by Sharon Dunn
She climbed in. Nick got behind the wheel and sped out of the parking lot. She didn’t dare look around to see if her protection was there and give herself away. She had to trust that they would be. Seeing Jason, knowing that he was close, eased her fear.
The streets of Silver Strike were bustling with activity. The winter music festival had brought additional tourists and weekenders.
A light turned red before Nick could get through. He cursed at the traffic and slammed his hand on the steering wheel.
His agitation made her stomach churn. Maybe a buyer pickup made him nervous, but this felt over the top. His mood had changed after the phone call. Traffic remained heavy even once they got out on the highway.
She glanced up at the rearview mirror without moving her head. Several cars were behind them. She struggled to take a deep breath.
He took the exit that led to the venue for the music festival.
“Why here?”
The parking lot for the festival was filled with people.
“Public places are best.” He adjusted his hands on the wheel and stared straight ahead.
Nick found a parking space after cursing out several other drivers. He was out of the truck and on Isabel’s side of the truck just as she pushed the door open. He grabbed her sleeve and pulled her toward the venue, which was at the base of the ski hill. Inside, a band was just taking the stage. The venue had a large open floor with high-top tables around the edges and a bar and grill at the far end of the concert hall.
Nick manacled his hand around her wrist and pulled her through the thick crowd. How was he going to find a buyer among all these people? She glanced around at the concertgoers. For a moment, she thought she had spotted Jason, but then the face disappeared in the crowd.
The band struck up an intense blues number that pummeled her ears. People pressed on her from all sides as they squeezed through the bodies. Nick held her wrist so tight it hurt. She wanted to pull free and run.
But she needed to stick with the plan, play her part and meet this buyer. He got to a wall and led her up some stairs into a private box for viewing the concert. The room had several leather couches.
Nick closed the window, muffling the noise of the concert.
“This is where we’re meeting the buyer?”
“Yeah.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and didn’t make eye contact. “You ask too many questions. Stop.”
He paced the floor, stopping to stare out a window that looked out on the ski hill. He checked his phone.
She stared down at the clusters of people. Her heart leaped when she saw Jason. He was turning in a half circle, searching the crowd.
Look this way.
A moment later, he glanced up. She pressed her hand on the glass. Could he see her?
“Get away from there.”
She stepped back. Jason was eaten up by the crowd again. There had to be agents out there too. Michael said there would be.
Again, Nick checked the window that offered a view to the outside. She walked over to where he was staring. The window looked out on the base of the ski hill. A car rolled into place in an area where there was no road or parking space. A man got out and walked toward the concert hall.
“Now we can go.”
“What? I thought we were meeting the guy up here.” Something felt really wrong. Why the constant changing of plans? Clearly, Nick had been waiting for the man with the car to show up.
“Don’t argue with me, Isabel. This is how it works.” He leaned close to her, his eyes like piercing daggers. “Are you all in or not?”
Sweat trickled down the back of her neck. She struggled to keep the tone of her voice even. “Course I am.”
Something about the look in his eyes was darker and more threatening than she had ever seen before with him.
He led her back down the stairs and out to where the car was parked. She hesitated in her step. “Where’s the buyer?”
He yanked her along. “We’ll meet him.”
She planted her feet, unable to move, yet knowing that she needed to go through with this to win Nick’s loyalty.
He turned to face her. “Having second thoughts?”
“This just seems a little crazy.” Maybe he was testing her.
“Get in the car.” He grinned at her and alarm bells went off in her head. The look on his face told her everything she needed to know.
Nick knew. He knew that she was undercover. Somehow he’d figured it out. He’d been upset after the phone call. Maybe that was it. She turned to run, but he grabbed her and tackled her.
He sat on her stomach, held her hands down and put his face very close to hers. “Do you think I’m dumb? Is that it, Isabel?”
She shook her head. “Please... I...” What could she say? How could she get out of this?
“I was going to let you in on this. It could have been like old times.” He put his face so close to hers their noses almost touched. “Traitor. No one betrays Nick Solomon and lives to tell about it.”
His words were a knife in her chest.
“You are dumb,” he said. “I took you through that concert hall so we could lose your tail.” He got off her. “Yeah, that’s what the phone call was about. One of my guys spotted the tail on me.”
She flipped over, intending to get to her feet and run. But he grabbed her by the back of her collar and swung her around. “Do you see how important I am? I arranged for this car to be dropped off by the organization I work for. No one crosses me.”
Her fear ramped up a notch. “I’m so sorry.” The words fell flat. Nothing she could say at this point would stop the volcano from erupting.
“Get over to the car.” His rage was out of control. He pulled out his gun.
“We’re driving somewhere secluded. Now move.”
Isabel stepped toward the car, knowing that it was just a matter of time before she was dead.
* * *
When he’d seen a car park off by itself and a man walk away from it, Jason had grown suspicious. He’d decided to circle the building after losing Isabel in the concert hall. Sure enough, the car was unlocked and the keys were in the ignition. Hiding in the back seat, he’d slipped inside to wait and observe. A moment later, Nick and Isabel came out of the back of the concert hall. He’d watched as Nick pulled a gun on Isabel. They’d struggled. Rage rose up in him, but he remained still. He couldn’t hear their conversation. If he showed himself, their cover would be blown.
Isabel got into the driver’s side of the car. Still pointing the gun at her, Nick slipped into the front passenger seat. Jason pressed even lower in the back seat.
“Nick, you don’t want to do this.” Isabel’s voice vibrated with intense terror.
“Start the car.”
She turned the key in the ignition and shifted into gear.
“To think that I pledged my undying love to you.” Nick’s voice filled with rage.
Jason tried to assess what was going on. Nick seemed especially agitated. Were they still going to meet the buyer or had something changed?
She pressed the gas pedal and eased toward the road, driving slow. “This is rough going. It’ll take a minute to get to the road.”
“Quit making excuses, Isabel.” Nick’s voice dripped with sarcasm when he said Isabel’s name. “You’re going to die. No one betrays me.”
So their cover was blown. Jason leaped up from behind the seat and reached to get the gun from Nick.
“Jump out.”
While the car was still rolling, Isabel pushed the door open. She disappeared. He prayed she’d been able to roll clear of the tires.
Nick and Jason continued to struggle. The gun went off, and Nick held on to it.
The car hit something and shuddered to a stop. Both Jason and Nick were jolted by the crash. Jason pushed the door open and
crawled out. He was still wobbly on his feet from the impact. Up ahead, he saw the dark figure of Isabel lying on the ground.
Nick stepped out and leaped on Jason. The two men wrestled. Nick must have dropped the gun when the car hit the curb.
Nick got on top of Jason and landed a blow to his face that sent stinging pain all through his skull. Jason’s vision blurred. He struggled to get some leverage.
“Get off him.” Isabel’s voice sliced through the darkness as she wrapped her arm around Nick’s neck and tried to pull him off.
Nick turned on her, trying to take her to the ground. Jason scrambled to his feet, grabbed Nick, spun him around and hit him once in the face and once in the stomach. Nick doubled over.
Jason grabbed Isabel’s hand, but Nick blocked their way back to the concert hall. They’d have to double back to get to where people and help were. He’d lost his cell phone in the struggle with Nick.
They took off running. Nick sprinted back toward the car, probably to look for the gun.
They ran up the empty ski hill.
A gunshot sounded behind them, spurring them to run faster. Another gunshot, even closer. The ski hill was frozen and slick. Nick was gaining on them.
They neared the chairlift. Jason flipped the switch to turn it on. The lift eased to life as he and Isabel got on.
Jason looked over his shoulder. Nick had gotten on four or five chairs behind them. Far enough away that it would not be an easy shot to make with a pistol.
Jason wiggled in his chair, then lifted and dropped his legs like he was on a swing.
“What are you doing?”
“A moving target is harder to hit.”
Several more shots were fired. One pinged off the metal of the chair.
“We’re going to have to jump before we get to the exit platform.” He stared down. The lift had elevated them a good thirty feet above the ground. He could wait until the distance was closer to ten or fifteen feet. The snow down at the base of the hill had been hard packed and icy. Maybe they could hope for some powder and a softer landing toward the top of the mountain.
“Now?” said Isabel.
She pointed at the landing platform up ahead.
Jason glanced over his shoulder. He could make out the outline of Nick’s body four seats behind them. “Let’s do this.”
He flipped around, slipped off the chair and hung on to it before letting go. He sailed through the air. His knees buckled from his collision with the ground, and he rolled a few feet. Isabel still hung from the chair. She let go and fell to the ground below. Hearing her moan as she landed, he prayed nothing had been broken.
The concert hall was just a set of distant glowing lights barely discernible through the trees clustered on the mountain. Nick had dropped from the lift, as well.
Jason sprinted over to Isabel and grabbed her hand to help her to her feet. “You all right?”
“Just a little shaky.”
Nick was setting an intense pace as he ran toward them.
This was a remote black-diamond part of the ski hill.
Jason led Isabel toward the shelter of the trees. The canopy blocked much of the snowfall from gathering on the forest floor, allowing them to move faster and not leave many tracks.
They ran until they were both out of breath. The forest thinned, and they were out in the open again. A light winked on and off as if moving over hills, appearing and disappearing.
“Snowmobile,” said Jason. “Maybe ski patrol.”
“Or Nick called in reinforcements. He was able to arrange for that car to be dropped off.” Isabel came up beside him.
She might be right. The snowmobile rounded another hill. He heard the hum of a motor as it drew closer. Maybe they should hide until they were sure the snowmobiler was one of the good guys.
He couldn’t see Nick anywhere.
As Isabel pointed toward a sign that showed a map of the trails on the mountains, the headlight of the snowmobile pointed directly at them.
They hurried over to the sign and crouched behind it. The snowmobile worked its way up and down the mountain. Jason peered around the sign. It was too dark to see anything but the outline of the snowmobile and its rider.
The snowmobile was set to idle. A shadowy figure emerged from the tree on the other side of the black-diamond run. The figure walked toward the idling snowmobiler, shouted above the hum of the engine and then got on the back behind the driver. The voice had been loud enough so they could tell that it was Nick. He had called in reinforcements.
The snowmobile worked its way back up the mountain.
Now was their chance to run. Without a word, they both took off.
The snowmobiler stopped at the top of the trail run on a ledge. A moment later, a powerful searchlight illuminated sections of the mountain piece by piece.
Jason led Isabel toward an overhang of snow that was used for jumps. They hid underneath it, the shadows covering them as the searchlight swept past.
After the last time they were forced to brave the cold for survival, he’d prayed it wouldn’t happen again. But here they were, Isabel pressed close to him, shivering. Though she was dressed for winter, they had been out in the elements for at least half an hour.
He wrapped an arm around her and whispered in her ear. “It won’t be long now. They’ll give up.”
They’d be warmer if they could stay on the move. The hum of the snowmobile still pressed on his ears. They couldn’t run...not yet.
He drew Isabel even closer.
Ten minutes passed before the snowmobile noise faded.
“Let’s get back over to the chairlift.”
“What if they are waiting there for us?”
They could both get hypothermia by the time they made it down the mountain on foot.
The wind blew, chilling his skin. Isabel wrapped her arms around her body. He’d skied these hills all through high school. “There are warming huts around here. At least there used to be.” That would give them time to come up with a plan.
He ran down the hill back toward the map. Isabel stood beside him as he leaned close to the map to see better. “There used to be a warming hut by the Crystal run. If memory serves.”
“I’ll take your word for it. I never skied.”
He started walking in the general direction he thought the hut might be. “Really? I thought everyone in Silver Strike skied. I lived fifty miles up the road and made it almost every weekend.”
She hurried to keep up with him as they cut across the ski run. “Mom said it was a rich person’s sport.” A note of sadness filled her voice.
There were all sorts of programs for kids who couldn’t afford to ski to get help. His father had signed him up for everything he could. Isabel’s mother just hadn’t wanted to make the effort. “Maybe I’ll have to take you sometime.”
“Once it’s okay for us to go back out in the open, right?”
Both of them had targets on their backs. Now that the smugglers knew they were being watched, the whole investigation was tainted. “Maybe we should just focus on getting down the mountain.”
“I appreciate the offer.” He detected warmth in her voice.
They trudged ahead. He tuned in to his surroundings, listening for the sound of the snowmobile.
The warming hut was right where he remembered it. They slipped inside out of the wind. It had benches on three sides and a fire pit in the center that was usually lit on cold days when the ski hill was operating. They sat down on one of the benches.
“If we could just build a small fire.” Isabel sounded like her teeth were chattering.
“We’d be spotted, Isabel.”
He took his down coat off. She was wearing a wool dress coat. “Here, come closer. We can wrap up in this, use our body heat to get warm.”
She slipped out of her wool c
oat, wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed close to him while he formed an insulating shell with the two coats.
“Better?”
She nodded. “I’m only doing this because I’m freezing.”
“Oh, come on. You like me a little bit.” He hoped she picked up on his joking tone.
“I like you more than a little bit.”
“Really?” She had given a forthright response to his half-joking comment. He felt like he was glowing all over. Isabel liked him.
“It’s just that after Nick, I decided maybe dating wasn’t my thing. Something inside me died after him. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Yeah, I watched my dad get burned real bad by my mom. He never dated after that.” Watching his father in so much pain had made him conclude that maybe love was not all it was chalked up to be. The little bit he’d dated had only confirmed that. It seemed he attracted women who only knew how to take and to hurt.
He drew her closer until she stopped shivering. Even if there couldn’t be anything between them and despite these trying circumstances, there was something really wonderful about holding Isabel.
“You warmed up?”
She nodded. “Maybe we should try to get to that chairlift. It would be faster.”
Riskier too. Since Nick and his friend weren’t chasing them down, they were probably watching the lift. “I don’t know. Once that lift started to move, it would be like a red flag if they’re anywhere close by.”
“Jason, I know I was against it before, but I don’t know if I can make it hiking down.” She held up her hands covered by the leather gloves. “I can’t feel my fingertips.”
He weighed their options. It would take twice as long to walk down and that was if they weren’t chased. They’d have to move from one cluster of trees to another, and even then they’d be out in the open some of the time.
“Let’s get over to the lift. We can figure out if it’s being watched.” They both rose to their feet, facing each other. He reached out and squeezed her hands. “Try to keep your hands in your pockets.”
She nodded. “I really messed up. Nick had his suspicions about me from the start. Otherwise, why would he have asked someone to figure out if he was being tailed?”