Lifeline Echoes (36 page)

Ryan smiled, but the gravity of the
situation quickly returned. "Sandy, do you remember maybe running
into Brody MacKay yesterday?"

"Brody . . . no," she said slowly. "But. .
."

Ryan took a deep breath and stemmed his
impatience. His Angel was clearly struggling with a spotty
memory.

"Wait!" Sandy's excited voice came over the
radio again. "Alice! Her truck was broken down. I picked her up and
I was taking her . . . somewhere."

"Alice?
Mrs.
MacKay?" Ryan's
apprehension renewed itself. "Angel, I know it's hard, but it's
important that you remember where you were taking her."

Next to him, Justin stirred. "What is it,
son?"

"A big piece of what we’ve been missing,"
Ryan said in a harsh tone. "Ricky said 'she,' when he told us
someone threatened his mother. 'She,' not 'he.' Alice, not
Brody."

Sandy's voice came back, frantic. "Ry! I was
taking her to see Brody's cousin. She said he would get the truck
running or take her back home. She had me turn off the road. You
can barely see the track."

"Good girl. Did she give you a name?"

She was quiet for a few seconds. "Brandon?
Brendon?"

"Braden," Justin said decisively. "I know
where we're going. It'll be a left turn just beyond Diamond Peak.
Braden is—was MacKay's cousin. He died in a riding accident on the
trail heading up to the high pasture from Devil's Wash. Happened
before either of you were born."

Just after they passed Diamond Peak, Sean
slowed the truck. A sapling had been cut and arranged into an
arrow, just off the road. Barely slowing down, Sean turned onto the
track, cursing when the truck bounced violently.

"Sandy . . . Angel." Ryan forced himself to
keep his voice calm, but his heart was still lodged in his throat.
"We're almost to you. But Alice and Brody are up here ahead of
us."

Sandy's voice came over the radio again,
sounding very calm. "Ryan, Alice wants me dead. She hit me. She
must have pushed the truck over the cliff. Ryan! She said she would
kill you, too. She would make it look like you were so overcome
with grief that—"

"She won't hurt me, Angel. You hold on. It's
not just me on my white horse coming for you. It's the whole
town."

"I'm scared." Her voice shook and so did his
heart.

"You hold onto me, Angel. Hold onto my
voice."

The truck dipped into a rut, sprang back
out. Ryan bumped into his father.

With a final jolt, they barreled into a
clearing that ended in a sharp drop-off. MacKay's truck was there,
and so was the burgundy pickup that Ryan recognized as Colt's. Ryan
inhaled sharply when he checked the cliff's edge. An obvious gap
scarred the line of pine tree tops reaching up from below the
cliff-face. Tire tracks in the layer of dust and shale ended at the
cliff's edge.

The men riding with them were already out,
assessing the situation, as another pickup and the sheriff's
cruiser roared into the clearing.

With confidence he didn't feel, Ryan spoke
into the radio. "We're here, Angel. Just a few more minutes. Are
you holding on?"

"I'm here."

Clutching the handset like the lifeline it
was, Ryan carefully made his way to the edge of the cliff. It was
just a shelf of crumbling shale and he had no way of knowing how
unstable it might be. He held up a hand to warn the other
volunteers back. Then he dropped to the ground and crept forward on
his belly. Although he knew he should wait for safety gear, he was
driven by a sense of urgency to get to Sandy.

He spotted Justin's pickup immediately, a
bloody red wound amid the dark pine boughs. Oh boy. Not good.
Drawing a cleansing breath, he forced his swelling emotions into a
cocoon of objectivity.

"She's maybe fifty feet down," he called
over his shoulder. "With about another seventy-five feet to the
bottom. Truck's lodged between the top half of a Blackjack and this
cliff. It's listing sideways and it's not even close to stable." He
eased away from the cliff edge, and spoke into the radio. "Angel,
we're gonna get you. Just hold on and don't move. Can you give me
your status? You said you had a head injury. Any other injuries?
Broken bones?"

The sharp crack of breaking wood was muffled
by the trees. Ryan froze. Then came the sickening sound of rocks
falling. His objectivity faltered. With a final groan of bending
metal, the sounds and movement abruptly ceased. Ryan cautiously let
out the breath he'd been holding.

"Sean, what kind of gear you got in your
truck?" Ryan called out.

His brother shook his head. "No climbing
gear, man. Better wait for Search and Rescue."

"No time!" Ryan strode toward the back of
Sean's truck. "You got any rope?"

The bushes on the other side of the clearing
rustled.

A grim-faced Justin leveled his rifle at the
sound, dropping it quickly when Colton Ford stepped into the
clearing.

"I've got climbing gear," Colt called out,
crossing to his pickup. He popped open the back window on the cap
and pulled out orange nylon climbing rope and two harnesses. "Who
has climbing experience?"

"I do," Ryan said quickly. "Mostly off
buildings but some rock-face."

Colt eyed Ryan critically. "You're pretty
banged up. You good for this?"

He had to be. There was no one else and they
were out of time. He nodded once. "I'm good."

Colt began clipping connectors and testing
them, fitting one harness onto Ryan and adjusting it. He spoke
quickly as his hands performed their efficient work. "It's not an
ideal cliff with all that loose rock. We'll do a dual top climb
using a belay system. Let me set the anchor then we'll go from the
side. You'll go down first and get her out and I'll guide and run
safety. Yours is a tandem harness." He tapped a connective clip on
the blue harness. "When you get her out, use this to secure her in
place with you. It's going to be awkward."

Ryan nodded. "Got it."

Ford took the radio from Ryan and handed it
to Sean. "She has to be ready to go. We need to know what side
she's on and if the window is down or up."

"Ask her about injuries." Ryan
double-checked his harness. "Back and neck, arms or legs. She's an
EMT. She'll have self-assessed. We need to know how much help she's
going to be getting her out."

Sean spoke into the radio, listened to
Sandy's answer, spoke again.

"She's stiff because she hasn't been
moving," he reported. "She's changed position from where she first
found herself and doesn't think she has any spinal injuries. She's
lying across the seat with her head on the passenger side. The
window's up but she can reach the handle. She's moving very
carefully to roll it down now."

Colt nodded. "Good. Let's go."

The minute Ryan's feet swung free of the
cliff, his training kicked in, and he surveyed the truck with an
objective eye from his fresh perspective.

"The truck's barely hanging on," he called
up to Ford. "We're only going to get one shot at this."

When he drew even with the passenger window,
Ryan could see the truck was listing so badly, it was going to be
more of a topside extraction than parallel. At least she'd gotten
the window down.

"Sandy, I'm here." He spoke just loud enough
to be heard, keeping his voice even. Ryan tried to see into the
cab, not surprised when the angle of approach made that impossible.
A strong breeze tickled the pine trees and the truck wobbled.

Ryan looked up at Colt. "If I touch the
truck at all, it's gone."

"Okay, heads-up, McGee."

Ryan looked up to see Colt lowering another
nylon rope attached by a clamp and pulley. The end was tied into a
loop.

"Have her loop this under both arms," said
Colt. "She should be able to do that without moving too much. Once
it's secure, we'll drag her up and out."

It took two tries for Ryan to hit the open
window with the rope. He spoke calmly as he worked to get the rope
to her, relaying Ford's instructions, reassuring her.

The moan of stressed metal grew louder, a
sickening reminder of the truck's precarious position.

Loose gravel fell from above. "Crap!" Ryan
shied away from the bite of the gravel on his neck and arms.

"What's the matter?" Sandy called out from
inside the truck. Fear resonated in her voice.

Before he could respond, a deafening crack
sounded and the tree branch gave away. The truck fell another three
feet, crashing into the next branch down with the sickening crunch
of breaking wood.

Sandy shrieked.

Ryan eased back into breathing when he saw
the branch was holding. "Still there, Angel?"

She took a moment to answer. "Have I told
you I'm terrified of heights?"

He'd held on to his objective
professionalism until he saw her. Already half out of the window,
she hadn't had time to get both arms through the loop. The only
thing keeping her from going with the truck was a loop of rope
under one arm and her white-knuckled grip on that rope with both
hands.

"Keep holding that rope." When she nodded,
Ryan heaved. Fire shot through his injured arm. He clenched his jaw
and breathed through the worst of the pain. Above him, Colt cursed
and adjusted the pulley system. Steadily, Ryan hauled Sandy up.
Finally her feet were clear of the truck. Colt guided her closer to
Ryan.

"Don't let go, sweetheart."

Her eyes were looking up at him, huge blue
sapphires set in ivory. Then she was at his level and Ryan used the
rope to draw her in. He cursed as he fought to secure her into the
dual harness with hands that shook. His fingers felt frozen.
Finally, he slid the clip into place and twisted it closed. Colt
began the process of raising them to the top of the cliff.

The branch beneath them cracked and the
truck slipped again. Sandy looked down and shivered. "Oh,
crap."

"Sandy! Look up here. Look at me. Don't look
down, don't think about anything but moving up this cliff with
me."

Her wide eyes locked onto Ryan's and stayed
there without blinking, as she followed each instruction. He kept
talking, soothing, encouraging, not knowing exactly what he was
saying but using his voice to keep her attention on him.

Then Colt was over the top and Ryan couldn't
see him anymore. Sandy's hands wrapped around his waist, her nails
digging into the skin beneath his shirt. He barely felt it. Sean
reached out to help Sandy over the edge of the cliff.

"You're okay, Angel. You won't fall." Very
slowly, one hand at a time, she released her hold on him and took
Sean's hands.

Colt reached over to help Ryan and then he
was over the top and on the shale. Quickly, they scrambled away
from the fragile edge.

Ryan turned, and there she was, standing in
front of him, tears freely rolling over her cheeks. He brushed her
hair back behind her ear. "Sandy," he whispered. "Angel." He leaned
his forehead against hers, feeling the last of his adrenaline drain
in a rush of relief, leaving his legs weak. For the first time
since he'd been a boy of twelve, he felt the sting of tears burning
his eyes.

He pulled her closer into his embrace,
sliding his hands along her back and pulling her tightly against
him. He couldn't tell if the sobs that shook them were coming from
her or from him. He'd waited so long to hold this woman, his Angel.
He might have lost her without ever knowing he'd found her. What
had once felt like an endless spiral of searching had become a
closed circle.

"All those years of looking and you were
right here. Thank God I found you again." Ryan took her lips. He'd
meant the kiss to be gentle. But she kissed him back fiercely, her
hands fisted in his shirt. With a groan he matched her ferocity,
one hand planted in the small of her back, the other sliding
through her hair to cup her face.

He leaned back and saw with satisfaction
that this was a woman who had been well and truly kissed. Anything
else would have to wait.

Sandy's laugh was weak.
"
That
was a
kiss."

"Guess I'm starting to do it right." Ryan
smoothed her hair, cupped the back of her neck, pulling back
swiftly at her sudden sharp intake of breath. Turning her slightly,
Ryan took in the large purple swelling at the base of her skull,
the long jagged cut in the center, the ooze of fresh blood.

A strong desire to murder Alice MacKay
settled into his brain.

Lifting her easily, Ryan strode toward
Sean's truck.

"No hospital," she murmured. "Please."

"We're just going to take you up to Jackson
and get you checked out."

She remained firm. "I want to go to the
ranch. I want to go home."

Ryan's arms tightened around her. "Okay,
Angel, I'll take you home."

"Ryan, put me down and listen to me. It's
important." Sandy spoke with a sense of urgency as she struggled to
see his face. "It's Alice. It's been Alice and Brody causing all
the problems at the ranch."

"I know, honey." He allowed her to get her
feet under her. "She and Brody came up here to finish you off."

"You should have stayed away," sneered Brody
from behind him. "I warned you people would get hurt if you didn't
leave."

Ryan spun around, shielding Sandy with his
body.

But Penelope Sherwood already had Brody
MacKay cuffed and was leading him toward DC's patrol car.

"Exercise your right to remain silent,
MacKay," said the deputy. "Or you're gonna have an accident that
involves needing your jaw wired shut."

"Where's the old lady?" Ryan asked, his
fists clenched. "Where's Alice?"

"She slipped off into the woods," Penny
said. "Colt was tracking her but I sent him back to help you."

"She's right here." The grim voice belonged
to Dale Pratt, Brenda's father. As he spoke, he propelled a subdued
Alice MacKay forward by her arm, twisted tightly behind her
back.