Suddenly Chase reached out one arm and hooked it over the tree. The canoe jolted as the current tried to pull it toward the falls, but he held tight.
“Grab hold of the tree as soon as you can reach it, Andi. I’m going to try and pull us closer to the shore.”
Slowly, inch by inch, the canoe edged closer to the riverbank. It was riding dangerously low in the water.
The edge of the tree was almost within Andi’s reach. Judging the distance, she lunged for the tree, wrapping one arm around the trunk. It bent low to the water, but she held on grimly.
“Hold on,” Chase yelled. She nodded once, concentrating on not losing her grip on the tree.
He wrapped his right arm around the trunk and let go with his left arm. He picked up each of their packs, and flung them toward the riverbank. They landed just at the edge of the water. She immediately felt the canoe float higher in the river. Chase had bought a few more moments of life for the canoe.
“We’re going to try and move the canoe closer,” he shouted to her. “Just do what I tell you.”
The tip of the canoe was a mere couple of feet from the riverbank when she tried to move her hand again. She’d just closed her palm around the trunk when the canoe spun around and knocked her feet from under her. The canoe moved away, and she hung suspended by one arm from the tree, Paolo slung over her chest, her feet dangling over the roiling water below.
“Hang on, Andi!” Chase shouted.
She nodded and wrapped both hands around the tree, slippery with mist from the falls. When her hands started to slip, she hooked one arm over the tree trunk, then the other.
Her shoulders trembled with the strain. Then she looked down and saw Paolo, snug against her chest, his face red from screaming. If she let go, she wouldn’t be the only one who died.
Her arms tightened at the same time as Chase’s arm curled around her waist. “I’ve got you,” he yelled. “Try and move toward me.”
Nothing had ever felt as good as Chase’s arm around her waist. She knew he wouldn’t let her go—she trusted him completely. She edged a fraction closer to him, then moved again, ignoring the screaming pain of her muscles. Then both of Chase’s arms came around her waist and he swung her and Paolo through the air. They collapsed in a heap on the riverbank.
For a moment she could do nothing but lie on the wet, slippery ground, holding the baby, her heart pounding and her breath wheezing in and out. Her arms and back burned, and the muscles in her legs trembled in reaction to her close escape.
Finally Chase rolled to a sitting position and eased her into his arms. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, not sure she had the strength to speak. Chase pushed her wet hair away from her face and examined her. His eyes were full of worry, and her heart stuttered in her chest. “I’m fine,” she managed to croak.
“How about Paolo?” he asked.
She looked down at the crying baby. “I think he’s okay, too.”
“Let’s take a look.”
Chase eased the baby out of the sling and held him in his arms for a few moments. Then he looked up at her. “All his moving parts seem to be working.”
“I think he’s just wet and scared,” she said. Like me, she wanted to add.
Chase shifted Paolo to his left arm and circled her shoulders with his right. “We never would have made it if it weren’t for you.”
“I’m the one who almost fell into the river,” she objected. “You had to save all three of us.”
“But we never would have made it close enough to the tree to grab on to it if you hadn’t helped paddle. I wasn’t strong enough to do it on my own.”
“I think you would have been if you’d had to,” she said. It was true. Chase would do whatever was necessary.
He shook his head and pulled her close. “It was a joint project. And it needed both of us.”
She leaned into his warmth and strength and never wanted to move away. The falls roared, the mist continued to soak into them, all her muscles ached and burned, but she was content.
Chapter 8
Chase was apparently in no hurry to move, either, because his arm tightened around her. She thought she felt his lips moving over her hair, but she told herself she was mistaken. The only tenderness she’d ever seen in him had been directed toward Paolo.
Because her desire to continue to lean on Chase, to melt into him seemed too strong, she forced herself to sit up. His hand tightened on her, as if he wanted to pull her closer again, then he let her go.
“You saved the packs,” she said, glancing at where they lay on the edge of the river. “I’m glad one of us was thinking.”
“It was more a matter of lightening the load in the canoe,” he said. “I was afraid we were going to be swamped before we could make it to land. I thought if I got rid of the packs, that would buy us more time.”
“At least we have food for us and Paolo.”
Chase looked down at the baby in his arms. “Yeah. I could have caught food for us, but there isn’t much formula lying around in the jungle.”
She looked at Chase, still holding Paolo, then at the falls that were so close. There was no sign of the canoe.
“I guess the canoe went over the falls.”
Chase looked toward the edge of the falls, where the world dropped away. “It slipped away from me.” Then he turned to her, and his mouth curled up in a grin. “But it’s no great loss. It had a hole in it, remember?”
She felt herself smiling back at him, giddy with the joy of being alive. “Yeah, we couldn’t have gotten much for it in a trade-in. In fact, good riddance. Right?”
“Right.” He smiled back at her, and her heart stammered against her ribs. “Now we won’t have to worry about our feet getting wet.”
Her giddiness faded as she thought about their predicament. “What are we going to do now?”
“I guess we start walking.”
She stared at the edge of the falls, thinking of how close they had come to being in the canoe when it went over the edge. “We were really lucky.”
“That we were.” He glanced at her, all the laughter gone from his face. “No wonder El Diablo never came looking for us. He knows about these falls, knows they’re not on the maps. Once he was sure we were heading down the river, all he had to do was sit back and wait. We’d go over the falls, and his problems would be over.”
“That came too close to being true.” She shivered.
He touched her face lightly. “But we made it, Andi.”
Her throat swelled as she saw the tenderness in his face. “Yeah, we did.”
“Now we need to make it all the way to Monterez.”
“You’re right. I guess we should get going.” She struggled to make her muscles obey her.
“I didn’t mean right now. We need to rest for a while,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re in no condition to begin hiking. And neither am I.”
“Okay.” Chase was right. She wasn’t sure she could stand up, let alone begin walking.
“Hand me that sling,” he said, nodding at the soaking wet cloth she still wore tied around her. “I’m going to carry Paolo for a while.”
She picked at the knots, but her hands were still shaking too badly to untie them. Finally he pushed her hands gently away. “Let me do it.”
His heat surrounded her, and his scent seemed to overwhelm the smell of the jungle and the water. She closed her eyes and swayed against him, and he curled his arm around her. Everything she felt faded away. She was safe and with Chase, and that was all that mattered.
“Let’s get away from this mist, then we can rest for a while.”
She’d been draped over him like a blanket. And it wasn’t only because she was tired. Feeling her face heat, she stepped away and reached for her pack.
“Are you sure you can carry that?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she said, her voice tinged with embarrassment. “You can’t carry everything.”
“Let’s go, then.�
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Chase stepped out of the reach of Andi’s alluring warmth and pushed the first of the branches out of the way. Thank God she’d moved away, because he wasn’t sure he’d have had the strength to do it. She’d needed him, and it was a powerful heady feeling. Andi didn’t need too many people, he was sure.
The trees glistened with a fine coating of mist, and a spray of droplets flew from the bushes as they pushed their way through. He glanced over at her, worried. He’d seen her arms tremble as she lifted the pack to her back, and he’d seen her wince when the heavy straps cut into her shoulders. But he knew her well enough now that he didn’t say a thing. Andi was fiercely proud of her independence.
Her hands trembled as they pushed branches away from her face, but she didn’t ask him to slow down. She kept up with him, matching him stride for stride. He could only imagine what kind of effort it took. He knew how exhausted and weak she must be. His own arms and shoulders ached with a deep burning pain.
“Do you want to stop here?” he asked gruffly. “The mist doesn’t seem as bad.”
Andi glanced at him, but didn’t stop walking. “What are our alternatives?”
He hesitated. He didn’t want to push Andi too hard, and he was sure she wouldn’t tell him to stop. But he did want to get away from the top of the falls. Finally he said, “I’d like to hike down to the bottom of the falls. We’ll be more protected. And I want to see what’s down there.
“It’s going to be a steep hike,” he warned. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”
She gave him a weary smile. “Are you kidding? That will be a walk in the park compared to what we just did.”
As he peered into the undergrowth in front of them, he saw that the jungle dropped off sharply in front of them. “Up to it or not, here we go.”
He glanced over at her sharply, and she looked steadily back at him. Was she simply too tired to argue with him? Or did she really trust him that much? When a flutter of warmth stirred inside him, he told himself that she was merely too tired to argue. It couldn’t be anything more significant than that.
The mist from the falls made the ground slippery and treacherous. As the terrain sloped downward, Chase had to hold on to vines and bushes to keep from falling. He glanced down at Paolo as the baby jostled from side to side, but Paolo was quiet. His eyes were open, but he looked dazed. Chase guessed that he was tired and ready to fall asleep again.
He heard Andi grunt behind him, and he turned around to look. She had fallen and was struggling to stand up again, trying to get a grip on a mossy slick rock. Steadying himself with one hand on a sturdy vine, he extended the other hand to her.
“Grab on,” he said.
She slipped her hand into his and pulled herself to her feet. She staggered once, then righted herself. It felt like she held on to his hand for a moment longer than necessary.
“Do you want to stop for a while?” he asked, trying to ignore the warmth that stole through him.
She shook her head. “Not on this slope. We need to get to the bottom.” She rested her hand against the trunk of a tree and looked at Paolo with worried eyes. “How’s he doing?”
“He seems fine. I think he’s about ready to fall asleep again.”
Her face softened. “I’m glad. I was afraid I’d hurt him somehow while I was hanging from the tree.”
“He’s a tough kid,” Chase said, letting his hand linger on the baby’s head. Then he scowled at himself. He had almost sounded proprietary about Paolo. As he turned to head down the slope again, he reminded himself that Paolo wasn’t his kid. He probably had family in Monterez.
Jagged black boulders littered the slope as they made their way toward the bottom of the falls, the rocks oddly out of place here in the lushness of the rain forest. An idea stirred as he made his way around the rocks. He glanced at Andi, eager to ask her opinion, but he saw that she was fiercely concentrating on her effort to get down the slope.
“We’re almost there,” he said, wishing he could make this easier for her. She just nodded without looking at him.
Andi was as tough as they came, he admitted with another surge of respect and admiration. He couldn’t imagine anyone else, man or woman, who would make the effort she had for the past few days and not complain. But she hadn’t said a thing. And she consistently put Paolo’s needs before her own. And his, too, if he was being honest with himself.
He skidded the last few steps to the bottom of the slope, then turned and caught Andi as she slid down the slick surface. He held her arms, watching her face. “We made it,” he said quietly. “You did just great.”
“It was no big deal,” she said too quickly.
“It was a very big deal.” His hands glided up her arms to her shoulders. “I know how tough that was for you, but you did it anyway.” He pushed her hair off her face and let his fingers linger at the angle of her jaw. “I’ve never worked with a better agent, Andi.”
Her face flushed pink and she glanced up at him. Immediately he wished she hadn’t, because he saw the vulnerability in her face. Her eyes darkened as she stared at him, and her vulnerability changed to something primitive and more elemental. She wanted him.
His body tightened in response, hardening immediately. He wanted her with a fierceness and a passion that frightened him. He had never wanted anyone this way.
He drew her closer and saw the answering hunger in her eyes. Need hammered inside him, pounding in his head and his chest with a powerful elemental beat. As she stared at him, he saw the echo of his feelings in her face.
Suddenly he had to touch her, had to taste her. His body demanded it. She wanted him just as badly, he knew. Her eyes fluttered closed and her lips parted. He could hear the tiny moan from the back of her throat.
He bent his head and took her mouth with his, savoring her taste, drinking in her surrender. But when he tried to pull her against his body so he could feel every inch of her, something was in the way.
Andi’s eyes flew open and she stared down at his chest. When she looked back up at him, there was appalled realization in her eyes. “I forgot all about Paolo,” she whispered.
He looked down to realize that the baby was still in his sling, hanging from his chest. He’d forgotten him, too. He’d forgotten everything but Andi.
He started to take off the sling and set Paolo on the ground, but Andi had already moved away. “Where are we going from here?” she asked, her voice tight.
Chase closed his eyes, trying to regain control of his body. When he could look at her without needing to devour her, he opened them again. “We need to look at the map. But I had an idea while we were walking down here.” He forced himself to concen trate on what he was doing. “Let’s see if we can find the remains of the canoe.”
“What for?” She stared at him, puzzled.
“It might buy us some time,” he said. He held out his hand, and after a moment she took it.
He led her to the edge of the river, where they stared at the water crashing and splintering on the rocks, which waited at the base of the falls like hungry mouths. He felt a shiver run through her, and he was sure she was thinking the same thing he was. They had come too close to ending up on those rocks.
But they hadn’t, and it was time to move on. “Do you see anything?”
“Not yet.” Then her hand tightened in his. “Over there. Is that part of the canoe?”
A curved section of wood was trapped and tumbling in the water next to a large boulder. It was bobbing so violently in the water that it was hard to identify. “It could be. Hold Paolo for a moment, will you?”
He handed her the baby, then found a length of stick that reached the curved piece of wood. He shoved at it until it popped loose, then guided it to the bank in front of them.
It was half of their canoe. It had split down the middle, leaving jagged splinters of wood extending the length of the canoe. They stared at it for a moment, then Andi took his hand. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for saving all of
us.”
He squeezed her hand, then let her go as he hauled the canoe onto the land. “It was a joint project. You did as much as I did. And now we have more to do.”
“Surely you don’t think we can save that?” She gave him an incredulous look.
He grinned back at her. “I’m not a miracle worker, sweetheart. But I think we can use this canoe to help us make it to Monterez.”
She shifted Paolo in her arms and tilted her head at him. “How, exactly?”
He squatted on the ground and turned the section of canoe over so that the edges of the seats were clearly visible. “We’re going to draw a picture for El Diablo, one that will make our fate very clear to him.” Chase swiveled around to face her. “I need a couple of Paolo’s dirty diapers and an extra T-shirt of yours.”
He saw comprehension fill her face, followed by admiration. “That’s brilliant, Chase. We’ll leave our things scattered on the shore next to the ruined canoe, and when El Diablo finds them, he’ll assume we died going over the falls.”
He nodded, trying to ignore the warmth that stole through him at her use of his name. “That’s the idea. If he buys it, he won’t keep looking for us. Maybe we can head directly into the city.”
She flashed him a smile as she slung her backpack onto the ground. “What do you want me to leave?”
“Was there anything you wore often enough in Chipultipe that people would remember?”
She held up a T-shirt and grinned triumphantly. “This. It’s my lucky Michigan State T-shirt. I wore it all the time and everybody asked about it. They wanted to know where Michigan State was.”
“Leave it spread out on the rocks there, near the canoe. And leave the logo up so they can see it clearly from the air.”
She spread the T-shirt, making it look as if it had been tossed onto the rocks by the violent water. For good measure she crumpled up a pair of shorts and wedged them between the rocks that lined the river’s edge. Then Chase tossed one of his T-shirts onto the rocks and spread two diapers in the grass a little farther from the river.
“What do you think?” he asked when he was finished.
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