Chapter 10 #2
And then the light weakened, bit by bit until it was gone and she was in the dark once more. “No! Don’t do that! No.” She shook the flashlight, clicked the button on and off, but got nothing. “I can’t sign your stupid paper if I can’t see it, you—”
She closed her eyes and bit her lip, then shoved the flashlight into another pocket.
Wasting her breath yelling at someone who couldn’t hear her—and wouldn’t care if she could—wasn’t going to help anyone.
Fine. On to plan B. She turned until she faced the moving air and shoved her hand out to the side to place her palm on the nearest rock wall.
Gideon had searched the clinic, the lodge, and the restaurant.
And still no sign of Maya. No one had seen her.
He stood outside the lodge, feet planted on the snow-covered deck while the flames danced in the firepit.
Lila approached. She’d come as soon as she’d heard Maya was missing via paid teenage messenger.
“I need a phone,” Gideon said, his voice practically a growl. “We all need phones.”
“They’re still working as fast as possible to restore service,” she said. “The sat phone is in the medical clinic in case they have to call a chopper for another patient.”
“We need to call for more sat phones to be dropped so we can stay in touch while we search.”
“That’s going to take a while.”
“I know. I’m not going to stop searching, but we need to at least put the request in.”
She nodded. “All right. I’ll run over to the clinic and make the call. Where are you going to search from here?”
“Everything all right?” Ben’s question came from behind him.
Gideon turned. “No, Maya’s missing.”
“Missing? Missing how?”
“Meaning we can’t find her, and we suspect someone took her,” Lila said. “I’m going to put in the request for those sat phones.” She hurried off.
Ben frowned at Gideon. “Maya looked fine to me when I saw her talking to that Vance guy outside her cabin a little while ago.”
“Out back?”
“Yeah.”
“Did she go back in?”
“No, she went up the hill, and I didn’t see where Vance went, but he went in the opposite direction..”
Relief nearly unsettled him. “Okay, he probably came to get her to help Ellie. Thanks, man.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Yeah, go after Lila and let her know I’m heading up to Vance’s cabin.”
“Sure thing.” The man hurried in the direction Lila had gone, and Gideon hesitated.
Two officers sat in a cruiser in their designated parking spot just outside the lodge. He walked over and the driver rolled his window down. “Hey, I’m looking for Dr. Maya Sullivan. Have you heard the history of everything going on with her?”
“We have. Just got word she went missing. Need help?”
“Yeah. I’ll take all the help I can get. Can you take me to cabin 42? She may be there helping a friend. I just want to verify it.”
“Hop in.”
Gideon slid in the back seat.
They arrived much faster to cabin 42 than if he’d tried to hoof it. “Thanks.”
“Want us to wait here?”
“That’d be great. Thanks. Hopefully, this won’t take long.”
Gideon scrambled out of the cruiser and hurried to the front door. He knocked. “Ellie? Vance? It’s Gideon.” He knocked again. “Ellie?”
The door opened and Ellie stood there in her bathrobe, hand shading her squinted eyes. The woman looked horrible.
“Gideon? What is it?”
“I’m so sorry to bother you, but did Maya come by here?”
“Um, yeah. She did. She just left a few minutes ago. Why?”
His heart rate settled a bit. “Okay, thanks. Did she say where she was going when she finished here?”
“No. She didn’t. Um, Gideon, my head is a little better, but I need to lay down.” She swayed, then leaned against the wall.
“Of course.” He stepped inside and grasped her arm. “Let me help you.”
“Um . . . thank you. The couch is fine.”
He helped her to the sofa, and she pulled the blanket off the back to wrap it around her shoulders.
He looked around. Their cabin was about twice the size of his.
“Is Vance here? Someone said they saw him talking to Maya just before she came up to your cabin. I want to ask him if she said anything about where she was going.”
“No, he’s not here. I’m not sure where he is.” Her eyes fluttered and closed, then opened. “I’m sorry. It’s the drugs.”
“I know. It’s okay. I’m going to go now. Feel better.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
He turned to head to the door when something winked at him from the floor next to the French doors. He walked over and picked it up, then caught his breath.
A gold cross with a broken chain. And a bent fastener. Like it had been jerked off her neck, not simply come undone.
He turned to face Ellie. And found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. Once the zap of shock faded, he blinked. “You deserve an Oscar.”
She smiled. A tight, hard smile that didn’t reach her cold blue eyes. “I sure do.”
“But why?”
“I’ve already explained all that to Maya. I’m not going into it again.”
“Where is she?”
“Safe for the moment.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“I’ll take you to her if you like.”
“I like.”
“Then don’t try any funny stuff or she’ll die. I won’t have to do a thing but just leave her where she is and she’ll die. Understood?”
“Understood. One question.”
“Just one?”
“At the moment. Why break into her cabin? What were you looking for?”
“Vance saw her working on something at the café. She had papers and the laptop. He thought she’d sold the ranch.
I told him no way, but he insisted she had.
I told him to find the proof.” She rolled her eyes.
“And then he had a conversation with her and learned what she was really doing and proved me right. So enough small talk. It’s time to go. ”
She stepped away from him and set the weapon next to her but out of his reach while she shrugged into her coat and gloves. If he moved, she could easily beat him to the gun. Once she was dressed, he allowed her to prod him out the French doors and into the woods behind her cabin.
He could take her down. He had the skills, even with her holding a weapon on him, but he had to know where Maya was. Assuming Ellie was telling the truth about taking him to Maya. But she hadn’t put a bullet in him yet. “Does Vance know about all of this?”
“Of course.”
“What do you have against Maya? Why do you want her dead?”
“Move.”
He moved. “Where’s Vance?”
“Don’t worry about Vance. He’s doing as I’ve instructed.”
Which meant Vance knew where Maya was? So, if he disarmed Ellie, he could find Vance and get him to talk. But what if he wouldn’t? Or what if Ellie was lying?
Gideon kept his mouth shut and kept walking. The dense trees closed in around him and the undergrowth snagged at his jeans. Where in the world was she taking—
“Stop.”
He stopped and turned to face her. “What now?”
“Open that door.” She gestured with the gun, and he almost acted to take it from her, but she had it back up and pointed at him so fast he blinked.
“What . . . ?” He looked down, and it only took him a split second to spot the black handle poking up out of the previously disturbed snow. He leaned over, grasped the handle, twisted it out of the iron hook, and pulled. The door creaked open.
“In you go.”
“This is one of the tunnels?”
“It is.”
“But where does it lead?”
She smirked. “Nowhere. Now, you can walk down those steps under your own power, or I can shoot you and let you fall in.”
In a smooth move, he knocked the weapon from her hand.
The gun landed on the snow-covered ground, disappearing in a powdery puff.
Ellie screeched and lunged for it, but he caught her arm and threw her to the ground.
It didn’t take much to subdue her and get her arms behind her with a knee in her lower back. She wiggled and coughed. “Let me up!”
“Not until you tell me where Maya is.”
“Let her go!” Vance’s shout from the tree line froze him for a split second, then he stood and jerked Ellie to her feet.
She tried to yank away from him and he shook her. “Be still!”
She kicked back and got him in the shin. Pain radiated through his leg and he squeezed her wrists. She shrieked and bucked like a rodeo bronco.
“I said let her go or I’ll shoot you!” Vance shouted.
“I’m not letting her go until she tells me where Maya is. Or you do.” Gideon kept his voice low and even. “How can you do this, Vance? We were friends!”
“Friendship doesn’t make up for what her family did to mine!”
“Says who? Your parents and Maya’s were friends!”
“Until my father found out the truth. He found my grandmother’s old diary and she outlined exactly how Maya’s grandfather stole our land!”
“Vance, shut up, you useless idiot! Make him let me go!” Ellie’s raging screech echoed around them, and Vance flinched as though she’d slapped him.
Vance gripped his weapon, complete with a suppressor, and punched it toward Gideon. “Now, Gideon. And I’ll tell you where Maya is.”
“I don’t believe you. Tell me first.” But Gideon wouldn’t believe that either. “Is she down in that tunnel? Maybe we should all go down and take a look.”
Ellie set off on another frenzy of kicking and squirming. “Shoot him, Vance! Don’t just stand there! Shoot him!”
“I can’t! I might hit you!”
“Shoot him, you worthless loser! Now!”
Time slowed and Gideon watched Vance’s eyes narrow, his lips tighten, and his finger twitch.
Gideon dropped.
The gun cracked.
Ellie screamed and fell to the snow, hand pressing her side. “You shot me!”
Vance raced toward her, horror on his face. He looked at her, then Gideon. And swung the weapon toward Gideon.
Gideon dove into the hole as the next bullet sailed over his head. He landed hard on the first step, then scrambled down to the bottom.
“I’m coming for you both, Gideon! After I get Ellie help, I’m coming to kill you!”
The door slammed shut.