Chapter 1 #2
“Shelter?” Joe had caught up, his breathing labored but his voice sharp with alarm. His shoes were caked with mud and slush from the snow patches. “Like, staying out here overnight?”
“Hopefully not.” Nick’s voice carried a soothing tone that made Gina’s pulse quicken. “But we need to be realistic about options.”
Gina set aside her growing curiosity about Brooke’s cousin as bigger concerns closed in. The snow had started falling in earnest now, fat, wet flakes that meant business. Fresh accumulation was already covering the old patches, making it harder to tell where the icy patches were.
“That’s it,” she called ahead to Brooke. “We’re turning around. Now.”
This time, Brooke stopped, wheeling around with wild eyes. “No! You don’t understand. I’ve been planning this run for weeks. My training schedule is calibrated precisely, and if I don’t get this distance today, this climb today, everything gets thrown off. The Moose Range Run is five weeks away.”
“The Moose will still be there if you miss one training run,” Nick said reasonably. “Hypothermia and getting lost won’t help your race prep.”
“Easy for you to say, Nick Davies. You’re not the one whose entire race strategy depends on specific elevation gains at specific intervals.” Brooke’s voice cracked slightly. “I can’t just skip this. I can’t.”
The desperation in her friend’s voice sent warning bells through Gina’s mind.
This wasn’t normal training anxiety. This was something else entirely, something that made Brooke seem almost unhinged.
Combined with Joe’s struggles that seemed more pronounced than simple altitude adjustment, and Kelsey’s nervous, distracted behavior . . .
“Look around,” Gina said firmly. “The weather’s changing fast. We’re over three miles from Bearwater, and the road back to civilization always floods with extra precipitation. If we push forward and this gets worse, we could be looking at a serious survival situation.”
She gestured around them. “Plus, we’ll be running the Grizzly Creek Trail in limited visibility. There’s a reason it’s called Grizzly Creek, and this is exactly the kind of weather that makes wildlife unpredictable.”
Nick stepped up beside her, presenting a united front.
“Gina’s right. If we turn around now, we’re back to Bearwater and our rigs in forty-five minutes.
Going down will be quicker than going up has been.
If we push ahead, we’re committed to finishing the whole route in whatever this weather throws at us.
” His eyes scanned the tree line along the river. “And whatever else might be out here.”
Something inside Gina loosened. She didn't know this man, but she appreciated how he backed her call without hesitation.
She zipped her jacket closer to her neck.
The snow was falling steadily now, beginning to accumulate on the rocks and sparse vegetation.
The temperature continued dropping, and the wind carried a bone-deep chill that promised serious weather ahead.
Joe wiped snow from his face, his breathing still too heavy. “I vote turn around. This is getting sketchy, and I’ve already taken a couple of tumbles on the ice.”
“Kelsey?” Gina asked.
Kelsey frowned. “Seems a shame to quit now.” She pulled out her phone.
“You have service?” Gina asked.
“Service? Here?” She looked at the wilderness surrounding them. “Just checking the time. Might as well go back. No point in being stupid about it.”
All eyes shifted to Brooke, standing in the falling snow as if watching her dreams unravel.
Her softshell jacket was tied around her waist, and her performance tights were wet from the knees down, but she showed no sign of being bothered by the cold or the snow. Finally, she gave a single sharp nod.
“Fine. But I’m not happy about it.”
“Nobody’s asking you to be happy,” Gina said gently. “I’m asking you to be smart.” She paused, waiting for her friend to respond. When Brooke stayed silent, Gina added, “And put your jacket on. You’re going to get hypothermia.”
Brooke pursed her lips, and for a moment, Gina thought she might lash out. Instead, she gave a slight nod, untied her jacket from her waist, and pulled it on.
As they began the trek back toward the cars, Gina found herself beside Nick, their strides naturally synchronizing.
The snow was falling harder now, visibility dropping as the storm settled in over the peaks.
The fresh snow was already making the existing patches harder to see, turning the trail into a minefield of slippery spots.
“Good call,” he said quietly, meant just for her.
“Thanks for backing me up.”
“Always happy to support good judgment.” The words were simple, but something in his tone made her glance over at him. Despite his apparent life chaos, he’d shown solid decision-making under pressure today. Maybe there was more to Brooke’s cousin than his current circumstances suggested.
Behind them, Joe’s labored breathing and occasional stumble suggested the altitude was hitting him hard, even on the return trip downhill. Ahead, Kelsey maintained her pace as she held her phone in her hand, glancing at it every few minutes.
And Brooke . . . Brooke moved like someone fleeing disaster, her earlier desperation replaced by something that looked almost like relief.
Coming off the ridge, they crossed the Sagebrush River using a fallen log. Was it Gina’s imagination, or had the river come up since they crossed it on the way up?
“Water’s moving faster,” Nick said.
“Mm-hmm,” she replied, her mind already on the road back to town, picturing the river swelling higher with every mile. Whoever designed a road that crossed the river multiple times without a single bridge had clearly never faced a Wyoming spring storm.
The canyon walls of the Grizzly Creek Trail seemed to close in around them as the snow fell harder, muffling sound and reducing their world to a few yards of visible trail.
Somewhere in the forest, something large moved through the underbrush. Probably an elk, but in conditions like these, probably wasn’t good enough.
Nick’s shoulder brushed hers as they paused to listen. Even through the cold, the contact steadied her more than she wanted to admit.