Page 31 of All Autumn
“The falls. Beautiful.” Her eyes were dilated and dazed, a look I liked on her.
She blinked as if coming out of a trance, and then scanned the surrounding landscape. “It is.” Her gaze landed back on me. “Why do you keep kissing me?”
Okay, wasn’t expecting that question. “Because—”
“Help. Oh God, please help,” someone yelled, sending Beau into a barking frenzy.
He strained at the end of his leash, and when he tried to take off, I let him go, jogging along behind him. I could hear Autumn’s footsteps following us. Beau raced around the back of the waterfall along a narrow path.
Whoever was calling for help was a woman, and she’d apparently heard Beau barking. She kept calling out, and I yelled back to her. “We’re coming!” As her voice grew louder, and not sure what we’d find, I slowed, pulling Beau back.
“Easy, boy.” I glanced at Autumn. “Get your phone out, see if we have service.”
“He understands the command ‘heel,’” she said as she reached into a pocket on her cargo shorts.
“Heel, Beau.” Sure enough, he positioned himself at my side. He kept his ears up, though, and his body was on full alert.
“I’ve got service,” Autumn said.
That was good. “Okay, keep your phone out.” Adam and I were both trained in rescue and often participated in finding lost tourists or rescuing someone who’d fallen at one of the many falls in our area. The woman screamed again.
“We’re coming. Are you hurt?” I hollered back.
“Bear!”
That was all she said, but my blood ran cold. A black bear was the last thing I wanted to tangle with. We came around a large rock, and I stopped, holding tight to Beau’s leash. A woman was in a small tree, hanging on for dear life as a bear pushed on the trunk. The tree was swaying, the woman looking like she was barely hanging on. And she was bleeding heavily from her arm and leg.
“Oh my God,” Autumn said, peeking around my arm. “He’s going to bring down the tree.”
If the woman didn’t fall first. She had to be getting weak from losing that much blood. “Call Adam. Tell him to get rescue up here.” While she got my brother on the phone, I glanced around, stilling when I saw two bear cubs. Hell, the worst thing to mess with was a mother bear protecting her cubs.
Beau whined, then, apparently forgetting the command to heel, ran to the end of his leash. “No, boy. You don’t want to go over there.” I had a knife on me, but that wouldn’t do much good against a pissed-off bear.
“He’s putting out the call,” Autumn said, slipping her phone back into her pocket.
Somehow I had to get the bear away from the tree, and the only way I knew to do that was to get its attention on me. “Autumn, I want you to take Beau and go down the mountain.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Get that mama bear focused on something besides the woman.”
“Meaning you?” Autumn grabbed my arm. “No, that’s too dangerous.” She eyed Beau, straining at the end his leash. Before I realized what she was going to do, she went to him and unhooked the leash from his collar. The dog took off, alternating growls with barks, heading straight for the bear.
“Why’d you do that?” He was going to get hurt.
“He’s too smart to let a bear catch him.”
I hoped she was right. She loved that dog, and it would kill her to lose him. At hearing the racket Beau was making, the bear swung her big head around. Without a sound—contrary to bears roaring or growling in movies, they actually made very little noise—she dropped to all fours.
Beau darted in, his teeth snapping at the bear’s rear end. The bear turned to face Beau and swiped a paw at the dog. Beau backpedaled, the bear’s claws just missing his face. Autumn yelped as she grabbed my hand. I didn’t doubt her heart was beating as fast as mine. Beau backed up, then stopped. When the bear headed for him, he backed up again, then stopped as if waiting for the bear to follow him.
The dance between the dog and the bear continued until they both disappeared into the woods. As soon as the two cubs cautiously followed their mother and were out of sight, I pulled my KA-BAR knife out of the holster at my waist, wanting a weapon in my hands should the bear return.
“Stay here.” I dropped my backpack to the ground.
“But—”
“I mean it, Autumn. Stay damn here.” I kissed her. Hard. Maybe it was the adrenaline running through me that sent me into Neanderthal mode, but the thought of her putting herself in jeopardy if the bear decided to come back . . . Hell no.
