The next moment, Kane came thundering through the cut-through track and skidded to a halt. “I found Webber crawling out the forest. Someone knocked him out, but he’ll be okay. I told him to rest awhile and then head this way. Where’s Emily?” He moved to the edge of the ravine and peered at the bridge. “Jesus.”
Jenna turned to him. “We’ll have to talk Em into making her way back, but I’m not sure how we can assist Lyons until Wolfe gets here with a rope.” She frowned. “I’ll call the fire department.” She made the call then walked to the edge of the ravine and cupped her hands. “We’re coming, hold on.”
There was no time to waste, and without hesitation, Jenna stripped off her jacket and then removed her shoulder holster and handed it to Kane. “Give me your belt. I’m going to bring her in.” She looped Kane’s belt through her own. “I’ll attach Em to me and then she won’t be so scared.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Kane’s mouth turned down as he handed her his belt. He pulled out a small pair of binoculars and scanned the area. “Give it a few more minutes. She has herself in a good position and Wolfe will be here soon.” He turned his attention to Lyons. “It will be impossible to save them both at the same time.”
The loud creaking from the bridge was all Jenna needed to make up her mind. She looked up at Kane. “I made Wolfe a promise to watch out for her and I never break my word.” She took a deep breath and stepped out over the abyss.
“Then promise me you’ll take it slow and easy. Get Emily then we’ll try for Lyons. Don’t risk all your lives by trying to save them alone.” Kane’s face filled with anguish. “Promise me, Jenna.”
“Okay, okay, you have my word.” Clinging to the slippery handrail, she shuffled her feet along the metal bar attached to the dangling slats of the bridge. The rusty, wet, blackened bar did nothing to relieve her fear of heights, but she’d trained in worse conditions. She smothered her worry and moved on, taking precise, even steps. The wind pulled at her clothes as if trying to make her fall, and blasts of freezing, wet wind cut through her clothes. She kept her gaze fixed on Emily but the girl hadn’t moved and was staring at the rushing water as if paralyzed with fear. “Emily, I’m coming.”
She shouted to Emily to stand up and start moving toward her but the wind carried her words away. The bridge groaned and shuddered with each perilous step and Jenna had to fight against waves of rising panic. The memory of seeing Owen Jones’s recent fall into the rapids rushed over her without warning. The gut-clenching horror of seeing him falling into the icy water, colliding with boulders, and fighting to survive was so real. She gasped for air, her brain insisting she was going to die. Her knees wobbled and her grip lessened on the railing. In her earpiece, Kane’s voice broke through the hallucination.
“Jenna. Jenna, listen to my voice. Just hold on. Open your eyes. You’re almost there. Look, Emily has spotted you. Don’t reply, just keep going one step at a time. Come on, Jenna, you can do it.”
She turned her head to look at him, gathered her wits, and then nodded. Hands numb from the constant freezing blasts of water, she moved on. With Kane’s encouragement in her ear, she could face her fear and focus with absolute clarity. A third of the way across, she heard whimpering and looked down. Lyons dangled below her, his eyes desolate with fear. He was soaked through from the pounding rapids rushing by below, his face a bloody mess, and he was out of her reach. Right now, she had no way of saving him, and his life depended on how long he could cling to the rotting wood. All she could do was offer him encouragement. “Hang on. Help is on the way.”
Jenna worked u
p a rhythm—step, slide, step—as she moved down the slope to the middle of the bridge. Ahead, Emily had finally heard her yelling and was watching her. She could see the girl’s pale face, wide blue eyes, and soaked blonde hair. Wolfe’s petrified daughter would need a lot of encouragement to stand up and move. As she reached the center of the rapids, the squall became fierce as if she’d stepped into a wind tunnel. Her heart rate picked up to a dizzying speed. The swaying of the bridge was bad enough but seeing slats of wood rip away and tumble into the fast-flowing water terrified her. She looked at Emily, and the worry on Wolfe’s face flashed across her mind and bolstered her resolve. He was family and she refused to let him lose another loved one.
Ten more steps had her at Emily’s side. “Slowly hook one arm over the handrail and push yourself up.” She looped one arm in demonstration and then gripped Emily under one arm. “I have you.”
Jenna heaved a sigh of relief when Emily obeyed without a word. “Okay, now I’m going to loop Kane’s belt through yours, so we’re joined together.” The idea was more a comfort move because the belts wouldn’t take the weight if one of them fell. “Okay, we’re going to head back now. Your dad is waiting for you. Keep your hands and feet in contact all the time. Move one hand, then slide one foot along, then move the other hand, and so on.”
“It’s been moving.” Emily’s lips had turned blue with the cold. “Like jolting every few minutes. It did that just before it broke.”
Anxiety gripped Jenna’s stomach but she tried to make light of the dangerous situation. “I figure it’s the rotten wood breaking away but this side of the bridge is okay.” She took the first few steps, glad when Emily moved with her. “We’ll be off here in no time.”
“Wolfe is here, and so is Webber. The fire department ETA is still about ten minutes. It looks good from this end, keep moving slow and easy.” Kane cleared his throat. “Don’t risk letting go to press your mic to communicate. Wolfe has Emily’s tracker on his cellphone.”
Jenna turned her head to look at Emily. “Kane is talking to me through my com and your dad can hear you through your tracker. Kane told me it all looks good ahead, no more damage. Can you move a little faster?”
“I’ll try.” Emily had a determined expression on her face.
The bridge shuddered and whined with every step and the howling wind tugged at their clothes. Aware the next step could have them tumbling to their deaths, Jenna kept up a conversation with Emily, and having her there bolstered her courage. They passed by Lyons. He’d stopped whimpering and had climbed up to hook one arm over a metal strut. Above him was an empty gap and twisted metal; he had no place to go and remained suspended in midair. She glanced to the entrance to the bridge and a chill ran through her. Wolfe was there with a rope in hand but he obviously thought the bridge would not support another person’s weight.
Twenty yards to go, she could clearly make out everyone’s faces. Kane and Wolfe stood at the edge of the bridge, feet spread and ready to grasp them the moment they arrived. Jenna sighed with relief. “Not much further, Em, keep going.”
The next moment a ripping scream cut through the thunder of the falls, the bridge shuddered, and a noise like the devil himself had leapt out of hell echoed through the mountains. “Hang on, Em.” Jenna wrapped her arms around the handrail and her legs around the metal support bar. She turned to see Emily copy her.
In an almighty roar of tearing metal, the second cable broke, slingshotting them at an incredible speed toward the side of the ravine. Behind her, Jenna could hear Emily screaming as they flew through the air. She clung on tight as they shot toward the edge of the rapids. Sheer force plucked them from the bridge and they fell, crashing into the thick undergrowth lining the ravine. Pain shot through Jenna’s arm as they tumbled together, bouncing over rocks toward the fast-flowing rapids. The ground and sky became a blur of colors. Air rushed from her lungs and then the world went black.
Fifty
Kane watched in horror as the bridge swung back in a scream of twisted metal. Jenna and Emily were nowhere in sight, but Lyons had been flung up and onto the bank. He was within reach. When Wolfe ran up beside him, Kane grimaced. “I can reach Lyons. I’ll go down; toss me down the rope and haul him up.”
“And leave Emily and Jenna? No damn way.” Wolfe stared down the rapids.
“We can’t leave him there, and I figure they’ve been thrown onto the side of the ravine downstream a ways.” Kane slapped Wolfe on the back. “I didn’t see them fall into the water and Emily was strapped to Jenna; they’ll be together.”
“Jenna, do you copy?” Wolfe sounded desperate.
Nothing.
“You’d better hurry.” Wolfe glared at Kane. “That son of a bitch isn’t worth saving.”