“Do you need help getting back up?”
“I’ll be fine.” She hoped. She cautiously turned her ankle. Ouch.
“You wouldn’t be lying to me, would you?”
“No,” she said hotly.
He was silent and that only stirred her temper more. “Listen, maybe everyone in these parts jump when you say jump, but I don’t fall under your jurisdiction, Sheriff. I have a mind of my own. I make my own decisions.”
“And you thought it was a good idea to sit in the pouring rain in a ditch with fast rising water rather than waiting in a warm, dry car?” There was a note of disbelief in his voice.
“There was an injured man down here. I couldn’t just leave him!” She couldn’t believe his attitude. Most people would be thanking her, not reprimanding her.
“Russ would be the first person to tell you that you shouldn’t have risked your safety for him.”
Okay, is he for real? Am I being punked or something? What the heck’s going on?
“He could have drowned. Or woken up and moved and hurt himself even more. Or just been scared out of his mind. I couldn’t just sit up there and wait like some princess who’s afraid of getting wet.” She turned and started up the hill, nearly falling as her ankle gave way.
A firm hand wrapped around her upper arm, steadying her.
“Easy now,” he murmured. “I didn’t mean to get you all riled up.”
Riled up? She’d show him riled up.
“I’m not a two-year-old having a tantrum. I don’t get riled up.”
“Could have fooled me.”
Grr. The bastard.
“Are you always this arrogant or is it something special for me?”
“I have to get up there,” he replied, ignoring her question. “Can you walk or am I carrying you?”
She gaped at him. Carry her? She didn’t think so.
“I’m walking.”
“I’ll stay behind you in case you fall.”
“You better hope I don’t,” she said as she started up the steep slope, trying to ignore the razor-sharp pain working its way up her leg.
Shit. Shit.
“Why is that?”
“Because I’d squash you like a bug.”
There was silence behind her. She hated how he did that. Jesus, she’d known this man less than an hour and already she had a list of characteristics about him she disliked. What did that say about him? Or her?
She decided it might be best to shut up and concentrate on making her way up to the road without slipping and taking him with her, which would be completely humiliating, or revealing how much her ankle hurt and having him accuse her of being a liar.
Which you are.
It was just a white lie to get him to leave her the hell alone.
By the time they reached the top, she was shaking like a leaf, her breath heaving in and out of her lungs. The paramedics already had Russ in the ambulance. One spoke to Jake quietly while she leaned against her car and tried to keep the weight off her sore ankle. The paramedic then turned and came over to her.