Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) by Mary Connealy Page A

her of the lessons she’d learned in the war? That didn’t seem fair.
    Kylie kicked with all her might and grabbed Shannon’s shirt as the water swept her past. Her grip held.
    “What happened? Why are you out here with that sheep?”
    They both went under. The sheep kicked Kylie in the stomach, and Kylie fought to keep from gasping while she was submerged.
    When they broke the surface of the water, Kylie saw that Shannon’s skin was white, her fingers wrinkled. How long had she been stuck out here fighting for her life?
    “This sheep is saving my life. He’s the only thing keeping me from drowning. I fell in and rode the current, and then my foot got tangled in a branch or root or something.”
    Kylie realized the kicking sheep was swimming, trying to escape but also keeping Shannon from going down for good.
    Shannon produced a wickedly sharp knife. “Cut me loose.”
    Kylie shuddered to think of diving down, maybe getting entangled herself. But there was no choice. She took the knife and clung to it as if it were life itself. Which it very well might be.
    “Which leg?” They both sank down, and it was a long time before their heads were above water again.
    “My right, at the ankle. I tried to slip my ankle free, but it’s knotted up somehow.”
    Kylie sucked in as much air as she could, using Shannon’s body to drag herself down, using one hand so the other could hang on to the blade. Fumbling, her eyes open in the clear water, she saw thick roots twisted tight around Shannon’s ankle. They came up from the stream bed. Kylie tried slipping Shannon’s booted foot free, but the roots were caught all through the hooks on the boot, until it was impossible to get the boot off. Kylie had to cut Shannon free. Desperately trying to figure out where to start, she caught hold of the root closest to Shannon’s leg and slashed. A white nick appeared in the brown coil, a tiny one.
    She cut again, hacking and sawing. The wound on the root deepened. Sawing with every ounce of her strength, she added a fraction of an inch at a time.
    Her lungs began to protest. The root wasn’t going to give way easily.
    Kylie was halfway through when, finally, she had to come up for air. She clung to Shannon as she bobbed to the surface. If she got washed downstream, she’d be a long time getting to the bank, walking back upstream and starting this all over again. Kylie came up and was face-to-face with that dumb sheep.
    Her conscience nudged her on that. The sheep, withits thin legs thrashing at the water, was keeping Shannon alive. She was too tired and too battered by the current to keep treading water.
    “I’m almost done,” Kylie panted—not telling the truth, dragging air into her starving lungs. She prayed for the gumption to go back down there and get on with saving her sister.
    Shannon nodded. She trembled all over. Kylie wondered how long Shannon could hang on. Pulling herself down, she chopped and sawed some more with the blade. At last a root gave way, but there were at least two more needing to be cut.
    Kylie started again, battling her sister’s snare. A second root gave just as she ran out of air again and surfaced. “One more!” She gasped for breath. “I’ll have you free the next time I go down.” Her heart pounded with exhaustion and fear.
    Shannon, who was far tougher than Kylie, barely responded. Her fingers were clamped deep in the wool of the sheep. Even the sheep looked exhausted. Kylie had to do it this time. Shannon had nothing left. The sheep, well . . .
    Shaking her head, Kylie inhaled deeply one more time, and then down she went. One last root bound Shannon’s foot, this one the thickest yet. It was like hacking through a tree branch. She gouged and sliced, knowing she fought for her sister’s life. At the halfway point she knew she’d need more air. But Kylie kept at it, pushing herself to the limit.
    Her lungs near to bursting, with a desperate slash her knife snagged on the almost-severed