Trapped on Vail Mountain

by Desiree L. Scott

  They lay huddled in each other's arms on the rocky ground, the cold seeping into their sweaters. Nina had looked at her phone and had seen that the text she had shot to her friend had gone through, and she knew Joan would do everything she could to get them help. Joan’s fiancé and his boss were excellent trackers. She just prayed they got to her before anything happened to her daughter.

  With nothing but the darkness closing in, Nina wasn't able to think of anything except her father and his death, the pain in his eyes as he left her.

  Why, Daddy? Why you?

  She thought of her father's mentality in the weeks prior, and now that she thought about, she realized how he had been acting, always looking over his shoulders and calling and checking on her, thinking of excuses to come by her apartment. If he had been receiving threats, then it all made sense.

  Why didn't you say something, Daddy? Go to the police?

  They were questions she could no longer ask her father, and tears filled her eyes, spilling down her cheeks as she lay on the ground, her daughter tight against her chest.

  She started to feel warm, almost cozy, and sighed in relief, loving the warmth that coursed through her as her eyes started to drift close.

  Suddenly, her daughter moved and twitched.

  "Mommy?"

  "Yes, baby?" she responded drowsily, struggling to keep her eyes open. She let them drift close again, just wanting to rest.

  "Mommy!"

  The little girl jerked and sat up, and Nina saw the fear in her eyes as she looked up at her.

  "What is it, baby?" she mumbled.

  "Mommy, you're freezing!" Emily's small voice pitched high with panic. Nina felt her shoulders shake and Emily lean over her. "Mom, please wake up!"

  Nina shook her head, trying to dispel the drowsiness from her mind, but it didn't help. She was so warm. She didn't want to move.

  “Mommy, please. You have to wake up. I’m scared, Mom.”

  The trembling voice of her daughter finally brought consciousness back, and it was all she could do not to sink further into the warmth, but that would mean leaving her daughter to fend for herself, and she refused to allow that to happen.

  Nina tried to remember everything she could about hypothermia because she knew deep down that she had it.

  And it was getting worse.

  Before she could move, her daughter straightened further and then lay on top of her.

  “What…?” she started, her daughter’s small body penetrating the warmth. It felt like needles were piercing her whole body within seconds.

  “Body heat, Mom. Even I know that. That’s why you didn’t want me to get wet. So I wouldn’t get hypothermia. Instead, you got it.”

  Her brave and intelligent daughter nailed it. And Nina couldn’t have been prouder of her.

  They wrapped their arms around each other, and Nina started shivering, the cold seeping back in, but her thoughts began to clear.

  “Have I told you lately that I love you?” she murmured.

  “All the time, Mom. I love you too.”

  Sighing, Nina started to say something but then went still, closing her mouth as she strained to hear past the wailing of the wind. Emily must have heard it too because she lifted her head from Nina’s chest and cocked it to the side.

  “Mommy, did you hear—?”

  “Yes, baby. Quiet.”

  Struggling to get up, Emily slid to the side, and Nina stood, her legs threatening to collapse beneath her. Holding on to her daughter’s thin shoulders, Nina stumbled to the entrance of the hole and looked out, still straining to hear.

  She could have sworn…

  There! There it was again, a voice.

  She started to open her mouth to yell but froze as thoughts of the killers filled her mind. What if they had found them? Her yelling could get them killed.

  Suddenly, she heard her name and then Emily's, and her heart felt as though it were going to explode inside of her chest. She shared a fearful look with her daughter and then looked around wildly for anything she could use as a weapon. She had to protect her daughter, but before she could find anything, the deep voice got closer, and they held their breath as the heavy steps approached.

  "Nina, it’s Rob from the resort! Joan sent me!"

  Her shoulders slumped, and they stumbled back from the small hole. If it hadn't been for her daughter, she would have collapsed from sheer exhaustion, cold, and the magnitude of relief that made the world spin. In fact, the world kept spinning, and she couldn't get it to stop.

  Emily took one look at her, and panic widened her eyes. She knew Joan's name from when Nina talked about her.

  "In here!" Emily yelled, her small weight struggling to hold up her mom. "Please help! Mommy is sick!"

  Within seconds, a tall shadow hunched down and crawled inside, but Nina could barely make him out. Blackness threatened to consume her, and she dimly heard cursing as she felt hard hands take hold of her arms. The cold ground met her back, but it didn't really bother her. She just wanted to sleep, but she faintly heard the orders above her.

  "Sweetie, your mom has hypothermia. Get my bag and get the silver blanket. It'll keep the warmth trapped so she warms up slowly. Hurry."

  Nina heard scampering and then the static of a radio.

  "Danny, I have Nina and Emily. I'm north of the river, about a mile. Nina has hypothermia. It's too dangerous to travel with her right now. I'm going to start a fire and get her warmed up first. We'll head out at first light and meet you back at the resort."

  Seconds later..."Roger that."

  "Em," Nina murmured, trying to make sure her daughter was okay.

  "She's right beside me, sweetheart. We'll have you warm in no time," the deep voice said.

  Suddenly, her wet clothes began to fall off, and she jerked, struggling weakly against the gentle hands that continued to remove her clothing.

  "It's okay. I just have to get the wet clothes off you, or the hypothermia will get worse. I have a blanket. Don't worry."

  She didn't have the strength to fight, so she lay there, her eyes struggling to open.

  Suddenly, she felt a natural warmth begin to spread through her as the rustling of a blanket met her ears.

  "Why does that blanket look like that?" she heard her daughter whisper. "It doesn't look warm."

  "It's made out of a fiber that traps body heat so your mom will warm up, but if she warms up too fast, it will send her body into shock," he responded.

  "Oh."

  Her daughter loved to learn, always asking questions, never taking that answer at face value, and she wasn't surprised when the line of questions continued. What did surprise her was the patience she heard in the man's voice as he answered each one.

  Before long, the shivering started, and her whole body started to shake, causing her daughter to gasp and come closer.

  The man seemed to anticipate the next question. "She's fine, honey. Her body is warming up, and when that happens, it's natural for the shakes to start. Your mom will be just fine."

  Just then, the hole lit up with a small blaze of fire, bringing light to the darkness. Her eyes opened as the shaking and cold subsided, and she saw the man's face for the first time as his brown eyes met hers.

  "And there she is!"

  She saw her daughter peek around him, smiling big at her mom. "You're going to be okay!" she exclaimed.

  Nina smiled and opened her mouth to reassure her daughter, but just then, a noise erupted outside, and they all froze.

  The man started to crawl out, but Nina quickly grabbed his arm, stopping him.

  She shook her head wildly and made the world spin again but forced the words out past her trembling lips.

  "N-o… K-killers… Guns…

  The man's brown eyes narrowed, and he patted her hand reassuringly.

  "It's okay. I'll be careful." He looked over at Em. "Stay here with your mom."

  With that, he disappeared out of the hole and back into the night, his heavy footsteps
silent.

  Chapter 4

  Rob crawled out of the cave and stood up slowly, going still as he strained to hear.

  The woman's words had confirmed Joan's fears that something had happened, that something was wrong, but even their guesses had been way off. He stood still and waited, his eyes narrowed, scanning the trees and any movement.

  He heard cursing coming from his right and hunched down, spreading his legs for balance.

  "Nina!"

  He heard her name shouted, the sound echoing off the rocks of the cavern, but the fact the man knew her name didn't mean shit. It just meant the bastards had found her.

  He remembered the fear and terror in her eyes when she had clutched his arm to warn him, and the fact that any lowlife had put that look in those beautiful eyes of hers, not to mention the fear he had glimpsed in her daughter's eyes, spoke volumes of the danger that followed them.

  He drew his pistol from his back pocket and clicked the safety off. He never left the resort without it, but normally the worst thing he used it on were wild animals.

  He had never had to shoot a human before, but to protect the woman and child behind him, he would and prepared himself for that as he stared in the general direction of the sounds of snapping branches and leaves that drifted toward him.

  "Nina, Emily, it's Jacob!"

  Rob's eyes narrowed further. If it had been anyone determined to harm the two behind him, he doubted the man would have identified himself.

  He kept the safety clicked off but lowered the gun slightly.

  "Show yourself!" he yelled, taking aim at the moving shadow to his right. "You have a thirty-eight aimed right at you!"

  The shadow froze between two trees, dead center in his line of sight.

  "My name’s Jacob Tanner! I'm a detective with the city of New York!"

  "Come forward slowly, and you better have your fucking identification on you!"

  The shadow of the man slowly moved, coming closer, and Rob's gun was still trained on him, not giving an inch.

  He saw the other man's hand move toward his pocket.

  "Stop!" he barked, and the man froze again.

  "Fuck, man! I'm trying to get my wallet, damn it!"

  They were at a stalemate. Rob wasn't taking any chances. Just then, they both heard a small voice coming from the hole.

  "Jacob?"

  Rob jerked, surprised, and lowered the gun to the halfway mark, still using the caution he was born with.

  "Emily, you know this man?" he called over his shoulder, his eyes still trained on the man before him.

  They heard a squeal, and the little girl flew past Rob before he could stop her, launching herself in the man's arms.

  "Jacob!"

  Rob lowered his gun completely as the man caught Emily in his arms.

  "Hey, sweetie pie. How's my favorite girl?"

  "Mommy is sick," she said sadly as Jacob put her back down on her feet.

  The man jerked and straightened, looking over toward Rob, his body still cast in shadows.

  "Sick? Is everything okay with Nina?" he demanded. "I saw the wreck and…" He caught a glimpse of the gun Rob still held and growled in irritation. "And put the fu— I mean gun away, dam— I mean darn it."

  Rob clicked on the safety of the gun and shoved it into his pocket as Jacob came closer, Emily's small hand in his own.

  "And who the hell are you?" Jacob demanded.

  "I'm the owner of the resort and a park ranger for the mountain," Rob growled back, locking eyes with Jacob in a silent battle of fucks to give.

  “Mommy’s inside the cave,” Emily said, breaking the silence and tension between the two men.

  Rob wasn’t done with his questions yet. “How did you get here?” he asked, still blocking the entrance of the cave and access to the woman who still hadn’t said anything.

  “My car is parked about five miles back. I saw the wreck from the road and hiked on foot,” he responded as if he was unwilling to relay more information than was needed.

  Too fucking bad, Rob thought. He didn’t trust anyone, not with the little he knew that was going on. He still didn’t fully trust the man in front of him, but with Emily vouching for him and the lack of fear she displayed, there wasn’t much Rob could do about it.

  Rob didn’t want to, but he moved to the side so Jacob could squeeze through the small opening, followed by Emily. There wasn’t enough room for all of them. Before Jacob had showed up, he had made Nina comfortable and warm, so he sighed and removed his pistol from his back pocket as he sat down on the cold ground and leaned against the wall outside to keep watch, resigned to sitting outside.

  He was going on forty-eight hours of no sleep and didn’t anticipate any in the near future.

  He heard soft voices behind him and thought about what he had stumbled on. Who was after them? And why? Nina had said “killers” earlier. Had someone killed someone and she knew about it? That seemed the most logical explanation, but if that was the case…

  There were more questions than answers, and he hated puzzles.

  Very few answers, he amended silently, leaning his head back to stare up at the fading stars. It was going on four in the morning, and the sky was starting to brighten with swirls of color that looked right out of a painting. The dawn was one of the reasons Rob loved the mountains so much.

  Yeah, the weather wasn’t always the best and often temperamental, but he enjoyed the peace and quiet of nature, of feeling like he was on top of the world and isolated from the crazy atmosphere and society below.

  Speaking of demanding guests, he thought of the unexpected guests filling his resort at the moment and sighed, not seeing that peace and quiet aspect of the mountain in his future yet, not to mention Joan, who probably hadn’t managed to sleep at all, was no doubt up and pacing the lounge area on the first floor while she waited for their return.

  He felt his eyelids grow heavy and went ahead and let them fall as he shifted, his butt going numb. The soft voices behind him had quieted, and everything else faded as sleep claimed him.

  Dawn fell across the forest when Nina emerged from the hole, and she squinted at the brightness compared to the dark behind her. She saw Jacob not far from the entrance, talking with Emily, his dark head bent as he listened to her ramble on as only a seven-year-old could.

  Smiling at the sight, she felt that familiar tug, that same fight between head and heart.

  She had been honest with her father. She viewed him as a good friend but nothing more. He was a friend to her and an uncle figure for her daughter. That was all there was going to be between them, and she just wished he would come to terms with that instead of hinting at more.

  She felt something brush up against her arm and jerked, startled as she whirled around.

  Rob pulled back and threw up his hands. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you,” he said quietly.

  Nina shook her head. “It’s fine. I’m not normally so jumpy. It’s just after everything that’s happened…” Her voice trailed off as she got her first good look at him, and her heart caught. He was beyond handsome, which threw her for a loop. His brown eyes glowed with life, and small yellow sparks circled the irises of the black orbs. His lean face consisted of a good tan, signaling a lot of time spent in the sun and an active life.

  His tall frame looked muscular and lean, confined in faded blue jeans and a black sweater that defined the thickness of his arms. His rumpled black hair looked as if he either ran his hands through it repeatedly or a wild animal had grabbed it and shook it, which was likely in the woods, but it didn’t distract from his looks.

  “Like what you see?” he asked softly, staring down at her just as intently, his brown eyes scanning her face and body.

  Shaking her head mentally, she took a step back. “N-no, I m-mean y-yes…” she stuttered, caught ogling. She felt a blush stain her cheeks, and he chuckled, winking at her.

  “It’s fine. I like what I see too.”

  Shivering at his rough wh
isper and the meaning behind the words, Nina caught Jacob’s quick look out of the corner of her eyes, a look that spoke of his disapproval. She could almost see jealousy in his eyes, but that couldn’t be right, not after her repeated attempts at keeping their relationship completely platonic and friendly.

  “I think someone is jealous of nothing,” Rob remarked calmly, also catching Jacob’s swift look.

  Jacob saw them both looking in his direction and quickly looked away, back down at Emily and her endless ramble of excitement.

  Nina shook her head, not sure why she was explaining to a total stranger and something that was none of his business, but she couldn’t help the words that flew from her mouth. “We’re just friends.”

  Rob raised an eyebrow and motioned toward Jacob. “Does he know that?”

  Before she could answer that, Emily came running up, her cheeks pink from the cold breeze of the mountain air. Nina was thankful to see the life back in her eyes after the past few days. For children, it was easier to recover from trauma than adults, easier to bounce back. Emily was smart enough to realize what had happened and what she had seen, and yet Nina still saw the innocence within the little girl’s eyes, and that look, that knowledge, released the fear she had held within her, and a weight seemed to fall from her shoulders. Her little girl was going to be okay. It might take them both a little bit, but they would eventually be okay and move on.

  Oh, Daddy. I’m sorry. I miss you so much and wish you were here.

  “Is everything okay?” Rob asked quietly just as Jacob walked up to her.

  “Of course it’s not okay!” he snapped. “Her father was just murdered.”

  Both Nina and Emily jumped at the harsh tone coming from Jacob, a tone that was uncharacteristic of their friend, and Nina turned to glare up at him, her daughter by her side.

  “Are you insane?” Nina demanded angrily.

  It was rare to piss off Nina, but when it happened, she was a firecracker, and pissed was mild compared to the fire that was shooting out of her eyes. “He didn’t know that to begin with, and what the hell is up with the attitude, Jacob? And did Emily need to be reminded of what she saw two days ago? No, she didn’t!”