ELEVEN
The shots rang out down the hill, echoing inside Ellie with waves of dread.
“Are you hit?” she cried.
Michael didn’t answer and it took her a moment to remember why. She had torn her helmet off the moment she had come out from under the snowbank, desperate to get air after she’d been trapped with it on. But that meant the intercom was gone. She could no longer talk to him.
The snow whipped at her face as she tore down the mountain. She glanced to the left then to the right for a glimpse of Michael, but the night landscape was a blur. And she knew better than to take her eyes off her path this time.
“Michael?” she called desperately into the darkness. All she heard was the wind howling up the mountain.
He should be right next to her, but she couldn’t see anything. Maybe he was close behind her, following her trail again? She trusted him, trusted that he would do everything he could to stay with her. But what if his best wasn’t enough?
Ellie had a very bad feeling about those two gunshots. They’d been at close range, and what she’d heard of Aidan’s rant was more evidence that her brother-in-law wasn’t afraid to kill. That much he had made clear.
That realization led to the thought that had been forming in the back of her mind since she’d left the house. Maybe he killed Sean?
It’s your fault.
The flash came back from the cave, chased with the same crushing guilt that took her breath away. Aidan blamed her for Sean’s death, and something about that had rattled her, something that was still stuck behind that hazy veil over her memories. But right now, she needed to focus on the forest in front of her.
Ellie put her feet down to slow herself for a turn and got a face full of snow, but the wind soon blew it away. She leaned to the side, dodging one tree, then another. She was getting the hang of steering her improvised sled, but she couldn’t afford to make the same mistakes she had last time. Last time, her helmet had saved her. This time, she’d have nothing to protect her.
Her fingers were cramped from clutching the sides of the Plexiglas. Her legs ached. Her arms ached. Her rear ached from each bump she hit. Still, she continued down the mountain. She had no other choice but to keep moving as far away from Aidan as possible. If she didn’t go, Michael wouldn’t, either—which put him in direct danger.
Back at the fire tower, their plan had been to head to the ski resort. How close had they come when the avalanche had forced them off course? She had no way to navigate the forest except to continue down. Eventually she’d run into something...hopefully.
There was a break in the trees and she dug her boots into the snow. Another cloud of powder hit her face as she came to a stop in in the middle of some sort of trail. The snowfall had been heavy enough that the tracks were almost impossible to see it, but the trail was there, a perpendicular path through the forest. Maybe for cross-country skiing or snowmobiling? Her heart leaped in her chest. Maybe this trail led to the ski resort, or at least somewhere public.
But where was Michael? Did she call for him? If he could hear her, chances were good that Aidan could, too. Ellie searched up the mountain for signs of him, but she couldn’t see anything. Instead, she found tracks heading down the slope of the path. Very large animal tracks. Fresh ones. The forest was alive around her, the snow swirling and the trees bending and creaking in the wind. She stared down the trail, looking for the animal that made those tracks but it was too dark to see much of anything.
She was lost. Alone in the wilderness. So very alone.
“Trust your path,” she whispered to herself. God had been there for her in the cave. He had brought her to Michael at her lowest point. She needed to trust Him, even when everything else around her didn’t make sense.
Just keep heading down the mountain, she told herself, away from the animal tracks. There was a river that ran through the valley between the mountains with a road that snaked along next to it. If there was a trail here, she’d run into the road at some point. And hopefully she could find a way to meet up with Michael there, too.
Ellie took one more look around her at the silent forest then picked up the Plexiglas windshield, trudged across the path, and brought herself to the edge of the slope. The mountain continued down, disappearing into the night.
Trust Him.
She sat on the little shield, picked up her feet and let herself go. She started slowly, but soon she picked up the pace again, bounding down the mountain with enough speed to glide over the flatter parts. Ellie tilted from side to side, avoiding long-hanging branches as best she could in the dark. She held on as the mountain took a dip then climbed. She came to a stop at the top of the incline. Far away through the trees, farther down the mountain, she could see the faint flash of red and blue lights skittering across the snow. Police lights.
Relief rushed through her first, but it was quickly followed by dread. Aidan knew the police around here, and she had no doubt that his word would be taken over hers. Still, if she got to the cops, maybe she could at least save Michael’s life...if she could find him. So many ifs.
She had two choices. The direction of the ski resort, still not in sight, or the direction of the lights.
Please, Lord, show me the right path.
Ellie swallowed her dread and aimed herself down the hill, toward the flashing lights. It was a clear shot down to the road, so she let herself gain speed until she burst out of the woods and landed on the enormous, sloping bank next to a road. It had been plowed relatively recently, just a few inches of new snow on top, but it was quiet. To her right, the lights flashed in the darkness just beyond a curve in the road. To her left, the snowy road led to another bend and disappeared into the darkness. Did she try to find Michael or go for help?
She sat on the top of the snowbank, looking down at the Plexiglas below her. She had managed to get herself this far. She could endure whatever it took. As she sat there in the silence, catching her breath, she marveled at where the day had taken her. Back at the Green Living Construction office, she had cowered at Aidan’s threats, even while she was determined to do the right thing. Now, she was no longer cowering. She was ready to face this head-on.
Ellie took a deep breath of the frigid mountain air. Her hair blew across her face. She should be cold by now, but her heart was pounding too hard for that. She would go by herself and face whatever this would bring her if it meant saving Michael.
Ellie scooted the snowbank, but as she stood, she heard a crack of branches behind her. Her heart leaped. Michael. He had made it down the hill.
She turned around, but it wasn’t Michael she saw on the snowbank above her. It was Aidan, and he was coming straight for her.
Michael struggled to stay upright as the burning sensation shot from his side. Aidan’s bullet had found him, and it felt as though there was nothing else in the world except for the pain. He shifted in his makeshift sled, trying to ease the aching, but he tipped over and tumbled through the snow. He put his hand out to stop himself from picking up more speed and he came to a stop. Slowly, he pushed to sitting. Next to him, the snow was tinted darker. Was that blood? How badly was he bleeding?
Dumb question. Any amount of blood here on the mountain could be fatal.
“Ellie,” he called into the intercom. No answer. He called again. “Ellie? Where are you?”
Then he remembered. She had taken her helmet off in front of him and, for a while, he’d kept sight of her curly red hair flying down the mountain.
They were cut off from each other. He’d have to find her path and follow it. But just sitting up made his side throb angrily. He was in no condition to walk through the deep snow.
Their plan had been to reach the ski resort, but they weren’t anywhere near it. Far, far below was the road that led to Clover Valley. Between here and the road? Just a few backcountry trails and lots and lots of wilderness. Now that she was out of sight, he had no idea how they would find each other.
Protect her, God. Keep her safe.
The drive to find her thrummed inside him, so strong. He told himself that she was not as vulnerable as she had been this morning when she’d jumped on the back of his horse, cold and panicked, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that every part of him wanted to protect her. Why did the thought of her in harm’s way make his gut twist and his heart stutter with fear?
“Ignore it,” he muttered to himself.
Right now, he needed to make it farther down the mountain, where he could put all of his energy into finding her. Protecting her. She was strong, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need support. And the two of them were safer together out here in the wilderness at night, with an angry and dangerous man chasing them. Of course he was worried about her, just like he would worry about anyone else. That’s all this uneasy feeling in his gut was telling him. He wanted to be able to help someone the way he hadn’t been able to help Sunny...
