“Damn, good job. Toss it here,” Alex said. “Got it!”

  Then they heard a man yell out. Nate and Kayla paused. Looked up at the waterfall. Waited.

  “Shit, no! Chris, hold on!” Alex shouted.

  “Help! Help! We need help!” The man’s voice was strained, frantic. It sounded like LJ’s voice.

  “Do you think they’re just playing around with their friends?” Kayla asked Nate, concerned but not wanting to be pulled into these men’s idea of a prank either.

  “Help! We need help!” That was LJ again, and he sounded even more desperate.

  She and Nate were eyeing the waterfall from down below, looking for anyone in trouble, and that’s when they saw the black-haired guy, Chris, hanging from the rocks at the top edge of the waterfall as the water rushed past him and over the edge.

  “Damn it anyway. I’m going to see if I can help.” Nate began running up the narrow path until he reached the rocks and was climbing up them to get to the top as fast as he could.

  “Me too.” Kayla was trying to catch up to him, her backpack thumping on her back, and she thought of ditching it. But they might need her medical supplies.

  Nate had already ditched his backpack next to the other men’s.

  As soon as she reached the top of the cliff, she dropped her pack next to Nate’s and pulled the satellite phone out of his bag. Then she called the park ranger’s office. This was out of the pack’s jurisdiction, and the park ranger could take care of this, though she and Nate would do what they could to save the man’s life.

  Chris’s eyes were wide, and he looked terrified as he clung to a couple of rocks that had held in place—lucky for him—his body dangling over the falls. He couldn’t hold on like that for long. The water was cold, and he’d get hypothermia before long. The friend who’d kept falling in the water earlier was lying down on his belly in the stream, holding on to Chris’s one arm, but he didn’t have the strength to pull him up all on his own.

  LJ was inching his way through the stream, trying not to fall, appearing terrified of being in the same predicament as his friend. She could smell their frightened scents. Nate began to make his way carefully and as quickly as he could across the stream. It was deep enough that someone could be swept away if they lost their footing and didn’t stop themselves from being pulled over the falls in time.

  “Just hold on,” Nate said.

  Kayla got hold of the park ranger’s office, and Eric Silver, their pack leader’s cousin, said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “Nate is trying to reach him, and so is another friend of his. One of his friends has hold of his arm, and the man is holding on to a couple of rocks, but he can’t get any purchase to climb back up.”

  “Okay, Kayla. We’re on our way.”

  Then she got the emergency blankets out of their packs and told Nate, “Eric Silver is coming with a rescue team.” But she didn’t think they’d arrive in time to save these men. It was up to her and Nate to rescue them for now.

  Chapter 17

  As Nate made his way to Chris, hanging precariously from the edge of the waterfall, he couldn’t believe the guy had gotten himself into such danger. Well, Nate guessed he could, the way he’d been going and acting all macho in front of his friends. What would he tell the folks back home if he and his buddy Alex could save his life? How cool, exciting, and adventurous it had been? Unless they couldn’t manage to get him to safety before he slipped to his death.

  Then again, Nate wondered what the business was with finding something that was worth a small fortune. A nugget of gold? Silver? Miners had mined both in this area until they shut the mines down. Every once in a while, someone found some gold in the river, streams, or creeks. It might be worth something, but not losing a life over it!

  “Why don’t you head back to the shore?” Nate said to LJ, who seemed terrified of the stream—and for good reason after the trouble both his friends had gotten into. Nate didn’t ask it as a question, but more of a command to do what he said. If they had listened to him in the first place, LJ’s friends wouldn’t be in this bind.

  “But I gotta help Alex pull Chris up.” LJ sounded more like he felt he had to aid his friend to save face, but he was too scared to really get close to where they were.

  “If the stream carries you over the edge, you could knock your friend off the rocks, and both of you would fall to your deaths.” Nate knew it was going to be hard enough to save his friend without worrying about this guy too. And Nate had already passed him and was several feet closer to his friend who was in jeopardy than LJ was now.

  “Yeah, yeah, okay.” He sounded like he knew his friends would give him a rough time about copping out, but if he caused more trouble, it just wasn’t worth the risk.

  Nate slipped once but regained his footing, and when he reached Chris dangling dangerously over the edge, Nate lay down on his belly in the cold water next to the other man and grabbed Chris’s other arm. He looked over at Alex, who appeared stricken. He was shivering from the cold water, already hypothermic himself, Nate figured.

  “Alex, we’re going to pull your friend up at the same time. You can do it. If we don’t, your friend’s going to die. So we have to do this. Okay, now, slide back, digging your toes into the rocks on the streambed. Keep pulling back.” Since Nate wasn’t hypothermic, he was making much more progress, but Chris wasn’t out of danger yet. And Alex appeared to be in peril himself. “We’ll get you both warmed up as soon as we pull your friend up and into the stream. Come on. You’ve got this. Keep going.”

  They were pulling Chris up inch by inch. Nate was able to get him up to about his waist on the cliff, but he was so cold and his lips so blue that Chris looked like he didn’t have an ounce of strength left in him to make it the rest of the way on his own.

  “Come on, man, you can do it. We’re almost there. We have Search and Rescue coming for you too.”

  “I–I…was”—Chris’s teeth were chattering something awful—“such…an…idiot.”

  “Yeah, well, we all make mistakes. We just don’t want this to be your last.” Nate glanced at Alex. He really didn’t look good either. “Come on, Alex, help me with your friend. The sooner we can get him out of here, the sooner you can both get warmed up.”

  They kept pulling until they were able to get Chris onto the streambed, but they had to hurry and move across the stream and onto shore. The men weren’t able to stand up, they were so cold, and Nate was afraid he wouldn’t get them both across the stream in time to rescue them. To Nate’s further distress, Kayla started crossing the stream to help him with the men. He wanted to tell her to go back to shore, but she was keeping her footing, and he was struggling just to get Chris to his feet.

  Then she reached them and helped Nate get Chris onto his feet. Nate started to navigate the stream with him, struggling to keep Chris upright while Kayla helped Alex cross the stream.

  As soon as Nate got Chris to the shore, he handed him off to his friend. “Get him out of his wet clothes and into dry ones and then wrap him in one of the emergency blankets.” Then Nate went back into the water to help Kayla with Alex.

  Once they pulled Alex out of the stream and onto the sun-warmed rocks, Nate and LJ began helping him out of his wet clothes. A diamond necklace on a gold chain fell out of Alex’s jeans pocket. Everyone stared at the necklace for a moment, and then he reached for it, but his movement was sluggish, and they still needed to get him out of the rest of his wet clothes.

  “Leave it,” Nate said. Then he and LJ helped Alex strip the rest of the way and dress in some dry clothes.

  Kayla picked up the necklace and was examining it.

  Nate covered Alex with the other blanket. Kayla handed the necklace to Nate to inspect. She brought out some of their protein bars, and LJ pulled bottles of water out from their own backpacks.

  “Are the bottles warm?” Kayla asked, and she was right, Nate was thinking. Warm drinks and energy-rich foods were fine for someone who had hypothermia, as long as they weren’t going into shock. But with mild to moderate hypothermia, it could help them passively rewarm their own bodies.

  “Yeah,” LJ said. “They’ve been sitting in the sun.”

  “Okay, they’ll be fine,” she said.

  “You found the necklace in the river,” Nate said, looking up from his examination of the necklace, not asking a question.

  “No, I got it for my girlfriend,” Alex said, stuttering from being so chilled.

  Nate could smell his deception. “Why would you carry the expensive necklace in your jeans pocket on a hike?” They could have been faux diamonds, but even those could be expensive. “Okay, here’s what really happened and why Chris nearly lost his life. You found the necklace in the water, thought it was worth a fortune—we heard you yelling about it from where we were—and you lost it. You shouted at Chris to grab it. He did, tossed it to you, and you shoved the necklace into your jeans pocket. Then he lost his balance, being too close to the edge of the cliff, and went over it.”

  LJ and Chris looked at Alex, waiting for him to tell the truth.

  “Okay, yeah, but it’s for my girlfriend. I found it, so finders, keepers…”

  Nate shook his head. “The way it works is this. You turn it over to the police, and they determine if it’s been reported stolen.”

  “There have been several jewelry store heists in neighboring towns, so it could be from one of those,” Kayla said.

  “Uh, okay.” Alex and his friends looked at the necklace as if it were cursed now.

  “A park ranger we know is coming to get you guys, so he can take the necklace into custody and turn it over to the police. The heists were armed robberies, so you probably don’t want to have anything to do with the necklace if it was taken during one of the thefts,” Nate said.

  “Uh, no,” Chris said.

  “Thanks to you both for saving my friends,” LJ said, quickly changing the subject. “They’re both my best men at my wedding.”

  “I think we’ll stick to a girl in the cake next time we have a bachelor party,” Chris said, still shivering badly. “But hell yeah, thanks so much for saving my ass back there. I would never have made it up that cliff if you hadn’t come back to aid Alex in helping me. All I could do was just cling to those slippery rocks. I kept thinking of what you’d said to me about those people dying and how it would never happen to me. Ever. But then, you know, I’m thinking LJ was going to be going to my funeral, delaying his wedding, and then dealing with me not being in attendance. And the whole thing would really have sucked. Especially since it was all because I was trying to save the damn necklace that probably was from a jewelry store robbery.” He cast Alex an annoyed look. “For your girlfriend?” He scoffed.

  “Sorry, Chris. Yeah, thanks for helping me save Chris,” Alex said to Nate. “I would never have gotten Chris up that cliff on my own. And I might not have made it back on my own either. Thanks to both of you. And for calling for help. Chris lost his cell phone in the river; mine and Alex’s were out of juice.”

  Kayla asked them about the wedding, getting their minds off Chris’s near-death experience. But Nate was thinking if they didn’t even have phones that worked, that was truly foolhardy.

  Within the hour, Eric Silver and his rescue team arrived and took all three men off Nate and Kayla’s hands. Nate was glad to see Eric there. He couldn’t believe he’d be seeing so many of the Silver brothers and cousins today.

  “We have a bit of a situation,” Nate said. “The men found this diamond necklace in the stream and were trying to grab it before Chris went over the falls. It could be from one of the recent jewelry store heists in the area.”

  “I’ll turn it over to the local authorities, and we’ll do a search in the area for any other signs of more jewelry,” Eric said privately to Nate and Kayla.

  “Good because Nate risked his neck to save that man and his friend,” Kayla said.

  “So did Kayla,” Nate said.

  “That’s why they’ll be charged and fined for not obeying the rules. People like that need to respect the rules for their own safety and others. On another subject, I heard you found a dead body.” Eric would have since his brother CJ and cousin Tom had been at the crime scene.

  “We did,” Nate said.

  “And he was wearing a ski mask,” Kayla quickly said.

  “A ski mask in this heat?” Eric shook his head. “Sounds like he might have been one of the robbers.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking,” Nate said.

  “I’ll alert Peter about the necklace. I heard you two were on a honeymoon of sorts. Congrats are in order.”

  “Thanks,” they both said.

  Then Eric wished them well and headed out after the rescue team, calling Peter on his way.

  Kayla and Nate headed back down the trail. They had really gotten their exercise today. He figured they’d just play in the water, not go swimming laps to exercise. Running as wolves? That wasn’t exercise. It was just pure joy.

  They paused for a break after an hour of hiking and then finished off the last hour and half back to their cabin.

  “Quick shower and then time to have a very late lunch?” Nate asked, opening the door to the cabin.

  “Yeah, I’ll make us some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches after we get cleaned up.”

  They dumped their backpacks on the floor, put their walking sticks into the umbrella stand, and raced each other for the bathroom.

  Then they were stripping off their clothes and jumping into the shower, quickly soaping up, rinsing off, and drying off, then putting on some clean clothes.

  After they made lunch, they collapsed on the dining room chairs with big glasses of water and their sandwiches and pickles.

  “I feel like we did enough activities today to make up for the whole week,” Kayla said.

  He smiled at her. “We could skip swimming, just sit on the porch enjoying the beauty of the lake, drinks in hand. Then go running as wolves after dinner.”

  “Nah. We have to at least get in the water. No swimming laps though. If we can’t drag ourselves out of bed in the morning, so be it.”

  He chuckled. “Hey, do you want another sandwich?”

  “Yeah, sure. They really hit the spot.”

  He started making them another grilled ham and cheese sandwich while she served up more pickles and refilled their water glasses.

  Then Peter called Nate’s cell phone. Nate put the call on speakerphone. “Hey, sorry to bother the two of you, but be sure if you see anyone that seems suspicious at all to give us a call. The murder happened so far away from your cabin that we don’t suspect the murderer would be running around where your cabin is. If anything, and he’s trying to find the body, he would be nearer to the location of the body. Even so, he had a week to locate him and hide him or move him, so we suspect he won’t be out there.”

  “Okay, thanks, Peter. We’ll certainly be contacting you if we see anyone who seems out of place,” Nate said. “Did you find any bullet casings?”

  “No. Which either means the shooter took them with him when he left, we just haven’t found them, or he shot the man when he was in the river and the shell casings are underwater.”

  “Okay, well, while we’re out hiking, if we come upon anything that looks like evidence, we’ll let you know.”

  “Good. Thanks for all your help. You need to be working with us,” Peter said.

  Nate smiled. Peter had said that often enough to him, but he loved being a PI and working with his sister in their own agency.

  “Have you heard from my brothers or sister about the key card yet?” Kayla asked.

  “Not yet. Roxie said she’s looking into it, and your brothers are scouring security videos to see if they can find anything unusual,” Peter said.

  “Okay, that’s great.” Nate suspected Nicole was helping with the investigation. He sure wished he was too if he hadn’t been enjoying this special time with Kayla.

  “Oh, and Eric called me to tell me about the necklace. One of my deputies is picking it up from him and taking it to the Green Valley Police Department to see if it matches any of the stolen items from there or from the other heists in nearby towns. I had Eric interview the hikers about their whereabouts on the days of the robberies. Not that we really believed they had anything to do with the jobs, but since they had the necklace, most likely from a robbery, we have to be sure. Their alibis checked out.”

  “Okay, that sounds good,” Nate said.

  Then they finally ended the call, and Nate and Kayla went into the bedroom to change into their swimsuits.

  “I was wondering—do you want to stay here at the cabin the rest of the week?” Nate asked. “There’s bound to be a flurry of activity while the sheriff’s department investigates the murder.”

  “Yeah.” She reached out and took his hand in hers and squeezed his hand. “We’re here to enjoy being with each other. I’m having a wonderful time here with you at the cabin. This is like being on a honeymoon. I’m thrilled to be here despite what we found today. Just think, if we hadn’t been on the trail, that body may not have been found.”

  “Okay. I feel the same way about being with you here. We could go to my place, but it just wouldn’t be the same.”

  “You’re right. Oh, and I’ve been thinking about our living situation. I’ll move in with you,” Kayla said.

  “Are you sure? I thought I could stay with you in your guest room on the first floor on the other side of the house. It’s practically soundproofed from the second-floor bedrooms, Nicole said. When she and Blake stayed there, it was perfect for them while they were building their home. Then you won’t have to travel from town out to the ski lodge every day.”

  “What if we split our time at each of the places? I could come to your place, and we can go out to dinner or grill at your place. Other times we can go to Roxie’s and my place, and we can have dinner at the lodge, or I can fix something for us to eat. In the meantime, we’ll have our dream house built.”

  “That sounds good to me. If you decide you want to stay at one of the places and don’t want to go back and forth all the time, I’ll be happy to do whatever you want.”