A Promise Worth Remembering (Promises Collection) (6 page)

“Nobody is. And you’re not. I’m here.”

One of the tigers disappeared behind a thick wall of brambles.

“I have to protect my tigers. I’m all they have.”

She hobbled from rock to rock, her ankle stinging with each step, and Copper followed until the river surrounded them on all sides. She took another step and her foot slid across the slick algae boulder. Her leg waffled like her indecisive mind. Which way did she go?

A tigress poked her head out of the brushes on the river side of the preserve, but Bailey
clapped, clapped, clapped
and the cat darted back into the sanctuary.

Her twisted
stomach and swollen throat and blurred vision didn’t distract her thoughts. She couldn’t protect her tigers—not a single one. She didn’t deserve to run the preserve, when every move she made seemed to put their lives in danger. Over her shoulder, she glanced back to Tucker, her future, then turned back to the
Rock
, her past.

Ahead were fewer stones to hop onto, though from her memory there had been so many more rocks—a connective path—but that path was an illusion. Instead, she’d landed herself and Copper on a three-foot diameter island.

Tucker’s voice reached her. “Damn, you’re just as strong-willed as I remember. Like me, a survivor that just keeps going. But doesn’t know when to turn around or go a different way.”

A dead fish, grey and thick with bloat, floated under Copper’s belly, and then headed toward the rapids that led to the falls.

She didn’t want Copper to end up like the fish. Tucker had loved her once, at least that’s what she’d read in his gaze and heard from his lips. That same expression had graced his face today. What if going another direction—bridging the feud with her trust and letting go of the past—could make things better between them? Even ending the century-old feud like Tucker suggested.

Yeah, right. He left you…

No. Risk trusting Tucker or risk falling into a life of cynicism and loneliness with nothing but memories to keep you company.

She stared at Copper, at the way his head swished from side to side. The journey had weakened him even more. She couldn’t put him at further risk, but how did she turn around?

One step at a time.

She swiveled to face Tucker.

He glared at the path, rather the watery non-path. “I get you, Bailey, but you’ve got to let go. Let me help you and Copper, like you helped keep me focused on our future.”

She’d had nothing to do with Tucker’s focus.

Focus came from within
.

Her uncle had focused on bitterness and how others had wronged him without changing himself. Pierce Sr. focused on terrorizing the Yants and claiming her land. Without Tucker’s intervention, his father might have succeeded. Jesse had focused on living for the moment.

And good God, he’d lived every day to the fullest. Even though a young man, he’d lived an active life until the second he’d died on his motorcycle. Driving behind him, she’d witnessed the entire accident. Milliseconds before his death, he had the wind on his face, the feel of complete freedom, up until the oncoming car suddenly swerved into his lane. The coroner assured her Jesse hadn’t suffered. But she held an image of him, his shoulders rounded, his wrist twisted forward and accelerating around the bend that comprised the final minutes of his life—he and his bike were the perfect example of living in the moment.

And Tucker focused on the future. A future he had little insight of except blind faith and a life that included her. She could do the same—focus on him in her future. Picture the idea, not of the past, but of her and Tucker’s future. Not for an hour, not for a day, but forever.

That someone or something responsible for keeping them apart had been her. She’d stood in the way of her future and fulfilling her dreams. Not hunters. Not Pierce Sr. Not Tucker. Not a magical rock.

Her.

A zing of happiness smiled through her body. But no longer.

Tucker shouted over the hum of the river, but something undecipherable. Then he U-turned and stalked up the embankment. He disappeared into the brush, scattering a quail covey.

Copper startled and leapt toward the direction Tucker had gone and sprayed water into the air. He slogged through the water and, finally, landed on a tiny gray slab not two feet away from the steep edge.

Bailey stared at Tucker’s back when all she wanted was to declare to his face that she’d made her decision to trust him. Wind rippled through the treetops, but the sultry air brought her no relief. The image of Tucker’s back, she pushed away. To escape the safety of the past, she had to go after her future even if she’d pushed him away, not intentionally, but by her indecision. “Tucker, come back!”

The roar of an engine filtered through the undergrowth. Her body went on alert. Was it Tucker or someone else?

The SUV crashed though the coppice, broken foliage burst into a maelstrom and splashed into the river.

Her heart beat in her throat like hummingbird wings she couldn’t swallow away.

Tucker…

A suede-colored boot landed on the sand. He stepped out and lifted a gun to his chest. “The cat’s in trouble, Bailey. Look at his respiration and his white gums. He’s lost too much blood to safely cross the river now.”

Her mouth opened as if to allow additional hummingbirds to nest in her throat. She coughed and slipped on the rock. “Don’t shoot him!”

Tucker pulled something she couldn’t quite make out from his pocket and engaged the gun barrel.

A bullet
?

“What are you doing? You’re not putting him down.”

“No. I’m doing what I should have this morning, instead of getting side tracked by the sight of you. If I would have tranquilized him then,
you
wouldn’t be stuck in the river.”

“Then why didn’t you wait?”

“Because I needed you to
see
that I’m here to help you. That I care about you and what’s important to you. Your tigers. Your future. Us.”

Us…
All she’d ever wanted. “I can see that now. And I’ve been stuck, holding on to your memory for so long I’m not sure what to do with the real thing.”

“Oh, Bailey… We’ll get through this.”

She lowered her gaze to the fast-moving water she had to cross to reach the shore. Copper had jumped from the upper bank down onto the lower rock just fine, but leaping back up? “How can I get him back up there with you?”

Tucker set down the gun and then kicked and kicked at the trespassing signpost until it toppled to the ground. He hoisted the four-by-four over his shoulder and returned to the water’s edge. Laying the board between the embankment and the rock, he bridged the space. “See, you need me.”

Her heart fluttered.
She needed him.

“And, frankly, I need you.”

Her lip bumped out and her eyes welled with tears.
He needed her.

“I know I let you down, but I had a good reason. You. To protect you. Still do.” Tucker stood on the end of the post and held out his hand. “I’m loyal, too. Like you, I want to believe there’s good in everyone, even when that doesn’t exist. And kindness. And hope. And a place where love fills a home, not abuse. Your arms, Bailey—the safest place I’ve ever known.”

Her eyes widened and her lip quivered. She’d never felt safer than when wrapped in Tucker’s embrace. “I’m sorry. I’ve been a cowardly fool.”

“I’m the fool, Bailey. But no longer. Let me be the man you deserve…the man you shared your dreams with once. Dreams that have become mine.”

With one hand, she squeezed Copper’s mane. She’d judged Tucker too harshly about wanting to kill Copper. She needed to let go of judging others and see them for who they truly were. On the inside. Tucker was willing to risk his life to save her. She needed to trust someone. In believing she couldn’t trust another, she’d walled her heart like she’d walled Safe Haven. And the way her heart pounded like a caged tiger, she needed to embrace her childhood dreams—the future—instead of rejecting what she wanted from life. Love and Family. Tucker. A thriving preserve. A future that included them all.

She stepped forward onto the four-by-four post—

Her weakened ankle rolled, and she lurched to the side. On the way down, she dragged Copper with her and splashed into the river. The current clutched her with great watery arms and pulled her beneath the surface to the cobbled graveyard and dark undercurrent that sucked her down river.

She drew a mouthful of water into her lungs and fought her way to the surface. To Copper. To Tucker.

Copper clawed her leg. He used her body to climb to the surface and his weight pushed her under him.

To the cobbled riverbed.

Then the river’s darkness swallowed her and Copper slipped away.

In great arcs and cupped palms, she fanned her arms through the current until she again gripped silken fur.

A thick arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her upward.

She kicked and used her one free arm to battle the river with Tucker. Together. To save Copper, they worked together.

Tucker didn’t let go even as the pressure beat against their bodies and sent them downstream.

Sunlight and fresh air left her blinking and gasping. Her thigh burned from Copper’s claw marks. Not gritty sand, but wet earth smooth as talcum cradled her body in softness. She coughed water until her eyes bulged and her stomach heaved. Seconds later, a body with wet fur landed beside her.

She rolled to face Copper, breathing in the scent of wet cat fur.

And Tucker? Giving Copper mouth to nose? On her side of the river?

And shadows—four people. Raymond. The Warden. And two men, the men she and Tucker had encountered, in handcuffs?

Raymond clasped her fence tools, those she carried in her backpack.

How had they landed near
Kissing Rock
when she’d fallen directly across from that spot on the river? At first, she’d used her swimming skills, but after almost losing Copper, she’d thrashed until Tucker had joined them. How? Had the river’s current reversed?

Had the power of
Kissing Rock
saved them all?

She tried to talk, but only coughed more. Powers or no powers, she’d landed on the place where her and Tucker’s story had begun.

He’d saved her again. And she’d been wrong about trusting him. So very wrong. Over and over again, he’d saved her. But who’d been there for him? “I’m sorry, Tuck—”

Coughing turned to heavy sobs. She didn’t care who saw her tears, her quaking body, her weakness, wet and exposed and vulnerable. Finally, she accepted she needed help with Copper and the other tigers. Needed to give up the illusion of control where she had none in order to love again.

Once Copper roused, Tucker stopped alternating chest pumps with breaths. He turned toward her and helped her sit. Then he ripped a strip of material from his shirt and split the material in two pieces.

His warm hand wrapped her thigh with a crude bandage and his touch lifted her spirits high enough to look down on the song birds nestled in the treetops.

Tucker stroked her chin, but her gaze locked on his swelling cheek, where a red scrape emerged. Bruises similar to those Tucker had worn like a battle wound made her heave again. She’d been too afraid to face the truth that they’d both suffered. And her fear of being betrayed had kept her walled up and unwilling to be susceptible. She swallowed hard enough to hear. “I’m ready for a new direction, Tucker.”

“Good. ‘Cause I’m home now to stay. And you know, they say a mother’s instinct to protect her children is as strong as a tiger’s. You’ll make a fine momma someday. This cat’s alive because of you. Because he trusted you with his life. I don’t want you to worry about him too much, though. He’s healthy and should fully recover. Soon you’ll see him free on the mountain where he belongs.”

She studied the sincerity in Tucker’s gaze and the steadiness of his words. She lowered her gaze and let his offer of sharing his lands, of expanding the preserve, seep inside her mind. He was right. She needed to let Copper be the tiger he demanded to be, instead of treating him like her pseudo-child. An image formed of a foot bridge to link both properties and Copper roaming the mountain with his pride, so she’d never have to battle the Cosumnes River again.

But although the walls around her heart tumbled down, the action exposed a vulnerability more tender than her scratched leg. A Yant had never forged an alliance with a Pierce. And she was skeptical of his statement about becoming a mother to a child of her own someday when he hadn’t specifically offered himself in the old-fashioned way she fancied. “Little hard to find the perfect match out here in the wilderness who’d be willing to take on my responsibilities, marriage,
and
family.”

With the curl of his finger, he lifted her chin. “Not as hard as you might think. That is, if you’ll take a chance on
me
for the rest of your life?”

She smiled at the idea, but the reality of merging, not just with her land and sanctuary, but with Tucker? The idea set her blood pounding in her veins. Him having complete control over her heart?