When Love's Gone Country - By Merri Hiatt Page 0,45
some part of Jacob in her hands.
The current would carry them downstream. She just needed something to grab onto.
Her lungs were going to burst. She fought the urge to inhale. Jacob! She screamed the word in her head. She began to feel dizzy and lightheaded, like she was making her way through a dense fog. Tiredness was settling into her limbs. Jacob, please, you have to see me.
She made one last, frantic attempt, reaching out to find some part of Jacob to latch on to. Her fingers met cloth and she fisted the fabric into her hand. She allowed her body to go limp as the current pushed her swiftly down river.
She inhaled. Her lungs burned with a fire that both woke her senses and made her heart beat wildly. When her body pushed through the wall of water and air swirled around her head, she gulped air into her lungs, even as she coughed and spit water out.
Brad and Alex spotted her and jumped into the river themselves, pulling both her body and Jacob’s to shallow water.
Courtney rolled to her side and coughed while Alex performed CPR on Jacob.
“You okay?” Brad asked.
His words sounded hollow and distant to Courtney’s ears. She coughed, then threw up. The action seemed to clear her head and she was able to focus. “Is Jacob okay?”
Brad smiled with relief. “Alex is trying to get him to breathe. You look better.”
“Damn stupid thing to dive into freezing river water and then try to swim upstream,” Court said.
“Yes, it is a damn stupid thing. I love you.”
Brad pulled her close and held her in his arms.
“I love you, too.”
As Courtney took deep breaths, the sound of Jacob coughing brought tears to her eyes. She looked over Brad’s shoulder to see Alex rolling Jacob onto his side so he wouldn’t choke.
“Did they see me,” Court asked.
“I don’t think so. They were concentrating on Jacob.”
“We got to get out of here.”
Brad stood up, lifting Courtney into his arms.
Alex did the same with Jacob.
“Is he breathing?” Brad asked.
“Yeah, but it’s shallow. We need to get him to the hospital.”
“Let’s go.”
As they retraced their steps back to the trail, Bart, Red and the other two men stared into the river.
“How long can someone hold their breath?” Bart asked.
“I heard tell of a guy who did it for ten minutes,” one of the men said.
Not to be one-upped, his partner said, “I heard it was fifteen minutes.”
“No one can hold their breath for fifteen minutes. They’d be brain dead,” Red said. He looked up river and then down river. “He ain’t comin’ back up. One of you two’ll have to go down and look.”
“Us? We ain’t goin’ in that water,” one of the men said.
Red pulled a gun from his holster. “I say one of ya are.”
“We got guns, too.” Both men aimed their guns at Red.
Bart pulled his gun out, as well. “Looks like we got ourselves a stalemate.”
“Why do you care so much about this healin’ well anyways?” one man asked.
“That’s none of your business. Are you gettin’ in the water or not?”
“Not.”
Red pulled the trigger and a shot sailed right through the man’s forehead.
The other man turned to run. Red shot him in the back.
“You got a problem with what I just done?”
Bart shook his head. “I’d a done the same thing.”
Red aimed his gun at Bart. “Take off your shoes.”
“You want me to go in there? Red, we’re partners. I got your back and you got mine, remember?”
“Take of your shoes, Bart.”
“You know I can’t swim. I’ll drown if I go in that river.”
“Pick your poison, then. Drownin’ or bleedin’.”
Bart swallowed the lump in his throat as he stared down the gun barrel and then at the river. He removed his boots, then his shirt and pants. At least with the river he stood half a chance.
He walked into the cool water and was soon enveloped by liquid. He sunk to the bottom like a stone.
Red picked up Bart’s clothes and tossed them in the river, then put his boots under his arm and headed back toward the ranch.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Purity saw Alex carrying someone, but couldn’t tell who. Courtney was leaning on Brad. Even from her vantage point, she thought Court looked pale.
Pure got out of the golf cart and walked toward them.
“Get back in,” Alex said. “We’ve got to get Jacob to the hospital.”
“Where’s Frank and Emma?” Brad asked.
“I’ve been leaving messages for them. They’re not answering their phones. How did Jacob get here?”
Purity returned to