Rancher's High-Stakes Rescue

by Beth Cornelison

  To his credit, Josh had rushed to her aid when she’d yelped at the amphibian that had jumped on her. She’d managed to yank her shorts back up and semi-recover from her alarm by the time he reached her, and when she told him of her frog visitor, he doubled over laughing.

  “I’m not scared of frogs,” she defended herself. “It was his rude and unannounced appearance when I was most vulnerable that got me.”

  “Oh, Texas, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make light, but you have to admit, you’ll laugh about this when you tell it back home.”

  She lifted a grin and marched through the scrub brush to follow him back toward the riverbank. They rested by the water long enough to eat a protein bar and drink some disinfected river water.

  “I’m not sure I understand why you have to use those tablets in the canteen before we drink. The river looks so clear.”

  He took a swig from the canteen, then handed it to her. “It may be clear, but likely loaded with all kinds of bacteria and parasites. Trust me, you don’t want to deal with giardia.”

  “What’s giardia?” she asked as she eyed the water flask warily.

  “A parasite that will give you a nasty, weeks-long stomach bug with all the trimmings.”

  She wrinkled her nose and held the canteen back out to him. “Maybe I’ll pass.”

  He pushed her hand back toward her. “That’s what the tablets are for. Drink up. You don’t want to get dehydrated either.”

  She took a few hesitant sips and recapped the bottle before handing it back to him. “Well, I’m ready to head out again. How much farther?”

  “Hard to say. I doubt we’ve come more than three miles so far.”

  She goggled at him. “Three?”

  “At most.”

  She blew out a fatigued breath and stretched her back. “Oy vey.”

  “A bi gezunt.”

  Kate cocked her head. “What?”

  “I thought we were switching to Yiddish.” He held out a hand to help her over a large rock as they got underway.

  She chuckled. “How do you know Yiddish?”

  “My school friend Adam.”

  She nodded. “And you said...?”

  “It means basically, ‘Don’t worry. You still have your health.’”

  “Ah.” They trudged on, making small talk and teasing banter as the temperature dropped and the clouds increased. After another long stretch of walking, climbing and picking her way along the trail, Kate stopped to take another swig from the canteen. As she rested, she tipped her head back, listening, inhaling the clean air. “What kind of bird is that I’m hearing?”

  Josh took a turn with the water, and he, too, angled his head as he listened. “Hmm...”

  “I can’t recall ever hearing a birdcall like that around Dallas. I was just curious.”

  He scratched his chin and twisted his mouth in deliberation. “Well, that’d be the Striated Floofle Flapper.”

  Her gaze darted to his, ready to question him about his identification when she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. “You clown!”

  He laughed. “I have no idea what bird that is. Birdcalls are not my specialty.” He held up a finger, his face brightening. “Oh, except for the whip-poor-will.” He demonstrated the easily recognizable birdsong, and she shook her head, her grin wry.

  They began walking again, and she scanned the highest branches, searching for the feathered creature she could hear but not locate. “Whatever it is, it sounds mad. Like it’s fussing at its kids for being late coming home for dinner.”

  Josh didn’t answer at first, but when he did, his voice sounded wary. “Yeah. It does sound upset.”

  Kate lowered her gaze from the treetops and slowed her pace, puzzled by Josh’s tone. “What’s wrong?” She caught up to where he’d stopped walking to cast a glance upriver and into the forest. “Josh?”

  “I may not know what bird it is, but I know that when the birds sound upset it could mean a predator is nearby.” She joined him in turning slowly, peering into the deepening shadows as the sun sank. “Could be a rival bird or something messing with her eggs,” he continued as she spotted something large and dark moving out of the tree line where they’d just been hiking, “or it could be something more like a mountain lion or—”

  “Bear!”

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  She raised a shaking finger. “No, definitely. There!”

  Josh whipped his head around to look where she pointed. A large bear lumbered out of the woods. Headed toward them. When it spotted them, the animal reared up on its back legs and sniffed the air before continuing toward them.

  Biting out a curse word, Josh yanked Kate behind him. After clapping his hands loudly, Josh waved his arms and shouted, “Hey! Go on! Get outta here!”

  But the bear kept coming, pausing only once to huff and sway its head.

  With another muttered obscenity, Josh took a step back. “They don’t usually approach like this. Those huffs are aggressive. It’s warning us away.”

  “So I vote we go. Run.”

  “No. Do not run. Find a branch to wave. We have to look bigger than we are, make it think we are bigger than it is and scare it off.”

  While she scurried to comply, Josh shouted again and waved his arms.

  Finding a thick stick on the bank behind them, she grabbed it, but as she rose, a whining sort of grunt caught her attention. She lifted her gaze and spotted a cub on the other side of the river, trying to wade across the swift stream, then doubling back when it found the current too strong, the water too deep.

  “Oh, no,” she muttered, her heart rising to her throat. “This is bad. Josh, she has a baby. That’s why she won’t leave.”

  He turned his head to look for the cub.

  And in that fraction of a second, the sow charged.

  Chapter 10

  “Any word from your brother?” Michael McCall asked his son when he found him brooding behind his desk in their home office.

  Zane looked up at his father and shook his head. “Not since yesterday morning. I’ve called the satellite phone three times and got no answer.”

  His dad frowned. “You think something’s happened or that your brother is purposely ignoring you?”

  “I think Josh is just being Josh. Reckless and shortsighted.” Zane slapped his hand on the desk. “We started this company to save the ranch, and on our first trip out, Josh is ready to ruin us with his little rebellion.”

  His father opened a file drawer and began flipping through papers. “Isn’t ruin a little harsh? He’s doing what he thinks is best for the company, misguided though he may be.”

  “The insurance company told us to stand down. If anything happens to him out there—if anything happens to Kate Carrington out there—we’ve got no coverage! I’d say ruin sums it up.”

  “What he’s doing is risky, yes. But your brother thrives on risk.” He pulled out a document, slid his reading glasses from the top of his head, and held the paper close to his nose to examine it. Then, tucking the pages under his arm, he closed the drawer and returned his attention to Zane. “Give him some credit. We’ve got enough trouble around here without borrowing any from tomorrow.”

  “Exactly! I’m trying to fix things, save our ranch, and his going rogue doesn’t help anything!”

  Michael reseated his glasses on top of his head. “Zane, I truly appreciate what you’re doing for the family and why, but you don’t have to carry this burden. The ranch’s failings, the financial difficulties... I got us into this, and I’m going to get us out.”

  “I want to help.”

  “I know you do. I thank you for your efforts, and I’m proud of you for this adventure business you’ve started with your siblings. But I have a plan of my own that I’m working on.”

  Zane sat taller in the seat. “What plan?”


  His dad put him off with a wave of his palm. “No need to worry yourself about it. I have it in hand. I just want you to know you don’t have to carry the world on your shoulders. Trust your family to share the load. That’s what we’re here for.”

  “So you’re not going to tell me what you have up your sleeve?” Zane asked.

  His father gave him a mysterious smile. “Nope. You don’t need anything else to worry about.”

  * * *

  “Josh!” Kate shrieked.

  Josh’s pulse spiked as the bear ran at them. He mentally scrambled to remember anything he’d learned about defending himself from bear attack.

  But the bear was on him in an instant. Survival instinct took over. Protective mode.

  Save Kate.

  “Back away, Kate!” He raised his arms to protect his face as the bear reared up, growling. He could feel, smell the animal’s fetid breath. The sow took a mighty swing, which Josh ducked to avoid as if he were boxing. The next swipe of the sow’s paw came while he was still bent over. The bear struck his left shoulder from the back, the animal’s long claws gouging his flesh.

  Over the whoosh of blood in his ears, he heard Kate shouting, the sound muted as if from a distance. Shock only numbed him for a heartbeat, before a blinding pain streaked from his shoulder down his arm. He felt a pop. The hot sting left by the claws.

  The force of the blow and the breath-stealing agony radiating from his shoulder knocked Josh to his knees on the muddy bank. The dark form of the bear rose over him again. He flattened himself on the ground, tried to protect the back of his head, but his left arm wouldn’t move. The bear stomped her front paws near his head, huffing and grunting.

  A piercing, primal scream reached him through the veil of his adrenaline-fueled haze.

  Kate! Had he shouted her name? He wasn’t sure, but protecting her became his focus. He rolled, trying to find a way to his feet again. Kate stood right beside him. Within range of the bear’s swiping paws. A chill raced through him. “Kate, go! Back away!”

  “Nooo!” she yelled. But not at him, he realized. At the bear.

  Kate had a thick stick, and she swung it at the bear. He heard a thud...and another as she struck the sow. The bear backed up, shaking its head. Huffed and stomped its front paws again.

  Josh hurried to his feet while he had the chance. His shoulder throbbed, and his arm hung at a weird angle. Dislocated. Damn it! But he positioned himself between Kate and the bear again, determined to keep himself in the fore of any attack.

  A squawk-like cry came from near the water, and with a quick side glance, Josh saw the cub scramble onto the bank and bound toward its mother.

  Kate stepped around his left side and swung the stick at the bear’s nose. The mother bear grunted and backed away from Kate, who continued to shout, “Nooo!” in strident tones. Finally, seeing her cub amble into the woods, the bear turned and loped off after her baby. Neither Josh nor Kate moved for a moment, too stunned at what had happened to do more than pant for air with terror-tightened lungs.

  Shoulder throbbing, Josh kept a wary gaze in the direction the bears had run until they both disappeared from view. They weren’t likely to return. A black bear wouldn’t typically mix it up with humans if they could avoid it. This sow, having gotten bonked a few times with Kate’s stick, was likely hightailing it for home.

  “Holy crap,” Josh mumbled after a few seconds and turned stiffly to face Kate. “Are you okay?”

  Her green eyes were wide, her cheeks pale, her bottom lip trembling. But she swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah.” Her gaze dropped to his injured arm, and her expression darkened. “But you’re not.”

  Now that the imminent threat was gone, and his pulse was returning to normal, the searing ache from his arm and back captured his full attention. “No, I’m not. How...how bad is my back?”

  Her eyebrows lifted a bit, as if startled by the news his back had injuries, but she eased around behind him. And gasped. “Oh, my God, Josh! You’re bleeding. Badly.”

  “I figured as much.” He grimaced as he moved to sit on a fallen tree trunk. “First order of business is getting my arm back in the shoulder joint.”

  She drew a shaky breath, her face so white he thought she might pass out.

  “Kate?” He narrowed a worried look on her. He gritted his teeth, knowing what he had to ask and hating it. “I...need your help.”

  * * *

  Josh needed her. As scary as the bear attack had been, now was not the time to fall apart. She had to rally herself, concentrate, and be there for him the way he’d taken care of her over the last day and a half.

  Kate closed her eyes, gave her head a sobering shake, and blew out a cleansing breath. “How? What do I need to do?”

  He slid off the tree trunk where he’d been resting and started to lie back on the dirt.

  “Wait!”

  He hesitated, frowning at her when she stopped him. Quickly she stripped off her shirt and spread it on the ground behind him. “If you get dirt in those cuts, you’re just asking for infection.” Of course, Lord only knew what kind of bacteria and other nastiness was already in his wounds from the bear’s claws. Kate pressed a hand to her stomach. Disinfecting and wrapping the deep wounds was her next battle. One thing at a time.

  Josh nodded his thanks to her and rolled back until he was flat. “Move my arm to a ninety-degree angle, then pull straight out.”

  She followed his instructions, wanting to cry when he screamed in agony. When she let up on her tugging, he shot her a side glance. “Don’t stop. It’s not in yet.”

  “But I’m hurting you!”

  “Yeah, like hell,” he grated through clenched teeth. “But it can’t be helped. Pull hard. Brace your feet on my side if it will help.” Sweat had popped out on his brow and upper lip.

  Mustering her strength, both physical and mental, she gripped his arm again, positioned one of her feet against his ribs, and pulled as hard as she could. He roared in pain, and she joined him in a guttural howl of exertion and distress, her heart aching for him. She felt the thunk at the same moment he gasped, then panted a few breaths as he groaned softly.

  “That’s it. Thank God.” He slanted a look toward her. “Thank you.”

  She nodded. “Now, what do we have for disinfecting the claw marks on your back?”

  He continued taking slow, heavy breaths, his jaw tight, his brow furrowed in pain. “First aid kit...” He grimaced. “No. Damn it. The main kit’s in my pack...which was in—”

  “The raft,” she finished for him, fighting a feeling of defeat and helplessness. Now was not the time to quit. Josh was counting on her.

  She dug in her pack and found her personal first aid kit, barely larger than a deck of cards. In it, she found a couple of Band-Aids, a plastic packet with one dose of ibuprofen, and a small foil packet with one use of antibacterial cream. It wouldn’t be nearly enough. Mentally, she steeled herself, focused her energy on thinking outside the box, searching for resources and the stamina to see Josh through his injury.

  She returned to her pack and dug deeper. In the plastic zip-seal bag that held their roll of toilet paper was a small bottle of hand sanitizer. Perfect!

  Pulling it out, she infused her tone with a note of optimism for his sake. “Voilà!”

  “First Yiddish, now French,” he said with strained humor flitting across his face. “You’re like the UN, Texas.” He glanced at the bottle, and she could read the resignation in his shadowed eyes. Treating the open cuts with the alcohol solution would sting like the dickens, but they had no better option at the moment. His wounds had to be disinfected.

  He sat up and turned his back to her. After using a clean sock from her pack to wipe the wound, gently brushing away as much debris, blood and torn skin as she could, she squirted a liberal amount of the hand gel directly on his cuts.

 
He let loose a creative curse that sounded anatomically impossible and brought a lopsided grin to her lips.

  “I hope you don’t talk that way in front of your mother,” she teased, as she dabbed with the second clean sock to spread the antibacterial gel and mop up the fresh blood that seeped from the wounds.

  “Where do you think I learned those words?” he deadpanned.

  She paused from her ministrations and leaned forward to peek at his expression. “Excuse me?”

  He lifted a corner of his mouth. “Kidding.”

  She reapplied the hand sanitizer and wiped again. “That should do it for now. I’ll save some to clean them again in a few hours.” Sitting back on her heels, she snapped the top of the hand gel closed and stowed it in a side pocket of the backpack where she could retrieve it easily later.

  Next she gathered up the shirt she’d spread out for him, dusted off the loose dirt and pine needles and pulled it back over her head. The shirt was stained with bright streaks of Josh’s blood, which she tried to ignore. As much as she wanted to wear a clean shirt, she knew she needed to save her last unworn T-shirt to bandage Josh’s wounds. She pulled the clean shirt out of the pack and tugged at the seam.

  He turned when he heard the tearing cloth. “Kate, what—”

  “Turn back around. Let me wrap the shoulder, and then I’ll make a sling.”

  The tendons in his jaw flexed as he regarded her. “Was that a sentimental shirt for you? A favorite? I’ll replace it and all your other losses—”

  She gripped the wrist of his uninjured arm. “Unimportant in the big picture. Just...get well, and...get us back home. Preferably without any more scares or injuries.”

  Kate kept her tone as light as she could, but she saw the shadows that flitted across his face. He was hurting, mentally as well as physically, though she knew he’d do his damnedest to hide both from her.