Stranded (Boys Behaving Badly Book 4) Read online

  Rescuing Alaska

  By Elle James

  “Katie, you know I love to fish for halibut and salmon, but that’s not why I always ask for this particular boat.”

  Katie Bloom reeled in a line for one of the older guests on the boat, fit the hook with a shrimp, smiled at the guest, and nodded. “Drop the line until it goes slack. Then turn the reel twice to bring the shrimp off the bottom.” She turned to Lucas Kramer, her brow raised. “I’m sorry, Lucas, but I have a job to do.”

  “If you’d say yes, just once, and go out with me in your off time, I wouldn’t bother you on the job.” He gave her his most winning smile, the one he used when he wanted to charm someone into agreeing with his request. It usually worked.

  Not today. Or any day, for that matter. Not with the beautiful deckhand aboard the Fishin’ is Livin’ charter fishing boat that sailed daily out of Homer, Alaska.

  Katie shook her head. “I told you before, I don’t go out with customers.”

  Lucas grinned. “Then as soon as we get off the boat, I’ll ask you again.”

  She pushed past him to help another paying customer bait his line. Over her shoulder, she said, “I’ll just say no again.”

  “Why?” he asked. “I won’t be a customer, then.”

  She nodded toward his friends on the other side of the deck. “You and your friends are Coasties?”

  Lucas puffed out his chest, proud of his work with the US Coast Guard. “We are.”

  She expertly rebaited the customer’s line, smiled, and tossed the baited hook into the water. “How long have you been in Homer?” Katie faced Lucas, her chin tipped upward, her eyes narrowed.

  Lucas considered the fact she was looking him in the eye as progress. She usually ignored him. “I’ve been in Alaska now for over a year.” And he’d only discovered Katie in the past month. Ever since, he’d been on a mission to get her to go out with him.

  “Coasties move around, don’t they?”

  “When we get transferred.” Lucas frowned. “But I just got here.”

  “Exactly.” She propped her hands on her hips. “Where are you from?”

  “Montana.” He couldn’t see where she was going with her questioning but was sure she’d get there soon. He was also certain he wasn’t going to like where she went.

  “I was born and raised in Alaska,” Katie said. “I have no desire to leave Alaska. It’s my home and my livelihood. I have no desire to live anywhere else.”

  A passenger’s line sank deep. “I think I’ve got one.”

  Katie smiled at the happy fisherman. “Reel it in. If you need help, let me know.”

  “I’m not asking you to leave,” Lucas insisted. “I’m asking you to go out with me on a date.”

  Her smile for the other passenger became a firm-lipped grimace as she turned toward him. “I don’t go out on casual dates.”

  And there it was. Her reason for resisting his attempts to date her. The boat rocked in the choppy water. Lucas pitched forward into the red-haired spitfire who could gut and filet a twenty-pound halibut in under two minutes. He wrapped his arms around her to keep them both from falling on the slippery deck.

  The woman had skills and a smile that melted Lucas’s heart. Only she rarely turned that smile on him. What would it take to get her to give him more smiles? Beneath all that skill and toughness was the soft and feminine female he now held in his arms. All curves and fire.

  “Look,” Katie said, her brow creased, her hands flat against his chest. “I don’t see any purpose in dating someone who won’t be staying in Alaska.” When he loosened his arms, she walked away, leaving Lucas to bait his own hook.

  “Shot down, again?” Samuel Waterson, his shipmate with the Coast Guard, clapped him on the back. “Why don’t you give up and move on to a more receptive female?”

  “Yeah, Kramer,” Jackson Myers agreed. “One who doesn’t smell like fish guts.”

  “Shut up, Myers.” Lucas’s gaze followed Katie around the back of the boat as she smiled and assisted passengers baiting hooks and removing fish from the lines. So what, if she smelled of fish? Serving as a deckhand was honest, hard work. A harder job than most females were willing to take on. He blew out a breath as he watched her trim figure disappear. He couldn’t blame her for being picky about the men she dated.

  But Lucas wasn’t ready to give up. He wanted her more than ever, and he was a persistent kind of guy. He wouldn’t be a member of the US Coast Guard, if he wasn’t.

  Why does Lucas Kramer have to keep coming to this boat? Aren’t there others he could fish off? Katie cast covert glances in the direction of the tall, dark, and handsome man. Every time he showed up, she lost focus and her thoughts turned in the wrong direction.

  The more he tried to get her to go out with him, the weaker her resistance grew. He was helpful, polite and, dear Lord, charming. And, sweet heaven, when he’d held her in his arms, he’d made her feel like she didn’t reek of fish.

  She’d promised herself she wouldn’t fall for a passenger on one of the fishing boats. They weren’t around for long. Sure, the Coasties were usually there between two and four years before transferring to another location. Some stayed even longer.

  Katie loved Alaska, her home, her family and her work. Not just on the fishing boat, but in Homer where she sold her paintings and photographs to tourists.

  The swells grew increasingly deeper, tossing the charter fishing boat in the waves.

  “Katie,” Captain Boerner called out. “Bring ’em in. We’re heading into a squall. We need to get to shore.”

  Katie nodded and turned to the guests. “Sorry folks, but the seas are getting too rough. Reel in your lines and sit inside the cabin of the boat while we head for shore.”

  “Are we in any danger? Should I be afraid?” a lady asked, clearly frightened already.

  “Ma’am, we get a lot of days like today in Alaska,” Katie answered vaguely, as she held onto the railing. The seas were particularly rough. The sooner they got the passengers inside the better. “Here, let me get your line. You go on into the cabin.”

  “Oh, thank you.” The woman shoved the rod into Katie’s hands and ran for the cabin, leapfrogging from handhold to handhold as the boat pitched and yawed.

  After Katie had secured most of the rods and sent the passengers into the cabin, all except the Coasties, the captain yelled, “Katie! Get them into life vests. The seas are getting rougher. I don’t want anyone falling overboard without a vest on. That goes for you, too.”

  Katie distributed life vests to all the guests and showed them how to put them on by strapping hers onto her body. If someone fell into the frigid water, life vests wouldn’t do them a whole lot of good. Hypothermia would set in quickly. Not that she mentioned that fact aloud.

  The seas grew heavy, with swells topping ten feet.

  Katie hurried back out to collect the last of the fishing rods and store them securely. She had one more on the back of the boat she had to grab before she could go inside to escape the cold surf splashing up in her face. Her hair was plastered to her head with salt water, and her fingers had grown numb from cold.

  Holding onto the rail, she snatched the last pole and turned to find Lucas, wearing a bright orange life vest, standing behind her. “What are you doing out here? Get inside!” she yelled over the wail of the wind and the sound of the boat’s engines.

  “Not until you come with me.” He held onto the rail, his hand close to hers. “Leave the damned pole and get inside.”

  “I will, when you get out of my way. Now, please, go inside where it’s safer.”

  He took the pole from her grip and set it in its storage slot. “Come on!”

  At the exact moment Katie released her hold on the rail to rush toward the cabin, a swell tipped the boat sharply to the starboard. A giant wave washed over the deck, sweeping her feet out from under her.

  She fell hard and slid toward the back of the boat.

  Lucas hit the deck as well and sl
id toward her.

  Katie reached out to grab onto anything that would anchor her to the boat.

  Another wave followed the first, the rush of water, lifting her over the back rail of the boat and into the sea.

  She didn’t have time to grab a breath before she went under. Thankfully, her vest brought her bobbing to the tumultuous surface. Even with her head above the water, she struggled to take in air. The icy cold water arrested her lungs and made it difficult to draw a deep breath.

  With the swells so high, she could barely see above them to find the boat. If the captain had seen her go overboard, he wouldn’t be able to slow their progress to fish her out, without risking the lives of the other passengers. Along with the chill of the water, an icy realization rippled down her spine. She was on her own.

  A splash next to her caused a wave to wash over her head and sent her beneath the surface. Then hands gripped her arms and brought her to the surface.

  When her vision cleared of the stinging salt water, she stared into Lucas’s face. “Where’s the boat? Tell me it didn’t sink.” A swell lifted them enough she could see over the top, and she gasped.

  The Fishin’ is Livin’ appeared as a spec in the vast ocean, powering away from them through the violent sea.

  Katie gripped the front of Lucas’s vest. She didn’t have time to feel sorry for herself. Responsible for the safety of her passengers, Katie had to get Lucas to land before they both died of hypothermia.

  Holding tightly to his vest, she looked into his face. “We have to get to shore.”

  “We need to get to shore,” he said at the same time.

  The problem was, which way was closest? Down in a trough, they couldn’t see a thing.

  Riding a swell to the top, Katie scanned the cloud-heavy horizon. “There!” she shouted and pointed at the closest island.

  He held onto her to keep her from being yanked out of his grip and swept away.

  They sank again below the swells.

  Katie unclipped one of the straps on her life vest and attached it to Lucas’s vest.

  He nodded and let go of her vest. The next time they rose on a swell, they could see the island.

  Without uttering a word, they swam toward land, kicking hard, moving as fast as they could. The movement helped keep blood flowing, but the cold water would quickly suck the energy out of their limbs. With only a short window of time they could survive in the cold water, they had to move.

  Katie could swim, but she wouldn’t have considered herself a strong swimmer. She hoped and prayed she had the strength to get them both to shore before the sea claimed its prize.

  Lucas knew the dangers of hypothermia in the cold Alaskan waters. Their number one goal was to get out of it—as fast as possible.

  Thankfully, the boat had been close to an island when he and Katie had been washed overboard. But with the waves tossing them about like clothes in a washing machine, it would be a miracle if they made it to shore before one of them succumbed to the cold.

  With the strap connecting their vests, they were free to use both arms and legs to propel them toward that illusive spot of land jutting out of the sea. Every time they topped a swell, he could see they were getting closer.

  When they were within a hundred yards of shore, Lucas could tell Katie’s strength was waning. “Come on, Katie! Only a little further. We can do this.”

  She didn’t stop swimming, but her movements were more mechanical and not as effective. The cold was stealing what little strength she had left. If he didn’t get her to shore…

  “You have to keep going. I’m going to get you to say yes to a date if it’s the last thing I do. And I prefer to date live women,” he yelled. “So, move!”

  She didn’t say anything, probably conserving her energy for the struggle to get to the shore, but her movements strengthened.

  Kicking hard, Lucas made one final push, bringing them up onto the rocky shoreline. Tired to the bone and colder than he’d ever been in his life, he couldn’t stop until he had Katie out of the water, dried and warm.

  “Come on, beautiful, let’s get you out of the water,” he said, dragging her up the steep, rocky shoreline.

  She crawled, digging her fingers into the dirt and grabbing onto roots to help him pull her out of the frigid water.

  When he had her completely on land, he rested to catch his breath, but it wasn’t long before he felt her shaking beside him.

  “I’m…s-so…c-c-cold,” she said, wrapping her arms around her body.” Her teeth chattered, and her face and hands held a blue tinge that frightened him.

  “I’ve got to find us shelter,” he said, his own body shaking with the force of the cold.

  Her hand snaked out and grabbed his arm. “Don’t leave me.”

  He shook his head. “Only for a moment. I have to find a place that’s warm and dry.”

  “Mmmm. S-sounds…like…h-heaven.” She shook so violently her hand left his arm.

  He wanted to stay and comfort her, but he had to move or they’d both die of exposure.

  As Lucas pushed to his feet and took off along the shore, Katie lay on the gravel shivering, wishing she were wrapped in a warm blanket, tucked into her bed. The life vest made it difficult for her to move, but she couldn’t take it off as it was helping to retain what little bit of warmth her body could generate.

  Lying on the shore wasn’t going to keep her alive, especially since the icy cold wind seemed to be blowing right through her clothes. And if the cold wasn’t bad enough, the possibility of being discovered by a bear motivated her to move.

  Summoning what little energy she had left, she pushed to her hands and knees and crawled up into the tree line where most of the cold wind was blocked by trees and bushes. Katie scratched through fallen leaves, pushing them aside to make a hollow in the ground, then she pulled the leaves over her, one more layer between her and the cold and wind. But it wasn’t enough. Her fingers were numb, and her body ached from shaking. She should get up and move. Or go to sleep and wait for Lucas to come back and find her…as long as a bear didn’t discover her first.

  Lucas staggered along the shoreline, looking through the trees, praying he’d find some form of shelter. The farther he moved away from Katie, the more anxious he became. What if he didn’t find shelter? They could have fought their way out of the water only to die of exposure on this little rock.

  As he rounded a spit of land, he almost cried out in relief. A small, rickety dock stuck out into the water, its planks weathered and gray. But it was manmade, which meant the island might have people on it, or at least some evidence people had been on there and might come back.

  With renewed hope, he picked up his pace until he was as close to jogging as his tired, frozen body could accomplish.

  When he reached it, the dock wasn’t nearly as promising up close as he’d originally thought. Many of the boards had rotted through or broken off. He turned toward the hill rising from the shore and spotted a cabin, equally as weathered. It appeared to be made of boards, plywood and tin, kluged together by unskilled hands. Its saving grace was the stovepipe sticking out of roof. A stovepipe meant one thing— the cabin could have a stove or fireplace inside. It could be warmed.

  Knowing he didn’t have long until the cold took its toll, Lucas ran up the hill and pushed open the door to the cabin. Inside was a cot with a thin, rolled up mattress, a potbelly stove, and a stack of dry firewood. There were even a few cans of food stacked on a single shelf built into one wall.

  He didn’t wait but ran back out into the cold wind. The steady mist had turned into a chilling, drenching rain. Down on the shoreline, he retraced his steps to the place he’d left Katie.

  As he ran, he kept a wary eye on the tree line. Many of the islands in the area had colonies of bear living on them. As he rounded the spit, he spotted movement in the shadows beneath the trees. Lucas slowed, wiped the rain from his eyes, and peered into the woods. A bear stood beside a tree, scratching its backside against
the bark.

  Lucas’s heart skipped several beats as he stood as still as possible. If he waited until the bear wandered back into the woods, Katie could die of exposure. Throwing caution to the chilling wind, he moved as quietly as he could on the pebbles lining the shore. If the bear wanted him, he’d have to catch him.

  When he thought he’d gone far enough along the shore, he didn’t see Katie lying on the rocks. A knot formed in his belly. Had she slipped back into the water?

  “Katie!” he yelled above the pouring rain, heedless of the bear a few hundred yards away. Water dripped off his hair into his eyes. He stood on the shore, turning slowly, praying he’d find her before the bear did, or before she succumbed to hypothermia.

  “Katie!” he called out, his chest tight. The water in his eyes might as well have been tears. “Please, Katie, answer me!”

  “I’m here,” a weak voice said from a copse of trees just up the bank from where he stood.

  Lucas ran up the bank and searched in the shadows until he found her, half-buried in twigs and leaves. Relief poured through him. “Oh, sweetheart, come with me.”

  She reached out a hand and let him draw her to her feet. As soon as she was upright, she shook hard and her knees buckled. She would have collapsed but for Lucas’s arms wrapped around her.

  Exhausted from swimming and the incredible drain the cold had made on his system, Lucas knew he had just a few precious minutes to get Katie to warmth before hypothermia claimed them both for good.

  He bent, threw her over his shoulder and started the long trek along the shoreline to the cabin. As he approached the point at which he’d spotted the bear, he moved even faster, thankful when he didn’t see the bear. Perhaps it had moved on. Perhaps it watched from another position in the shadows. Lucas didn’t care, as long as it left them alone.

  By the time he pushed through the door, he could barely stand. He dropped Katie to her feet, collapsed on the floor and shoved the door closed behind him.