Buzz started downward again. He shoved off into space, let the rope slide through the gloves, and landed four feet down the side of the ravine. The rope groaned against his weight. Loose rock gave way under his feet, and he slipped, but he didn’t stop.
A few minutes later, he reached the bottom of the ravine. The narrow bank was rocky, nearly impossible to walk upon and only a couple of feet wide. Climbing onto a huge boulder, Buzz pulled himself upright and scanned the area. Twenty feet away—nearly on the other side of the stream—Eddie jumped up and down, waving his hands. Buzz could see that he was crying, and his heart pinged hard against his ribs.
“Eddie, I’m going to come get you!” he shouted. “I want you to stay put! Everything’s okay, but you need to stay where you are!”
The boy said something, but Buzz couldn’t hear him over the roar of the water. Damn, the way the kid was jumping up and down worried him. One wrong move and he’d tumble headlong into the churning water.
Because he wasn’t sure if the boy could hear him over the roar of the water, Buzz motioned as best he could with his hands.
The boy edged closer, crying, holding out his hands. Buzz could see his mouth moving, but he couldn’t hear him over the water. The initial zing of fear went through him. “Son, I want you to sit down!” he shouted. “Stay put! I’m coming over for you, okay? Just stay where you are.”
Cursing beneath his breath, he looked frantically around for a way to get to the boy. He was in the process of sliding off a boulder when the unthinkable happened. One minute his son was perched on the edge of his rock island. In the next instant, his sneakers slipped out from under him. In a blur of white T-shirt and blue jeans he tumbled down, and the water swept him away.
Chapter 10
“E ddie!”
Terror ripped through Kelly as she watched the churning white water swallow her son. Panic pulled her in a thousand different directions. Her first instinct was to run after him, to fling herself down the ravine, brave the icy, turbulent water and forget about everything but saving her son.
But the voice of reason stopped her. Rescuing her son from a raging white-water rapid wasn’t going to be an easy task. And while panic threatened to drag her down the into the abyss of hysteria, the knowledge that Buzz was only a few yards away from her son gave her the strength she needed to keep her head—at least long enough to realize she was going to need the rope.
She looked down in time to see the rope go taut in her hand. An instant later, several feet of it was yanked through her palms. Pain zinged where the rope burned her, but still she closed her hands around it, just in time to keep the end from whipping out of her grasp. Realizing she didn’t have the strength to hold it for long, she looped it quickly around the nub of a broken trunk, then snatched up the field glasses that hung around her neck.
Through the glasses, she caught a glimpse of Buzz, in the water, fighting the rope from his body. An instant later, he freed himself from the rope and the water swallowed him.
Another wave of fear rocked her. Fear that Buzz wouldn’t be able to reach her son. Fear that the water would take not only her son, but the man who had fathered him.
Operating on autopilot, she worked furiously to yank the rope up from the ravine and coil it around one shoulder. Simultaneously, she began running in the direction the current carried Buzz and her son. She tore through brush, barely feeling the branches tearing at her face and clothes. Gasping breaths tore from her lungs as she pushed her body to the limit and ran as fast as her legs would carry her. All the while, her hands worked quickly to coil the length of rope that now trailed along behind her.
Twenty yards down stream she lost sight of Eddie. “Eddie!” She knew he couldn’t hear her over the roar of the water. But she couldn’t keep herself from crying out his name. She needed to say it. Needed to hear it.
Please, God, let them be all right.
Another ten yards and the terrain sloped dangerously. Using the myriad saplings and low-growing branches to keep her balance, Kelly hurled herself down the incline toward the water. She covered the ground at a reckless pace, hurdling fallen trees, stumbling over rocks, skidding over loose earth that gave way beneath her pounding boots.
A moment later, the woods opened up to a rocky sandbar. The roar of the water deafened her. She looked down at her hands, realized she now held the entire length of rope. Dully, she noticed the blood, too, but it didn’t register in her mind that it might be hers.
Scrambling over rocks slick with moss, she jumped into a still pool of backwater that was knee-deep. A few feet away, white water pounded giant boulders, forming a whirlpool large enough to suck down an automobile. Twenty yards upstream, she caught sight of two dark heads bobbing in the white waves. Buzz had one armed wrapped around her child. She could hear Eddie crying.
“Buzz! Hold on to him!” she cried.