LITMIR.BIZ

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storm passed. Didn’t you hear me say Ackerman ordered us off?”

       Shane slicked his wet hair out of his face and kept his eyes on Gleeson, praying Kelly would not ask about his fictional last name. “I don’t take orders from Ackerman or anyone else.”

       Gleeson’s chin went up. “Yeah? Well, you may have just cost yourself a spot in the race.”

       Shane shrugged. “So be it.”

       “So be it?” Gleeson seemed to puff up in anger. “Listen, kid. I gave you a shot and took you on as a partner, but you still have to meet the qualifications and you definitely have to follow orders. I’m in this thing to win, and I don’t need you going cowboy and messing things up for me.”

       A woman Shane recognized as a fellow racer got out of the van and joined them in time to hear Gleeson’s outburst. “He had a good reason.”

       Gleeson wasn’t mollified. “He risked his life without a word. Didn’t even radio for help. That’s the kind of thing that will make Ackerman kick you out of the race, and I don’t have time to keep finding new partners.”

       The woman held up a placating hand. “I’ll talk to Devin. Explain things. He’s quick-tempered but he’s got a soft spot for women and cats.” She cast a curious glance at Kelly. “Devin is my fiancé so I should know. I’m Betsy Falco. I’m competing in Desert Quest.”

       Kelly offered her free hand to Betsy and Gleeson. “I’m Kelly Cloudman, and this is Paddy Paws.”

       Betsy smiled. “Pleasure. I’m racing with my cousin, Gwen. She’s back at camp because we already did the ropes prelim. I’m glad I decided to drive along and watch these guys, or I would have missed all the excitement. Are you a racer, Kelly? Can’t think of any other reason you’d be out here, especially with your son.”

       Shane flushed. The effort of his clumsy water rescue had driven thoughts of the little boy out of his head. Now he glanced toward the van at the tiny bundled figure wrapped in the too-big slicker.

       Kelly kept her eyes away from him as she answered. “He’s my nephew. We were on our way to the campground. I’m the race medic.”

       Shane almost yelped. “What?”

       Kelly finally looked at him, her face a mix of sadness and anger. “I needed a job,” she said simply. “Charlie and I wanted to be closer to my uncle Bill anyway, and his wife, Heather, and my aunt Jean said she would help take care of him during the race events. She’s joining me tomorrow. If I had known…”

       If she had known he was a race participant, she never would have come. The words cut right through him. It couldn’t be. He was here to catch a killer, and he didn’t care what he had to risk to accomplish his task. But Kelly? He looked back to the van.

       The boy’s soft round cheeks and chubby hand pressed to the window brought back memories of his little brother, and the pain almost swept him away until Gleeson smacked him on the shoulder. “You okay? You look washed up.”

       He tried for a smile. “Rough swim.”

       Kelly nodded at them and returned to the van, her slender figure hunched against the violent wind. He heard a low squeal of joy as she handed the cat back to Charlie.

       “You should get her back,” Betsy said.

       He started until he realized that she hadn’t meant the words the way he heard them. “I’ll stay with the bikes. You two drive the van to the campground and come back for me and the gear.”

       Gleeson looked at the sky. “Going to storm some more. Not much shelter here.”

       Not much shelter anywhere from the angry storm inside him. “Go on. Take care of her. I’ll be here.”

       He watched them load up into the van, Gleeson at the wheel and Betsy next to him. Kelly sat in the back now, with Charlie, her long brown hair spiraling into endless curls from the soaking. The cuts the cat had given him burned now, though he felt nothing but cold, the deep-down cold that rooted inside him the moment he’d betrayed Kelly Cloudman.

       Kelly found herself sitting in the backseat of the van, her arm around Charlie and Paddy Paws on her lap. Gleeson drove slowly, and Betsy turned often from her spot in the passenger seat to fill Kelly in on race preparations. The gist of it she already knew; it was broken into three tortuous legs: mountain biking, a canoe and run, and the spelunking/ropes course. Each racer was timed, and the team with the fastest cumulative time at the end of the three events would be the winner.

       “The weather’s been terrible so far. Of course, we’re not scheduled to start for another day but there are a lot of racers who came early to pass their competency tests and get some extra practice in. The campground is nice and quiet, and the trailers are okay.”

       Kelly’s mind wandered as Betsy chattered on. The past few hours felt like a dream, or maybe, more appropriately, a nightmare. Of all the people in the world to rescue her and Charlie at that moment, it had to be Shane. She wanted to forget him, to erase their time together. Absently, she rubbed her palms on her lap.

       She blinked away the memories. The important thing was the little boy sitting next to her, humming to himself. Charlie was unharmed, and his precious feline companion had survived, too. She breathed a thank-you prayer.

       Looking out into the black sky, too cloud-washed to reveal any stars, the detail returned that had been lurking just out of reach in her mind. Matthews. Gleeson had referred to Shane as Matthews, instead of Mason. He could have misspoken, but Shane’s quick reaction, the barest flick of a glance in her direction, told Kelly it was not a mistake.

       For some reason she could not fathom, Shane was using a fictitious last name. She wondered if it had something to do with the terrible news she’d heard the year before, the murder of Olivia Mason, Shane’s sister-in-law.

       I should have called. Should have written.

       There were plenty of good reasons not to at the time. She was desperately trying to finish her nursing degree and dealing with an emotionally traumatized toddler, not to mention wrestling with her own anguish at Shane’s abrupt departure from her life.

       She still didn’t understand what had happened to them. Maybe she never would, but she should have expressed her condolences when Olivia died. Shane loved Olivia like a sister and adored his brother, Todd. She should not have let her own anger and hurt keep her from doing the decent thing.

       Forgive me, Lord.

       Her clothes were clammy, clinging to her like a second soggy skin as the van pressed through the darkness for miles. Ahead she could just make out some lights as they drove into a flat basin, ringed by distant cliffs. It was hard to discern much, but as they passed through the split-rail fence she noticed a half-dozen small cottages, some dark and others with windows illuminated.

       “Those are the cabins,” Betsy said. “Mr. Chenko stays in one; he’s the race producer. Devin’s in another, and there are a few more race officials in the others. The rest of us lowly racers are in the trailers.” She smiled. “Pretty luxurious for an endurance race, I think. Electricity, beds and all the good stuff.”

       “Have you done this kind of race before?”

       “Nothing this big. I got interested after Devin and I met.” She squinted to read the numbers on the electrical boxes outside the trailers. “Here you are, number seven. I’ll go get the key in the office. Be right back.”

       Kelly shivered as they got out. She kept a firm arm around Paddy and held Charlie’s hand tight.

       “Mama Kelly?”

       She smiled at him. “We’re here, Charlie. This is where we’re going to be staying.”

       He gave it a look and then pressed his tired face against her leg, heedless of the damp denim. She found Gleeson looking at them. With a start she placed his face. “I patched up your knee at the clinic.”

      

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