by C. C. Coburn
“Megan? Are you all right?” he asked, not caring how desperate he sounded. “Where are you, honey?”
He waited impatiently for her to answer, but it was Gil he heard. Luke barely recognized his voice. “I’m here, honey,” he teased.
“Where’s Megan?” Luke demanded. “Put her on.”
“Not so fast! I want you to know how it feels to have something you want taken away from you,” Gil said.
“What are you talking about?” Luke demanded.
“Tory.”
“Tory? What the hell do you mean?”
“I wanted her so badly—but she was only interested in you.”
“And that’s my fault?”
“You got her pregnant. After that, I never had a chance.”
“Trust me, Gil. I did you a favor.”
“Not the way I see it. Tory and I could’ve had a great life together, Instead I ended up with Betsy.” Luke could hear the snarl in his voice.
“Betsy’s a good woman, Gil,” he said evenly. “You’re a lucky man.”
“I didn’t want a good woman! I wanted one who knew her way around the bedroom.”
Luke didn’t know what to say to that. He seemed to be inflaming the situation by arguing. “Gil, I don’t want to fight with you. Let me talk to Megan. Please.”
“I guess I can allow you two lovebirds to have one final conversation,” he said, and Luke could feel his contempt.
“Luke?”
Relief flooded him at hearing Megan’s voice. But she sounded terrified.
Matt had called the sheriff’s department to have someone drop by Gil’s office and his home, and he’d just shaken his head to indicate they hadn’t found him or Megan at either location.
“Where are you, Megan?”
“I…can’t tell you. But I haven’t been this scared since our first date. Lu—”
Megan’s voice was cut off as Gil came back on. “I hope you enjoyed your final conversation with your wife, O’Malley.” The phone went dead.
“Where is she?” everyone shouted as Luke looked up.
“Did she give you any sign of where she might be?” Matt asked.
Luke shook his head. “She only said she hadn’t been this scared since our first date.”
“Where did you take her?” Matt asked impatiently.
It was then that Luke realized Megan had been giving him a message. He started toward the front door. “For a picnic at Inspiration Point. I’ll bet that’s where he’s got her!”
He was halfway to his car before Matt and the others caught up with him. “We’ll take my vehicle,” Matt said.
“No.” Luke climbed into his big SUV. “You drive too slowly and I don’t want to alert him with sirens.” He started the car as Jack, Adam and Will climbed into the backseat.
Matt took the front passenger seat, pulled out his cell phone and dispatched vehicles to Inspiration Point, warning them not to use their sirens.
“Dad?”
Luke had been about to step on the gas, when his son’s plea halted his foot. Cody had never called him “Dad” to his face before. It was a watershed moment in their relationship.
“Hop in, son,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion.
Will climbed over into the third row of seats, making room for Cody.
The SUV tore out of the gates of Two Elk, narrowly missing Frank and Edna Farquar in their enormous Caddy. Frank’s pet pig, Louella, and Charles, their dog, had their heads stuck out either side of the Caddy’s rear windows.
“Inspiration Point?” Matt echoed. “That makes sense when you think about it. One-thousand-foot cliffs straight to the valley floor.”
“Do you mind?” Luke growled, jerking his head at Cody sitting behind them. His gut twisted at a terrifying vision of Megan falling over the cliff she feared so much. He stepped harder on the gas, the needle passing seventy as he took the turns in the road, crossing to the other side.
“Easy, Luke!” Matt warned.
“Get out if you don’t like the way I drive,” Luke told him through clenched teeth. In his rearview mirror, he saw his brothers and Cody checking their seat belts.
“SO, HERE WE ARE.” Gil cut the connection and tossed Megan’s cell over the cliff. She swallowed as she imagined him dispatching her as easily. “Just you and me.”
Megan prayed that Luke would understand her cryptic remark about the location of their first date. But in case he didn’t, she had some fast talking to do.
Raising her hands in a gesture of surrender, she said, “Look, how about if we forget this conversation ever happened? Luke said I should’ve minded my own business and that I wasn’t qualified, that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Maybe I made a mistake….”
“Too late. You’ve sown doubt in his mind. He’ll come looking for me…and you. Only he won’t find me because I’ll be on the next plane to the Cayman Islands. But he will find you—or at least what’s left of you—at the bottom of this cliff.” He grabbed her arms and hauled her closer to the edge and glanced over.
Megan could feel her head spinning. Praying Luke would understand her cryptic clue, she stalled for time.
“Take me with you!” she said rashly. “Take me away from this hick town and that king of hicks, Luke O’Malley.”
That got Gil’s attention and he released his grip on her arm a little. “I thought you were looking forward to getting married today.”
Megan gave an exaggerated snort. “Only for the benefit of his kids and his family. I’m just marrying him for his money, but since you’ve got a lot of it now, I might as well stick with you. We could have a good life together. Sun, surf…” She swallowed and added, “Sex.”
Gil’s eyes glittered with interest and she pressed on. “We could set up our own company down there, handling other people’s finances, helping them avoid their tax burdens. We could make ourselves a nice little nest egg skimming off the top.”
Gil’s mouth lifted in what passed for a smile and Megan hoped she’d hooked him. “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” she urged, taking advantage of his momentary slip in concentration, leading him toward the car, away from the cliff edge.
They’d nearly reached his vehicle when Megan heard the sound of tires screeching on the curving road that climbed to the top of Inspiration Point. Someone was taking those bends awfully fast. Could it be Luke?
Gil must’ve realized it the same time she did. He dragged her toward the cliff once more. Megan fought with him, trying to gain a foothold on the gravelly surface.
“You bitch!” Gil screamed. “You tried to trick me!”
“No! Please don’t do this,” Megan begged as she was dragged ever closer to the precipice. She debated trying to turn the tables and shove him over, hoping to somehow escape his grasp. But she was no match for Gil’s strength as he hauled her to the edge, then spun her around so that only the tips of her toes were in contact with the ground.
Megan squeezed her eyes shut, offering up a silent prayer that her death would be fast and merciful. And then her stomach rose to her throat as he shoved her backward over the cliff.
“NO!” LUKE CRIED as his vehicle crested the last bend onto the top of the cliff.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as he saw Gil shove Megan off Inspiration Point and then run to his car.
Luke spent a fraction of a second debating as to whether he should chase Gil or go after Megan—although he was sure there was nothing he could do to save her now.
“Leave him,” Matt growled beside him. “There’s only one way down and I have deputies coming up.” He called them, telling them to apprehend Gil McIntyre, adding a description of his car.
Luke pulled up beside the cliff face and was out of his vehicle and peering over the edge before the dust had settled.
The dust stung his eyes and he wiped them impatiently. Heart pounding with fear, he tore off his tux jacket and sprawled on his stomach to get a better view, dreading what he’d see.
&nbs
p; Thirty feet down he spotted a piece of blue fabric blowing in the breeze. He eased his body closer to the precipice.
“Whoa there!” Adam warned, holding his feet.
“I can see something!” Luke shouted. “Let me get closer.”
“Better not to look,” Adam said.
Luke ignored him, edging forward so he hung over the cliff, aware of other hands reaching out to steady him. And that was when he saw her.
He scrambled backward and turned to his brothers. “Get me some rope. She’s about thirty feet down on a narrow ledge. I have to get to her.”
Will started off to get rope from the back of the SUV, but Matt stayed him with a hand on his shoulder. “That’s too risky, Luke. Wait until mountain rescue gets here.” He put a call through to his office.
“That could take too long,” Luke protested. “The ledge is so narrow that if she moves even a couple of inches, she’ll go over the side.” He took the rope from Will, who’d ignored Matt and retrieved the coil that was always kept in their ranch vehicles, and began to fasten it around his waist.
Adam stayed his hand. “Let me go. I’m trained in rescue.”
Luke pulled out of his grasp. “No! It’s too dangerous. I got her into this mess and I’m going to get her out of it.”
“Luke…” Matt warned.
“Look, you either help me or get the hell out of here!” Luke exploded, in no mood for Matt’s cautious ways.
Shaking his head, Matt took the end of the rope and looped it onto the SUV’s tow bar as Adam tied it around himself to belay the rope out to Luke. “Be careful,” he warned as Luke stepped off the cliff edge. Within moments, he’d lost sight of his brother altogether.
Matt turned away and noticed Cody, white-faced with fear, staring at the place he’d last seen his father. He strode over to the boy and put an arm around his shoulders. “Your mom will be fine,” he said, not knowing if it was truth or lie, but needing to comfort his nephew. No doubt Cody was thinking that if anything happened to Luke, he could well lose both his parents on the same day.
Jack, equally white-faced, set a hand on Cody’s shoulder and said, “I’ll take care of Cody. You’ll need to help to coordinate the rescue effort and I have no experience with that.”
Grateful to have Jack take over, Matt clapped him on the back and said, “Thanks,” then returned to the cliff edge.
Will was lying flat on his stomach, calling directions to Adam about how much rope to let out. “Easy. Easy,” he said. “He’s almost there.”
LUKE CONCENTRATED ON HIS footing, thankful that someone as powerful as Adam was on the other end of the rope, playing it out. He could hear Will clearly, giving directions as he was lowered to the narrow ledge Megan was lying on. He signaled to Will that he was stepping to the side to get around her. Once he was past, he stepped back and dropped down a little more so he was level with her head, his feet braced against the rock face. He indicated that Adam should stop playing out the rope.
There was no room on the shelf for him, but this position, however precarious, gave him some sense of safety, some reassurance that should Megan fall, he might be able to catch her.
She was lying on her stomach, her head facing toward him, her eyes closed. A small pool of blood was forming beneath her head.
“Megan,” he whispered.
She didn’t move.
“Sweetheart. I’m here. Can you open your eyes?”
Still nothing. Luke feared the worst. He was reluctant to feel for her pulse, knowing that if he found none, there would be no hope for her.
“Is she alive?” Matt shouted from above him, leaving Luke no choice but to reach out and place two fingers against Megan’s throat. But his hands shook too fiercely, so he cupped a hand over her mouth and nose.
Relief filled him as he felt her breath against his palm.
Megan moaned and opened her eyes.
He could feel the biggest grin in the world splitting his face.
“Luke?”
She tried to lift her head and look around but Luke cautioned her. “Don’t move, honey. We’ll get you out of here as soon as we can.”
“Out?”
“Rescue teams are on their way.”
“Rescue? What? Where am I?”
She managed to lift her head this time, before Luke could stop her. Her eyes opened wide with fear.
And then she started to scream.
Nesting birds, disturbed by the noise, flew out of their aeries. The snapping of wings and the bird’s screeching around his head caused Luke to lose his footing. He lost contact with the cliff face and dropped several feet below Megan before regaining his foothold.
“I take it she’s alive,” Will said with his usual irony.
Luke looked up at his brother and, for once in his life, he wasn’t irritated by Will’s easygoing manner. He smiled grimly and nodded his head, then alerted them to raise him a few feet.
That done, he took Megan’s hand. “Honey, do you understand me when I say I don’t want you to move? Not even an eyelash.”
Megan stared at him wide-eyed. “How? Where?” she asked.
“You don’t remember?”
Megan shook her head, loosening several pebbles from her narrow shelf.
“Just. Don’t. Move,” Luke warned again. “Let me talk, okay?”
Unsure what to do to make her more comfortable, he said the first words that came into his mind. “I love you, Megan. I always have.”
“Don’t feel you have to say things you don’t mean,” she mumbled.
This was good; she was talking. “Everything’s going to be fine,” he told her. “Help is on the way.”
“Cody?” she asked.
“He’s fine. He’s up there waiting for you.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him all those years ago.”
“Shh,” Luke said, soothingly. The time for Megan to apologize for anything was long past.
“MEGAN…” LUKE’S VOICE, deep but unsure, penetrated the fog of pain.
She bit down hard on her lip. She couldn’t bear to let him know how much she cared, how much she hurt inside. How little pride she had left.
Her head throbbed. But the pain that tore through her shoulder and legs was sharper. Excruciating. She closed her eyes to shut out the agony, trying to will it away.
She felt Luke’s lips touch her forehead and again he whispered the words she’d wanted to hear for so long. “I love you. I always have.”
Megan resisted the urge to shake herself. Instead, she opened her eyes and searched his face. Luke was an honorable man. He wouldn’t lie to her about something so important, so sacred.
His voice husky with emotion, Luke asked, “Why did you leave town without saying anything all those years ago?”
She swallowed against the dryness in her throat and said, “I don’t think you really want to know that.”
“Of course I do.”
Megan took a deep breath, then wished she hadn’t as pain shot through her chest. He wanted the truth? Then he was welcome to it, in all its ugly reality. “I overheard Tory in the change room at the rec center, telling another girl about your marriage plans—”
“What? I wasn’t going to marry Tory! We’d broken up two weeks before you came to Spruce Lake. I told you all that.”
True. But when she’d overheard the conversation in the change rooms, she’d felt she had no choice except to believe what Tory was saying. “According to her, she was already pregnant when you met me, dated me…” Her voice broke. “Slept with me.”
“She wasn’t pregnant then. Nor, as it turned out, was she pregnant when I married her. Only I didn’t find out the truth about that until a long time later.” He sighed. “Sweetheart, we’ve both been victims of Tory’s machinations. She told me you’d been bragging at the rec center how you’d laid a hayseed.”
“You don’t honestly believe I’d say something like that, do you?”
He shrugged. “At the time, yes, I’m
sorry to say, I did. I was hurt and bewildered about why you’d left so suddenly. Left me in the restaurant, waiting with a huge bunch of flowers, a marriage proposal and a ring.”
“What?” Megan was sure she must’ve been hearing things.
“I wanted to marry you, even though we’d just met. I knew you were the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Until you didn’t turn up but Tory did and told me what she’d supposedly heard you say. That cut me so deeply, I can’t even bear to think of it all these years later.”
Megan closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, then looked back at Luke. “So what I overheard in the rec center was a setup?”
Luke nodded.
Tears filled Megan’s eyes. How many years had they lost together because of the manipulations of one unhappy, obsessive woman?
“I love you.” His breath whispered over her face. “I’m sorry I judged you as I judged her,” he said, as if needing to convince Megan of his sincerity. “You’re not Tory. You never were, you never could be. You kept Cody’s existence a secret to protect me, but I didn’t need protection from the truth, darlin’. I just needed you.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat and said, “Don’t let Tory come between us anymore.”
“I won’t,” he vowed.
“RESCUE’S ARRIVED!” Will yelled down to them.
“We’ll have you out of here in no time, sweetheart,” Luke assured her. “Just stay calm and don’t move.”
He could hear commotion above him as rescue equipment was readied. Another head popped over the cliff face and Luke recognized the coordinator of mountain rescue for the county, Jasper Haynes.
“We’ll be down in a minute. Tell her not to move.”
Luke rolled his eyes and smiled at Megan.
“We need to get you up here first, Luke.”
“I’m not leaving her,” he called back, never breaking eye contact with Megan. “We haven’t got much time right now,” he said to her. “But I want you to know this. I’m sorry for being such a pigheaded fool. I’m sorry for not believing you and trusting your judgment about the ranch finances. And Gil’s activities. But most of all I’m sorry I haven’t allowed myself to love you the way you deserve to be loved.”