Chapter Eleven
“ A spen!” Colt’s chest blazed from the frigid air and the terror that rocked him on his feet. He fisted his hands and stumbled around the yard, searching the thick layer of snow that covered any landmarks he might recognize.
Walking around was next to impossible. If he fell into a pocket of snow, he’d have almost no chance of being found.
He had to find Aspen. He’d heard her cry out a name. He heard her say…
Dammit, what the hell was the name she screamed?
Someone had pulled her out. Someone she knew.
He slowly skirted the edge of the cliff, where—judging from the path of the avalanche slide—he knew the snow would be more solid.
“Aspen!” He racked his brain for all the things he’d heard her say.
The noises had come from his right.
He turned that direction. The glare of sun on the blinding-white snow made his eyes water, and he swiped the back of his hand over them. By some grace, he’d been spared and that meant that he had a purpose in this world.
Right now, that purpose was to find Aspen and make sure she lived to fight another day.
Shadows darkened one area of the snow. Setting his boots carefully down in even steps to test that the snow would hold his weight, he made a slow but steady path toward the spot.
The outline of where her body had been buried was clearly visible, as were footsteps leading to the area.
Leading away from the area too.
Someone had dug her out.
A fist clamped around his heart. Only one set of footprints marred the snow, which meant she couldn’t have walked away on her own.
Oh god. Who the hell was this guy?
He played and replayed the sound of her voice, coming muffled on the still air.
She said a name. What was it?
For what felt like hours, Colt edged carefully along the cliff. He followed the foot tracks leading in an arc. He knew how to hunt men down, and he was more determined than he ever was fighting for Uncle Sam to find the man who had taken Aspen.
When he spotted the narrow road leading off the mountain, his heart clutched hard like a fist was clamped around it.
Aspen. Oh god, Aspen.
Who had her?
The road was intact and passable, sheltered from the path of the avalanche. The boot prints led to a set of tire tracks. Thick winter treads cut down the mountainside, away from the destroyed cabin.
Someone had driven up here. And what? Witnessed the destruction, pulled Aspen out of the snow?
His mind whirled. With only one set of footprints, Colt could only think that she was unconscious. The man who’d pulled her out had carried her here and put her into his vehicle.
For all Colt knew, he’d taken Aspen to the hospital.
But the bigger question in Colt’s mind had his senses on the sharpest sniper alert—how did the guy find Aspen, unless he watched the avalanche swallow her?
Or caused the avalanche.
That sharp metallic thudding noise echoed in Colt’s memory.
He slapped at his back pocket. As his fingers brushed the outline of his phone, relief made his nerves feel like overstretched rubber bands. “Thank Christ!”
He yanked out the device and called his brother Carson.
As soon as the line connected, a deep chuckle filled his ear. “Colt. Man, did you finally come up for air after running off with the travel agent?”
“Concierge,” he ground out without thinking, and then shook his head.
“What?” Carson asked.
“This isn’t that kind of call. I may need backup.”
“That means you do need backup. Where the hell are you?”
His truck was gone. The only way off the mountain was to start walking down the road. His chest tightened as he realized the odds he was up against.
But he was no quitter. None of the Malones were.
He spouted off the address of the cabin.
“Okay, the Underwood place. What happened?” Carson’s tone sounded with a sharp edge.
“Avalanche.”
“Jesus Christ! Are you all right?”
“Yes. But Aspen… Carson, she’s gone.” His throat closed on the words he never thought would hurt so much to say.
“Fuck! Colt, is she…?”
The question hung in the dead air.
“Someone dug her out. She can’t be conscious. If she were, I would have heard her screaming.” He walked faster, aware now of the bruises and muscle strains in his body even as he failed to give a damn about anything but the woman he had to find.
“I’ll send Gray to get you.”
Their younger brother must still be on military leave after the wedding.
“I’m walking down now. He’ll find me.”
“I’ll call the hospitals. See if anyone brought Aspen in.”
“Carson, the guy who has her…she knew him. She said his fucking name!”
“Holy fuck.” His voice cracked. “You think someone followed you up there? What’s the name?”
“I can’t remember it. I just know she called out the name and said, ‘What are you doing here?’ Call the hospitals. Get Gray here.” His words sounded like a plea to his own ears.
“Consider it done. Colt, you’re not alone. You don’t have to do this alone. You never did.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting back the sting of emotion. “I gotta go.”
“I’ll let you know about the hospitals as soon as I hear.”
“Thanks, bro.” Before he lost his shit, he ended the call and pocketed the phone for safekeeping.
Focusing on the road that angled at a steady path down the mountain, he studied the tracks. Only the one set of tracks led down, and he could see a slightly overlapping set of tracks where the driver had driven up the mountain.
Who the fuck was this guy?
He mentally calculated the time it would take Gray to reach him. The Underwood cabin where he’d taken Aspen—and was now mere rubble buried under the snow—was on the other side of Willowbrook from the Black Heart Ranch. Half an hour, tops.
He walked faster, ignoring the dull pain in his knee. It was nothing compared to the pang he felt in his heart with every second that passed without Aspen.
He grew so desensitized to the road lined by trees and the endless tracks that carried Aspen away from him, that he didn’t acknowledge the vehicle speeding toward him until the driver braked.
The door opened, and a buzzed head popped out. “Jesus, Colt. You look fucking shellshocked. You okay?”
“Yes.” He didn’t want to talk about how he looked right now. Nothing mattered except Aspen.
He bolted to the passenger door and leaped in. Gray performed a multiple-point turn on the narrow pass to head back the direction he’d come from.
“No word from Carson on the hospitals?” he asked as soon as they got turned around.
Gray shot him a look. “All quiet.”
“I’ll text him now.”
Silence prevailed as he sent a message to his brother. Immediately, Carson sent one back.
Nothing.
Colt stared down at that word, trying to make sense of what it meant.
“She’s not at the hospitals. Take me to the airport.”
Darkness fell earlier at this time of year, and with it came a thick fog. The headlights glared off the white world, making all the trees and shapes popping up seem more jagged and nefarious.
He fisted his hand on his knee and tried not to bellow at Gray for their slow pace, knowing one wrong move in this fog could pitch them off the steep mountainside to their deaths. Long, tense moments passed.
“What’s at the airport, Colt? Talk to me. I can’t read minds.”
“It’s the only place I know to check. Aspen has a private jet that’s under repair.”
“Call ahead and check the status.”
They neared the end of the road that ran east and west. “Wait!” He leaned forward, staring at the tracks from the vehicle that passed before them. “He turned toward the airport. Go!”
Reaching the end of the road, Gray shot onto the road. The SUV’s tires squealed as they hit dry road, and the vehicle picked up speed.
“What the hell happened up there, Colt?” Gray wasn’t going to stop pressing him for answers until he provided them.
Again, he replayed the moments in his head. “I heard a weird noise and I felt the ground rumbling. I knew an avalanche was coming. We just got out of the cabin before it got wiped off the mountain, along with my truck. Aspen’s hand was ripped out of mine.” He flexed his hand and gulped against the thick lump lodged in his throat.
“You didn’t see who took her?”
His knuckles popped as he tightened his fist. “By the time I got out, she was gone. I followed footprints to the road. I could see that someone must have carried her out and put her in a vehicle.”
“Fuck. Who could it be, Colt? Any ideas? Does she have any bad breakups in her past? Pissed-off exes?”
“Not that she told me. She’s single. She’s dedicated to building her business and she had some health problems.”
“What kind of problems?”
“Cancer. She’s in remission.”
“Jesus.”
The airport loomed into sight.
“The runway’s lit.”
Gray threw him a look and stomped the gas pedal to the floor. When they screeched to a halt in front of the hangar, both of them jumped out and sprinted to the building. He threw a wild look around at the empty bay where Aspen’s plane had been days before.
He ran into the office, a cold, sparse place at the front of the building. Two employees were there, kicked back, foam cups of coffee on the desk between them.
At his entrance, they looked up.
“Malone.” He looked past Colt. “And Malone. What’s going on?”
“Aspen Grace’s jet. Where is it?”
“It took off about thirty minutes ago.”
Dread swept him like an icy tide. “Where did she go? Who was with her?”
The men exchanged a look. One of them stood. “Let me get the flight plan.” He walked out and a minute later returned carrying a sheet of paper.
Colt ripped it out of his hand and stared at the location. “Montana.” With a sinking feeling, he realized it was the same private airfield that he and Aspen flew from when they took the trip to Lake Tahoe.
Gray leveled the employees in his stare. “Ready our jet.”
“I’ll call the pilot on standby—”
“No time,” Gray interrupted. “I’ll fly it.”
Colt jerked his head to look at his brother.
“What? I’m a Navy pilot. I didn’t go into that profession for nothing.”
“I thought you went into that profession so you didn’t have to get your hands dirty.”
Gray’s mouth twitched at the corner. “That’s the Colt I know.” He nodded at the employees. “Get that plane ready. We’re leaving immediately.”
In a much shorter time than he could have guessed, they were seated in the cockpit with Gray at the controls.
He flipped switches and set the flight path while Colt sat next to him, reeling at what they were about to do.
Gray threw him a glance. “You look like you’re about to have a stroke, Colt.”
He was silent.
“You always did get scary when you got quiet. Look, bro. Trust me. I can get us there safe.”
He stared out the big windshield at the lit runway. “Gideon!”
“Who the hell is Gideon?” Gray got the bird rolling, taxiing down the runway.
He whipped out his phone and started pulling up searches. He was so fixated on the screen that he didn’t notice they were in the air until they hit altitude.
He swung his head to stare at his brother, looking calm as hell while piloting the family jet. Later, Colt would give him the pat on the back he deserved.
“I found something. Aspen had a friend who went through chemo with her. They finished their treatments and went on a big world tour, traveling everywhere. Then the woman died…and according to public records, left Aspen her money. But look.” He held up his phone for Gray to see the photo he’d found.
A nice-looking older woman dressed up at a philanthropic event, with a younger man next to her. Both of them were smiling.
“Is that your guy?”
“His name is Gideon Page. He’s the nephew of Aspen’s friend who died. I know what this is about, Gray.”
“What’s that?”
“Money. He didn’t inherit.”
“Aspen did.”
“What connects the nephew to this area? Does he live here?” Gray stared at the horizon.
“No.” Colt’s heart pulsed faster. “He only came for Aspen. He knew her plans. He must have accessed her travel itinerary. He knew she was going to locations in Montana. The airfield they’re flying into is close to a cabin that we never visited.”
“He must have access to her phone.” The lights of the dash shot shadows over Gray’s face.
“There’s no way he could know we were at the Underwoods, except…fuck! I shared the location to her phone.”
“This cabin in Montana she was supposed to visit. You think that’s where they could be going?”
“Damn good chance.”
“And you have the address?”
“It’s in my GPS. I was looking out for her. She was visiting the worst places.”
Their gazes locked.
“Gray. How fast can you make this bird fly?”
* * * * *
Aspen sat in the corner of the cramped, dingy cabin, her wrists raw from the ropes binding her hands in front of her. Her spine ached from sitting on the floor so stiffly. Fear and anger made her muscles quiver.
In the middle of the room, a single bare lightbulb sent a greenish glare over the space.
“Ambient lighting, my ass,” she muttered.
Occasionally, the bulb would flicker, causing her to worry the filament was about to burn out. She couldn’t think of anything worse than being tied up in the company of her friend’s crazy nephew, other than being tied up in the company of her friend’s crazy nephew in the pitch darkness.
Goose bumps rippled up and down her arms. This cabin made the first cabin she and Colt visited look like a five-star establishment.
Gideon perched on the only chair in the room, facing her, a smug smile on his ugly face.
“You think you’re so damn clever, don’t you?” she taunted, voice hoarse but defiant. She hadn’t stopped talking since she regained consciousness on that plane. Several times, he’d ordered her to shut up or threatened to knock her out again, but she didn’t have anything to lose and kept up a constant volley of harassment.
At first, she pleaded with him to let her go. He ignored it. She promised him money as soon as they landed. He waved that off.
Then she begged him to tell her what happened to Colt. He only smirked at her and shrugged, saying he was probably dead. He’d seen the cabin fall and the truck get swallowed up by the snow.
At that point, Aspen had succumbed to noisy tears, which seemed to anger Gideon more than talking had. But she eventually dried her face on her sleeve and did what her momma would have told her to do.
She straightened her shoulders and fought back.
“If it’s not about the money, then why are you holding me here? Why come after me at all?” she shot at Gideon.
“It’s not about the money,” he snapped. He stood so fast that the chair skidded across the wooden floor and fell over with a hard crash.
She bit back a cry and lifted her chin a notch higher.
He poked a finger at her face. “It’s about pride, you little bitch. You humiliated me. In front of everyone. Do you know what that does to a man?”
She watched fury flash in his eyes, made more horrifying by the green light in the cabin. “You stupid dickhead motherfucking, cock-sucking asshole! How did I humiliate you? You had every opportunity to create a good life for yourself. But you waited around for your aunt to die, thinking that you’d get an inheritance.”
By now, she lost all hope of Colt finding her. She’d be damned if she’d go down without kicking, screaming and clawing.
She continued on, pushing her captor to the breaking point. “You had family money of your own, if I remember correctly. Plus a good-paying job as a mechanic. You had connections and resources in your hometown, but you wasted them all, didn’t you?”
He started pacing in front of her, bringing the oily stench of sweat every time he circled near. Her nostrils pinched, and her stomach rioted at the smell.
“All you needed was ambition, Gideon.”
He whipped around and grabbed her chin in his hard, biting grasp. She stifled a yelp and glared him down.
“You think I don’t have ambition, Aspen? I got to you, didn’t I? I cloned your phone.”
The breath punched from her lungs. So that was how he found her.
“When?”
“When you set your luggage down to board your private jet . Your phone was in your handbag. I knew it would be after I watched all those touching videos you recorded with my aunt. I know everything about you, Aspen.”
For the moment, she was struck speechless.
He released her jaw, surely leaving bruises where his fingertips bit into her flesh. Then he whirled around to pace the other direction. He cut a hand through the air. “I disabled your landing gear once we reached Wyoming.”
“Wait—once we reached Wyoming? You were on my plane?” Her voice pitched louder. The bulb flickered like in a horror feature.
His face broke into an evil smile. “You don’t keep very good track of who’s around you. You slept on the flight and you didn’t even notice me slipping out because you were in such a hurry to get to that ranch and deliver the honeymoon portfolio.” He made another rotation, his voice mocking.
She stared at him, stunned.
“Once I had your phone cloned, I saw every place you were going. I went to the cabin and took all the wood so you’d freeze. I went to the next cabin and broke the furnace so the place would fill with carbon monoxide.”
She gasped.
“I started an avalanche!” He threw his arms in the air like some demented villain proud of his master plan.
Aspen’s heart hammered, but she refused to look away. If she was going to die, she wasn’t going to cower.
“I remember the lawyer that read the will said that Vivian left you a thousand dollars for therapy. Obviously, you didn’t use the money for therapy.”
He narrowed his eyes on her and reached inside his jacket. “No, but I did use it to buy this gun, and killing you is going to be really therapeutic.”
Her blood ran cold. Even if Colt was never coming for her, she still wanted to live.
Gideon twisted the gun right and left, examining the short barrel and then checking the chamber for bullets.
As he took a step toward her, a scream built in her throat. Before he could reach her, a loud crash shattered the silence. The cabin door blew inward, splintering on its hinges.
The scream she held inside burst out in a long note just as a big man rushed into the space and tackled Gideon to the floor with a force that sent the gun spinning across the wood floor.
Her breath caught as she recognized the intruder.
“Colt!”
A second man blasted in. It was one of Colt’s brothers she’d seen at the wedding. As Colt scrambled up, his brother cocked his fist and slammed it right into Gideon’s face.
Colt’s strong body pushed close to where she hunkered in the corner. He started to untie the rope around her wrists. When it was apparent that picking the knots free would take too long, he whipped out a knife.
“Hold still,” he grunted.
Tears of relief threatened at the back of her eyes, but she bit down on her lip to remain silent as he cut her free.
He yanked her off the floor and into his arms.
In the middle of the cabin, Gideon and Colt’s brother were engaged in an all-out brawl. Gideon was no weakling, and he delivered several blows that made Aspen cry out in concern for Colt’s brother.
With her locked in his arms, Colt ran outside. A vehicle sat waiting in front of the cabin. He threw her into the front seat and barked out, “Lock the doors!”
“Colt, wait! Don’t go back there!”
His dark gray eyes blazed. “Lock the doors, Aspen. I’ll be back.”
He took off into the darkness, heading back into the cabin with the crazy man who had a gun.
With shaking hands, she hit the locks. She wasn’t safe yet, but for the first time since this nightmare began, she saw a flicker of hope.
Colt was here. He was alive.