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2:00 a.m.
There was no outcry. No splash. No sound except horrifying thuds from below.
“Aidan!” she screamed.
Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God. He’d fallen over the side without any outward momentum. He’d be shattered on the rocks.
Sobs tore from her throat as she crawled forward. She desperately scanned the water. Saw nothing but whitecaps. Her fingernails clawed furrows in the dirt. “Aidan!” Her broken whisper echoed into empty space.
“Zoe, stay back!” Aidan’s shout ripped into her grief.
He was alive!
Her breath staggered, and she inched the upper half of her torso over the edge. Dirt crumbled beneath her, trickled down the bluff. “Aidan?”
Gripping a protruding tree root with his good hand, he hung less than four feet below the steep drop. So near, yet it might as well be miles.
“The ground isn’t stable near the edge!” he yelled. “Dammit, stay back!”
She inched farther out, reached down. Stretched. She couldn’t quite touch him. “Let me help you.”
He looked up at her. “No.” The determined resignation in his eyes made her chest ache. “You’re not strong enough to pull me up. I can’t get a toehold in this loose dirt. Even if I had something to grab onto ... with only one good arm, I can’t let go of this root.”
She glanced down at the jagged rocks far below. He couldn’t hold on forever. When he tired, when his grip loosened, he’d plunge to his death.
No! She wouldn’t let that happen. “I’ll think of something.”
“Listen to me.” The strain of trying to hold on gave his quiet voice a ragged edge of desperation. Chopped his breaths. “Head downstream to the shoreline. Stay in the creek. Hide near the dock. Wait for a rescue helo or the Coast Guard. Or sneak onto the ferry when it returns in the morning.”
“What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll work my way down the bluff. Meet you at the dock. If I’m not there by the next ferry ... leave without me.”
Tears stung her eyes. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“You have to. It’s the only way.” His voice turned gruff. “Now get your ass moving. So I can start climbing down.”
She frowned. “Don’t you dare die on me. Do you hear me, SWAT? I won’t stand for it.”
“Do my best, honey. Go on. See you soon.”
“That’s a promise. God, Aidan,” she choked out. “Don’t fall.”
Then her sweet face disappeared from Aidan’s sight.
Aidan breathed a sigh of sorrowful relief. He didn’t want to die. But if his number was up, fucking hell, he would not take Zoe with him.
There were worse ways to go. His death would be quick, if not so clean. He stared at the stars, bright pinpoints of fire in the sooty sky. The hard, white moon spotlighted the ocean far below with an incandescent glow. As a boy, he’d loved family campouts on clear summer nights like this. Him cooking over the campfire alongside Pop, and everyone singing. Meteor showers. Mom with warm, gooey s’mores. Pop telling ghost stories.
Was Pop watching over him from beyond those stars? “Air out the spare room, Pop,” he muttered. “I think you’re about to have company.”
His hand slipped on the root, and he tightened his grip. He would damn well fight to stay alive. But this time there was no enemy to engage. He’d tried every way possible to hoist himself up. Nothing had worked. Dangling in space by one hand without any leverage, he was screwed. His fingers were already growing numb. Struggling only made it harder to hang on.
He’d cling until the last second. But before too much longer, he’d be forced to let go.
Plenty of time for last prayers. Final goodbyes.
Painful regrets.
In the absolute clarity only experienced during the moment before death, realization hit.
Sonofabitch. He’d denied himself all the best things in life. After Pop’s memorial service, he’d slammed the door to his heart and boarded it up against life’s storms. Over the years, cobwebs of fear and anger had grown in the darkness until they’d choked off his emotions.
Just coasting along, never too sad, never too happy, he’d been satisfied. Mundane was neat and tidy.
Boring was safe.
Then TNT Zoe blasted apart his false serenity. Her sunny spirit had blown open the doors and danced right through his splintered barricades. Her zest for living flooded his self-imposed dungeon with light. Her sparkling laughter swept away the cobwebs. For the first time in years, he felt truly alive.
Sorrow wrenched his heart. And wasn’t that an ironic twist? Dangling from a cliff with nowhere to go but down, his emotions were finally at full throttle.
He was about to die, without ever having really lived.
What a fucking waste.
Zoe would make it off this godforsaken island. He had to believe that. She’d survive. Marry. Have mischievous, inquisitive kids who’d drive everyone crazy, but make the world a better place.
She’d go on without him.
A red-hot poker stabbed his chest. That’s what he wanted. So why did it hurt so goddamned much?
His fingers slipped again. Not much longer now.
Goodbye, sweetheart. Be happy.
“Aidan!” Zoe’s voice overhead made him jerk his head up.
Disbelief.
Relief.
Anger.
Horror.
A hundred different emotions swamped him. “Why aren’t you gone?”
“I didn’t come down in yesterday’s rain shower. I leave, you die.” Headfirst, she slithered over the cliff’s face on her stomach.
Christ! Ice clogged his veins. “Don’t!” She kept coming, and cold sweat drenched his entire body. “No!”
“Don’t shout.” Her body slid several feet downward in the loose dirt, and his heart leapt into his throat until she regained control. “You’re distracting me, Master.”
“Jesus God Almighty.” He fought for a reasonable tone. Damn hard with terror strangling his lungs. “Go back, before you fall!”
“I won’t fall. My ankle is tied to a tree.” She stretched down, wrapped and knotted a rope around his waist. “Now, so are you.”
Incredulity rendered him speechless. He tried again. “Where’d you get rope?”
“Made it out of strips of your tux jacket twisted with strips of G-Rat’s jeans. Denim is strong stuff, and luckily, you’re not down that far, so it didn’t have to be too long.”
“You’re risking your life for a stop-gap measure.” He strove to keep desperation from his voice. “You still don’t have any way to pull me up. A clothing rope will support your weight, but won’t hold me for long. Not when you start wrenching on it.”
“Ye of little faith. I have a plan.”
Oh, shit. He echoed her earlier words. “Did I mention how much I hate this plan?”
* * *
Zoe concentrated on cinching knots with trembling fingers. He didn’t hate this plan half as much as she did. She wasn’t deluded enough to think she possessed the strength to pull Aidan to safety. She couldn’t even put his shoulder back in. Even if she were Xena, Warrior Princess, the rope wasn’t strong enough. However, it’d hold him long enough. She would not stand by and watch him fall to his death.
No matter what terrible things she had to do.
She finished securing him, then crawled hand-over-hand back to the top of the cliff. She sprawled in the dirt for a few seconds to regain her wind before shoving to her feet.
G-Rat’s watchful stare fixed on her as she approached with a hand behind her back. Zoe had cut off the guy’s pants with Aidan’s knife, leaving him in a bloody head bandage and black-and-white-checkered NASCAR boxer shorts. She didn’t blame him for looking wary. She took a deep, shaky breath. Things were about to get worse.
Much worse.
Aidan’s life was at stake. Bluffing would not get the job done. She had to be willing to follow through on her threat.
G-Rat had to see his death in her eyes.
She planted her feet and stared at him. Didn’t speak. Didn’t blink. Unlike the bear, she held his gaze in what Aidan had called a challenge for dominance. She glared at him until he blinked first. Bending, she tugged out his gag. “Did you hear us shove your pals off the cliff?”
Those pale eyes widened. He nodded.
She forced her voice to sound hard and cold. “Then you know I’m not averse to killing.” The other men weren’t dead, but he didn’t know that. He hadn’t seen them thrashing in the Pacific.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. He gave another careful nod.
Sweat soaked her palms and trickled in a thin line down her spine. Slowly, she pulled her hand from behind her and pressed the gun to his temple. The fact that her hand was shaking harder than an electric cocktail mixer could only heighten his terror. “How much do you want to live?”
He startled. Gulped. “Don’t waste me. I was just havin’ a little fun with you, babe.”
His acrid fear seared her nostrils and she swallowed a surge of nausea. Threatening to kill another human being was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
No. Meaning the threat was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
She swallowed again. Don’t barf. He’d never buy her act if she yakked all over him. “Don’t want to die tonight?”
“No!” His eyes rolled white in the moonlight. “Don’t shoot!”
“That’s up to you.” She narrowed her eyes and tried to control her trembling. “The dude is trapped over the bluff. I need his skills in order to survive on this island. I don’t need you for anything.” She paused to let that sink in. Let him think she was as cold-hearted as she sounded. “You get me?”
“Totally.” He bobbed his head.
“He’s less than four feet down, but can’t climb with a dislocated shoulder. You’re tall enough to reach and strong enough to pull him up.”
“You’re in charge. You say it, I do it.”
She untied his ankles, then moved behind him to free his hands. “Don’t try anything. Even with a kneecap shot out, you can still pull him up. I won’t hesitate.”
“I believe you, babe.”
If she weren’t telling the truth about her intentions, why would a hardened criminal believe she’d kill him? Where had all this sudden ruthlessness come from? The nausea grew overwhelming, and she retched behind his back. What kind of person was she?
Staying behind him, she kept the pistol aimed at his spine as they walked toward the bluff. A person who was trying to save the man she loved.
She staggered and nearly dropped the gun.
Love? When the hell had that happened?
She inhaled. Actually ... the moment they’d met. She’d looked up into those determined brown eyes shadowed with unspoken pain, and claimed him as her cop.
When had it become inescapable reality?
Her galloping heart lodged in her throat. The moment he’d disappeared over the cliff, and she feared she’d lost him forever.
G-Rat had reached the cliff. Her pulse jolted into triple time as he dropped to his stomach and slid toward the edge.
Zoe moved to one side, widened her stance and trained the gun on his head. “If he dies, you die.”
“Don’t get trigger-happy, babe. Nobody has to die.”
Hope not. She was taking a huge gamble. But she’d learned long ago that sometimes you have to risk it all in order to gain everything. “Aidan?” she called. “Hanging in there?”
“Literally.”
“The bad guy is coming to rescue you. Take his hand and let him pull you up.”
“What?” He sounded as shocked as if she’d informed him his mother and Letty had just robbed Oregon Pacific Bank.
“Don’t look a gift SUV in the mouth, SWAT.”
“What the fuck?”
“Go with the flow, Aidan.” And take your own advice, Zagretti. She was exhausted, filthy, scared, and holding G-Rat at gunpoint made her sick to death inside.
The Rat scooted farther over and leaned into space. Stretched out his hand.
Zoe’s stomach heaved again.
G-Rat’s body strained and Aidan grunted.
Zoe’s fingers tightened on the gun. Please, please, please let this work.
A thousand agonizing heartbeats thundered past.
G-Rat crab-crawled backward, backward ... and Aidan’s dark, tousled hair appeared over the rise. His face came into view, dust-streaked and sharp with pain. His shoulders appeared, scratched and bruised. Then he was stretched full-length on solid ground.
Alive.
Safe.
The breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding exploded from her lungs, and she reeled. She fought a rush of tears. No time to get emotional. She had to stay focused until Aidan was truly safe.
She shuffled sideways, putting herself between him and G-Rat, who sat up watching her. She waggled the gun. She’d never realized before how incredibly heavy a weapon could be. Physically and mentally. “Scoot back. Don’t get up until I say.”
“No arguments from me, babe.” His cautious retreat put six feet between them.
Aidan struggled to his feet behind her, his respiration harsh. He had to be in killer agony by now, but headstrong Irish grit kept him going. And she loved him for it.
Elation sang inside her. She loved everything about him.
He rested an unsteady hand on her shoulder. She suspected she was supporting more of his weight than he realized. “God dammit, Zoe! Of all the stubborn, rash, stupid—” he rasped. “You risked your life—” He inhaled shakily. “I told you to leave.”
Okay, maybe she didn’t love his bossy side so much. “And if I had, you’d be a jigsaw puzzle right now. You honestly believe I could walk away and let you die?”
“You should’ve put your own safety first.”
“Right.” Anger and lingering terror made her shake uncontrollably. “Show up at your mother’s house with pieces of you in a box? Sorry, Mrs. O’Rourke.” She dashed away an escaped tear. “I was too worried about my own hide. Guess it will have to b-be a c-closed-casket s-service.”
“Aw, shit,” he whispered, and his front pressed against her back, body to body. As close as they could get to a hug under the circumstances. He, too, was trembling violently. His fingers squeezed her shoulder. “Thank you for saving my life,” he murmured into her ear. “But you scared every fuck I had left outta me.”
“And you didn’t scare me?” she muttered. “I’ll have to add hair dye to my budget to cover all the gray.” She glanced at G-Rat. The wound on his head had soaked through the pad. She’d have to fix that before they left. “We don’t have time for this.”
“No.” Aidan inhaled again as she felt him struggling for control. “Hell, you’ve turned me upside down, inside out, and sideways.”
“Ditto.” She cast a quick glance over her shoulder at him. Battered and weary, patient suffering clouded his eyes. Her heart stuttered. “You look terrible.”
His sensual mouth slanted in a crooked grin. “And they claim appearances are deceiving.”
“Can you hold the gun on G-Rat while I cuff him?”
“Think I can manage,” he said wryly.
She moved to his left and passed him the pistol.
He gestured at The Rat. “Up.” Despite his condition, or maybe because of it, he looked and sounded dangerously lethal.
G-Rat slowly rose.
She studied the big man. “I’m sorry about ... bullying you.” He was a criminal who had tried to kidnap her and shoot Aidan. Apologizing to him probably seemed ridiculous. But he was a human being and she’d threatened his life. “I didn’t have a choice.”
He shrugged. “Business is business, babe.”
Aidan gestured with the pistol again, and they all walked toward the tree line.
G-Rat barked out a nervous laugh. “At first, I thought you were gonna whack me for copping a feel. A pissed-off chick packing heat is fuckin’ scary.”
Aidan scowled “I’m not ecstatic about it, either, punk-ass. And unless you want to meet a lot more ‘pissed-off chicks’ in your questionable future, keep your hands to yourself.”
Rat spread his palms. “Chill, dude. You took a taste of that. You gotta admit, she has a nice rack. Small, but perky.”
A savage growl rumbled in Aidan’s throat and Zoe glanced at him in alarm. Rage vibrated off her cop in almost visible waves as he snarled, “Shut. Up.”
Her instincts prickled. The hair rose on the back of her neck at the familiar, eerie sense of being stalked. Every nerve screamed, every muscle tightened. She peered into the gloom. Was the underbrush moving? “Aidan! I think someone else—”
The grizzly prowled into the clearing.
G-Rat rapidly backed up. “Holy shitballs! Nobody said nothing about wild animals!”
Aidan pointed the gun at the grizzly. “He smells the blood on you. Don’t move.”
The enormous bear chuffed and stalked toward G-Rat, who rapidly backpedaled.
“Freeze!” Aidan ordered. “Every time you move, he moves, and he thinks you’re prey. Show him you’re not scared, stand your ground.” The sinews in his arm roped as he aimed, prepared to shoot. “I’m working left-handed here and don’t want to hit you instead of the bear.”
G-Rat yelled, “Fuck that sideways!” And bolted for the woods.
The bear charged. The gun roared.
The grizzly flinched away from the noise and scrambled sideways. Then quickly regained its balance and followed the fleeing man into the trees as Aidan spun, shooting once more. The bear veered off track, but didn’t falter.
“Hell, I missed.”
Horrified, she strained to see through the gloom. “Will he make it?”
“Don’t know. Bears can run twenty-five miles an hour. Damn.” Aidan leaned against a wide trunk. “At least I distracted it, gave The Rat a head start. He has better odds now than tied to a tree.”
The proverbial last straw. Zoe sank to her knees.
“Hey!” Aidan crouched at her side, voice deep with concern. “Sweetheart? What is it?” He dropped the gun and his good hand skimmed over her. “Are you hurt?”
“I was so m-mean to him.”
“What?” Incredulity rang in his question. “He’s a criminal, Zoe. He kidnapped us. He assaulted you and did his best to put a bullet in me.”
“I—I know. But he’s still a person. He did save your life. I hit him and tied him up and stuffed stinky socks in his mouth,” she babbled. “I stripped him, ordered him to hang over a cliff, p-pointed a gun at his head and threatened to s-shoot him ... and meant every word. I was such a bitch to him and now he’ll probably die a horrendous death. No matter what, he doesn’t deserve to be bear chow.”
“Come here.” He urged her up, his one-handed movements awkward. His left arm hugged her close to his warm, hard body. “You’ve had a rough day and the stress finally caught up with you. Everything will be all right.”
Rough day? The master of understatement. “Look around, SWAT. How can you say everything will be all right?”
“I just fell over a cliff and survived, thanks to you.” He tipped up her chin, and a gentle thumb stroked her face. “You have to keep it together, honey.”
Her shrill laugh skated on the edge of hysteria. “Have to find it, first.”
He briskly rubbed her back. “Where’s my glass-always-half-full woman? I need her in order for both of us to make it through this. And we have to move, sweetheart.”
“Right.” With difficulty, Zoe squelched her teetering emotions. Suck it up. “I’m slightly frazzled around the edges.”
“No wonder.” His lips brushed hers, a quick, soft caress that filled her with warm resolve. “C’mon. The gunshots could alert the other UNSUBS.” He tucked the pistol in his waistband as he urged her toward the tree line. “And I’m out of ammo.”
Ashamed, she inhaled rapidly. Exhaled hard. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to endanger us.”
“You’re doing damn good,” he murmured. “You can lose your shit after this is over, as much as you need to.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
After a fast adjustment to his sling, which had held up well, considering, he rapidly disguised their tracks while she snatched up their things.
They slogged into deep shadow. Pools of gray splotched the choking blackness, along with occasional slices of silver moonlight. She groped for the steady warmth of Aidan’s callused palm, and his long fingers entwined with hers. Insects chittered and small bodies scurried out of their path. She’d never realized how many predators prowled at night. Leaves rustled overhead. She tensed. An eerie cry echoed in the damp air. Ah, an owl. Staring uneasily at the huge, winged silhouette wheeling into the sky, she stepped on a prickly bush. “Ow!”
He stopped, glanced down. “I forgot you were barefoot.”
She smiled. “You had one or two things on your mind.”
“You can move faster with your feet protected. We’re hidden here, have a seat.” He steered her to a fallen log. “Pass me the cardboard covers from what’s left of your notebook.” He folded it into crude insoles. She held them in place while he wrapped the homemade braided rope in spirals around her foot. She tied the ends at the ankle, and he extended his hand. “I need the manicure scissors. I can’t believe you made rope with them so fast.”
“I used something much more efficient.” She retrieved the Swiss Army knife from her bag. “I assume this is yours?”
“Yeah.” Her heart ached at the tenderness in his eyes. “Nice to have it back.” The sharp blade bit through the rope. Aidan bound her other foot. She fastened the rope, and he gave her his socks to pull on over the top and hold everything together. He patted her foot. “Not exactly Nikes, but better than nothing.”
“G-Rat had these in his pockets, too.” She returned his keys and wallet, then helped him retie his dress shoes, minus socks. “Hey, I always buy generic. Silly to spend good money for someone else’s name, if you ask me.”
She stood and turned her foot from side to side, impressed with his ingenuity. The impromptu slipper-shoes were surprisingly comfortable. “What now?”
“Find a place to barricade ourselves until daybreak. Rest and gather our strength. Then recon and reassess.”
He snapped the knife shut. Thrusting it into his pocket, he froze. In the distance, faint sounds echoed through the forest. His eyes narrowed. “Or not.” His mouth compressed in a grim line.
She frowned. “Do I hear barking?”
“Shit! They’re hunting us with dogs.” He grabbed her hand. “We can’t hide from dogs. Kick it into high gear.”
She clutched his hand, running flat out. Unable to see anything except menacing shadows and distorted shapes, she had to trust him to lead. Behind them, the barking sounded more strident.
Had the dogs caught their scent?
Aidan dragged her down a bank. Her feet plopped into ice-cold liquid, tearing a gasp from her throat. “It’ll be a lot harder to run in the creek.”
“Also harder to track our scent.” The barking grew louder. “Hustle!”
Though the makeshift slippers became heavy and sodden in the calf-deep stream, she appreciated some protection between her feet and the rocky creek bottom. No time to remove them, anyway.
They stumbled and slipped in their headlong flight. A sideways current dragged against them, hindering every step.
After slogging what seemed like miles, her calf muscles burned and her thighs wobbled like cooked spaghetti.
Beside her, Aidan staggered. How could he keep up this pace after dislocating his shoulder and falling over a cliff? He had to be running on sheer stubbornness. She tripped, dropped to her knees in the icy stream. “Can’t take ... another step. Go ... without me.”
He hauled her up. “All for one and one for all.”
Damn. If he could do it in his battered condition, come hell or high water, so could she. Zoe stubbornly lifted one leaden foot at a time. She could barely breathe, but set her body on auto pilot and strove to sublimate fear and pain. She sucked in oxygen. “Musketeers ... really fits.”
He squeezed her hand. “Breathe, don’t talk.”
“Tell you ... later.”
They pushed ahead. Farther downstream, she cocked her head. The barking sounded fainter, and off to their right. “Lose ... them?”
“Doubt it.” He slipped, splashing water to his waist and drenching her right side in ice.
She clung to him, keeping him upright. Would this nightmare ever end? “Naturally. Wouldn’t do ... to let us get complacent.”
They slogged around a bend. Uttering a ragged laugh, he dodged an overhanging tree limb. “There’s my snarky woman.”
A cramp arrowed into Zoe’s side, doubling her over. She hugged her ribs. “Lungs don’t ... work,” she wheezed. She again fell to her knees. This time he dropped beside her. Shivering, she planted her hands in the stony creek-bed and hung her head. “Leg muscles ... don’t work, either.”
A moment of silence ticked past, broken only by the thrashing, baying threat of their pursuers closing in. “Okay.” He inhaled, catching his breath. His tone was deathly calm. “Hide under the exposed tree roots over there. I’ll lead them away from you.”
Behind them, fervent barking again echoed louder.
Fierce determination exploded inside her. She shoved to her feet. Yanked him up beside her. “In the immortal words of G-Rat, ‘fuck that sideways.’”
He ground out another low, ragged laugh.
Helped by the brief respite and energized with resolve, her second wind kicked in as she jogged downstream beside him. Though she was soaked, frozen, sore, and exhausted, it no longer mattered. “You sure know how to push my buttons.”
His velvet voice rumbled out as rich and tempting as Irish coffee. “In the immortal words of Zoe middle-name-unknown Zagretti, ‘you haven’t seen anything yet.’”
She shivered again as a sensual burn shimmered, warming her from the inside out. Her nipples tightened against the wet cotton. How did he do that? How the hell did he turn her on in the middle of an ice-cold creek while running for her life? Maybe terror had unhinged her. “It’s Francesca.”
He rammed his shin into a boulder, swore and flailed, but kept his balance. Barely.
She tried not to focus on the yelping dogs chasing them. Had adrenaline sharpened her senses, or did she hear crashing underbrush and men’s voices more clearly?
The hunters were closing in! Yet she and Aidan slowed, both running out of steam.
Out of time.
Terror coiled tightly in her chest. “They’re gaining on us!”
He urged her to a painfully faster pace. Soon, her legs would give out altogether. “Don’t look back. Keep going.”
The creek widened and grew more shallow with each step, aiding their flight. They splashed around another bend, down a hill, then staggered onto a beach.
Loose sand shifted beneath their feet, making running almost impossible. She swayed against the sharp slap of ocean breeze as they staggered toward the shoreline.
They’d sprinted halfway down the beach when a pack of dogs broke through the trees. Four yelling men followed.
She glanced back at their pursuers. Then ahead, at the roaring ocean. Her heart slammed against her ribs.
They were trapped.
