Chapter 66
Leif!” Liz called, the relief almost buckling her. “Thank God! It is you!”
He appeared through the fog, pack on his shoulders, expression focused. He was wearing shorts, muscular legs pushed into hiking boots.
“You found us,” she said, voice shaken with disbelief. “We didn’t know anyone was looking! We lost everything in the landslide! And Maggie . . . she’s hurt. We don’t know how we’ll get off the mountain.” She dragged in a breath, aware that she was speaking too rapidly.
“It’s okay,” Leif said, moving toward her. “We will work it out, ja?”
She could feel herself on the edge of tears. She knew how she must have looked—hair wild and lank, face tearstained, dirt beneath her nails. “I can’t find the cabin. The fog came in . . . I lost my bearings.”
“Where are the others?” Leif cut in. He shifted his weight from foot to foot. There was something distracted—almost edgy—about him that she’d missed at first.
“Joni’s out here, somewhere. We . . . we . . . argued . . . I don’t know where she is—”
“And the other two?” he asked, eyes darting around.
“Maggie and Helena—they were in the DNT cabin when I left. Still asleep. Your brother is there, too.”
His gaze shot to her face. “Erik?”
She nodded.
His expression had changed, the skin around his mouth tightening, his eyes darting, unable to stay still.
“What’s wrong?”
Leif glanced over his shoulder, and she saw a muscle working at his jaw. “Where did Erik hike from? The beach? With you?”
She shook her head. “No. He arrived late, after dark. I don’t know where he came from. I think he was already on the mountain.”
He was silent, a sheen of sweat appearing on his forehead.
“Leif, what is it? Are my friends safe?”
His jaw sawed from side to side. He didn’t answer.
Liz felt the damp press of the fog around her, chilling her skin.
Something wasn’t right. The warm, friendly Leif she remembered when he’d joined them in the lodge bar was gone. Now there was something wary and unsettled about him that was beginning to scare her.
She needed to find her way back to the cabin, be with her friends.
Something electronic buzzed—and she watched Leif produce a radio from the outer pocket of his pack.
He answered it in Norwegian, turning away.
The person on the other end of the radio spoke rapid-fire, a sharpness to their tone.
“Ja. Det er greit,” Leif responded, glancing sideways at Liz.
A chill spread down her back.
“Who was that?” she asked as Leif returned the radio to his pack.
“The rescue base.”
“Did you tell them you’d found me?”
He looked agitated, blinking rapidly. “Yes,” he said, but there was something in his expression that told her he was lying.
“I want to get back to the cabin now.”
But Leif only stared at her, any final traces of warmth washing away.
She thought of Erik at the cabin with Helena and Maggie—and her out here, alone with Leif. Suddenly Liz didn’t know if she was more afraid for her friends—or herself.