Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Dana Mentink (good fiction books to read .txt) 📕

rope slackened ever so slightly. Nora finally lay back, her entire body shaking from the effort. The top of the boulder was rounded, having no sharp edge like the other side. She slid off the boulder to land so she could use the rock like a pulley system for the hardest portion of getting Henry fully out of danger.

The minutes felt like hours, but the moment she spotted Henry on top of the boulder, she collapsed onto her knees on the bank. She raised her face to the sky, her eyes closed. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Coughs still racked Henry as he splayed prone on top of the boulder. She untied the rope from around her waist and gathered it up only to find her pink helmet bobbing on the water. The rock to weigh it down must have slipped sideways out of the harness.

Henry propped himself up on one elbow. “I’ve never been so thankful your power color was neon pink.”

She laughed. All rafting guides liked to wear their favorite color. “What happened?” She climbed the boulder nearest to him and sat, facing downstream. She didn’t want to stare at the churning waters that had almost taken his life.

“The current dragged me under and then…” He bent over and fingered his waistband.

“Your belt. Your holster is missing!”

“The belt was caught, wedged between the boulders at the closest point.” Rivulets of water still streamed down his face from his helmet and drenched hair. “I finally managed to get the belt off, but I couldn’t wiggle myself free. The force of the current kept my chest pinned. I grabbed your helmet when it hit my elbow.” He turned to her. “I almost missed it, but I knew immediately what it was. My arms weren’t caught in the current, or I’d have been done for. I pulled for all I was worth until I got free.” He eyed the rope as she stuffed it back into the red throw bag. “How were you strong enough to pull me up?”

She shook her head. “The better question is what were you thinking?” She blew out an exasperated breath. “If you weren’t still recovering, I’d be tempted to smack you. You could’ve been killed. I never would’ve even brought you here if I didn’t think you remembered—”

“I knew we needed that raft. I didn’t have time to question my instinct. I felt I had to try.” He waved at the empty river ahead of them. “We’re surrounded by cliffs on either side. The only way someone is going to rescue us is if they have the same skills you do, which has become obvious is pretty rare. If Bobby couldn’t do it, then what chance is there?”

“Don’t give me too much credit. I know these waters like the back of my hand. I keep my skills up, but since you’ve lost your phone…”

Henry groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

“And since we were obviously sabotaged—”

“Wait. What?”

She turned to face him. “Just like I’ve never seen a raft deflate like Perry’s did, I’ve also never seen a rope shred like that in the D-ring. If we ever get our hands on that boat again, I’m sure we’ll see someone tampered with it. Cut a slit or something in it. All the new equipment in the last decade is made with safety in mind. This wasn’t an accident.”

“But they couldn’t have known it would happen here.”

“No. But if we had capsized in the rapids—which you remember happens often—I wouldn’t have been able to flip the boat back up, either. If we’d gotten trapped underneath…” She shrugged, unwilling to list all the ways they could have been injured or killed if their safety equipment wasn’t up to par. “A lot can go wrong with one act of sabotage. Best-case scenario, we would’ve lost the boat at the next stop when I went to pull it in. We still would’ve been trapped.”

Henry dropped his head into his hands. “Someone wants to make sure we can’t retrieve the drugs for evidence.”

A new thought came to mind. “Henry, I don’t think we can afford to wait around for someone to retrieve us. If Perry’s boat and our boat were sabotaged…”

His eyes widened. “Bobby and Carl might be in danger, too. And I can’t even send them a warning.” He frowned. “There doesn’t seem to be much of a choice other than to wait. Do you have an idea how to get out of here?”

“There’s only one way to get out of here.” She grimaced. “How long do you need to recover? Because you’re not going to like it.”

* * *

Henry didn’t want to hear her solution quite yet. He didn’t want to so much as look at the water, and if he had noise-canceling headphones he would use them to block out the sound of the waves. Every muscle hurt and he couldn’t stop the low-grade shiver. His body felt like a vibrating engine trying to fully start again. Movement would help, even though he wanted the cloud above to move and bake him with sunshine. He groaned. “Let’s do what we came here to do so it’s not a total waste.”

Nora swiveled her feet around to go down the set of boulders. “I’m not sure we should get our hopes up. Someone didn’t want us to retrieve the drugs, but if the two murders are connected, they didn’t seem to care about this stop.”

“You don’t think there’s anything worth finding here since someone has been one step ahead of us this whole time.”

“Basically.” She carefully descended, reached the ground and turned around to offer a hand to him.

“Thank you for the thought, but if I slip, you’re not catching or helping me. I’d flatten you.”

She rolled her eyes. “You don’t know,” she teased and stepped back.

“I think I really do.” He had at least fifty pounds on her. The laugh bubbled in his chest, irritating his lungs, and he had to balance precariously on the rock as he fought through a set of coughs.