HOT SET: Playing with Fidelity (A romantic suspense novel) (19 page)

“
Not really up for talking right now!” The strong, brown current dragged down Kate’s hips and she exerted all her strength to keep upright.

“
Still bossy!”

She turned to give him a look of exasperation, taking her focus off the river for a moment and
Rhys watched with alarm as her expression changed to shock as the rock under her foot rolled sideways, changing her centre of gravity and she slid noiselessly under the water, the suitcase the only evidence she’d been there. The case hit him in the hip and she crash into his legs like a hammer, taking him off his precarious perch. With a yelp he sloshed sideways into the water, dropping his own crate and was immediately swept downstream and quickly out of sight of the horrified spectators. Pete and several others who’d already made it across, dropped their loads and took off down river bank after them.

“
Bring rope!” he bellowed back.

Rhys
managed to keep his head above the water and as he grappled with trying to find a foothold on the rocky bed, he looked around frantically for Kate. Finally, he saw her surface a few metres to the right of him and he called out to her, holding out his hand. Rhys again attempted to stand and while not deep, he couldn’t find a decent hold on the muddy bottom. Giving up, he concentrated on reaching Kate who, like him, was trying to find some solid land. He called to her again and Kate, seeing how close he was, made a vain attempt to flounder towards him. Then, she lost her footing and went under again.

Pushing her way back towards oxygen, she splashed to the surface to take a heaving breath. The rain fired on their exposed heads, splashing back into their
faces as the large drops hammered into the water. It was almost dark and was becoming difficult to discern upcoming obstacles. Kate and Rhys were passengers on the wave down the riverbed, desperately reaching for each other while hoping they missed the large rocks in their path.

Kate became
terrified; a dark, consuming fear that crammed her insides as the water washed her without. Her anxiety to survive and weight of the terror nearly blinded her and she panicked, forgetting how to swim and in her sightlessness, didn’t see the large rock approaching. She smashed hard into the rugged surface, the impact punching the air from her lungs and immense pain shot from her left arm into her head. She tried to yell but the lack of air in her lungs made her gag and choke and she took in a large mouthful of water. She tried to keep the water out of her throat but her frantic brain was making her hyperventilate and her head screamed for oxygen. Large spots filled her vision and her confused senses couldn’t discern between wanting to spit out the water and its need for air. The spots became larger and she breathed in the water.

Before her vision, p
ictures of Mark and her precious family and homeland flitted across the blackness like an old flickering slide show. She was floating and whirling, the terror sliding away as the beloved images crossed her vision; then she wasn’t scared anymore. “This is it” whirled a little voice and she accepted the inevitability. The fight left her and she felt the river consume her, hungry for her flesh. A mixture of sadness and peace settled upon her as she let go.

With a mighty heave,
Rhys hauled Kate out of the water towards him and holding her firmly with his left arm squeezed around her upper stomach. The quick pressure of his arm forced the water out of Kate’s lungs and she vomited and coughed up water and bile into the brown river.

Kate breathed
in a noisy and painful breath then coughed again and cried. Tears streamed from her eyes, her nose ran, her throat and lungs were raw and she choked and coughed again, the next breath just as painful as the one after. Her hair draped forward over her face and while she spat up more of the dirty water and Rhys held her tightly.

Her strength gone,
she could do nothing but lay limply against the solid arm around her ribs and finally, her head draped tiredly backwards onto his shoulder, her hair spreading a black web through the water around her exhausted face and she sobbed through the pain of coming back to life.

“
Stay with me, love. Come on – hold on.” His words were a blur.

Rhys
held onto Kate with an araldite grip.

“
Stay with me, Kate. You need to stay with me.”

Holding
Kate securely, he started to swim slowly towards the bank, his strength quickly diminishing as he fought the immense pressure of water.

Then
, the river passed through a low chasm that was only a few metres wide and they sped up. This was the water hole that Rhys had swum in that morning and it seemed unfair to be visiting it again this way. Through the gloom, Rhys could see they were travelling so fast they’d be swept kilometres downstream before he could get them to shore. He could no longer touch the bottom.

Kate
was not a large but the weight of two people and the strength of the current drained him. He kicked back into his reserve strength and forced his way towards the rocks. For an interminable amount of time, he fought and kicked and pushed them through the water, his arms starting to burn from the exertion of carrying Kate and swimming. Kate recovered slightly and she started to kick and between the two of them, they reached the side of the chasm wall, both reaching out for a handhold to stop their journey. Finally, Rhys managed to lock his hand around a large root and their descent came to an abrupt jolt that nearly caused Kate to slip from Rhys’s grasp. Only by some miracle was he able to hold on and they dragged in the water, rolling left and right with the swell.

They could barely speak over the sound of the rushing water
and rain. Rhys leaned down as far as he could towards Kate’s ear.

“
You okay?”

He felt her nod weakly against his chest
. He was tired but with his arm locked into place he was able to hold them for longer. He looked up at the high walls of the chasm and noticed they were several metres above him with long roots from trees above dangling invitingly over the rutted walls. An easy climb for someone fit, but they were exhausted. Kate was starting to slide out and he pulled her back up and locked his arm around her again with a strength he didn’t know he still possessed.

“
Kate, I don’t know how much longer I can hold for!” he said.

“
I’m sorry Rhys.” Her words were barely audible.

“
Don’t apologise and hold on!”

Rhys
managed to move his hand up the root slightly and then another few centimetres. Kate was starting to drag heavily in the current and he felt her trying to kick bravely.

For
five very long minutes, Rhys inched his way one finger at a time towards the rock wall. He was nearly at the edge, a sturdy ledge almost at reaching distance, when crumbling rock fell around them as the root let go. He held on with all his might while several feet of it tore away from the wall with a sharp crack. It held on, but now they were swinging in the middle of the rushing river again.

“
I can’t hold on much more.” He spoke loudly.

“
Let me go Rhys. If you let me go, you’d have no trouble pulling yourself out.”

“
No!” he shouted, “that’s not an option!”

“
Yes it is! Please!”

“
Kate listen to me. It’s not going to happen, okay? It’d be easier with two arms so put your arms around my neck and I’ll pull us both in.”

Kate
tried to turn around and reached up for his neck. His skin was slippery and like holding onto a mossy rock, so she missed. She grabbed his shirt in a panic while he re-wrapped his arm around her, pulling her face into his chest. She cried in distress.

They hung there for a moment longer, the roar of the water
overwhelming their senses, the rain pouring heavily and harshly on heads already hurting. There was nothing left in his arms. He had to let go.

“
Right, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to let go on three and we go down together. Maybe we’ll get lucky,” he said.

“
Let me go Rhys,” she argued weakly. “There’s no need for both of us to die.”

“
We are not going to die and I’m not letting you go. Stop arguing with me, stubborn woman.”

“
Fine.”

She paused.

“Okay then!” She took a deep breath and looked up into the almost black sky. She paused, took another breath and spoke, “Let’s go.”

“
Right. On the count of three.” He took a deep breath. “One. Two. Th-”

“
LIGHT!” Kate’s yell brought his head up and he craned his eyes up the cliff face.

“
Where?”

“
Above us!”

Then
, he saw it too. A blessed, sweeping beam that passed over the crevasse and back again. He gritted his teeth tightly and pushed his remaining ounce of muscle into his right hand. Then, he heard shouts and several torch beams lit them up.

“
They’re here! Get the rope! Quickly!”

Within seconds, someone was climbing
rapidly down the slick rock wall towards them, dropping a long piece of rope behind them. It was the most beautiful sight Kate and Rhys had ever seen.

The rope was thrown across them and
Kate reached out and just as her hands clasped it, Rhys’s arm went slack, swinging Kate down the river. She held on as tightly as she could and within a few seconds, was grasping the hand of the mighty Pete who effortlessly hauled her out of the water and into the arms of Sam and Dave who had dropped onto the tiny ledge just behind him. While Pete was throwing the rope back out to Rhys, Sam and Dave strapped Kate into a makeshift harness and she was pulled quickly up towards the top where even more hands helped her across the ledge and onto solid ground. She fell onto the rain-covered rocks and a blanket was put around her while she curled into the foetal position, shaking and traumatised. Trystan and Teresa Watson, the Props Master, was instantly by her side, checking her out. Their clothes were moulded to their bodies from the drenching rain and droplets fell heavily from their foreheads as they leant over her, talking loudly.

It took longer for the men to extract
Rhys from the river as his arms were so weakened he could barely move them. Pete tied the rope to himself and dropped into the water with Sam and Dave pulling them back in. Manhandling Rhys to the side, the three of them got him up onto the ledge. At Rhys’s request, they let him rest for a moment and with their help and a sturdy rope around his chest, he got to the top safely. He stood woozily next to the blanketed form of Kate, staring down into her dark eyes that were locked onto his with an expression he couldn’t read.

Then
, he blacked out.

Rhys was so embarrassed. He’d never fainted before and the fact he did it in front of the others galled him. Okay, so he was only out for 30-seconds but he could imagine too clearly what he would have looked like slumping like a dropped sail. The left side of his face had some tell-tale grazing and if he could feel his arms fully, he was sure the chunk taken out of his left forearm would hurt. Speaking of which, four hours after being mined out of the river, he only had just regained full movement of his arms and they were so sore they practically creaked. He hadn’t eaten yet because the doctor summoned from Alice had taken his time giving him the all clear. He was famished and as though toying with his sanity, a waft of beef stew slid past his nose. He was still wrapped in the blanket one of the rescuers gave him at the riverside and hadn’t changed his clothes, the fire in front of him drying him out. His head was jackhammering his upper spine, he’d kicked his toe on a rock and he wanted to pee. Then, to top it all off, every minute or so, someone dropped by to see how he was doing and he wasn’t doing anything except sitting uselessly in a camp chair. He’d even sent Mira away, showing uncharacteristic gruff. She just rolled her eyes at him and stalked off to call Sal.

H
e was in a fine mood and he glowered unhappily into the fire. At least it had stopped raining.

He heard a footstep behind him and had his mouth open to tell the visitor to take a hike when
Kate stepped into his vision. A tingle of pleasure rolled through his chest. She looked pretty banged up, small scratches on her face and hands but she was wearing a brave smile.

“
Hey you,” she spoke. She toyed with the blanket around her shoulders.

“
Hey, yourself. And before you say anything, I’m fine.” She raised an eyebrow.

“
Okay then.” She continued to pull at the end of the blanket and he immediately felt ashamed of his response. He dropped the bravado.

“
Actually, my head is killing me, I’m starving and I really need to visit the men’s. I’m not in a good mood. Sorry for snapping at you.”

“
It’s okay, I understand. I have some painkillers, have taken half the packet myself. I can also get you some food but I can’t help with the other problem. Can you move your arms yet?”

“
Yep.” He lifted his arms to prove it. Rhys started to get out of the chair and she grabbed his arm while he rocked to gain momentum then with a grunting heave, landed on his feet and stood. His head cheered with the effort.