brainless turkey staring up at the sky during a downpour.”
Disgusted as well as frustrated, Will leaned out to grab hold of the door handle—the wind had pushed the door out as far as it would go. Just as he began to pull it toward him, he heard it for a third time.
That same yell.
“Damn it, I’m not hearing things,” he swore, arguing with himself.
Getting out of the truck, he squinted against the rain and looked out at the rushing water. Yesterday, this entire length of wet land hardly contained enough water to qualified being called a creek; now it was on its way to becoming a full-fledged raging river.
Will’s square jaw dropped as he realized that he wasn’t looking at debris being swept away in the center of the rushing water. It was some sort of washtub, a washtub with what looked to be a doll in it.
That wasn’t a doll; that was a baby!
He was already running to the water’s edge when his field of vision widened and he saw her. Saw that Cassidy was fighting against the current and was desperately trying to reach the baby.
It hit him like a punch in his gut.
That was what he’d heard!
He’d heard Cassidy screaming out that yell, the one that Cole had come up with so many summers ago. It had something to do with making them band together, giving them the strength of five instead of just one. They’d been kids then.
She wasn’t a kid anymore and there were all sorts of things he wanted to yell at her now, all of them ultimately boiling down to the word idiot.
But that was after he got to her.
And before that could happen, he had to save Cassidy’s damn fool hide. Hers and that baby she was trying to rescue.
Where the hell had it come from?
He had no time to try to figure that out now. Later, that was for later.
Will gave himself a running start, using the increasing speed he built up to propel him as he dove into the water.
He swam the way he never swam before—as if his life depended on it.
As if her life depended on it.
Hers and that baby’s.
Divorcing himself from any other thoughts—from anger, fear, astonishment—Will focused entirely on the goal he’d just set for himself. Rescuing the woman who took special delight in filleting him with her tongue whenever the opportunity arose, and the baby he’d never seen before, both of whom had just one thing in common: they had absolutely no business being out here under these conditions.
And they had one more thing in common: both of them were going to die here if he didn’t reach them in time.
* * *
HER ARMS WERE getting really, really heavy, but she knew that if she gave in to the feeling, gave in to the very thought of how exhausted she felt, both she and most likely this baby were not going to live to see another sunrise.
Hell, they weren’t going to live to see another half hour if she didn’t find a way to save them.
Her lungs aching so much that they hurt, she still somehow managed to tap into an extra burst of energy. She stretched out her arms as far as they would go with each stroke, and she finally managed to get close enough to the baby to just glide her fingertips along the lip of the tub.
C’mon, just a little farther, just a little farther, she frantically urged herself.
“Gotcha!” Cassidy cried in almost giddy triumph, her fingertips securing just the very rim of the tub. Her heart pounding madly, she pulled the tub to her. “I’ve got you, baby,” she all but sobbed. “I’ve got you!”
The problem was, she’d used up all of her energy, and, while she’d finally, finally managed to reach the baby, both she and it were still in the middle of the rushing water.
The situation didn’t exactly look hopeful.
And then Cassidy felt something snaking around her waist and holding her fast as it grabbed her from behind. Exhausted beyond belief, unable to turn to see what had caught her, Cassidy still frantically cast about for some way to free herself and the baby before whatever it was that was holding her dragged them down to the bottom of this newly formed river.
With no weapon within reach, Cassidy frantically pulled back her arm and struck hard at whatever was holding on to her with her elbow. Her only hope was to use the element of surprise to drive off whatever creature had ensnared her.
“Ow! Damn it, Cassidy, I should have my head examined for not letting you drown instead of trying to save you,” the deep voice behind her grumbled.
She could feel the words as they rumbled out because the man behind her had such a tight hold on her; his chest was pressed up against her back closer than the label on a jar of jam.
“Laredo?” she cried, absolutely astonished even as she struggled to keep the very last ounce of energy from seeping out of her body. Confusion vibrated through her. “What the hell are you trying to do?”
“I thought that was rather obvious,” he bit off coldly, both his breath and his words grazing the back of her head. “I’m trying to save you from drowning in this damn flash flood.” Before she could offer any sort of a protest, he turned the tables on her. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
She had a death grip on the baby’s tub, which in turn kept the baby from being swept away by the river. “What does it look like I’m doing?” she challenged angrily.
“Proving me wrong,” he answered, still keeping one arm firmly secured around her torso as he continued to slowly, powerfully, make his way back to the bank.
“Okay, I’m waiting,” Cassidy retorted weakly, mentally bracing herself.
Whatever was coming was not going to be flattering. She knew him too well to expect anything else. She also knew him well enough to know he was bound to save her because of the same ingrained sense of honor they all shared.
“Why are you wrong?” she gasped when he didn’t say anything.
“Because you can still find new ways to mess up, just when I thought you’d exhausted all the available possibilities.”
Anger appeared out of nowhere, giving her an unexpected surge of energy. She knew it wouldn’t last, so she talked quickly.
“There was a baby in the river. What was I supposed to do?” she demanded weakly. “Wave at it?”
“No, but drowning with it wasn’t exactly going to help anything,” Will snapped as he finally managed to reach the riverbank with both of them in tow.
The baby was still crying. It was loud enough to almost drown out the sound of their voices.
“I wasn’t drowning,” she informed him.
She meant to snap the answer at him, but
