“I guess not,” he said softly.
That feeling that had been growing inside him all day... At first, he’d dismissed it as some combination of attraction and loneliness, but this was something else. A connection. It was so different than the connection he’d had with Sunny, and yet it felt strong. Maybe it was the desperation of the situation. Or maybe he wasn’t ready to think about what else it could mean.
Michael braced himself for the hurt that always came with the words he was about to speak. “Sunny, my wife, died a couple years ago. Uterine cancer.” Why was it so hard to say this, even after two years of living without her? “She was funny. Kind. She saw the best in people, even the ones that disappointed her.”
Ellie turned, and her gray eyes were full of emotion. “I’m so sorry. She sounds wonderful.”
He nodded. “After two years trying to get pregnant, I wanted her to go to the doctor. I said it was for fertility, but the truth was, I was worried. She worked at a start-up, with late long hours. It was the kind that gave employees unlimited vacation time but pressured them never to take any of it. She was getting thinner, working long days in a tech job. I thought it was the stress.” He steeled himself against the memory of what had come next. It never got easier. “She refused. She said God would give us a baby when it was time. And so I never spoke up, never told her my worries. After she fainted in the bathroom at the office the first time, I should have pushed harder. I’ll always regret that. The second time, someone called an ambulance, and the hospital’s tests told us it was too late. Stage 4.”
He took a long breath, and looked back up at her. Ellie’s eyes were wide and serious, but he didn’t find pity there. Just understanding.
He exhaled slowly. “I know I can’t turn back time. And if it was God’s will that she was to die, I have to accept that. I just wish we had used our time better.”
Ellie nodded. “I know exactly what you mean.”
“I’ll always regret not telling her how worried I was, how much I wanted her to get more tests,” he said, looking off into the snowy landscape. They were in their own little world, secluded, safe here together in an unsafe world. “So many times I’ve asked myself why I didn’t. I guess I didn’t want to scare her, to hurt her. I was afraid the distance between us would grow. More than it already had.” He looked at her. “But it had nothing to do with a lack of love.”
Michael took off his glove and swiped a hand over his face. “I guess what I’m trying to say is maybe Sean had reasons that made sense at the time. Maybe he even thought he was doing what was best for you.”
“Thanks for telling me,” she said softly. “There are so many questions I have about that accident. We were supposed to go on vacation, but we stayed home because I canceled our weekend away. What if I had insisted, put my foot down? You don’t want to do that in a marriage, to make things into conflicts, but what if I had? A little conflict would’ve been better than this.”
Michael could feel the weight of her words as she spoke.
“I’m never going to get over Sean,” Ellie added quietly.
“And I don’t think I can ever say goodbye to Sunny, but it does feel good to have someone to talk to.” At least for now.
She gave him a little smile and started to speak, but a flash of light through the trees cut off her words. Michael whipped around and saw a single beam pointing in their direction.
“A snowmobile,” she whispered. “I wonder if it’s Aidan. He could have found the spare key to mine and followed our tracks.”
Michael frowned. “We can’t take the chance.”
“He said he needed me alive for now. What does he need from me?”
“If you died...” He swallowed, trying to keep his voice even. “Who would inherit your share of the business?”
“My parents.” Ellie’s brow wrinkled. “Does this put them in danger, too?”
She shoved the envelope back into the inside pocket of her jacket, and Michael began to stuff the food into the backpack. They stood.
“Are you willing to go to the police?” he asked.
“Not now. Not unless I have some sort of proof that he’s lying about me,” she said. “There’s evidence of his bribes, but nothing that makes him look threatening. The danger to me is still his word against mine. Maybe there’s something I can dig up in the files, something more solid, but it will take time. Right now, I need to get away from him.”
“What about the ski resort on the other side of the mountain? They have a hotel and enough people there that we could lose him in the crowd.” Michael weighed the option. “Aman, a high school friend of mine, manages the hotel portion of the resort. Sunny and I have been there a handful of times to ski with him and his wife.”
But, like all his other friends, Michael had barely spoken to Aman since Sunny’s funeral. He didn’t even know if his friend still worked here. Once again, she would have to put her life in his hands, and it made him even more determined to live up to that trust.
The snowmobile light was getting closer.
“Let’s do it.”
NINE
The motor sawed underneath them as they made their way over the rugged terrain. Each time Ellie glanced behind her, she caught flashes of light through the forest. Their own headlight dipped and leaped as Michael steered across each mound, making it impossible to get a good view of the darkening landscape in front of them. Ellie was glad he was doing the driving now, though she didn’t like the way it gave her brain time to hop between fear and revelation. The calm from the fire lookout was gone as Ellie forced herself to concentrate on the present. Michael navigated the snowmobile through the trees, avoiding the steep drops that seemed to come without warning. Thank God, he was handling the terrain. She would have certainly tipped the sled at some point—or worse.
The new storm was still heading for them. Above, patches of dark blue evening sky shone through the gray clouds. A clear sky would be good for visibility—for them, but also for Aidan. As it was, Aidan was getting closer, and if they slowed down, it was just a question of when he’d catch up with them.
Ellie’s arms were wrapped tightly around Michael’s jacket and she felt a warm comfort as she leaned against his broad back. It was the same warmth she had felt as he’d burst out of the house, unharmed, and when she’d watched his strength and agility as he’d subdued Aidan. Yes, that was what she felt right now. Comfort. And gratitude. Not attraction, or anything that conflicted with her love for Sean. Sean, whom she had trusted without question. Who had kept secrets from her. Secrets that had left her running for her life.
Ellie looked over Michael’s shoulder in the direction they were headed. Mountains rose above them, steep and full of snow that the last of the sunset painted a deep, hazy purple. How long until they reached the ski resort from here? It was miles away.
“We can stay off the road a little longer,” said Michael through the intercom. “But we’re coming close to the slide. We’ll have to take the road for that stretch.”
Angel’s Slide was a half mile of sharp curves that wound around the edge of the steepest part of the mountain. Ellie had heard that, before the development was built, the road used to close during winters because of the heavy snows. But now, closing the road meant cutting off the new houses to basic services, like firetrucks and ambulances, from the nearest town. In the other direction, the national forest stretched on for miles before reaching civilization again. Aidan and Sean had gone to city planning meeting after meeting, arguing to get the road maintained during the winter—and losing. And then the committee reversed its findings. Now that Ellie was part owner and had read through the documents, she understood the win was despite geologists’ protests. And it had come right after a flurry of emails with two committee members about campaign donations and “gift” trips to Hawaii. But she needed to get all the evidence together and figure out who to give it to—someone not under the influence of Aidan and Clint.
Two winters ago, the plowing had triggered an avalanche that had left the road covered in dirt and gravel long, long after the snow had melted, cutting off the development from the town well into the summer. It was one of the reasons that Green Living Construction had had a hard time selling off the parcels of land. That was how Ellie had ended up with a house there. Now, as Michael steered them toward Angel’s Slide, she wondered what would have happened if she’d pressed Sean with more of her questions and worries. What if she’d spoken up? Would Sean still be alive?
Ellie pushed that thought away and focused on the path ahead. She had to trust God to get them through this safely. And trust that Michael knew how to navigate this road.
Michael. He shouldn’t be involved in any of this, and yet, again and again, they had found themselves in danger. Twice, she had attempted to strike out on her own, and twice, he had refused her offer. Now, after Aidan’s threat to him, Michael was stuck with her. The painful truth was that, deep down, she was thankful, even as she knew she should beg him to leave her and find a way out of this danger. And yet, still, she couldn’t fight how grateful she was that she was not alone.
“Hold on tight,” said Michael. “It’s going to be a little rough getting back on the road.”
Ellie glanced behind them. They were out of the forest, in the open and higher up now, giving her a view between the cracks and crevices of the rocky hills. Behind them, a single light bobbed up and down over the white landscape. The snowmobile was gaining on them little by little.
“That has to be Aidan,” she said. “The sled is still following us.”
