Expect the Sunrise (32 page)

She nodded, or maybe that was trembling. In any case, she leaned against him. “I can’t believe you jumped in after me! Are you crazy?” she said through chattering teeth.

“Maybe.” He leaned back so he could look in her eyes, her beautiful eyes. “I reacted on impulse. I just … I couldn’t let you die, Andee. Not if I could save you. I—”

“I’m okay, Mac.”

“But I’m not.” His own words rocked him. No, he wasn’t all right at all. When he’d seen her go over the edge, only one thought fought for control of his mind:
Andee.
Not duty or patriotism or honor, just Andee.

He took her face in his hands. “You scared me. I saw you go over, and I thought you were dead. I couldn’t stop myself. All I thought of was getting to you, pulling you out of the water before you froze to death.” She opened her mouth as if to protest, but his words continued in a rush. “Andee, I know perfectly well that you’re capable of taking care of yourself, but deep inside, I had to make sure.”

She stared up at him—big eyes, mouth parted—and all his emotions rushed through him in one roaring gulp.

He kissed her. Hard. Letting all his desperation flow into a kiss that was probably just as much about himself and his fears and everything he’d bottled up for a decade as it was about showing her he loved her.

Loved?
Aye, maybe those feelings that exploded within him, those hot, needy feelings that had pushed him off a cliff could be called love. That, along with the fact that every time he was around her he longed to be the man who made her smile and feel safe, who listened to her and believed in her.

And then, wow, she kissed him back. Curled her hands into his jacket, and despite the fact that both of them were shaking, she kissed him just as desperately.

As if, perhaps, she’d been afraid and needed him too.

He pulled himself away, just enough so he could see her eyes and hopefully determine her emotions. “I … that’s the second time I did that without asking first.” He swallowed, a fruitless effort to get ahold of his breath. “You have to know that I don’t normally kiss a lady without asking first.”

“Or jump into a river after her? I don’t suppose you do.” Andee smiled, but her expression looked haunted. “I don’t either, but we don’t have time to talk about this right now. My dad is up there with Nina and a couple other terrorists, and they’re going to kill him.”

Mac saw the tears that edged her eyes. She wiped them away and bounded to her feet. “We gotta get help.”

Mac trailed her as she balanced over the rocks toward shore. He grabbed her elbow in case she slipped and took another wild jump. “We can’t get them in time. But we can get to camp. I left the two-way with Phillips. I’m hoping he got through to someone.”

Andee nodded.

Mac felt the numbing cold advance on him as he followed Andee to shore.

Chapter 19

ANDEE HEARD MAC behind her, pushing her toward camp. Everything hurt—her skin, her feet, her arms, and especially her heart. Because her father was out there, because for the first time in her life she understood.

Her father hadn’t rejected her. Not really. Not in
his
eyes. Because despite Gerard’s choices, he’d still loved her. And in the end, that was what mattered.

And what’s more … Mac had followed her into a river because he thought she needed him. Never mind that she’d pulled herself out. The fact that he’d dropped his agenda—everything he’d believed in—to come after her …

She really didn’t know what it felt like to be on the receiving end of search and rescue. To know that someone was out there, with her on his mind. Until now.

She glanced over her shoulder at the soggy, shivering man, his curls draped behind his ears. His blue eyes held a fire she’d come to expect, probably the passion of a Scot, and she knew, now that she was safe, that her father would be next on Mac’s save-the-world agenda.

“Hurry, Andee,” Mac said, coming up to put his arm around her.

“I know, Mac. They’re going to take off any second. Nina had a transmitter—”

“You’re shivering. I’m afraid you’re going into hypothermia.”

She felt his arm around her waist, felt her feet barely touch the ground. “But what about the pipeline?”

Mac’s face was rigid. “I’m only one man. And I can only do what I can. I’m trusting that God’s abilities are greater than mine.”

A smile tipped Andee’s lips, but she still worried. She should probably remember that also. That maybe God had everything under control, even when she felt like it all rested on her shoulders.

In the end, perhaps the Almighty could be trusted to guide her steps if she walked them in faith.

They found the trail. Mac held her hand as they ran, keeping her from tripping, pulling her up when her feet refused to cooperate. She felt her body start to become heavy, sluggish.

She tripped, but before she hit the ground, Mac scooped her up in his arms. She didn’t have a bone to resist as she laid her head against his chest. He held her tight against him. She smelled river water on him, but she pressed her lips to the base of his neck, feeling his whiskers brush her cheek.

“Don’t go to sleep,” he said, a low growl of warning.

She nodded, but her head bobbed, feeling as if it weighed a billion pounds.

“Andee! Don’t go to sleep!”

“No.” But worry loosened its hold, and her mind began to let go of the vision she had of millions of gallons of oil saturating the valley. Of her father’s eyes, urging her to run. She saw Mac, leaning against the wall of the airport, looking dangerous and arrogant as he sized her up. Saw him carrying Sarah and racing down the scree hill to save her life. She heard his voice as he stared at the stars:

“As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.”

She smiled into the memory of him holding her after she’d scared away the grizzly and the glow of candlelight against his handsome, whiskered, warrior face as he’d wished her happy birthday.

“I love you, Mac.”

“Do ya now?”

She smiled again, her head bobbing against Mac’s chest, warm now, and she thought she saw visions, crazy happy visions of friends she knew calling her name. Heard Sarah’s voice singing to her.

She saw Mac, his face close to hers, touching his lips against her forehead. “Don’t leave me, Emma.”

“Where is she?” Constantine hollered when Juan ran up behind them, out of breath.

“She jumped!” Juan bent over at the waist, gulping in breaths. “But she’s in the water. She won’t survive.”

Yes, she will. That’s my girl.
Gerard glared at Constantine.

Constantine looked at him. Gerard met his gaze with a look of triumph. Constantine cuffed him, and he tasted fresh blood.

“She won’t live,” Constantine snarled. “That water’s near freezing.” Still, he stood over Gerard, shaking his head.

“Let’s go,” Juan said, leveling his gun at Gerard. “Get up.”

Gerard turned into a rock. Unmoving. Let them beat the tar out of him—he wasn’t going to participate in treason.

Juan kicked him, a warm-up to the ugly finale. “Get up!”

Nina bent beside him. “I know where she’s camped. You get up, or I’ll go back and shoot her. If she lived through the jump.”

Gerard met Nina’s gaze with cool eyes. “You’re better off shooting me now, because I’m not flying you anywhere.”

“Okay, I’m leaving. Here’s the transmitter.” Nina reached into her pocket, pulled out a small black remote, and handed it to Juan. “Good luck.” She turned, walking away from them.

Gerard watched her go. She didn’t look back, just kept walking.

The vision of Andee, a bullet in her head, bleeding out on the tundra grass made him cry out. “Stop! Okay. I’ll … let’s go.” He’d get them in the plane and take it down. Before they blew the pipeline.

I’m sorry, Andee.
But it seemed that his entire life had been leading up to this event. In the darkest places inside him, he knew there’d be no happy ending for him and his family.

He should have let go of that dream a decade ago.

Gerard climbed to his knees, his feet, suddenly feeling exhausted.

Constantine smiled as if to say,
“See, a little motivation and everyone gets along just fine.”

Gerard fought the urge to rush him, finish it. But if he failed, they could still reach Andee. He’d wait until they were at two thousand feet, then cut the motor. Listen to them scream. In the end, Mary’s prediction would be half true—he alone would die in a fiery crash.

They hiked in silence, time weighing upon them like the press of cold against his ears. He could already make out Dalton Highway and the white hull of his Cessna 185 four-seater on the road. Constantine had forced him to land here, the closest entry point to Nina’s GPS signal. Constantine had been nearly crazy with demands and threats after they’d spotted their contact last night on the ridge, using a mirror against the fading light. Juan’s climbing abilities took a swipe at Gerard’s confidence when the man constructed the rope bridge. He half wished he hadn’t taught Andee how to climb.

Constantine walked behind him and prodded Gerard with his gun. Pain spiked up his spine. “Do you think she’ll remember you as a hero?”

Gerard said nothing. He wasn’t sure what Andee would write on his tombstone. At the least, his death would free her from this obligation she felt to spend her summers in Alaska. Even he, as thickheaded as Mary sometimes accused him of being, saw his daughter’s desperate attempts to regain everything they had lost. Everything he’d sacrificed. It pained him to know how much he looked forward to her efforts.

“You made her jump off a cliff. Some father you are.” Constantine shook his head. Gerard kept his face a stone. “They say a person has about two minutes once they hit the water.”

Gerard saw Constantine glance at Nina. Her dark eyes glinted with triumph, despite the dirt on her face and a bloody gash behind her ear. “Has it been two minutes already?”

“I wonder if her body will go over the falls, or if some grizzly will have her for lunch,” Juan added.

That. Was.
Enough.
Gerard spun and kicked Constantine hard in the gut. The air whooshed out of him, and he fell to his knees. Another kick across his temple sent him flying.

“Shoot him!” Constantine yelled as he fell to the ground.

But Gerard wasn’t stopping. Over a decade of waiting, of hiding, of praying that Constantine and his clan wouldn’t hunt him down unleashed in a blurry of frustration. “You cost me my daughter!” Gerard kicked Constantine a third time in the jaw.

A crack across the back of Gerard’s skull sent blinding sparks into his eyes, pain, and then the taste of blood in his mouth.

Constantine roared in triumph and launched himself at Gerard.

Gerard curled into a ball, trying to protect his chest, but by the ferocity of the attack, he doubted Constantine would leave him able to stand.

Constantine shouted. Gerard jerked his gaze up in time to see him land in the loam, thrashing under the grip of an apparition from the woods. A man wearing a dark Gore-Tex rain jacket, a black stocking cap, and mud smudged on his face pushed Constantine into the dirt and dug his fingers into his throat.

Gerard fought his way to his feet, breathing hard, brain fuzzy. He turned and saw Juan retreating into the woods.

No!

A shot zinged over their heads.

“Micah, get down!” Another man, with dirty blond hair and wearing a lethal expression, grabbed Gerard by the shirt. “Get down!”

The man pinning Constantine ducked, then hauled him up by the collar of his jacket.

Another shot sent him into the trees, dragging Constantine behind him. Constantine landed on the forest floor, Micah’s knee in his back.

Gerard followed the blond man and fell hard beside them. Constantine’s eyes were wild, staring at him in terror. About time.

“Sparks, just stay low,” Micah said, no emotion.

Gerard watched, his memory clicking into place with a smile.
Micah and Conner? Andee’s pals?