Cold Pursuit (26 page)

Elijah rose, adjusted his pack. “You know what to do, Jo?” he asked, only half-serious, because, of course, she did. “Stay in the cover of the trees. Don't expose—”

“Yeah.” There was just a hint of amusement in her eyes. “Go. I'll get Devin to the cabin and meet you there.”

Elijah blew her a kiss and winked at her. “See you soon, sweet pea.”

Color rose in her cheeks, and Devin managed a weak smile at her. “Sweet pea?”

A gust of wind rattled through the trees, and Elijah pushed off in the direction Devin had indicated. He thought of the countless times he'd been up here as a kid with his father, searching for that damn cellar hole.

N
ora huddled against her boulder. She didn't know how long she'd been there. She was still in a tight ball, but she was shivering uncontrollably, her teeth chattering as she tried to stay quiet and out of sight. She needed to go to Devin, help him. Something terrible had happened to him. She just knew it. He'd sacrificed himself for her, but she felt paralyzed—what could she do to help him? She didn't want to make his situation worse, and she didn't want to get killed.

Help me, someone. Please, help me.

She didn't dare speak the words out loud. She wasn't sure she could, anyway, but she didn't want to make a sound.

I'm so cold.

She heard the crack of a branch somewhere behind her, maybe above her, and felt a painful surge of adrenaline. Tears poured down her raw cheeks and into her mouth. Her nose ran. She stiffened, trying to keep her teeth from chattering, in case whoever was out there could hear her.

Mom…Dad…I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry…

“Nora. It's Elijah.”

She sniffled, thinking she'd imagined his voice.

“I'm here to help you, okay?”

His voice was so gentle, yet strong, confident. She pictured him in front of the class and remembered his so-blue eyes when he'd looked at her and asked her why she'd wanted to go winter camping. She'd given him some dumb answer. The truth was that she'd wanted Alex and her parents not to think of her as a wimp anymore. She'd wanted them to be proud of her.

I am a wimp.

“Call to me, Nora. Throw some snow up into the air. Anything.”

Elijah sounded close. Her tears were flooding down her face now, snot running, her entire body shaking with relief and self-disgust and terror.

“Devin's okay. He's with Jo Harper. I'll keep you safe, Nora. Trust me.”

Devin, Devin—oh, God! Thank you! Thank you, thank you!

Nora tried to speak, but she started to cry, and her body convulsed into shivers. She was so tired and tensed up, she couldn't even pry her arms apart to grab snow. Instead, she sat back hard against the boulder and managed to kick a foot out, causing snow to drop off the lower branches of the tree in front of her. A clump of it fell onto her nose. She couldn't even feel the cold.

She kicked again, and more snow fell, and then she couldn't do anything but shiver and cry and pray.

“Hey, kid.”

Elijah eased in close to her. He was covered in snow but so strong and warm, and she suddenly imagined him bleeding in combat and felt horrible for how condescending she'd been about his military service.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered. “I'm so sorry.”

He got down low in front of her. His hat was covered in snow. His shoulders. Nora squinted, trying to focus. How much snow had fallen? She didn't even know.

“Nora. Look at me.” His voice was quiet and reassuring, but firm. “Let me keep you safe, okay? Will you do that for me?”

She couldn't stop shivering. She thought she nodded, but she wasn't sure, and she hated him seeing her like this, crying and scared and shivering.

“I'm not going to let anything happen to you.” He put a snowy, gloved hand toward her. “Can you stand?”

“I—I don't know. I did everything I could to stay warm and dry.” Her words sounded strangled, unintelligible. Her mind felt fuzzy. Fresh tears flowed down her face. “Rigby found us. He had to have known about your dad's cabin.”

She thought she saw Elijah falter, but she couldn't imagine such a thing. He was so strong. She'd never known anyone that strong. But he said, “Let's get you warm. Then we can go from there.”

“I think I have mild hypothermia. I can't—stop—shivering….”

“I'm going to pick you up and carry you, okay?” He just scooped her up, as if she weighed no more than her stuffed penguin. She sobbed into his chest and for a second thought she'd throw up all over him, but she didn't.

“If he's still out there—” She got a death grip on his jacket and raised herself off his chest. “How did you find me?”

“Footprints, but they weren't easy to spot. I spotted his, too, but they lead down off the mountain.” Elijah spoke calmly, clinically, as if he were discussing tracking a rabbit. “The weather's our ally right now. It's making us harder to find.”

“Devin warned me…”

“He's hurt, but Jo's taking good care of him.”

Elijah walked over the rough ground, not even straining under the weight of her and his backpack. He carried her up the steep hill onto the flat area where his father had built his cabin, where the Camerons had first settled in Vermont.

“There,” Nora whispered. Her teeth still chattered, but she wasn't shivering as much as she absorbed some of his warmth and pointed. “Up by those evergreens.”

“Spruces,” he said, and she heard a smile in his voice.

She sank into his arms, vaguely aware of his movements and the howl of the wind, then the creak of a door and the smell of the cabin's fresh wood as he set her on the floor. She didn't want to be out of the protective cocoon of his arms, but she saw Devin curled up in a sleeping bag near the cold woodstove and almost screamed. He looked so awful. She crawled over to him, shivering and crying. “Dev, Dev. You saved my life. You did.” But he was half-asleep and didn't respond, and she turned back to Elijah. “What can I do to help?”

Jo Harper answered. “Talk to him,” she said as she grabbed Nora's backpack and got her sleeping bag and handed it to her. “Reassure him that you're fine. And get yourself warm and stay warm.”

“I can do that.”

Her eyes stayed on Nora. “And tell me what happened.”

Jo was scarily focused, but pretty, Nora thought, fighting back tears. “I wish my dad were marrying you instead of Melanie.”

Jo looked shocked for a split second, then was back under control. Elijah didn't comment, just went to the back of the cabin and checked the rear door while she got dry clothes out of her own pack and handed them to Nora. “Put these on. Can you manage on your own?”

“I think so.” The thought of Jo or Elijah helping her made her feel self-conscious. “Yes. I can do it.”

The wind picked up, whistling, beating fiercely against the cabin. But Nora decided the walls had to be solid, because any man who'd fathered Elijah would have insisted on building a structure that could withstand a Vermont storm.

She sniffled. “I shouldn't have come up here.” Her fingers stiff inside her gloves, she unzipped her sleeping bag. Somehow she'd use it to create a little privacy as she changed, although she knew she had to be careful with her wet clothes.
I'm such a dope.
She sniffled again and said half to herself, “I didn't mean to cause problems for everyone. Just help Devin. Please.”

“I'll help both of you,” Jo said, “but I need your cooperation.”

Startled by Jo's tone, Nora realized that in her own way Jo was just as big a hard-ass as Elijah.

He returned from checking the back door and touched Jo's arm. “Rigby's either waiting out the storm, or he's already cut his losses and gotten out of here. Either way, it's near-zero visibility out there right now. We're not going anywhere.”

Nora saw something between them. A spark, a look. She wasn't quite sure, but what it meant was obvious to her. Jo was falling for Elijah—and he for her.

“Elijah,” Jo said, “if Rigby comes back and tries anything, you know you can defend yourself, don't you?”

He grinned at her. “Yeah, Agent Harper, I know.”

Nora got closer to Devin. “Avert your eyes while I change.”

He smiled weakly at her. “Sure, Nora.”

“Dev…you saved my life.”

“We'll be okay,” he said. “Promise.”

She suddenly felt warmer, safer. Jo and Elijah would protect her and Devin.

They'd all be okay.

T
he storm had forced Melanie and Thomas back to the lodge. She washed her hands with Vermont-made goat's milk soap in the ladies' room. Thomas was getting on her nerves. He was so preoccupied with his daughter, never mind how irresponsibly she'd behaved. Melanie knew she needed to be understanding, but she hated Nora for all her dramatics.

She hadn't thrown up. That would come later. Right now, she knew she needed to push her fury down deep and focus on making sure Kyle had a chance to execute his plan for her almost-stepdaughter and her no-account boyfriend. Melanie had her instructions. Kyle had found her before he went up on the mountain. She felt a familiar jolt of excitement mixed with panic at the prospect of doing her part to make everything work out.

“Mislead any search teams, Melanie,” Kyle had told her early that morning. He'd been so grave and humorless with all his misgivings about their situation. “Pick a spot and send them there. Anywhere but the north side of the mountain.”

He'd been so confident that was where Devin and Nora would be. Melanie had argued that they'd have to explain the lie to A.J. Cameron and any search teams once Nora's and Devin's bodies were discovered.

But Kyle had an answer for that, too. “We blame Devin for the misinformation. Leave that part to me.” He'd paused, then added, “He and Nora aren't making it down the mountain.”

Melanie still had misgivings. The more she thought about why she and Kyle had been dispatched to kill both Drew Cameron in April and Alex Bruni yesterday, the more she didn't like it. Drew had never made any sense—he didn't fit the profile of anyone else she and Kyle had killed. Who was he? As far as she knew, he was just an old Vermonter with no serious connections.

Except, she thought, to Alex Bruni, a repeat guest at Black Falls Lodge.

What if the person—or people—who dispatched killers like her and Kyle, paid them and kept them from knowing too much about their targets, had decided Drew and Alex were threats to
them?
To their network of paid assassins?

That made screwing up that much more complicated and dangerous.

And if she suspected she and Kyle had been hired to kill Drew Cameron and Alex Bruni to protect one of their own, then Kyle suspected it, too.

No wonder he was so serious.

Melanie dried her hands. She liked the soap. It had a clean, soft scent. Roses, maybe? She didn't know. She inhaled the scent, calming herself, and returned to the dining room. It was almost dusk now. Scott Thorne, the Vermont State Police trooper, had left after interviewing both her and Thomas, every indication suggesting an official search for Nora and Devin would be launched before long. Melanie had done everything possible to make sure that wouldn't happen.

The handful of guests staying at the lodge seemed to enjoy being there during a storm. Three or four inches of snow had accumulated, enough to whiten the landscape. Conditions were worse at higher elevations. She wanted to go sit in front of the fire, but Thomas was still rooted to his chair at a table near the windows overlooking the terrace and the meadow. Lauren Cameron had brought them hot cocoa. She was so beautiful, and from a good family, too. Melanie imagined Lauren and A.J. having her and Thomas up to their house for dinner, becoming friends with them. But with Drew Cameron's death, and now a series of deaths about to happen, Black Falls would be reeling for a while. Melanie wasn't sure she and Thomas would want to spend much time there. Maybe they should put this experience behind them and make their own friends.

She pulled out a chair at the table and sat down, irritated when Thomas didn't even look at her. He stared blankly out at the snow. A.J. had dropped into a chair across from him. A.J. looked serious and hard-bitten, but from what Melanie had gathered, he usually did.

“I just heard from Kyle,” she said with just the right touch of both relief and caution. “He got through to me on my cell phone just before his died. I could hardly hear him, but Nora's fine. He ran into her above the falls. She didn't have a clue anyone was worried about her.”

“Oh, thank God.” Thomas flopped back in his chair and almost cried. “Thank God.”

Melanie liked giving him the good news. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, and she let her eyes fill with tears. “I know it's a hard time for you, darling,” she said.

“Did he say anything about Jo and Elijah?” A.J. asked.

She shook her head. “No, but he only had a few seconds, really, before his cell phone died.”

A.J. said nothing, and Melanie sensed his skepticism. The Camerons were all so damn tough. The police could check her cell-phone records for proof that Kyle had called her, but they'd have to have a reason. She wouldn't give them one, and if she did, she'd get out, flee. She didn't want it to come to that, but she was prepared. She had money stashed. So did Kyle. They could disappear for a couple of years. Let things cool off. Then resurface.

Thomas pushed his cocoa aside and shot to his feet, and she bit back her irritation with A.J. His question had clearly spoiled Thomas's sense of relief. “Then Jo and Elijah are looking in the wrong place,” he said. “They're stuck in the storm now, too. What about Devin?”

A.J.'s eyes darkened, but he left the dining room without another word.

Melanie stood next to Thomas and hooked her arm through his. “You're so warm,” she said, leaning into his shoulder.

“The snow's piling up. The wind, especially up on the mountain…” He was clearly too distressed to go on.

Melanie slipped his arm around her waist and snuggled into him even closer. He was a little soft in the waist. Not hard everywhere like Kyle. But that was okay. “Kyle's with Nora. He'll do what he can for Devin. And Jo and Elijah—”

“I'm not worried about them. They're both Black Falls natives who know these mountains better than anyone.” Thomas seemed to struggle to make himself sound optimistic. “They'll do fine up there.”

Melanie felt a sharp prick of fear.

Then she thought—
this could be good.

It could work to her advantage if Kyle didn't come off the mountain, either.

Whatever happened, she'd do what she had to do. Kill Nora. Kill Devin. Kill Kyle, too, if she had to. Jo, Elijah. Thomas.

All of them.

But that was crazy thinking, an overreaction to her circumstances, although she relished how it made her feel, how it relieved her fear and her tension to picture herself killing all the people who threatened her and her happiness with Thomas.

He kissed her on the top of the head. “What would I do without you?”

Melanie squeezed him gently. Everything would work out. She and Kyle had yet to fail, and they understood what they were up against. They'd do what they had to, and that would be that.

Kyle would find a new partner, and she would marry Thomas.

They just had to get through the long night ahead.