Nora Roberts Land

by Ava Miles

  “You okay?”

  She panted for a moment before reaching for the next hold. “If that was Kenny, his ex-military training sucks.”

  “Remember, they don’t want to actually hit us.”

  No, they just want us to slip and fall. “So he could accidentally shoot us?”

  “Try not to think about it.”

  The idea put a block of ice in her stomach. She glanced at her watch. Six minutes. Holding her panic at bay was the hardest thing she’d ever done, but she lifted her hand for the next edge and kept climbing. How much farther? When she looked down, she saw blood on Tanner’s bare hands. She forced herself to look past him, all the way to the ground. Calculated the distance.

  Her fingers burned, red and raw, and her joints felt like splintered wood within her cracked skin. Her muscles wept as she continued to climb. The next shot didn’t affect her at all—her concentration was absolute.

  “We’re close.” So close.

  The sound of shoes scattering against rock jolted her concentration. She looked down and gasped when she saw Tanner’s leg dangling. He managed to find a hold, and then leaned his forehead against the wall.

  “You okay?”

  “Peachy. How much longer till it blows?”

  She glanced at her watch. The seconds were ticking down in time with her pounding heart. “Not much. Keep climbing.”

  Another shot near her head pinged a pebble into her chest. She grabbed for the next edge.

  Come on, dammit.

  A rumbling kaboom made her freeze. The sound spread across the landscape, echoing across the rock. The reverberation shook the wall, and she had to fight for purchase.

  Don’t look at what’s coming. Don’t look.

  “Come on!” She reached frantically for the next hold. When she pushed herself up with her feet and reached again, she finally saw the opening. It was only a few feet away.

  “We’re here!” The rumble of snow thundering down the mountain echoed in her ears. She forced herself to keep climbing, her muscles burning with effort. When she reached the small cave, she dragged herself up and in, sweat burning her eyes. She crab-crawled on her elbows until she could turn around.

  “Oh, God,” she chanted, her brain screaming at the crashing and thundering outside. “Tanner!” She leaned over the cave’s mouth, balancing her weight.

  The roar of snow thundering down Killer Pass pounded in her eardrums. The blinding mushroom spread fast, blotting out the sun. Trees turned cartwheels amidst rock and debris in the sea of white.

  “Meredith! Get inside!” He yelled at her from below as a wall of snow fell on him.

  She plastered herself to the floor of the cave and leaned out. He was still a few feet away, dangling by one hand.

  “Hold on!” She wiggled out farther and curled against the rock face, snow misting her face.

  “Get back, dammit!” His hand found the rock and slipped. Searching, his fingers clenched around the jagged edge, and he pulled himself up, the muscles in his neck cording. He groaned as his hand gripped the mouth of the hole. She reached for his fleece and pulled until her shoulder sockets screamed.

  A shot hit the wall near Tanner. Pop. Then another. Pop. He lifted his chest up and over, balancing on the edge with his hips. Then a third shot ripped through his shoulder with a thud, the impact knocking him forward. He plowed into her, crying out.

  “Tanner!” she screamed, her eyes widening at the sight of the gaping hole in his jacket.

  She dragged him into the cave by inches. His weight had her muscles straining like rubber bands, but she kept at it, even as another bullet plowed past her. She leaned back on her haunches and tugged with all her might, moving him out of range of Kenny and Barlow’s shots.

  The pounding from the avalanche continued. Trees broke like sticks, and chunks of snow and ice catapulted across the basin. The snow level rose in front of them, and Meredith experienced a moment of pure terror when it looked like they’d be sealed in. God, they needed air.

  She pulled Tanner’s dripping head onto her lap and pressed her hands on his wound to staunch the bleeding.

  He opened his eyes, which were clenched in pain. “I’m sorry,” he mouthed over deafening noise. “I love you,” she read on his lips.

  She feathered back his hair, her heart settling into place even though the world outside was coming to an end. “I love you too,” she mouthed back.

  Chapter 54

  Tanner came to on his stomach, a throbbing pain in his shoulder. The utter silence after the explosion made his head swim. Wet, penetrating cold flooded his system. He groaned.

  “Oh, thank God!” Meredith cried. “You’re awake, you’re awake, you’re awake.”

  Her voice bordered on hysterical. When he tried to roll over, Meredith’s gentle hands helped turn him. She pressed a bloody cloth to his shoulder.

  “You passed out. I was trying to stop the bleeding.” She sniffed and wiped his wet face. “Thank God, you’re awake. I didn’t know what to do when you passed out.”

  Since her voice was still shaking, he peeled his eyes open. His whole body felt like it had gone through a meat grinder.

  He realized she’d put her scarf under his head. “Where’s your coat?” She was shaking, her teeth chattering.

  “I hung it out of the hole with a stick. I know Grandpa will figure everything out. He has to.”

  When he heard her sniff again, he put his hand on her thigh, eager to channel comforting energy. “He’ll come. He threatened to come after me if I hurt you. Trust me. No one messes with Arthur Hale’s granddaughter.”

  The effort to converse tapped him out, but he knew she needed the reassurance. Hell, he needed it too. He was bleeding out in a cave. “I take it we can’t just walk out of here onto a bed of snow?” he said.

  She swiped a hand under her runny nose. “Not unless you like walking through demolition land. The snow curved against the wall like a crescent. The drop’s still too steep. Plus, you can’t move. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

  “It’s not bad,” he lied. “I want you to go for help.”

  “No! I’m not leaving you.”

  “Meredith—”

  “I’m not!” A tear slid down her ruddy cheek. “Please don’t ask me to do that.”

  Pain radiated down his shoulders to his fingers. His breath hissed out. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, realizing that she still didn’t know why he’d hurt her. His throat tightened. “It’s not what you think.”

  Those bright green eyes grew wetter, putting his heart and his shoulder in a dead heat in the race for most painful. Her palm touched his cheek, and she gently caressed his stubble. “Don’t waste your energy. Tell me when we get out of here.”

  She kissed his forehead and rested her face against his for a moment. He squeezed his eyes shut. God, he’d missed her.

  A motor puttered in the distance. He strained to hear. “Help?”

  She stopped the pressure, laid him down carefully, and crawled over to the edge to look out.

  His wound pulsed and throbbed in vicious beats, blood flowing freely. He pressed his hand to it.

  “Oh, God.”

  He leaned up, his stomach sinking. “What?”

  “No.” She tunneled back to him on her knees. “It’s Barlow and Kenny. They’re coming back for us. They’ve got climbing equipment on the back of their snowmobiles.”

  Tanner cursed and tried to sit up. “Fuck, we’re sitting ducks in here.” He wove, seeing stars.

  “Lie down! You’ve lost too much blood.”

  He grabbed her arm. “No, I won’t lose you. Get out of here. Now.”

  “No!”

  “Leave me. I’ll be dead anyway if no one comes.”

  Her eyes could start a fire. “Don’t say that!”

  “I can give you a chance. I’ll jump and go in the opposite direction.” Something. He would not let her die.

  Tanner felt for the wall and leaned against it. The pain in his shoulder made
it hard to concentrate. “Let’s go, dammit!”

  “No!” She angled herself between him and the opening. “I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself for me. We stay together. We’re a team. Remember?” A sob rushed out, and she pressed her hand to her mouth to contain it.

  He broke. He lifted his good hand to her. “Come here.”

  She crawled forward to join him. He touched her cheek, looking deep into those scared green eyes. “Let me do this,” he uttered softly, shutting out the pain.

  Her face crumpled, and she swayed into him. He curled his arm around her, drawing her close.

  “It’s the only way,” he whispered. He nudged her face up and fitted their cold lips together.

  Love overwhelmed him.

  “I want to do it.”

  When he pressed his forehead to hers, her breath shuddered out over his lips, and her small frame shook. He wanted so badly to protect her.

  She pushed back and crawled to the cave’s mouth. “I don’t want to lose you either.” When she turned, he saw a new determination in her out-thrust chin.

  “Meredith!” he cried, terror’s deep claws piercing his insides.

  She leaned out of the opening, preparing to jump, and he dragged himself after her, moving as fast as he could. There was no way she was going out alone. Halfway there, he picked up another sound—one he knew all too well from being embedded with the military.

  “Wait! It’s a chopper.”

  A shot pierced the wall near Meredith’s head, and a rock pinged down, skidding across the floor.

  “Come back here! We’ll wait them out. Help’s on the way.”

  She crawled back to him and cupped his face in her hands. “All right. We’ll both wait. Together.”

  He leaned his head against the cold rock and tucked her close. He took her bleeding, freezing hand in his nearly numb one, careful of the blisters from the climb. God, now more than ever, he needed this connection with her.

  “No martyrs.”

  “No martyrs,” she agreed.

  They had too much to live for.

  Chapter 55

  Dare’s Rescue Patrol sure earned their money today,” Meredith said, trying to joke so that she wouldn’t cry. Her eyes tracked to the back of the hospital, where Tanner was being operated on. She took a warming sip of coffee.

  “He’s going to be all right, Mere.” Jill gently took her sister’s bandaged hand. “I’m so sorry we fought. I would never have forgiven myself if anything had happened to you.”

  Meredith set the coffee aside and hugged her sister. “Me neither. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you the truth. The whole truth.”

  “We’ll deal. But I’ll kick your ass if you ever do it again—or scare me like this.”

  They rocked each other. Jill hadn’t left Meredith’s side since she’d arrived at the hospital. Meredith was relieved. She had her sister back.

  Her grandpa walked back into the waiting room, his cane tapping the antiseptically clean beige floor. “That was Anderson. State police have Barlow and Kenny in custody. They picked them up at a gas station off the interstate. Barlow spilled everything in return for a plea bargain. He said Kenny ran Ray off the road. Brought the drugs in through a contact at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Apparently Kenny knows an Afghani chemist who can lace marijuana with opium, making it untraceable. When hasn’t the drug trade been inventive? He told them where to find Kenny’s car. They’re taking the two of them to Denver until a full investigation is completed.”

  “Good. Tell Anderson they can interview me whenever they want.”

  Her gramps nodded.

  “I hope they become someone’s prison bitches after what they did to Jemma and Ray,” Jill ground out.

  Brian’s jaw ticked. “I hope they burn in hell.” He hadn’t left Jill’s side since leaving her grandfather’s office.

  Meredith took a long drink of coffee. She and Tanner could have been killed. She wasn’t sure she would ever come to grips with that. Her shivering intensified. “I’ll need to drink gallons of this stuff to get warm again.”

  “Here.” Brian peeled off his fleece, handing it to her.

  Meredith tugged it on gratefully. Her grandpa took his spot on the flower-print couch, and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

  “Your mom and dad are driving up as we speak. It just about gave your dad another heart attack, hearing what happened.” He popped in a red hot, crunching. “Peggy and Keith are already on their way. That woman can take bad news. Didn’t seem to break a sweat.” He cleared his throat like he was fighting emotion. “She’s pissed Tanner didn’t call her before heading to Killer Pass.”

  He’d walked into a trap because of her. He’d told her he’d lied the other night about his motivations for working with Sommerville. She believed him. No one could fake emotion like that. He would tell her the truth when he was out of danger. Please God, let him be okay. There was no way he didn’t love her. He’d been willing to sacrifice his life to save hers.

  She fingered her grandpa’s wool jacket. “I don’t think we would have made it out alive if you hadn’t figured things out so quickly.” She’d never forget the sound of the snowmobiles coming back for them.

  “Mind like a steel trap.” He tapped his forehead.

  Jill pressed against her. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “Me too.”

  The doors swung open, and she lifted her head, eyes wide. The sight of the doctor’s bloody scrubs made her clench Jill’s hand.

  “He lost a lot of blood, but he’s going to be fine. He won’t be able to use his shoulder for a while, and he’ll need rehab, but there shouldn’t be any long-term effects.”

  Emotions welled up inside her like a geyser. She curled forward as the first sobs erupted.

  “You go ahead and cry, Mermaid.” Her grandpa stroked her back. “You’re entitled.”

  ***

  Tanner surfaced through the fog to a beeping noise and something that sounded like a pressure cooker. He cracked his eyes open, awash in numbness. His mouth was dry. Drugs, he realized. His hand was taped with an IV. The whiteness of the hospital gown wasn’t as pure as the sea of snow beneath him when they pulled him out of the cave on a medical lift, the rescue team working the ropes to make sure he didn’t hit the rock face. God, what a day.

  Someone shifted at his side. “Tanner?” Meredith rested her hands on the bed’s handrails.

  “Barely,” he whispered. “Need…water.”

  She shook her head. “I’ll get a nurse.”

  The force of his fatigue made his eyes flutter. “My desk. There are…files. David…Sommerville.”

  He didn’t ask about Barlow and Kenny. All that mattered was making things right.

  “I’ll find them,” he heard her say down a long tunnel before everything went dark.

  ***

  When Tanner woke again, Arthur was leaning over him.

  “You going to live?”

  His face itched, he needed a shave, and he still felt like shit, but the sleep had helped. “Looks like.”

  “That’s a good thing. Peg just took Keith to my house to get some sleep. Jill’s going to look after him so your sister can come back.”

  Tanner reached for the styrofoam cup next to his bed. Bliss didn’t describe what it felt like to coat his cottony mouth with water. “Been upgraded to liquids. Where’s Meredith?”

  Arthur’s tapped the handrails. “Your sister explained what happened with Sommerville, and Meredith found the file you told her about.”

  The machine monitoring Tanner’s pulse blipped as his heart rate increased. So she knew everything now. “I don’t remember that.”

  Arthur drew out a red hot. “You told her about it when you came to after surgery.”

  “Is she upset?” He struggled to sit up, wincing at the bruises. Would his kidneys ever function normally again?

  “She understands now.” He leaned back, crossing his ankles. “She’s not happy, but she
understands why you lied. She was married to that asshole, after all. She knows he’s ruthless.”

  He sank deeper into the pillows and looked toward the door. “Thank God. Where is she?”

  Arthur grinned. “She went to see that asshole about some blackmail.”

  Chapter 56

  Meredith knocked on the elaborately carved entrance to Richard’s new townhouse. If she had survived Killer Pass, she could certainly handle this.

  When her ex-husband opened the door, his surprise couldn’t have been more evident. Then he veiled it with a crooked smile.

  “Meredith, my dear,” he drawled like she was from the society set. “What a delightful surprise.”

  She stepped inside and let him take her coat. “You always say that when it’s not.”

  “I assume this isn’t a social call, then.” His eyes fired, but he extended his arm grandly. “How about we talk in the study?”

  Meredith ignored him and walked forward like she owned the place, praying it was down the single hallway like it would be in most houses. She turned and cocked a hip. “Are you coming?”

  Her impertinence wiped the fake, toothy smile off his face. She headed down the hall, smiling when she found the study. He followed her inside silently.

  He immediately took the massive chair behind his even larger desk. Hello, Napoleon, she heard Divorcée Woman intone.

  Nice to have you back, she responded.

  Nice to be back.

  His tastes had always run a little ornate. She’d put up with it, not wanting to upset the apple cart. When she didn’t kick herself for that, her sense of inner peace expanded.

  “What are you grinning at?” he hissed.

  “Just realizing I truly am in another place—and it’s a good one. You should be glad. I envisioned beaning you with a candlestick after what you did.”

  On the airplane trip across the country she’d decided against recounting his sins and raging at him. His back would only go up, and she wouldn’t get what she came for.

  “Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick,” he said in his best British imitation of a Clue character.

  His wicked sense of humor had been what first drew her to him. In addition to his good looks. Add in his dogged pursuit, and she’d fallen fast—too fast, she now realized. Well, all in the past now.