He grabbed her hand, and flinched as he shoved up to stand. "My ass hurts, I think I bruised my tailbone on those rocks you dragged me over."
"Want me to rub it for you?" she offered with a grin she knew he couldn't see. It was still damned dark out here.
"If you can get us somewhere dry, I'll skip the butt rub for now, and won't even complain for at least an hour, I promise," he told her then put his arm over her shoulders.
Together, with him leaning heavily on her shoulders, they made their way to Reed who was standing a short distance away, waiting patiently.
"Since it isn't lightning anymore, as long as we can avoid the flooded parts of the field, I think maybe we can make it to one of the caves in the mesa now," she told him.
"That sounds like heaven," he told her. "We should get there sometime next week walking," he told her with dry humor in his voice as they stopped beside Reed.
"We're not walking, we're riding double on Reed," she informed, then grabbed the reins
and told him, "Saddle up, cowboy, then shove to the back of the saddle. You may have to sit behind the saddle, which isn't comfortable for a man, I've heard. But there's no way I'm letting you drive."
"Hey, I'm not the one who lost my horse," he
reminded and huffed out a breath, then worked until he got his bare foot in the stirrup.
After bouncing
a few times, he still couldn't manage to pull himself up.
He was probably exhausted, Rocky though
t, so when he bounced the last time, she bent down and put her shoulder under his butt and shoved upward.
"Thanks," he said tiredly,
as he threw his leg over the saddle and wiggled backward until he had created enough room for her to sit.
Rocky
put her foot in the stirrup then sat on the saddle and swung her leg over Reed's head, before she gathered up the reins. She untied the rope from the saddle horn, and coiled it up, then looped it over the horn.
"With us, you never know when we'll need the rope again," she told him then kneed Reed
, turning him right to move farther up on the high ground.
"I agree, ropes
probably need to be standard operating equipment when we're together," Ethan told her, his arms tightening around her waist as Reed walked over the uneven rocks. "I can think of a few more uses for them too," he whispered near her ear, before nipping her ear lobe.
"Stop it," she grated
then poked him with her elbow as thrills shot through her.
Rocky needed to concentrate on getting them to the mesa without another dunk in the water
, or going off the edge of a cliff she didn't see out here in the dark. After they had walked a little while, Reed moved over a particularly rough patch, and they were jostled in the saddle. Ethan moaned behind her and his body tensed.
"You okay?" she asked
with concern, slowing Reed.
"Yeah, but I just found out why they say men shouldn't ride behind a saddle," he said gruffly.
"Sorry about that, this is just a bumpy area," she told him.
"Not your fault, but I hope it smooth
es out in a minute," Ethan grunted when he was jostled again.
"We can walk if you want? Probably wouldn't hurt to give Reed a rest anyway," she suggested.
"I have to get down?" he asked in a pained voice.
She snickered then said, "If you want to walk you do." Rocky pulled Reed to a stop, then she dismounted first. "Get into the well of the saddle, then get down like you did last time," she told him.
Ethan moved and groaned, but managed to get into the middle of the saddle. He looked down and told her, "If I get down, I might not be able to get back up. I feel like I've gone five rounds with a prize fighter."
"Stop whining, and start doing, your hour of non-complaining isn't over yet," she told him with a chuckle.
"You're a hard woman, Roxanne Baker," he huffed then put his leg over Reed's neck to sit, before rolling on his belly and balancing himself. "Catch me if I fall," Ethan said and hung onto the horn to slide down, way down, because Reed was a big horse. His feet hit the ground and his knees buckled, then he landed on his butt with an oomph. He looked up at Rocky accusingly and hissed, "You were supposed to catch me."
"You're a big man, Ethan, I didn't want to wind up under you," she explained
with a laugh. "I figured one way or another, you'd work it out."
"Thanks for your concern, baby," Ethan told her, then grunted when he knelt before using the stirrup to pull himself up.
"Anytime," she drawled, then grabbed the reins and started walking.
"Did you forget we're barefoot?" he hissed when a pointed rock jabbed him in the foot. "This isn't a good idea."
She huffed out a sigh, then put her shoulder into Reed's side and moved him to the right. Ethan followed scanning the rocks so he could avoid the sharp ones. When his feet felt soft grass instead of rocks, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's better," he told her
wiggling his toes in the grass, waiting for the stinging to subside.
"Only problem is we're closer to the woods now," she said and stopped Reed to fool around at the side of the saddle. When she pulled out a shotgun, then rifled through the saddle bag to fill her pockets with shells his eyebrows hit his hairline.
"Animals?" he guessed.
"Yup, need to be prepared just in case, so I can protect you if I need to," she laughed.
"Thanks a lot," Ethan ground out. "My damned shotgun is on the horse that ran off. I let you use my tent, you should give me the gun," he suggested.
"Not in this lifetime, mister," she replied, then cracked open the barrel and inserted two shells. Tucking the gun stock under her arm, she started Reed forward again.
After they had walked about an hour, Ethan heard a soft mewling sound in the trees to the right. It sounded almost like an injured kitten.
"Rocky, wait," he said softly and
she stopped and he listened closer. The sound came again, and he thought it sounded like a little girl crying too.
Ethan cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Amelia!"
He stopped to listen again and heard a wail, then a small voice yelled, "Daddy!" with excitement and he saw movement in the trees.
Ethan walked quickly that way, but Rocky ran toward the woods. She beat him there and met the little blonde girl halfway, bending down to sweep her into her arms and hug her tightly.
By the time Ethan reached them, the girl's body was shaking violently and she was taking breaths in deep gulping sobs.
He knelt down and she looked at him, then pulled away from Rocky and threw herself into his arms. Her little limbs were so tight on his neck, she was choking him. Ethan sat down and pulled her on his lap and they loosened. "Shh, it's okay, baby," he cooed near her ear. "We're gonna get you back to your daddy really soon, okay?" he asked forcing calm into his tone.
She nodded, then buried her face in his neck, hugging him tight again. "How'd you get all the way out here?" Ethan asked softly. They were traveling back toward the campground, he thought, but he wasn't sure. If they were, they should be maybe six or seven miles from there now.
"Some boys at the camp said they were going out riding their ATV last night
...or I think it was last night...and they asked if I wanted to go," she told him, then expanded. "I met them in the woods and we went a long way. We got out here and they just made me get off, and they left me out here. I started trying to walk back to the tent, but I got lost."
Fear shot through Ethan, along with the desire to beat the ever living shit out of those boys. "Teenage boys?" he asked gruffly.
"Yeah, they were in the tent next to ours," she informed then sucked in a shuddering breath.
"Did they hurt you?" Ethan asked, his arms tightening around her as he expected to hear the worst.
If they had hurt her, he
was
going to hunt them down.
She nodded in his neck, then told him, "No sir, they just left me out here
and laughed at me when I cried, I'm not hurt."
Relief swamped him and he grumbled, "I bet the little shits--um, boys were afraid to tell anyone what they'd done, and then had no idea where to come back and look for you, or where to tell anyone else where to start looking."
"I thought I heard their motor again one time, but I never saw them," she said.
Ethan thought it was probably one of the TTF bikes she had heard. He wondered if they had called out her name while they were searching. "Did they call your name?" he asked.
"No, they didn't, I just heard the motor. I was scared, so I just hid behind a log," she told him.
"Smart girl," Ethan praised and rubbed her hair. "Amelia, have you ever ridden a horse before?" he asked and she sat up and looked up at him with wide eyes.
"No," she said with awe in her tone. "But I always wanted to ride a pony."
"Well, you're gonna get your chance tonight, sweetie," he said with a laugh. Pointing over toward Reed, he told her, "That is going to be your horse tonight, ma'am."
Fear pinched her brows together and she gnawed her lip. "He's really big."
"Miss Rocky is going to lead him, so you just have to hold on," Ethan told her and helped her stand, then got up himself.
He took her little hand in his and limped back toward Reed, and Rocky walked quietly beside them. She was too quiet, he thought and glanced over at her, but she was looking off into the night, not at him.
When they reached the horse, she split off and he lifted Amelia up into the saddle and told her, "You just hold onto that right there and enjoy the ride, okay?"
"Okay," she said and grabbed the horn.
He glanced over and saw Rocky bent over at the waist resting her hands on her knees and wondered if she was sick. He grabbed the reins and led Reed over to where she stood. "You okay
?" he asked with concern.
She nodded, but didn't answer and he saw her shoulders were shaking. Dropping the reins, like he had seen her do, he went to her and put his arm around her shoulders then squeezed. "What's wrong, baby?" he whispered so Amelia didn't hear.
"Tonight has been...too much," she finally said with a shaky breath. "And I'm so damned glad we found her."
"Me too," he agreed.
Rocky trembled under his hands again, and he pulled her to his chest. Likely what she was experiencing was an adrenaline crash, he thought. Being a firefighter, and paramedic as long as he had been, Ethan knew all about them firsthand.
Kissing the top of her head, he hugged her tight. "You're gonna be fine, sweetheart, we'll be fine, we just need to keep moving. I have a feeling they'll come looking for us in the morning, since we haven't checked in since we left camp this afternoon
, and they can't get us on the radio."
"I sure hope so, because I think we're lost too," she mumbled against his chest.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Finally, after they'd walked what felt like fifty miles, but had actually only gone probably a mile and a half, the sun started coming up over the mesas. In the light of day, they found that they were actually very near one of the mesas. By sheer luck, Ethan located a shallow cave that didn't require much of a climb for them to get inside.
Ethan had been thrilled to find not one, but two silver space blankets in Reed's saddle bags. Rocky said she had no idea what they were when she picked them up
from the supply table, but she thought they looked important, so she grabbed two. Bless her soul, because now both she and Amelia were warm and cuddled up sleeping at the back of the cave, while Ethan sat at the entrance standing watch with the shotgun.
Not that he thought they would be attacked or anything, but you could
never be too careful. There were wild animals, and wilder people, in this park sometimes. Those boys who took Amelia for a joyride were just a minor instance of that.
The search crew would probably be looking for them soon anyway, so he didn't dare go to sleep himself. But damned if he didn't want to.
His eyes burned as bad as his muscles hurt, just sitting here was making the stiffness and soreness worse. Maybe he could go spread his legs and hunt down something for them to eat, once the girls woke up.
Because w
hat he hadn't found in the saddle bags was food, not even one power bar was left, or even a bottle of water. Evidently, Rocky hadn't lied when she said she'd dumped their supplies when she made a life preserver for him out of the supply bag. Thank goodness, the space blankets hadn't been in that bag.
Since they had
plenty of shotgun shells, he felt sure he could kill some game for them to eat. He had even found a lighter in the saddle bag, so he could make a fire too. The only reason he hadn't yet, was because he was just too damned tired to go gather wood.
Rocky was right, yesterday had been too much.
He would let them sleep for a couple of hours, but they needed to keep moving. Wes had said that tonight would be below freezing, and none of them had proper clothing. Ethan was shirtless and shoeless, Rocky didn't have shoes either and wore a thin shirt, and little Amelia was in her pajamas without shoes.
All three of them making it
back to base camp quickly under those conditions was going to be impossible. Likely, they would be out here tonight and could end up with hypothermia. Those space blankets would only go so far. Since they only had one horse, they had no choice but to walk back if they all three traveled together.
All in all it was a bad situation at best.
His only option to try and save them all was to send Rocky and Amelia off by themselves. Not something he wanted to do, but Rocky was resourceful, he was sure she could find her way back, or at least get to a main trail that would lead her back to the park.
She could send help
back for him.
His plan was the most logical way to try and save them. Ethan was the most capable of surviving out here. He knew he was going to have a hard time convincing Rocky they should split up, but hopefully the stubborn cowgirl would listen to reason.
Ethan spent the rest of the morning making survival plans for himself, catching himself nodding off now and again. A hand on his shoulder woke him up from his latest nod, and panic shot through him.
"Okay, my turn to watch out, your turn to sleep," Rocky told him, kneeling beside him.
"I need to talk to you," Ethan told her meeting her eyes.
"You need to sleep, you're exhausted and won't be worth anything if you don't catch some shut eye," she told him calmly.
"I need--" he tried again, but couldn't finish around a large yawn, which took over his whole body.
"Sleep, Ethan," she told him firmly and squeezed his shoulder.
Yawning again, he realized she was right. "Just an hour, wake me up, this is important," he instructed.
"Sure, just an hour," she agreed then sat down and reached for the shotgun.
It slid from under his fingers at the same speed his eyes drifted down. Leaning his shoulder against the side of the small cave opening, he fell asleep. He wasn't sure, but as he drifted off he thought he felt a light kiss on his bare shoulder.
His stomach rumbling woke him up, when he opened his eyes and looked around, Rocky was gone and the sun was almost straight up overhead. He almost hoped she had thought things through herself and had taken Amelia and headed off on her own.
She had definitely let him sleep more than an hour he realized, it was almost noon, and they probably wouldn't make it back to base camp before dark, even if they left now.
Ethan stretched stiffly, stifling another yawn
, then groaned when his sore muscles and back seized up for a second. Turning he saw that Amelia was still at the back of the cave cuddled up under the space blanket.
So where the hell was Rocky
, he wondered as he leaned outside the cave and used the rock face to help himself stand. Stepping farther outside he shaded his eyes against the bright sun and scanned the wide open field to the stand of mesquite trees and brush on the north side. He didn't see Rocky and he didn't see Reed, and sure hoped like hell she hadn't played Lone Ranger and taken off to find help on her own, leaving him here defenseless with the little girl.
Considering that for a second, he realized she would never do that and
breathed a sigh of relief. No, she might have had to use the bathroom, or gone to find food, but she would never have left them out here.
First she was too smart
to head out on her own without them, secondly she had bonded with that little girl last night, and he almost thought she saw some of herself in the tough child. Besides, the woman had almost killed herself to save him last night, why would she leave him to die now without food and a gun to hunt any?
She wouldn't, he reaffirmed to himself.
But where the hell was she?
He heard the crinkling of the space blanket behind him, and Amelia stirred, then said, "Miss Rocky? I'm hungry."
Ethan stooped and crawled back inside then went over to her. "Miss Rocky went to find us something to eat," he told her. At least that's what he hoped Rocky was doing. Fear that maybe she had gotten hurt somewhere shot through him.
Calm down, Ethan, she can take care of herself
. If there was one thing he knew for sure, it was that, and she had the shotgun with her.
"Just go back to sleep, sweetheart, she'll be back in a few minutes and we'll all have
breakfast together. I'll wake you up," he told her and stroked her hair.
"
Okay," she told him with a wide yawn. "But I have to go to the bathroom too."
Ethan barely held back a groan, because he knew next to nothing about little girls, but what he did know is they liked privacy for their bathroom breaks. That was something they were going to have a hard time finding. They were in a cave, and the mesa was smack dab in the middle of a field. The nearest trees were a good half mile away.
"You'll have to make do with hiding behind a rock, is that gonna work?" he asked, then offered, "I'll turn my head and you go, okay?"
She nodded, then they crawled out of the front of the cave and he took her hand and led her down the rocks to a large boulder, then turned his back.
After a couple of minutes, he wondered exactly what she was doing and turned to find out.
"Don't move or I'm going to have to shoot the girl," a deep gruff voice he recognized as that of Mr. Thomas, Brad's daddy said behind him. Ethan tensed and fought the urge to turn around. His fists clenched at his sides as fear shot through him.
Ethan wondered how the hell the man had snuck up on him, or even found them. He was sure the man hadn't come on foot, they were out in the middle of nowhere, at least ten miles from civilization. He must've seen Ethan at the mouth of the cave while he was sleeping like the dead. As lightly as Ethan usually slept, it was amazing that he hadn't heard him approach.
Mr. Thomas must've
somehow been tracking them since they left base camp to catch up with them here. How he had crossed that creek on an ATV and followed them up that steep embankment at the creek, Ethan didn't know.
He must
also know Rocky was with them, might have hurt her when she left the cave. Panic shot through him and he swallowed it back, because Ethan knew now was not the time for panic. Now, above all other times, he needed to keep his head straight.
"Mr. Ethan, who is this man?" Amelia asked, her tiny voice shaking. "Why does he want to hurt us?"
"He doesn't want to hurt
you, baby. It's me he wants, isn't that right Mr. Thomas?" Ethan hoped that the inspector had all the evidence he needed against the man, because if the man killed him, he at least wanted him to be caught. "Let her go...she'll find her way back to the trail," Ethan suggested. "I'll go with you wherever you want me to go."
"You'll go anyway, asshole," he said with a snort. Ethan wanted to turn around so bad to assess the situation, determine if the man had a gun, it was all he could do to remain with his back to the man.
A metallic click was all he needed to hear to let him know the man wasn't bluffing. "Put your hands behind your back, or I'll put a bullet in her head then yours."
Ethan's fists clenched tighter, because he knew if he complied,
let the man bind his wrists, he wouldn't be able to protect himself or Amelia, and both of them would probably wind up dead anyway.
"No way," Ethan told him, then promised, "If you shoot her, by the time the smoke clears I'll break your fricking neck."
"Why the hell couldn't you just die," Mr. Thomas grumbled, then threatened, "Do it or I'll shoot you instead,
then
I'll shoot her." he threatened.
Ethan moved his wrists behind his back and gritted his teeth.
Amelia would have no chance of surviving this if he didn't do what the man wanted him to do. She had seen him, could identify him, so the odds were he
would
shoot her, if he killed Ethan.
"Why are you doing all of this, Mr. Thomas? I didn't kill Jimmy," Ethan asked as he felt a zip tie being looped around his wrists. He kept them as far apart as he could to maintain some slack, but the man yanked viciously as he secured the tie.
"Don't say his name!" Mr. Thomas growled then yanked the zip tie again making it cut into Ethan's flesh. "You did kill him, you were jealous of him, because he was a better firefighter than you. You let him burn in that warehouse," he accused.
"Mr. Thomas the second floor was unstable, we all knew that, but Jimmy went up there anyway. I tried to save him when that floor fell through, but I couldn't hold him. Jimmy was not a small man," Ethan told him.
"No, he was a bull, he should have gone pro in football, but that damned coach wouldn't give him a chance," he grumbled.
Because you wouldn't stay out of it and keep your damned mouth shut
, was on the tip of Ethan's tongue.
"I went up there after him whe
n he went up the stairs without telling anyone, Mr. Thomas. I was trying to help him," Ethan told him.
"Your father sent him up
there," Mr. Thomas corrected. "He sent him up there knowing that floor was not stable. Because Jimmy was expendable, his own son was not."
"That's not true, he told us
all
not to go up there," Ethan persisted. "But Jimmy didn't listen, he wanted to play Superman and find that electrical room."
"You let him go up there, and your daddy let him go up there,
you killed my son
!" he shouted and Ethan flinched. "In a damned empty building that was gone anyway."
It was obvious the man was having some sort of break with reality, his voice was saturated with crazy, and it scared the shit out of Ethan, because you couldn't reason with crazy. Things were definitely not looking good for him, or Amelia.
"Now, move your ass down those rocks, and no funny stuff, or I will shoot both of you and save myself the trouble of making it slow and painful."
Ethan knew if that was his plan, he might have some time to figure something out, or he hoped he would. Saving them was all on him now, since Rocky was nowhere to be found. He was glad at least she wasn't in the middle of this mess. He had been right to worry about her though, and was glad even though he was stupid enough to pair himself up with her for the search, she might still come out alive.
Maybe she would meet up with that search party that so far hadn't shown up, he thought and sat down, then scooted over the uneven rocks to get to the bottom of the mesa and stand.
"Move girl," Mr. Thomas told Amelia and Ethan heard a whimper that made him
itch to kill the man. That little girl had been through enough mental trauma without this.
"Let her go, Mr. Thomas," he begged. "She isn't a threat to you."
"She knows who I am now, you've said my damned name enough times," he replied, then Amelia's pajama top brushed his hands as she stood beside him.