Free Thunder Horse Redemption by Elle James

Pierce and Roxanne had ascended earlier that morning, a slew of emotions rippled across his consciousness, the foremost being regret.
    Regret that things hadn’t worked out differently, that it had been inevitable they turned out the way they did.
    What if Mason had lived? What if he and Roxanne had continued with their wedding plans? They’d be married now.
    And their marriage would have been a huge mistake. Roxanne deserved a man she could count on, and that could never be him.
    A distant cry echoed off the canyon walls, pushing thoughts of what might have been to the back of Pierce’s mind.
    “Did you hear that?” Dante asked.
    Both men pulled on their reins and listened.
    “Help!” The desperate sound rose from somewhere down in the canyon.
    Pierce’s pulse leaped. “Roxanne?” He slapped his reins on his horse’s flanks. Cetan burst into a gallop, heading straight for the trail.
    “Pierce, wait!” Dante called out behind him.
    At the last moment, Cetan skidded to a halt, sending a shower of pebbles and gravel over the edge.
    “Help! Please, help us!” Roxanne’s voice called out.
    Pierce dropped down off Cetan’s back and peered over the rim of the canyon.
    Roxanne knelt beside a distorted figure lying among the rocks. When she glanced up, she pointed her rifle up at him and shouted, “Who’s there?”
    “Roxanne, it’s me, Pierce.” His voice echoed several times off the walls of the canyon.
    “Thank God,” Roxanne said, and laid the rifle on the ground, kneeling in the dirt beside the man.
    “I’m going down.” Pierce handed his reins to his brother.
    Dante caught his arm. “Be careful, Pierce. Looks like there’s been an avalanche.” He nodded toward the edge where a large chunk of the rim had recently fallen away.
    Pierce’s throat constricted. Roxanne could have been the one lying hurt at the bottom of the canyon. He left Cetan at the top and walked down the steep trail, his boots slipping on newly loosened stone. At one point the trail all but disappeared, ripped away by a rush of stone and debris.
    When he reached the bottom, he hurried across to where Roxanne sat on the ground, holding Jim Rausch’s hand, the tears trickling down her face forming long trails through the dust caked to her skin. She glanced up at Pierce. “Don’t let him die.”
    Pierce dropped to his haunches next to Jim’s body and felt for a pulse. “He’s still with us. How long has he been out?”
    “Fifteen, twenty minutes, maybe.” She shook her head as she stared at the man. “He fell most of the way down and I couldn’t do a thing.”
    “Moving him could cause more damage. We’ll have to get an airlift to get him out of here.”
    Pierce glanced up to the rim of the canyon. Maddox had arrived and waited beside Dante. Pierce stood and waved at his brothers.
    Dante started the long trek down the damaged trail.
    “I’ll be back.” As Pierce turned to go, Roxanne’s hand grabbed his leg.
    “Hurry.” Her voice broke, and another tear slipped down her cheek.
    Pierce forced himself to move away, climbing the trail as fast as he could to meet Dante halfway up.
    “Is it Jim?” Dante asked, his gaze moving past Pierce to the man lying so still. “Is he dead?”
    “It’s Jim and he’s still alive. Tell Maddox to radio back to the house and have someone call nine-one-one. We need an emergency medical helicopter here ASAP.”
    “Got it.” Dante turned and scrambled back up the trail.
    Pierce returned to the base and Roxanne.
    He sat on the ground beside her and gathered her in his arms. “He’ll be okay.”
    She turned her face into his chest, her fingers bunching his shirt. “Promise?”
    “I can’t promise, but we’ll do the best we can.”
    She didn’t reply…but she didn’t let go, either.
    For the longest time they sat there, waiting for the reassuring thumping of rotor blades beating the air.
    When it finally came, Pierce stood, gathered the horses’ reins and held them steady as a