Authors: Christine Young
Lachlan slammed his fist against the trunk of a tree, which was still standing and swore viciously.
Despite his anger, he didn't take the limb from her and drag Lainie out of the way. If there was a hole, she was Slade's best chance of survival. She was the only one tiny enough to get through to pull him out.
And if Slade was dead, Lainie could find out that too, before anyone got killed trying to dig out a man who was no longer alive.
Lainie crawled and clawed her way through the rubble, lured by the promise of possibilities--life for Slade. She pushed and shoved, wriggling through the tightest spots and pushing away the oozing mud. She found an air pocket then she saw Slade.
Mud covered him from booted toes to neck. The trunk of the tree had stopped sliding on its downward descent because of the large boulder. And as she had guessed, the tree had not hit him. He lay in a natural air pocket created just for him. He was not suffocating beneath layers of mud.
Lainie didn't know she was crying Slade's name until the broken echoes came back at her. Slipping and sliding, she crawled toward Slade through the seeping mud, which even now tried to refill the holes they had dug.
"Lainie!" Lachlan called out. "Are you all right? I can pull you out, lass.”
"I found Slade!" Lainie yelled back.
"Is he alive?"
Lainie reached out to Slade, but her hand was shaking so badly, she couldn't tell if there was a pulse in his neck. Then she saw blood welling slowly from a cut on his forehead. She looked skyward and saw only thick tree limbs and mud, but she prayed.
Coming out of a daze, Lainie slowly became aware of Lachlan shouting her name.
"He's alive!" she cried out, tears of relief and joy welling deep inside. "He's breathing, and he doesn't seem to be hurt too badly. But he's unconscious."
"Sweet, Jesu,
get
out of there and let me in. I’ll make a space big enough for me--for the both of us if I have to," Lachlan told her.
An instant later, more mud oozed through the small opening. Slade groaned and moved his head.
"Slow down!" Lainie yelled. "Lachlan, be careful! Every time you move mud pours through the empty spaces down here."
"All right, but how are you going to get him out?" he asked. "You're going to need me."
"I don't know. Hand me one of the smaller limbs, maybe I can move enough mud that we can pull him free. He's covered up to his chest."
Lachlan swore.
Lainie started at his shoulders pushing mud away, trying to keep more of the same from taking it place. She pushed and shoved and finally Slade was free to his waist.
Suddenly the ground shook and light filtered into the tiny cramped space. The rumbling of the earth had dislodged more of the mud and brush.
"Can you see
better
?" he asked.
"Aye, 'tis a blessing what a little brightness can do for one's soul."
"How bad is he?"
"I can't tell. He's breathing, buried to his waist. I got some of the mud pushed away."
"Can ye pull him free?" Lachlan asked urgently.
"There's no room at his head. I've got to find a way to free him. You could go outside and see if you can move the tree."
"Be quick about it. This mountain is damned unstable and it's started raining again. I've already tried moving the tree."
She worked frantically, pushing mud until Slade was free to his upper thighs.
"Lainie? Lachlan called.
"I've almost got him uncovered."
"Want me to come inside there and help?" Lachlan's pushed his head through the opening. As it was, she didn't think he could wiggle his big body into this tiny hole.
Even as Lachlan spoke and tried to make the hole bigger, more mud came rushing down on Slade.
"Stop moving!" Lainie said frantically.
"I'm frozen to the spot, holding my breath. Another slide took away more of the trail above."
The thunder of mud and rocks slipping down the ravine penetrated the air. The mountainside vibrated with energy.
"Get out, Lainie. Save yourself!" Lachlan yelled. The earth roared.
As though in a dream, Lainie watched the back wall of mud shimmer and shake as it slowly began to shift and change. Without warning, fresh air poured into the tiny space.
Wild energy rushed through her in a torrent. Lainie didn't stop to think. She reacted. She hooked her hands beneath Slade's arms and pulled with every bit of strength and determination she possessed, dragging him toward the unexpected opening. Where Slade had just been the other side collapsed into a heap.
Mud oozed and piled up at Slade's boots, sucking him in the opposite direction Lainie was trying to move him. Desperately, Lainie kept backing up, dragging him with her until she stumbled and fell. She struggled to stay on her feet, but the wet earth slid beneath her. The very thing that had let her drag Slade to a safer spot kept her from moving him any further. While she pulled and tugged, her feet slipped out from under her.
She continued on, but her frenzied burst of energy was spent, leaving her unable to move him. Still she kept tugging and tugging, crying and calling brokenly to Slade.
"It's all right, Lainie. You can stop. You pulled him far enough," Lachlan said resting a hand on her shoulder. "He's safe now."
For a crazy moment, she thought Slade was talking to her. Then she realized that Lachlan had come around to the other side of the slide and was kneeling next to her reassuring her.
"Lachlan…" Lainie ended with a strangled sob.
"When the third slide thundered down the mountain, it jarred all the debris covering Slade loose. It isn't safe here. We've got to get Slade up the mountain and away from here. Can you walk, lass?"
Shakily Lainie got to her feet and nodded. "Yes," she said, determined she would not add to Lachlan's burden.
"You go on ahead. I'll be right behind you," Lachlan said. "Your brothers are waiting at the top. They went to get rope and make something to carry him on. But if the mountain doesn't stop rumbling, I'm going to have to carry him to the top."
Lachlan looked upward and cupping his hands yelled. "Send it down."
Hawke looked over the ledge. "Don't wait for us. If you can carry him, bring him up now."
"'Tis done," Lachlan called out.
He bent, levered Slade into place across his broad shoulders, and followed Lainie. Soon they met Hawke and Ian, who were waiting at the top.
Slade regained consciousness in a haze of pain and dizziness just as he was pulled to the top of the trail. The ever-persistent rain washed most of the mud from his face. Groaning, he closed his eyes and wondered why the world hammered in his head. Sweet Jesu, but if this was the way he was going to feel, he didn’t want to wake up.
"Don't move," said Lachlan. "You've been hurt."
He didn't plan on moving. Other voices came to Slade, men's voices, ones he didn't recognize as they helped him to a shelter.
Nowhere did Slade hear Lainie's voice, her touch, her scent. When he opened his eyes, darkness had settled all around him. Still, Lainie was not beside him. Well, he thought sardonically, what did he expect? At the first chance, she'd fled.
"Lainie?" he asked hoarsely, unwilling to give up on her so soon, praying there was a good explanation.
"Other than being crazy enough to approach Jericho and his gang of mercenaries, Englishman, she's fine. She was going to barter with him."
"Who are you?" Slade mumbled, staring into eyes that were as cold as steel yet there was something about the big man that seemed familiar.
"Hawke."
Slade groaned in the back of his throat. Her brother and he wondered if the other one was here too.
"That's what I was afraid of? That groan answered one of my questions." Hawke said dryly, his lips set in a grim line. "You'll have answers for us, later when you're feeling better."
"Let's put him over here." The other voice, Slade assumed was Ian's said. "Go easy on him big brother, at least until he has the strength to fight back. By my reckoning, he's got a lot to account for."
Hawke's words came back to haunt him, pounding home the truth he'd always believed about men, women, and betrayal. He didn't care about accounting to her brothers. She'd been willing.
Approach Jericho and his mercenaries. Barter with him. Approach Jericho and his mercenaries. Barter…
The words echoed horribly in Slade's head, bringing a pain that was unlike anything he had every known. When he had felt the slide take his feet away from him, his last thought was that at least Lainie was safe.
Her first thought had been to sell her favors to Jericho and his men for her freedom, leaving Slade to die in the mud. Even the passion had not been enough to buy her loyalty.