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Caleb!
She eased back on the throttle and kept her binoculars trained on the collapsed boathouse.
There was no movement.
Come on, Caleb…
Still nothing.
Her heart was pounding as she turned the boat around and motored back toward the dock. Still no movement in the collapsed boathouse.
Dammit, Caleb…
She gunned the motor until she reached the dock, which had also sustained heavy damage from the collapse. She stepped off the boat and gingerly moved toward the splintered wood and broken glass that had been the boathouse. She crouched next to a broken windowpane and peered inside, afraid of what she would see.
Caleb was lying on his side, apparently unconscious, with a large beam across his neck.
God, no!
Jane crawled frantically through the opening, grabbed a two-by-four, and turned back to wedge it under the beam.
Caleb was gone!
What the hell?
“Hello, Jane.”
She whipped around so quickly that she hit her head on another fallen piece of wood. “Oww!”
Caleb had slipped out from under the beam and was now crouched next to her, steadying her. “Sorry about that,” he said quietly. “But thanks for saving me.”
She shoved him back. “You son of a bitch.”
“I’m sure I deserve that, but I couldn’t be more sincere. I’m genuinely touched. You came back for me.”
“You brought this thing down on purpose?”
He shrugged. “It didn’t require a great deal of effort. It was halfway there already.”
And he’d made sure it had fallen the rest of the way. She was beginning to shake. She couldn’t forget that moment when she’d seen him lying there beneath that beam. “You’re an idiot. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
“A calculated risk. I pulled one beam and lay between two floor joists. I’m no structural engineer, but I figured I’d be okay.” He was looking appraisingly at the sway of the dock. “But we should really get out. I think we’re tempting fate with each additional minute we spend in here.”
“Oh, thenyoucan stay.”
He gestured toward the broken window. “After you.”
They crawled onto the dock and stood up. Jane clenched her jaw. “I thought you might be dead in there.”
He reached out and touched her cheek. “I’m sorry. It was the only way I could think of to bring you back. I had to get you to talk to me. You’re too damn good. We’ve been playing this game for most of the day, and I didn’t want it to go on until it started to get dark again.”
“No, you’d rather pull a house down on top of you. You imbecile.” The blasted deck was still shaking. Jane grabbed his arm and pulled him off the deck and onto the grassy bank. “You guessed, you couldn’t be sure that beam wouldn’t have crushed your skull, dammit. Some people may have told you that you’re made of cast iron, but you could have been killed. Did you think about that? You would have left me alone. I couldn’t have taken it.” She reached out and shook him. “Why would you do something that stupid? What was I supposed to do then?”
“Probably come after me,” he said quietly. “As you did just now.” He gently took her hands from his shoulders. “And start crying again.” He reached out and touched her damp cheek. “After you saved my life, of course. Because don’t tell me that you can’t take anything I throw at you. I know you better than that.”
“You don’t know anything.” She jerked her hands away and wiped her cheeks on her fists. “You’ve never known. I’ve tried to tell you, but there’s no way. I thought someday, but it’s all coming too soon. And then you do something like—” Her hands clenched. “Why did you do that? I wasn’t expecting it. You’re the Hunter. I knew I was going to eventually be the prey. Then I was planning on just starting the hunt again. But that move you made was reckless and stupid.”
“And necessary,” Caleb said. “Because I couldn’t stand going through this again. We have to get this straight. So I couldn’t win this one, Jane. You had to win it so that I could show you that I’d never put you in a position again where you’d feel that helpless and yet totally responsible.”
