Chilled by Death (13 page)

“Look at that, it didn’t choke you,” he sneered, standing back up.

She closed her eyes. This wasn’t her. She was generally a polite, easy-to-get-along-with type of person. But something about Royce just got to her. Or maybe it was because although she was feeling cruddy, she’d like nothing better than to have him lie down beside her and take her in his arms.

“I am thankful,” she muttered.

“Just can’t show it, can you,” he mocked. But there was something else in his tone. Frustration maybe?

Her gaze flew up to his, and damn if heat didn’t flare between them.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat. His gaze was an overwhelming warmth that slid through her, warming up all the cold places inside.

She desperately wanted to tear her gaze away, but he held her captive. Then as if he cut a string, he broke eye contact to stare over the loft railing down at the group below, a muscle in his jaw throbbing out his aggravation.

She shuddered, hating the lassitude inside now that he’d given her that magical invisible stroke of his touch. She didn’t know how he did it, or what exactly he’d done, but it always felt like a soothing stroke of his hands – only without physical contact. Then she realized that he wasn’t as unaffected as she was. He was having trouble controlling his breathing. It came out in short, raspy breaths.

She hated this. This awkwardness between them. “It can’t go anywhere, you know. That’s the problem.”

He stared at her in astonishment. “What are you talking about?”

She flushed. She’d completely misread the situation. Shit. Shit. She was a complete idiot. “Nothing,” she mumbled, sliding down into her sleeping bag and rolling away from him.

Please just leave,
she whispered in her head as she lay still.

“I’m leaving, for the moment,” he snapped, “but we’re going to talk about this again.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she whispered, mortified.

“Yes, there is. What you just said is garbage. There’s nothing stopping us from having a relationship – but you.”

And he turned and stomped down the stairs, leaving her stunned into complete silence.

There wasn’t?

*

Royce shoved his
sadness and frustration deep inside as he rejoined the others, but from the look on George’s face, he knew he’d failed there. Whatever. He glanced over at Yvonne. She appeared to be deep in discussion with Geoffrey. She’d been sending out signals all last evening that she wasn’t averse to spending the week with someone. For a brief moment he’d contemplated it, more to pay Stacy back for all the pain she’d given him, and then realized that it likely wouldn’t have hurt Stacy in the first place. But he hadn’t wanted to find that out for sure.

It was also a step forward he’d never be able to reverse. Not to mention it was hardly fair to Yvonne. She might want a week-long fling, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be used as a pawn in a broken relationship. Who would? Ashamed for even letting the thought be considered, he’d quickly tossed it from his mind.

“Plans for the day?”

Royce listened while George laid out the day’s runs he wanted to hit. He called out to his sister, “Stacy, are you skiing today?”

“I’m coming with the group but bringing my camera,” she called down.

George smiled. “Sounds great. Then get that skinny butt of yours down here and eat. We’ll be pulling out in thirty.”

*

Another perfect opportunity
wasted. George needed to shut the hell up. Royce needed to leave Stacy the hell alone. What was wrong with these people? She was nothing. A whore. That was it.

He stomped out to the outer part of the cabin where all the gear was stowed. He needed to get his boots on. Not to mention a whole mess of other gear. At least his new gloves were holding up.

Now if only Stacy would leave her camera behind. That would also make his day.

The others would follow soon enough. If he was lucky, one group would follow his lead and they could get up the mountain early. That’s what they were here for after all.

Something they’d all do well to remember.

Instead of fawning over the bitch. Making sure she had her coffee when she woke up. That she had a group to ski with all the time. What the hell was this – babysitting?

They were all so damn predictable. And so was she. Always late, always making the others wait for her. Always quiet so the others spoke up for her. Jesus. Enough already. He opened the door to the outside and smiled. Clear skies and fresh snow. Absolutely the best conditions.

Now if only they could get there before the damn snow melted and winter was over.

S
tacy made it
on time. Barely. She’d dressed, raced down to the bathroom, inhaled breakfast and coffee, then geared up for the morning outside. She wasn’t skiing today so she wore winter hiking boots. Should make it easier to walk in the snow. That was about all she could plan for right now. At least her body shifted and moved with grace at this point. A few twinges and squeaky joints, but essentially she was doing well.

She packed up her travel mug, sorted through her camera lenses, and quickly grabbed a bigger flash drive. Last night she hadn’t taken a look at how full her storage was. Big mistake. She didn’t dare not have enough while she was out there. The last thing she wanted to do was come back because she couldn’t take any more images.

Not that she planned on being out for long. She was making dinner for everyone today since she had agreed to take a turn. She hadn’t brought anything pre-planned though, so someone needed to give her the menu for the week so she didn’t accidently use up ingredients needed for other meals.

As she strode out the door, she cast a last look behind her at the cabin. She wasn’t the last one out. Royce locked the cabin and placed the key on the top of the doorframe. The lock was more to stop the elements from opening the door than to keep anyone out. They’d all been briefed on the location of the key on the first day. Basic safety.

The early morning light hit the side of the cabin, bounced off the window, and split into a wide band. Colors rippled on the rays. It was beautiful. And it almost blinded her. She lifted her hand to shade her gaze from the glare. Like so much light work, a bit of information was helpful. Too much and it was a killer.

“Let’s go.” Royce walked past her, reminding her that the rest of the group was striding out strongly in two directions. She had to stop and think. Who was she going with today?

“This way.” Royce stepped in behind the first group. “We’re going back to the same place, but it’s relatively easy terrain. Maybe you can find something to photograph there.”

“I’m sure I will,” she said in subdued tones. It was the first thing she’d said to him after his earlier comment.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded but stayed silent. In fact, speech would have been difficult. What did she want to say? At the moment, she had no idea. Did he really want to have a relationship with her? As in a real one, or just another weekend fling? God, she wished she knew her own mind.

Or maybe she wished she knew her own heart.

Something she hadn’t known for a long time.

They continued to hide in companionable silence when the group stopped. There were shouts ahead. Royce picked up his pace.

“What’s up?” she asked when they reached the other three.

George said, “One of the other group fell into a ravine of some kind.”

Immediately the group headed in the direction of the other group. With the sunny day and no cloud cover, the cell phone reception was strong and clear. Good thing. George continued to talk to Mark as they moved across the plateau to where the second group was currently standing. They’d been heading to a different run that day. No one had been along that path in days. Crossing as they were now was hard going. The leader had to break a path in the deep snow. Stacy was smart enough to stay in the middle of the pack. Of course, Royce pulled up last place to make sure there were no stragglers.

“Was anyone hurt?” Stacy asked.

“No. Not at all. He slid down more than anything.”

She nodded. “Good.”

The phone rang again. “Apparently the fault line goes a fair bit in our direction, so approach carefully,” George said after he put his phone away.

He pulled out the long stick he’d found earlier and stabbed the ground with each step. The others held back and waited. In deep snow, anything could be waiting below. Most of this area was popular with skiers and climbers from all over the world but like everyone, her group wanted to play where others hadn’t gone before. Figures. Still, even the popular runs ran into trouble sometime.

Snow often hid a small gulley that appeared to be more solid than it was.

Up ahead, more shouts could be heard. With the others in front, Stacy couldn’t see who was shouting.

Royce said, “That’s them. We’re almost there.”

Stacy had her camera around her neck. She wanted to break rank and take pictures as they approached but wasn’t sure where she was in relation to the fault they were talking about. She stayed in place.

George changed direction, stepping into the trail their group already made. The walking got a little bit easier yet again.

And suddenly she could see them. Her group spread out so she could step closer. Sure enough, a bit of the ground had given way and Stevie appeared to have slid rather than having fallen down. He waved up at her. “Hey, Stacy. Glad you came to see.”

She laughed. “I’m just wondering why you’re still there. With all the help around, I’d have thought you’d be back up on top already.”

“Ha. I actually tried to climb up by myself, but the bank keeps coming down.”

“Of course.” They always did. She stepped back and pulled out her camera. Within seconds, she had Stevie’s predicament captured for posterity. Then she took another and another. When Stevie understood what she was doing, he called out a mocking protest. The others all laughed. Stacy kept clicking as they worked to get Stevie up from the fifteen-foot deep hole. She made sure to document where it started and stopped if for no other reason than to mark it on the maps for other people.

There were a few depressions on one side and more. She carefully followed the light so she could see the full scope of where the depression, faint until she saw it in the shadows, ended.

“It stops here,” she called out.

“Which actually means that it likely goes under the ground for another twenty meters. Such is the way of faults,” Royce said as he walked toward her so he could see the magnitude of the fault line himself. She watched the narrow edge in his gaze as he studied the ground. She couldn’t resist. She pulled out her camera. The look of intensity on his face, the knowledge in his eyes. He knew his stuff. And that sense of authority was damn sexy.

And she sure as hell needed to stop thinking like that.

She stepped back again.

And felt the snow give way.

She cried out in surprise.

And fell.

*