Deep Trouble Read Free

He was left with the sense that it was ancient and utterly empty of life.
    “Help me.”
    He jumped, drew his gun, and whirled around toward where the riders had left. Heart slamming, he looked left and right. Blinked and gasped for air and saw… no one.
    There was no one anywhere. Could the place be haunted? He didn’t believe in such things, but—
    That cry echoed and bounced until Gabe was surrounded by it.
    “Help me, please.”
    This time it was stronger, and even with the echo, Gabe whirled back and looked up and up and up.
    A woman.
    Gabe almost screamed.
    Her face was soaked in blood, one arm flung over the edge of the cliff as she lay on her belly, looking down.
    He probably would have screamed if he hadn’t choked on spit when he drew in an involuntary breath. While he coughed, he fought to get a grip on his nerves. Spooks and haints were something he’d heard of plenty growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee. Lots of superstition in those mountains. But his ma raised them Christian and wasn’t given to such nonsense. Still—
    “I’m trapped. They left me.” Her voice was weak, but it carried on the quiet of the canyon. This was no ghost. Except could ghosts fly? Because that’s the only way Gabe could see that she’d gotten up there.
    The coughing ended and, with a
whoosh
of relief, his head cleared and he knew there was a woman up there. A real woman. A living human being, definitely in terrible distress.
    She was so high overhead, her face streaked in bright red blood, dark hair spilling down over the edge of the cliff. He had no notion of what she looked like, only her voice and long hair told him she was female.
    “Ma’am?” Gabe had no idea what to say or do.
    “Help me, please.” Each word shook as if she gathered every ounce of her energy to keep talking. “Help me get down.”
    “I’ll help you.” His voice didn’t exactly work. He tried again, loud enough so she could hear him. “I’ll help you.”
    “Promise you won’t leave me.” She sounded on the verge of pure panic.
    Gabe couldn’t say he blamed her. “I’m not going to leave you.
    I promise.”
    “Thank you.” Her voice broke, and he heard a muffled sob. “I need you to get me down.”
    “How?” It wasn’t fair to ask a trapped, bleeding woman how to save herself.
    “I don’t know.”
    Not fair at all.

Three

    S hannon was calm and brave and ready to help.
    And she intended to tell her rescuer that just as soon as she could quit crying.
    She rolled onto her back and rested her aching head on the unforgiving rock. But she couldn’t stand to just collapse and cry her eyes out. Besides, her ears were full of salt water.
    Also, she was afraid she’d imagined that man. What if he vanished while she was lying here trying to stop crying and bleeding?
    Goaded by panic, she gathered her strength, sat up, and turned so she could look down and down and down. The world circled sickeningly. For a moment she thought she might cast up her breakfast.
    The man hadn’t vanished. He still stood there, looking baffled and dismayed.
    She couldn’t say she blamed him, but if he wasn’t happy now, just wait till she retched on him.
    “How’d you get up there?” He plunked his hands on his hips and studied the wall in front of him. He looked almost annoyed. Like he blamed
her
for this situation.
    Something her mother would do.
    Well, she could get him part of the way up. She’d break the news about the last twenty or thirty feet when he was close enough to hear without her raising her voice. Yelling made her head hurt.
    “You can get close by going up there.” She pointed to a spot to his right that was rough enough for hand- and footholds. “Then if you go down there”—she pointed past a row of cave dwellings to his far left—”you can—”
    “Okay. Hang on,” he interrupted her and headed for the right side. “Let me get up on this side first.”
    She wasn’t sure how to break it to him that the