Naked Edge (48 page)

"He told me he didn't want to go to prison."

When she reached the part where Gabe cut the rope and let himself fall, she couldn't stop her tears. "I tried to hold on. I tried so hard, but the ski pole kept slipping. I pleaded with him not to do it, but he was afraid he'd pull me off the cliff, too, so he ... he cut the rope ... and fell."

Sophie gave Kat's hand a squeeze, tears in her eyes. "You did everything you could. When I think of what you went through ..."

But Kat wasn't so sure. "If I'd just been a little stronger, held on a little longer, maybe he wouldn't be in surgery now."

"You're being way too hard on yourself," Tessa said. "Bless your heart! You're not Superman, you know."

Pauline dabbed her eyes with a tissue. "I think you're both very brave."

"Gabe knew what he was doing," Kara assured her. "He made a choice."

Holly gave Kat's foot a squeeze. "If it had been me, I'd be dead. I never could've done what you did. I probably would have jumped off the cliff myself just so I didn't have to be afraid of falling."

Holly's admission--and her strange logic--made everyone laugh.

Then Marc spoke. "You fought a man almost twice your size alone for hours. You endured God only knows how many rounds from the Taser, not to mention a broken wrist and serious hypothermia. I don't know how much stronger any woman could be--or any man, for that matter."

Julian nodded. "What Hunter said. You're my hero, Kat James."

Uncle Allen held up his hand, a sign that he wished to speak. "You did what Grandpa Red Crow asked you to do, Kimimila. You uncovered the truth about what was happening at Mesa Butte. But if my cousin had known what it would cost you, he never would have asked it of you. You almost lost your life helping your people, and your ranger took the warrior's path and gave his life for you."

"Aho!"
Nathan said softly.

Uncle Allen went on. "As I see it, Creator was moved by these acts of sacrifice and brought you both safely to this moment."

Everyone seemed to agree.

"When I saw he was alive, I couldn't believe it." Marc shook his head. "The first thing he did when he opened his eyes was to ask about you, Kat."

Julian smiled. "And the first thing Kat did when I found her was ask me to go get Gabe's body and bring him home."

Tears spilled down Kat's cheeks, but she smiled along with everyone else. She sniffed, glanced at the clock. Gabe had been in surgery for five hours now.

Such a long time.

"How did you reach us so quickly? It seemed like forever, but Sophie said it was only about forty-five minutes."

"We were already in Vail when you called Sophie," Julian said. "Martin spilled his guts yesterday afternoon, pointing the finger at Webb, blaming him for everything. We were able to corroborate some of what Martin said and went to arrest Webb, but his wife said he'd gone skiing for the weekend. When you and Rossiter failed to check in and we couldn't reach you, we knew something was wrong."

"But how did Webb know where to find us?"

"Since we can't ask him, we can only speculate." Julian wrapped his arm around Tessa's shoulder and drew her back against him. "I'm guessing he knew about the cabin in the same way Rossiter did--through his job. When he heard that Daniels had followed us as far as Vail, he must've guessed where Rossiter might take you."

"So Daniels wasn't a part of this after all." Tom frowned.

Julian shook his head. "Not directly. He was just eager to get promoted and did anything he could to ingratiate himself to Martin. All Martin had to do was suggest that something ought to be done, and Daniels did it, not realizing he was being used. Webb knew that and took advantage of it by trying to cast more suspicion on Daniels. I expect the Boulder PD will be doing an internal investigation on Daniels."

"What about Feinman?" Tom asked.

Marc shrugged. "Whether he's charged depends on how much he knew. That's up to the Boulder police to uncover. I know they've launched a full investigation."

Natalie looked up from her notes. "So what happens with Martin?"

"Off the record--you'll have to talk to the Boulder DA--I'm sure he's facing a host of felonies including conspiracy to commit murder," Julian said. "He might not have killed Red Crow or tried to kill you, Kat, but those crimes were committed as part of their looting scheme and he knew about them, so he's accountable, too."

"What about the things that were stolen?" asked Uncle Allen. "They should be returned to the land and to our ancestors."

"It's very unlikely we'll be able to get any of it back again," Reece said, speaking for the first time. "I've spent a lot of time these past couple of days researching it. Once an artifact is sold into a private collection, we'd have to prove that it was obtained illegally in order to take it back. I'm going to introduce a bill this next session to strengthen state looting laws and give additional protection to American Indian sacred sites in and around urban areas. I'd like to see sacred sites, including Mesa Butte, set aside for use by Native Americans but we'll see how far the bill goes."

Kat hadn't heard anything about this. "Thank you, Reece. That means a lot to me, to all of us."

Tom folded his notebook. "I need to get back to the paper. You did one hell of a job, James. You've got the front page whenever you're ready to write your account of this. It will be good to have you back in the newsroom."

Tom left. Then it was Natalie's turn to go.

"Deadline beckons. I'll see you soon, okay, Kat?" Natalie kissed her on the cheek. "I'll call if I have any questions. I'm going to try to do this story justice."

Kat smiled. "I'm sure you will."

Then Marc stepped forward. "I'm taking my wife home so she can get some sleep and grow our baby."

Sophie wrapped her arms around Kat, hugging her tight. "I'm so glad you're okay, and I know Gabe's going to be okay, too. Call us if you need anything."

Kat hugged her back as fiercely as she could with one hand, her throat tight. "Thank you for being there, Sophie. I don't know what I would have done without you on the other end of the line last night."

Then Kat's gaze traveled around the room. "I don't know how to thank you all for what you did for us--for your support, for your prayers, for being here today."

There were smiles and muttered "your welcomes."

Marc ducked down and kissed her cheek. "What are friends for?"

Friends.

And it struck her that she had finally found her place--here in Denver. Though the ragged buttes, sandy washes, and wide-open spaces of K'ai'bii'to would always be her homeland, Denver was now her home. The thought put a lump in her throat.

Then the nurse poked her head through the door. "Ms. James? Mr. Rossiter is out of surgery, and the doctor says it's all right with him if you sit with him in recovery. He's not fully conscious yet, but he's been saying your name."

CHAPTER 32

GABE OPENED HIS eyes, and she was there, sitting beside him, wrapped in a hospital blanket, her hair tousled. "Kat."

He didn't think he'd ever seen a more beautiful sight. Her cheek was bruised, her face lined with exhaustion, her wrist in a cast, but she was here, safe and precious beside him. She stroked his cheek, smiled down at him, her smile not quite hiding the worry in her eyes. "How do you feel?"

Even on a morphine pump, he hurt like hell. "Did the doctor tell you?"

She nodded, her eyes filling with tears that she tried valiantly to blink away. "He said that your right leg should heal just fine, but... that they'd had to amputate your left leg just below the knee. I'm so sorry, Gabe."

"Don't be, honey." He reached up to cup her cheek. "I expected to wake up dead today. I got my entire life back--except for part of one leg. Seems like a bargain to me."

Not that he hadn't had a dark moment when they'd revived him in the operating room long enough to tell him what they had to do. The loss of a limb was no small thing, but compared to what Gabe had almost lost...

He'd almost lost his life. He'd almost lost Kat.

She looked down at him, her gaze steady and strong. "Whatever it takes, whatever you need, I'm going to be there for you, Gabe. You're not alone."

"I'm a lucky man." And a tension he hadn't realized he was carrying left him.

She still loves you, Rossiter, you lucky bastard.

"How's your wrist?"

She looked at the cast as if she hadn't quite realized it was there, then shrugged, the blanket slipping, revealing red marks on her arm that could only be Taser burns. "It hurts a little, but it's fine."

He was willing to bet it hurt more than a little.

She met his gaze for a moment, then slowly her face crumpled, tears spilling onto her cheeks. "Oh, Gabe! I-I thought ... I thought I'd lost you!"

He slipped his hand behind her nape and drew her against his chest, holding her while she cried it out, her tears seeming somehow to wash away last night's horror for him, too, the feel of her in his arms more soothing than any narcotic. "It's okay, honey. We're both safe. It's over."

She pressed her cheek into his chest, words pouring out of her. "I-I tried to hold on! I tried, but I couldn't keep myself from slipping. And then I felt little tugs on the rope, and I remembered you had the knife. I begged you not to do it, but you didn't listen. And then you were just... gone."

He kissed the silk of her hair, breathing in her scent. "It was the only way to get you out of there alive. There was no way in hell I was going to drag you over the edge with me and let you die, too."

"I-I called for you. After you fell, I called for you."

"I heard you, but I didn't have the strength to shout back. I'm sorry."

She lifted her head and met his gaze, her cheeks wet. "For a while, I couldn't move. It felt... like a part of me had died with you. I didn't want to turn away from the cliff because it felt like I was abandoning you."

Something twisted in his chest to think of her up there, alone and hypothermic, trying to watch over his dead body. "But you did it. You got up. You called for help. You went on without me. You did the right thing."

"It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do." The despair in her eyes told Gabe she wasn't exaggerating. "B-but I realized the only way to honor what you'd done for me was to survive, to go on and... I-I'm sorry. I have so much to be grateful for. I promised myself I'd be strong for you and here I am crying like a child."

"You have no reason to be sorry." He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. "You've been strong long enough, Kat."

A look of anguish came over her face. "When I think about what you've lost!"

He knew she wasn't just talking about his leg, but also everything she thought he'd lost with it--rock climbing, ice climbing, skiing. "I haven't lost anything. I'll climb again. I'll show off for you on skis. We'll make more snow angels. I promise."

She sniffed, gave him a tremulous smile, laughed.

"You know what the worst part of this was for me? It wasn't falling or thinking I was going to die, and it sure as hell wasn't losing my leg. It was being able to hear you, to hear that Webb was hurting you, and being too drugged to do a damned thing about it. I tried, Kat. God knows I tried to snap out of it. I can't tell you how many times I thought I'd kicked his ass and freed us both only to realize I was hallucinating and he was still dragging you up the mountain like a dog."

For as long as he lived he would never forget the sound of her screams.

"So you could hear what was happening?" Kat hadn't known that.

"Some of it, and it's the closest to hell I ever hope to come." He stroked her hair, his words slightly slurred from the morphine. "I wasn't able to stop him from hurting you while I was drugged, but hanging from the side of the cliff, feeling that rope slip inch by inch, I knew exactly what I had to do."

She couldn't imagine it. "Weren't you afraid?"

He shook his head. "The moment I realized I had to cut the rope, I felt a sense of calm. It dawned on me how often I had risked my life for nothing. Three years wasted on crazy climbing and meaningless sex, trying so hard to forget. Life meant nothing to me beyond the next punch of adrenaline."

"You were hurt. You weren't in harmony with--"

He shook his head. "I was selfish. I let what happened with Jill change me. I became like her--I only thought about myself."

"That's not true! When I fell in the rockslide, you were there for me, and you didn't even know who I was."

"Sweet Kat." He gave her a weak smile. "Do you remember what you said to me after the
inipi?
You told me that a man who only cared about sex wouldn't have stopped. You were right. You saw things in me I couldn't see and forced me to take a good, hard look at myself. You filled places inside me I didn't even know were empty. You really did save me. If I had to die so that you could live, then I was happy to die. At least that way my death would mean something."

"Oh, Gabe!" Kat couldn't stop the tears that filled her eyes.

And for a moment neither of them spoke.