Cold Snap (In From the Cold #1)

by Lee Brazil

  ***

  The hazel-eyed man stood, hands on his hips, cursing. He looked narrow-eyed at Finn. "That is a goddamned shame to do to such a beautiful car."

  Nodding solemnly, Finn indicated the snow shovel he'd kept by his front step since October. "It is. I warned him about driving out in the countryside, but…" He shrugged. "What's done is done. Should I shovel or are we going to just hitch it up?"

  "I'm going to be completely honest with you, Finn. I am freezing my ass off out here and my leg doesn't like this weather. I'm opting for the fastest possible extraction, which in my book is hooking it up and dragging it out." Scott nodded shortly, grimacing as he swung away to climb into his truck.

  While the resort owner backed his truck up and back in a multi-part turn complicated by the tall snow drifts, Finn used the shovel to scrape snow away from the vehicle, hoping to ease the inconvenience for Scott, who he couldn't help noticing still limped. When the truck was turned around, Finn tossed his shovel aside.

  Hooking up the sports car to the winch was simple enough. They worked in companionable silence, threading the chains around the axle and behind the bumper of the Shelby. When the car was secured, Finn exchanged rueful glances with Scott. "He's gonna need a new paint job."

  Scott snorted, lips twisting in a grimace. "I've seen worse. He's lucky if a paint job and a new windshield are the extent of the damages. Why in the fuck would anyone not used to these road conditions be driving like that? He had to be doing sixty to get himself buried under there that far."

  Frowning, Finn studied the car. "He said something about someone in his house. I think. It's hard to say, he's awfully confused, perhaps concussed, and wasn't making much sense."

  "I'll check it out." Scott didn't sound pleased by the option, and Finn shook his head.

  "We've been enough trouble. I'll do it. They're probably going to want to keep him for observation overnight at the hospital, so when I get back, I'll go over there and see. I can tell you there wasn't any traffic on this road between the last plow you did and when I arrived home today."

  "Why'd he come this way, anyway? You're the last house out here."

  Finn shrugged. "I don't think he was coming to see me. It seemed to me, he was just running from something."

  "I don't like the sound of this. We had some trouble with another tenant, had to evict him. He's a really nasty customer. Maybe you remember him? Carl? If he's still hanging around…"

  "Yeah, he's a sorry excuse for a human being. You'd think a man who had everything…beautiful partner, child, all this…" He shook his head. The world wouldn't need princes if there weren't so many villains. "I think Cannon's imagining things, honestly. I'll check it out."

  "If you find anything, anything at all, do me a favor and call me or Robby. I'd like to avoid trouble with the police. Now"—Scott brushed his hands together and studied the Shelby—"are we ready to put our handiwork to the test?"

  Finn nodded. "Go ahead and back up slowly. Raise it even slower as you go." He caught Scott's amused glance and grinned. "My apologies. You've done this before?"

  "Sort of. You?"

  "He's not the first idiot to drive too fast on this road. Nor the first to slide into a snow drift." Just the first one I've cared about. "Not all of them are this lucky. There was a couple, a few years back, some young people from the college who DJ and Pauline rented one of the smaller cabins to for a weekend. Went off the road between my place and Rowe's, with no real reason to be on the private loop in the first place. Maybe they missed the signpost. No one found them for about three days, until the blizzard ended." He shuddered. That hadn't been one of the resort's finer moments. Rowe never came out, so he didn't notice them. Finn had been sick with the flu, so he never knew. By the time the kids were found, hypothermia had claimed one of their lives and the other one, the girl, had died in the hospital a day or two later. "Cannon was damned lucky he went off here and not somewhere else."

  "I hope he appreciates it. I'll take this thing to the garage at the lodge so it isn't blocking the road. When he's alert enough to arrange a tow truck to take it to the mechanic, let me know."