Cowboys in Her Heart

by Jan Springer

  Rafe’s gut hollowed out and for a moment he couldn’t breathe. He felt as if he’d been sucker-punched.

  Beside him, Dan swore.

  “What are the co-ordinates?” Rafe asked as he rushed into the living room to the corner cabinet where they kept the topographical maps.

  Brady read out the co-ordinates JJ had given with her distress call.

  Rafe knew the area. It was several miles north of the new shelter in some of the densest forest with plenty of rocky hills, towering pines and gorges. It was not a good place to go down in an emergency especially since there weren’t any lakes out in that area. He also knew that when a pilot sent out an incomplete distress call, the plane could travel many miles, if the problem wasn’t serious. He held out hope it wasn’t too serious. To think of any alternative, all bad, would simply send his mind spiralling into madness.

  “I’ll get some grub and water for us,” Brady growled as he began grabbing dried food items from cupboards and placing them on the dining table.

  Rafe looked at Dan, who shrugged and shook his head.

  “There’s no way I’m sitting around waiting for some search party to return to looking,” he continued. “If the plane has gone down, they need help now. I need to be out looking for her and not waiting around here. Shit! Now I understand how she feels when she says she can’t stay here when one of us is in trouble,”

  Rafe placed the topographical map onto the kitchen table and both he and Dan studied the map.

  “You and I can get to the area via the motorboat,” Rafe suggested to Dan as he ran a finger along a river system. “We’ll tow a canoe behind the boat and then start portaging into the river system. There are several rivers in that area. They’ll be easier to travel than through the bush.”

  “Hey, man. I’m going too,” Brady called out. “My legs might not be all there, but I can still hoof it as good as you guys.”

  Rafe knew Brady believed he could do it, but Rafe knew better. He caught Dan’s slight shake of his head.

  “I’m wondering if maybe you should head up to the new cabin with an all terrain vehicle, in case she headed back there? She may or may not stay with the plane. We should cover all our bases,” Rafe suggested to Brady.

  He didn’t want to tell Brady outright that he would only slow them down during portages and when they left the canoe and travelled into the dense wilderness on foot. Truth be told, he didn’t want Brady with them in case there’d been a crash.

  Brady frowned. Was he picking up on the hint?

  “We haven’t outfitted a sat phone at that cabin yet. She left her phone here,” He pointed to the phone set on a kitchen chair. “If they do get there and decide to use the all terrain vehicles on site, on the trail at night, with her not being experience with night driving…” Dan added slowly.

  “Fine,” Brady huffed. “I will go out there. But we stay in touch via sat phone at every hour. Top of the hour.”

  Rafe nodded. “Okay. Dan pack the maps and help Brady with getting grub for us. Brady, bring a first aid kit with you too. Just in case. Dan, I’ll get a sat phone, extra fuel for the motor, and first aid kit and meet you down at the boat.”

  God help them, he hoped the emergency supplies would not be needed.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Milena asked JJ as they trudged through the dense underbrush. JJ led the way, with Milena holding her hand. It was dark and the ground was tricky to maneuver with fallen logs to step over and branches that slapped against their faces. The only form of light was a small flashlight that she kept in the plane. She also had an emergency box of waterproof matches, candles, some flint, dry food such as raisins, peanuts, instant soups, chocolate bars and a couple of bottles of water in her emergency pack.

  She was also very grateful she kept a compass and detailed map that Dan had given her after they’d purchased the plane. He’d instructed her on how to use those items. He had told her to keep them in her pack. Just in case, he’d said. Map and compass were coming in very handy now.

  “I’m okay. A bit roughed up. But baby is sleeping soundly.” Truth of the matter was when she’d glided the plane down, the left pontoon had snapped off the top of a towering pine tree as they’d glided into the small meadow she’ spied at the last minute. It had turned the plane and set her onto a path she hadn’t wanted to go on. So it had been a very rough landing as the wheels beneath the pontoon hadn’t liked the tall tangled grass and overgrown bushes. They’d both been jostled against their seat belts and she was experiencing some lower back discomfort. She prayed the baby was okay.

  She knew it was protocol to stay with the plane during an emergency, but after a quick engine check she realized parts were needed. Luckily the pontoon had only suffered a mild dent. The wheels appeared to be okay but she couldn’t be sure a hundred percent.

  There hadn’t been any safe area in the overgrown meadow to build a fire to stay warm for the night. She’d left the emergency locator on in the plane when they’d left it, and she’d etched cuts out of the bark of trees with her small jackknife every twenty or so feet until they hit the river. When someone found the plane, they could follow them.

  She’d decided it best they keep moving to stay warm and follow a river they’d found using the map. According to map and compass this river would eventually lead them to the lake with the new cabin. She continued to hope, perhaps naively, they would find a suitable area for a campfire along the river, but nothing yet.

  Milena had fallen silent and JJ noticed the wind was picking up. They were warm enough with extra clothing, thermal underwear, and wool hats that she kept in the plane, but trudging through this forest brought back memories of the stormy morning when they’d gone in to rescue Brady.

  “How about you? Are you cold?” JJ asked, keeping the conversation going. She’d rather talk than listen to the branches cracking overhead.

  “My hands and feet are a bit chilled, but I can handle it. I don’t need that pocket warmer yet.”

  JJ had the pocket warmer in the knapsack and had wanted Milena to use it as JJ wore the only pair of warm gloves. She’d offered to take turns with the gloves with Milena, but she had refused them and the pocket warmer citing JJ needed to stay warm for the baby’s sake.

  “It’s starting to rain,” Milena whispered in a strangled voice.

  No!

  Sure enough as JJ lifted her face upward, cold drops of water dripped against her skin.

  Her enthusiasm for getting out of this predicament without too much difficulty shortened out. Had they stayed with the plane, they would have at least been dry. She had only one small raincoat in the emergency pack. One of them was going to get very cold and very fast if the rain picked up.

  JJ’s heart plummeted as lightning flickered through the canopy of trees.

  Oh no! She’d screwed up. They should have stayed with the plane. Now they were going to pay for her stupidity.

  Rafe and Dan paddled as best they could along the wide river through the darkness. They’d strapped a battery-operated spotlight to the front of the canoe and that allowed them to see a short distance ahead. The river they’d picked was deep and ran directly along the co-ordinates JJ had given the authorities. She could have veered off to the right or to the left and be miles off, but when one was looking for a needle in a haystack, so to speak, one had to start somewhere.

  “She should have taken her satellite phone with her. That would have solved a lot of problems,” Rafe grumbled angrily from the seat in front of Dan.

  “She probably forgot it there with all that was going on,” Dan replied, trying to protect JJ. But Rafe was right. JJ was the one who was always calling out to them before they left for work to make sure they had their phones on them in case of an emergency.

  “Make sure you have your sat phone? Did you pack your sat phone? Let me see it, just to make sure,” she’d say. Her eyes would glisten happily when one or all of them w
ould show her their phones.

  She was like a mother hen, always reminding them. Then what does she go and do? Forgets her damn phone. The girls had probably been chatting and excited to go out and JJ hadn’t picked it up.

  “JJ, baby, you are so going to pay for this,” Dan mumbled.

  He watched Rafe reach down for the blow horn. Brady had bought the item at an auction sale in Thunder Bay the first year they’d been on the ranch. Back then there hadn’t been a ranch house. They had had just a tent, an open pit for a fireplace to cook on and a forest full of bears that came too close for comfort. They’d gotten tired of bear steak pretty quick and Brady stated the blow horn would come in useful to scare away bears. It had.

  Hopefully it would come in useful this time with JJ.

  “JJ! Jennifer Jane! Milena!” Rafe shouted through the horn.

  Dan wasn’t sure if JJ or Milena heard and then responded, that they would even hear them with the water splashing against the side of the aluminum canoe, the rush of the wind through the branches and now thunder grumbling somewhere off in the distance.

  Man! Could this scenario get any worse? It was a good thing this hadn’t happened in calving season, Dan thought as he stopped paddling while Rafe called again. He knew they would all still have come out in search for her, but the added burden of not being there to help the cows give birth would have weighed on them. But JJ was top priority. She would always take precedence now over everything. JJ and the baby.

  His gut clenched at the thought of losing both or one. And what about Milena? Locked up for so many years only to get out and then die in a plane crash.

  They’d been paddling now for hours. In another couple of hours, it would be daybreak and the professional search plane would be sent out again, if weather permitted.

  Desperation grabbed at Dan. What if they were never found? Bush planes went down in this vast wilderness every year. Most were found. Some people alive…some dead…yet some…were never found.

  Rafe inhaled a shuddering, slow breath and forced his thoughts away from visions of a violent crash. JJ was a good pilot. Hell, hadn’t she brought down that plane on small lakes without a problem? She’d been taught by one of the best pilots too.

  They would find JJ and Milena. They had to. There was no other option.

  “Still no sign of them?” Brady repeated what Dan had just told him over the sat phone. The sun was up now and Brady still hadn’t been able to reach the new cabin. With the overnight wind, a couple of trees had come down over the trail and he’d had to chainsaw with hands that still didn’t work one hundred percent. With the rain, the trail had gotten muddy in spots making it hard to maneuver the machine, slowing him down some.

  “Sorry,” Dan said. “We’ve been in touch with search and rescue and they’ve sent two planes out and are doing a grid search. One to the south of us and the other to the north of the new cabin. Stay in that area. She might even go for the railroad to flag down the engineer. She has a compass and a map.”

  Brady could barely hear him, even with the engine shut off. Had he said she had a compass and a map? Or had that been wishful thinking? The connection crackled, the wind was blowing like a bitch and it was creating a chill in him. He needed to get to the new cabin, get warmed up and start looking at the other shelters and the railroad.

  He had no doubt that JJ, if she had survived a crash, and was able to move, would have left the plane to search for appropriate shelter so they could stay warm. The forested area north of their ranch was so dense, that the smallest fire in an inappropriate spot could start a forest fire. Even after last night’s rain, he knew the warm sun would quickly dry up the trail and woods.

  Brady shuddered at the thought of a crash and tried to focus on JJ and the baby and Milena being okay.

  He didn’t want to imagine JJ being injured and trapped in the tangled wreckage of the plane. Couldn’t even bring himself to think about what might have happened to his baby. Didn’t want to contemplate that both women and his baby might be dead. But those thoughts hounded him like the devil itself. That creepy feeling that had been haunting him for months of something happening with JJ because of that damned plane, hadn’t been some sort of anxiety shit. It had been a premonition. A warning that he should have acted upon.

  “I’m almost at the north cabin. Talk next hour. Over and out.” Brady waited for a reply, but none came. He holstered his phone and started the machine. When he got his hands on his woman, he swore he was going to make sure she never left that ranch house ever again even if he had to tie her to his bed!

  Brady stared at the smoke uncurling from the chimney in the new cabin as he stood outside beside the atv. He’d been here about an hour now. He’d changed clothing. Cooked up some food, not that he was hungry, but he needed to feed himself in order to stay healthy. He knew he should lie down and rest his stiff, painful legs and get some sleep, but he needed to get back out on the trails. Needed to keep looking.

  He settled his helmet onto his head and was about to start the atv when something in the nearby forest caught his eye. A flash of black. Bear? Oh crap, that was the last thing he needed right now. He heard a stick crack. Saw movement.

  Definitely some animal in the forest. He waited. Maybe it would just pass by? Or maybe it was hostile and hungry?

  Slowly, he strolled to the trailer attached to the atv. He kept his rifle there. It was fully loaded but with the safety on. Being out in the wilderness, unarmed, was not a good idea. He took his attention off the movement to unlatch the rope that held his plastic-wrapped rifle. Then he pulled out his weapon, raised it and waited.

  Two figures stumbled out of the woods. At first, he thought he must have fallen asleep and was dreaming.

  But when they waved to him, he could only stand there and shake his head with shock. And then reality crashed through him and he was running.

  JJ swore she had never been hugged so hard than when Brady grabbed her and lifted her off her feet, twirling her around as if she was a rag doll. She winced as her sore back spasmed, but as he rained hot kisses all over her face, the pain was forgotten.

  “Good God! You are all right. I cannot believe it!” he shouted. He settled her on her feet and stared at her with the biggest smile she’d ever seen.

  “Sorry, I caused you guys to worry,” JJ whispered. Emotions overwhelmed her. Happiness that their misadventure was finally over. Guilt for causing them to worry and for endangering their baby.

  Tears sprang up, blinding her from seeing Brady. Her lower lip and chin went into a mad uncontrollable tremble.

  “I’m so sorry. So very sorry,” she sobbed.

  “You guys are okay. There is nothing to be sorry about, baby,” he murmured.

  His palm curled around hers and he squeezed reassuringly. She suddenly felt safe.

  “The baby?” he asked as he led them to the cabin.

  “We hit the ground really hard. She should be checked out by a doctor,” JJ heard Milena say.

  “I’ll make the arrangements right after I make you both a very hot and hearty meal. Are your clothes wet?”

  “Milena’s are. She made me wear this raincoat. Black is not my color.”

  To her surprise, Brady laughed.

  “I thought you were a bear. Had the rifle all ready to go. I was just about to leave and keep looking for you,” Brady said as he ushered them into the toasty cabin.

  “There’s extra clothing in the back room on one of the bunks. Men’s clothing, but warm. Off with the two of you, then come back and sit in front of the fireplace. I have stew with bear steak ready when you get out.”

  JJ nodded. She led Milena into the bunkroom and wiped away her tears. It was cool back here, but everything looked just the way they had left it when the four of them had stayed here their last night and she had tidied up the morning before they’d left.

  “He sure was glad to see you,” Milena chuckled as she began to undress. “I want a man who loves
me just like Brady loves you. Do you think it’s possible?”

  “Hey, girlfriend. If I can find love here in the middle of nowhere then you can too. It’s in the stars for us. Now let’s get out of these sweaty, damp clothes and grab some grub. I’m starving.”

  She wanted to see Brady again. Wanted to be with him. To tell him how much she loved him. Then she wanted to kiss Rafe and Dan like they’d never been kissed before. How she’d missed all three of them last night.

  Her tummy growled.

  She hoped that being hungry was a good sign. She smiled as she felt a butterfly kick against her abdomen. It seemed baby was okay too. Silently she sent up a huge prayer of thanks for all three of them making it back out alive.

  The next couple of days flew by so quickly, that JJ couldn’t believe Milena was about to fly away in the blue plane with Blue. Earlier this morning, Blue had flown in a doctor who made house-calls.

  JJ had already been on the phone with the remote bush doctor whom Blue had suggested when she heard about the accident. After answering all of Dr. Marley Jensen’s questions, the doctor had advised JJ to lay in bed until she could get out to see her. Paul had called too asking questions about the crash and if she had any symptoms. He’d also suggested bed rest.

  So, JJ had spent Milena’s last two days of freedom in bed. Milena had dotted on her and cooked meals for JJ’s men following JJ’s instructions. Milena had done a very good job, but JJ was itching to get out bed.

  Relief poured through her when the doctor arrived. After a thorough examination, Dr. Jensen had stated the baby was fine and the tense muscles in her lower back was due to a strain from the accident. The doctor had also said had JJ not been wearing her seatbelt correctly, things would not have turned out well for the baby. She’d given JJ some light physiotherapy exercises.

  The doctor was now in the plane with Blue, awaiting Milena to board.