Deadly Mountain Refuge: Mountain Ambush ; Mountain Hideaway

by Christy Barritt

  He took the prepaid phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen, fully expecting not to have a signal out here in the middle of nowhere. To his surprise, one bar registered.

  He silently thanked God, as it had to be by His grace that he was even able to make this phone call.

  He punched in Zach’s number, thankful he had it memorized. A minute later, his friend answered.

  “I tried to call you back a couple of hours ago, but your phone went straight to voice mail,” Zach said.

  “Yeah, my phone is...indisposed at the moment. I have a new one.” Trent shoved his shoulder against the wall, his gaze continuously surveying the area around him.

  “Sounds as if there’s a story there, but save it for later. I looked into this Leo McAllister. I couldn’t find anything on him.”

  “Nothing?” Surprise rippled through him. That couldn’t be right.

  “Nothing criminal,” Zach said. “Now, his family is a different story. On paper, they’re squeaky clean. But I started digging a little deeper. According to my contact at the CIA, they travel abroad quite a bit and have been seen socializing with associates of people on a terrorist watch list.”

  “Really?” Not that he’d doubted what Tessa told him, but it was good to get another perspective. Zach was objective and his opinion on this would be invaluable.

  “It gets better. Apparently, the McAllister family has been under surveillance for quite some time now. There was some kind of anonymous tip to authorities a little less than a year ago. Law officials haven’t been able to find any evidence against them, though.”

  “Interesting.” That anonymous tip must have been from Tessa.

  “Listen, Trent, I don’t know what your involvement is with this family,” Zach continued. “But my friend said that the people they’re suspected to have ties with are no joke. Apparently, there are two people associated with the family who’ve been found murdered. Again, there’s no evidence tying the McAllisters to the crimes. Both are still open homicide cases. But I don’t believe in coincidences.”

  Tension returned to Trent’s shoulders, even stronger than before. He’d known these men were dead serious and lethal, but Zach only confirmed it. If those men captured them, he and Tessa would both soon be dead.

  “What can you tell me about the murders?”

  “The first was a delivery driver. One of the McAllister galleries was on his route. Name was Frank Webber. The other man worked at a bank. There’s no direct correlation to the family, only that he played a game of golf with Walter McAllister once. Walter is Leo McAllister’s uncle.”

  “The news just gets worse all the time,” Trent said, his gaze going to Tessa again. She faced the fire, unmoving except for occasionally sipping her drink. She was tough, but everything they knew was going to be tested before the end of this. “I may need more of your help, Zach.”

  “Of course. Anything.”

  Trent didn’t know who else he could trust. He could call the local authorities, but he doubted they’d take them seriously. Plus, if Tessa’s old boss was right, the rumor might be spreading around town that Tessa was one of the bad guys. He couldn’t put her in that position. Since these guys had the ability to disguise themselves as the police, that also made him cautious.

  He gave Zach a brief overview of the twelve hours since they’d last talked.

  “Sounds as if you’re in over your head,” Zach said.

  Trent glanced at the snow outside again. It continued to pile up, at least a foot deep. “Literally.”

  “Well, it just so happens I have two weeks between my old job and starting my new one. What do you want me to do?”

  “I need you to find out what the police know about Tessa. She’s been set up and now there’s an APB out for her arrest. At this point, I’m not sure whom we can trust, not even local authorities. The more information I can be armed with, the better. The person behind this obviously has deep connections.”

  “I can do that.”

  “I need one more thing—for you to pick us up. The roads are slick. But we’re trapped out here and, again, I don’t want to call the police. The fewer people who know where we are, the better.”

  “Let me do a little research, make some phone calls. Then I’ll check road conditions and head out there.”

  “Thanks, Zach. I appreciate it.”

  He hung up, grateful to know help was on the way. Trent only hoped they could stay safe until Zach arrived.

  As soon as Tessa stood from her huddle of blankets on the floor, she regretted it. Pain shot up her leg. One glance at the bandages strapped around her calf caused her to squirm. A deep ache rushed through her muscles when she stepped on her foot.

  “You shouldn’t put too much weight on it,” Trent said, reappearing and shoving a phone into his pocket.

  The action caused her defenses to go back up. Who had Trent called? Was he hiding something? A niggle of distrust crept in. There was something he wasn’t telling her.

  She shoved away her doubts. Trent was on her side. There was no reason to doubt him.

  Except that nearly everyone she’d trusted had let her down.

  That thought caused a knot to lodge in her throat. Usually when people kept information from other people, it was because they were concealing something. What was Trent not telling her?

  “I need to get moving.” She raised her chin, knowing she couldn’t depend on Trent fully. The idea was tempting but not logical.

  Trent wrapped his hand around her arm, his expression firm. “You need to rest.”

  “But—”

  “I’ll keep an eye on things around here. You need rest. Save your strength for the battles ahead.”

  She wanted to argue, to be stubborn. But the truth was she couldn’t stand much longer. Nor could she walk without help.

  Begrudgingly, she sat down. She wouldn’t admit it, but it felt good to get off her feet. What would feel even better were a long bath and some fresh clothes. Maybe a warm meal and some coffee. None of those things were possibilities right now, though. She had to be grateful for what she had—life, breath, a heartbeat and a chance at a brighter future.

  She looked up, waiting for Trent to say something.

  He didn’t.

  Not about the phone call, at least.

  Instead, he said, “I’m going to look around here and see what I can find. We’re going to need more supplies—in case we have to stay for a while and in case the men find us. We have to be prepared.”

  He was going to leave her alone. Her fear deepened. She knew she had to be a big girl; it was just that she felt so much more secure and protected when Trent was with her.

  How could she question if he was trustworthy one minute and feel so safe with him the next? It didn’t make sense, not even to her. She wished her emotions weren’t such a tangled mess. She wished her past didn’t dictate her reactions to people today. But that was the way life worked sometimes, whether she liked it or not. Keeping her distance from people had helped to keep her alive for the past several months. She wasn’t sure if doing the same would keep her alive or kill her right now.

  “Not to be a broken record, but you really should take it easy,” Trent said, that edge of authority still staining his voice. It was as if he always knew exactly what he was doing and felt 100 percent confident in his choices. Must be nice.

  Tessa grimaced as her leg ached again.

  “Don’t worry—I’m going to stay in this building, so I’ll keep watch,” he continued. “But if we’re going to last here for very long, I’m going to need some more firewood—dry firewood—as well as some blankets and food.”

  She nodded.

  There was no way Trent was in on this in some way...was there? Leo was conniving, brilliant and manipulative. He wouldn’t have planted someone like Trent in her life, would he?

&nbs
p; But that would be the perfect plan. Allow Tessa to trust Trent and believe he was on her side. Meanwhile, he would lead Tessa right into the den of lions—right to Leo.

  She shook her head. No, that thought was crazy.

  Yet it wouldn’t leave her mind.

  * * *

  When Trent walked back into the main lodge area, he was surprised to see that Tessa had drifted to sleep. Good. She needed to rest.

  He deposited the pieces of some old chairs he’d found onto the floor. He’d use this for firewood. With the flames blazing and strong, he went back and grabbed some cans of beef stew. They were about a year past the expiration date, but he’d check to see if they were still good because often canned goods lasted long past the date stamped on the lid.

  He’d taken note of the entire lodge. Aside from the four doors located in this room, there were six other doors leading into the lodge. He blocked the rest of them with dressers. The furniture wouldn’t hold back someone determined to get in, but at least it would slow them down or alert Trent that they were coming.

  The two of them should be good here for a while. But as soon as the snow slowed, they should try to make a run for it. Staying in one place too long would be a bad idea. But he wasn’t sure how fast Tessa could move with her leg injured as it was.

  Something strange had passed through her gaze earlier—was it doubt? In him? He was going to mention his phone call to Zach, but he feared she’d ask too many questions. She was under enough stress without learning that the local police were also looking for her. He hoped Tessa trusted him enough to follow his lead.

  Laurel had always told him that he expected people to have confidence in him easily. Maybe it was because of his training as a ranger—they’d had no choice but to trust each other.

  It didn’t matter if Tessa believed in him or not. His one goal right now was to keep her safe. Not to earn her friendship. Not to make her like him. Not to soothe her with platitudes.

  Only to keep her alive.

  Despite his determination, something twisted in his gut at the thought. He knew why. It was because there was a part of him that really liked Tessa, that wanted to get to know her better, that wanted to wipe away the worry from her gaze.

  Just then, she opened her eyes and he realized he’d been staring at her.

  Staring at the lovely lines on her soft face. At her hair as it ruffled across the blanket behind her and at her lips as they gently parted.

  He hadn’t felt this fascinated with someone since...well, since Laurel.

  “I can’t believe I fell asleep.” She pulled a hair behind her ear self-consciously. “Again.”

  “Your body is telling you that you need rest.”

  He went to the fire again and added some pieces of broken furniture. Once the flames grew larger, he opened a can of stewed beef. He dumped it into a pot and placed it over the fire.

  “Who’d you call earlier?” Tessa asked.

  He startled a moment. “Just a friend.”

  “Which friend?”

  She wasn’t backing down. “A friend in law enforcement. I’m getting him to help us out.”

  Her eyes held a look of discernment. She was trying to measure whether he was telling the truth.

  “You asked me to trust you, yet you obviously don’t trust me. Why were you keeping that quiet?”

  “I didn’t want to share anything until I learned more.”

  “And? What did you learn?”

  He let out a breath, stoked the fire once more and then settled back on the floor. “I learned that there are two suspicious deaths associated with the McAllister family.”

  “Who?”

  “A delivery driver and someone who worked at a bank.”

  Tessa gasped. “Was his name Frank?”

  Trent nodded. “I believe so. You know him?”

  She squeezed the skin between her eyes, shoulders slumping. “Frank always made our deliveries. Every day. We talked quite a bit, and he was a lovely person. In his fifties, expecting his first grandchild, looking forward to taking a cruise. Of course, that was a year ago. When...?”

  “About eight months ago.”

  “Around the time I left...” she muttered.

  “Tessa, this probably didn’t have anything to do with you. It was the master plan of a crazy killer.”

  “Maybe I should have warned him. Warned more people. Maybe I should have done more instead of running.”

  “Before you beat yourself up, I also heard that there was an anonymous call reported with information about the family.”

  She straightened. “Did the FBI actually research the tip I gave them?”

  “Unfortunately, they couldn’t find any solid evidence so the McAllisters have just been under surveillance.”

  Her shoulders slumped again. “I managed to copy all of the files off the gallery servers and then erase their contact information before I fled. But in my haste, I dropped the thumb drive where I’d saved the evidence.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up. The authorities are still looking for proof so they can put these guys behind bars. But for now no one’s talking and the paper trail has disappeared.”

  “That’s not surprising. The McAllisters have power and resources. They’re good at covering their tracks. I didn’t expect the cops to believe me anyway, not when Leo and his family are so active in the nonprofit community.”

  “Money and power definitely have reach. You’d be a fool to deny that. A lot of people can paint themselves as sheep when they’re wolves.”

  “Biblical reference?” she questioned.

  “Yes, definitely. It’s refreshing to talk to someone who recognizes that.”

  “I might recognize it. I don’t necessarily believe it, though.”

  “Why’s that?” He stirred the stew, the savory scent of beef, potatoes and gravy rising up to meet him. He couldn’t neglect food and sleep too long or he’d be useless.

  “Up until a few days ago, I hadn’t felt His presence in my life in a long time.”

  “You mean because bad things have happened?”

  She shrugged. “You make it sound so simple. But maybe you’re right. Maybe that’s what my reasoning boils down to.”

  “Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world that’s full of sin. The bad things are people’s doing, not God’s. But He can use them in our lives.”

  “I don’t know. It certainly doesn’t feel that way.”

  “Our relationship with Jesus was never supposed to be about feeling. That’s a part of it. But emotions and feelings change. It’s the same with every relationship in our lives. If we just depend on how we’re feeling at the time, it will never last.”

  “You sound pretty smart.”

  “I’ve learned that lesson the hard way over the years. Believe me.”

  Something flashed through her gaze. Was it hope? Understanding?

  Before he could identify it, he heard a crash.

  FOURTEEN

  Tessa jerked upright at the sound. What was that?

  Trent was instantly on his feet, his stance showing the soldier he used to be, and the expression in his eyes so intense that she’d hate to be on the other side of the battle against him right now.

  “Stay here,” he ordered.

  His tone left no room for argument.

  She pulled the blankets more closely around her as she waited. What could that have been? It almost sounded as if a bomb had exploded. Had Leo’s men found them?

  Her gaze swung around. What if those men were out there now, watching her, ready to pounce?

  She waited, each minute feeling like an hour.

  Finally, movement caught her eye at the far end of the room. Her heart skipped a beat.

  Trent. It was just Trent.

  He strode toward her, a grim expr
ession on his face. “Part of the roof collapsed in the east wing of the building.”

  Her heart slowed—until she realized how serious that could be, also. “What does that mean for us?”

  He stirred the beef again. “Nothing. We have no choice but to stay here. The collapse happened in what looks like the oldest part of the structure. I guess it couldn’t withstand the weight of the snow.”

  She glanced above her at the thick wooden beams arching across a vaulted ceiling. “I hope this part is stronger.”

  “We’ll keep an eye on it.” He spooned some food into her mug and then handed it to her. “Here, eat this.”

  She didn’t argue. The first bite was hot and nearly tasteless, but she was so hungry that she didn’t care.

  As she glanced out the window, she saw the sun was beginning to set.

  “We should both try to get some shut-eye.”

  “I’ve already rested some. How about if I keep watch for a while?”

  He nodded, grabbed a blanket and settled on the couch across from her. “That sounds good. If you hear or see anything that’s at all suspicious, wake me. Promise?”

  She nodded. “I promise.”

  As soon as Trent drifted to sleep, she forced herself to stand. Her face scrunched in pain as she put weight on her leg. But she had to do this. She had to walk a bit, see for herself what was going on here at the lodge.

  Each step caused an ache to pulsate through her, but she made herself keep going, keep moving. Finally, she reached the window. She already missed the warmth of the fireplace and her blankets. But she couldn’t allow herself to become too comfortable.

  She stared outside. The snow was already to the window. Tessa estimated about sixteen inches had fallen today. The roads would be impassable, which was both a comfort and worry. It meant Leo’s men might not be able to reach them, but it also meant they might not be able to leave if they needed to.