feet, testing to see if anything was broken. A shooting pain up her ankle made her gasp, and she realized with a start of terror that her foot was pinned between two enormous hunks of rock. Try as she might she could not pull it free.
Struggling to catch her breath and control the fear, Isabel looked up toward the mouth of the ravine. It was steep, the top bathed in darkness.
She’d been pushed; there was no mistaking that, probably by the person who had let Blue Boy loose. She could still feel the blow that toppled her over the edge. Someone wanted to kill her, someone who could very well be waiting at the top for her to crawl out. Or maybe on their way down to make sure she hadn’t survived.
Her entire body was shaking and she could feel her ankle beginning to swell.
Screaming for help would alert her attacker that their mission wasn’t complete, and the chances of a passerby hearing her cries were negligible.
Isabel’s teeth chattered and panic flowed through her veins like a strong poison. Hugging herself to try to stop the shudders, she felt the hard surface of the satellite cell phone in her pocket, under a blanket of rubble.
The phone with Logan’s number programmed in.
Her heart thudded wildly. Call Logan.
She didn’t trust him, didn’t even remember his last name.
He could have something to do with her sister’s accident or be covering for the people who knew what had happened to Cassie. He could have been the one who pushed her.
But he’d offered to help her before, his smile gentle and seemingly genuine and strangely familiar.
Trust your instincts, Is.
Instincts? Instincts hadn’t helped her steer clear of Rawley Pike. Instinct hadn’t helped her at all. Except for one important thing, she reminded herself. That strong urge inside had brought her back to the faith her mother had tried so desperately to instill in her girls. Should she follow her heart now?
Trust a stranger?
She clenched her hands together and mumbled a prayer.
Help me trust the right person this time.
Biting her lip until she tasted blood, Isabel dialed.
TWO
Logan jerked awake at the ringing of the phone. He was instantly alert, ready to ship out on the next mission, until the present rushed back in again. Four in the morning and he didn’t recognize the number on the caller ID. He made a move to roll over and ignore it, but turned and snatched up the receiver in spite of himself.
“Logan.”
He couldn’t hear an answer, only the crackle of a bad connection and the word that had always given him purpose. “Help.”
He recognized the voice, fear running deep through her words. “Isabel? Where are you? What’s wrong?” She whispered her predicament. He got the gist of it; just enough to know her location and that she didn’t want a rescue crew. “You need an ambulance.”
Her words came through forcefully this time. “No. Just you.” There was a pause. “Please.”
He heard her difficulty in uttering the last word and understood. He’d never been good at asking for help either. “Stay put, don’t try to move. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Then he was throwing on clothes, grabbing some essential supplies and racing to the truck, with Tank thundering behind. On the way up the mountain, he pushed the vehicle as fast as it would go and thought about Isabel’s half-crazy chatter. Something about Blue Boy and a stranger in the woods. She said she’d been pushed into a ravine.
Logan pressed the accelerator harder. Pushed? She’d probably gotten confused, alone on a strange property before sunup. Still, the twinge of unease he’d felt before began again. He shook it off as he crested the last ridge before Mountain Cloud Ranch.
It was still dark but the rain had eased off, turning into a soft mist that enveloped him as he headed for the rocky end of the ranch, Tank at his heels. There was no sign of Blue Boy or anybody else as he pushed through the greenery and found the edge of the ravine where there was clear evidence of a recent rock slide. He lay belly down on the edge and called into the darkness.
“Isabel?”
“I’m here.” The relief in her tone was palpable.
“Are you hurt?”
“I banged up my ankle. It’s caught between some rocks and I can’t get free.”
“I’m coming down. Hold tight.” He told the dog to stay as he fastened a rope around a sturdy spruce and looped it through the carabiner on his belt. Shouldering the backpack, he began the backward descent into the ravine. Each step was precarious, causing the rock to move and shift. He paused often, fearing his progress would shower more debris on her.
Sweat poured down his face in spite of the cool. He shouted to her frequently, keeping her talking, warding off shock, or so he hoped, and giving him a direction.
Finally his feet touched bottom and he unfastened himself from the ropes. He switched on a flashlight and made his way quickly to her.
Her face was pale in the dim light, coated with grime. From what he could see, her pupils were even and reactive when he flicked the light across her field of vision. He knelt next to her and felt her wrist. “Hey there. This is a crazy way to explore the property.”
She didn’t smile. “I was after Big Blue, and someone pushed me.”
He could feel the pulse in her wrist begin to race. It was not the time to get into that. “Let’s focus on getting you out of here. I’m going to give you a quick check, with your permission.”
She nodded, lying still as he ran his hands along her arms and legs. He gently slid his fingers along the back of her neck. “Any pain? Numbness? Tingling?”
“No. Are you a doctor?”
“I’m a little of everything.” He pulled out a pry bar from his backpack and circled around behind the rock. “When you feel the rock move, pull your ankle free. Can you do that?”
“To get out of here I could do anything.”
He chuckled and leaned his weight on the pry bar. It shifted, but not enough. He added more force behind it until his muscles screamed at the effort. Finally the rock slid just enough that Isabel pulled clear.
He scrambled around the rock and found her crouched over her ankle, fighting against the pain.
“One obstacle down. How about we see to that ankle now?” It was swollen and bruised, but not misshapen. A good sign. “Could be you got out of this with a bad sprain.” He wrapped the joint as gently as he could with a bandage and activated a chemical cold pack to sandwich between the layers of bandages.
She was sitting up now, eyeing him with an expression he couldn’t decipher. “Logan, did you…hear singing up there?”
He
