Drake Sisters 02 - The Twilight Before Christmas

as he led a smal ragtag group of prisoners back through enemy lines to join their forces.
    That a Drake sister might be aware of details Matt and Jonas weren’t privy to no longer surprised either of them.
    “Can you hold on to me as I climb up?” Jackson asked. “I can send you up by the rope. Matthew Granite and Jonas Harrington are up top waiting for you. You’re bound to accumulate a few more bruises being hauled up that way.”
    “I’d feel safer going up with you, but I seem to keep fading in and out. Things sort of drift away,” El e answered.
    Matt felt the tug of the rope, knew Jackson was tying the safety line around El e.
    “Then we’l go up together,” Jackson said. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
    “I know you won’t.” El e circled his neck with her arms and crawled careful y onto his back. Matt felt more tugs with the rope and knew Jackson was tying her body to his.
    “Your arm is broken. Can you hold on?”
    “I don’t exactly like the alternative, and Libby is blocking the pain for me.”
    Matt shook his head. Libby Drake, the doctor. A woman reputed to have a gift for healing the impossible. “Did you know Libby was anywhere near here?” he asked Jonas.
    Jonas shook his head. “I knew she was coming home for Christmas, but not that she was on the way. But that isn’t unusual for the Drakes. They’re al connected somehow, and they tend to do things together.”
    Jackson’s voice drifted up to them. “Good. I’m going to start climbing, El e. It’s going to hurt.”
    El e pressed her face against Jackson’s broad back. Matt watched Jackson start up the cliff, testing each finger- and toehold careful y before committing to the climb. Matt and Jonas kept the rope just taut enough to al ow him to scale the vertical rock face. When Jackson was halfway to the top, the fog simply gave up, retreating before the onslaught of the wind. Matt leaned down to grasp El e, as Jackson gained the top of the cliff.
    Matt untied the rope and gently laid El e on the ground. “I’l get to a car and radio for an ambulance,” Jonas said.
    El e shook her head. “Libby’s on her way. She’l fix me up.” She turned her head to look at Jackson. “Thank you for coming for me. I didn’t think anyone would find me.” She touched the bump on her forehead. “I know the fal knocked me out.”
    Jackson shrugged and glanced at Matt and Jonas, shook his head, and remained silent. A car pul ed up beside them and Libby Drake leaped out, dragging a black leather case with her. “How bad is she hurt, Jonas?”
    “I’m fine, Libby,” El e protested.
    Libby ignored her, looking to Jonas for the truth as she knelt beside her sister. Jackson answered her. “I think her left arm is broken. She definitely has a concussion, and she’s either bruised her ribs or possibly fractured them. She’s very tender on the left side. There’s one laceration on her left leg that looks as if it could use a few stitches. Other than that, she’s a mass of bruises.”
    “I don’t want to go to the hospital, Libby,” El e protested.
    “Too bad, baby, I think we’re going to go and check you out.”
    Libby’s word was obviously law. El e protested repeatedly, but no one paid any attention to her. Matthew found himself holding Kate’s hand in the waiting room while Libby went through al the required tests with El e and final y settled her in a hospital bed for the remainder of the night.
    Kate leaned into Matt’s hard frame, looking up at him. “Thank you. I don’t know what we would have done if you, Jonas, and Jackson hadn’t found her. She looks al cut up.” There was a little catch in her voice.
    Matt immediately put his arms around her. “I’m taking you home. To my home, where you can get some rest, Kate. El e’s in good hands, you’ve kissed her ten times, and Libby’s going to stay overnight with her. She can’t be safer than that. Jackson brought her car to your house and left it for her, so everything’s taken care of. Come home with me, Katie. Let me take care of you.”
    “You need a shave,” she observed, her hungry gaze drinking him in.
    They walked together to his car, their steps in perfect harmony. Matt smiled because he loved being with her more than anything else. He rubbed his jaw. “You’re right, I do. You’re not only going to have whisker burn on your face, but if I’m not more careful, you’l have it other places too.”
    She blushed beautiful y.