by Dale Mayer
“We weren’t being hunted at any other time,” Hannah said. “And I’m too old for this shit.” She glanced at Anders. “But it does my old heart good to be carried around by a big strong young man.”
Anders nodded, tilted his head in her direction and said with a smile, “My pleasure.”
She got up, found her own sleeping bag and grabbed a top bunk. “If anybody’s prepping food, let me know. Otherwise I’m going to lie down. It’s too damn chilly back here.” She was tucked into her sleeping bag and quiet within minutes.
Keeping her voice low, Angelica asked, “Do you see any reason we can’t get out of here tomorrow?”
He shook his head. “No. If the weather is decent, we might bring the helicopter back up. I know the cost is prohibitive, but if it gets us out of here faster …”
Steve spoke up quietly, “I’d be more than happy to pitch in for a helicopter to get out of here. I know I’ll make it, but it’ll be painful to walk tomorrow. My feet are killing me.”
At his words, Dezi stepped forward, picked up one of Steve’s feet and studied it in the light. “Can you feel all your toes?” He proceeded to pinch every one of them.
He pinched hard enough that Steve yelped every time. “Stop, stop, stop. My feet are fine. I don’t have frostbite.”
They all frowned at him.
He held up both hands. “Honest, I’ve lived in this kind of environment and done many trips. It isn’t frostbite. I’m just tired. The pace we set was grueling.”
Dezi and Anders looked at each other and shrugged.
“Okay. For you iron men, maybe it was just an easy stroll in the park on a sunny spring day. But not for those of us who don’t work out and pretend to be some crazy-ass men,” Steve protested.
Angelica reached over, patted his arm. “It’s all good. We’ll be home tomorrow.”
He groaned and sagged back but left his feet close to the fire. “I can’t wait,” he said.
Just then came a rustling outside the cabin. Instantly Dezi and Anders split, hiding on either side of the door.
She stared at them, looked around the cabin and said, “We have no place to hide.”
Anders lifted a finger to his lips, and, with a disgruntled look in his direction, she fell silent. She huddled in her corner, hugging the cup of tea to her lips.
Finally the noise disappeared again.
Steve looked at all of them. “Are we thinking that was the bad guys?”
“It could have been anything,” Dezi said. “Could have been an animal, not just human.”
“It’s obvious we’re here,” Angelica said. “Smoke is coming out of the hut, for heaven’s sake. Not to mention our tracks led directly here.”
“Good thing we weren’t trying to hide then, isn’t it?” Anders asked in a mild voice.
She glared at him. “So what are we all on guard about?”
“If you would stay away from the windows, we wouldn’t have to worry about you getting shot,” he said. “If somebody does burst in with a weapon, there’s not a whole lot we do about any of it but defend ourselves.”
She just glared at him.
He smiled. “But, if I don’t save you, I don’t have a chance to convince you all over again that we belong together,” he announced. Dezi looked at Anders in surprise, but he ignored his buddy. “You can fool yourself as long as you want to, but you can’t ever fool me.”
She opened her mouth, then shook her head and fell silent.
He just grinned.
Dezi looked from one to the other. “What am I missing?”
“A wild weekend about a year ago,” Anders said.
“A weekend where nothing happened,” she bit out.
“Only because you had a fiancé at the time,” he said. “But there’s no fiancé this time.”
“It’s not going to happen,” she snapped. She got up, put her empty cup on the counter and grabbed her own sleeping bag. “I’m going to sleep.” She glared at him. “Alone.”
“Yeah, as you should,” he said. “At least until we get down the mountain, and we have time to be together. Because, right now, I’m heading out on watch.”
A hard rap sounded on the door. He nodded, walked over, opened the door and let in Reyes.
Reyes nodded and said, “All clear.”
Anders was already pulling on his boots and a coat. “Good. I’ll see you in four.”
As he was about to leave, Dezi called out, “We’re doing just two hours for our watches, in case the temperature drops.”
Anders nodded. “See you in two hours then.”
Chapter 5
Angelica slept fitfully. She heard the men when Anders came in and Dezi went out on watch, and then again as the men switched two hours later and in another two hours once again. She caught some sleep in between, but her night was filled with dreams of worry over Nate, anger over Carlo’s lifestyle, topped off by complete and utter chaos every time she thought about Anders being back in her life.
A year ago that man had blown into her world, completely shaken her to her foundation, and, as he blew out almost as fast, she’d been left in a massive state of confusion. She’d very quickly realized that she had no business being engaged if that was how she felt, but she worried she wasn’t being fair to her fiancé either. She’d let things drag on for another month, almost two, as she tried to sort out what had happened with Anders and why.
Then she’d caught her fiancé sleeping with one of the hotel staff, and, after they’d come down from that initial explosion, he’d been very blunt, saying he’d slept with over nine women in the last year.
She wondered then if Anders had some male-to-male radar to see a cheater in his midst. Because it had been instantaneous. And she hadn’t understood, hadn’t seen it for what it was. But, once she had the wool pulled from her eyes, she’d certainly seen Mark’s past behavior in a new light. And it definitely explained a lot of things. But it didn’t make her any happier. They were both at fault, and there was no point hiding her own emotional awareness after that.
But Anders had also left at her insistence, leaving her with a cheating fiancé and a confused heart. Had Anders ever planned to come back?
Had he left her any contact information? She didn’t think so. She’d been pretty stunned at the time. Maybe he thought she’d find a way to contact him. She hadn’t even tried. If the truth were told, she’d found him so overwhelming and such a shock to her senses that she’d backed off and slammed the relationship door shut again. And yet, here he was; the same larger-than-life presence as before. And the same powerful attraction as before.
At least it seemed to be. She wasn’t sure she trusted her own feelings. How could she? She’d been with her ex-fiancé for a year. And yet, Anders had only been in her presence for a few hours this time, and she was already responding to him. People like that were dangerous. She was a good person. She thought she’d been truly in love with her fiancé; so she had no business getting sucked into whatever magnetism this man had and getting thrown off course like that. The fact was, her love for her fiancé was for a man who really didn’t exist, and that didn’t help.
Anders was still dangerous. Her heart leapt when he was close, and that had kept her smiling all the way through that horrible hike down the mountain, which didn’t change the facts. She should be worried, and yet, she was acting like this nightmare trip was no big deal. And that was all because Anders was here. And she wasn’t sure she liked that.
He made her become someone else. Someone she didn’t recognize. As if another part of her personality shook loose of the constraints of a lifetime to be someone else. It was uncomfortable, and it was disconcerting. She wasn’t sure how to handle it, and neither was she sure she wanted to bother trying. She liked having her life locked down. It was steady. It was stable. It was comforting. She knew what would happen on a day-to-day basis.
But with Anders there would never be that level of stability; at least she didn’t think so. But a part of her q
uestioned that. “Unless he truly loved you and you loved him,” she muttered under her breath. Anders was the kind of man, if he made a commitment, he’d be there. And he’d respected her for not going to his hotel room because she was engaged.
She knew he would be the same if he was in a committed relationship. No way would he break that promise for a cheap weekend. And yet, he hadn’t tried to contact her afterward. … Maybe that was what really bothered her. If his feelings had been as he had said they were, why hadn’t he reached out to her later?
She mulled that over. As she lay in bed, the storm still raged outside, meaning the next leg of the journey would be dangerous again. They’d have to wait for the storm to calm down. The next part of the trip was the least physical but also one of the most dangerous stretches. They had to descend icy cliffs and cross a slippery crest—although there were several helicopter pick-up places, which they’d used for emergencies many times. At this point she just wanted to get back, safe and sound, and to find out what Nate’s condition was. The sooner she got down the mountain, the better. And yet, she couldn’t force herself out of bed.
The rest of the cabin was silent. She hoped they were all sleeping well. Today’s descent would be physically hard. The skies were usually gray with snow threatening in one way or another. But, over the winter months, a blizzard always seemed to be on the horizon. She had had some days up here where the blue sky shone on seemingly forever. And then she had felt punished because a blizzard would move in for weeks, and it would be all she could do to survive being locked up until it passed.
She liked to see the blue sky intermittently throughout the day. It meant normal weather was coming and going, but nothing big and ugly was on the immediate horizon.
Steps rustled in the main part of the hut. She rolled over to see Dezi getting his boots and outerwear gear back on. He was stepping out for guard duty again. She wondered at what point that stopped and then realized these men probably never stopped. He left, and moments later Anders came back in. He shifted out of his heavy gear and stood at the fire, rubbing his hands, trying to get warm.
It was one of the coldest hours of the night right now. The sun wasn’t up, the moon was dropping, so four a.m. to six a.m., when the temperatures could really dip. She worried about him, even though she knew he was used to it, was strong and would have no trouble with it. It bothered her to see him stomp his feet lightly, warming up his legs.
As if he knew she was thinking about him, he raised his head and stared directly at her. She closed her eyes but couldn’t help opening them again to find him still staring at her. She shifted upward and asked, “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “I’m fine.” He blew out a gust of breath, and she could see the opaqueness of it.
“Is the storm still blowing?”
“It’s easing back now,” he said. “It’ll be a couple hours before it clears up.”
“If it clears up.”
He gave a curt nod. “True.” He touched the side of the pot on the stove. He pulled his hand back as he walked over to the counter, grabbed his mug from before and filled it with hot water. She wasn’t sure a teabag was left to put in his cup. But coffee would be good.
“I have some instant coffee if you want.”
He glanced at her. “I actually have real coffee.”
“If you want to put on a pot, feel free,” she said.
He frowned, considered it and then shook his head. “Everybody is still asleep. I’ll grab an hour while the storm rages. We’ll make coffee when I get up.”
He stood there for a moment longer, sipping the straight hot water, which she knew was to warm up his insides. She didn’t quite know what to say, so she lay back down, tucked into her bed, wishing she could fall asleep.
Finally he finished his cup, threw more wood on the fire, turned down the damper, strode to the bunks and lay down on one of the empty ones and went still. The three men had been sharing two bunks the whole time. Whoever went out on watch took the last man’s place; the one coming in took his bunk. She wanted the ability to sleep like that. Anders was in full view in front of her. When he finally relaxed, she could see his shoulders slumping as sleep overtook him. She closed her eyes and nestled deeper. But sleep wasn’t coming for her.
Finally she couldn’t stand it. It was quarter to seven by her watch. She slipped from bed, headed to the stove, added more firewood and stared out the window. The weather was clearing, and, with any luck, by the time everybody was up and moving, they could be on their way.
He murmured from the bunk beside her. “Here.”
She turned to see him holding up a big bag of coffee. She smiled, grabbed it and a pot from the nearby shelf, filled it with water from the big kettle and added coffee grounds, putting a lid on it. She stirred up the fire to make it come to a boil faster. Cowboy coffee they used to call it, but, in this case, it was also campfire coffee.
By the time it boiled away happily, the beautiful smell of fresh coffee filled the hut. She sniffed the air appreciatively. This trip they’d brought instant coffee, as it didn’t need fully boiling water to make it. But she would really enjoy this cup.
When the water was boiling, she pulled it off the heat slightly, added a pinch of salt to help the coffee grounds sink to the bottom and scooped up the liquid with a ladle, putting it in a mug for him and a mug for herself. A changing of guard would happen soon too. Even as she turned around, Reyes sat at the table.
“If that’s coffee, any chance I could get a cup to take out?”
She nodded and filled him the thickest china mug here. She didn’t know if he had a travel mug or something else with him, but this would do for the moment. She heard the stomping outside as Reyes suited up. The two men spoke at the doorway; then she handed Reyes the mug of coffee, and he headed out.
Dezi lifted his nose and said, “Oh, that’s a wonderful smell to come in to.”
She smiled and scooped him up a mug too. She would put more on soon, but that was okay.
Dezi stepped back outside, scooped up a bucketful of fresh snow, and she refilled the big kettle. It was the easiest way, bringing in the snow, always having hot water available.
Slowly everybody else in the cabin woke up, sitting, yawning, the smell of coffee brightening everybody’s mood. Angelica made a second large pot, emptying out the first she had made. This time she added a bit more coffee to make it a tad stronger. Before long, everybody was up and dressed, rolling up their bedrolls and packing up.
When she looked outside again, she smiled. “We should be able to get home with no problem today.”
“Damn good thing,” Steve said. “First thing is a shower. It was going to be a hot cup of coffee, but you’ve taken care of that quite nicely. Thank you very much.” He held up his cup in a salute. “Nice to know we won’t run out any time soon.”
“Thank Anders,” she said. “He’s the one who brought the high-class coffee.”
“Why is it we did the instant-coffee thing again?” Hannah asked. She was still tucked into her bunk but had a cup of coffee right in front of her.
Angelica smiled. “Because it’s fast and easy. We do have the regular stuff with us too.” The older woman knew how to make the most of every moment. And that was something Angelica could learn to do better. “Since we’ll get down the mountain today, we also need to make sure we’ve eaten as well as we can. It’ll still be a bit of a trek.”
“We’ve got food too,” Anders said. “At least something.” He flipped out of his bunk, rolled up the sleeping bag and laid it on the bunk. He grabbed his pack and spread out chunks of cheese and bread.
Immediately people sat up and commented. “Oh, you mean, like, real food.”
Very quickly everybody pulled out their food and shared, as they sat down to have a decent meal.
Angelica glanced at Anders. “We need to make sure there’s food for Reyes.”
Anders nodded. “Reyes hasn’t opened his pack yet. I know he has food also.”
Feeling better, they all tucked in until the food was pretty well gone. They’d done this many times before, so they were efficient as they cleaned up from their latest meal, packed up the garbage, loaded and divided everything up between themselves, then dressed in their warm outer clothes.
Angelica turned to Anders. “Reyes hasn’t come back yet.”
He nodded. “But he’s not far away.”
“He doesn’t get any breakfast then.”
Just then Reyes walked in, took one look around and said, “I hope you left me some.” Then he held up his hand. “Just kidding. I have rations of my own.” He grabbed a hot cup of coffee still in the pot, the last thing she’d planned to clean up, and sat down, saying, “Is everybody ready to go?”
She nodded. “Within the next few minutes anyway.”
He plowed through the food at an amazing rate. She stared in astonishment. He just grinned at her. “You learn very quickly to eat when there’s food, to work when there’s work, to sleep when you got a few minutes and to move when you need to move.”
She nodded. “And I can see you became a pro at that.” She divvied up the last of the coffee between the few people who still wanted some, proceeded to wash up the pots and the rest of the mugs. With everything back shipshape—the same way it was when they had first arrived—she went to her bunk.
Everybody checked to make sure nothing was left behind, and they were quickly dressed in boots, coats, gloves, and hats, with their packs on.
She stepped outside, lifted her face to the blue sky and smiled. “This is how it should be every day up here.”
“But it isn’t,” Anders said from behind her. “Mother Nature will always rule the weather.”
While Angelica wasn’t aware, he quickly wrapped a rope around her waist and tied her to himself. She glared at him. “Surely in this weather we don’t need to be roped together.”