Worth the Trouble (28 page)

Huffing out a breath, he moved around a little then told her gruffly, "I want to make love to you in a bed, Roxanne," then kissed her belly and she contracted her muscles as tingles rushed through her body. 

Making love to him in a bed would be wonderful.  They could spend all night exploring each other.
  "I love that idea, but it can't beat making love in the rain." 

Just like she imagined the storm raging outside the tent was nothing compared to the storm he was brewing inside of her.
  She had a little taste of it earlier, and her mouth watered again.

"You want to make love in the rain?" he murmured against her navel, then ran his tongue in a circle there.

"Yeah, it's always been a fantasy," she told him shyly.

Ethan sat up on his knees and stared down at her.  "
I want to give you all of your fantasies Roxanne," he told her. 

Leaning back, he found the zip and slid it downward then turned back to her and held out his hand.  D
esire sizzled through her just as cold wind swept through the tent and she shivered.  It was cold outside, and they'd just gotten dry. 

This lover, this man was her fantasy.  Anything he did to her body was better than any fantasy she could ever conjure.
  "Close the tent, and come here, Ethan," she told him then laid back on the soft bedroll and opened her arms to him.

Ethan sat there a moment
breathing hard, then zipped the tent back up and crawled to lay beside her again.  With a huffed breath, he rolled onto his back and put his hands behind his head.  "I really need to talk to you, baby," he told her and Rocky shot up to her knees. 

Frustration mixed with desperation shot through her and Rocky leaned over him and
demanded, "No talking,
loving,
" before she straddled him.

He grabbed her hips and held her still, her core to his hot need.  "I can't do this until I get this off of my chest, baby.  And you need to hear it."

With a huffed sigh, Rocky slid off of him to lay by his side, then told him, "Get it off your chest, Ethan."

"Someone is trying to kill me," he informed baldly.
  "I hadn't planned on telling you, but I think it's only fair since we're stuck out here, and I think you're in danger too."

His words were like cold water thrown over her, and
Rocky sucked in a breath, her body tensing, while her bullshit meter weighed his statement. 

"Why would someone want to kill you?  I'm the only one who should have that motivation," she replied with a short laugh.

"I don't know yet, but my accident was no accident, according to the fire investigator who reviewed the scene.  And my truck wreck wasn't either."

Rocky rolled over to face him and pushed her tangled hair out of her eyes.  She couldn't see anything in the darkness, except when a lightning bolt moved across the sky outside
to illuminate the tent.  In those flashes, she saw truthfulness in his eyes, and fear.

"I don't get it," she told him with a shake of her head.  "If they wanted to kill you, why not just put a bullet in your head?"

"Too obvious, I guess," he said and blew out a breath, then rolled onto his back to put his hands beneath his head.  "I think they want to make it look like an accident."

It was too tempting for her not to lay her h
ead on his shoulder and put her arm over his bare chest.  "Why do you think I'm in danger?  And why didn't you want to tell me?" she asked remembering his stop-and-go attempts at explanations last night. 

That led her to
remember the hateful words he uttered in the next breath.  Words that not only pissed her off, but confirmed that he had used her the night by the lake.  Would have used her again tonight, with her permission, if he hadn't put a stop to things.

S
he had been ten kinds of fool to trust Ethan Cassidy, and ten more for being weak and wanting more of it.  Here we go, she thought as emotion balled up in her chest. 

Sucking in a deep breath, she fought it back, but held onto it too, because she had to remember that the man she was cuddled up to here was that kind of man.
  Given the chance, he would do the same thing to her again.  Rocky wasn't giving him another chance.

"
Because you're with me out here," he told her then answered her second question.  "I didn't tell you, because I didn't want Terri to know, because she would tell mama and then both of them would have a worry fest.  My dad didn't want her to know either."

Keep the women in the dark, feed them a daily dose of bullshit, and you have some pretty awesome mushrooms when you're done.  Typical male mentality, Rocky thought.
  When Terri found out, she was going to be pissed, and she would find out, because Rocky was going to tell her.  Just as soon as she was out of here. 

It sounded to her like he was being paranoid
anyway, because even if they thought something at that fire and his accident was hinky, it was unlikely a killer would be tracking him way out here. They were out in the middle of a huge canyon wilderness.  It would take a lot of determination and effort for a stalker to follow them out here.

She snorted then said,
"I hardly think that a killer is going to follow you out here in the boondocks, Ethan.  But if I'm in danger by being out here with you, when you're at the ranch, it would make sense that Terri could be in danger too."

"I knew you'd say that,
and that's exactly why I decided not to tell you last night.  I did tell Joel, so he could keep an eye on her though."

Fear for Terri shot through her as she asked,
"So, why tell me now?  I'll still tell her, she's my friend and needs to know so she can take care of herself.  Keeping her in the dark isn't right."

Ethan
leaned up on his elbow and pinned her with his eyes.  "I found out this morning that the suspect is here at the search.  We're not safe, Roxanne, you're not safe, and it's driving me nuts that we're stuck out here for God knows how long.  I should have let Wes give you another partner."

"Let him?" Rocky asked with a niggling feeling in her chest.

"Yeah, he told me we would be paired up earlier this morning.  I should have told him to put you with someone else, but he thought it was a good idea for us to be partners, and I wanted to be with you."

Surprise floated through her.  "You wanted to be with me?
  I thought it was just bad karma," she told him with a nervous laugh.

"Yes, I did," he replied
laying back down, then added, "I wanted to make sure you were safe, and I also needed to talk to you," he told her gravely.  "I've decided to leave the ranch, so you will come back.  Terri and Joel need you there."

This morning, that statement would have made her the happiest woman in the world, right now it just caused a sense of
unease to fill her.  His injury meant that Ethan's job prospects were limited.

"You don't have to leave, Ethan.  The ranch needs you too much, Terri needs you
, and she's happy you're there.  I have another job, you don't."

"Medics are a dime a dozen, she'll find someone else," he told her, but his voice
held regret and lacked conviction.  "Good horse trainers on the other hand, not to mention good friends, are hard to find.  She was pretty upset this morning when you left."

Rocky snorted and made circles on his chest with her finger while she told him, "I was pretty upset too."

Ethan pulled his hands from behind his head and put his arms around her.  With a squeeze he told her, his voice full of emotion.  "I know you were, sweetheart, and I wish I could eat the words I said to you last night.  Not a damned one was true."

Rocky tensed, then asked bluntly,
"Why did you say them then?"

Emotion
welled up inside her again and she shoved it back, but she couldn't shove back her renewed anger at his callous words to her. 
It was nice, it was good, but it's over, Roxanne.

"Because it was the easy way out
, and I was a coward," he replied darkly.

"Because you used me, got what you wanted and wanted me to leave you alone?"  Rocky
replied angrily, pushing up to sit and glare down at him.  "Well, you got your wish, Ethan.  I wouldn't be here with you right now if you weren't jerking me around like saltwater taffy.  Stop messing with me, just leave me the hell alone and you'll have what you want."

"No, I won't," he told her and his voice wavered.
She felt the intensity of his stare, even though she couldn't see it.  "I knew if I told you what I'd done you'd hate me more than you do now."

"
I don't think that's possible," she told him with an angry snort.  Resentment at him for getting her worked up again surged through her, which only intensified her anger at him. 

How the hell could a woman love and hate a man at the same time with equal intensity?  Rocky had no idea, but that was exactly what she was feeling.

"I made love to you by the lake, knowing that I was possibly leaving Amarillo.  I applied for the Captain's job in Henrietta.  If I got it, I knew I was leaving.  I let you think I was staying so you would talk to Wes.  I didn't tell you all that the night at the lake, because I wanted to keep my options open.  That's what Terri and I had been arguing about earlier, and avoiding your questions is why I avoided you last week."

"You used me, that's not news, Ethan.  I figured that out all on my own," she grated out, then asked,
"So you got the job?"  Doubting all his motives, she figured maybe that was why he was so willing to leave the ranch now, to tell her all of this.  It wasn't just so she would go back there.

"No, I didn't get the job, I'm not physically capable of doing it
anymore, according to my dad anyway," he told her, his voice gruff and laced with hurt.

"So, you're still leaving the ranch?  Without a job?" she asked with a snort.  "Why?  I'm already gone, and I have a job."

"Because guilt is ripping me apart," he admitted.  "Because you love that job, and Terri and Joel love you.  I don't want to be the cause of you leaving."

"What will you do?" Rocky asked him
, because dammit she did care, even though she didn't want to care.  With his injury, it was going to be damned tough for him to find another job, especially in the field he was in.  He had worked too damned hard to get better for him to wind up jobless and depressed again.

He sat up and tilted his head listening
for something.  "Hey, I think the storm let up," he told her then got up to his knees and unzipped the tent to peer outside.  It was obvious he was avoiding answering her, and Rocky was okay with that, because she wanted to be done with this frustrating conversation.

"Still raining?" she asked and he didn't answer for a second.

"Um, no, but I think we have another problem..." he told her then scrambled out of the tent to stand.   Searching around the ground, he found his jeans and slipped them on, then turned back toward her. 

"Get dressed, quick!"

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"What's wrong?" Rocky asked with adrenaline shooting through her.  Crawling out of the tent, she bent to find her wet clothes, then wrung them out.  When she slid her wet jeans over her warm skin, she sucked in a sharp breath and chill bumps raised all over her body.

"
Flash flood, and it's coming up quick.  We need to move, now!" he ground out, then shoved his feet into his soggy boots.

Rocky didn't put on her bra, she slid her wet shirt over her shoulders and buttoned it, then looked toward the tree line.  Water flowed through the opening there like the creek had at the R & R the night Terri had almost drowned. 
Angry, frothing water surged through the trees and it was getting deeper across the field by the minute.

Her eye
s backtracked when she saw Reed a couple of trees down from that opening, pulling against his reins, snorting and dancing.  Ethan had tied him to a tree
by his reins
!

"Good, God,
are you trying to kill my horse
?!?" she shouted, then sharp rocks poked the bottom of her feet as she scurried over them to reach the ground.  Trudging through calf-deep water she ran toward Reed.

"Rocky, wait!" Ethan shouted behind her.  He watched the crazy cowgirl drop down into the swift flowing current, before she fought against
it as she ran for her horse like a mama bear trying to save a cub.

That current could take
her feet from under her in a heartbeat, Ethan knew that, but evidently she didn't.  If she lost her footing, she could drown.  Even six inches of water could drown someone if they were swept under with a current like this.  With swift, shallow water, you couldn't walk
or
swim in it.  You could just get swept along for the ride, and hope you could find a way out.   

And it was dark now, pitch black, if she fell he'd never be able to find her.

He walked to the edge of the rocks, then sat down and pulled off his boots again.  If his feet were swept from under him, those boots would fill and drag him under.  Sucking in a breath, he stood in the water, got his balance then started toward the trees. 

Rocky was halfway to the horse, and he was about halfway to her, when a sizable branch took his feet out from under him.
  Ethan landed with a loud splash, and sucked in a good deal of water, before he coughed then yelled, "Rocky, get out of here!" 

He was going to do his
best to save himself, but he couldn't help her now.  Ethan was a little busy trying to keep his head above the water.  He could only pray she made it to her horse, and could ride him to higher ground.

"Hang on," she yelled back, or that's what he thought she said. 

Her voice was so faint, and he was fighting to keep himself vertical in the water.  There wasn't any use in trying to swim, he knew, so he just focused on keeping his position right,  and his head out of the water, until he got somewhere deeper where he could swim, or he could find some way to pull himself out. 

It
was so dark he could only see the swirling water around him, so the likelihood of him finding something to pull himself out was slim.  If he wasn't careful, what he might find was a rock to knock himself out though, he really would drown then.

Ethan heard loud splashing behind him, but he couldn't lose focus by looking back
, he was being swept too fast.  The splashing got louder and more violent, then a rope hit the water in front of him, at least he hoped that was what it was, he couldn't see it.  Instinctively, he grabbed for it, and his body jerked when the rope tightened then he spun over and was suddenly flipped face down in the water, but he tried to hold on.

Suddenly, he was being dragged against the current, and his mouth and nose were filling with water.  He couldn't keep his head above the water, so he had no choice but to let go of the rope.

"Dammit, Ethan!" Rocky growled, then kicked her horse and Reed bolted forward. 

She
kneed Reed to a canter and threw the rope again and it missed, then quickly coiled it again.  The only thing she had to aim at in the dark water was brief flashes of his skin when his upper body came out of the water.

Leaning low over Reed's neck
she urged him faster, then holding on with her knees she made the loop bigger, wound up and tossed it at Ethan again, as Reed staggered trying to keep his legs under him in the current.  The loop landed over his shoulders, or she thought it did, so Rocky pulled it tight and gave Reed the command to back.

"Holy shit!  You're gonna hang me!" Ethan yelped
pulling at the rope around his neck, before he went under the water again. 

Panic shout through Rocky and she slid out of the saddle.  Landing in the calf-deep rushing water she held onto the rope then ran toward Ethan.

It could have only been seconds, but it felt like hours by the time she reached him and pulled on his arm to help lift him out of the water. 

Fighting to stand in the unbelievably strong current, she looked over her shoulder,
got a good grip on the rope and Ethan, then pulled on the rope and clicked to Reed.  He made a few steps forward and stopped.  That gave her enough slack to loosen the loop and pull the loop and put his right arm through it, so it was under his armpits, instead of around one arm and his neck.  He clutched his neck and coughed violently then his chin fell to his chest and fear shot through her.  Her grip on his wet skin slipped and the current jerked him away from her, but as he was trained, Reed pulled back and held.

B
reathing hard from the adrenaline replacing the blood in her veins, Rocky knew her time for getting Ethan out of this raging water was running out.  It was getting deeper by the minute, and Ethan didn't look good at all.  Sucking in a deep breath to calm down, she kicked her dazed brain into gear.

Maybe if
she used Reed to drag Ethan with the current, instead of against it until she could find a shallow spot, so they could get out.  If she had something to put under his head that would float, it would keep his head up.

Mentally going over the contents of her saddle bags, she had an idea. 
The plastic tote they'd given her for her supplies would probably work if she filled it with air and tied off the end.  Rocky didn't think twice, she grabbed the rope and dragged her self upstream back to Reed, then dug through the bags and dumped out the supplies. 

Quickly, she held the end and blew into it, then took the rubber band out of her hair and closed the end.  Voila, an airbag! 

She was damned proud of herself for her ingenuity, as she grabbed the rope and splashed back toward Ethan, who still wasn't moving.  She put the bag under his head then tied the loop handles to the rope under his arms. 

Ethan moaned then opened his eyes clutching his throat as he coughed again.

"Oh, thank God!" she whispered and hugged him.

"Get out of here," he said weakly
, his voice a mere croak.

"I'm going to get you out of here, just hang on
, baby," she told him then kissed his forehead as relief and more emotion than she'd ever felt in her life surged through her. 

Rocky trudged
back through the now thigh deep water, holding onto the rope to help her fight the current.  The water was up to Reed's belly, so it was hard finding the stirrup and keeping her slippery foot in it to mount. 

When she finally got astride, she kneed
Reed forward, and Ethan swung out to the side, horizontal to the water his arms and legs flailing.  She kneed Reed faster to get past Ethan, so the rope would tighten.  Kneeing Reed again, he went faster, so they were moving swiftly downstream, dragging Ethan behind them. 

Rocky could only hope this was the
right thing to do, and that she didn't drown him.

She could barely see Ethan behind her,
had no idea how he was doing, so she only focused on trying to find the shallows fast, so she could drag him out.  It was the best she was going to be able to do.  The rest was up to God, so she sent up a silent prayer and kept moving forward. 

Stray lightning flashed in the sky, and s
he caught sight of a tree, actually saw the bottom of it, or she thought it was the bottom.  Rocky turned Reed toward it, and kneed him hard.  When she felt his front end lift as if he were walking up a hill, she breathed again.  He moved further up the small hill, then his legs found purchase on top of the hill and he pulled forward.  Rocky felt the drag of the rope against the saddle.

"Ouch!" Ethan yelled
behind her, and that was the sweetest sound she'd ever heard in her life.  "Rocks, dammit!" he cursed and she smiled, then slowed Reed. 

Pulling Reed to a stop, she vaulted out of the saddle, landing with a splash in ankle deep water, then grabbed the rope and scrambled toward Ethan.

When she got there, he was sitting up pulling the loop from under his arms.  "I've got a fucking rope burn, on my chest and neck!  You almost hanged me!" he griped then tossed the rope away from him like it was a snake.

"You're alive, Ethan.  Be thankful," she told him with a
choked snort.

"No thanks to you!" he grumped
loudly as he tried to stand up, but fell back down and cradled his head in his hands.

"Who the hell do you think pulled you out of that raging river?" she
asked indignantly.

"God, pulled me out, that's the only way I survived," he told her with a grunt.

"God helped for sure, I was praying enough for both of us, but he didn't put that rope around you and drag your ass out.  Reed and I did that," she told him with her hands on her hips.

His hand gripped her ankle like a steel band, then her feet were jerked from under her and she landed
hard on her butt with a splash beside him.  Before she knew what he was doing, Ethan pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly to his chest. 

"Thank you for not giving up, sweetheart."

Rocky's mouth was pressed into his neck, her arms pinned inside of his.  He was squeezing her so tightly, she almost couldn't breathe.

"
Welcome," she mumbled against his throat, then said, "Can't breathe," and his arms immediately loosened.

"I want to kiss you, Roxanne
Baker," he told her, his voice low and intense, right before he covered her mouth with his as if she were his last hope for air.  She hugged him tightly, kissing him back for all she was worth, letting him know without words that she was so glad he was alive, reminding herself that he was. 

Brea
thing hard she pulled back and felt lightheaded in her elation. "I'm so glad you didn't die," she muttered in a trembling voice.

With a snort, he told her arrogantly, "I'm like a cat, I have at least sev--
six
of my nine lives left now."  He'd told Brad the same thing at the pavilion, but now he had to subtract one.  He hoped his other six were a lot smoother than the three he'd used up so far had been.

"I used up a few of mine too I was so scared," she told him with a huffed
breath.  Thinking of what could have happened if her feeble efforts to save him hadn't worked made sickness gather in the pit of her stomach.

Ethan pulled her to him and squeezed her tightly, then praised,
"You did good, baby.  And it's gonna take more than that for you to get rid of me."

"No, I didn't, but the end result is what matters, I guess," she
said shaking her head.

"We have one horse, how are we going to get out of here now?" he asked her.  "We're probably at least ten miles from base camp now,
and we don't have a radio."

"Or supplies," she added then hesitantly explained, "I dumped them in the water, so I could use the bag for a floatation device."

"That was pretty smart, yet dumb at the same time, huh?" he said with a laugh and gave her a quick squeeze.

"Fixed the immediate problem, didn't it?" she told him defensively.

"It's a good thing you're out here with a boy scout," he said with a chuckle.  "Because I have my forage for food badge, and Lord knows we have enough fresh water."

"I
am
glad I'm out here with you, Ethan," she said seriously and put her head on his shoulder, rubbing her cheek against his skin. 

It seemed like
she couldn't get close enough to him right now.

He kissed the top of her head and
squeezed her again, then told her, "I'm glad you're out here with me too, even though I wish you were safe back at base camp."

"Safety is overrated," she replied with a snort
. "What's life without a little adventure."

"I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime, darlin', a little peace would be more than welcome right now," Ethan said then shivered.  "And a dry blanket."

"Well, it happens that this
girl
scout knows how to start a fire, but we need to find someplace dry to do that," Rocky told him then slid off his lap to stand.  "Think you can stand?" she asked reaching her hand out to help him get up.