Stay (14 page)

“Where the hell did she go?” Syd had followed a game trail along the backside of the granite face. Now she scanned a deep ravine, searching for any sign of the cow and her calf. Water flowed through a narrow drainage at the bottom, but not much, nothing the cattle couldn’t wade across.

Syd studied the terrain with interest. If she could clear out some of the brush she could push cattle through here and rejoin the main trail in a another hundred yards or so.

But she wanted to make certain she could get all the way around the washed out section. She didn’t want to get stuck back here with close to five hundred cows and calves. Of course she could divide them up, drive them in smaller groups, the cows with the oldest calves first.

That was the way to go. That might work.

Syd skirted a jumble of boulders, careful of her footing. It would be easy to end up at the bottom if she didn’t watch herself.

Big movement caught Syd’s eye. “Ha. There’s that stupid cow.” She was headed up the far side of the ravine, her calf trailing in her wake. Syd watched for a few moments, wanting to be certain the calf could scale the hill. He seemed to have no trouble keeping up with his mother.

“This looks promising.”

She decided to follow, hoping to find a navigable way back to the main trail. She patted her belly. “C’mon, baby. If they can do it, so can we.”

She took one more cautious step along the side of the hill. Apparently that was one too many. The saturated soil gave way beneath her boot.

Syd didn’t even have time to let out a shriek. She wrapped one hand around her abdomen to protect her child while she grabbed for a tree trunk with the other. Yelping in pain, she let go. Grabbing the tree may have slowed her slide, but the desperate move had also dislocated her shoulder.

Syd dug her heels into the loose earth with all her strength; she had to protect her baby. She needed to do her damnedest to stay on her back in order to keep him safe. Halfway down the slope, she ground her way to a halt.

Her head in the mud, cradling both her baby and her useless arm, Syd stared at the sky through a canopy of quaking aspens. Tears filled her eyes. It wasn’t the pain in her shoulder, the pain was nothing. It was the fact that she’d endangered her child. And now she worried about shock. Shock would drop her blood pressure and could hurt her baby.

She swiped at her wet cheeks with a filthy hand. “I’m a rotten mother, a rotten, horrible mother.” Syd choked back a sob. “I can’t do this alone. I can’t run this ranch by myself no matter how hard I pretend.”

She lay still for a long time, willing the pain to subside, waiting for the dizziness to pass.

At last Syd tilted her head back to see how far she’d fallen. If she hadn’t dislocated her shoulder she could crawl up on her hands and knees, but under the circumstances crawling on all fours was impossible.

There was no way she could stay where she was. Cass would find her eventually, but eventually wasn’t acceptable. Eventually wouldn’t keep her baby safe.

“All right, get up and get moving.” Gritting her teeth, Syd rolled over onto her side. Wincing with pain, hugging her right arm to her chest and digging her toes into the slope for stability, she managed to hoist herself onto her knees.

“Okay, you have two good legs and one good arm. You can make it around the side of the hill even if it takes all night. You can do this. You have no other choice.”

“Damn little fool. She never learns.” Lucas eased his truck up behind Syd’s. The woman was nowhere to be seen. “Where the hell has she gone?”

He followed her boot prints to the edge of the mudslide. He wondered, just for a heart-stopping second, if she’d tried to make her way through the mud covering the trail, but he could see from the prints she’d done an about-face and headed back to the truck.

So that’s what he did. He found her cellphone on the passenger seat next to a long coil of rope. He left the cellphone, but grabbed the rope. No telling what sort of trouble Syd had gotten herself into. If there’s one thing the intrepid woman excelled at, it was finding trouble.

Her footprints led him up and over the hill. Lucas shook his head. What on earth was she thinking, climbing through terrain like this, pregnant and alone?

It was the storm. He would have been here yesterday if the storm hadn’t delayed him. If he’d been here she wouldn’t be up in the mountains alone.

Sydney Blake was the most infuriating woman he’d ever known. She could go toe to toe with anyone when it came to being stubborn and single-minded. Despite his frustration with her pig-headedness, Lucas couldn’t help but admire her. She was smart as a whip, fiery as all hell; and best of all, created from dust to fit his exact specifications.

She was the only woman for him in any plane of existence.

Now he prayed with every fiber of his being she hadn’t done something they’d both regret.

He followed her tracks to the crest and down the far side. The going was rough, the hillside rocky. He was growing more concerned by the minute.

Lucas perched on a rock overlooking the ravine. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, “Sydney… Sydney Blake. Where are you?”

“Down here.”

Thank god
.

Lucas dropped to his knees and scanned the hillside. He spotted her thirty, forty feet below him, sitting with her back pressed against a tree. “Don’t move. I’m coming down.”

“No,” she called back. “Stay. If you come to me we’ll both be stuck. I can’t help much. I…”

Shit
.

Lucas interrupted her. “Are you hurt? Is the baby hurt?”

“The baby’s fine. He’s fine. But I’ve dislocated my shoulder.”

Lucas reached for the coil of rope. “It’s all right, Syd, I’m here now. You’ll be all right.” He skidded down the slope on his backside, sliding to a stop right next to her. He held her face in his hands, overjoyed. “Jesus, woman, you’re a sight.”

He expected her to smack him or tell him to help her up and then get lost, but instead she mustered a wan smile. “Come back to save me again?”

“No.” He ran the pad of his thumb over her muddy lips. “I came back for this.” He kissed her. “Saving your ass is gratis.”

She pointed at the steep hill. “How do you plan to get me out of here?”

Lucas showed her the coil of rope. “Give a cowboy a rope and he can work miracles.”

Stay

eart pounding with excitement, Sydney stood on the porch of her own cabin watching Lucas approach. He’d been in the mountains for three days with her father, Cass and the two ranch hands, working with the cattle. And now he was coming home.

She kept her eyes glued on the growing cloud of dust far down the road. Syd caressed her swollen belly, the fact of the baby’s impending birth soothing her spirit. “Daddy’s on his way, love.”

At last she could see him clearly, sitting tall, strong and confident on his horse. There was nothing sexier in the entire world than a man who could ride a big horse and ride him well.

Syd skipped off the porch and walked up the road, eager to meet Lucas halfway.

He was her soul mate, her one and only love. Wolf and Lucas all swirled together to create a perfect chimera, a chimera who was now her husband.

“Hey,” he said, looking down at her.

“Hey,” she said, looking up. “I missed you.”

“Well, climb on,” Lucas said, his grin wicked. He removed his booted foot from the stirrup and leaned down, offering her his hand.

Despite her advanced pregnancy, Syd was agile enough to lift her foot into the stirrup. She pushed off the ground while Lucas pulled her up and settled her across his lap.

“Nice,” he said. He buried his nose in her hair. “You smell sweet.”

She laughed. “You smell like a horse.”

“Don’t kid a kidder. You love that smell.”

“I do,” she said, “Makes me want to do bad things to you.”

“Ah, then we’d better get going.” He wrapped his arms around her, securing her on his thighs, and he squeezed Bo’s flanks. “We should enjoy our solitude while we have it. We won’t have the house to ourselves much longer.”

Syd rubbed her cheek against his shirt, loving the warmth of him, the masculine smell of him, the power that emanated from him.

He held the horse’s reins with one hand, his free hand lay across her belly. She placed her hand over his. “You think he’ll be all right?”

Lucas rested his chin on the top of her head. “Of course he’ll be all right, Syd. He’s our son. What could be wrong?”

“Well…” She hesitated. “Your history is a little unusual. Your life, I mean, or maybe I should say, lives.”

“No.” Lucas patted her belly. “This is my life, my real life. Besides, there are more like me, and like you.”

Syd looked up at him. “You mean Sara and Nathan?”

“Yes, I do mean Sara and Nathan, but Nathan and I aren’t the only ones. Most of us don’t remember. I can’t say whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. In any case, my granddaughter, Katie, is fine. She’s healthy as a horse.”

“It’s funny, you know, that you have a granddaughter.”

He laughed. “Not something I want to spend much time thinking about‌—‌could throw me right back into an existential crisis.”

“Ah, you’re a wise man, Mr. Jennings. I’m so glad I married you.”

“I’m so glad I landed in front of your truck,” Lucas said.

Syd smiled. “Me too, although that’s also not a story I plan to tell our children.”

Lucas snorted. “True.”

Syd leaned back against him, growing drowsy, relaxing to the slow, easy clip clop of the horse.

“Do you remember what I told you the first time?”

“The first time…? The first time we did what?”

“The first time I came here. I told you I would have loved you for all eternity.”

“I can’t forget those words,” she said. “I’ll never forget them. Why do you ask?”

“I think I was wrong.” Lucas guided the horse toward the small shed near the cabin. The mare, Delia, nickered in welcome.

Syd lifted her head. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m not sure I understand. As Nathan pointed out, much is hidden, even from someone like me.” He smiled down at her. “But I think I was wrong to use the words,
would have
. I’ve come to believe I’ve always loved you, Syd, and I always will. We’d have found our way back to each other no matter what.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. I love you, Sydney Blake. I gave up immortality for you.”

Syd pressed her hand over his heart. “And I found immortality with you, Lucas Jennings.”

He tugged on the reins, bringing Bodacious to a halt.

“You can call me Wolf,” he said. “Anytime you want.”

Syd slipped her hands around his neck, drew his lips down to hers. “Wolf. I like calling you Wolf. Now shut up, Wolf, and kiss me.”

He did.