"Yeah, I feel much better about crashing the plane now," he said dryly.
She grinned. "You always could make me laugh."
"I could make you do a lot of things," he teased.
She blushed. "We're not talking about any of that."
"I don't know. We have a lot of hours to kill."
"Well, we can talk about other things—politics, religion, movies, books, sports, whatever..."
"When's the last time you went to a movie?"
"Four or five years ago."
"And read a book that wasn't a medical textbook?"
"Maybe eight or nine years ago."
"Watch a sporting event?"
"I did see the Cowboys play the Seahawks three weeks ago," she said, relieved to be able to answer one question in the affirmative. "They won after a Hail Mary pass in the final twenty seconds. The bar I was in went crazy."
"That was a good game. They got lucky, though. They could have lost just as easily."
"See, we can talk about other things besides us."
He laughed. "Tell me about your life in Houston. Do you have a roommate?"
"I have three roommates, all medical residents. We live in an apartment next to the hospital. We had some fun in between all the work. But it's over now."
"Do you ever keep in touch with anyone from high school?"
"Just Rebecca Saunders, because we went to medical school together. She's going to look in on my mom while I'm gone."
"Becky. I remember her. Nice girl. Anyone else?"
She shook her head. "No, I lost track of everyone a long time ago. It will be strange to come back to Corpus Christi."
"Would you come back if your mom wasn't there?"
She sucked in a breath. "Probably not."
"Why not?" he asked, tilting his head as he gave her a questioning look.
"I don't know who I am there."
"You're whoever you want to be."
"In Corpus Christi, I have a past. Going somewhere new would be a clean slate."
"Wouldn't you be lonely?"
"I think I'd be more lonely in a town where the people I once loved were either gone or slipping away." She was talking mostly about her parents, but Jake was part of it, too. At least he had been until now. Now, she wasn't so sure how she would feel living close to him again. They'd been in each other's pocket the last twenty-four hours. It was going to be strange to go back to never seeing him again.
"You still have TJ," he reminded her.
"Once I find him. Do you think I was stupidly impulsive to come down here?"
He glanced over at her. "Impulsive maybe, brave definitely. Stupid—not so much."
"I should have come up with a better plan. I should have told someone to come and find us if we didn’t report back."
"Even if my texts don't go through, Rusty will come looking for me, and if he's told Alicia, I can guarantee she'll be a bulldog trying to find us. And Dani has political connections. She might be able to get someone in the government to work with Mexican authorities to find us."
"I wish I had some family or friends to contribute to the search effort, but I don't."
"I have enough for both of us." He stretched out. "As hard as this ground is, it feels good after all the walking and running. You should try it."
She lay down beside him, looking up at the darkening sky. Big, black clouds were creeping over the mountains. It was going to rain again, and she doubted the overhang of rocks would provide much protection, but it was better than nothing.
Jake closed his eyes, and she did the same. But as tired as she was, sleep didn't come easily.
Opening her eyes, she rolled onto her side and looked at Jake. Her chest tightened as her gaze ran over his strong features. He really was a beautiful man. She'd always loved watching him sleep. His features were so sexy and so male with his strong jaw, stubbly cheeks, and his full but firm and often demanding lips. It would be so easy to lean over and kiss his mouth. He wouldn't push her away. He might not like her, but he still wanted her.
She rolled onto her other side so she wouldn't be tempted to touch him. She tried to sleep, but the wind picked up, making her feel cold and even more uncomfortable. It was going to be a long night.
She turned onto her back, wincing as she tried to get a rock out from under her hip.
"Come here," Jake said suddenly.
She jerked as his eyes flew open, and he looked right at her. "I thought you were asleep."
"With you tossing and turning like that?"
"There are too many rocks, and I'm cold." As she said the words, she realized she was quickly ending her great day of not complaining.
"Come here," he repeated.
She shook her head. "No."
"I've got a nice shoulder you can use as a pillow, and we'll warm each other up."
She vividly remembered just how nice his shoulder was, just how comforting it had been to fall asleep with the sound of his heartbeat under her ear. But she couldn't move. If she got closer, she didn't know if she could stop at just sleeping with him. Which was a crazy thought. They were lost in the wilderness, for God's sake. They weren't on some romantic date.
"Kat—"
"I'm fine."
"If you don't come here right now, I'm going to throw you off the mountain," he said with exasperation, repeating her earlier threat about the chocolate.
"You don't have that much energy."
"You want to try me?"
She scooted across the ground and put her head on his chest as his arm came around her shoulder.
"That's better," he said. "You need to rest, Kat. We'll figure everything out in the morning."
She put her arm across his waist. "We're safe for now, right?"
He didn't answer. The soft whoosh of his breath told her he was already asleep.
"Yeah, we're safe," she whispered, hoping it was true.
* * *
Katherine awoke to large drops of rain pelting her face. Damn! She sat up and scooted back against the rocks, but the overhang offered little protection from the massive downpour of water. Jake huddled next to her as their life quickly went from uncomfortable to miserable. The rain was coming down in sheets. She'd never seen so much water in her life.
Jake put his arm around her shoulders. There was no point in trying to resist the little comfort he was offering her. They sat there for almost an hour; wet, shivering and praying for respite.
Despite those prayers, the storm only seemed to get bigger. Lightning flashed, followed by more thunder. The strikes were minutes apart. The heavens had opened up with a vengeance.
"I'm beginning to think you're a lightning rod," she told Jake.
"Me, too," he agreed.
"Have you seen anything in the flashes? Is your dad sending us more messages?"
"I don't know," he said slowly.
She gave him a speculative look. "That sounds like you did see something. What?"
"Every time there's a flash, I feel like I see something round and gold."
"Like a coin?"
"Could be. It's not clear. And it's probably just the light bouncing off something that creates that illusion."
"Probably." As the rain increased, she felt like screaming or crying or both. "Is it ever going to stop?"
"Any second now," he said reassuringly.
"You used to be a better liar."
"I never lied to you, Kat. You might not have liked what I had to say, but it was always the truth."
She had to admit that brutal honesty had been more his style.
A loud roaring sound filled her ears. "What's that? It sounds like a plane. Would anyone really be flying in this weather?" she asked.
He stared back at her as the roar increased. "It does sound like a plane, but…Shit!"
"What's wrong?" She'd barely gotten the words out when a rush of water came over the rocks.
Jake jumped up, and she followed, but then stumbled as another huge wave of water took her legs out from under her. She tried to grab for her bag, but it was already gone.
She didn't know where the flood had come from, but the hillside had disappeared under the strong muddy current.
Jake grabbed her hand as they both lost their footing and were swept down the hillside that had taken them so long to climb.
Her body hit rocks and ground and trees. She felt like she was being battered and ripped apart, and there was nothing she could do about it.
"Hang on," Jake yelled, a wild light in his eyes.
She wanted to do just that, but the current was too strong. It was ripping them apart. "I'm slipping."
"Don't let go, Katherine."
"I'm trying not to," she screamed, but she couldn't fight the power of the flood.
Her hand slipped away from Jake's. She went under the water and came up gasping for air. "Jake?" she yelled, seeing him nowhere in the dark, rushing water. Terror ripped through her as another wave sent her head back under the water.
It would stop, she told herself. The water would slow down, or she'd find a way to grab on to something and hang on…any second now…
Ten
A dozen curses ran through Jake's head as he battled the current and the trees and the huge rocks that seemed to slam into him every time he came up for air. He couldn't see Katherine anymore, and that terrified him. She'd never been the strongest of swimmers.
But she was determined, he told himself. She wouldn't give up. She'd fight like hell to survive.
Finally, the rush of water began to slow as the trees split the current in dozens of directions, defusing the power of the flood. He managed to hook his arms around a tree, and then with all the energy he had left in his body he pulled himself halfway up the trunk. It was so damn dark, he couldn't see anything.
"Katherine," he yelled. "Katherine."
He could barely hear his own voice over the rush of water.
He didn’t have his backpack anymore. No phone and no lantern to spill some light on the situation, which was no doubt going to present more problems down the road. But right now all he cared about was finding Katherine. He could not lose her.
"Katherine," he cried out again.
She didn't answer his call, but when the lightning lit up the area around him, he could see her bobbing in and out of the water about ten feet away from him. He let go of the tree and swam in her direction, which was thankfully exactly where the current wanted to take him.
Katherine slammed into a tree and tried to find a way to hold on, but she was losing the battle. He knew he had about one second to get to her before she'd be gone again. He swam through the water as hard as he could, barreling into her, pinning her body against the tree. He wrapped one arm around the tree and the other arm around her.
She stared at him in shock and amazement.
"Hang on," he said. "Let's try to get on the other side of this tree. There's less water."
Together, they managed to edge around the tree. When they finally got to the other side, he saw a low hanging branch that could lead them to the safety of some rocks a dozen feet away.
"You need to grab that branch and use it to cross over to the rocks," he told her.
"I can't. I'm too tired. I can barely hang on to you."
"You can do this, Kat. I believe in you."
"It's too hard, Jake. Go without me."
"No way. Nothing has ever been too difficult for you. You like challenges, remember? And the bottom line is that I'm not going without you." She didn't say anything, but he could see the light coming back into her eyes. "I'm going to lift you up. You grab the branch and kick your way across. I'll be right behind you."
"I'll try," she said.
"On three. One-Two-Three." He used all of his might to help pull her high enough out of the water so she could grab the branch. She almost didn't make it, but Katherine used whatever energy she had left to grab on and then move her hands across the branch as she kicked her way through the water, finally landing on the rocks.
Once she was safe on the ground, he went across the same branch, hoping it would hold his weight.
He was two feet short when he heard the branch crack, and his body sank deeper into the water.
"Jake," Katherine yelled, extending her hand to him. "Grab on."
"You can't hold me."
"I can do it. Come on."
He swung his legs as hard as he could and then jumped toward Katherine's outstretched hand. True to her word, she hung on as he landed half on the rocks and half in the water. She helped pull him to safety and then they both collapsed, gasping for breath.
They lay there for several long minutes as the flooding water ran past them.
Finally, he sat up. Katherine was on her side, coughing up water. He patted her on the back. "You okay?"
She nodded.
"So the mountains weren't a great idea," he said lightly.
"You think?" She shot him a dark look.
"I thought going up would be safer for us."
"It probably was. If we'd been on lower ground, we might have drowned before we even realized what was happening." She moved into a sitting position her feet tucked under her and her arms wrapped around her body. Her blonde hair was soaking wet and plastered against her face and back. When she turned to look at him, he could still see the fear in her wide eyes. "What are we going to do now? I lost my bag, my phone, my computer, my passport—everything."
"Me, too, but we're still alive. Still beating the odds."
"Barely." Her mouth trembled. "I thought I lost you, Jake. I thought you were gone."
"Hey, you know how hard I am to get rid of," he teased. "I'm like a bad penny; I keep showing up."
"I thought I was the bad penny." She tried to smile, but she couldn’t quite get there as tears streamed down her face. He wrapped his arms around her. "We're going to be okay, Kat."
She rested her face against his chest as her body heaved with sobs. He let her cry. She needed to release the tension, and he needed to hold her, to feel her body against his, because for a while there, he'd thought he'd lost her, too.
The idea of a world without Katherine in it seemed too painful to contemplate. She might not have been in his life for a decade, but he'd always known she was all right, and that was something.