Secret of Deadman's Ravine

Eve Bailey looked up at the sound of small loose rocks cascading down the side of the ravine. For a moment, she was blinded by the sun and thought she had imagined the dark silhouette of a man working his way down the slope toward her.

But she would have recognized Sheriff Carter Jackson just by the way he moved even if she hadn’t seen the glint of the star on his uniform shirt. Her breath caught at the sight of him. Surprise, then that old chest-aching pain kicked in before she could vanquish it with anger.

“Stay there,” he called down to her in a deep voice that had once done more than made her poor heart pitter-patter.

She defied her heart to beat even a second faster at the sound of his voice as she stopped to get control of herself. Wasn’t that just her luck? Rescued by the one person on earth she’d never wanted to lay eyes on again.

She leaned against one of the large rocks, not wanting to admit how glad she was to see another human being, though. She felt weak with relief. That and hunger and dehydration and exhaustion. She hadn’t let herself even consider what she would do once she reached the top of the ravine. She’d have had miles more to walk and, the truth was, she would have never made it, and she knew it.

She wanted to sit down and cry, she was so relieved. But why did her rescuer have to be Carter Jackson? When she’d come home, she’d known she would see him eventually. Whitehorse was too small for her not to run into him.

But the last thing she wanted was for him to see her like this, at her most vulnerable. With Carter, she needed all her defenses, and right now she couldn’t have felt more defenseless.

She pushed off the rock, determined not to show any weakness as she started to climb again.

Moving had kept her alive. She was cold and hurt and barely able to keep going. But she’d known that with her clothing still damp, if she’d stopped she would have died. It had been a realistic fear given the temperature earlier this morning and the fact that even with the sun now blazing down, she couldn’t seem to get warm.

But there was another reason she’d kept moving. She didn’t want to think about what she’d discovered down in the ravine. She shivered at the memory of what she’d had to do to survive. That was her, Eve Bailey, the survivor. Isn’t that what she’d heard her whole life? Just like her mother, she thought bitterly.

The climb down the cliff from the plane had been harrowing. She’d fallen more than once, her hands raw, her left ankle killing her.

All she’d known was that she had to find a way down, then back up out of the Breaks no matter how long it took. Given that the crashed plane had apparently never been discovered, she’d figured there was little chance of anyone finding her unless she got off that rock ledge.

She’d been sure it would be days before anyone even realized she was missing, since she lived alone and doubted anyone had seen her ride out yesterday afternoon. Mostly, she worried about her horse. The mare would have gotten out of the storm, but where was she now? Eve loved that horse and couldn’t bear it if something had happened to her.

A shadow fell over her. She stopped climbing and looked up, having lost track of time again.

Sheriff Carter Jackson stood on the rocks just above her, his hand outstretched. She didn’t look at his face as she reluctantly took his hand and let him pull her up onto a large flat rock, too tired to protest. Her legs gave out and she sat down hard, no longer strong enough to even pretend she was tougher than she was.

Without a word, Carter slipped off his backpack and, opening it, handed her a bottle of water.

“Have you seen my horse? Is she all right?” Eve asked before taking a drink, a catch in her throat.

“Your horse is fine. She returned to the ranch this morning. That’s what started the search for you.”

“Just like Lassie,” she said, near tears, and took a long gulp of the water to hide her relief.

“Just like Lassie,” he said with a smile. “Her tracks led us to you.”

She kept her focus on the water bottle, furious that all it took to transport her back to their senior year in high school was his smile. She could feel him studying her, his look gentle, concerned. Just as he’d been the night he took her virginity in his old pickup behind her family’s barn.

Her hands were shaking, legs trembling, the past twenty-four hours taking their toll. Behind her eyes, she could feel tears welling up. She hurt all over, some of those bruises from years ago and her last encounter with Carter Jackson.

She bit her lip and took another drink as she heard him dig in his pack again. Was he thinking about that night in his pickup? More than likely he was thinking what a fool she’d been to ride so far without water or food, let alone proper clothing.

“Here,” he said, and handed her a candy bar.

She took the candy, struggling with the wrapper, her fingers refusing to work properly.

Covering her with his shadow, Carter leaned down to take the candy bar from her, ripped the paper open and handed the bar back to her without a word.

“Thanks.” She’d known Carter Jackson all of her life. They’d gone to the same one-room schoolhouse through elementary school before being bused into Whitehorse for high school.

There’d been something between them from the moment she’d punched him in the nose in grade-school recess to the first time he’d kissed her, something she’d mistaken for love long before she’d given herself to him in his old Chevy pickup.

She brushed a lock of hair back from her face, knowing she must look a mess. “Go on and say it. I know you’re dying to. I was an idiot for riding this far out yesterday without any provisions.”

“You don’t need a lecture,” he said quietly. “You’ve been through enough.”

So true, she thought, studying him. Problem was he had no idea what she’d been through. Not years ago when he dumped her for Deena Turner—certainly not last night.

Carter said nothing as he reached into the pack again and this time took out a pair of rolled-up jeans, a flannel shirt and jacket. “McKenna got these for you from your house.”

She stared at his handsome face for a moment, the devoured candy bar like a lump in her stomach. Tears burned her eyes. She’d been so scared, so afraid she’d never get back to the ranch, never see the people she cared about again that she hadn’t realized how much she’d scared her family and neighbors. Of course, they would be worried sick about her.

If it had been anyone but Carter who’d found her, she would have wept with joy at being rescued. But she couldn’t break down, not with Carter—and trying not to cry had left her raw with emotion.

She took the dry clothing, desperately needing to get moving before she couldn’t anymore. The sugar from the candy bar was trying to jump-start her dog-tired body, but knowing that she no longer had to push herself to get home again all she wanted to do was curl up on a warm rock and sleep for a week.

“The…underwear is in the jacket pocket,” Carter said, sounding almost shy as he turned his back to let her change.

She couldn’t help but remember the last time he’d handed her her clothes. She’d been naked then, though, and even more vulnerable than she was now.

The warm, dry clothing felt wonderful, although it took her a while to get her wet clothes off, her movements awkward and slow. She realized how close she’d been to hypothermia, how close she’d been to dying if she’d stopped even to rest too long earlier.

As she pulled on the jacket, she hugged herself, feeling warmer for the first time in what seemed like days.

With a start she remembered what she’d left in the pocket of her wet jeans. Quickly she checked to make sure Carter’s back was still turned before she reached into the front pocket of her dirty torn jeans and, with shaking fingers, transferred the rhinestone pin she’d found in the plane to her clean jeans pocket before saying, “All done.”

He turned to look at her. “Better?”

She nodded, fearing he could see the guilt written all over her face. But maybe he didn’t know her as well as she knew him. Maybe he never had.

He handed her another bottle of water, picking up the empty one from where she’d placed it on a rock and putting it back into his pack.

She opened the cap and took a long drink, trying to get control of her emotions. She could feel the weight of her old feelings for him heavy in her stomach. Just as she could feel the sharp edges of the rhinestones poking her upper thigh, prodding her conscience.

She dug for anger to steady herself, recalling the morning she reached school to find out that after being with her, Carter had been with Deena Turner. Deena had told everyone at school and announced that they were going steady. Nothing hurt like high school, she thought, but even the memory couldn’t provide enough anger to balance out her guilt.

She had to tell Carter about the plane.

Even if it meant betraying her own family.

CARTER STUDIED EVE, worried. He knew her too well, he realized, even after all these years. One of the things he’d always liked about her was her directness. She said what was on her mind.

But he could see that she was fighting more than exhaustion, as if trying too hard not to let him know just how bad last night had been. The fact that she hadn’t said anything made him fear she was in more trouble than being caught without her horse in a storm in the Breaks.

“I am curious how you lost your horse, though,” he said as he stuffed the dirty clothing she’d rolled up into his pack. “You get bucked off?”