Rancher's High-Stakes Rescue

by Beth Cornelison

  Bleary eyes sharpened with hatred. “If I go down, don’t you think I’ll take you with me?”

  “Not if I cut a deal. I have friends in the sheriff’s office, you know. Face it, I’ve got your fate in my hands, friend. Get me what I want, and I’ll keep quiet. Screw this up, and you go down.”

  The bartender finally ambled up. “What’ll you have?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “I’m done here.” He stuffed a bill in the bartender’s tip jar, then strode out.

  * * *

  Josh waited until he thought Kate was asleep to use the satellite phone, the best way to communicate with the ranch given the remoteness of the base camp, and call Zane. He walked a good distance from the campsite, giving himself privacy for the discussion, hoping not to wake Kate. She’d been mentally and physically exhausted and would need a good night’s rest before the journey he had planned for tomorrow.

  In his head, he rehearsed the case he would lay out to Zane. His by-the-book, legalistic and practical brother would tell him they had to quit. He knew that already. But Josh would rather walk on coals or be skinned alive than admit defeat. He needed to wrench some measure of success out of this disaster in order to face himself in the mirror.

  In his bones, he believed the making or breaking of this excursion would be the making or breaking of the fledgling McCall Adventures, of the Double M, possibly even of the family’s financial future. And the weight of that success or failure rested on him like a thousand-pound bull on his shoulders.

  Running the adventures smoothly had been his responsibility. He was the one out here with Kate, the only one who could salvage everything that had gotten screwed up on his watch. And if he could do something to help Kate overcome the phobias that had been born during her childhood trauma, all the better. He couldn’t say why he was so compelled to do this for Kate. Maybe as expiation for the accident today that not only retraumatized her but could have cost her her life. He owed Kate, big-time.

  He cherished Kate’s reluctant agreement to continue with the trip. He considered it a tiny vote of trust. A gift. An opportunity he couldn’t waste. He wanted to revive her spirit of adventure more than he could explain, even to himself. He saw something in Kate that spoke to a secret part of his soul, something just beyond his grasp of understanding.

  When Zane answered his cell, Josh could hear the fatigue and stress in his brother’s voice. “It’s me,” Josh said. “What’s happening on your end?”

  “A crap storm. That’s what.”

  Josh rubbed an eye with the heel of his free hand. “Tell me.”

  “Our insurance company is suspending our coverage until a full investigation can be made. If they find reason to believe we were negligent, they could cancel our policy. No one will write us a policy with that on the books. Not for a price we can afford.”

  “Did you explain about the sabotage? That we didn’t—”

  “No, Josh,” Zane said dryly. “I forgot.” He snorted. “Of course I told them. And they want to see the police report as part of their investigation. I’m scheduled to accompany the sheriff’s deputy out there first thing in the morning. We’ll bring you two in then. Y’all okay overnight?”

  “Yeah, we’re okay. But, uh...we’re planning to keep going.”

  “No.” Zane’s tone was flat and final. “Absolutely not. The cops want to talk to both of you, get your statements. You both need to be checked by a doctor.”

  “We’re fine. Just scraped up some.” He rubbed his sore shoulder, refusing to tell his brother exactly how banged up he was.

  “Regardless, man. I’m pulling the plug on this trip. We’ll get you first thing tomorrow.”

  Josh chafed at his brother’s dictate. “You don’t get to make the decision unilaterally, Zane. What do Brady and Piper say about this?”

  “They want what’s best for the company, same as I do.”

  “And I think scrapping this trip is a mistake.” He paced a small clearing in the trees and angled his head to look up at the nearly full moon. “Kate and I talked tonight. She’s agreed to keep going, at least a little farther. If I can show her the potential of the business, I can—”

  “She’s a marketing rep, Josh. Not an investor or travel guru whose disapproval versus her endorsement will change the course of our launch.”

  “So you’re saying she doesn’t matter?” Josh replied testily.

  “What matters is if she decides to sue us. We need to put a cap on this situation quickly. All evening, her coworker has been up in my grill about bringing Kate back to the ranch, and asking what we were going to do to, quote, ‘make this right.’ I’ve been trying for hours to appease her, handle the insurance rep’s questions, make arrangements with the cops and convince Mom that I didn’t leave you dead at the bottom of the ravine.”

  “I get your reasons for wanting to quit. But I’ve spent the evening talking with Kate, getting to know her. I have my own reasons to want to keep going.”

  “That reason better not be because you’re trying to get into her pants.”

  Josh pulled the phone away from his ear to glare at it as if he blamed the phone for his brother’s harsh comment. Putting it back to his ear, he said, “Wow. I can’t believe you.”

  He heard Zane sigh heavily. “Sorry, man. I take it back. That was a low blow.”

  “Yeah.” Josh gripped the satellite phone tighter.

  “Josh, I know you’re disappointed. But bringing you two in tomorrow is the right call.”

  Josh clenched his back teeth, and something dark and ugly brewed in his core, expanding and making him sweat despite the cool night.

  Throwing in the towel would be easy. Might even be the smart thing to do. But he hadn’t earned the reputation of being the reckless twin by always doing the safe, smart thing. As much as he wanted to change his family’s perception of him as the ne’er-do-well brother, the black, urgent something deep inside him pushed him forward. Calling it quits chafed his pride, his ambition, his desire to get things right for his family’s sake. Stopping now was tantamount to admitting defeat and resigning to failure. He couldn’t do it. Just the thought of what quitting would mean to the business, his family, sucked the breath from him. He paced faster, trying to burn off the edgy, raw feeling that gnawed at him.

  And what about Kate? He couldn’t let her go home thinking she’d failed in any way. He wanted, needed to prove something both to himself and to her. He couldn’t leave her with this horrible memory, let her go home with an even deeper fear of taking risks.

  No, quitting was not an option for him. “Zane, I can still salvage...something from this mess. I know I can. Trust me to fin—”

  “Decision’s made, Josh.” Zane interrupted. “I’ll be out there with the cops around eight in the morning. Be ready to leave when we get there.”

  He grunted, frustration roiling deep inside him. He disconnected without agreeing to Zane’s order. He balled his free hand in a fist and fought the urge to throw the satellite phone. No. I can’t quit. When his brother arrived with the cavalry at the base camp in the morning, he planned for him and Kate to be gone.

  Chapter 5

  “Kate? Kate, wake up. Time to get moving.”

  The whisper nudged her out of sleep. The unfamiliarity of the voice and her lumpy bedding confused her. When she rolled over to blink the morning into focus, her stiff muscles protested, and she groaned.

  “I know. It’s early, but I have coffee made and your choice of granola bars for breakfast,” the warm male voice said.

  She angled a bleary-eyed glance at the parted flaps of her tent. Josh’s bright smile greeted her, and he reached in to grab her toes in friendly encouragement. “Come on, sunshine. We need to be on the trail in the next thirty minutes.”

  “Be advised,” she grumbled, her voice thick with sleep, “I’m not a morning person.”

&nbs
p; “I’m getting a sense of that,” he said with a wink as he disappeared, letting the tent flap close again.

  She wiggled the zipper on her sleeping bag down and made more disgruntled noises when chilly air rushed into her snug cocoon. She sniffed the fresh air, though, and caught the aroma of both coffee and bacon. Worth getting up for. If she had to.

  She used both hands to scratch her head and finger comb her hair. Then, while she worked up the motivation to leave her bed, she listened to the shuffling sounds outside as Josh moved around the campsite, the twitter of the birds in the trees, and the crackle of the revived campfire. Judging by the thin amount of light in the tent, she knew it had to be quite early. Apparently, Josh kept rancher’s hours even away from the ranch.

  “Okay. Let’s do this,” she muttered to herself and rolled to her knees. Her entire body was sore and tight from the trauma of her fall and the extreme tension she’d been through yesterday. She arched her back like a cat and rotated her head, stretching her neck muscles. She wanted a hot shower at least as much as she wanted coffee, but she guessed that wasn’t in the picture. Crawling to the fresh clothes she’d set out the night before, she dressed as quickly as her stiff muscles and half-awake brain could manage.

  “Why are we in such a hurry to get going this morning?” she croaked loud enough to be heard through the tent flaps.

  He didn’t answer right away, and she was about to repeat the question louder when he said, “We want plenty of time to reach the pickup point before dark.”

  She paused in buttoning a blouse over her T-shirt. “We’ll be rafting all day?”

  Another hesitation before he answered. “Not exactly. So, how do you take your coffee? I’ll fix you a cup.”

  She pushed back the tent flap and crawled out. “Cream and sugar, but I’ll make it.” Nodding to the bacon sizzling in the pan on a rack over the campfire, she asked, “You sharing that manna?”

  “By all means.” He looked her up and down, his gaze lingering on her breasts as she stretched her back and raised her arms over her head. “How did you sleep?”

  “Like I was in a sleeping bag in the woods where it was twenty-five degrees colder than I like my bedroom at night.” She smiled at him to soften what he could have taken as a complaint. “Not too bad, once I fell asleep.”

  “We’ll be hiking a bit to get to the point where we’ll launch the raft. How sore are you today?”

  She poured herself coffee and rolled her shoulders as she added sugar. “Stiff, somewhat achy. If you have any around this campsite, I’ll take a side of ibuprofen with my breakfast.”

  He rose to dig through his backpack. “Each of the backpacks has a small first aid kit included. Mine’s more elaborate, but if you need another tablet later today, you should have a packet or two in your kit.” He offered her the small bottle of pain medicine, and she shook out a dose.

  “Thanks.” She swallowed the tablets with a sip of hot coffee, savoring the warmth and the flavor. “Ah, nectar of the gods.”

  Josh chuckled. “No arguments here.” He lifted the pan from the fire rack. “And nothing goes better with nectar than bacon.”

  They ate their breakfast of bacon, granola bars, bananas and coffee, sharing companionable conversation about trifling things. Kate noticed a certain restlessness in Josh that mirrored the uneasiness she had about what might lie ahead as they traveled on today. Was he jumpy because of what happened yesterday or had something else made him antsy?

  As soon as they finished eating, he doused the fire and packed up his backpack in short order. Within minutes he was ready to hike out. Kate, who moved slowly most mornings, rushed to brush her teeth and jam the last of her supplies into her pack.

  “All righty then.” He gave the campsite one last sweeping glance as they left. “We’re off.” But they hadn’t gone more than a few hundred feet into the woods before he asked her to wait while he did one last thing at the camp.

  She obliged, using a fallen tree as a bench to wait on him. Josh returned in a few moments, his expression oddly guilty-looking and his smile strained.

  “Is everything okay, Josh?” she asked as she fell in step behind him.

  “Sure. Why?”

  “You seem anxious or restless somehow.”

  He glanced back over his shoulder, sending her a quick grin. “Just eager to get going. It’s going to be a great day.”

  * * *

  The sooner they booked it outta there, the better. Josh knew Zane would be pissed that he didn’t follow the plan his bossy twin had laid out. Josh could only hope that Zane would not press the issue and come after them. He’d written Zane a note in his tent after Kate went to sleep, hoping to explain his reasoning, but Zane could be as stubborn as Josh was. That was one trait they shared, even if they were different in many other ways.

  He’d concluded his note,

  Don’t follow us. I know what I am doing, and I can handle anything that comes up. I’ll be alert for more vandalism. You probably think this is a mistake, but as part owner of the business, I have a right to disagree and make my own call. I just cannot justify giving up. I believe this is what is best, not only for McCall Adventures, but for Kate, as well. Have Dawn explain what I’m talking about. I’m convinced that if Kate doesn’t face her fears now, if yesterday’s events are left to fester in her head, she’ll only end up with greater and more paralyzing fears down the road. I can’t in good conscience let that happen. I know I can help her find her courage again. I need to help her.

  My plan is to meet you at the takeout point on the river this evening around dark. But if Kate agrees to keep going after the rafting, we may be out here another day or two, so don’t panic if we don’t show up at the pickup spot. I’ll call for pickup when we have accomplished what we set out to do. Josh

  After leaving the note where he was sure Zane would find it, he hurried back to meet up with Kate and put some distance between them and the campsite before his brother showed up.

  Because, yeah...Zane would be plenty pissed.

  * * *

  Once Josh returned, they set out hiking. Kate trudged along behind him, regretting the fact that his large backpack hid most of his glorious backside from view. When he said nothing for several minutes following his return, she said, “Josh, are you sure everything is okay?”

  “Um...yeah. Of course.”

  The brief hesitation before his pat response was the most telling part of his reply.

  She sighed and squared her shoulders as she walked. “Listen, I have a request. No, it’s a nonnegotiable condition.”

  He paused and turned to face her. “A condition for what?”

  “For continuing with you today and any farther I may go.”

  He narrowed his eyes, clearly stunned by her high-handed pronouncement. “What sort of condition?”

  “I expect you to be one hundred percent honest with me at all times. If I ask a question, I don’t want a soft sell or caginess. I want straight answers and complete disclosure. I may be nervous about this trip, but I’m a big girl, and I can handle the truth even when it’s unpleasant.”

  He arched a black eyebrow and gave her a measuring scrutiny. A beat later he lifted the corner of his mouth. “I see.”

  “So...will you do that?” She met his pale blue eyes, which even in the shade of the trees and shadow of his wide-brimmed cowboy hat had a piecing brightness about them that made her pulse scamper. “Will you promise to give me the full, unvarnished truth from here on out?”

  He ducked his chin once in agreement. “I will.”

  Satisfied, she motioned to the trail. “Good. Onward, then.”

  They hiked for more than an hour, traveling mostly downhill, and her stiff muscles loosened up with time and use. Her bruises had turned a scary blue-black but only hurt if she pressed on them. The cut on her forehead had scabbed over, and she removed the banda
ge he put there, giving the wound air to heal faster. The farther they got from the campsite, the more Josh seemed to relax, and he engaged her in conversation about her job, Dallas sports teams and funny stories about growing up on the ranch as one third of triplets. He’d apparently always been something of a daredevil and capable of finding mischief without effort.

  “One time I filled Piper’s boots with manure.”

  “What!” Kate squawked, half amused and half indignant on Piper’s behalf. “Josh!”

  “She was so mad. They were her favorite boots, too.” He shook his head as he laughed. “Zane, being the rule follower and responsible one, ratted me out.”

  “That surprises me. I’d have thought as twins you’d have had each other’s backs.”

  “Oh, we did. There was plenty of stuff we had on each other, and there were ways we protected each other, but he felt bad for Piper. We have a pretty strong bond with her, too. And when Mom gave us the stink-eye, wanting to know who did it and threatening to take away our Game Boys, he caved. I did lose my Game Boy for a week, but Zane let me share his.”

  “I’m guessing Piper got new boots?”

  “Naturally. Better than the original ones.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “You know, she’s talking about wearing boots under her dress when she and Brady get married.”

  “Fitting for a ranch wedding, I’d say. When is the big day?”

  “Late June.”

  “Ah, a June bride. June weddings are supposed to be good luck.”

  “That’s fortunate, but not why she picked the date.”

  “Why then?”

  “By then we should have the additions to the herd branded, the sorting done and all of the animals moved out to their summer pastures.” He stopped long enough to pick a stem of some sort of wildflower growing by the trail. Bringing it to her, he tucked it in her hair, the stem propped on her ear. The back of his fingers brushed her temple, and a sensation like static electricity shot through her. He smiled as he surveyed his handiwork, and the tingling feeling spread.