A cry ripped from her as she slammed into the obstacle. Again her right side took the brunt of the blow. Jenny felt something give way there and pain arced up into her chest. She shrieked in agony, but her hands tightened around Daniel as she continued to try and hold him up out of the grasping, greedy water churning and bubbling around them.
Again, as she bounced off the side of another boulder, the undertow around it hauled her down. Down, down, down. She felt Daniel struggling. He was below the surface. Water tunneled up into her nose as she fought the deadly whirlpool. They would both die if she didn’t fight back!
The thought of Daniel dying was too much for Jenny to accept. From somewhere deep within her, she found strength. Adrenaline streaking through her body, she kicked. Kicked savagely. Kicked upward. Air! Oh, God, they had to have air!
Jenny shot up and out of the water with a cry. As she vomited violently, water regurgitating from her lungs and up through her mouth and nose, she heard Daniel whimper. His clinging grasp on her neck was weaker. She saw the fear in his dark brown eyes. He was gasping for air and choking.
Fifty yards to go.
Using the last of her strength, Jenny righted herself so that she was facing the Urubamba, which seemed to be rushing to them. On the edge of the bank where the tributary met the river, she saw Matt skid to a halt, mud flying around him. She saw the terror in his eyes as he began to make a loop on the end of the rope. And then he gathered it up in his large hands and began to twirl the loop around and around his head like a cowboy getting ready to rope a steer.
Her mind was groggy now, the cold water making her hypothermic to the point where she couldn’t think clearly. Yet Jenny sluggishly realized what he was going to try and do. He was going to throw the loop out to them. If she could catch it in time, Matt could haul them to safety before they were carried into the Urubamba River.
Jenny knew she was dead. She knew it in her heart, in her soul. Yet she also knew Daniel had to live! If only she could catch that rope Matt was going to throw! He would have only one chance. One. For if they were swept into the Urubamba, they would both die. The current was unforgiving, swift and deadly.
Her heart rebelled. She couldn’t die! Daniel couldn’t drown! He was too young! He had his entire life in front of him! As Jenny was spun around again, slammed into another boulder, she realized something else. Something so precious, so life-giving, that it created an inner fire of determination that she’d never experienced before in her life. She loved Matt Davis. Unequivocally. Forever. And dammit, she wanted a chance to pursue that love with him!
Like a race horse floundering toward the finish line despite the fact that he had absolutely no strength left, Jenny resolved not to quit no matter what. Her determination, her desire to live, exploded through her like a nuclear bomb detonating within her heart and soul.
In those seconds that crawled by, Jenny gritted her teeth. She kicked hard and fought the sucking, grasping current. Her strength was gone. She could feel her life being stolen by the icy water, the cold sucking it out of her like a greedy vampire. No! No, I won’t go down without a fight! I won’t! I love you, Matt! Oh, I love you! Please…please, give me the strength, help me! I want to tell you that! Oh, please, help me!
As she popped up to the surface, her feet pointed downstream, she heard Matt hoarsely calling her. Instantly, she lifted her hand high, preparing to try and catch the rope that was swinging above his head. The relief in his eyes was momentous as he saw that she understood what he was going to try to do. There was no way, even though he was a SEAL, that he could just jump in and rescue her, Jenny knew. No one could beat this river, with its deadly currents and icy temperature.
For an instant, Jenny bobbed on the surface of a quiet place between two huge boulders. She kept her hand held high, her numb, white fingers stretched outward like claws.
It was then that Matt threw the loop. He’d seen that quiet space between the boulders and had prayed that the current would carry Jenny and Daniel into it. It was the only smooth water in the whole tributary. His aim had to be precise. If the rope landed too far in front of them, it would be whisked away instantly by the current. If it landed too far behind, Jenny would be unable to swim upstream to try and reach it.
He saw how white her face was. He knew she was suffering from deep hypothermia. No one knew better than Matt what hypothermia could do to a body. It robbed victims of their mind, their ability to think. They became confused. Disoriented. Worst of all, the icy water sucked the life out of a person. First it stole the heat out of the muscles, then the muscles slowed down. Finally, they stopped working, because the cold literally froze them in place. And that was when a person drowned.
He saw Jenny’s distorted mouth, the cry on her pale, bluish lips. Little Daniel was clinging to her neck in a death grip. Matt was sure she wasn’t getting adequate air. And judging from the amount of water she was swallowing, it was only a matter of time before she’d run out of oxygen and slip quietly, forever, beneath the waves of the violent, angry water.
One chance. He had one chance. His heart thundered in his chest as he saw that her hand was still raised upward. Yes! She was still coherent. Still able to think. Maria and the rest of the villagers gathered around him, panicked and anxious. They halted, panting, and clasped their hands together in prayer. He swung the loop high above his head, steadying it as best he could. One chance…
More than anything, Matt realized he loved Jenny in that moment. And his anger and need of her were heightened knowing there was a good chance she would drown with Daniel and be swept away by the Urubamba. Anguish seared his chest, and it felt like a branding iron was burning his heart. He’d just found her! He’d just realized how wonderful she was. And he needed her. More than any person in his life, he needed her.
Hand tightening on the rope coils in his left hand, he timed his throw. The moment Jenny drifted between those boulders and the water smoothed, he sent the loop snaking out powerfully toward her raised hand.
Everyone held their breath.
Someone cried out.
Jenny’s hand was up, her fingers grasping toward the sky, her flesh white, her fingertips blue. She saw the loop skittering in their direction. The current turned her sideways. No! Fighting the exhaustion, fighting the weariness that was seeping rapidly through her body now, she forced herself around.
She twisted back just in time to have the rope strike her clawing fingers. Yes! The loop settled over Daniel—good! She was so tired. The current started to pull her away from the eddy and out into the frothing, bubbling waters. Get the rope around herself! Her mind kept screaming at her to do it, over and over again. But her hand wouldn’t obey her mind. The loop was around Daniel. She tried to pick it up and drag it across her wet head, but the hemp tumbled out of her nerveless grasp. She had seconds to go before they’d be swept into the Urubamba.
At least Daniel could be saved—that was what her mind told her. Jenny fumbled again with the loop, her fingers numb. She could feel nothing. With her other arm, she held Daniel protectively against her. The loop dropped again. With a weak cry, Jenny felt a huge, tugging sensation. A powerful current snarled around her legs as she wearily continued to kick to keep them afloat.
Looking to her left, she realized they were now being sucked into the Urubamba itself. Crying out, her lips contorted, she closed her eyes. This was it. She was going to die. At least Daniel would live….
But then, as they made the turn and began to flow into the Urubamba, Jenny opened her eyes. A resolve, deep and surprising, flashed through her. In that moment when everything seemed to be moving with such anguished and excruciating slowness, she picked up the loop one last time. She forced her fingers to close around the rope, though she couldn’t feel the soggy line.
Matt was roaring at her. His voice was drowned out by the thundering Urubamba as they were swept out into it.
A bolt of energy flashed through her. Jenny felt it crackling and moving like hot, boiling lava do
wn her arms and into her frozen, unresponsive fingers. That surge of heat gave her the strength to pull the loop up and across her head. The rope slipped around her shoulders, with Daniel within it as well.
Matt cried out. He needed help! Instantly, several village men came down the hill and were on that rope behind him. He jerked it taut and saw the loop tighten instantly around Jenny and Daniel. They were being swept out into the mighty river so fast that it boggled his mind.
The moment the rope grew taut, Matt hauled back on it with all his weight. Jenny and Daniel were drifting out toward a massive set of boulders. If they struck them, they would be knocked unconscious by the fury and speed of the current. Five men hauled back with him at the same time. Grunts and groans broke out. He watched, his breath snagging in his chest, as they fought against the current. Two lives dangled on the end of that line. What if the rope broke? How strong was it? He didn’t know. His lips curled away from his clenched teeth.
“Pull!” he cried out in Spanish. “Pull hard!”
The villagers grunted and groaned again. Backs bent. Feet dug into the muddy bank, then slipped. Fingers groped savagely as the escaping rope sizzled through their hands. Stop it! Stop the rope from escaping!
Matt dug the heels of his boots into the rock and mud, and leaned backward with his full weight. The rope pulled taut! They’d stopped it from escaping. He watched helplessly as Jenny went under with Daniel in her arms. No! He knew why she had gone under. He knew this would happen.
“Faster. Faster!” he screamed at the others.
Every man was pulling as hard as he could on that rope to try and bring them to shore. But as the villagers pulled, Jenny and Daniel were dragged underwater. The very act of rescuing them could kill them now.
Tears of rage and frustration stung Matt’s eyes. He saw the current raging over Jenny’s blond, limp hair. He saw her holding Daniel’s head above the water the best she could, even though she was beneath the suffocating flow herself. Tears washed into the sides of his contorted mouth. He could taste the salt of them. His eyes were narrowed to slits. His heart pounded frantically in his chest.
There! Jenny’s head bobbed to the surface as they finally hauled them closer to shore. They dragged her nearer, up across the hidden boulders and rocks at the river’s edge. He saw her hands fall away from Daniel. She was unconscious. He knew she’d taken in a lot of water. Luckily, the rope kept Daniel against her as they hauled them the last ten feet to safety.
When they were close enough to shore, Matt dropped the rope and lunged forward. The bank was steep. He skidded down the rocky slope toward where Jenny lay on her side, unconscious, half out of the water. Daniel was screaming. He was flailing and trying to keep his face out of the water.
The men of the village were on Matt’s heels. They tumbled and leaped to get to them, as well.
Matt reached them first. He splashed out into the knee-deep water, slipping and sliding on the algae-covered rocks. He nearly lost his footing. With one hand, he gripped Daniel by the scruff of his shirt. With the other, he grabbed Jenny beneath her right arm. Lifting their dead weight, he fell backward with both of them in his arms.
As he hit the shallow water, Matt bruised himself against the rocks. One of the villagers—Daniel’s father, Juan—reached him and grabbed his sobbing son from Matt’s grasp. The child was swung upward, passed to another man closer to shore, and then lifted by a sea of outstretched hands to the safety of the bank and his mother’s open arms.
Matt felt strong, supportive hands sliding beneath his armpits. Two men dragged him upright as he held on to Jenny. She was unconscious. Her face was bluish colored. Her once-beautiful, sun-colored hair lay limp and clinging to the icy flesh of her face.
Once on shore, Matt managed to stand with the help of the men who protectively surrounded him. In one ragged motion, he lifted Jenny against him and turned. The villagers realized he had to give her artificial respiration, but couldn’t do it on this rocky slope. He had to have a smooth, uncluttered area where he could lay her out and work on her. Without a word, they turned and helped him struggle up the rocky, slippery bank to the red clay bank above.
Gasping and panting, Matt laid Jenny down on her belly. He quickly pulled her arms above her head and straightened out her small, precious body. Turning her face to one side, he quickly straddled her. With his hands, he pushed on the middle of her back in a forward motion toward her shoulders. The villagers crowded around in a circle. Many prayed out loud. Others watched, their eyes huge, their mouths open in silent distress.
With the first savage effort, water came gurgling out of Jenny’s slack, parted lips. Again Matt pushed. More water. He growled her name.
“Jenny! Come back to me! Dammit, don’t you die on me. Not now! Not like this!”
He pushed again. More water.
How much had she swallowed? The little fool! She’d gone under to keep Daniel above the waves. She’d knowingly given her life for his. Tears stung Matt’s slitted eyes as he worked feverishly over her. Pumping the water out of her didn’t guarantee anything. When no more came out, he quickly got off her and rolled her over. Jenny was like a limp, wet rag doll.
As he leaned over her, his ear near her nostrils and slack mouth, he could feel no breath. Jenny wasn’t breathing! He felt for her pulse with shaking fingers. Nothing. She was dead.
“No!” he howled. No! Not like this!
Leaning down, Matt eased her head back, propped her chin up and cupped it with his shaking hands. He pinched her nostrils closed with his fingers and settled his mouth firmly against her lips. He was alarmed at how cold she was. It was then that Matt realized the courage she’d had to stay coherent, to stay conscious that long. Not even a SEAL could have survived that river and that temperature without a wet suit, and Jenny had. She’d survived long enough to know that Daniel would live.
Pumping two breaths into her, Matt watched her chest rise beneath the wet, clinging material across her breasts. Then he straddled her again and put his hand on her sternum, pumping it five times, hard and solid, to shock the heart into starting. He heard a crack. He knew he’d just broken her sternum with the force of his hands, but it was unavoidable. He had to save her!
Again he breathed his breath into her. Again he shocked her heart. She had to come back to him! She had to!
Grayness began to replace the darkness that Jenny found herself floating within. She saw a tunnel of light and recognized people she had loved, who had died, standing in the middle of it. And then she saw two white figures. They were indistinct, and yet the sense of love that emanated from them was overwhelming as they floated toward her in that glowing tunnel.
Go back.
She stood there, confused by their telepathic order. The figures, which towered over her now, were luminous and filmy-looking as they spoke to her once more.
Go back. Your time is not yet. You must return.
The moment those words echoed through her mind, Jenny felt herself being sucked downward into what felt like a swiftly moving, circular tornado of energy. As she was whirling and spinning downward, the light dimmed and grew black…and then…colors. She was seeing rainbow colors…. Her lids moved. She felt heat. She heard gasping. She heard people talking in low, stressed voices. What was going on?
Her lids fluttered. Jenny felt warm, strong hands lifting her upward. Her head lolled against someone’s shoulder. And then she felt the first stab of pain in her right side and in the center of her chest.
It was the pain that brought her to consciousness. Yet as she came to, she felt as if she were being cradled in loving arms. She felt the trembling touch of someone’s fingertips across her brow, felt them brush her hair from her eyes and cheek. What had happened?
After a struggle, Jenny finally opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Matt leaning over her, his eyes wide with fear and anxiety. He was holding her in his arms. And Jenny saw another emotion in his narrowed gray eyes: love. Love for her. It was the oddest moment of
her life, as she felt strung between that tunnel of light and here, back in her body. She could read his mind, feel what was in his heart. It was the most astounding revelation to her, for she’d never experienced telepathy before.
Jenny clung to his stormy looking gaze and felt his arms tighten protectively around her. How safe she felt! And when she dragged her lids open even more, she saw the tension in the slash of his mouth ease. She saw his lips part. And then she heard words she never thought she’d ever hear from him.
“Jenny? Jenny, are you all right? It’s Matt.” His voice cracked. Tears flooded his eyes as he continued to caress her damp hair with his trembling hand. “I love you. Do you hear me? I love you. Don’t you leave. Don’t you ever leave! You hear me?”
Chapter Twelve
“Are you warm now?” Matt whispered against the damp hair near Jenny’s ear. He was lying on their bed, his back against the headboard. She was tucked in a thick, warm alpaca blanket, her head resting tiredly against his chest. A soft sigh broke from her, and he squeezed her gently because she’d suffered a set of very badly bruised ribs. The doctor who had examined her had said that the cartilage portion of the sternum was cracked, as well. That would heal up in about three weeks. The ribs would take as long, or maybe a little longer.
Closing her eyes, Jenny whispered, “Yes, I feel much better.” The last two hours had been the most horrifying and the most joyous of her life. Never had Jenny experienced such care and tenderness from a man. She’d barely been conscious when Matt had hoisted her up in his arms after she had nearly died. So many other hands—of village women who passed alpaca blankets to her to keep her warm. Village men who helped Matt—had touched her as well.
Nearly half the village had followed Matt as he walked quickly to the plaza and into the small medical clinic. Right behind him were Daniel and his parents. Jenny was worried for Daniel, but compared to her the little boy seemed unharmed by his brush with death.
Woman of Innocence Page 14