"Did Ed come to the house?" she asked.
The hardness came back into his eyes and he looked away.
"We found him."
He turned and leaned his back against the bluff as he looked up at Gerald.
"Toss a bottle of water down here."
Gerald's head disappeared. A few minutes later he leaned back over the bluff and dropped a bottle of water into Alex's waiting hands.
"They're on their way up here."
Alex nodded as he knelt beside Carmen.
"Here, drink some of this so you don't get dehydrated. We'll have you out of here pretty quickly."
It crossed her mind that she couldn't get dehydrated in this rain, but she obediently downed some of the water. Immediately she started to shiver.
Alex removed his rain coat and put it around her shoulders.
"They'll be here in a minute," he said.
Dark specks in her eyes gave her a short warning and she glanced up at Alex, feeling the faint coming on.
"Alex …" she gasped as she leaned towards him.
His fingers bit into her arms as darkness took the pain away.
When she woke again, her body was in motion. Opening her eyes, she saw Alex standing on the ledge below her. Behind him, the bluff fell away to rocks far below. She felt nauseous.
As the stretcher was lifted over the edge, Gerald leaned over her, his expression concerned.
"Don't worry. You're going to be fine. The ambulance is waiting at the guest house."
"Where's Alex? Will he ride with me?"
"I'm right here," his deep voice answered. "I'll be behind the ambulance in the car."
"Go ahead and ride with her," Gerald said. "I'll follow you in so you have a ride home."
Unconsciousness took her away again. If Alex rode in the ambulance with her, she was unaware. She woke in the hospital, Alex standing beside her, his expression anything but pleased. In fact, it lay somewhere between concerned and annoyed.
"How do you feel," he asked.
"Sick," she said through lips that felt thick and unresponsive.
He nodded. "It's probably the pain medication. Try to rest."
It wasn't a suggestion and there was nothing sympathetic about his tone. He was still upset because she disobeyed him. At this point, so was she. Why couldn't he be wrong - just once?
She glanced down at her arm, which was in a sling, and then back at Alex.
"Was it broken? Did they already set it?"