Here Comes Trouble (33 page)

"Oh, god," Joel groaned and a lump of emotion
pushed up into his throat.

"Okay, hold it. We found her! Got that guys?"
Ethan said excitedly into his microphone. Joel could almost feel
excitement pouring off of him.

"How the hell are we going to rescue her?"
Joel asked glad that her brother was with them. He felt totally
useless, and was as scared as he'd ever been in his life that Terri
would turn loose and drown. "Hang on, baby," he murmured and
pressed his nose to the window.

"Well, I'm going to loop a rope, then get on
the skid and try and get her to grab it," Ethan told him then
unzipped his jacket and pulled it off.

He pulled off his shirt, shoes and socks next,
then undid his belt and took it off. Joel held his breath wondering
if the man was going to get naked in the back of the helicopter and
thanked God when he didn't. He bent and picked up a rope, then tied
fancy knots to make a loop, before winding it up and putting it
over his shoulder. He picked another coil and wound it around his
waist, looped it between his legs then tied more fancy knots,
before he looked up at Joel with a grin. "Time to save my sister,"
he said and picked up another rope then put it over his other
shoulder.

"Think you have enough rope there?" Joel asked
and managed a smile.

"Enough to hang you if I can't save her," he
told Joel with a wink. "You're gonna keep my ass from falling, so I
hope you're stronger than you look," he teased.

"Don't worry about me, make sure those gym rat
muscles of yours hold up long enough to reel her in," Joel shot
back.

"Gym ra--asshole," Ethan muttered then slid
open the door. "Hold 'er steady captain," he said into the headset
then sat on the floor and slid his legs out the door. Ethan eased
himself down until only half of his body was visible above the
floor of the helicopter.

"Hang on, Terror...I'm coming to get you,
baby," he yelled loudly then turned back toward Joel and threw him
the end of the rope tied around his waist. "Leverage somewhere, and
wrap the rope around a pole or the base of a chair to help you hold
on. Don't drop me or I'm gonna be pissed," he warned with a twitch
of his lips.

"Save, Terri or I will drop you asshole," Joel
grated and did as he instructed. He sat on the floor and leaned
against the wall of the helicopter then put his feet against the
seat to brace himself.

Joel couldn't see what was going on, but the
slack in the rope tightened, so he assumed that Ethan was now
sitting on the skid. He heard the man yell, "I'm throwing you a
rope kid, take it and put it around you one arm at a time. Don't
let go of the jeans until you're inside the loop. Take your time,
no hurry."

Terri's faint voice floated up to Joel and it
made him feel better, but he couldn't hear what she was saying. He
hoped it was,
okay pull me up
.

Joel just wanted to wrap his arms around her
and hold her...forever.

That was a word he'd never thought he'd think
again, but he was thinking it. Almost losing her because of his
stupidity, made him face the fact he'd been avoiding since she came
back into his life.

Being with Terri made him better, made his
life better and his outlook brighter. She didn't let him dwell on
shit he couldn't change. His mama was right he could do a lot
worse,
had
done a lot worse. It was time he did
better.

Joel needed her...he loved her. He just hoped
he had the chance to tell her all that.

Unless her brother was as much of a Superman
as everyone thought he was, he might not get that
chance.

"How's it going, Ethan?" Joel yelled
impatiently.

"Oh, shit," he heard Ethan say over the
microphone. "Captain, I'm secure, fly south then hover, I'm going
in the water. Hurry!"

Joel felt the rope go slack and turned it
loose to crawl across the floor to the door. He looked down and saw
Ethan hugging the skid and just caught a glimpse of Terri as she
floated past a log then went under the water.

"Nooooooooooo!" Joel screamed and slid out
onto the skid. His feet had barely touched on the skid, when the
pilot lifted a little, and his feet slipped. He fell and grabbed at
the skid as the pilot flew forward. Joel's heart beat like it was
coated in syrup for a minute, everything moved in slow motion, then
it sped up to runaway horse pace as adrenaline replaced his
fear.

All he could do was close his eyes and pray as
he hung onto the skid for dear life while his feet dangled in the
air. A forceful jerk on his belt jarred Joel and he was hauled
upward. Scrambling, Joel flung a leg over the skid then hugged the
cross bar like he'd seen Ethan doing. He looked down and his
stomach surged up to his throat. They must've been two hundred feet
above the dark swirling water. Suddenly, the pilot turned and Joel
almost slid off the skid, but Ethan jerked him back up
again.

Gym rat muscles or not, that guy was strong
and quick, and Joel was thankful, because Ethan had just saved his
life.

When the pilot brought the helicopter around
and steadied it, Ethan snatched off the headset and untied the rope
from around him, then handed all but one rope to Joel. With a nod,
he shouted, "Tell the pilot to spotlight the water and hover," then
he jumped feet first into the water, and disappeared beneath the
roiling waves.

"Cap, Ethan says spotlight the water and
hover," Joel said into the headset.

When he didn't see Ethan surface, Joel was
afraid Ethan had overestimated his ability to survive the flooded
creek, but suddenly he saw his head bob to the surface in the
spotlight. Terri was upstream about thirty yards and he watched
Ethan calmly secure one end of the rope to a log. Joel thought
Terri was going to float on by, and Ethan would miss her, but at
the last minute, he pushed his legs against the log and launched
himself at her at just the right moment, catching her around the
waist.

The rope pulled tight and Joel could see Ethan
was struggling to hang onto Terri and the rope. Finally, he moved
one hand up the rope then looped the end around Terri. She was limp
as a rag doll, and panic jolted through Joel, because he didn't
think she was breathing.

Joel saw he was right, when Ethan finally got
her to the log and hefted her on top, then straddled the log
himself. He felt her throat, then started doing mouth to mouth and
chest compressions. Oh god, please let her be alright, Joel
thought, his grip on the skid so tight his fingers were going numb.
After a minute, he saw her cough. The breath he hadn't realized he
was holding whooshed past his lips.

Ethan turned her to the side and she curled
up, then he turned and gave a hand signal of some sort to the men
Joel saw standing on the other side of the creek, before he yelled
"Joel--tie off a rope on the skid and throw it to me!"

Joel looked down at the coils of rope he'd
looped over his arm. Carefully, he slid one off, and tied it to the
crossbar then tested it to make sure it was secure. With the wind
created by the rotor blades, throwing the rope was going to be the
challenge he knew. "Captain can you move right some?" he yelled
into the microphone.

After a second, the chopper glided sideways.
"That's as close as I can get!" the pilot yelled back. Not ideal,
but he thought he could make it. If he had a weight to put on the
end it would be easier to throw. Joel looked down at his foot. His
boot would serve the purpose if he could get it off without going
into the water himself.

He pushed the toe of one boot against the heel
of the other and it slid off and almost fell into the water, but he
managed to hook it with his toe. Lifting his leg, Joel leaned out
and grabbed the tip and pulled it off. He shoved the rope end
through the pull-on loop at the top and then tied a tight
knot.

Joel was a baseball player in high school, and
his first year in college, so his aim should be pretty good, or he
hoped it would be.

That was a long time ago, but Terri's life
depended on his aim this time, so he was going to get that rope to
Ethan on the first try. Joel scooted back on the skid and threw his
leg over so he was sitting on it. With one hand holding the
crossbar, he brought the boot back then hurled it toward
Ethan.

It was high, but Ethan pushed up off the log
and caught it with one hand, then untied the boot. Joel watched as
he worked quickly to untie the other rope from the log and
fashioned a harness around Terri's body, then he tied the rope
attached to the skid to the harness and checked the knots three
times.

Ethan wrapped her legs around his body, and
her arms around his neck, then lashed them together holding her
tightly to him.

"Lift us up!" Ethan shouted and gave him a
thumbs up.

"He has her secure, Cap...Ethan said lift!"
The pilot lifted the aircraft higher and the rope tightened. Joel
prayed he'd tied the knot right to make sure they didn't both
plummet to their deaths before they got to an area where they could
land. He didn't know what the fuck he was doing, he was winging it
without wings.

To his surprise and relief the rope held and
the pilot brought them even higher, then they were high above the
trees. Joel looked down and wanted to throw up. As much as he
wanted to watch to make sure they were okay, he couldn't. The pilot
brought the aircraft even higher, he could feel it, but he couldn't
look. He just hung on and prayed.

After what seemed like an hour, but was really
only a few minutes, the pilot made a slow descent. Joel opened his
eyes and looked down. Ethan and Terri were still spinning below him
on the rope not far above the pasture below. He sent up thanks and
managed a relieved smile.

The pilot eased closer to the ground until
Ethan's feet touched the ground, and waited for him to unhook the
rope attached to the skid. "Climb down the rope, Joel!" Ethan
hollered up to him.

Joel woke up from his euphoric haze and his
eyes followed the dangling rope down to the ground. He was about
thirty feet up. He didn't think his heart rate could get any higher
without him passing out, but it did. Spasms passed through his
muscles and his body was trembling from exertion, adrenaline
overload and fear. If he tried to go down that rope, he wasn't
going to make it.

"Can you take her down a little more Cap?" he
said into the microphone. The pilot chuckled and lowered him to
about ten feet off the ground. Joel held onto the skid and turned
onto his stomach, then stretched down and dropped to the ground and
rolled.

"I'm going to land, ya'll come load her up and
I'll get you back to the ranch," the pilot said. Joel gave him a
thumbs up, but stayed on his knees until the aircraft lifted
again.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

After the pilot lifted the helicopter high
into the air, Joel got up and stumbled over to Ethan, who was
sitting on the ground holding Terri in his arms. Her body trembled
violently and her teeth were chattering.

"We've got to get her warmed up," Ethan told
him and pulled her tighter against him.

Joel swallowed hard seeing the pale inert
woman in her brother's arms. The woman he loved would have died if
they hadn't found her when they did, if her brother hadn't risked
his own life to save her.

"Thank you for saving her," Joel choked out
and his eyes burned with the relief pouring through him. "I'm sorry
for being an ass."

"Expected, man...you were worried, just like I
was...am," he said generously and pushed Terri's hair out of her
eyes. "But I'm still fucking pissed you let her go off by herself
in the first place. We'll talk about that later though, right now
we need a blanket. I'm soaking wet and not helping warm her
up."

"Here let me carry her and let's get to the
helicopter. Maybe there's a blanket in there," he suggested then
knelt down beside Ethan and took Terri out of his arms. Ethan had
to be in worse shape physically than Joel was, he'd swam a raging
river to save her.

When Joel slid his arms under her body, and
pulled her into his arms he was shocked at how cold her body was.
Ice cold, dead cold. She was shivering like she was in snowy frigid
cold weather, even though it was near fifty degrees.

A shiver passed through him too and he held
her closer and nuzzled her hair, then whispered near her ear, "I
love you baby, hang in there we're gonna get you warmed
up."

Joel heard the roar of four-wheelers and
looked up to see ten of them headed his way in a line stretching
across the field. The headlights lit up the night and Ethan stood
and waved then gave them a signal. The men stopped for a second,
then made a u-turn and headed away from them.

"Hurry, we need to get her to the hospital, or
at least warmed up so she can talk and tell us what else hurts,"
Ethan told him with exhaustion in his tone, then he turned toward
where the helicopter had landed.

When they landed in the middle of the front
yard, Joel didn't waste any time getting out then ducking to run
toward the house with Terri in his arms. There hadn't been a
blanket in the aircraft, so he'd done his best to cuddle Terri
during the short flight. Ethan had started shivering too, because
even though he'd put his clothes back on, his jeans were wet and
he'd passed Joel his jacket to cover Terri. Not that it helped
much, she still felt like a block of ice in his arms.