Chapter 8
With the throttle wide open, Nick shot up the hill, bouncing over rocks and logs buried beneath two feet of snow.
He couldn’t avoid them without losing control of the machine, so he rode the worst of the bumps, his teeth jarring against each other, his head aching from the constant banging.
As he neared the top of the hill, he held his breath.
On a practically vertical slope, he knew he risked flipping the machine and tumbling back to the bottom.
Nowhere else along the side of the embankment was much better. He had to make a run for it or they’d freeze to death.
His breath held in his throat. Nick leaned all his weight as far forward as possible and gunned the throttle. The snowmobile shot straight up.
For a second, Nick was suspended in midair, his feet flying free of the footrests, all that connected him to the snowmobile were his hands on the grips.
Gravity kicked in, and the machine fell forward, the skids slamming against the flat trail.
Nick landed hard on the seat, his chest bouncing off the handlebars, the breath knocked from his lungs.
Immediately his hands loosened on the throttle and the snowmobile slid to a stop against the opposite side of the trail, the front runner bumping softly against the base of a massive spruce tree.
When he found his breath and his feet shifted back to the footrests, Nick shot a look through the blowing snow for Mary, his pulse hammering.
He found her on the side of the trail, her eyes wide, her face blanched.
“Get on.” He jerked his head toward the back of the vehicle.
Mary stood transfixed for another moment, then shook her head, as if shaking off the fear of the past few minutes and hurried toward him.
“I truly think you have a death wish. Promise me you won’t do that while I’m on the back.
” She slid onto the seat and wrapped her arms around his waist, squeezing tighter than necessary to hang on.
A grin twitched the corners of Nick’s mouth, a rush of relief-induced endorphins making him feel as if he could conquer the world. “I make no promises. Hold on.”
Mary’s hands clenched around his gut, her breasts smashing against his back.
With adrenaline pulsing through his system, a beautiful woman with her arms and legs wrapped around him and a powerful engine rumbling between his legs...life didn’t get much better than this.
The rest of the trip back to town Nick kept a sharp eye out for further attacks from rogue snowmobile operators. He’d let his guard down once too often for his own good, but they’d survived and now was the time to neutralize their attacker.
When they inched into town, the snowstorm had hit full force, blinding in its intensity.
Not to be deterred, Nick headed for the police department they’d passed earlier that morning walking along Snowman Lane with Mary.
Hard to believe it had only been that morning when so much had happened in between.
He parked the snowmobile in the snow-covered parking lot and hurried Mary through the door, a blast of wind and snow shoving them through to the inside warmth.
Mary stood in the entry, pulling the gloves from her hands, her entire body shaking.
“Mary, what are you doing out in this storm? I thought everyone would be holing up until it passed.” An older man in a police uniform hurried forward.
“Ch-Chief Landham, we j-just came in from M-Moose Lodge out on the T-Tanana River,” Mary stammered through chattering teeth.
“You were where?” He grabbed her arms and ushered her to a chair beside a space heater. “You’re frozen.” He clasped his hands over hers and rubbed them.
“This is my...f-fiancé, Nick St. Claire.” Mary nodded toward Nick, her brow dipping in warning.
The chief stood and extended a hand. “Dale Landham, nice to meet you.” He turned back to Mary. “Did you go out to the lodge looking for your father?”
“Yes, but we found more than we bargained for.” She explained about the cabin being used. “We were on the way back when someone on a snowmobile ran us off the trail.”
“You sure it wasn’t an accident? With the snow falling the way it is, it would be hard to see another rider.”
Mary’s lips pressed together. “Maybe so, but that doesn’t account for the rider shooting at us.”
“Shooting!” The chief sat back in the chair behind his desk, his brows rising into the thatch of salt-and-pepper hair hanging down over his forehead.
“Good Lord, has this town gone crazy? What with your father missing, Reuben’s house exploding and now this.
Makes a man wish he hadn’t gotten up this morning.
” He pulled a pad of paper across his desk and fished a pen from a drawer. “Give me the details.”
“Nick was on the front of the snowmobile. He had a better look at the driver.”
“What little I saw when he flashed by was a white coat and white pants that blended in with the snow. He also wore a white helmet with a face shield.”
“Would you say he was short or tall, small or big?”
“Hard to tell with him sitting on the snowmobile, bulked out in a snowsuit, and it was snowing pretty hard. Whoever it was knew his way around in the snow.”
“I didn’t even see him coming.” Mary shook her head, staring down at her reddened fingertips.
“Did you get a look at the machine?” the chief asked.
“White,” Nick said.
“I don’t know of a lot of snowmobiles in North Pole that are white. Most people want to see it against the snow. We could start there.”
Mary leaned forward. “Any word of my dad?”
The chief shook his head. “No. Nothing.”
“You’ll let me know—”
“As soon as I hear anything, you’ll be the first to know.” He grinned. “Even before I talk to Mrs. Claus.”
“Thanks.” Mary gave him a weak smile, before turning to Nick. “Ready?”
“Yeah.”
The phone on the chief’s desk rang as Mary headed for the door. Nick could tell by the droop of her shoulders that she was exhausted from fright and cold. “Want me to take you back to the B and B?”
“No, let’s go over to the Christmas Towne Diner.”
“It’s pretty bad out, you think they’re open?”
“Positive. Those who can’t get home will wait out the storm with a cup of Lenn’s coffee.” She fumbled with her zipper, her fingers clumsy and stiff. She looked as though she needed a warm bath more than a cup of coffee.
The thought of a naked Mary in a warm bath, heated Nick’s afterburners.
He coughed, clearing the sudden lump of lust blocking his airway.
“Coffee sounds good about now.” Anxious to step back out into the frigid snowstorm to cool his rising desire, Nick turned Mary to face him and zipped her jacket.
He took her gloves from her and helped her slide them onto her stiff fingers.
Then he pulled her faux-fur-trimmed hood over her head and tightened the string. “There. Now you’re ready.”
She looked up at him with those pale blue eyes and gave him a lopsided smile. “Thanks.”
“See? It’s not so hard to trust me, is it?”
Her smile turned downward. “No. It’s too easy.
” She pushed through the door the wind whipping it out of her hands and jerking it wide.
A blast of arctic air and snow, mixed with hard pellets of sleet, slashed at Nick’s face and exposed hands.
He pulled on his own gloves and walked out behind Mary.
The woman had him alternating between hot and cold.
Mary stood by the snowmobile waiting for Nick to climb on before she did. Normally a two-block walk wasn’t bad, but she could barely see past a hand in front of her face. She opted for motor vehicle transportation to the diner, when she’d rather go back to her room and crawl into a hot shower.
With Nick.
Mary lifted her face to the biting wind, willing the heat in her cheeks to freeze.
Her father could be out in this miserable storm, having been chased from his hideout at Moose Lodge. And here Mary was dreaming of getting naked with a stranger.
An outsider who’d saved her life. A man she was afraid to trust, not so much with her life, but because she highly suspected he could break her heart.
The chill wind did nothing to cool the heat raging inside.
If she didn’t need Nick’s help to find her father, Mary would have ditched the secret agent—or whatever he was.
Nick St. Claire had disaster written all over him. At least for Mary. She’d made the mistake of falling for a man with a boatload of secrets once before, and Nick had secrets...lots of them. All of which he wasn’t willing to share.
Bradley had seduced her into false dreams of happily ever after. They’d made love on the banks of the Tanana River that summer two years ago. Summer ended when his wife e-mailed Mary. Bradley swore he didn’t know her. By then, Mary knew he’d lied, yet again.
She’d had nightmares about Bradley, dreaming up all manner of horrible things she wanted to do to him for duping her and his wife. Although the pain had faded, she’d never gotten over the shame of being the other woman who’d broken up a marriage.
Mary refused to land in a trap that deep ever again. If she had a relationship with any man, that man would have to come clean with all his secrets.
As they arrived at the diner, Mary shot a look at Nick. She’d get a few of her questions answered here and now, or she’d take him down with his own gun.
“Miss Mary!” A little girl with dark ringlets spilling down the back of her pink flannel dress raced up to Mary as soon as she stepped through the diner door.
“Lissa!” Mary moved out of the draft and scooped up the little girl in her arms. “How’s my favorite elf?”
“I’m going to be six on my next birthday.” She wrapped her skinny, little arms around Mary’s neck.
“Already? Hey, loosen up there. I need to breathe.” Mary pulled the tiny arms from around her neck and stared into the girl’s dark brown eyes.