don’t even know how long I’ve been down here.” She watched him finish the bandaging. “You seem like you do this kind of thing every day.”
He felt the dull twinge of pain. “I used to. You ready to get out of here?”
She nodded and he helped her to stand on her good ankle. Then he refastened himself to the rope. “Can you carry the backpack?”
When she nodded, Logan slid the straps onto her shoulders and began to fasten a webbed belt around her waist before he pulled her tight to his back. He felt her stiffen when her chest touched his shoulders.
“What are you doing?”
Her breath was warm on his neck. “I’m getting us out of here. I’ll do the climbing, and you hold on. Deal?” Without waiting for an answer he began hauling them up out of the ravine, Isabel holding him around the waist, her head pressed to his shoulder.
She didn’t make a whimper of complaint as they climbed, even when he could not avoid banging into the jagged rocks. Her repaired ankle throbbed, and her dead weight on his back made the going rough.
It didn’t matter.
It could have been two hundred feet or two hundred miles.
He would finish the mission.
Gritting his teeth he pulled them along, hand over hand, until they reached the top of the ravine. With a whine of joy, Tank grabbed hold of Logan’s sleeve and yanked for all he was worth.
Logan hauled them both over the top, unstrapped Isabel from his back and helped her to sit. Tank darted from Logan to Isabel, licking them both.
“This is Tank.”
She smiled and rubbed him under the chin. “Good name.”
“Good dog.”
The sky had lightened from black to gray to pearl as the sun pushed its way toward the horizon. They sat in silence for a while, Logan trying to catch his breath and Isabel staring at him.
He gave himself a few more moments to recover and then got to his feet. “We need to get you inside. How about another piggyback ride?”
She shook her head. “I can walk.”
“You’ll damage your ankle further.”
Her eyes shifted and she chewed her lower lip. “I can’t let you carry me anymore. You’ve got to be exhausted after that climb. I’ll hop on one foot, if you can steady me.”
He put on the backpack and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She clung to him to keep from falling. As they struggled for balance, Logan glanced down at the wet earth near the edge of the crevice they had just emerged from.
Isabel followed his gaze. “What is it?”
He shrugged and moved them in the direction of the cabin. “Later.”
With Tank at their heels, they set off.
It was only a half mile back, but it took them almost a half hour to hobble along. Finally they pushed through the door, and Logan deposited Isabel on the small couch in the front room, where Tank promptly curled up in an untidy pile at her feet.
Logan fetched some ice from the freezer, wrapped it in a dish towel and laid it on her ankle.
“I’ll drive you to town for an X-ray.”
“No. It’s just a sprain. I don’t need an X-ray.”
“Yes, you do.”
She pressed her lips together. “No.”
He sighed. “Are you always this stubborn?”
There was a glimmer of a smile on her face. “I’m afraid so.” She fiddled with the edge of the blanket he’d draped over her shoulders. “I—I want to thank you. You don’t even know me, but you came over here in the middle of the night and hauled me out of that hole. I still can’t believe it happened.”
He looked directly into her ink-dark eyes. “I can.”
She blinked. “You believe me? That I was pushed? Why?”
He chose his words carefully. “Because there was a set of footprints in the mud at the edge of the ravine, someone wearing cowboy boots.”
“Could they be your prints?”
He shook his head and pointed to his feet. “I’m in mountain climbers. Whoever made those prints stood right at the edge, and watched you fall.”
Isabel stroked the dog as she drank the instant coffee Logan prepared for them both, trying to calm herself. It was almost 7:00 a.m. by now. She wasn’t sure what to say to the man who had gone to such trouble and physical torture on her account. She could tell by the far-off look in his eyes that he was trying to make sense of the past few hours, too. She felt a familiar trembling and tried to get up.
Logan laid a restraining hand on her shoulder. “Stay put. Whatever you need, I’ll get it.”
“I—I need something with sugar.”
He eyed her closely. “Diabetes?”
“Hypoglycemia. I haven’t eaten regularly since I came.”
He went to the kitchen and returned with a handful of Oreos for her and one for himself. “So what made you come to the ranch?”
“Cassie loved her horses. I wanted to make sure things were taken care of, until the property can be sold.”
His eyes bored into hers. “You don’t want to live here?”
She shrugged. “It isn’t my property. I figure Cassie probably left it to my uncle, and I don’t really have fond memories of South Dakota anyway.”
“Been here before?”
“Yes,” she said grimly.
Logan didn’t question further. “Okay. Change of subject. Let’s talk about who would want to shove you over the edge of a ravine. Did you upset anyone recently?”
Upset anyone? One person sprang to her mind immediately, a certain ex-husband who was still languishing in jail, thanks to her. She looked at her hands.
Logan folded his arms, his voice low and serious. “You don’t have to talk to me about it, but the cops are going to ask you the same thing, so you might want to have an answer ready for them.”
She started. “The cops?”
He leaned forward. “If someone just tried to kill you. You need to file a police report.”
The thought of facing the barrage of personal questions that was sure to follow made her stomach turn. “Maybe it was some crazy person and he’s moved on.”
“You and I both know that’s improbable.” He hesitated before he finished. “Whatever
