Kiss and Tell (10 page)

"Our hotshot's between us and that road." Nose to nose, Jake looked down at her, his eyes dark, his mouth a breath away from hers. "Ready? Let's go."

He grabbed her hand and yanked her up beside him and into a full, low-crouched run before she even drew a complete breath.

There were several more volleys of shots, this time coming from where they'd entered the clearing. A divot of grass and dirt jumped near their feet.

"Damn." Jake squeezed off a shot, then jerked her the other way, changing direction to head straight for the ravine.

When Marnie realized which way they were going, her feet slowed, trying to pull back. Duchess wasn't with them. She wanted to whistle but didn't have the air to do so.

Jake almost yanked her arm out of its socket as he hauled her in his wake. Once down this slight slope they would be perched on the edge of a sharp drop. "We can't—"

"No choice. Move it!"

Branches and pine needles hooked their clothing as they dashed madly through the trees, making it impossible to hear what was happening behind them. Marnie didn't think she could have heard anything over her own heartbeat and the breath sawing from her lungs anyway.

They reached the drop-off, a dangerous slope down to the dry riverbed between the upper and lower dams. Behind them, a spray of automatic-weapon fire decided their direction.

Jake pulled her with him, bracing her so that she wouldn't tumble to the rocky bottom. With his help, and holding on to small saplings or handfuls of grass, Marnie slid down the bank onto the snow-dusted, water-smoothed rocks.

The shooting stopped.

Her hands throbbed. Sweat stung her eyes. Her breath heaved from her burning lungs. Dropping her hands to her knees, she dragged in a deep, steadying gasp of air.

Above them came shouts, then the loud report of gunfire. A flock of birds rose noisily from the treetops. Another rapid round of shots followed closely behind the first.

Jake threw her up against the bank, pressing against her back, again protecting her with his body.

He was heavy, and she felt his hot, moist breath on the back of her neck. She tasted gritty sand on her tongue as he pushed her face into the dirt. She didn't move so much as an eyelash as they waited for the voices above them to fade.

He kept her pinned to the bank until the voices receded, and then he stepped away from her and grabbed her hand.

"Stay ahead of me." He waited half a beat while she swiped her wrist over her sandy mouth. "Go like a bat outta hell. And don't look back."

He pulled the zipper of her jacket up to her chin. "I'm right behind you."

A sharp crack split the air. Louder. Closer. Scarier.

Marnie ran.

Sweat ran down her face. Behind her she heard the rapid steady crunch of Jake's boots as he moved easily across the rocks. He moved fast, but so did she. Marnie knew he was purposely staying behind her, covering her back.

She was fit; even so, she was breathing hard. Exertion and the warm coat made her sweat uncomfortably. She stepped on a rock that rolled underfoot and did a hop, skip, and jump to keep her balance.

Suddenly there was a shower of gunfire off to their right. The noise echoed in the ravine. Bullets ricocheted off rocks with enough force to shatter them to dust.

Behind her Jake yelled, "Go, go, go!"

She sensed rather than felt his hand under her elbow, and found an extra burst of speed.

The ravine was deep, the walls on either side steep. Despite the intermittent gunfire, they hadn't been hit. Either these guys were lousy shots or Jake was right – they didn't intend to hit them. It took Marnie a while to realize what was happening.

They were being herded down the narrow gorge like animals to the slaughter.

Rock became slippery mud as they charged around a bend in the riverbed, vision hampered by the gauzy veil of falling snow. Their labored breath echoed back from the dirt walls, leaving a vapor trail behind them.

Marnie listened for more shots, sensing the menace behind them as they ran.

Under the sound of Jake's steady breathing was layered another sound she couldn't quite identify. Her legs pistoned, her heart pumped at the speed of a train. She glanced up, somehow expecting lightning to accompany the low, rolling sound.

"Is that thunder?" she panted, not slowing. The trees and ground blurred, she swiped her hand across the sweat stinging her eyes. "Or an earthquake?"

One moment she could hear Jake behind her, the next he'd run alongside and wrapped one strong arm around her waist, lifting her off her feet. His momentum carried her a dozen feet before he yelled, "The bastards have opened the upper dam."

It took Marnie a split second to digest what he'd just said. They were going to try to outrun a tidal wave?
Yeah, right!

There was no point keeping to the deep shadow of the bank now. The terrain was easier to traverse closer to the center. Her left foot splashed in the meandering trickle of water, but Jake kept her moving so fast she practically flew.

Behind them came an ominous thundering rumble as millions of gallons of released water rushed toward them with the speed of a freight train. Marnie concentrated on where she was going, trying not to calculate how fast a wall of water could travel downhill.

They were now boxed into the canyon that made up the lower dam. There were only two ways to go: back toward the water, or forward.

She saw what was ahead and faltered. That way lay certain death. She shot him a helpless look, sweat sharp in the small lacerations on her face.

Marnie hoped to hell Jake had a plan.

Or could fly.

*

Jake had a death grip around Marnie's waist. She felt light as a feather as he urged her to run flat out. Ahead was the wide lip of the cement spillway, a dizzying drop six stories to the rocks below.

"Trust me," Jake shouted. The mountain of water was right behind them, out of sight behind the last curve, but on its way. He could imagine what it carried with it – tons of sand and rock and trees, turbulent and lethal.

There wasn't a second to lose. Before Marnie could so much as scream, he grabbed her by the arm and swung her over the ledge, sensing when her feet hit the narrow metal ladder fastened to the face of the wall just below the lip.

In seconds he'd scrambled down after her. He pointed, urging her to descend to the narrow cement ledge spanning the width of the wall. As soon as she'd reached it Jake urged her behind the ladder, and she wedged herself between the metal bars and the face of the dam.

Ignoring her white face, he held on to the ladder with one hand for balance and inspected the narrow, rusted metal door imbedded in the wall beside her. It probably housed maintenance equipment and the controls for regulating the water flow, and Jake wanted in.

Marnie clutched the neck of his jacket as he crouched down beside her. The roar of the rapidly approaching water urged him to make quick work of opening the door. He ran his fingers along the seams. The cement walkway vibrated beneath the heavy soles of his boots. Her cold fingers brushed his neck as she gripped his collar and held on to him for dear life.

He yanked at the handle. It refused to budge.

The force of the coming deluge caused his teeth to chatter in time with the structure's oscillation. Using both hands, he pulled again, teeth gritted, the cords in his neck straining. But disuse and neglect had rusted the metal fast.

Precariously balanced, his expression grim, Jake stood. He shook his head to her querying look.

She briefly squeezed her eyes shut, then gave him a look filled with confidence. Somewhere her cap had fallen off, and pale hair frothed around her shoulders and face. Strands stuck to the sweat and mud on her face.

He scanned the rusted bolts that held the ladder to the cement. They looked none too secure. With his and Marnie's combined weights and the water pounding down on them, there was a damn good chance the ladder would rip free and plummet them both to the rocks below.

Mission accomplished for the hit team.

He felt the vibration under his hands as the wall of water surged closer and closer, the ground shaking under the onslaught.

Jake checked to be sure Marnie was as safely anchored as possible, then shouted over the din, with no hope of being heard, "Hold on tight."

The ledge was too narrow for them to stand abreast, and he started to swing himself around the ladder. One hand, covered with rust particles and black slime from the door, lost its purchase on the rung as he swung out at an awkward angle. For several seconds his heart hung as suspended as his body.

"No!" Marnie shouted, eyes wide with horror. In a flash, she lunged forward to grab the front of his jacket through the rungs with both hands. She hung on to him for dear life. The only thing supporting her was her own body weight against the ladder. Fierce concentration painted her features as Jake automatically grabbed her with one powerful hand and swung his body securely onto the ladder.

He was quick and would eventually have managed to gain a grip on his own. But he'd never seen anything like the tenacity on the face of this woman as she held on to him. The strain of his weight on her shoulders and arms had to be tremendous.

She gave him a worried look. "Are you okay?" she mouthed, brow wrinkled.

His heart beat an extra time or two. He nodded, then grabbed her fisted hand off the front of his jacket and placed it on the frame. Next he did the same with her other hand and made sure her fingers were curled tightly. He shifted her booted feet with his own to more evenly balance her body weight and made sure she was braced.

Hell, yes. He was fine and dandy.

They were face-to-face, the rusted metal rungs between them. He placed his large hands over her smaller ones with a punishing grip.

 She shuddered, her knuckles white in a death grip on the bars on either side of her face. Sweat gave her skin a pearly sheen, but her fingers were like ice. He held her gaze.

Above, the ominous roar of millions of gallons of raging water thundered inexorably toward them as they clung precariously to the sheer face of the wall. The metal rungs of the ladder shuddered and vibrated beneath their feet, dusting the air with flecks of rust.

Jake braced himself, adrenaline giving him a rush. With the cement wall at her back and his own body covering her front, this was the best he could do.

He hoped the water wouldn't decide to rush straight down instead of shooting out.

He hoped the rusty ladder retained its tenuous hold on the thirty-year-old wall.

And he hoped the bastards hadn't let out every frigging drop of water in the bigger dam upriver.

That was one hell of a lot to hope for.

Marnie's body trembled. He wasn't feeling too chipper himself. There was absolutely nothing more he could do. The ladder vibrated and the rusted bolts shimmied against the equally rusted braces as the rushing water pounded the spillway.

The shit was about to hit the fan.

He braced his body protectively in front of her, gave her white fingers a reassuring squeeze, and looked at her...chin.

Marnie was looking straight up.

The water shot out, twenty feet away from the wall and them, before plummeting to the river below.

She looked back at him and grinned.

"Judas Priest! You're enjoying this!" Jake shouted incredulously. The cacophony made speech unintelligible and jarred every bone in his body. But he could read her lips.

"Exhilarating!"

She tilted back her head with a laugh, in seconds her hair was plastered to her skull from the spray.

"Put your head down before you drown, for godsake!"

Jake took the brunt of icy spray on his back. Her fingers flexed under his, and she looked straight at him. Their faces were three inches apart. Between streaks of mud, Marnie's skin looked luminous. Her impossibly blue eyes were filled with wicked mirth.

Jake shook his head. The woman was nuts!

Crystalline drops misted the air in a thundering, tumultuous spray, the sound deafening. Droplets as fine as diamond dust sparkled on her spiky lashes. Marnie grinned. Most of the mud had washed away, and her cheeks were flushed; her eyes shone with wonder. Jake's throat locked as heat exploded through him. He could almost hear the cold water sizzle to steam around him.

Between the rigid metal bars of the ladder he imagined feeling the answering heat of Marnie's body through the layers of their soaked clothing. His fingers tightened over hers.

Six stories below, muddy water frothed and boiled, violently churning in on itself. The driving force of the torrent drowned out every other sound.

Cocooned behind an opaque curtain of coffee-colored water, amazingly safe on their precarious perch, Jake leaned forward.

He bent his head and touched his mouth to hers. Her tongue greeted his descending lips. He could taste the smile still curving her soft mouth.

*

His lips were cold and wet, the kiss brief and hard.

Marnie felt his warm breath enter her mouth, mingling with her own, and a furnace of heat shot through her, making her forget they were hazardously balanced over a six-story drop. Her lips burned as Jake slanted his mouth to taste more, sliding his tongue deep into her mouth.

Her fingers flexed against the metal bars on either side of her face. She wanted to touch him, feel his wet skin. Jake's hands tightened over hers to lock her in place, reminding her where they were. Wet cloth abraded icily against wet cloth as their bodies strained against the barrier of the ladder between them.

Boldly her tongue dueled with his. She forgot to breathe; she couldn't think as her heartbeat accelerated and made her dizzy.

*

Jake felt the roar of water deep in his gut. Marnie's hot mouth welcomed him, and everything in him tightened one more notch. He wanted her soft and pliant against him. He groaned deep into her mouth. Her breath sighed against his tongue. He felt like Superman. He could fly, he could leap tall buildings, he could—

What in the hell was he doing?

Jake disengaged their mouths.