Rancher's High-Stakes Rescue Read online

  The line jerked hard again, and she heard him curse.

  No! No, no, no! Please God, no! she thought, squeezing her eyes closed, her denials as much prayer as panic.

  The line jolted again...and sagged, slowing her approach markedly. Startled, she opened her eyes. She was mere feet from the platform. Josh had his hand extended toward her.

  “Kate! Grab my hand!”

  She hesitated, confused, for a fraction of a second before releasing her grip on the straps of her harness. Almost as soon as she let go, stretching her arm toward Josh, mere feet from the landing deck, the cord gave another tremendous jerk—and she dropped straight down.

  Chapter 4

  It happened in an instant, yet Josh saw it all in slow motion. The last of the splintering wood holding the main cable gave way, seconds before Kate would have been safely to the platform.

  The released tension caused the cable to whip about as it sailed past him. The loose end with all the hardware of the terminus struck his shoulder with an excruciating blow that knocked him off his feet.

  He heard the snap of breaking limbs and crack of splintering wood. Josh whipped his attention to the branch where he’d tied off his cord. The strap had jerked tight, stripping the smaller limbs and bark as the cord was dragged along the branch. The cord caught at an upturn in the branch. Thank God! But the weight of the steel cable and the woman still dangling from the line was bending the branch. The limb wouldn’t hold long.

  Kate!

  Rolling to his stomach, he looked over the edge of the landing deck. Kate hung about twenty-five feet below him, near the upper branches of another tree that grew out from the side of the ravine. She was silent, unmoving. Josh’s chest clenched.

  “Kate!”

  She stirred, glancing around, clearly in shock.

  “Kate!”

  Her head tipped back, and her terror-filled gaze clashed with his.

  What should he tell her? What should he do? He forced his own panic aside, knowing he had seconds to act. What he did in the next few precious moments meant life or death for Kate.

  First and foremost, she had to get to the nearest tree and get unhooked from the main cable. When the branch impeding the cable broke, the main line would fall into the ravine. If Kate was still hooked on, she’d be dragged along for the fall. “Unhook your line!”

  “Wh-what?”

  “Your harness line!” He tapped his chest, indicating where the main riser attached to the harness. “Unhook your line! Hurry!”

  Even from his distance he could see how badly her hands were shaking. He realized her weight would be pulling down on the large carabiner, making it virtually impossible for her to unhook herself.

  “Damn it!” he barked.

  Cut the straps, a voice in his head said. He patted his pocket and found the hard lump that said his buck knife was there. “I’m coming! Stay still!”

  Josh shot a look around at the trees below him, quickly sizing up his best route down. The first drop would be the biggest, and if he didn’t aim well and land on the right spot, he’d join Kate in plummeting to the bottom of the ravine.

  He spent no time pondering that disaster. If he weighed the risk, he’d give himself time to second-guess, and Kate didn’t have time. Instead, he set his sights and leaped.

  Small limbs slapped at him and scratched his arms and face as he crashed through to the largest branch of the tree just above Kate. His legs buckled as he landed. Josh seized handfuls of leaves and twigs, trying to catch himself as he tottered and fell hard on his ass. Shifting his weight, he wrapped his arms around the branch just before he would have slid off. He didn’t even stop long enough to catch his breath before he launched himself again, aiming for the perpendicular trunk of the tree nearest to Kate.

  He jumped, and...his feet missed the trunk.

  Instinctively, he grabbed for the tree as he went down, and his torso landed across it with a jarring thud. Pain radiated through his body, and he struggled to catch his breath.

  Above him he heard another crack of wood. He raised his gaze to find Kate, gauge his next move. She was still fumbling with the straps.

  “I’m coming!” He shimmied out on the trunk, his eyes on the panicked woman.

  She stretched a shaky arm out to him. “Help me!”

  “Grab my hand!” He reached as far as he could. Their fingers touched, and she whimpered when they couldn’t clasp hands. “Hang on!” He pulled his arm back to scoot farther out on the trunk until he reached a branch growing upward at a right angle from the trunk. The tree dipped with his weight, but he ignored the groan of the bending tree and clutched the branch to stabilize his position. “Here!”

  This time when he reached for her, she was able to curl enough of her fingers around his for him to pull her toward him. With her other hand, she seized his wrist with a cry of relief.

  But she wasn’t out of danger yet. And neither was he. The branch above them would snap any second. When it fell, the weight of the cable would pull her down. And him with her if she was clinging to him.

  “Hold my waist. I need my arms free to cut you loose.” He fumbled in his pocket for his buck knife and flicked it open.

  She stared at him in wide-eyed dismay. “Cut me loose?”

  “Hurry! Before the line falls!”

  He saw the moment the danger registered fully in her expression, and she scrambled to suit actions to his order. She swung a leg up and over the horizontal trunk, pulling herself until she could straddle the trunk and hold his torso, her cheek against his leg.

  He began sawing on the main cord, making steady progress until...

  Another loud crack. The cable dipped farther, tugging at her.

  Kate gasped, clutching at him. “Oh, God, no!”

  He sawed harder. Faster. Numb to everything but the fraying cord beneath the blade.

  One last pop of breaking wood above them. And the steel cable fell.

  Kate’s harness line stretched taut as the cable jerked at it for a split second. She screamed. And his blade severed the last fibers of the cord.

  Freed from the restraining weight, Kate lunged forward, holding him tighter. Burying her face in his chest. Hyperventilating.

  “I’ve got you!” he said, circling her with his arms, the vertical branch between them as they embraced. Sweet relief flowed through him.

  She continued shaking, her breathing shallow, frightened pants.

  “Kate, you’re okay. Take slow breaths, or you’re going to pass out.” He secured his hold on her with one arm, while closing his knife with the other hand and shoving it back in his pocket. He still had to get them safely up to the platform, and she seemed ready to fall apart.

  “I need you to take a deep breath and listen to me. We’re going to climb back up to the landing deck now, but I need your help.”

  She raised her head and met his eyes. The stark fear in her beautiful green eyes twisted in his gut. She’d trusted him when she came on this trip, when she’d allowed herself to be strapped onto the zip line. And he’d failed her. Her fear was his fault. Her peril was his fault. She was his responsibility, and he owed her.

  His mouth dried, and guilt pounded through him. “I will get you home, safe and in one piece. I promise.”

  A tear broke free from her eyelashes, landing a sucker punch in his already sore ribs. She gave him a weak nod, and angled her head to look below them at the fallen cable. With a gasp, she scrunched her eyes closed and squeezed him harder.

  “Yeah, don’t look down.” He rubbed her back, hoping to calm her. “Listen, Kate, you’re gonna have to let go of me, so we can climb back up.” When she squeaked her dismay, he added, “I’ll help you. You can do it.”

  “Oh, my God,” she muttered to herself. “Why? Why is this happening again?”

  Again? He puzzled over her comment
, but now was not the time to question her about it.

  “Okay, here’s the plan.” He explained to her how he would help her ease around the vertical branch, then shimmy on her belly along the trunk until they reached a spot where some intersecting limbs from other trees provided a ladder of sorts to climb toward the platform.

  He brushed hair back from her face and held her gaze. Her skin was silky and damp with her tears, and he wished he had time to simply caress her face with gentle strokes and revel in its softness. But he had to stay focused. Now was the time to step up, be there for her, get them out of this mess.

  “Kate, do you understand? I’ll be right in front of you, and I’ll help pull you up the big gaps. Okay?”

  She swallowed hard and nodded.

  Over the next several agonizing minutes, they inched back toward the landing platform. Perched as they were over the deepest part of the ravine, he knew any loss of balance, any misstep would be deadly. When they reached the end of the tree trunk, he climbed to the next available branch, testing its strength before allowing his full weight to settle on it. He leaned back down, extending a hand to Kate and instructing her where to place her feet as he pulled her up.

  Branch to branch they climbed, many gaps requiring that he jump to catch the next limb or boost Kate from below. When they’d scaled the last distance and he’d helped her crawl onto the platform, she collapsed against him, trembling and crying.

  They were safe at last, and the release of sheer terror he’d known in the last thirty minutes made Josh want to cry, as well. Remorse and guilt curled in his gut. The fragile woman in his arms had placed her faith—her life—in his hands, based on a promise that he’d keep her safe—but he hadn’t. Her tears humbled and castigated him.

  Her fingers curled into his back as she clung to him, sobbing. He rocked his body, trying to soothe her, stroking her hair, her back. He absorbed the tremors that shook her, then realized not all of the shaking he felt was hers. His own body was wracked with shudders as he came down from the adrenaline and panic-packed stress.

  “We’re safe now. It’s over. I’ve got you.” He muttered the reassurances to her, confirming for himself as much as for her that the danger had passed. He worked to collect his thoughts and regain his focus. He had a job to do. A job made all the more important now that the dynamics had changed so drastically.

  Only after allowing his heart rate and breathing to slow to a more normal pace did he hear the crackle and shouting from the radio he’d tossed aside.

  “Josh, answer me! Damn it, if you’re there, say something!” Zane said, and Josh heard—could feel—layers of emotion in his twin’s plea. “Josh? Josh!”

  He took one more moment to attend Kate’s needs. He eased her back and began a cursory examination of her arms and legs. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

  They were both covered in scratches and scrapes. His shoulder throbbed where the cable had smacked him, and his midsection where he’d crashed onto the tree trunk hurt like the dickens now that the dulling effect of adrenaline had ebbed.

  Kate raked her own gaze over her body, as if assessing for the first time, then shook her head. “I d-don’t think so.”

  She had a small cut on her temple, which he’d tend to as soon as he could get into the first aid kit at the campsite. They’d both have plenty of bruises showing by nightfall. But they were both alive and had no broken bones, no serious injuries. It was nothing short of a miracle.

  “Thank God,” he whispered.

  In the background of Zane’s repeated calls to him, he could hear a woman crying, wailing in fear. The rest of the group had to know by now that the cable had fallen. His lack of response to Zane’s calls would be heightening their fears that the worst had happened.

  He framed Kate’s face, thumbing dry her cheeks. “Hey, I need to let the others know we’re safe. You okay for a moment?”

  She still trembled and hiccuped as she wept, but she let him pull free and gave a tiny nod as he pushed to his feet. His knees buckled slightly as he rose, the last vestiges of adrenaline making themselves known. He scooped up the radio and pressed the talk button. “Zane, I’m here. We’re both okay. A bit beaten up and pretty rattled but...alive.”

  A brief silence followed in which he could sense his twin heaving a huge sigh of relief. Finally, Zane replied, “Holy hell, man! We’ve been going crazy over here! What happened?”

  “The cable collapsed.” A fresh shudder rolled through him as he voiced the horror.

  “Ya think?” Zane barked, his tone sharp, but Josh knew the edge was due to fear and frustration and not anger. “But...Kate made it across?”

  “Sort of. We had some dicey moments, but I cut her line before the cable dropped.” Barely. He didn’t even want to think about how close they’d come to disaster. “We had to climb some to get back to the platform but...we’re here now. Shaken, but alive.”

  Another silence as Zane absorbed the information. Then, “How? Why? What the hell happened?”

  Josh raised his gaze to the wedge cut out of the tree and the sawdust on the deck, and knots of disbelief and horror tightened in his chest. He said simply, “Sabotage.”

  He and his family were all too familiar of late with the word and all its implications.

  Zane bit out a heated curse in response.

  Josh sank back down on the deck and leaned his back against the tree trunk. He reviewed this vandalism in light of the other damage done in recent months to the family’s ranch. “So...now what?”

  He heard Zane huff a deep breath. “Give me a minute. I gotta think.”

  Clearly the rest of the group wasn’t getting across the ravine today. They’d have to ride the horses back the way they’d come up and drive around the long way to get to the camp. Assuming they hadn’t just lost everyone’s business. Assuming there was any business left to save. Assuming the saboteur hadn’t just wrecked everything they’d worked for and dreamed of for the last year.

  “Get pictures,” Zane said, and Josh frowned.

  “Yeah, because I really want to commemorate this day,” he said, his tone dripping sarcasm.

  “For the insurance company,” Zane clarified. “And the police. Although I guess the cops’ll want to take their own.” Leave it to his practical, responsible twin to think of a detail like that.

  “Right. Will do.” Josh raked fingers through his hair, surprised to find his hand still shaking a bit. “I guess Kate and I will wait here at the camp for you and the group to meet us...what? Tomorrow morning?”

  Zane scoffed. “Are you serious? You think we’re still gonna make the trip after this? Brianna and Hunter are already planning to go home. I’ve promised them a refund.”

  “So, that’s it? You’re just quitting? Giving up?” Josh asked, aghast at his brother’s attitude and a bit stunned at himself for wanting to continue.

  “We almost had a woman die on our watch, man,” Zane said in a quiet, severe tone.

  Josh glanced back at Kate, then carried the radio farther from her, turned down the volume and replied in a hushed tone, “I’m well aware of that, Zane. I lived it. I’m the one who put my ass on the line climbing out to rescue her when the cable fell.”

  “Yet you want to keep going? Are you insane?”

  Josh scrubbed a hand over his face, weighing his answer. Maybe he was crazy, but the thought of calling off the trip now left a dark void inside him that stole his breath. “Look, we’re all upset right now. Let’s not make any snap decisions.” He filled his lungs and released the air slowly. “Let me get Kate down to the camp, give us all time to regroup and assess. You deal with stuff at your end, and I’ll talk with you in a couple hours.”

  Zane didn’t answer at first. Finally he muttered a terse “Fine.”

  The one word was filled with a regret and discouragement that echoed in Josh’s soul. But quitting filled his soul
with a sticky blackness. He felt mired in a grief and anxiety that sucked at him and pulled him deeper into a sense of helplessness that he hated. Only the idea of forging on, or turning this disaster around and finding a way to make the trip and call it a success, gave him any relief to the quicksand emotions pulling at him.

  “It’ll take a few hours to get everyone back down the mountain, the horses tended to, the insurance company called...” Zane sighed. “It’ll be close to dark before we can get to you.”

  “So let us spend the night. We have food, tents and first aid supplies. We’ll be fine.”

  Zane responded with a growl, then, “Hey... Dawn wants to talk to Kate. Is she there?”

  Feeling as if he’d won a short reprieve, Josh dragged in another cleansing breath and stepped back over to Kate. “Yeah. Right here.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, and she met his gaze with red-rimmed, still-unnerved eyes. “Dawn wants to talk to you.”

  “Kate? Kate? Are you all right?” Dawn said over the receiver as he handed the radio to Kate.

  “I—I guess. I—”

  “Oh, my God, Kate! When we saw the line fall, I freaked! I was so scared! I thought for sure you were dead.”

  Kate stared at the two-way, her face draining of what little color had returned.

  Josh gritted his teeth. Dawn was not helping. He squelched the urge to snatch the radio back from Kate and tell Dawn as much.

  Kate raised the walkie-talkie to her mouth again, adding, “Yeah. It was scary. B-but Josh saved me.” His heart stilled as she raised grateful eyes to him and flashed a tremulous smile. “I’m not hurt. Nothing b-bad anyway. Just...very glad to b-be alive.”

  “Oh, honey, I know! I can’t believe this happened to y—”

  Kate found the volume dial and turned the sound of her friend’s voice to zero, then set the radio on the platform next to her. She gave Josh a guilty glance, saying, “I’m just...not in the mood to talk. Sorry.”

  “Hey, don’t apologize. I’m not much in the mood for talk right now either.” He lifted the radio and clicked it off. He would check in with Zane later and make their plan for how to proceed.