Page 2 of Special Agent Raven

Chapter Two

By the time Cane had the woman safely onshore, he tuned into the boy’s fearful screams. “Amelia! Ami! Open your eyes.”

Exhausted, but riding the adrenalin wave, Cane whipped around to deal with the lifeless girl who’d begun to turn blue and had stopped breathing. Releasing the struggling woman, now safely on land, he moved quickly. The boy was pummeling his sister’s chest, trying in the only way he knew how to get her to breathe. “Ami. Come on. Please.” Cane forcefully nudged him away and took over. “Here, let me.”

Knowing CPR but unsure of how much energy he had left, he cleared the smaller girl’s airways and began the lifesaving measure of forcing air into her mouth and then pushing her chest in a rhythmic way. Sensing the woman crowding in, he thanked God when she screamed at him over the raucous sounds of the storm. “Let me take a turn.”

In position, she took over and worked on the child whose bluish color had started to show a slight improvement. Obviously, sharing her breath was taking its toll, and Cane took his turn again within a few minutes. This time, he felt the change coming and was ready to turn the little girl to help her release the water from her lungs. As she choked, coughing herself back to the living, her stress from the recent near drowning showed up in cries of fear, thrashing arms, and nightmarish panic.

Hugging her close, he rubbed her back and whispered so as not to frighten her. “It’s okay, darlin’. Cane’s got you now. Everything’s okay.”

Before he could say much more, her anxious brother pushed in to get to his sister, almost climbing into Cane’s arms as well. “Ami. It’s me, Josh. You’re okay now. It’s me. I’m here too.” Then he began to cry, deep, harsh sounds that no child should ever make.

Before they could settle down and deal with the kids’ emotions, Cane felt the woman beating on his arm to get his attention. “We have to leave here now. Look.”

A side glance left him no doubt that she understood their danger. The rushing waters were rising swiftly. They only had minutes to clear their way upwards before they’d be pulled back into the muddy hell. Standing became impossible. His legs weren’t willing to work anymore. They’d taken quite a beating in the river from the debris and the strenuous swim.

Shoving Ami toward the woman, he screamed, “Take her and the boy. Go. Quick. I’ll follow.”

He saw her eyes shift down his body and knew the instant she’d figured out his dilemma. Taking the rope from around her waist, she flung it his way. “Tie this around yourself and haul ass.” Then she grabbed the girl and pushed the agile boy ahead of her along the still taut rope. “Pull yourself to the jeep. Hurry. Go, quick like a bunny.”

Cane watched the slender body of the native American woman cradling the little girl against her body to shield her from the reaching branches. Admiration for her strength had him obeying her command. Haul ass he would. No fucking way did he want another swim that day.

By the time he’d crawled within the last few feet of the jeep, she came back for him. With his arm over her shoulder and hers around his waist, clutching his belt to help drag him along, they made it to the waiting children.

Both fell once they reached the jeep, she with tears of exhausted tension covering her striking features, and he with the filth of the river at home in every inch of his weary, shattered body.

Slumped beside each other, she finally flung her long, dripping braid towards her back and wiped the sweat from her brow. “You’re sure a big ‘un.”

“Used to be strong too. Now I’m as weak as a baby.”

“I know exactly what you mean. Don’t think I can move another inch.” She fell back in the soaked grass, her arms flung out.

He lay beside her for a few more seconds before making an effort to roll to his knees. “We have no choice… zero, nada.”

“Nag, nag.” A sideways grin lit her features. “In a minute.”

The chuckle took energy, but he couldn’t stop it. “Right. Okay.”

Seconds later, the boy, Josh, eased down beside them. “Ami is crying for mama. I don’t know what to do.”

***

Raven sat up wearily. “What happened to your folks… Josh – is it?”

“Yeah. Josh Williams. My daddy and mama were with us in the cabin. He tried to save her, but the river wouldn’t let him.Now Ami wants mama. But I don’t think she made it out of the water.”

“What makes you say that?”

Josh’s shattered look cleared for seconds as he thought back to earlier. “When the river took the house, Mama tried to save our dog, Golden. She fell into the water and Mama went after her. Daddy tried to keep me and Ami safe, but when he saw Mama in the water, he jumped in to go after her. I never saw them again.”

Josh turned to Cane. “Mister here found us in time… right after we fell, he saved us.”

Cane, who’d sat up to listen, looked at the boy. “I’m Cane. Cane Masters.” Pointing to Raven, he added, “And this is…?”

“Raven Wire. Nice to meet you both.” Raven pulled herself to her feet. “I’ll go to Ami. She might respond better to a woman right now.”

Josh followed her to where Ami huddled on the ground near the Jeep’s back wheel. Raven sat next to the child and gently hauled her into her arms. There she brushed her matted mass of curly damp hair away from her dirty face and hugged her shivering body close.