by Becky McGraw
"Ethan you should probably leave," he advised with concern in his tone.
"I can't, I'm already on the search. We left base camp a few minutes ago," Ethan told him.
"Well you better be careful. I did go look at your truck, and had one of my evidence people go with me. We got a print from the fender weld, and it doesn't match yours," Inspector Gilley told him.
"You got a print from my truck?"
"A partial one yes. I haven't told you, but we also got one from the valve at the fire scene, and a good one from your faulty regulator too. They all match, but we don't know whose they are. There was blood on the valve too, the person who cut that propane line cut himself too in the process. I need to get a DNA sample from Mr. Thomas and a fingerprint. I hope he will give them to us voluntarily, if not I'm going to have to have more evidence to get a court order."
Ethan knew that Mr. Thomas had been in the service, and they always took fingerprints. "Did you check his service record? I think he was in the army when he was younger, they could have his prints."
"Oh, I didn't know that. I'll check that angle," he told Ethan with excitement in his voice. "If the prints match his, I can get the order for a DNA sample."
"Do you have any other suspects?" Ethan asked hoping against hope the inspector was just focusing on Brad's dad, because he didn't have any other suspects.
"No, we've weeded everyone out except him. If he doesn't pan out, then we'll have to start over again at zero."
Ethan barely held back a groan. "Well, I'll be out of pocket soon. The cell phone service out here isn't good. When I get signal, I'll call you back," Ethan told him then hung up the phone and stuffed it into his pocket.
A snort behind him reminded him that he wasn't alone. A fact that had slipped Ethan's mind while talking to Inspector Gilley. Ethan could only hope she hadn't heard the conversation.
That hope was dashed though when Rocky asked, "What the hell was all that about?" with curiosity and concern in her tone, then followed up with other rapid fire questions. "Who the hell is Brad, and why is his daddy being investigated?"
"None of your business," he replied gruffly and kneed Diamond to a faster pace, because they'd just reached an open trail. Maybe if he was as abrasive to her as she'd been to him, she would let it drop. He wasn't ready to tell her anything about the killer right now.
For one, they needed to focus on the job at hand, finding that little girl. Secondly, they still hadn't pinned down the culprit. Even though Brad's daddy was a suspect, he was innocent until proven guilty. Telling Rocky about the situation, that the potential suspect was here, would just distract her from the search and make her afraid for their safety.
Worrying about that was going to be his job.
Besides if he told her, Rocky would tell Terri when she got back to town, and that was the main reason he hadn't told her the other night. It was why he had taken his lumps and let her think what she thought about him.
His sister had enough on her plate with running the ranch, and being pregnant, without that added stress, so did his mom. Ethan had cornered Joel and after extracting a promise to keep it to himself, Ethan filled him in about the situation, then told him to watch out for Terri. His dad would watch out for his mother.
Besides, spreading the fact that Mr. Thomas was a suspect around wasn't fair to him, until they had definitive proof it was him.
Diamond, getting a little skittish beneath him, must have picked up on his tension. Ethan eased his posture in the saddle and loosened up his grip on the reins and she settled.
He sucked in a deep breath of the dry air of the canyon and let his eyes soak in the beauty around him. Palo Duro Canyon was one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
It was rugged and wild, rocky and rough, but in contrast it was a breathtaking visual experience. Vibrant color shifts from red to terracotta and white made the landscape appear to almost be painted by God. Sparse green vegetation and brown wheat grass softened the hard angles of the rock faces and provided shelter for the abundant wildlife in the area.
He knew that this was rattlesnake heaven, but at this time of the year, they probably weren't too bad. He hoped so at least. There was also cougars, mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes they would have to worry about.
Because there were so many people in the canyon most times, they usually stayed away from the populated areas, but he and Rocky were going offroad here, so they would have to keep their eyes open.
"It's pretty out here, isn't it?" he said trying to soften the mood between them and fill the silence that had descended.
"Yeah, it is," Rocky agreed grudgingly. It was obvious she was still bristling, because he refused to answer her questions.
"I used to come rock climbing out here," he told her longingly. He wouldn't ever be rock climbing again anywhere, Ethan knew that. His climbing days were over. These days he'd have to settle for walking.
After a minute she told him, "I've been trail riding out here with Dylan before. The horse camping facilities are great." Her tone wasn't quite as sharp, when she added, "I'll probably go over there tonight and sleep in the cab of the trailer. There's a bunk in there."
"I'll probably sleep in my truck, or pitch a tent beside it," he replied.
Silence fell between them again, then he suggested, "We should probably get off the trail, because if the kid was on it, someone would have seen her by now. I say we go that way," he pointed east toward an overgrown trail. It was passable, but not by much.
At her nod, he led the way through mesquite trees and brush, over the uneven rocky ground. After they were a little ways into the scrub, Ethan cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled loudly, "Amelia!"
His voice bounced off the rock walls then ricocheted through the area. They waited for a second, but there was no response, so they moved on through a stand of trees, which opened to a creek. Ethan followed the creek bank, stopping to call her name again every once and a while.
At one point, they had to enter the creek because the bank narrowed to nothing. About a mile down, it widened again, and Ethan led Diamond up onto the bank then told her, "Let's stop for a few minutes and get a drink. We don't want to get dehydrated."
"Okay," she agreed then followed him through a stand of trees to a wide open field covered in brush grass.
With a glance at the sky, Rocky noticed two things. The sun was a lot lower now, almost ready to fade behind the mesas, its warm orange light almost made the rocks appear to be glowing. The second thing she noticed was the dark angry looking clouds that were moving in from the west.
"Looks like it's gonna rain soon," she commented as she dismounted, then pulled a bottle of water out of her saddle bag. Just then distant thunder rumbled as if punctuating her words.
Uncapping the bottle, she took a long drink and it soothed her parched throat. This canyon was very dry, there wasn't much humidity in the air at all. With the threatening rain, she was sure that would change very soon though.
"Yeah, Wes said rain was forecast, but not until later tonight," Ethan told her, leaning on the saddle horn with a slight grimace.
Rocky told him with another look at the sky, "We probably should head back soon to make it back to camp before dark."
"We've probably got a little more daylight, so I think we should keep going for a mile or two more. I'd like to cover as much ground as we can, so they can narrow the search area tomorrow," Ethan argued. "We might even find her yet this evening, if we look a little more."
"Aren't you going to get down?" she asked him when he still hadn't dismounted.
She caught his slight flinch, but he covered it with a tight smile. "Nah, I'm good. Let's just get going," he told her and gathered up his reins.
"Get down and take a break," she insisted. Rocky had ridden enough, especially on trails, to know that if he didn't get down and stretch his legs, he wasn't going to be able to walk when he did dismount tonight. They had ridden down to the creek at the R & R a couple of times, but th
at was the most time he'd ever spent on a horse in one stretch. Right now they were going on three hours riding, so it was time.
"Seriously, Ethan, I think--" she started, but he held up a hand.
"I'm fine," he grated then sat up straighter in the saddle trying to hide his grimace.
Rocky dropped Reed's reins to ground tie him then walked over to Diamond. "You might be okay, but she needs a break. You're not a lightweight, and she isn't used to men riding her."
"Oh," he said and his eyebrows lifted in surprise, but he still didn't make a move to get off the horse. "Um, I might need help getting down," he finally admitted.
"Sore?" she asked with a smile.
"I think I'm fused to the saddle," he told her with a chuckle.
It served him right if his ass was on fire, but Rocky did have some compassion. The man had a bum back, he wasn't a long distance rider, and hell in all honesty he wasn't a rider at all. He had just learned, even though he had done well.
She stood beside Diamond and met his eyes to tell him, "Bring your right leg over the saddle and sit on top of her, then roll over on your belly and I'll help you slide down." When he managed to get his leg over, she encouraged, "That's it, easy now, hold the horn and roll on your hip then lay on your belly." He did as she instructed, then Rocky grabbed his hips to help him slide to the ground.
When his feet touched solid ground, he groaned and leaned his head against the saddle.
Rocky stepped back and chuckled. "Not as easy as it looks in those old westerns, is it?"
"Those guys probably have saddle leather for asses," he replied with a short laugh.
"Or they rode in ten minute stretches for a scene, then went to their air-conditioned trailers to rest between scenes."
"Why the hell didn't I think to do that?" he asked while easing up to stand, then turned to her with a wide grin. That smile hit her square in the chest, making her heart wiggle, before it melted and dripped southward to other parts of her body.
Why the hell did Ethan Cassidy have to turn out to be such a jerkwad, she wondered for the hundredth time since their showdown the other night. The first man she had let her defenses down with since Ashton Pence, and he had to turn out to be an asshole too.
And she had liked him...had even started thinking she might be falling in love with him. She had respected him, thought he was a hero even.
Boy, had she been mistaken.
But those fledgling feelings weren't easy to turn off, no matter how mad she was at him, and that made her madder still. Even now, all he had to do was flash that smile and turn up that playful volume on his personality to have her panting.
Disgusting.
Thunder rumbled overhead again and she looked up and saw a single lightning bolt streak across the darkening sky. "Hmm, looks like the weatherman and mother nature need a conference," she said.
The radio at her hip crackled, and she took it off and turned up the volume to hear what was being said. She had turned it down, because that crackle had gotten on her nerves and made Reed antsy after they left. She supposed Ethan had done the same thing, because she hadn't heard his at all.
"Front moving in...thunderstorms...shelter in place," the male voice on the radio told them. Rocky raised her eyes to Ethan's and saw worry there.
"We need to head back," he told her, then took Diamond's reins in his hands and grabbed the saddle horn.
"Where's your radio?" she asked.
"I accidentally left it in the truck," he told her, then added, "And I was already mounted, you were after me to hurry up, so I just left it. I knew you had yours."
"So, it's my fault?!?" She hooted then slapped her thigh. Now this was the man she was starting to hate. That Ethan was always lurking back there, she needed to remember that. She was surprised when he spun around on her, his fists clenched at his sides.
"No, it's not your fault, it's mine," he grated then finished, "Stop reading things into everything I say to you, Rocky. You did that the other night..." He stopped mid-sentence, and she wished he would finish, because she was damned curious what he would say.
He said nothing more, so she turned to walk back toward Reed and tossed over her shoulder, "And I was right, remember?"
"You weren't right, dammit! But I--"
"You couldn't come up with a good enough excuse or lie at the spur of the moment," she filled in for him then put her foot in the stirrup and swung up into the saddle. "I told you, I get it. Now let's do what we're here to do, find that girl."
Thunder sounded again, a second before a lightning bolt sizzled through the sky making the air crackle around them. "Let's go before we wind up fried like bacon," she said waiting for him to get back up in the saddle.
He wasn't paying attention to her, Ethan was studying the sky as if all the problems of the world could be solved there.
"Shelf cloud, this storm is gonna be bad," he warned, and as soon as he did Rocky saw the mesas fade under a blanket of steam or rain or something, and more thunder rumbled, then the air suddenly got really humid.
"We need to find somewhere to hold out, and we need to get out of this damn gully. That creek is going to rise," he told her then shook out each leg, before he took a deep breath and put his foot in the stirrup. She was impressed when he bounced a few times then managed to throw his leg over the saddle and stuff behind it.
She didn't know where he thought they were going to 'hold out', because there was nothing between here and the rock walls of the mesas, but open ground, and even she knew you do not ride out in the open, or hide out under trees during thunderstorms.
"Where?" she asked and turned Reed toward the mesa. "We can't ride out in the open to get to the mesa and find a cave. Lightning will strike us."
"We've at least got to get to higher ground," he told her and passed by to head toward the creek.
"I thought we were getting out of the creek," she said in confusion.
"We are, but we're going up the other side of the bank, it's higher ground."
Rocky didn't reply, she just followed him back to the creek, and led Reed into the water behind him. They traveled down through the creek bed, with the only sounds breaking the silence being the splash of the horses trudging through the water and the buzz of frantic conversation over the radio, overshadowed by the increasingly frequent thunder claps.
Ethan led Diamond out of the creek and Rocky followed him, then let her eyes travel up the face of the slope beside the bank. It wasn't a gentle rise, it went almost straight up. Evidently this is the spot he intended for them to get out of the creek bed to get to 'higher ground'. Climbing this steep and craggy hill would be a challenge even for her, an experienced rider. For him? In all likelihood he would wind up back in the creek bed with Diamond on top of him.
"Not a good idea, Ethan," she told him firmly. "We need to keep going and find a less steep incline."
"That storm will be here in about five minutes, Roxanne. If we don't get out of here now, we're gonna be in trouble. Climbing out of here won't even be possible then, this will be too slick."
She swallowed hard and felt electricity charge the air again, before a loud boom sounded and rumbled inside her chest.
He was right, they needed to get out of here.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
"Let's trade horses," she told him quickly, then swung down off of Reed.
Her horse was stronger, bigger and would be able to carry him up that hill better than Diamond. Reed would take care of him and make sure he got up there, his feet were sure and he was smart. Diamond was a good horse, but she wasn't young and strong, she was gentle and small. She could tolerate Rocky's weight better and have more of a chance with her astride to make it up that hill.
Ethan looked at her strangely, then said, "I can make it."
"Well, Diamond can't, not with you on her back, now hurry up!"
Ethan's eyes widened, then he threw his right leg over so he was sitting on Diamond's back like she'd shown him before.
&nb
sp; "Good point," he told her then rolled to his stomach and slowly slid down to the ground. "I'm not sure I can get up on Reed though, he's pretty tall," Ethan said and turned to face her.
"So are you, you'll be fine. I'll help you," she told him then they walked back over to her horse where she cupped her hands to give him a leg up onto the saddle. Once he was settled, she handed him the reins and told him, "When you're going up, don't sit up straight, lean forward over his neck and move with him. He'll get you up there, you don't have to do anything."
"Yes ma'am," Ethan replied with a salute and a smile.
She shook her head then walked back over to Diamond and mounted. Leading her to the front, Rocky scanned the hill for the easiest place for them to climb. When she found what she thought was the least difficult place, she started Diamond moving forward.
"Hiyah!!" she yelled as she whipped her on the rump with the reins.
Diamond bolted up the hill, grunting and breathing hard. When they were halfway up, Rocky wanted to look back to check on Ethan, but didn't. It wouldn't do any good, if he was in trouble, she couldn't help him. He was on his own now, and whether he made it to the top of the hill was all up to him. But one thing was sure, if he hurt her horse and wasn't already dead, she would kill him.
Rocky swung her arm back again to slap Diamond with the reins again to keep her pushing up the hill, but instead, she hit the radio clipped to her waist. It popped off of the clip, hit her leg, then clattered all the way back down the hill.
"Hiyah!!" Rocky hissed and smacked Diamond's rear again.
The horse dug in and surged upward, and Rocky could see they were almost at the top of the rise now. She knew she had to keep pushing Diamond, because if the small horse slowed down even the tiniest bit, she wouldn't have enough momentum to get over the top.
When they finally crested the hill, Rocky let out the breath she'd been holding, then turned Diamond so she could check on Reed and Ethan. They were about a third of the way up, and looked to be doing okay, but Reed definitely wasn't pushing hard enough.
"Lean over his neck and yell at him, Ethan," she shouted.