“I don’t want to talk about Castor!” A burst of fresh swearing from Gnat filled the air and her mind, drowning out her ability to think. The pain in his side must be growing worse. “I did everything Castor asked me to do. Everything! But he kept pushing for more and more, and using me and making me do things I didn’t want to do.”
An odd sadness for the men caught in whatever vicious game they were playing filled her chest. If Brick had been nothing more to Castor than a hired hand, it would definitely explain how ready they had been to turn on each other.
“Did he send you up here to look for a trunk?” she asked.
“What do you know about the trunk?” Gnat’s voice suddenly rose to a howl. He ran across the snow toward her, before she could react, raised the gun and pointed it right between her eyes. “Who told you about the trunk? Who?”
“Castor.” Her heart beat hard in her chest. What had she done? “He ransacked the Rhodeses’ family cottage looking for it.”
The profanity that left Gnat’s mouth was so vile it was almost painful. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Look,” Theresa said, “if you want to stop him, please just tell me who he is and what he’s done. We’ll go to the police. We’ll make sure he faces justice.”
“Don’t you get it? Castor is above the law. Police can’t stop him!”
Oh, if she had a nickel for every paranoid criminal who didn’t trust the police to help them.
“Nothing can stop Castor.” Gnat’s voice rose. “Nothing but that trunk. And I’m not going to risk me and mine by telling you who he is. You’ll run to the police. They’ll do nothing. He’ll figure out I blabbed his identity and get his revenge. Castor has a way of finding things out. But he doesn’t know where the trunk is. And I’m thinking maybe you do.”
“Me?” Why would he ever think that? “No! I have no idea where the trunk is!”
His lip curled. “Well, someone thinks you can help find it.”
What? “Who? Castor?”
“I’m done talking. Get in the car.” He gestured toward the vehicle with the barrel of his weapon. “We’re going to go find Castor and kill him. That’s the only way this will ever end and we’ll ever be free. Then, after he’s dead, you are going to help find the trunk. Then, after that, depending on how that goes, I might let you go free. But either way, I’m taking you with me.”
* * *
Alex stood with his feet braced on the side of the snow-covered hillside, the frozen lake spread out below him. The remains of the wrecked sports car hung suspended between a tree and rock above him. Spent bullets and shattered glass littered the snowy ground. His legs ached. He’d been carefully tiptoeing around this wreck for far too long. Theresa was sure to be bored and frustrated waiting for him. But the moment he’d seen the blood staining the snow around the crashed car he knew this was something he needed to handle alone.
There was a body in the driver’s seat of the car. The young man was suspended upside down from the force of the seat belt restraint. He was very thin, in his early twenties, and most definitely dead from the gunshot wound to his chest. Balancing carefully on the precarious rocks, Alex had carefully taken a photograph of the man’s face and the wreckage surrounding him. Then he gingerly reached into the dead man’s pocket and pulled out his wallet.
Blake Howler. Twenty-one. From Stoney Creek, Ontario.
Howler. The same name as one of Castor’s men. Alex prayed the death had been quick and merciful.
From what he could piece together, the vehicle had spun off the road, rolled down the hill and then been shot to pieces by some kind of semiautomatic handgun, killing the driver in the process. He could only guess why. Was Castor getting rid of another potential rival for the notorious treasure trunk? Had he been killed by somebody else? The side of the hill was such a mess of snow and scrub he couldn’t even begin to make a good guess about how many people had been in the car when it had crashed or where exactly they’d gone.
Alex stepped carefully from a rock to a tree stump and listened to the howl of the rising wind. “Hang on, just one more second, Theresa. I’m almost done.”
She didn’t answer. He frowned. It’d been way too long since he’d heard her voice. As thankful as he was that she hadn’t followed him down the hill, the thought of her waiting alone by the snowmobile wasn’t exactly a comforting one, either.
That moment when she’d almost tackled him with a hug from behind at the Pattersons’ cottage stirred up more, even less pleasant memories the more the thought about it. He winced. He’d abandoned her and gone off on his own to have adventures with other kids on the lake too many times when they were younger. He hadn’t excluded her out of malice. She just hadn’t been as fast a runner or as strong a swimmer, and had a tendency to point out when the things he was doing were reckless. Emmett and Kyle Rhodes, especially, were the kind of guys who’d hit him up on the spur of the moment for some wild and crazy adventure, and hadn’t been that thrilled when Alex had gotten a girlfriend. So he’d bail on her, sometimes on a moment’s notice. Sometimes she’d caught up to him, leaped on his back and hugged him long enough to make him stop and say goodbye. Sometimes she’d just let him go.
He just prayed she understood that telling her to stay back and stay out of his way this time was entirely professional and not the slightest bit personal. As was his desire to drop her off as soon as possible and find Zoe and Mandy solo.
Despite the awfully fast, off-kilter heartbeat she still seemed to cause deep in his chest cavity.
He looked up. “Theresa? I’m on my way up.”
Still no answer. The snow had started falling heavily again, coming down in bursts of scattered flakes. He leaped up two rocks, then grabbed hold of a sapling and started climbing, heading for a large tree growing almost diagonally out of the slope.
Snow slid under his feet. Wind beat against him. He took another step up and slid back three. He pulled his scarf over his face all the way up to his nose and wished he hadn’t left his snowmobile helmet behind. His blue-gray eyes rose to the ridge above. Where was she? For the first time a shiver of fear brushed his spine. She wouldn’t have wandered off, would she? Theresa had always been sensible and levelheaded. He’d never met anyone more grounded. Then why hadn’t he trusted her enough to let her climb down? True, the slope was dangerous. But surely she’d have been careful.
“Hey, you didn’t happen to pack a rope in that kit of yours, did you?” he called up. “Not to be overly dramatic, but the ground is pretty steep. I wouldn’t mind something to hold on to if you can find a tree to tie some rope around.” Plus the wind wasn’t helping any. “Hey, Theresa? You there?”
A scream for help rose on the air, stiffening his spine and filling his heart with dread.
Theresa was in danger. His hands scrambled in the snow.
“Theresa!” He shouted, his voice hoarse in the cold air. “Hold on! I’m coming!”
Deep and heavy snow dragged his footsteps backward. His legs ached. His heart pounded like a fist inside his rib cage. He tried to scramble around the car, but couldn’t catch a grip.
“Alex! Help!”
He grabbed the twisted bumper and hoisted himself up onto the car. The car groaned beneath him. A gunshot split the air. God, please help me reach her in time!
SIX
The unstable car shook beneath his feet. Carefully he made his way across the undercarriage of the overturned car, then braced his legs and reached up. The tree was just a few inches out of his grasp. The car groaned beneath his weight, threatening at any moment to hurtle down the hill, before plunging down into the frozen lake below, taking him with it. He bent his legs, knowing he’d only get one try. Then he leaped.
The car fell away from under him. His hands grasped the tree trunk above him and held on tightly. He could hear the crash of metal and glass
as the car slid down the hill, then the crack of ice as it smashed its way through. His arms tightened around the tree trunk. His legs swung in the empty air. Prayers for help and of thanksgiving mingled on his lips. Then, slowly and carefully, he hauled his body up around the tree, onto more even ground, and propelled his legs up the hill.
He reached the empty road. Theresa was nowhere to be seen. The whistle of wind filled his ears and the sound of tree branches beat above him like a chorus of wooden drumsticks.
He cupped his hands and shouted her name into the wind.
For a long, agonizing moment he heard no response. Then the sound of her screaming his name filled his ears, and he saw her pelting down the icy road toward him.
He ran for her.
A second gunshot blast echoed in the trees. Then a bearded figure appeared behind her, his face obscured by a hat and scarf. His fist caught Theresa on the side of the head. She pitched forward and landed hard on her hands and knees.
“Stay back!” The man yanked her head up as she knelt on the icy road in front of him. “Stay back or I’ll kill her. I’m not joking. I’ll do it!”
Alex’s feet skidded to a halt, not twenty paces away from where Theresa now knelt on the frozen earth. A deep breath filled her lungs and he watched her wince with the effort of gasping in a deep, cold breath.
“There are letters in Zoe’s car!” she shouted. Her voice rose as she pushed it through her lips. “A and Y. A and Y!”
The gunman yanked her head back. Her words froze on her lips. Alex’s heart froze in his throat. He didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Are we a team?” She looked up at him. Her hood fell back. “Remember? Are we a team?”
She wasn’t making any sense. Were they a team? If he said they were, there was the possibility that she would do something reckless to put her life in further danger.
He couldn’t let that happen. He took a deep breath and lifted his gaze to the man now holding a gun to the back of Theresa’s head.
“Who are you?” Alex called down the frozen road. “What do you want?”
“I’m Gnat.” The young man’s teeth were chattering. “I need the trunk.”
“We don’t have it,” Alex shouted back. He shrugged broadly, hoping the gesture would help get the message through to him. “I know a lot of people want it. But I don’t know where it is.”
Gnat paused.
“He’s telling the truth,” Theresa said. “We don’t know what it looks like or even what’s inside.”
The young man hesitated. He glanced from Theresa to Alex. “I’ve got to go find it!”
“Okay, we won’t stop you. Just lower your weapon and go.” Alex took a step forward. His hands rose. “Hey, take my snowmobile if you want.”
The gun shook in the young man’s hands. Theresa’s eyes closed and Alex could see her lips move in silent prayer. Fear was building in Alex’s chest, pressing painfully inside him with every heartbeat.
“Trust me! I don’t want the trunk. I just care about Theresa. I’m willing to settle this peacefully. But this is your last warning.” An edge moved through his voice, like the glimmer of a knife’s blade. “Drop the gun, raise your hands and let Theresa go!”
“Not until I settle things with Castor!” Gnat shouted. “She might be my only hope of finding it.” The gun clicked. A bullet blasted, tearing up the snow inches away from Theresa’s body. Snow and debris filled Alex’s eyes. “Look, I’m not playing around!”
Neither was he. Alex sprinted across the snow toward the gunman. His eyes locked on Theresa’s form, praying with each step that she was all right, and that she hadn’t been shot. The snow cleared. Theresa’s eyes met his, filled with determination and fire. Gnat cocked the gun. But before he could fire, Theresa reached up both hands over her shoulder and grabbed Gnat’s gun. What was she doing? “Theresa! Baby! Don’t!”
Gnat’s curses filled the air. Theresa yanked the gun hard over her shoulder, pulling Gnat forward with it, taking him off balance. Then she turned toward him. Rising up on one knee, she tried to twist the gun from his grasp. Gnat fell on top of her. They struggled for the gun.
Alex skidded to a stop. He couldn’t leap into the fight. Not without knowing where the gun was. There was too big a possibility that he could accidentally set it off, killing her. For an agonizing second, he watched them fight, battling the urge to leap in and tear them apart as it swelled inside him like a tidal wave. Then he saw the gun flash in Gnat’s hand. A bullet ricocheted into the trees. Gnat scrambled to his feet and dashed up the hill into the woods.
Theresa lay crumpled in the snow, her body curled up in a ball.
Oh, please. No. Alex landed by her side. His hand reached for her, his trembling fingers brushed against her shoulder. Please, she has to be okay. I can’t lose her again.
* * *
Pain filled Theresa’s skull. Her ears rang and spots filled her eyes as she lay there for a moment, pressed against the cold, frozen rocks of the unpaved cottage road. She was dizzy. She could still smell the blood from Gnat’s jacket and the smoke from his gun. When he’d first tried to force her into the car, she’d managed to level a good elbow shot to his injured side and run. But she’d lost her footing, which slowed her down just long enough to let him catch up to her again. And when she’d fought him for the gun, he’d managed to strike her so hard she nearly lost consciousness.
“Theresa! Baby! Talk to me. Please.”
She could hear Alex’s voice, calling her baby, pleading with her to answer. But it was like she was drifting on the edge of consciousness, caught between awake and asleep. Maybe she was imagining it. He hadn’t called her baby in so very long. Her eyes closed.
Lord, please don’t let me pass out.
There was so much Alex still didn’t know. He didn’t know about Zoe’s car just a few steps away up the hill and around the corner. He didn’t know that Gnat was like a cornered rat in a cage who didn’t know how to fight his way out. He didn’t seem to understand what she’d been trying to say about seeing the letters scratched in Zoe’s car and how it had reminded her of their old scavenger hunts.
He didn’t know just how very much she’d missed him or that she had never stopped caring for him.
Slowly she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, fighting the nausea threatening to pull her down. She ran her cold, wet hands over her face. Her eyes opened.
Alex was crouched on the road beside her. His face hovered inches away from hers.
His hand touched her shoulder. “Are you okay? Were you shot?”
“I’m okay.” She forced a smile. “Just dizzy. But I’ll be fine. Go after him. Zoe’s car’s in the woods up ahead on a utility road—”
His touch stiffened as tension filled his fingers. “What about Zoe and Mandy?”
“She wasn’t in the car,” Theresa said. “Neither was Mandy. The car’s empty. But I think she slashed the seat with her knife and scratched letters in the dashboard.”
Alex stood. For a moment his legs tensed, as if he was about to spring and run after Gnat. She heard him whisper a prayer under his breath. Then he stopped and knelt down on one knee beside her in the snow. Gently he took her hands. “You’re bleeding.”
Was she? She looked down. The palms of her gloves were singed from grabbing the still-smoking gun and there was blood streaking the sleeves of her coat.
“That’s not my blood. It’s Gnat’s. His side was bleeding. I think Castor shot him or stabbed him. He wouldn’t tell me for sure.” She bent down, grabbed a handful of snow and vigorously wiped it off. Apparently she’d misjudged both how injured he was and how strong. “He’s too scared of Castor to tell me who he is. He thinks even the police can’t stop Castor.”
“It’s not surprising that a criminal doesn’t trust the police,” Alex said.
True enough.
“I don’t know why he thought I could help him find the trunk,” she added. “He said someone told him I knew something about it. But he wouldn’t tell me who. I’m guessing it was Castor.”
Brick had thought she could help find it, too.
Once again she expected Alex to leap up and run. Instead, his hand brushed along the side of her face. “Are you sure you’re okay, though? How’s your head?”
“I’m a bit dizzy. I told you. But I’m fine,” she said. Not to mention she was frustrated she’d even let Gnat get a punch in. “Don’t worry about me. Go after him. Find out what he knows. He’s frightened and desperate. Not to mention hopped-up on painkillers. But he fired at me twice and missed each time. Which is why I knew I could fight for the gun, before he risked actually shooting one of us. I think he’d only kill if he was cornered and had no choice.”
Alex still didn’t move. His fingers lingered on her face. What was he doing? Sure, most people she knew would choose to stay with someone they knew instead of chasing a criminal through the trees. She, for one, would pick that every time. But not Alex. The Alex she’d fallen in love with couldn’t stay still for a moment and never missed an opportunity to run after anything dangerous and exciting.
Instead, here he was, still kneeling beside her, turning her hands over in his, as if he was making doubly sure that she really was as okay as she said she was. His fingertips ran over her arms so tenderly that even through layers of a sweatshirt and winter jacket she shivered as if he’d touched her bare skin.
“I’d thought he’d shot you.” Alex leaned his forehead against hers. Somehow feeling him there felt just as intimate as if he’d kissed her.
She swallowed hard. “Well, he didn’t.”
An engine roared. Gnat had gotten the car to start. They leaped to their feet, as Zoe’s blue car shot out of the woods and careened down the hill toward them. Gnat had obviously hit the accelerator hard and had no idea how to control the vehicle on the ice, and now it was sliding sideways down the road.
Rescue at Cedar Lake Page 7