“Turn around,” Aaron yelled. He examined Lance’s binds and seemed satisfied. “Take his gun and slide it toward me.”
“I’m sorry.” Tina lifted Lance’s handgun from his holster, placed it on the wooden deck, and pushed it toward Aaron.
“It’s OK.” Lance would have done it himself to keep Aaron from shooting Rylee.
The gun stopped a few feet short of Aaron’s feet.
“Check her for a weapon too,” Aaron ordered.
Tina lifted the hem of Morgan’s jacket and removed her weapon from its holster. She slid it across to join Lance’s Glock.
Aaron tried to reach the weapons with his foot but couldn’t. He stooped, dividing his attention between Lance, Tina, and Rylee. He looked down and grabbed Lance’s gun.
The gun pointed at Rylee’s temple shifted, its barrel dropping toward the deck. The instant the muzzle pointed away from her face, Rylee attacked Aaron. She slammed her head backward into his, then grabbed for his gun arm with both hands.
Lance bent at the waist and raised his bound hands. The plastic dug into his skin. He slammed his hands down onto his lower back as hard as he could. The tie didn’t give. He tried again, this time using more force and pulling his hands apart as his forearms hit his body. The zip tie snapped.
He was free.
A gunshot boomed. Red bloomed across Rylee’s thigh. She froze and looked down.
“Stupid bitch.” Aaron punched her in the head.
Using the distraction, Lance launched himself at Aaron, catching him in a full tackle. They went down on the deck, slid across the water-slicked wood, and tumbled down a short flight of steps. Lance was on the bottom when they came to a stop on the first landing. Out from under the branches, he could barely see. Torrential rain beat down on his face.
Aaron must have dropped his gun. Straddling Lance’s chest, Aaron wrapped both hands around Lance’s neck and squeezed. Lance gagged as two thumbs pressed on his windpipe. He raised his arms, folded them so his forearms overlapped, and used them as a lever to press down on the insides of Aaron’s elbows. Aaron’s arms bent, and Lance pinned his attacker’s hands down. The pressure on Lance’s throat eased.
He dragged in a breath, the oxygen reviving him.
With Aaron’s hands and wrists pinned to his chest, Lance bent one leg and hooked his foot around Aaron’s ankle. Then Lance bridged over his own shoulder. With his foot trapped against Lance’s thigh, Aaron could not extend his leg sideways for balance. The maneuver should have flipped them over and positioned Lance on top, but they rolled down the next flight of steps.
Lance fell sideways, his shoulder slamming into step after step as he slid across the treads on his side. His descent was stopped by the safety railing on the lower observation deck. He slammed into the wooden rungs, the impact knocking the wind out of his lungs.
Aaron was on his feet, coming at Lance. Something shiny gleamed in his hand.
A knife.
Adrenaline surged through Lance’s blood like twenty espressos. He scrambled to his feet. Aaron lunged. The blade swiped at Lance’s belly. Lance jumped backward, turning his gut away from the track of the weapon. Aaron came at him again, stabbing at his midsection. Lance dodged the blade again.
Lance maneuvered away from the confines of the railing. He backed off the deck onto open ground. He needed room to move. Aaron followed, waving the knife back and forth in the air. Lance feinted left. Aaron countered. Then Aaron attacked, making a hard line for Lance’s face. Lance ducked, turned, and grabbed Aaron’s wrist with both hands. He bent Aaron’s hand backward, applied pressure, and twisted until he felt the bone snap. The knife fell to the ground.
With an angry roar, Aaron ran at Lance. He caught him around the waist, and they careened toward the swollen water. They went over the edge of the bank and fell into the freezing river. Lance hit a boulder, slid off, and was sucked into a deep eddy. The last thing he saw as the water closed over his head was the storm raging above him.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Do you have a phone?” Morgan shouted to Tina.
“Yes,” Tina yelled back.
“Call 911! Then help Rylee.” Morgan ordered over her shoulder as she raced down the wooden steps. She couldn’t make a call with her hands tied behind her back.
Behind her, Tina was at Rylee’s side.
“OK!” Tina answered.
She’d left Tina and Rylee on the upper deck, with Tina trying to stanch the bleeding of Rylee’s bullet wound. Morgan hit the lower deck, turned, and raced across the boards to the wet ground.
Where is Lance?
She tracked a line of footprints in the mud. They led right into the river. Morgan ran to the riverbank, scanning the water. A head broke the surface. Was that Lance? A second head popped above the water. The two men struggled, fighting the white water and each other as the current swept them away.
Morgan ran along the bank, keeping pace with them, feeling helpless.
The men shot between huge boulders and disappeared as they were sucked down into a dark pool of water.
Morgan stared over the water, her heart clenching as Lance disappeared, refusing to blink in case she missed some sign of him. But nothing happened. Seconds ticked past as dread eddied and pooled behind her solar plexus.
He couldn’t drown. Not after everything they’d been through together. Morgan moved to the water’s edge, her eyes scanning the surface. Rain pummeled the river and her face.
Where are you?
A head broke the surface. But it was Aaron. Clutching one hand to his chest, he used his other to grab her ankle and try to pull her into the water. With no hands and no way to reach her gun, Morgan pulled her free leg back and kicked him in the head as hard as her precarious balance would allow.
Her boot connected solidly with his face. Blood spurted from his nose, and Aaron’s head snapped backward. She fell on her ass in the weeds, but he kept his grip on her foot, grunting and pulling her toward the rapids. His eyes lit with desperate cruelty.
Morgan’s body slid a few inches in the slick mud. She kicked at his hands, but he held on, his mouth set in grim determination to drag her into the water.
Lance’s head popped up. He grabbed Aaron by the hair. Morgan sent one final kick into Aaron’s face as Lance dragged him away. Both men went under. Morgan couldn’t see any bubbles. The water was too turbulent.
Desperate, she held her breath and searched the surface.
Where are you?
A head broke the water. Lance! Relief pushed the air from her lungs. He shook the water from his hair and swam to the bank. Morgan rushed forward as Lance climbed out of the water.
They both collapsed for two breaths. Rain pounded Morgan’s face as she kept one eye on the surface of the water in case Aaron came for them again. “Is he . . .”
Lance sat up. His eyes narrowed. “You don’t have to worry about him. He’s not coming up again.”
“Good.” Morgan had no pity for the man. He’d killed Paul. He’d shot two innocent teenagers.
Nodding, but clearly still out of breath, Lance stood.
With her hands still bound behind her back, Morgan kicked out, using momentum to rock onto her knees. Lance helped her to her feet.
“I couldn’t break the zip tie,” she said as they hurried across the muddy ground.
“It takes practice.” Lance dug into his pocket and pulled out his keys. “Turn around.”
She did. The plastic dug deeper into her wrists, but he released the tie in a few seconds. Morgan rubbed her wrists and stared at the falls. A fresh burst of alarm shot through her. The water had risen significantly since they’d arrived, and the rain showed no sign of letting up.
She gasped. “The river is almost at the entrance to the cave.”
“Did you call 911?”
“Tina did.”
“But there’s no telling how long it will take them to get here. The roads are flooded, and I’m sure they’re inundated with emergency calls.
” Lance sprinted to the edge of the water across from the cave. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “Evan!”
There was no response.
Panting, Morgan stopped next to him. She assessed the swirling, raging water. How would they get across? “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know.” Lance’s body was still, but she knew he was trying to come up with a plan. “I could probably swim to the cave, but I don’t know how I’d get Evan back across.”
“Do we have rope?” she asked. “You can string a line across as a guide.”
“In the Jeep.” He turned and ran up the steps. Morgan followed. She reached the higher deck just a few seconds behind him.
Rylee lay flat on her back, with her leg elevated on the deck railing. Tina had tied her jacket around Rylee’s leg. The girl was bone white and trembling, and the pant leg of her jeans was completely saturated with blood from midthigh down.
Tina glanced over the edge of the deck. “I have to save my son.”
But how? Neither Tina nor Morgan was physically strong enough to cross the river or move someone the size of Evan.
“It’s going to take some muscle,” Lance said. “If you look after Rylee, I’ll get Evan.”
“I don’t want Rylee to move.” Tina stood. “If you carry her down to the parking lot, I have additional first aid supplies in my car.”
While Tina held Rylee’s leg still, Lance scooped the girl into his arms, being careful not to jostle her. He carried her across the walkway and down the short flight of steps to the parking area.
Tina went to a vehicle parked a few spaces away from the Jeep and opened the trunk.
Morgan slid her hand into Lance’s pocket, took his keys, and opened the cargo hatch. She removed Lance’s Go Bag.
Lance set Rylee in the cargo area of the Jeep. Morgan kept Rylee’s leg as stable as possible, elevated on the back of the rear seat.
Leaving the girl in Tina’s care, Lance grabbed his Go Bag. He and Morgan ran back toward the river.
“What’s your plan?” she asked as thunder shook the ravine.
“I don’t have many options.” Lance opened his bag and removed a skein of yellow paracord. He tied one end of the rope to a tree trunk and the other around his waist. “I don’t know how helpless Evan is going to be, but we have to get him out of that cave fast.” He glanced at the water, then back toward the Jeep.
Morgan nodded and turned toward the river. Water lapped at the cave’s entrance.
It was now or never.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Lance had a rough plan in mind, rough being the operative word. But he had no choice.
A branch careened over the falls and crashed to the turbulent pool at the bottom in a spectacular splash. Getting Evan out alone was going to be treacherous. But if he waited any longer, the boy was sure to drown. The water was rising too quickly. He couldn’t wait for help to arrive. He took his body armor from his bag and put it on for some protection against blunt impact with rocks. He held up Morgan’s vest but decided it wouldn’t fit around Evan’s muscular chest. She was tall, but Lance had had the armor specially made to fit her slender body. He stuffed a few carabiners, D-shaped metal clips, in his pocket.
He turned to Morgan and gave her a quick kiss. “I’m going across.”
She grabbed his arm and kissed him back. “I love you.”
“Love you back.”
Looping the excess rope over his shoulder, Lance walked into the water. The first half of the trip would be the hardest because the water was deeper. It rose to his knees, then to midthigh. He let out the line as he walked, keeping some tension in the connection to help stabilize him. But the current pulled at his feet and legs. He dodged debris, mostly tree branches, as it swept by him.
Instead of fighting the current, he crossed on a diagonal, going with the flow as much as possible. Rain continued to pour from the sky, obscuring his vision. In the middle of the river, he clambered onto the top of a boulder to catch his breath. A wave crashed over the rock, sweeping him off. He went down. A large branch struck him across the ribs. His vest dispersed some of the impact, and he was damned glad he’d worn it.
Lance fought his way back onto the rock, then waded into a shallower section. The water pushed and pulled and threatened to sweep him off his feet, but he pressed forward. By the time he made it across, he was fifty feet downriver from where he’d started. He climbed onto the narrow, rocky ledge on the other side. Pressing his belly against the rock wall, he sidled along the ledge until he reached the cave’s plateau.
Lance saw a tan nylon rope anchored to a tree trunk and extending to the top of the ravine. Evan must have used it to climb down from the top. Unfortunately, pulling Evan out from above was a two- or three-man job. Lance couldn’t do it alone.
He untied the rope from around his waist and tied it to the trunk, pulling it as taut as possible. This would serve as their guide across the river. Then he used hand- and footholds to scale the rock wall and retrieve the second rope.
Water splashed over his ankles. The water level had risen several inches since he’d started across. It flowed into the cave. Lance wasted no time. Ignoring his heaving lungs, he crouched and ducked into the opening.
Evan lay at the back, curled on his side, facing Lance, but the boy’s eyes were closed. The bottom of the cave dipped slightly, and the gully was filled with water.
“Evan?” Lance called as he splashed across.
The boy stirred and opened his eyes. “Lance?”
Rylee hadn’t been exaggerating. The boy looked like death. Except for an unnatural, spotty flush, his skin was pale and pasty. His eyes appeared sunken, like Sophie’s had when she’d been dehydrated and running a high fever. Lance placed a hand on the teen’s forehead. He was burning hot. An ACE bandage was tied around his upper arm.
“Is my mom OK?” Evan asked. “I saw a guy pointing a gun at her. I couldn’t do anything about it.”
How like the boy to be worried about his mom when his own life was in danger.
“Your mom is all right.” Lance didn’t take the time to assess Evan’s wound. “We need to get you out of here right now. Can you walk?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I can crawl, though.”
“I’ll take that for now.” Lance removed his vest. “You need this more than I do. It won’t help you swim, but it will protect you against rocks and debris.” Lance worked it onto the boy’s injured arm first. Sweat poured from the teen’s brow, and his jaw tightened as he fought the obvious agony generated by the movement. Then Lance fashioned a harness with the second rope and secured it around Evan’s body. Lance coiled up the extra thirty feet of leftover rope and slung it over his shoulder. He could toss it to Morgan at the halfway point. She and Tina could help Lance get Evan across the deeper half of the river.
“Let’s go.” Lance kept hold of the harness as they moved into the water at the front of the cave, now more than a foot deep. The water level had risen above the top of the opening. Only three feet of air space remained in the cave. Evan shivered as the water splashed over his legs. He rolled onto his knees. His crawl was painstakingly slow with only one good hand.
Lance barked out rapid commands as the water level continued to move higher. “I’ll get you through the opening. Take a deep breath. One. Two. Three.”
The boy sucked in air. Lance submerged them both and pulled the teen out of the cave. As they surfaced, Lance grabbed for the taut rope connecting them to the other side of the river. He used a carabiner to fasten Evan’s harness to the yellow paracord. The metal would slide along the rope. Then Lance clipped a second carabiner to his belt and Evan’s harness. Now Evan’s body was suspended just above his.
The guide rope would help him combat the current. As long as it held, they wouldn’t get swept away. But it didn’t allow them to move with the flow of the water. Lance would have to fight it with brute strength. But there was no way that Lance could fireman-carry Evan across
the water. Evan was not a small kid. He weighed almost as much as Lance did. Yet Lance had to get him out without help.
Who knew when the rain would end or when responders would arrive? The flood could eventually submerge the rope.
On the other side, he saw Morgan and Tina waiting.
Lance began the treacherous crossing, his arms straining to pull Evan’s weight and his against the powerful current. Evan could do nothing to help. He was deadweight. Lance’s biceps burned as he hauled them through the shallower section and onto the center boulder. Evan landed on Lance’s legs. He could feel the boy’s body shaking with pain, but he didn’t cry out. Lance paused to breathe. His arms felt rubbery from the exertion and cold water.
“You all right?” Lance shouted in Evan’s ear.
“Yes.” The boy’s words trembled. His lips were blue, and the fever flush had drained from his face. He needed a hospital—quickly. He was going to end up with hypothermia on top of an infected wound.
Lance met Morgan’s gaze across the twenty-five feet of rough water that separated them. Almost there. But the water was deeper and the current stronger in the next section. He would need help pulling Evan across.
He cupped his hand around his mouth and shouted, “I’m going to throw you the rope.”
Morgan moved to the bank, ready and waiting. Lance uncoiled the second half of the harness rope. He dug his flashlight out of the cargo pocket of his pants and tied the wrist strap to the rope. Then he let out some line and began circling the flashlight over his head, letting out the rope as the circle widened. When he let go, the flashlight soared across the water, but fell a few feet short of the bank.
Lance hauled it in and moved a few feet into the water. Bracing a foot against a boulder, he tried again. The flashlight soared, struck the bank, and bounced off. Morgan dove on it, snatching it from the shallow water at the river’s edge. She held the end and backed up to take up the tension in the line. Tina joined her, clearly waiting for a few more feet of rope so that she could get hold of it.
Secrets Never Die Page 24
