Morgan’s body slid a few inches in the slick mud. She kicked at his hands, but he held on, his mouth set in grim determination to drag her into the water.

Lance’s head popped up. He grabbed Aaron by the hair. Morgan sent one final kick into Aaron’s face as Lance dragged him away. Both men went under. Morgan couldn’t see any bubbles. The water was too turbulent.

Desperate, she held her breath and searched the surface.

Where are you?

A head broke the water. Lance! Relief pushed the air from her lungs. He shook the water from his hair and swam to the bank. Morgan rushed forward as Lance climbed out of the water.

They both collapsed for two breaths. Rain pounded Morgan’s face as she kept one eye on the surface of the water in case Aaron came for them again. “Is he . . .”

Lance sat up. His eyes narrowed. “You don’t have to worry about him. He’s not coming up again.”

“Good.” Morgan had no pity for the man. He’d killed Paul. He’d shot two innocent teenagers.

Nodding, but clearly still out of breath, Lance stood.

With her hands still bound behind her back, Morgan kicked out, using momentum to rock onto her knees. Lance helped her to her feet.

“I couldn’t break the zip tie,” she said as they hurried across the muddy ground.

“It takes practice.” Lance dug into his pocket and pulled out his keys. “Turn around.”

She did. The plastic dug deeper into her wrists, but he released the tie in a few seconds. Morgan rubbed her wrists and stared at the falls. A fresh burst of alarm shot through her. The water had risen significantly since they’d arrived, and the rain showed no sign of letting up.

She gasped. “The river is almost at the entrance to the cave.”

“Did you call 911?”

“Tina did.”

“But there’s no telling how long it will take them to get here. The roads are flooded, and I’m sure they’re inundated with emergency calls.” Lance sprinted to the edge of the water across from the cave. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “Evan!”

There was no response.

Panting, Morgan stopped next to him. She assessed the swirling, raging water. How would they get across? “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know.” Lance’s body was still, but she knew he was trying to come up with a plan. “I could probably swim to the cave, but I don’t know how I’d get Evan back across.”

“Do we have rope?” she asked. “You can string a line across as a guide.”

“In the Jeep.” He turned and ran up the steps. Morgan followed. She reached the higher deck just a few seconds behind him.

Rylee lay flat on her back, with her leg elevated on the deck railing. Tina had tied her jacket around Rylee’s leg. The girl was bone white and trembling, and the pant leg of her jeans was completely saturated with blood from midthigh down.

Tina glanced over the edge of the deck. “I have to save my son.”

But how? Neither Tina nor Morgan was physically strong enough to cross the river or move someone the size of Evan.

“It’s going to take some muscle,” Lance said. “If you look after Rylee, I’ll get Evan.”

“I don’t want Rylee to move.” Tina stood. “If you carry her down to the parking lot, I have additional first aid supplies in my car.”

While Tina held Rylee’s leg still, Lance scooped the girl into his arms, being careful not to jostle her. He carried her across the walkway and down the short flight of steps to the parking area.

Tina went to a vehicle parked a few spaces away from the Jeep and opened the trunk.

Morgan slid her hand into Lance’s pocket, took his keys, and opened the cargo hatch. She removed Lance’s Go Bag.

Lance set Rylee in the cargo area of the Jeep. Morgan kept Rylee’s leg as stable as possible, elevated on the back of the rear seat.

Leaving the girl in Tina’s care, Lance grabbed his Go Bag. He and Morgan ran back toward the river.

“What’s your plan?” she asked as thunder shook the ravine.

“I don’t have many options.” Lance opened his bag and removed a skein of yellow paracord. He tied one end of the rope to a tree trunk and the other around his waist. “I don’t know how helpless Evan is going to be, but we have to get him out of that cave fast.” He glanced at the water, then back toward the Jeep.

Morgan nodded and turned toward the river. Water lapped at the cave’s entrance.

It was now or never.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Lance had a rough plan in mind, rough being the operative word. But he had no choice.

A branch careened over the falls and crashed to the turbulent pool at the bottom in a spectacular splash. Getting Evan out alone was going to be treacherous. But if he waited any longer, the boy was sure to drown. The water was rising too quickly. He couldn’t wait for help to arrive. He took his body armor from his bag and put it on for some protection against blunt impact with rocks. He held up Morgan’s vest but decided it wouldn’t fit around Evan’s muscular chest. She was tall, but Lance had had the armor specially made to fit her slender body. He stuffed a few carabiners, D-shaped metal clips, in his pocket.

He turned to Morgan and gave her a quick kiss. “I’m going across.”

She grabbed his arm and kissed him back. “I love you.”

“Love you back.”

Looping the excess rope over his shoulder, Lance walked into the water. The first half of the trip would be the hardest because the water was deeper. It rose to his knees, then to midthigh. He let out the line as he walked, keeping some tension in the connection to help stabilize him. But the current pulled at his feet and legs. He dodged debris, mostly tree branches, as it swept by him.

Instead of fighting the current, he crossed on a diagonal, going with the flow as much as possible. Rain continued to pour from the sky, obscuring his vision. In the middle of the river, he clambered onto the top of a boulder to catch his breath. A wave crashed over the rock, sweeping him off. He went down. A large branch struck him across the ribs. His vest dispersed some of the impact, and he was damned glad he’d worn it.

Lance fought his way back onto the rock, then waded into a shallower section. The water pushed and pulled and threatened to sweep him off his feet, but he pressed forward. By the time he made it across, he was fifty feet downriver from where he’d started. He climbed onto the narrow, rocky ledge on the other side. Pressing his belly against the rock wall, he sidled along the ledge until he reached the cave’s plateau.

Lance saw a tan nylon rope anchored to a tree trunk and extending to the top of the ravine. Evan must have used it to climb down from the top. Unfortunately, pulling Evan out from above was a two- or three-man job. Lance couldn’t do it alone.

He untied the rope from around his waist and tied it to the trunk, pulling it as taut as possible. This would serve as their guide across the river. Then he used hand- and footholds to scale the rock wall and retrieve the second rope.

Water splashed over his ankles. The water level had risen several inches since he’d started across. It flowed into the cave. Lance wasted no time. Ignoring his heaving lungs, he crouched and ducked into the opening.

Evan lay at the back, curled on his side, facing Lance, but the boy’s eyes were closed. The bottom of the cave dipped slightly, and the gully was filled with water.

“Evan?” Lance called as he splashed across.

The boy stirred and opened his eyes. “Lance?”

Rylee hadn’t been exaggerating. The boy looked like death. Except for an unnatural, spotty flush, his skin was pale and pasty. His eyes appeared sunken, like Sophie’s had when she’d been dehydrated and running a high fever. Lance placed a hand on the teen’s forehead. He was burning hot. An ACE bandage was tied around his upper arm.

“Is my mom OK?” Evan asked. “I saw a guy pointing a gun at her. I couldn’t do anything about it.”

How like the boy to be worried about his mom when his own life was in danger.

“Your mom is all right.” Lance didn’t take the time to assess Evan’s wound. “We need to get you out of here right now. Can you walk?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I can crawl, though.”

“I’ll take that for now.” Lance removed his vest. “You need this more than I do. It won’t help you swim, but it will protect you against rocks and debris.” Lance worked it onto the boy’s injured arm first. Sweat poured from the teen’s brow, and his jaw tightened as he fought the obvious agony generated by the movement. Then Lance fashioned a harness with the second rope and secured it around Evan’s body. Lance coiled up the extra thirty feet of leftover rope and slung it over his shoulder. He could toss it to Morgan at the halfway point. She and Tina could help Lance get Evan across the deeper half of the river.

“Let’s go.” Lance kept hold of the harness as they moved into the water at the front of the cave, now more than a foot deep. The water level had risen above the top of the opening. Only three feet of air space remained in the cave. Evan shivered as the water splashed over his legs. He rolled onto his knees. His crawl was painstakingly slow with only one good hand.

Lance barked out rapid commands as the water level continued to move higher. “I’ll get you through the opening. Take a deep breath. One. Two. Three.”

The boy sucked in air. Lance submerged them both and pulled the teen out of the cave. As they surfaced, Lance grabbed for the taut rope connecting them to the other side of the river. He used a carabiner to fasten Evan’s harness to the yellow paracord. The metal would slide along the rope. Then Lance clipped a second carabiner to his belt and Evan’s harness. Now Evan’s body was suspended just above his.

The guide rope would help him combat the current. As long as it held, they wouldn’t get swept away. But it didn’t allow them to move with the flow of the water. Lance would have to fight it with brute strength. But there was no way that Lance could fireman-carry Evan across the water. Evan was not a small kid. He weighed almost as much as Lance did. Yet Lance had to get him out without help.