Escape from the Badlands

“I’ve got to get the cat…” she gasped.

He didn’t let her finish, but yelled for someone to hoist her up. Then he disappeared into the thundering water.

Kelly was frozen to the spot, unsure if Shane had lost his footing or dived into the water intentionally. The tug of the rope at her waist left her no time to ponder as she was slowly hauled up to the top. All the while her eyes pored over the flooded canyon for any sign of Shane or Paddy. Her heart squeezed. Had she just made him risk his life?

She gritted her teeth to stop them from chattering and peered into the water until she crested the top of the canyon. A big, crew-cut man with silver hair helped her over the edge. He looked familiar, though she couldn’t place him.

Water beaded in the deep grooves on his forehead. “You all right?”

Her head spun, still dizzy from being tumbled like laundry in the wash. “Where’s Charlie?”

“The boy’s okay.” He pointed to Charlie, who was now wrapped in a slicker and sitting in the front seat of a van, being tended to by a lady with a thick braid.

She felt a surge of relief as she followed the man back to the edge. They both peered down into the violent water.

“Do you see him?” she whispered, a ripple of dread surging through her.

“Not yet, but he’s a strong swimmer. Must have slipped off the rocks when he was helping you.”

She heard the condemnation in the man’s voice. “What can we do?”

“Nothing,” he said, his face grim. “It’s up to him now.”

The minutes ticked by in painful slow motion.

Slowly, the rain died away, leaving the canyon quiet except for the rush of water and the crackle of the radio as the man relayed the situation to someone on the other end. Kelly felt as if she was trapped in some sort of bad movie, only the script wasn’t quite right. It was not her love who fought for his life below. Shane was a man she used to love, until he turned out to be someone else. Now he was just a stranger.

A stranger who had put his life at risk for hers.

Anger pricked her insides. Why had he bothered?

The answer came quickly. Because he hadn’t known it was her and Charlie. As far as he knew, it was some hapless traveler, and he’d lent a hand because it was in his character to do so. She wondered if she would have the chance to thank him before they parted ways again. Permanently.

She peered harder into the gloom, hoping he would reappear at any moment. She looked for Paddy Paws as well, and thought about the little boy waiting in the van for his cat’s safe return. How would she tell him that Paddy was gone? Just like Rose? And how would she feel if Shane didn’t come back?

The man gave her a nervous look. “Maybe you should go wait in the van. You’re shivering.”

She hardly heard him. A movement caught her eye at the base of the cliff some twenty feet away. “I just saw…”

He saw it, too, and they both ran, slipping and stumbling until they reached the overhanging rock. The man let down a rope, securing the other end and using his body as an anchor to take some of the weight.

Soon the rope grew taut as the bedraggled figure on the other end began to climb slowly to the top. Kelly found the tension in her gut ratcheting up the closer he came until Shane appeared, face contorted with effort.

As the man heaved backward on the rope, Shane crawled over and made it to his feet. His face was torn and bleeding, but the eyes—those eyes which she knew to be a startling blue—were lively as ever. Her legs trembled.

There was nothing in his hands. Even Shane, the unstoppable outdoorsman, hadn’t been able to save Paddy.

She swallowed hard, her nurse’s training overriding the strange feeling of misery and relief that coursed through her. She ran to him, stopping so quickly her feet skidded on the slick ground. “Are you hurt?”

He shook the water from his hair. “Only scratched.” She saw several sets of parallel gouges on his exposed forearms and one nasty set on his cheek.

Her eyes widened. “Did you…?”

He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a very wet and terrified cat. “So tell me why I nearly killed myself to save this ungrateful cat?”

Shane watched Kelly’s face shift from unsettled to joyful in a quick second.

Her expression made his chest tighten.

“Paddy,” she cried, scooping the soggy cat from his arms.

He watched her stroke the exhausted animal, grateful for the darkness that covered his rush of emotion. He’d grown used to surprises, even craved them, but this one left him reeling. Kelly Cloudman. Here. Her smile fired every nerve inside him.

He saw from the uncertainty on her face that she was as disarmed as he was.

“Thank you,” she said finally. “For helping me and Paddy.”

He shrugged. “I was in the neighborhood.”

Gleeson broke in. “Matthews, you were supposed to be standing down until the storm passed. Didn’t you hear me say Ackerman ordered us off?”

Shane slicked his wet hair out of his face and kept his eyes on Gleeson, praying Kelly would not ask about his fictional last name. “I don’t take orders from Ackerman or anyone else.”

Gleeson’s chin went up. “Yeah? Well, you may have just cost yourself a spot in the race.”

Shane shrugged. “So be it.”

“So be it?” Gleeson seemed to puff up in anger. “Listen, kid. I gave you a shot and took you on as a partner, but you still have to meet the qualifications and you definitely have to follow orders. I’m in this thing to win, and I don’t need you going cowboy and messing things up for me.”

A woman Shane recognized as a fellow racer got out of the van and joined them in time to hear Gleeson’s outburst. “He had a good reason.”

Gleeson wasn’t mollified. “He risked his life without a word. Didn’t even radio for help. That’s the kind of thing that will make Ackerman kick you out of the race, and I don’t have time to keep finding new partners.”

The woman held up a placating hand. “I’ll talk to Devin. Explain things. He’s quick-tempered but he’s got a soft spot for women and cats.” She cast a curious glance at Kelly. “Devin is my fiancé so I should know. I’m Betsy Falco. I’m competing in Desert Quest.”

Kelly offered her free hand to Betsy and Gleeson. “I’m Kelly Cloudman, and this is Paddy Paws.”

Betsy smiled. “Pleasure. I’m racing with my cousin, Gwen. She’s back at camp because we already did the ropes prelim. I’m glad I decided to drive along and watch these guys, or I would have missed all the excitement. Are you a racer, Kelly? Can’t think of any other reason you’d be out here, especially with your son.”

Shane flushed. The effort of his clumsy water rescue had driven thoughts of the little boy out of his head. Now he glanced toward the van at the tiny bundled figure wrapped in the too-big slicker.

Kelly kept her eyes away from him as she answered. “He’s my nephew. We were on our way to the campground. I’m the race medic.”

Shane almost yelped. “What?”

Kelly finally looked at him, her face a mix of sadness and anger. “I needed a job,” she said simply. “Charlie and I wanted to be closer to my uncle Bill anyway, and his wife, Heather, and my aunt Jean said she would help take care of him during the race events. She’s joining me tomorrow. If I had known…”

If she had known he was a race participant, she never would have come. The words cut right through him. It couldn’t be. He was here to catch a killer, and he didn’t care what he had to risk to accomplish his task. But Kelly? He looked back to the van.

The boy’s soft round cheeks and chubby hand pressed to the window brought back memories of his little brother, and the pain almost swept him away until Gleeson smacked him on the shoulder. “You okay? You look washed up.”

He tried for a smile. “Rough swim.”

Kelly nodded at them and returned to the van, her slender figure hunched against the violent wind. He heard a low squeal of joy as she handed the cat back to Charlie.

“You should get her back,” Betsy said.

He started until he realized that she hadn’t meant the words the way he heard them. “I’ll stay with the bikes. You two drive the van to the campground and come back for me and the gear.”

Gleeson looked at the sky. “Going to storm some more. Not much shelter here.”

Not much shelter anywhere from the angry storm inside him. “Go on. Take care of her. I’ll be here.”

He watched them load up into the van, Gleeson at the wheel and Betsy next to him. Kelly sat in the back now, with Charlie, her long brown hair spiraling into endless curls from the soaking. The cuts the cat had given him burned now, though he felt nothing but cold, the deep-down cold that rooted inside him the moment he’d betrayed Kelly Cloudman.

Kelly found herself sitting in the backseat of the van, her arm around Charlie and Paddy Paws on her lap. Gleeson drove slowly, and Betsy turned often from her spot in the passenger seat to fill Kelly in on race preparations. The gist of it she already knew; it was broken into three tortuous legs: mountain biking, a canoe and run, and the spelunking/ropes course. Each racer was timed, and the team with the fastest cumulative time at the end of the three events would be the winner.

“The weather’s been terrible so far. Of course, we’re not scheduled to start for another day but there are a lot of racers who came early to pass their competency tests and get some extra practice in. The campground is nice and quiet, and the trailers are okay.”

Kelly’s mind wandered as Betsy chattered on. The past few hours felt like a dream, or maybe, more appropriately, a nightmare. Of all the people in the world to rescue her and Charlie at that moment, it had to be Shane. She wanted to forget him, to erase their time together. Absently, she rubbed her palms on her lap.

She blinked away the memories. The important thing was the little boy sitting next to her, humming to himself. Charlie was unharmed, and his precious feline companion had survived, too. She breathed a thank-you prayer.

Looking out into the black sky, too cloud-washed to reveal any stars, the detail returned that had been lurking just out of reach in her mind. Matthews. Gleeson had referred to Shane as Matthews, instead of Mason. He could have misspoken, but Shane’s quick reaction, the barest flick of a glance in her direction, told Kelly it was not a mistake.

For some reason she could not fathom, Shane was using a fictitious last name. She wondered if it had something to do with the terrible news she’d heard the year before, the murder of Olivia Mason, Shane’s sister-in-law.

I should have called. Should have written.

There were plenty of good reasons not to at the time. She was desperately trying to finish her nursing degree and dealing with an emotionally traumatized toddler, not to mention wrestling with her own anguish at Shane’s abrupt departure from her life.

She still didn’t understand what had happened to them. Maybe she never would, but she should have expressed her condolences when Olivia died. Shane loved Olivia like a sister and adored his brother, Todd. She should not have let her own anger and hurt keep her from doing the decent thing.

Forgive me, Lord.

Her clothes were clammy, clinging to her like a second soggy skin as the van pressed through the darkness for miles. Ahead she could just make out some lights as they drove into a flat basin, ringed by distant cliffs. It was hard to discern much, but as they passed through the split-rail fence she noticed a half-dozen small cottages, some dark and others with windows illuminated.

“Those are the cabins,” Betsy said. “Mr. Chenko stays in one; he’s the race producer. Devin’s in another, and there are a few more race officials in the others. The rest of us lowly racers are in the trailers.” She smiled. “Pretty luxurious for an endurance race, I think. Electricity, beds and all the good stuff.”

“Have you done this kind of race before?”

“Nothing this big. I got interested after Devin and I met.” She squinted to read the numbers on the electrical boxes outside the trailers. “Here you are, number seven. I’ll go get the key in the office. Be right back.”

Kelly shivered as they got out. She kept a firm arm around Paddy and held Charlie’s hand tight.

“Mama Kelly?”

She smiled at him. “We’re here, Charlie. This is where we’re going to be staying.”

He gave it a look and then pressed his tired face against her leg, heedless of the damp denim. She found Gleeson looking at them. With a start she placed his face. “I patched up your knee at the clinic.”

“Yes, you did. Good as new.” He eyed Charlie. “Nice little kid. Glad he’s okay.”

“Me, too.”

“I have a son, but he’s grown now.”

“Does he live close by?”

“I wouldn’t know. He doesn’t speak to me, thanks to my ex.” His eyes narrowed. “You know, for a minute, I got the sense that you and Matthews knew each other.”

“Really?” Kelly’s heart pounded. Should she reveal the truth? But there was some reason why Shane hadn’t given this man his real name. She fussed with Charlie’s hair, buying time, wondering what to say.

She was spared having to answer when Betsy arrived with another woman, much shorter than Betsy, with a mane of wild curly black hair. The woman cradled a bundle in her arms.

Betsy opened the door to the trailer as she talked. “This is my cousin, Gwen. She’s petite, like you, so she has some dry clothes for you to wear and a T-shirt for Charlie to sleep in.”

Kelly realized that all her possessions—everything from her phone to their pajamas—were underwater. She groaned.

“It’s okay,” Betsy said, reading her look. “We’ll get the car towed out after the water drains away. You’d be surprised how fast that flood will be gone.”

The interior of the trailer was worn, but clean. There was a full-size bed at one end and a set of little bunk beds at the other. A tiny kitchen tiled in yellowed linoleum and a minuscule bathroom rounded out the space. Kelly placed Paddy Paws on the floor, and she immediately scurried off to hide in the gap under the lowest bunk.

Betsy plopped a paper bag on the table. The trailer light picked up the glint in her copper hair.

“Some food in case you need a snack tonight. There’s a small dining hall here that does breakfast.” She grinned. “See? I told you this place was luxurious. I’ve got to go fill Devin in. I only radioed enough detail to let him know you all were okay. See you in the morning.”

Gwen offered a shy smile and handed over the clothes. “Not much, but at least they’re dry.”

Kelly let out a heartfelt sigh. “Thank you. You have all been wonderful to us. We’re so grateful.” She picked Charlie up. “Let’s say thank-you to Miss…?”

“Falco.” Betsy had introduced Gwen as her cousin.

Charlie turned a sleepy face to Gwen and mumbled a thank-you.

Gwen took a step backward, her eyes glued on the boy, a stricken look on her face.

“Is everything okay?” Kelly asked, puzzled.

Her eyes remained riveted on Charlie. “He’s so sweet. I’d love to have a son like that.”

“He’s my nephew, actually.”

Gwen repeated the words as if they were some kind of chant. “Your nephew.”

The silence became uncomfortable.

“Thank you again. I think I’d better get him into dry clothes.”

Gwen seemed to snap out of her strange confusion. “Yes, right. I’ll see you later then.”

Kelly watched through the window as Gwen walked away from the trailer. Just before she left the circle of light from the porch lamp, she turned again, staring through the kitchen window, a disturbed look on her face.

Kelly felt a whisper of fear tickle her gut as she reached out and flicked the curtains closed.

THREE

Shane stood in the near darkness, watching the moonlight retreat and advance as clouds danced across the sky. He was cold and confused. Kelly could not be here. It was too much of a bizarre coincidence, and he did not believe in coincidences. She’d finished her nurses’ training; he was not surprised about that. Kelly would do what she set out to, even if circumstances conspired against her. He’d always admired that about her.

The vibration of his satellite phone startled him. Heart hammering, he took it from its waterproof case and answered.

“Hey,” his brother said, the jail phone connection crackling with static.

“Hey yourself. You sound funny.” Shane tried to keep the worry out of his voice as he pictured his brother the last time he’d seen him—through the Plexiglas in the jail’s visitors’ room. The shock of seeing Todd in an orange jumpsuit still pained him.

“Got a fat lip.”

“How?”

Todd sighed. “Couple guys found out I used to be a cop back in the day.”

Shane’s blood ran cold. Once a cop, always a cop in the eyes of the inmates. Todd might as well have a target painted on his forehead in that South Dakota jail. He pressed the phone to his mouth. “Tell the warden. They’ve got to give you some protection.”

“Trial’s coming up, then it will all be over.”

Shane cupped the phone against the wind, wishing he could reach through the connection. “You’re not going to be convicted for something you didn’t do.”

His brother hesitated. “Maybe I did it.”

“Don’t say that. You didn’t kill Olivia. You loved your wife.”

Todd sighed again, his voice flat and listless. “Things were tough between Olivia and me before then. We had a fight. I…I was drinking. I passed out, but maybe before that…”

Shane forced out a calm breath. “You and I both know that it was someone else, one of the race producers you hosted last year, the night before she was murdered. The young one, Devin Ackerman, was fawning over Olivia, you told me.”

“Yeah, and that set me off. Olivia said I was being a jealous fool.” He laughed. “She always told it like it was.”

The tiny spark in Todd’s voice as he spoke gave Shane a moment of optimism. “I talked to a cop who used to work with you. He never bought Ackerman’s alibi—that girl Ellen Brown, who said Ackerman was with her the night of the murder. He told me he thinks she might have been lying. I’ve been looking for her. I’m going to talk to her, convince her to tell the truth. It might not get you out, but it will be enough to cast some reasonable doubt.”

“Have you found her yet?”

Shane wished desperately he had another answer. He’d spent a month trying to track her down, with no success. “Not yet, but they let me in the race. I’m here right now. Plenty of the participants are repeaters from last year. One of them is likely to know where she went, have an email address, something. If nothing else, maybe I can get into the past race files and find her.”

“Maybe she’s telling the truth.”

“Then why would she disappear? And how did Ackerman’s business card wind up on Olivia’s desk?”

“It’s a long shot.”

“It’s the only shot I can think of. All I’ve got to do is poke a hole in his alibi. The police will have to take a closer look at Ackerman. I’m sure…”

Todd cut him off. “Police did their thing. They couldn’t disprove Ackerman’s alibi. No evidence pointing to anyone but me. Ranch hand heard us arguing. Gunshot residue on my fingers. Case closed.”

He wanted to shout at his brother, shake some spirit back into him. “You’ve got to believe in your own innocence. I do. I’ve never stopped.”

Shane pictured him now, green eyes so like Shane’s other brother, Lonnie, the little boy who had died before he even got to taste what life had to offer.

“I did, too, at first, but I’m not so sure anymore. I blacked out, I was drunk and I have a temper. If I killed my wife, I deserve to be here,” Todd said softly.

“Stop talking like that. You don’t deserve to be in prison for a murder you didn’t commit,” Shane hissed. “Someone killed your wife, and we both know who that was. All we’ve got to do is come up with evidence that casts a reasonable doubt that you did it, give your lawyer something to work with.”

Todd spoke slowly and deliberately. “Listen to me, Shane. I want you to leave that race and not come back. You’ve had enough pain already. Walk away from this mess. Find Kelly and start over with her.”

Shane felt his face flush. He spent every waking moment missing Kelly, the feel of her silken hair on his face, the smile that lit up the inside of his heart like a beacon. “I’m not walking away.” He swallowed hard. “You’re the only brother I’ve got now.”

“There’s nothing left for me.”

“Yes, there is. You always say God will…”

“That’s what I used to think, that He answered prayers, interceded for people who loved Him,” Todd said.

That’s what Todd had tried to teach Shane when Lonnie died, and then when things fell apart with Kelly. “Don’t give up your faith, Todd,” he said, fighting to keep his voice level. He felt like a hypocrite telling his brother to hold onto God when Shane could not do the same, but he did not want to see that part of his brother die. Todd’s faith might be the only thing that kept him alive until Shane could figure out how to free him.

Todd spoke with a tone completely devoid of hope. “It doesn’t make sense to me anymore. I can’t make myself believe it now.”

Fear coiled through Shane’s gut. What could he say to save his brother? “I will keep fighting until we find out who killed Olivia. We’ll hire another lawyer if we need to.”

“No. Let it go and walk away, just as I said.” Todd sighed. “Goodbye, Shane,” he said as he hung up.

Swallowing a surge of desperation, he walked to the edge of the canyon. The rain tapered off and the water had begun to recede, as if a drain had suddenly been uncapped. Water sucked away into the parched land around it and beyond, lowering visibly as he watched.

Soon Kelly’s car was clear—still jammed against the rocks, but accessible. He retied a rope and eased himself down again. This time the driver’s-side door opened easily. Avoiding the bits of glass, he reached for the keys left in the ignition.

He imagined how panicked she must have been, knowing that she could drown at any moment, along with Charlie.

It was too painful to contemplate, and far too uncomfortable picturing what the little boy must have felt watching the water rise.

Had Lonnie felt that way? Had he known that the water would soon overwhelm him? Was his last feeling before he drowned an all-encompassing terror?

Black despair filled him. His brother’s words floated into his mind.

Let go, Shane. Lonnie’s with God. Let that be enough.

But Todd was letting his faith slip away under the weight of his unjust incarceration. How could he save the brother who had saved him so many times? Cold water seeped into his already sodden pants.

He noticed a sheaf of papers stuck under the visor, miraculously dry. Thinking they might be important to Kelly, he took them, noticing a card clipped to the top.

Devin Ackerman, Desert Quest Publicity Coordinator.

There was a phone number below, and a scrawled message: Kelly, looking forward to having you aboard. D

The papers crumpled as his grip tightened. Ackerman had hired Kelly? Why? She was a newly minted nurse. Surely there were many people far more qualified for the job than she. But Kelly, with her dark eyes and gentle smile, would have appealed to him for other reasons.

His stomach tightened and his breathing grew shallow.

Even though Ackerman was engaged, he knew the man was unable to resist a beautiful girl. What’s more, he’d heard that the race coordinator was not above pursuing women, married or otherwise. If Ellen Brown hadn’t given him an alibi for the night of Olivia’s murder… He ground his teeth, stowed the papers inside his jacket and unhooked the car seat from the back. Then he took the keys from the ignition and made his way to the trunk. He unlocked it and retrieved a small duffel bag, swallowing against the lump in his throat.