Chapter Eighteen #3
“There’s a map on the website,” Connor said.
The sheriff frowned. “I’ll see about sending a deputy up there to check, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I’ll leave you to get back to your work.” He nodded, then left.
No one said much for a long moment, then Connor looked at Raz. “I don’t like the sound of that,” he said.
“He’s not going to look for Nicholson at the ski huts,” Raz said. “At least not right now. He thinks Nicholson is at Rabbit Basin.”
“This guy stabbed Nina at the Mardi Gras parade,” Renee said.
“And he tried to kill her when he kidnapped her before,” Brian said.
“The sheriff may not be worried, but I am,” Raz said.
“What can any of us do about it?” Lily asked.
“We could go up to the huts and warn Nina and Liam,” Raz said.
“We have a resort full of skiers to look after,” Lily said.
Raz collapsed back in her chair and looked at Connor. “We have to do something,” she pleaded.
Connor glanced around the room. “I can’t leave, and we’re stretched thin on patrol as it is.”
“What if I called in sick?” Raz asked. “You’d have to call Trey or Carson to fill in for me.” Trey and Carson were part-time patrollers who weren’t scheduled to work today.
“And if I called in sick and Brian called in sick, everybody would shuffle around and make do,” Renee said.
“I can’t spare three of you,” Connor said.
“I feel a really bad case of the flu coming on,” Raz said. “I’m probably contagious.” She turned toward Brian. “And Brian is looking really feverish to me.”
Brian sat up straight. “Yeah. I don’t see how I can work today.”
Connor clenched his jaw and stared at Raz. She held her breath. She didn’t want to argue with her captain—and the resort did need patrol people to keep everyone safe. But she couldn’t bear the thought of Nina and Liam being in trouble that she might be able to prevent.
“Go,” Connor said. “You and Brian. I’ll call in Trey and Carson. But be careful.”
“We will. I promise.”
“What about me?” Renee said. “I want to go.”
“I need you here,” Connor said.
Raz grabbed Renee’s hand. “I’ll feel a lot better if you’re here, keeping yourself and everyone else safe.”
Renee gripped her hands. “You just said this guy is really dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
The fear in Renee’s eyes—worry over her—made Raz all wobbly. “I’ll be okay,” she said.
“Promise?”
“Promise.” She wished she could lean down and give Renee a big kiss, but that was a little much with all their coworkers looking on. Romance between patrol members wasn’t forbidden or anything, but still, it could be a little awkward for everyone else.
She tried to pull away, but Renee held on, then stood up and threw her arms around Raz. “Don’t you dare go getting hurt when I’m falling so hard for you,” she whispered, then pulled away.
“Come on.” Brian clapped a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll stop by my house and get my Polaris.”
“Snowmobiles aren’t allowed in the wilderness area,” Raz said.
“If Nina’s stalker is ignoring that, do you really want to face him on foot? Besides, a snowmobile is the fastest way on and off the mountain. If we get fined, I think it’s worth it to help Nina.”
She nodded. “You’re right. In that case, we’re going to need a second machine if we need to bring back Nina and Liam and the dogs.”
“We could ask to take one of the resort machines.” Brian looked doubtful.
“I’ve got a better idea,” Raz said. “Derek Frazier has a machine. Let’s see if we can borrow his.”
“You just want to make sure he’s not the one after Nina,” Brian said as he followed her.
“I want to make sure the sheriff isn’t following the wrong man.”
* * *
The morning after Nina and Liam’s ordeal with Nicholson dawned sunny and mild.
The journey back to their car on skis would have been a treat if they both weren’t so exhausted.
Neither of them had slept very well the night before, waking every few hours to check that they were still alone and safe, and to feed more wood to the stove.
But it wasn’t just fatigue that dragged at them. Nina was afraid. She couldn’t keep from looking back over her shoulder every few minutes, to see if Nicholson was following them.
“I disabled the snowmobile, and he doesn’t have skis,” Liam said. “There’s no way he’s following us.”
“We don’t know if he has skis or not,” she said. “He may have stashed some up at the Nina Marie.”
“The Nina Marie?”
“That was the name of that old mine, where that cabin was,” she said. “Or that’s what he told me it was named. He took it as more proof that we were meant to be together.” She shuddered, remembering the unhinged conviction of Nicholson’s words.
“When I got to the cabin, I heard him shouting that name—Nina Marie,” Liam said. “He was calling for you. But Marie isn’t your middle name, is it?”
“No. It’s Camille.”
Sky licked Nina’s gloved hand and whined. “It isn’t too much farther,” Nina said. The dogs were tired, too, Sky trudging along, Angel refusing to get out of Liam’s pack.
A distant roaring sound cut the silence, and Nina froze. Ahead of her, Liam had already halted. She looked around for somewhere to hide, but they were in the middle of a treeless expanse of snow.
“The sound is coming from ahead of us,” Liam said. But he moved closer and a little in front of her.
Two snowmobiles approached, one bright green, the other yellow. Not the rental unit Nicholson had been riding. “We should warn them about Nicholson,” Liam said. Nina relaxed, and Liam raised a hand to hail the pair.
The machines slowed and stopped a few feet away. The first driver pulled off a helmet, revealing short red curls. “You don’t know how glad I am to see you two,” Raz said.
Nina gaped. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
The second driver turned out to be Brian. “Hey,” he said.
“I can’t believe this,” Nina said.
“We came to check on you,” Brian said. “Everything okay?”
“It’s not okay,” Raz said, before Nina or Liam could answer. “You both look exhausted. And you said you reserved the hut for two nights, right? What happened?”
“The man who was stalking me, Aaron Nicholson, followed us up here,” Nina said.
“So it was Nicholson,” Raz said. “We knew it couldn’t be Derek.”
“How did you know that?” Liam asked.
“Because he was home watching TV when we stopped by this morning,” Raz said. “And he loaned me this snowmobile. He even insisted on coming with us. He’s waiting back at the trailhead.”
“He wasn’t very happy when Raz wouldn’t let him ride with her,” Brian said.
“I pointed out we didn’t have room to carry the two of you and the dogs if he came along,” Raz said. She shrugged. “So now he’s back at the car, pouting.”
“Poor Derek,” Nina said. “I feel terrible that we ever accused him. It was Nicholson all the time.”
“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Raz asked. “I should have asked before.”
“He didn’t hurt me,” Nina said. “It was terrifying, but we managed to get away. We’re safe now. I still can’t believe you two are here.”
“We had to come,” Raz said. “This is all our fault.”
“What do you mean?” Liam asked.
“We’ll explain later,” Brian said. “Where is this Nicholson guy now?”
“We left him stranded at some mine ruins up in the mountains,” Liam said. “We took his snowmobile and disabled it after it ran out of gas, just in case he had more fuel stashed somewhere.”
“We don’t know if he has skis or not,” Nina said. “We just know we need to get away from here.”
“You can ride with us,” Raz said. “The dogs, too, of course.”
“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all week,” Nina said, and moved to unclip from her skis.
“What did you mean, this was all your fault?” Liam asked again as he stepped out of his own skis.
“Brian, Renee, Connor and I were in the Trail’s End after work yesterday,” Raz said.
“We were talking about the two of you being tucked away safely up here at this hut. Next thing I know, Connor spotted a guy in a black helmet with a Mt. Hood Meadows sticker not that far from our table. He took off after the guy, but in the crowd he got away. He must have overheard our conversation and followed you up here.”
“We didn’t realize it until the sheriff told us this morning that your stalker rented a snowmobile yesterday afternoon,” Brian said.
“We told the sheriff to send someone up here to check on you,” Raz said. “But he was convinced Nicholson was in Rabbit Basin, because that’s where he told the rental agent he was going. I’m so sorry. If I hadn’t been running my mouth so much, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“It’s okay.” Nina put a hand on Raz’s shoulder. “Nicholson is the villain here, not you. And I’m so grateful you decided to come check on us this morning.” She stashed her skis in the PVC tubes at the back of the snowmobile designed to carry skis, climbed on behind Raz and called Sky.
The dog scrambled into her lap, a warm, furry pillow between the two women. “Everybody ready?” Brian asked. Liam sat behind him, Angel secure in her pack on his back.
“Let’s get out of here,” Liam said.
Nina hugged Sky close and relaxed into the ride. They were all safe. They would be all right. And this time, surely this time, law enforcement would find and stop Nicholson.
She and Raz were ahead of Brian and Liam as they approached the parking area. “Looks like we’ve got company,” Raz said.
Nina looked over Raz’s shoulder and was startled to see two sheriff’s department SUVs, one of them trailering two snowmobiles. Raz and Brian pulled in alongside them. “Nicholson is up there, all right,” Raz said. “But who’s that on the ground?”
Nina leaned forward, trying to see. Two deputies leaned over someone prone on the ground.
“That’s Derek!” Raz said. She revved the engine on the snowmobile and the machine shot forward. Nina gripped her tightly. “Hey! What are you doing?” Raz shouted.
The two deputies and the sheriff turned to watch the two snowmobiles race into the parking area. Raz stopped only a few feet from where Derek lay prone, his hands cuffed behind him. “What are you doing to Derek?” she demanded.
“You’re not supposed to have snowmobiles in a wilderness area,” one of the deputies said.