Chapter 27
DARCY
The sound of thunder drew Darcy up from dreams of cold ice cream and warm cuddles. She rolled over, smiling, remembering the way she had felt last night. The happy, belly-aching warmth of how Devlin had made her feel. Thunder was good. It meant the storm was still raging. It meant that she would have more time here with the man who had made her feel like this outpost in the middle of the mountains was home. She gathered him close, pushing her face into the familiar smell of him, reaching for his arms, his hands, then his legs, and — he was softer than she remembered him being. Downy. Squashy. Smelled a little mouldy.
“What?” she said, sitting up. The thing she held in her arms wasn’t Devlin at all — it was a pillow. For a moment she was grateful for that fact, because it was covered in her drool. Then she blinked the fuzziness from her vision to see that the bunkroom was completely empty.
“Devlin?” she called. The thunder outside was louder than ever, and with a jolt of her heart, she realised it wasn’t thunder at all. It was a helicopter.
She clambered off the bed, threw the blanket around her body, and ran to the window. The snow had piled up on the other side of the glass, but past it she could see a huge, bright-orange helicopter spinning lazily as it dropped towards the landing pad. Its rotors kicked up another storm of snow, flecks drumming against the window.
“Devlin?” she cried, running through the bunkroom and out into the living quarters. “The helicopter is here!”
As disappointing as it was to know that her time alone with Devlin had come to an end, she was excited to be heading home. She couldn’t wait to have a warm bath, a proper bed, a decent meal. Then maybe, just maybe, she and Devlin could carry on where they had left off last night.
She smiled to herself as she skipped back into the bunkroom and found herself the warmest snow-gear she could get her hands on. It had been one of the most wonderful nights of her life and her skin fizzed at the memory of his touch as she pulled on a jumper and a pair of oversized trousers.
“Devlin?” she called again, checking the bathroom.
It was empty so she washed her face and ran some water around her mouth as she called his name again, a feeling of dread starting to work itself up from her stomach.
He’ll be outside, directing the helicopter where to land , she thought. Or in the office, radioing for a new box of Frosted Flakes to be delivered to his hospital wing. Tying her trousers tight and pulling on some socks, Darcy headed back out to the living quarters.
“Devlin, we’re being rescued,” Darcy shouted one last time, rushing past the table and almost tripping on the empty suitcase. The dread exploded into full-blown panic.
She ran to the hallway and the front door. The floor here was covered in snow, as if the door had just been opened. Darcy checked the garage to find it empty, then grabbed the front door and hauled it open. The cold gripped her like a fist and she squealed as the snow fell on her stockinged feet. Clutching her arms to her chest, she stumbled outside just as the helicopter was touching down.
“Devlin?” she cried out. “Where are you?”
He didn’t answer, and he didn’t need to. She could see the deep holes that his footprints had made in the snow, leading around the landing pad and disappearing up the slope.
“What are you doing?” she yelled into the sunlit snow, though she knew he wouldn’t hear her.
There was no time to think, though, as two figures in orange thermal gear were already climbing out of the helicopter and running towards her. She retreated into the outpost so that they could get through the door.
“Darcy?” said one, pulling off a pair of reflective goggles and a hat to reveal a kind, wrinkled face. Darcy nodded at him, suddenly gripped by an intense round of shivers. The man put a gentle hand on her arm and steered her through the door, back into the living quarters. “Come on, let’s get you warm. We don’t want you catching hypothermia now you’re about to be rescued.”
The other ranger took off her hat and goggles and gave Darcy a smile that was full of compassion and relief.
“We’re so glad to see you alive,” she said. “Our choppers saw the wreckage of the bird you were flying in. You both did well getting out of that and making it here, especially in the middle of a storm like the one we just had. Are you ready to leave? We can have you down the mountain in fifteen minutes. How about that?”
“Leave?” Darcy said. “What about Devlin?”
The two rangers shared a look, then the man turned to Darcy with a sigh.
“Devlin radioed in this morning,” he said. “He’s asked us to take you back on your own. He said he had something he needed to do.”
“What?” Darcy asked, retreating until her back hit the table. “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
“We weren’t given an explanation,” said the woman, shrugging. “Now it’s safe to fly, Devlin’s chartering one of his own helicopters to bring him back this evening. But he didn’t want you to be here longer than you needed to. It’s a bit unorthodox, I’ll give you that, but then he is Devlin Storm.”
Darcy turned around, feeling like her bones had been replaced with ice. He’d abandoned her, just tossed her aside like she was rubbish. After everything they’d been through, everything she’d given to him last night, how could he do that?
“We really need to leave,” urged the man.
He said something else, but Darcy ignored him. There was a piece of paper on the table next to Devlin’s winning card hand, a pen resting on top of it. Snatching it up, she read the note that he had left her, growing colder with every word.
I’m sorry. You once said I’m like a frozen lake, and you were right. But you deserve warmth and sunlight in your life, not the cold I bring. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to thaw enough to give you what you truly deserve.
“What?” she shouted, gripping the note so tightly it ripped at the edges. “It’s best I leave. Never be able to thaw. You coward, Devlin.”
She used the sleeve of her jumper to wipe away a tear. What had happened? Why was he doing this? She was boiling hot, a rash of anger creeping up her neck. Devlin had proved himself to be the ignorant, hard-faced man the press warned her about. And she’d fallen for his soft-boy act. The note fluttered onto the cards. Darcy moved them about with her hands, looking at the four Queens he’d laid out before he’d kissed her and made her whole world light up.
“You’re an idiot, Darcy,” she whispered, noticing the suitcase and half halting at the sight of it.
Devlin had left her, that she understood in so much as he had a reputation that had screamed from the rooftops that that’s exactly what he would do. But to leave this suitcase? There was no way. Devlin had risked his life to get it from the helicopter. He’d shouted at Darcy when she’d gone near it. He looked like a broken man when he thought it had fallen down the crevasse. Yet, there it was, sitting beside the table in the outpost, forgotten.
Something didn’t add up.
“Darcy, we really need to get going in case another storm flies in,” the man said. “We don’t all want to be stranded here.”
“Wait, just a moment, please,” she pushed, pleading with the rangers. She opened Devlin’s suitcase and peered inside. His passport was there, but the only other thing it had contained — that strange tin — was now gone.
“Miss Wainwright, please,” said the female ranger, tapping her snow boots and sending a flurry of melted snow onto the floor. “We can’t stay here and put ourselves at risk. You must understand that?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said, closing the suitcase and forcing herself to think. “Please just give me a moment.”
A metal tin that seemed to mean more to Devlin than anything. And a job he needed to do, right here on the mountain. Darcy paced around the room, moving back to the table and sifting through the cards strewn there.
Suddenly it made sense. A terrible, beautiful, heart-breaking kind of sense. Darcy lifted the Queen of Hearts and slid it into her pocket, looking back at the rangers.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry, but you have to wait.”
“Why?” asked the man.
“Because Devlin needs me,” she said. “He needs me, because he’s saying goodbye to his mum.”