Naked Edge

by Pamela Clare

  Kat felt a surge of grief, but was too exhausted even to cry. It was even getting hard to speak. "He told me he loved me. Just before he fell, he told me he loved me, but I already knew."

  "Are you still sitting up?"

  "Yes." Then Kat realized she'd just told a lie. She was lying down again. "No."

  "Can you sit up? Can you do that for me?" Sophie sounded worried.

  Kat had been talking to Sophie for what seemed like a very long time now. She'd told Sophie everything that had happened from the moment she'd seen Webb standing in the cabin door until the moment Gabe had fallen. Sophie had passed what she'd said along to Marc and Julian, who were on the way with a rescue team to get her.

  "Can you still hear me, Kat? Try to sit up!"

  Forgetting about her broken wrist for a moment, Kat tried to push herself up, then collapsed with a cry, overwhelmed by pain.

  "You used your left hand, didn't you? I should have reminded you." Then Sophie's tone of voice changed, her words quavering as if she were afraid and in tears, and Kat knew she was talking to Marc again. "Yes, she's still conscious, but she's fading. Her words are slurring together. Can't the pilot fly faster?"

  All you have to do tonight is survive, Kat. Stay alive!

  Kat's eyes opened--when had she closed them?--and she found herself staring at a sky filled with stars, the cold beauty of it making her heart swell. Was Gabe up there somewhere in some kind of heaven? Had he joined Grandpa Red Crow at one of those distant campfires? Could he see her?

  And where was Sophie? She'd been talking to Sophie hadn't she?

  There came a blinding light and a sound like beating wings, the wind blowing snow all around her. And then Julian was there--and other men, too.

  Julian stroked her face. "I'm here, Kat. It's going to be okay. We're going to get you warm and take good care of you."

  "Julian." She reached her right hand out to him, feeling a rush of relief to see him. "You have to help Gabe."

  He took her hand, held it. "Don't worry about Gabe, sweetheart."

  Someone piled heated blankets on her, unfamiliar voices around her.

  "Let's get her into the chopper. We'll start oxygen and IV fluids there."

  "Watch it!" That was Julian. "Her left wrist is fractured."

  Gentle hands lifted her onto a stretcher, and then she was moving, bouncing along, Julian walking beside her.

  She held fast to his hand. "You can't leave him there. It's so cold. I don't want him to be alone. Please don't leave him down there."

  "See that other chopper?" Julian pointed toward a light in the sky. "Hunter is there with another team on his way to the base of the cliff to see if they can find him. They'll bring Gabe home. I promise."

  That was all Kat needed to hear.

  She closed her eyes, and finally she slept.

  THE SOUND OF a chopper roused Gabe to consciousness. He watched it disappear beyond the top of the cliff, a sharp feeling of relief flooding his chest, momentarily dulling his pain. Darcangelo and Hunter had come through.

  Thank God!

  Kat was safe. She was safe.

  He seized that single thought, held on to it with all of his might, the knowledge that she was going to be okay making each unbearable moment a bit more bearable. He'd long since stopped feeling cold--a bad sign. But he was thirsty, so thirsty, pain making him long to pass out again. One of his lungs had collapsed, the pressure in his chest excruciating. Both of his legs were broken, the left one a bad compound tibfib fracture that had bled heavily before he'd managed to rig a tourniquet out of his boot lace. It had taken all the strength he'd had left to manage that.

  Kat is safe. She's safe.

  He felt himself relax, darkness swallowing him whole, his pain growing distant, as if it weren't really in his body. He didn't hear the second helicopter land below him on the mountainside, didn't see the men ski toward the cliff, didn't see the tallest one break into an uphill sprint, then drop down beside him on his knees.

  It was the sound of Hunter's shout that awoke him.

  "What the ... ? Get medical up here! Hurry! He's alive!"

  Gabe opened his eyes, saw Hunter leaning over him. It took everything he had to speak. "Is ... Kat ... ?"

  "Julian says she's got a serious case of hypothermia, but she's going to be all right--thanks to you. Jesus! I just can't believe you're alive!" Hunter shrugged off his pack, stripped off his parka, and laid it over him. "The gods of powder really do love you the most."

  "Wa ... ter."

  Hunter's gaze traveled over him, and Gabe knew from his grim expression that he was worried by what he saw. He drew a bottle of water out of his pack, lifted Gabe's head, and held the bottle to his lips. "Easy does it. Not too much now."

  Gabe swallowed, the mouthful Hunter allowed him not nearly enough to slake his thirst, but better than nothing.

  Hunter looked to his right. "So that's Webb?"

  Gabe nodded.

  Webb lay about twenty feet west of Gabe, most definitely dead. He'd had the misfortune of landing on an outcropping of rock about three feet off the ground, while Gabe had landed in deep powder, much of it probably from the cornice. The snow had broken his fall. If his legs hadn't hit a ledge on his way down, he'd probably be fine.

  Hunter laid a reassuring hand on Gabe's shoulder. "Kat told Sophie what happened. You've got balls of granite, Rossiter. I respect the absolute hell out of you for what you did. I'm going to get out of the way so these guys can take care of you."

  God, Gabe hoped they had morphine--a gallon bucket of the shit.

  Hunter gave Gabe's shoulder a squeeze, then stepped aside to make room for the paramedics. "If you need me, I won't be far. I'm going to let Darcangelo know so he can tell Kat. She's pretty torn up."

  Gabe had thought she must be. He'd heard her crying out for him, her voice sounding so small and faraway. He'd tried to answer but hadn't had the breath.

  Hunter's voice drifted back to Gabe. "Darcangelo, you are not going to fucking believe this. He's alive! He's seriously hurt, but he's alive."

  "KAT, SWEETHEART, WAKE Up!"

  Cocooned in warmth, Kat heard Julian's voice, some part of her resisting. She didn't want to wake up, didn't want to face what awaited her outside the forgetfulness of sleep. But there was something urgent in Julian's voice.

  She fought to open her eyes and found herself still in the helicopter, a paramedic hanging a bag of heated IV fluids above her, an oxygen mask on her face, Julian looking down at her, smiling.

  How could he be smiling?

  "Hunter has something to tell you." Julian moved the oxygen mask out of the way, then pressed his Nextel phone to her ear.

  "Can you hear me, Kat?" Marc's voice came in clear.

  Kat swallowed, her throat rough and sore from shouting. "Y-yes."

  "Gabe is alive. He's hurt pretty bad, but he's alive and more or less conscious."

  And for a moment Kat couldn't speak, her heart kicking hard, her head seeming to spin. "Wh-what?"

  "Gabe is alive!"

  Kat glanced up at Julian, looking for proof that she wasn't dreaming, the smile on his face broadening to a wide grin. "H-he's really alive? Gabe is alive?"

  "He landed in a deep powder cache. He hit the cliff wall on the way down so he's busted up pretty badly. But he's alive and still himself. Do you want to say something to him? He might not be able to say much, but he'll hear you."

  "Yes! P-please!"

  There was a pause. Then Marc's voice came from a distance. "Go ahead, Kat."

  "Gabe? Gabe, are y-you there?"

  "How's my... rez girl?" It was unmistakably Gabe's voice. He sounded weak. He sounded hurt. But he was alive.

  Hot tears sprang to Kat's eyes, the ache in her heart washed away by a surge of joy. "Oh, Gabe! I-I thought ... But how ... ? I love you! D-do you hear me?"

  "Yeah." There was the barest hint of a smile in his voice. "Love ... you... too."

  And then Marc was on the other end again. "Hey, K
at, they need to move him, so that's it for now."

  In the background, she heard Gabe cry out, something twisting in her stomach to know he was suffering. How badly was he hurt? "Thank you, Marc. Stay with him, please! I don't want him to be alone."

  "I'll stay as close to him as they'll let me. But you rest easy now, okay? Let them take care of you. Julian's staying with you, and Sophie and Tessa are on their way to the hospital."

  A warm feeling spread behind her breastbone at this news. Her friends were there for her once again. "Okay. Bye."

  Julian tucked his phone away.

  One of the paramedics slid the oxygen mask back into place over her nose. "She really needs to keep this on. We have to stabilize her core temp."

  "Uh, yeah, sorry about that." Julian winked at her.

  Kat squeezed Julian's hand, a silent thank-you, then closed her eyes, tears spilling down her temples. He's alive. He's alive.

  Before she knew it, she was asleep again.

  GABE DRIFTED THROUGH the next several hours in a morphine haze, the shattering pain in his legs dulled if not gone. He knew when they arrived at the hospital, knew when they reinflated his right lung, knew when they'd taken him for the first of three CT scans. Then a doctor said something about needing to stabilize his core temp and give him a few units of blood before they could operate on the fractures in his legs.

  Through it all he wanted one thing.

  "I want to see her. I need to see Kat." He said it again and again.

  "She wants to see you, too, but she's in surgery, buddy." Hunter rested a reassuring hand on Gabe's shoulder. "Nothing serious. They're just setting her wrist. She's going to be fine. You just let them take care of you now."

  And then Hunter was gone, and a man in a surgical cap and mask stood above Gabe. He lowered a clear plastic anesthesia mask over Gabe's mouth and nose. "Take a deep breath for me."

  The world faded.

  WHEN THE NURSE wheeled her back from having her wrist set, Kat found her friends waiting in the lobby down the hall from her room. Uncle Allen and Nathan were there with Glenna and Pauline. The entire I-Team, past and present, was there, together with Julian and Marc, who'd been up all night. Sophie had dark circles beneath her eyes, and Kat knew she'd been up all night, too. Kara and Reece had come, and Tessa, as well. Matt was the only who hadn't been able to make it. Even Tom was there.

  "You sure are popular." The nurse pushed Kat's wheelchair into her room, then helped her into bed. "Are you up for visitors?"

  "Yeah." Being with friends would make the wait easier. "Please let me know if you hear anything about Gabe. I want to be there when he wakes up. I haven't seen him since last night. I need to be there for him."

  The nurse nodded and gave her hand a sympathetic squeeze. "I'll let you know."

  Her wrist still blessedly numb from the anesthetic they'd injected, Kat watched while her two groups of friends filled the room and introduced themselves to one another, Sophie giving her chair to Glenna, Uncle Allen and Nathan taking time to shake everyone's hand, Holly discreetly eyeing Nathan's long hair--and his butt. It felt strangely satisfying to see these two parts of her life--the Indian part and the journalist part--coming together. Somehow it made her feel whole.

  And then Kat found herself telling them what had happened, Marc and Julian filling in the missing pieces. She had to back up a bit so that Uncle Allen, Glenna, and Pauline could follow along. She'd already had to tell the story three times--to a sheriff's officer from Vail as well as police from Boulder and Denver--so it was easier this time. Or maybe it was the love and support of her friends that made it easier, Glenna sitting beside her, patting her arm in a grandmotherly way, Pauline standing wide-eyed behind Glenna, Sophie on the other side of the bed, holding her right hand.

  Still some parts of the story were harder to tell than others. Gabe lying unconscious in the sled. The long, agonizing battle up the side of the mountain as she tried to buy time for Gabe to wake up. Webb's cruelty with the Taser. His admission that he'd killed Grandpa Red Crow and tried repeatedly to kill her.

  "He told me he didn't want to go to prison."

  When she reached the part where Gabe cut the rope and let himself fall, she couldn't stop her tears. "I tried to hold on. I tried so hard, but the ski pole kept slipping. I pleaded with him not to do it, but he was afraid he'd pull me off the cliff, too, so he ... he cut the rope ... and fell."

  Sophie gave Kat's hand a squeeze, tears in her eyes. "You did everything you could. When I think of what you went through ..."

  But Kat wasn't so sure. "If I'd just been a little stronger, held on a little longer, maybe he wouldn't be in surgery now."

  "You're being way too hard on yourself," Tessa said. "Bless your heart! You're not Superman, you know."

  Pauline dabbed her eyes with a tissue. "I think you're both very brave."

  "Gabe knew what he was doing," Kara assured her. "He made a choice."

  Holly gave Kat's foot a squeeze. "If it had been me, I'd be dead. I never could've done what you did. I probably would have jumped off the cliff myself just so I didn't have to be afraid of falling."

  Holly's admission--and her strange logic--made everyone laugh.

  Then Marc spoke. "You fought a man almost twice your size alone for hours. You endured God only knows how many rounds from the Taser, not to mention a broken wrist and serious hypothermia. I don't know how much stronger any woman could be--or any man, for that matter."

  Julian nodded. "What Hunter said. You're my hero, Kat James."

  Uncle Allen held up his hand, a sign that he wished to speak. "You did what Grandpa Red Crow asked you to do, Kimimila. You uncovered the truth about what was happening at Mesa Butte. But if my cousin had known what it would cost you, he never would have asked it of you. You almost lost your life helping your people, and your ranger took the warrior's path and gave his life for you."

  "Aho!" Nathan said softly.

  Uncle Allen went on. "As I see it, Creator was moved by these acts of sacrifice and brought you both safely to this moment."

  Everyone seemed to agree.

  "When I saw he was alive, I couldn't believe it." Marc shook his head. "The first thing he did when he opened his eyes was to ask about you, Kat."

  Julian smiled. "And the first thing Kat did when I found her was ask me to go get Gabe's body and bring him home."

  Tears spilled down Kat's cheeks, but she smiled along with everyone else. She sniffed, glanced at the clock. Gabe had been in surgery for five hours now.

  Such a long time.

  "How did you reach us so quickly? It seemed like forever, but Sophie said it was only about forty-five minutes."

  "We were already in Vail when you called Sophie," Julian said. "Martin spilled his guts yesterday afternoon, pointing the finger at Webb, blaming him for everything. We were able to corroborate some of what Martin said and went to arrest Webb, but his wife said he'd gone skiing for the weekend. When you and Rossiter failed to check in and we couldn't reach you, we knew something was wrong."

  "But how did Webb know where to find us?"

  "Since we can't ask him, we can only speculate." Julian wrapped his arm around Tessa's shoulder and drew her back against him. "I'm guessing he knew about the cabin in the same way Rossiter did--through his job. When he heard that Daniels had followed us as far as Vail, he must've guessed where Rossiter might take you."

  "So Daniels wasn't a part of this after all." Tom frowned.

  Julian shook his head. "Not directly. He was just eager to get promoted and did anything he could to ingratiate himself to Martin. All Martin had to do was suggest that something ought to be done, and Daniels did it, not realizing he was being used. Webb knew that and took advantage of it by trying to cast more suspicion on Daniels. I expect the Boulder PD will be doing an internal investigation on Daniels."

  "What about Feinman?" Tom asked.

  Marc shrugged. "Whether he's charged depends on how much he knew. That's up to the Boulder police
to uncover. I know they've launched a full investigation."

  Natalie looked up from her notes. "So what happens with Martin?"

  "Off the record--you'll have to talk to the Boulder DA--I'm sure he's facing a host of felonies including conspiracy to commit murder," Julian said. "He might not have killed Red Crow or tried to kill you, Kat, but those crimes were committed as part of their looting scheme and he knew about them, so he's accountable, too."

  "What about the things that were stolen?" asked Uncle Allen. "They should be returned to the land and to our ancestors."

  "It's very unlikely we'll be able to get any of it back again," Reece said, speaking for the first time. "I've spent a lot of time these past couple of days researching it. Once an artifact is sold into a private collection, we'd have to prove that it was obtained illegally in order to take it back. I'm going to introduce a bill this next session to strengthen state looting laws and give additional protection to American Indian sacred sites in and around urban areas. I'd like to see sacred sites, including Mesa Butte, set aside for use by Native Americans but we'll see how far the bill goes."

  Kat hadn't heard anything about this. "Thank you, Reece. That means a lot to me, to all of us."

  Tom folded his notebook. "I need to get back to the paper. You did one hell of a job, James. You've got the front page whenever you're ready to write your account of this. It will be good to have you back in the newsroom."

  Tom left. Then it was Natalie's turn to go.

  "Deadline beckons. I'll see you soon, okay, Kat?" Natalie kissed her on the cheek. "I'll call if I have any questions. I'm going to try to do this story justice."

  Kat smiled. "I'm sure you will."

  Then Marc stepped forward. "I'm taking my wife home so she can get some sleep and grow our baby."

  Sophie wrapped her arms around Kat, hugging her tight. "I'm so glad you're okay, and I know Gabe's going to be okay, too. Call us if you need anything."

  Kat hugged her back as fiercely as she could with one hand, her throat tight. "Thank you for being there, Sophie. I don't know what I would have done without you on the other end of the line last night."

  Then Kat's gaze traveled around the room. "I don't know how to thank you all for what you did for us--for your support, for your prayers, for being here today."