(2012) Manna From Heaven by Karen Robards

Author:Karen Robards [Robards, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
Published: 2012-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

8

CHARLIE WASN’T HAPPY about letting go, but it was beginning to occur to her that hypothermia could probably be added to the list of ways she might reasonably expect to die tonight, right up there along with being shot and drowning. They had to get out of the water soon. She wasn’t even shivering much any longer, and that, she knew, was a bad sign. With Jake’s support she turned, hooked the arm that had been around his neck over the branch, then inched herself along in his wake. The tree seemed to be solidly wedged, she noted gratefully. It didn’t budge despite their shifting grip, or the force of the water pushing against it. Sadie trotted along above their heads, careful to stay well clear of the water while keeping pace.

“Are you really a cop?” Charlie asked, grasping at any straw of hope she could think of as they made it to the other side of the pile of trapped debris. Jake was looking toward the bank as if he were contemplating the possibility of swimming for it. Not in this life, Charlie thought, and definitely not with her attached. No way. No how. In her opinion, dying of exposure was better than drowning. Anything was better than drowning.

“DEA.” His tone was absent. He was still looking in a measuring way toward shore.

“Then don’t you have any little DEA buddies around here somewhere who might come charging to the rescue about now?”

“Nope.” He glanced around at her then, and grinned suddenly. She could see the faint gleam of his teeth through the darkness. “Sorry, Charlie.”

“Oh, funny.” She had heard that one so often that it had ceased to amuse about ten years back. “Why not?”

“Because none of my little DEA buddies, as you call ’em, has any idea that anything’s gone wrong here. As far as my guys know, this operation is going down exactly as planned.”

“Fantastic,” Charlie said. “Were you supposed to be undercover or something? What were you going to do if something went wrong—as it obviously has? Didn’t you have a Plan B?”

“Working on it.”

“Care to share your thoughts?”

“You ever hear that old saying about curiosity killing the cat?”

Charlie snorted, and glanced meaningfully around. “Curiosity’s going to have to get in line.”

He grinned again. “Yeah, well, being in the wrong place at the wrong time works, too. Do you always drive alone through remote areas of the country in the middle of the night, by the way? It’s just a suggestion, but you might want to rethink that.”

“I was working,” Charlie said through lips that were starting to feel alarmingly stiff.

“What do you do, run a traveling animal act? Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but driving around with a snake and a skunk—to say nothing of that pitiful excuse for a dog—doesn’t sound like any job I ever heard of.”

“I was releasing animals into the wild.” That sounded commendably noble. It was also the literal truth. But Charlie had been brought up to tell the whole truth, so she reluctantly continued.

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