Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
ZACH
My eyes burn, and my side erupts in pain with every footfall.
To distract myself, I sing “Thunder Road,” the lyrics tumbling from my lips like a prayer.
My dad played that song sometimes when we were driving, the four of us headed out to some adventure. Camping or fishing, the summer sunshine so sweet, the crisp, fresh air cooling my hot cheeks as I leaned out the window. Dad’s fingers tapping on the steering wheel and his powerful voice in synch with The Boss.
I searched for the phone in the snowdrifts until my bare fingers turned to ice and my teeth chattered. I willed it to ring, but would I have heard it over the raging wind and blowing snow?
Before I lost the tracks to the storm, I had to keep moving.
The binoculars must have crashed into my face during my fall because my lip is puffy and I’m missing a chunk of tooth. I left the bulky thing behind—it’s not like they’re of any use in a blizzard. If I get out of this alive, I’ll replace them.
Thoughts of Sofie fill my mind, spurring me on. She must be so scared. I don’t know how I will rescue her, but I won’t stop until I do.
I should have waited to make that phone call until I had a plan .
I’m back to being on my own. All decisions, mine. All the mistakes and failures, mine too.
I shake my head. Don’t think like that.
My right hand is against my bare chest inside my shirt, but the feeling has gone numb. It makes for awkward running, and snow and icy wind are sneaking inside my coat, but I don’t have a choice. I press my fingers to my skin, hoping the warmth of my body can revive them but it’s like having a frozen fish on my chest. In Alaska, kids are taught basic survival in school because people live far apart, and the elements can turn harsh in a flash. Basic first aid and CPR, how to operate a radio, start a fire. So I know the early stages of frostbite and how detrimental life can be with fewer fingers.
The tire treads vanished long ago, but there’s still road, so I keep running. I have to believe that I’m still on Dustin’s trail. There’s no reason he’d go cross-country in this weather, especially if he’s on a mission. I don’t know where I’m headed or where I am. There’s only white, blinding snow and the screech of the wind, the road under my feet, and pain.
The ground levels. I keep singing into the unrelenting wind. Maybe I’m going crazy. Or maybe it’s keeping me sane.
A sharp edge meets the dirt road. It’s pavement. Gasping, I pause, squinting into the wind. Dustin would have merged here, but which way did he go?
What road is this? Could I flag someone down?
But the road is an unbroken sea of white. No one has been through here.
Fuck! Have I lost them?
I crouch down and squint through the snow. My hand inside my coat judders up to my collarbones, making me shiver. With my gloved left hand, I skim off the top layer of snow. Is there a depression? Some indication that Dustin was here? I move to the lip of the road, brushing down, down, while the snow falls into place, filling it in. My eyes burn from focusing in this biting cold, but I keep going.
A section of zigzag tread, likely knocked loose when the vehicle bumped over the lip of pavement, falls free. My heart taps faster against my ribs. I keep looking—I need more !
I brush snow with my gloved fingers below the edge of the lip. Down, down, down, like some mad painter.
I find a second tread. Taken together, it looks like the vehicle merged onto the road heading to the right.
But if I’m wrong, and they turned left…
I step onto the road, heading right. The clouds swirl around me, battering my ears and cutting my face. A sudden blip of light reveals twin depressions beneath the snow that signals a vehicle moved in this direction.
I’m coming, Sofie.
What visibility I had narrows. I’m walking in a void. If not for my feet sinking through the snow, I would swear I’m floating. Have I been running for so long that the sun is starting to set? Or is it the storm?
I start to imagine Henry and Barb, galloping out of the white, Leo and Bea’s powerful muscles rippling. Then I’m with my dad, out in the pasture with the red-tailed hawk he set free. The bird lifted off, wings beating the air so hard I felt it on my forehead.
Maybe it’s the cold finally getting to me.
But if I stop, I’ll die. Of that, I’m certain.
What will happen to Sofie? What is Dustin planning?
And what about William? If I fail, a predator will steal his innocence. My brother’s hope that I’m coming back for him will be crushed to dust.
No. I’m not giving up. I just have to keep going.
I’m so lost in my mantra that I almost miss the gap in the barbed wire fencing lining the road, signaling another choice I need to make. But there’s too much snow now, erasing any trace of where Dustin may have gone.
The only way is to trust my gut.
Breathing hard, the icy snow crystals like chipped glass in my throat, I take the spur, the snow thick and deep here. The more I run, the more I doubt myself. I should turn around. At least if I collapse on a paved road, someone might find my body. Out here, the buzzards will find me at first thaw to pick my bones clean.
I sing “Thunder Road” in time with my shuffling gait.
In the silent cool in the dark of dusk
We’ll play for keeps on the Thunder Road
Inside my shirt, my hand is throbbing, but I don’t know if that means it’s warming up or a signal that the very tissue is dying.
Out of the white, dark circles start to dance. I’ve been focusing so long that my vision is shutting down—snow blindness. The dark circles get bigger, dancing and flashing.
Only they aren’t circles. There’s something ahead. Something big and black.
It’s a truck. I extend my hand, expecting to swipe through space. My mind is playing tricks on me. But my fingertips brush hard metal. Along the left side, the wind isn’t as loud. I rub the snow from the side window and look in the bed, but it’s dark.
This has to be Dustin’s.
“Sofie!” I call out. I press my ear to the window, but there’s no sound.
A gust rocks the truck, making the chassis squeak. I move alongside the truck bed, my brain screaming CAUTION! Because Dustin has that gun, and what if I’m walking into a trap?
At the driver’s window, I cup my hand around the glass and peer inside the cab.
It’s empty.
Where is she?
“Sofie!” I cry out, but the whipping wind steals my words. I move to the front of the truck and peer into the storm. Where would they go?
I will the blowing snow to quit so I can figure out where to go from here. There has to be some reason they’re not in the truck. Where, where, where?
A cry from somewhere draws me back to the truck. Then the muffled thump of a door slamming. I start running just as the outline of an object filters through the blowing white.
It’s a trailer.
Not just any trailer.
I sprint toward it, aiming for the man turning to lock the door behind him. The wind funnels down from the mountain, screaming, the snow like hot needles on my neck and face. I lose sight of the figure, but I barrel forward, undeterred .
Dustin sees me coming and reaches for his gun, but I power into him, crushing him against the trailer. The air leaves his lungs and I feel something crunch. Dustin spins me sideways, slamming my shoulder. The metal siding buckles and the trailer jerks. I jab my elbow to his windpipe. It lands in the soft tissue of his neck and he gasps, but he’s quick with a punch to my exposed ribs. The pain takes me down, and I stumble.
Dustin draws his gun, but I go at him again, knocking his hand up. The gun goes off. Someone screams—Sofie?
I slam Dustin’s arm into the trailer, making him drop the gun, but he uses the rebounding momentum to shove me back. We fall into the snow, with him straddling me. I slap and buck, the pain in my body forgotten as I fight him. He clamps one hand around my neck and squeezes, his menacing eyes boring into mine in the blowing snow. I scratch at his face and arch off the ground to get free. He grimaces in pain but doesn’t let go.
He's closing off my windpipe, pinning me to the cold snow. I can barely get a breath. My vision tunnels.
No. This is not how this ends.
I land a fist to his throat. He curls forward in surprise, and I pop his hand free. He falls into me and we wrestle, limbs flailing, the cold snow all around us. I scramble away and lurch to stand, but Dustin is already lunging. He rams me into the front of his truck, the hard metal like a brick wall.
Movement sweeps past my peripheral vision. Followed by the boom of a shotgun.
“Get down on the ground!” a woman shouts. She pumps a new shell into the chamber.
A sudden surge of hope helps me focus, and I swing Dustin sideways. He pushes off me, and I realize he’s going to flee.
The sound of jingling tack blends with the raging wind as I leap for Dustin, getting him around the waist. We hit the frozen ground hard.
Figures materialize out of the white. Am I dreaming? Henry rushes over. Barb is right behind him, aiming her shotgun at Dustin’s chest. Blue lights swing through the storm and a dark green truck appears. It’s Rowdy, racing out of the blowing snow .
He jumps on Dustin.
“Where is she?” he growls while I lurch to my feet, panting, my head buzzing and thick.
Rowdy wrenches Dustin’s hands back and whips out his cuffs while I take off for the trailer, my legs pumping hard through the snow.
I yank open the trailer door. “Sofie!”
Inside, it’s dark and freezing cold.
“Zach?”
I race toward her voice in the corner. She’s curled up into a ball, rocking back and forth, her hands bound at the wrists.
I drop to my knees and pull her to me. She’s shivering violently. “I’m here, baby. I got you.”
Her words tap out with her tremors. “I was so… scared.”
While I want to inspect every inch of her to make sure she’s okay, I pull her tighter. She’s freezing. “I’m just sorry it took me so long.”
“Are y-you with Dustin?”
Rubbing her back, I press a kiss to her cold, silky hair. I need to get her out of here. This place is an icebox, and she’s been here too long. “Your dad arrested him.”
A violent shiver rattles through her. She starts to cry. “My dad?”
“Henry and Barb helped.”
We happen to specialize in being caught in the middle. I close my eyes and hold Sofie tight. To think I could have lost that brawl out there in the snow. What would have happened?
“I don’t… understand.”
I need to get her warm, now . Has someone called for an ambulance?
“I trailed the tracks in the snow. I think Barb and Henry followed me. Maybe they called your dad. What’s important is that you’re safe now. We’re safe.”
“You… work for Dustin.” It comes out flat, like it’s been repeating in her mind over and over. She must have overheard the phone call. Damn it!
Where is that fucking ambulance? I grit my teeth to fight back the emotions crowding into my throat. “It’s not what you think.”
She sucks in a sob. “I can’t get hurt like that… again.”
When this is all over, I’ll explain what happened and my role in it. But for now, I keep it simple. “I’m here now. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Through the crack in the door, spinning red lights combine with the blue ones from Rowdy’s rig, splashing across the walls. The ambulance is here. Finally.
“Zach? Sofie?” It’s Rowdy, his eyes tense.
“We’re okay!” I call back.
He rushes over, his boots thumping on the thin metal floor. He crouches down and puts his arms around us both. He kisses Sofie’s head. “Thank god.”
“Do me a favor?” I ask him, my tight throat squeezing the words.
He rubs Sofie’s back, his jaw set in determination. “Name it.”
“Get my Leatherman tool off Dustin’s belt.”
Rowdy rocks back on his feet and swipes at his eyes. “Be right back.”
“We’re going to get you out of here.” I plant a kiss on her temple, but her skin is like ice.
“I’m so cold.” Sofie’s shivers haven’t eased, even wrapped in my arms. She needs a hospital.
Moments later, two men step into the trailer. They’re dressed in thick blue coats and matching uniforms. One is carrying a big orange toolbox with the paramedic emblem on the side.
Sofie shudders in my arms. “Stay with me, Zach.”
My heart thuds thick and hard in my chest. After today, I’m never letting her go.
“I promise.”