. Bunky Bear.” Nausea rose into her throat. “How did it get down there?”
“He could have dropped it.”
“Please tell me he didn’t fall.” Abruptly, she pulled away from Buzz. She heard him behind her as she moved closer to the edge of the ravine and looked down. It was steep and chock-full of jagged rock, saplings, boulders the size of Volkswagens and drop-offs not even a mountain goat could scale. At the base, white water churned like ice in a blender.
“Eddie!” she screamed. “Eddie! Honey, answer me!”
Buzz hit the whistle three times. They stood frozen for an interminable minute and listened for a response that never came.
“Honey! It’s Mommy!” Struggling against hysteria, she took the field glasses from Buzz and put them to her eyes. She was shaking so badly, she had a hard time focusing at first. Then she caught a glimpse of white, saw a patch of blue denim. A shock of brown hair and a pale, frightened face.
“I see him! Oh, God! It’s him! Buzz!” She couldn’t stop looking at him. Vaguely, she was aware of Buzz speaking to her, but she didn’t understand what he was saying. For an instant, her entire world consisted of tunnel vision, at the end of which was her son.
“Is he moving?” Buzz’s voice reached her through that tunnel.
“No. Yes! I just saw him move his leg! He’s okay!”
Buzz reached for the binoculars. “Let me have a look.”
Kelly handed him the field glasses. Two hundred yards of impossible terrain separated her from her son. Heart pounding, she squinted down at the tiny figure huddled on a boulder the size of an SUV. Elation turned quickly to horror when she realized the boulder was surrounded on all sides by churning white water.
“He’s stuck on that boulder,” Buzz said.
“How on earth did he get there?”
“Must have fallen into the water at some point. Dragged himself out.”
A rush of nausea filled her mouth with bile at the thought of her son in that cold, violent water. “I’ve got to get down there.”
“Wait a minute—”
She swung around to face him, stuck her finger in his face. “Don’t even think about trying to stop me.”
“I’m not going to let you do something stupid.”
Ignoring him, she started for the edge of the cliff. The next thing she knew she was being pushed quickly, but firmly backward. Two strong hands dug into her shoulders. Her body jolted when her back encountered the wall of rock. She fought him, but he shook her hard until she was still.
“Snap out of it!” he growled.
She looked up to find herself pinned by a set of angry gray eyes. Eyes that reminded her of the smoke hovering above, hot and dangerous and violent. She tried to slap his hands off her shoulders, but she might as well have been trying to slap a tree off the side of the mountain. He merely tightened his grip and put his weight into holding her still.
“Don’t do this to me,” she said.
“Don’t get crazy on me now, Kel. Get a hold of yourself.”
“I need to get down there.” A sound erupted from her throat. A sob or a cough, she couldn’t tell. “Please. I want my little boy.”
“I’ll get him.”
“Buzz, he’s cold and hungry and scared.”
“I’m going down. But I need you to calm down first.”
“I’m calm.” She said the words, but she didn’t think he believed her. She sure didn’t.
“I need your help. I can’t get down there without it.”
“Okay.” She gulped air. “I’m…okay.”
Slowly, as if half expecting her to bolt, he released her, then stepped away.
Kelly drew a deep, calming breath. The jolt of adrenaline had eradicated the exhaustion, but her limbs felt shaky, her mind foggy, as if she were watching the scene unfold from inside a bottle. Bending at the waist, she put her hands on her knees and breathed in deeply, forcing back nausea, trying to clear her head.
“I’m going to rappel down there,” Buzz said after a moment. “I don’t have a full harness—just the light rig in my pack—so I’ve got to rig something. I need you to spot me from up here. Watch the rope for me. Can you do that?”
“Yeah.” She looked up to see him pulling a coiled length of yellow nylon rope from his backpack. Suddenly, a new fear rippled through her. A fear that didn’t have anything to do with her lost child, but for the man who was about to risk his life to save him.
Her legs shook when she crossed to him. “Are you sure you can get down there?”
“I’m sure.” He didn’t even look at her, but concentrated fully on knotting the end of the rope, then quickly stepping into the harness.
“Buzz, the bullet in your back…”
“Shut up, Kel.”
“I can rappel down,” she said. “I know how to do it. I’m in good shape.”
“There’s no way you can get him back up the cliff. You may be in good shape, but you’re not strong enough.” When she didn’t say anything, he cut her a sharp look. “I can do this, damn it.”
She stared at him, her heart beating hard and fast in her chest. For the first time in her life, she understood him. She understood why men like him did the things they did. Why they devoted their lives to saving others. The realization came to her like the white flash of a bomb inside her head. And it shamed her that she’d never understood until now. It made her feel shallow and small and petty because she hadn’t supported him. She hadn’t been strong enough to let him do what he did best, what he loved. And it hurt that it had ta
ken this—her son’s life—for her to understand what she should have understood all along.
He stalked over to the edge of the ravine, turned and spotted a sturdy sapling, then crossed to it and looped the rope several times around the base. “This will help take some of the stress off you,” he said. “I want you to feed the rope and lower me down. A foot at a time. Nice and slow.”
“How are you going to get across the water?” she asked.
“I don’t know. But I need to get closer to see what’s on the other side of that boulder. Maybe I can get to him.” He grimaced. “If I need the rope, I’ll yell for you to untie it and toss it down to me.”
“How will you get back up if I toss the rope down to you?”
“Chances are I won’t need it. But if I do…” He shrugged. “I’ll have to figure something out if it comes to that. Right now, I just want to get that boy away from the water. He’s in a very dangerous position.”
She nodded.
“Once I get him, and we’re ready to come back up, I want you to loop the rope a couple of times around this sapling, and keep it taut.”
“I can handle that.”
“I don’t have any gloves for you. I need them myself this time.”
“That’s okay. I can do it.”
“I know you can.”
She flinched when he reached out and thumbed a tear off her cheek. It surprised her because she hadn’t even realized she was crying.
“We’re going to be fine,” he said.
“I know.” She knew the quick smile was for her benefit, but she appreciated it nonetheless. “Be careful.”
“Hey, jumping off cliffs is my specialty, remember?”
She choked out a laugh. “Yeah, and you stop bullets, too.”
“That’s my girl.” He tested the rope, checked the harness around his hips. “Whatever you do, don’t let go of that rope.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
Abruptly, he leaned forward and crushed his mouth to hers. She hadn’t been expecting him to kiss her and the power of it nearly took her feet out from under her. He kissed her hard, desperately, hungrily. She opened to him, and their tongues touched briefly. She tasted hope and fear and determination on his lips. Desire tugged sharply, followed by a pang of emotion so powerful it took her breath. She wanted to close her eyes and hang onto him, but the moment ended and he pulled away.
He grinned at her. “You never forgot how to kiss.”
She smiled back at him even though she was shaking inside. “Neither did you.”
“Hold that thought.” And with a wave of his hand, he shoved off into space and disappeared over the edge of the cliff.
Buzz knew he was in trouble before ever reaching the bottom of the gorge. His back had gone into spasms halfway down, a knifing pain that started at the small of his back and shot down his right buttock all the way to his little toe. It wasn’t the first time he’d had problems with the sciatic nerve, but it sure couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Ignoring the pain as best he could, he paused long enough to down a couple more pills, then turned his head to get his bearings. White water roared like an earthquake below. The terrain was rugged as hell and consisted of gnarled juniper, moss-covered boulders and loose rock that made for precarious footing. The hovering smoke lent a surreal aspect to the scene.
He pushed off with his feet and swung back, but still couldn’t see the boy from where he hung. The harness cut uncomfortably into the backs of his thighs, but the discomfort was minor compared to the ice-pick jabs in his back. Damn, he was getting too old for this crap.
He could still see Kelly above him. Even from ten yards away, he could see the sharp-edged worry in her eyes. He prayed to God she didn’t get some crazy idea about climbing down to help. When it came to her son, she was as protective—and courageous—as a lioness. He admired her strength, her tenacity—and tried not to think about all the other things he admired her for.
Raising his hand he waved to let her know everything was all right. She waved back.
Buzz started downward again. He shoved off into space, let the rope slide through the gloves, and landed four feet down the side of the ravine. The rope groaned against his weight. Loose rock gave way under his feet, and he slipped, but he didn’t stop.
A few minutes later, he reached the bottom of the ravine. The narrow bank was rocky, nearly impossible to walk upon and only a couple of feet wide. Climbing onto a huge boulder, Buzz pulled himself upright and scanned the area. Twenty feet away—nearly on the other side of the stream—Eddie jumped up and down, waving his hands. Buzz could see that he was crying, and his heart pinged hard against his ribs.
“Eddie, I’m going to come get you!” he shouted. “I want you to stay put! Everything’s okay, but you need to stay where you are!”
The boy said something, but Buzz couldn’t hear him over the roar of the water. Damn, the way the kid was jumping up and down worried him. One wrong move and he’d tumble headlong into the churning water.
Because he wasn’t sure if the boy could hear him over the roar of the water, Buzz motioned as best he could with his hands.
The boy edged closer, crying, holding out his hands. Buzz could see his mouth moving, but he couldn’t hear him over the water. The initial zing of fear went through him. “Son, I want you to sit down!” he shouted. “Stay put! I’m coming over for you, okay? Just stay where you are.”
Cursing beneath his breath, he looked frantically around for a way to get to the boy. He was in the process of sliding off a boulder when the unthinkable happened. One minute his son was perched on the edge of his rock island. In the next instant, his sneakers slipped out from under him. In a blur of white T-shirt and blue jeans he tumbled down, and the water swept him away.
Chapter 10
“E ddie!”
Terror ripped through Kelly as she watched the churning white water swallow her son. Panic pulled her in a thousand different directions. Her first instinct was to run after him, to fling herself down the ravine, brave the icy, turbulent water and forget about everything but saving her son.
But the voice of reason stopped her. Rescuing her son from a raging white-water rapid wasn’t going to be an easy task. And while panic threatened to drag her down the into the abyss of hysteria, the knowledge that Buzz was only a few yards away from her son gave her the strength she needed to keep her head—at least long enough to realize she was going to need the rope.
She looked down in time to see the rope go taut in her hand. An instant later, several feet of it was yanked through her palms. Pain zinged where the rope burned her, but still she closed her hands around it, just in time to keep the end from whipping out of her grasp. Realizing she didn’t have the strength to hold it for long, she looped it quickly around the nub of a broken trunk, then snatched up the field glasses that hung around her neck.
Through the glasses, she caught a glimpse of Buzz, in the water, fighting the rope from his body. An instant later, he freed himself from the rope and the water swallowed him.
Another wave of fear rocked her. Fear that Buzz wouldn’t be able to reach her son. Fear that the water would take not only her son, but the man who had fathered him.
Operating on autopilot, she worked furiously to yank the rope up from the ravine and coil it around one shoulder. Simultaneously, she began running in the direction the current carried Buzz and her son. She tore through brush, barely feeling the branches tearing at her face and clothes. Gasping breaths tore from her lungs as she pushed her body to the limit and ran as fast as her legs would carry her. All the while, her hands worked quickly to coil the length of rope that now trailed along behind her.
Twenty yards down stream she lost sight of Eddie. “Eddie!” She knew he couldn’t hear her over the roar of the water. But she couldn’t keep herself from crying out his name. She needed to say it. Needed to hear it.
Please, God, let them be all right.
Another ten yards and the terrain s
loped dangerously. Using the myriad saplings and low-growing branches to keep her balance, Kelly hurled herself down the incline toward the water. She covered the ground at a reckless pace, hurdling fallen trees, stumbling over rocks, skidding over loose earth that gave way beneath her pounding boots.
A moment later, the woods opened up to a rocky sandbar. The roar of the water deafened her. She looked down at her hands, realized she now held the entire length of rope. Dully, she noticed the blood, too, but it didn’t register in her mind that it might be hers.
Scrambling over rocks slick with moss, she jumped into a still pool of backwater that was knee-deep. A few feet away, white water pounded giant boulders, forming a whirlpool large enough to suck down an automobile. Twenty yards upstream, she caught sight of two dark heads bobbing in the white waves. Buzz had one armed wrapped around her child. She could hear Eddie crying.
“Buzz! Hold on to him!” she cried.
Wondering how to stop them, how to keep them from being carried down stream and into the whirlpool, Kelly looked wildly around. Spotting the two boulders on the other side of the stream, she realized what she had to do.
Picking up a broken branch the size of a baseball bat, she quickly tied the rope to its center point. No time to test the strength of the knot. No time to aim. She threw the stick like a spear up and over the boulders, praying it would wedge between the two rocks. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Buzz and Eddie were being swept toward her at an astounding speed. She tugged hard on the rope, closed her eyes in a silent prayer when it held.
There was no time to think, only time to act. Kelly quickly fed the rope until it lay in a bright yellow line across the raging surface of the water.
“Grab onto the rope!” she shouted.
She didn’t have to say it twice. Having seen the rope, Buzz raised one of his arms straight up out of the water. The other arm was wrapped around the small, dark-haired form of her son. An instant later, the rope caught him at his armpit. The rope jerked taut, stopping Buzz and Eddie dead in the water. Kelly let out a yelp when the rope held. But her newfound relief turned quickly to horror when the furious current swept over them with such force that it sent a rooster tail of water spraying two feet into the air.