Morgan coughed, sputtered and tried to bring the world into focus. River and sky had tumbled for too long. Cold water had sapped her muscles of strength, her lungs of air...
Her body had betrayed her when an irresistible force pulled her to shore. Too tired to fight, too exhausted to help, she’d succumbed until Eric lowered her onto the smooth rocks beside the river.
She lay in the sun’s growing warmth, eyes squeezed shut as darkness receded and early-morning light filtered in. All she wanted was air. And sleep.
Sleep was too much like the darkness she’d fought so hard. Morgan bolted up with a cry, gulping air, swinging her arms to fight the weight. She would not surrender, would not give in.
“Hey, whoa.” Gentle arms encircled her, and pulled her to a strong chest, damp and chilled against her cheek.
Eric.
“You’re okay. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”
I’ve got you.
Tense, frozen muscles relaxed.
I’ve got you.
She’d never believed him before. Every time he’d told her in the past, she’d been utterly convinced he was going to learn of her cowardice and leave her where she deserved to be...alone.
But he hadn’t. She clutched the front of his damp shirt and buried her face in his neck, shaking from the inside out.
His arms tightened around her and they stayed there as the sun lifted higher and the blue sky brightened.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again, woman.” His voice was husky. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then dropped onto the rocks beside her, breathing heavily. “I thought we were both gone.”
“I’m sorry.” She’d failed, had turned her back and missed the clues. Like in Kevin’s club the night of the concert. She’d missed...
A gasp tore at her water-bruised lungs and shot pain through her side and into her left shoulder. “Someone...someone shoved me into the water.” It surfaced with clarity, the memory submerged during her fight for survival. A blow to the back, a force driving her forward.
“What?” Eric scrambled to his feet, searching the area. “Are you sure?”
She nodded, the pain in her body a physical testimony. Everything ached from bruises and tension. Her shoulder and her left side protested every time she inhaled. “I didn’t see them.”
Eric clinched his fists, his mouth a grim line. “I shouldn’t have left you alone. Not knowing we were—” He shook out his hands and knelt beside her. “We have to get out of here. They’ll try again. At this point, our only way out is up. All of our gear is on the other side of the river and the rapids. It’s a steeper climb on this side, but we have to signal an aircraft. There’s no other way.”
They had no food. No water. Morgan was battered and exhausted, and Eric likely was, too. The more she breathed, the more her side and shoulder protested. Something was wrong. Something she couldn’t articulate.
It had to be fear, maybe a panic attack. That would make sense given all they’d been through.
Given all they still had to go through. Surviving the climb on a normal day would be challenging, even without the added danger of a killer nearby. Today?
They had no other choice but to try...and pray. Morgan nodded. It was time to be the woman she was, the one who stomped fear and survived in the wilderness. The ranger. “Faster we move, faster we have help.” She reached for Eric’s extended hand, loathe at needing help, but her muscles still shook. Her body was at its limit. If she made the hike, it would be by God’s grace alone. “It’s going to be—” Pain tore through her ankle as her weight landed on it.
Only Eric’s grip on her hand and then under her arm kept her from crashing to the ground.
He knelt beside her and unlaced her waterlogged hiking boot. “What?”
Every motion brought pain. “Stop.” Gritting her teeth as spots danced before her eyes and cold sweat broke on her skin, Morgan swiped at his hand, the memory of jamming her ankle against river rocks returning. “Don’t take it off.” If he touched her foot again, she’d either pass out or punch him.
Eric rocked onto his heels and stared into the distance, the thoughts in his head practically visible on his face.
They were likely as dark as her own. The reflected sunlight into the canyon was warm now, but it would quickly grow hot and dangerously direct as the day wore on. They were trapped on this beach, on the opposite side of the river from their survival gear. Even if Eric dared to attempt a swim, the rapids were still between them. A killer knew their location and wasn’t afraid to exploit it.
There was no way Morgan could climb the mesa, and it was too steep for Eric to carry her.
From this angle, they’d reached the end of their line.
“You have to leave me here. Get to high ground and signal a helicopter or plane. They’ll be flying over soon.”
“No.” Eric rose, insides quaking with adrenaline and hunger. With a shudder, he turned to eye the path to the mesa. It was steeper on this side, but still doable...for someone with two good ankles.
The choice was impossible. To make the climb to visibility meant leaving Morgan behind with the twin killers of man and nature. To stay and protect her meant a slow death with their gear in sight but out of reach.
A slow death for him meant certain death for his sister, as well.
Eric walked toward the river, more to give himself room to think than to seriously consider crossing.
The rocks on the far side had taken him only a minute, maybe two, to traverse but they were treacherous. Seeing them now, with his mind clearly focused on them and not on Morgan, it was clear God alone had gotten him over those without sliding him into the river to a water-soaked grave.
They were trapped. There was nothing he could do to save them.
“You can’t quit now.” Morgan’s voice from behind him was stronger than it had been a few minutes earlier. She was regaining strength, but it wouldn’t do a thing to help her ankle. “Hannah needs you. I need you.”
Climbing to the mesa without her was contrary to everything he’d ever been trained to do. You didn’t leave a man behind. You definitely didn’t leave the woman you loved behind.
Eric whipped around and stared at her. She watched him, her eyes rimmed with dark circles, her hair drying in heavy curls.
He did still love her. He’d do anything to save her.
Even if anything meant leaving her behind?
Climbing or staying, either way, he could be killing her.
Unless... “You said rafters are pretty regular on the river?” He almost choked on the words. He knew the answer already, but it wasn’t one he ever liked to think about, not after his parents...
“Four days ago there was talk of shutting it for a few days until the water levels dropped a bit. A couple of class nines and tens were on the verge of impassable, and that was before the last big washout we had. It’s possible no one will come.”
“How soon before we know?” If there was a chance he could summon help on the river, he’d take it.
“I don’t know. Sun’s been up about half an hour? Depends on how far upstream they made camp, what time they hit the river... Could be two hours before we can say for certain no one’s rafting, but you’re burning daylight during the wait. Not to mention extending your time without food and water. The longer you wait, the harder and more dangerous the climb is going to be.”
He’d risk it. She could argue all she wanted but he couldn’t leave her. His heart would kill him. “Say someone put in for the night close by and got an early start. We could know in...?”
“Less than half an hour.”
Closing the space between them, he dropped to her side but kept his distance. She was right. He’d have to move soon or risk passing out as his body weakened and the day’s heat kicked in. He already ached with the need for water. If he so much as held her hand, his resolve to hike out without her would waver.
Half an hour.
“You don’t need to worry about me.” Morgan stretched her legs and studied her injured ankle, which was puffing around the top of her boot. “Whoever shoved me in is on the other side of the river. It will take time for them to cross. I’ll get out of sight by the rocks and no one will know I’m here.” When he started to argue, she held up a hand. “No. Both of us need food and water more than we need to worry about someone coming at us. We’ll die for sure without them. We only theoretically die any other way.”
No matter what happened, it would be his fault. He was caught between a literal rock and a hard place, trapped with two other lives in his hands and no good way out.
He scanned Morgan’s face, trying to formulate a plan, a perfect solution, some way to—
Her eyes widened and she straightened, focused on something over his shoulder. “Eric...”
He whipped around, ready to fight, but relief and shock quaked in his muscles.
On the river, a man and a woman angled an inflatable raft to take on the rapids.
They were saved.