Ice

by Linda Howard

  The cold, the darkness, the keening wind, the creepy ice … all of it surrounded her, and she realized how alone she was, how horribly alone, with no one to turn to. Darwin hadn’t been much, but at least he’d been there. Now he was dead, because that big man was a murdering bastard. He was dead, she was alone, and she was outnumbered. On the up side, the Blazer belonged to her now. It wasn’t as if Darwin would be needing it again.

  As she walked, Niki got more and more pissed. If it hadn’t been for that bitch Lorelei, Darwin might’ve won the fight, and instead of walking back to the house alone, she’d have Darwin beside her now. They’d get warm, do some meth to celebrate their victory, and maybe screw in Lorelei’s bed.

  Ice pelted her face, and she didn’t like it. It was too fucking cold out here, and everything had gone wrong. Everything! They should’ve just robbed the grocery store this afternoon and gotten the hell out of town. Nothing had gone right from the minute she’d seen Miss Lorelei Bitch in her fancy Mercedes.

  She caught a wisp of a voice on the wind and turned around to look down the long, winding driveway. Lorelei and the big guy were behind her, walking back to what they probably thought was safety. For a moment she saw a flash of light, and then it was gone. Like her, they were keeping to the side of the road and staying in the dark.

  An idea came to her, and slowly she began to smile, even as a gust of stinging wind caught her full in the face. If things turned out right, when she left here she’d be driving that Mercedes instead of Darwin’s piece-of-shit old Blazer, and those two would wish they’d never tangled with her … for a little while, anyway, then they’d never wish for anything again.

  “As soon as we’re around this curve, we should see the lights,” Lolly said. Gabriel didn’t know if she was encouraging him, or herself. Laboriously they plodded forward, rounded the curve, and she stopped as she searched the darkness for the beacon of the porch light that would encourage them to keep going, to reach the warmth and safety of the house.

  There was nothing. The darkness was absolute. “The power’s out,” she said thinly.

  “Yeah.” Gabriel urged her forward, his arm literally propelling her. He wasn’t surprised by the loss of electricity, though he wished they’d at least made it back before the lines went down. Going toward a warm, brightly lit house was more of a psychological lift than seeing nothing but darkness at the end of the road. He needed something besides his own strength to keep them going, because he was fast running out of it.

  Lolly was slowing down, her steps becoming heavier and more laborious; both of them had lost enough coordination that he was concerned. The cold was sapping her strength. She was about to give out, but he couldn’t allow her to stop, not when they were so close to shelter. Shelter meant survival, and he couldn’t afford to think of anything else.

  He steadied Lolly, made sure they continued to move forward, and at the same time kept an eye out for Niki, who from all he could tell was no less deadly than her friend had been. Without a gun, would she even try to take him on? Experience with meth addicts said she would. She might try to get past him, get to Lolly. Even an empty pistol could kill, if you hit someone in the vulnerable temple area with it. Lolly was protected by all the stuff she’d tied over her head, but that was no guarantee she couldn’t be hurt or killed.

  Logically, Niki would realize she needed shelter just as much as they did. She might already be at the house, waiting for them. The electricity might not be off; she might have turned off the lights herself, so she’d have the advantage of surprise. He couldn’t afford to assume she was either out in the cold, or inside the house; he had to expect anything, everything, and make no assumptions that could prove out wrong and catch him unprepared. Until Niki was accounted for, he couldn’t let his guard down.

  The night continued to be punctuated by the sharp retorts of limbs and trees snapping. The sound wasn’t constant, but neither did it end. None of the trees closest to the road had fallen, not yet, but they would, and soon. For now the worst of the fall was deeper in the woods, where trees had been left untended for an eternity. At least the ones bordering the road had occasionally been trimmed.

  “I don’t suppose there’s cut wood for the fireplace stacked by the back door,” he said, trying to distract Lolly, trying to encourage her to imagine the comfort that waited ahead.

  “No wood,” she said, panting with the effort to keep going. He winced, kissing the dream of a fire good-bye, then she continued, “We converted to gas years ago.”

  Even better. “Hallelujah. Gas stove, too?”

  “Yes.”

  “Water heater?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  That was a relief, a huge one. They’d have some means of getting warm, and could spend the night in relative comfort. “Not much farther to go, Lolly, and we’ll have a roof over our heads, heat, even some food.”

  “What if she’s there?” Lolly asked, terror in her voice. Obviously her thoughts had been running along the same lines as his.

  Gabriel shrugged. He was outwardly calm, inwardly concerned. “If Niki’s there, I’ll handle it. I promise.”

  She nodded in agreement, but didn’t seem to be entirely convinced. Who could blame her? Their situation wasn’t a good one, between the weather, the dark, and the nut-job who could come bursting without warning from out of the forest, or out of any closet or from under any bed.

  Above them, a big engine abruptly roared to life.

  Gabriel lifted his head at the sound. “Well, we know where Niki is,” he murmured.

  Lolly drew closer to him. “Yeah.” She sounded nervous and wary.

  Was Niki really stupid enough, or strung out enough, to try to drive down this hill? She wouldn’t be starting the Blazer just to get warm, when all she had to do was go in the house. Why give her position away like that?

  The sound of the engine changed, and gears shifted. Headlamps came to life, cutting through the darkness, catching in its beams the almost ethereal mist and making it glow.

  Niki smiled. The Blazer was coated with ice and just getting the door open had been a bitch, but she’d managed it. She was alone, she was out of bullets, but Lorelei Helton and her big guy with his stick didn’t stand a chance against her Blazer. She’d run them down like the dogs they were.

  “For Darwin,” she said, getting teary at the memory of the miles they’d covered in this Blazer. Maybe he hadn’t been perfect; maybe he had cheated on her a few times. But through it all he’d been hers, and now he was gone. Darwin, gone. She couldn’t believe it.

  She gunned the engine and headed toward the hill and the center of the narrow drive. The rear end of the Blazer immediately started sliding around and she fought with the wheel for control, which she gained, and lost, and gained again. At least she was headed in the right direction. She was barely out of the yard when the headlights picked out her targets, there on the side of the road. The two murderers stood side by side, close together, stupidly looking up the hill, looking at her. They didn’t realize what she had planned. They probably thought she was running away, that she was a coward who would give up and let them win, a coward who wouldn’t make them pay for what they’d done.

  Then the big guy seemed to realize what she planned to do, because he bodily lifted Lorelei and leapt into the tree line with her. A bloody haze of rage rose in Niki’s vision. No fucking way was she going to miss them now, like a few trees could stop her. They had to pay. They had to pay for killing Darwin; Lorelei had to pay for making a fool of her by going out a second-story window; she had to pay for leading Darwin on until he couldn’t think about anything except getting in her pants. She’d catch them and ram them up against a tree, pinning their bodies there, and she’d laugh while they died in agony. She wanted that. She wanted it as much as she wanted her next hit. She’d have her hit soon, in just a few minutes, as soon as she’d taken care of this little chore.

  The slope of the driveway increased, going down to the first sharp curve. Niki bar
ely glanced at the pavement; her attention was on the spot where the big guy had gone into the woods. She spun the wheel to the left, and the entire Blazer began sliding sideways to the right. Swearing, she turned back to the right, trying to straighten the vehicle. The old Blazer responded, then the rear end swung around and damn if she wasn’t sliding to the left now. Furiously she fought the vehicle. How in hell was she supposed to do what she wanted if the damn truck wouldn’t go straight? What good was four-wheel drive if it didn’t work on ice?

  She jerked the wheel to the left, and both right wheels of the Blazer came off the ground. “Shit!” she yelped, suddenly realizing how close she was getting to the bottom, and the steep drop-off on the other side of the driveway. “Shit!” The Blazer settled back onto all four wheels; the big tires tried to grab traction but spun uselessly on the ice. The Blazer slid backward, then slowly began a sickening spin, around and around, gaining speed as it whirled toward the looming drop-off. She had the totally inane thought that it was almost like riding the teacups at Disneyland.

  Niki screamed once, in rage and fear at the injustice of this stupid ice, then the Blazer’s wheels lost contact with the ground and she plummeted over the side.

  Lolly clung to Gabriel’s wet coat, watching as the Blazer abruptly dropped out of sight. There was a brief moment of silence, then a horrible screech of metal being crushed and torn.

  “Oh my God,” she said in shock, then added, “Good!” She didn’t think it made her a bad person that her first instinct was one of relief. Darwin was dead and Niki had just driven herself off the side of the mountain. For the first time in hours that had seemed as long as days, Lolly suddenly realized the terror was over. She was safe; cold to the bone, shivering, shaken in a way she hadn’t known was possible … but safe.

  “Stay here,” Gabriel ordered, as he took a much larger flashlight from his coat pocket, turned it on, and stepped cautiously onto the road.

  He had been her rock for the past couple of hours. Everything in her protested at being separated from him for even a few seconds, but she did as he instructed. There was no point in both of them going to look. Besides, she could barely walk, she was so cold. All she wanted was to sit down and close her eyes.

  The sloping pavement was treacherous with ice. Gabriel slipped a couple of times, but both times managed to catch his balance and stay upright. Lolly breathed a sigh of relief as he reached the other side of the road and shone his light down the mountainside.

  After a long moment, he made his way back across the driveway to Lolly. Turning off his powerful flashlight, he once more stowed it in his coat pocket and took out the much weaker flashlight Darwin had dropped. “The Blazer’s about a hundred and fifty feet down. It met a tree head-on. The tree won. If Niki isn’t dead she’s seriously hurt, but I can’t get down there to see.” He frowned, because he didn’t like not knowing for certain.

  Lolly wouldn’t have thought it was in her nature to be relieved at the news that someone, anyone, had died; it certainly wasn’t like her to be willing to leave an injured woman in a wrecked car to freeze or bleed to death—or at least she hadn’t thought it was like her. Darwin and Niki had changed her mind about several things. “Thank God,” she whispered. She felt as if the world around her had warmed a little. Her fear of finding Niki waiting in the house, of the strung-out woman jumping out from behind a tree or springing out of a dark corner, was gone. She wanted to drop to the ground and sob in sheer relief, but she settled for a deep breath instead. It was too soon to declare victory, because she and Gabriel weren’t home free. They still had to battle the ice, and the ice wouldn’t make any stupid decisions, like trying to drive down a mountain in weather like this. The ice wouldn’t do anything, other than exist, but its very existence reshaped the world.

  “Come on,” he said, “let’s go get warm.” He slid his arm around her, holding her upright as he propelled her forward. Without his aid, she couldn’t have moved. The first few steps were an exercise in pain and lack of coordination; she could barely slide one foot in front of the other. She felt as if she had frozen to the spot, as if she could do nothing other than just stop. Gabriel was shivering violently against her; he was in better shape than she was, but that wasn’t saying a lot.

  “Do you need me to carry you?” Gabriel asked.

  She was horrified at the idea. He could barely walk, and he thought he could carry her? “No, I’m fine,” she said.

  He made a gruff noise that made it clear he didn’t think she was at all fine, but he didn’t forcefully lift her and throw her over his shoulder.

  In the total darkness, with only an increasingly weak flashlight beam lighting their way, they gingerly made their way across the icy yard. What had never seemed like much distance at all now seemed almost insurmountable, but they were barely shuffling along and every inch gained was paid for in agony. Finally she could very faintly make out the dark house looming just ahead of them, and only then did she really believe they could make it. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, wondering if Gabriel would even hear her, with the wind howling as it was.

  He glanced down at her. “Sorry for what?” he asked matter of factly as they negotiated the last few yards, maneuvering around her ice-coated Mercedes. The steps loomed like Mount Everest. She honestly wasn’t certain she could go up them. “Sorry you got caught up in this mess. Sorry you had to kill a man. Sorry you’re stuck here with me when I know you’d much rather be at your parents’ house, with your son.”

  “You know about Sam?” he asked, surprised. His voice was breathless. Somehow he hadn’t expected her to know anything about his life after he’d graduated from high school and joined the military.

  “I’ve kept up with the news from here.”

  They reached the steps, and Gabriel gripped the railing with his left hand. His right arm tightened around her, and he physically hauled her up the steps, groaning in pain as he did. Then they were on the porch, but the howling wind was still blowing the rain in on them so there wasn’t much improvement.

  “I’m not sorry,” he said, releasing her to bend over and catch his breath, gather his strength.

  Without his support Lolly almost collapsed on the porch, but she wrapped one arm around a column and forced herself to remain upright. “I don’t believe you.” She even managed a credible snort.

  “Seriously, Lollipop, do you think I’d be happy sitting in a nice warm house with my kid, eating soup and drinking coffee by the fire, when I could be up here freezing to death with you while we run from two crazy-ass meth addicts? Where’s your sense of adventure?”

  “I don’t have one,” she said, suddenly wheezing with laughter. She felt giddy, and she wasn’t certain how much longer she could keep standing, but right now what he’d said was one of the most hilarious things she’d ever heard. “And do not call me Lollipop.” If he’d forgotten anything at all about her, why couldn’t it have been that horrid nickname?

  “Lollipop,” he promptly returned, just as he’d done in high school. He straightened, grunting with the effort, and said, “We’re idiots to be standing out here. Let’s go inside.”

  “Easier said than done,” she said, and abruptly her legs gave way and she sat down hard on the ice-crusted porch.

  “Don’t you fucking give up on me now, Lollipop,” he grunted as he lurched toward the door. “I didn’t haul you all this way to let you freeze to death on the porch.”

  It scared her that the concept wasn’t all that farfetched. It would be so easy just to curl up on the porch and relax, but she knew if she did she’d never make it inside. Fear drove her to roll onto her hands and knees, but that was as far as she could get. No way could she stand up. Laboriously she began crawling toward the door. “You just get the door open, hero,” she said, “and I’ll make it the rest of the way.”

  There was a horrible, gunshot of a sound at the edge of the woods, and a sixty-foot-tall tree snapped at the base, the entire thing crashing to the ground with a force th
at seemed to rattle the entire world. They both went motionless for a brief second, then Gabriel turned back to fumble with the doorknob and Lolly resumed her slow, clumsy crawl.

  She wouldn’t have survived tonight if it hadn’t been for Gabriel. She would already be dead, shot or frozen or crushed beneath an ice-covered tree. She would have died a violent death, her last few hours spent in terror and pain, her last thoughts that of a horrible man attempting to rape her, and maybe succeeding. And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as the danger had passed, they’d started arguing. Some things never changed. The feel of their squabble had changed, though. She wasn’t angry, wasn’t upset. Arguing with Gabriel had a comfortable feel to it, almost like coming home.

  Home. She really was home. All she had to do was get inside, and she’d be safe. She wasn’t shivering anymore, hadn’t for … how long now? She was a native Mainer, she knew that wasn’t a good sign. She could still think, hadn’t suffered any of the disorientation that came with severe hypothermia, so she thought she’d be all right. But then again, if her thinking was impaired, would she even realize it?

  Gabriel tried to open the door, but his ice-coated gloves couldn’t grasp the doorknob. Swearing under his breath, he used his teeth to tug off the glove; the doorknob turned, and the door swung open to warmth and sanctuary. Turning back, he grasped Lolly’s arm and half-dragged her over the threshold, far enough inside that he could shove the door closed. Then she fell over on her side on the floor and the strength left his legs and he fell beside her. He swore some more, struggling to his hands and knees, then he grabbed the newel post of the stairs and pulled himself to a mostly upright position. Lolly closed her eyes. She just wanted to lie here on the floor …