Ellie clutched Michael’s waist as the snowmobile’s motor sawed and hummed under her. Wet snowflakes smacked the visor of her helmet as they traced their path back up the mountain. The horse’s tracks were mostly buried in the snow and the forest was a blur of dark green around them. The blowing snow made it impossible to see much of anything.
Had she really planned to set out by herself on foot? Tracing her steps up the mountain in this weather would have been disastrous. She supposed that was what desperation did to a person. And that was what she’d felt in those moments after the second attack: desperate to escape the danger that could come from anywhere.
But now Ellie was grateful for the vehicle and the backpack under its seat, packed with food, a first-aid kit, and whatever else Michael had stuffed into it. And she was finally warm, thanks to the black shell jacket and pants, a muff that covered her neck, and a pair of sturdy work boots Michael had loaned her. She had tucked her hair into the helmet in front of the mirror, making sure all traces of her vibrant strands were covered. Maybe it would mean they could search for her car anonymously, or maybe there was other trouble waiting ahead for them—trouble she was pulling Michael into. Michael. Their paths were now connected. Everything about him suggested he wanted to help her, and right now, Ellie didn’t have a lot to go on beyond instinct. She had no choice but to trust him, at least for the moment.
The motor shifted as they approached the end of the driveway. Michael came to a stop on a low mound of snow left by the plow at the edge of the road. He shut off the engine. All that was left was the howl of the wind. Gusts raced down the hill, loud enough that they swallowed up everything else. Were her attackers lurking somewhere nearby? The two men from the greenhouse were strangers, so how was her family involved? That question roared like a flame, warning her away, and her life remained shrouded in an ominous cloud of smoke that lurked, threatening in her mind. Something terrible had happened and the clock was ticking. She had to figure out why she was running before her attackers found her again. Because they would find her—that much she was sure of.
Michael pointed down the road where new tire tracks lay barely covered in the snow. There were footprints on the road, leading directly to the path they were on.
“Looks like someone’s been here recently, checking our path,” he said through the intercom in the helmet.
“Our tracks are still visible.” If anything, the snow hid the fact that it was a horse and not human track.
Michael gave a little nod, and then the engine sputtered to life again. They crossed the road and started up along the switchbacks. On the steeper patches, the tall pines gave way to exposed jumbles of granite. She had been too frightened to pay attention to the path on their ride down the mountain, to landmarks they’d passed. The whole sequence from when she’d been attacked outside the cave to the moment she’d tugged on the thick socks Michael had brought from the house for her was all a blur. But now, as they retraced their steps, Ellie could see they’d traveled much too far to go on foot, especially in the snow. Plus, the higher they got in elevation, the more the clouds obscured the view.
Thank you, Lord, for leading me to Michael. If He hadn’t, she’d likely have frozen to death out here.
The motor revved around one corner then the next and the next, until they were in front of the cabin where she’d found Michael. The snowmobile came to a stop right where he’d picked her up.
She studied the dark cabin and her first thought sent a spike of panic through her. “Does anyone live here?”
Michael shook his head. “Especially not in the winter. No water, no electricity. It’s just a line camp.”
Just. Yet something in his voice told her it meant more to him. She waited for Michael to continue, but he was quiet. It wasn’t her business. Also, judging from what she knew of him, which was admittedly very little, Michael didn’t seem like the type who did a lot of talking about himself. Or a lot of talking in general. In her current situation, that was ideal. Still, it felt strange that he had seen her in such a vulnerable place when she knew next to nothing about him.
“You came down the mountain from that direction,” he said, pointing up at the hillside. “Recognize anything?”
She scanned the mountainside, straining to see through the snow. It all looked...white. With pine trees. Not helpful.
“I don’t remember,” she said. “I was in some sort of cave, and it was surrounded by big boulders.”
“That doesn’t really narrow it down. The mountain is full of boulders and caves.”
“Maybe if we start up that way, I’ll recognize something?” She could hear she sounded just as uncertain as she felt.
“There’s another road about a mile up, in that direction, too. Maybe the car is parked somewhere along there?”
She thought back to that flash of memory at Aidan’s house, the one that looked out at the mountains. Was her car parked at his place? The idea sent a jolt of fear through her, but it didn’t shake loose any more memories.
“What’s up there?” she asked.
“It’s a newer development. I have no idea how they got that one past the environmental commission, considering it’s located right in avalanche territory—”
Ellie’s body went rigid with fear. Environmental commission.
Michael must have noticed the way she clung to him. He put his hand over hers and turned around. She couldn’t read his eyes through the visor, and she was glad he couldn’t see the fear on her face.
“What did I say?” His voice was gentle.
“I—I don’t know,” she finally said. “Something about avalanches and the environmental commission—that was familiar.” And not in a good way. “But I don’t remember anything more. Finish what you were saying.”
Michael gave her a wary look then nodded. “My father and my grandfather went to the city council meetings to protest, but the builders promised to be responsible land stewards. They even bought extra parcels and donated them as parkland.” A vague sense of foreboding grew inside her as he spoke, shaking his head. “Now that the trees are gone and the hillside is all dug up, there’s nothing to do about it. They paid their fines, but we’re all going to pay the price of the unstable mountain face.”
Ellie shivered. Somehow, she was connected to this. She was sure of it.
“You want to continue?”
“Definitely.” Dread told her she was getting closer to the truth about herself, her life, and that none of these problems would go away until she knew what was going on. She needed to go forward, to follow the fear and uncover whatever her brain was hiding from her. There must be reasons she couldn’t remember, and the way her whole body wanted to shut down each time she came close to remembering something suggested she shouldn’t push this. But she had no choice, not if she didn’t want to find herself cornered again. She needed to trust that God would help guide her.
Michael started the engine again and headed in the direction she’d come on her way down the slope earlier. They were off the trail now, moving slowly as they climbed through the trees. The wind died as they moved through the mist of the clouds. Ellie searched for something familiar as they wound through boulders and stands of pines, but all she saw was more snow. Wisps of cold found their way through the sleeves of her jacket and along her back as they traveled through the forest.
Michael slowed as they passed a jumble of boulders jutting out of the snow. “Does this look familiar?”
She scanned the veiled landscape, waiting for that jolt of recognition. It didn’t come.
“I don’t think so.”
“We’ll keep going.”
The snowmobile continued up the mountain, passing stands of tall trees and snowy ledges. Michael slowed at each outcropping of rock, but they all looked the same. The trees disappeared as they climbed above the misty clouds, revealing steep, rocky peaks with pockets of snow clinging to their sides. Ellie’s heart sped up. She knew this place, but no memories came.
Michael ascended a steep incline and stopped at the top of a snowbank left by a season’s worth of plows. Below was the road, two lanes, well-traveled, even in the blizzard. On the other side, the mountain continued, bare, with rock and soil clinging precariously to the face. They had climbed high enough to where the snow was measured in feet not inches. It was where the clouds hit the peaks and released everything they had, smothering the landscape. There was nothing familiar here, nothing that sparked a memory, so why was her heart pounding?
“We’re getting closer. I can feel it,” she said, forcing her voice to steady. “Where are we?”
He gestured to the right. “That direction leads toward a ski resort and, if you keep going, you’ll hit town,” he said. Then he pointed to the left. “Around that curve is the new development I was talking about.”
Every instinct told her to turn back, to head downhill, far away from the direction Michael was pointing now. Ellie swallowed back the dread that was creeping up her throat. “The new development. That’s where we need to go.”
“What do you think about taking the road?” he asked, indicating the packed snow at the bottom of the bank. “No one knows we’re on a snowmobile, and you’re not identifiable in those clothes. There’s no reason anyone would recognize you if we passed him.”
That was true. And if she was going to find her car, they needed to follow the road. Still, driving out in the open felt like a really bad idea. So did going toward the new development.
Trust Michael, she told herself. She needed to trust that they could navigate whatever came next.
“Let’s do it,” she said.
“Speak up the moment you see anything familiar.”
The snowmobile engine sputtered as Michael maneuvered them down the snowbank. Fresh tire tracks marked the road in both directions and, as they rounded a corner, a fancy red Jeep bumped past in the opposite direction, setting her heart racing.
Calm down. Focus.
As the first mailbox came into view, her heart took off again. She knew this place. It wasn’t her home but—
“Anything?”
“It’s familiar. We’re definitely going the right direction.” She was panting she realized as she tried to slow her breaths. “What’s the plan if we see the truck that stopped in front of your ranch?” The truck almost certainly belonged to the two men who’d attacked her. “If I’m familiar with the area, someone is likely looking for me here.”
“We’ll go off-road as soon as there’s an opening. This area used to belong to another rancher before he sold, so I can navigate the mountain.”
That eased the building fear a little.
Michael slowed further as they passed another driveway, but she could barely make out the shape of the house through the snow. She peered down the next driveway and caught a glimpse of the front corner of a white truck.
She gasped into the intercom.
“I saw it, too,” said Michael. “Should we turn back?”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence,” she said, swallowing her fear. “Let’s see if it follows us.”
They continued forward and, after they passed the next mailbox, Ellie forced herself to focus on the road in front of her. That’s when she saw it. A silver SUV smashed against the snowbank of someone’s driveway, covered in snow.
My car.
“That’s it!” she cried through the microphone.
Michael pulled up next to the Cadillac and slowed to a stop as her memories came crashing in...
The business meeting of the three owners of Green Living Construction: Aidan, his father, Clint, and Ellie. Her refusal to approve the next stage of the company’s new Pine Ridge development until she read over the entire environmental report herself. As an accountant, she’d been coming at it from a financial perspective, but the moment she had refused to sign, she’d known she was on the trail of something. Then there was the glare of open bitterness from Clint when he’d said, You have no right to Sean’s part of this business. You haven’t heard the last of this. The warning Aidan had given her after he’d followed her out to the parking lot and stared her down with cold eyes, crowding her against her car door. Leave the business decisions to me and live your life as you did before, or your life will never be the same. We’ll never leave you alone. We’ll ruin your life, just like you want to ruin ours.
Someone had appeared on her tail as she’d driven back to the cabin. She had a cabin? A vision of the place came back, an enormous wooden house along a row of near-identical houses. It was so much bigger than the one she’d grown up in, and it wasn’t even their primary residence. But someone had followed her, inching closer and closer. She had taken a different route, so how had they found her? And then... Nothing. The memories ended there.
Ellie climbed off the snowmobile. The desire to keep this connection to her memories, this lifeline to herself, was strong enough to make her knees wobble. Am I having a mental breakdown? Is any of this real? There was one way to find out. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the key fob. This would tell her whether her recollections were real. She pressed it, and the car beeped as the doors unlocked.
“That’s my car,” she whispered as glimmers of the past reeled through her mind. “I know what happened—”
But before she could finish her sentence, a motor revved behind her and she caught a flash of metal out of the corner of her eye. When she turned around, the white truck they’d seen earlier was roaring straight for them.
Michael did a double-take as the white truck skidded straight for them. They were at the center of something, and Michael had no idea what it was. All he knew was that he had to get Ellie out of there.
“Get on!” he shouted, grabbing the sleeve of her jacket.
She froze and, for one long moment, he wasn’t sure if she’d come. Help her. But she came to life and leaped onto the back of the snowmobile, her arms tightening around him.
He gunned the motor just as the truck swiped the corner of the buried silver Cadillac, right where Ellie had been standing seconds ago. He glanced over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of the truck fishtailing. Michael took off down the narrow road, the snowbanks rising up on both sides. The snowmobile was old, better suited for winter inspections of their ranch property, not for outrunning trucks on the street. But he was grateful for what they had as he took the curve hard. Now he just needed to find a way off the road. Ellie leaned into him as the snowmobile sputtered then shot forward.
Protect Ellie.
The instinct ran through him, bone-deep, as he steered the vehicle into the wintry landscape. Visibility was low, especially around the curves, and if any trees or power lines were down... He’d figure that out when it happened.
The handles vibrated under his gloves. He tightened his grip.
“How far is the truck?”
She shifted behind him. “Maybe twenty yards away?”
Too close. They had to get off the street, but the snowbanks that lined the road were too high to safely climb at anything faster than a crawl. He could turn off onto one of the driveways, but that would mean leading a car chase right to someone’s home. It could be a dead end—or, worse, what if the owner of the house was outside, shoveling their driveway? Then one more person would be in harm’s way. No, he couldn’t risk it.
“We need to get off the road,” he muttered. “Somewhere past this development where a truck can’t go. I need an exit.”
He’d said it to more to himself, but Ellie answered. “What about the driveway into the national forest, farther ahead on the left? They plow the parking lot, so there will be a break in the snowbank, but the recent snowfall might make it too deep for them to follow us easily.”
Her words sent a little jolt through his system. She knew where she was. She remembered. He had a load of questions for her, but right now wasn’t the time. Instead, he weighed her suggestion. It might work, as long as they could keep the white truck at a distance. As long as they made it through this development.
“Good idea. We’ll try it.” He revved the engine. The mountainside was too bare, exposing the oversize houses, The snowmobile slid around the next curve and the engine sputtered as it grasped at the snow underneath it. They rounded another curve, drifting precariously into the opposite lane.
“How far are they now?” he asked.
“Closer, but their truck is skidding on the snow.”
Michael doubted that would get them to slow down. Instead, it made the truck more dangerous. If the driver lost control, would the vehicle come skidding toward them?
As they raced past a wide driveway, Ellie’s voice came through the intercom. “That’s the last house in the development. The national park is just around the next bend.”
“The turn will be tight, so I’ll need to slow down.” That meant the truck would get closer.
“I’m ready.” She tightened her grip around his waist and another rush of warmth spread through him.
Please, God, give me the courage and the sense to pull this off. For Ellie.
Michael hugged the next curve, trying to gain some distance on the large white truck. “How close are they?”
“Maybe ten yards.”
Too close.
The break in the wall of snow came into view. The more recent snowplowing had blocked the entrance for a truck, but their sled would be fine as long as he took time to get over it—time he didn’t have. He had to pull this off fast. That meant there was no room for error.
“We are putting ourselves in your hands, God,” he breathed.
These were words he never thought he’d say again. Not after God had taken Sunny away from him. Michael’s anger at God, at the unfair world around them, still lived inside him. His faith had been shaken, but somehow it was still alive. Somehow, the words came out.
“Amen,” said Ellie.
“Here we go.”
He scanned for oncoming traffic then gunned the motor, hugging the right snowbank. When they were just a few yards away from the road into the park, he slammed on the brakes then turned to the left. The snowmobile skidded through the snow, turning until the sled was pointing toward the crossroad. But they hit ice, slick and uneven, and the snowmobile slid and bumped past it. The engine sputtered as the track grabbed for the snow.
Out of the corner of his eye, Michael could see the white truck speeding toward them. Focus. Michael fixed his gaze on the opening in the snowbank and throttled the motor. The engine stammered then jolted forward. The truck was only a few yards away, and it swerved, moving far too fast for control on the ice below it. As the snowmobile started onto the heap of drift, the truck’s bumper clipped their back ski, jolting them sideways, pulling them back. The truck swung around, its side sliding straight for them. Michael revved the motor again and they took off up the snowbank, leaping through the air just before the side of the vehicle slammed into them. Ellie clung to him as they flew into the deep snow and landed with a hard jolt.
“You okay?” he yelled.
“Yes. Go.”
Michael’s heart jumped in his chest as they raced along the deserted winter drive. He took a couple deep breaths. “Can you see them?”
Ellie shifted behind him. “They’re right there at the entrance, but I think they’re stuck.”
“Good,” he said, driving them deeper into the park. He continued until he found a break in the wall along the side of the road. It looked like a ski trail, but it hadn’t been used in a while.
He drove up the mound and followed the trail into the forest, trying to get his breathing under control. The trail wove through the forest and then forked. Michael brought the sled to a stop at the fork and turned off the motor. The forest was quiet, but his heart was still jumping, his ears ringing from the buzz of the snowmobile’s engine.
Thank you, God, for showing us the way.
He was sweating and his arms ached from grasping the handles of the snowmobile. He flexed his hands then climbed off the vehicle. He waded through the deep snow, trying to process what had just happened. Michael laced his hands behind his head and took a couple of long, slow breaths. There was no mistake. The men in that vehicle had wanted to get them badly enough to risk injuring everyone, themselves included.
He and Ellie were still alive. He had kept her safe. He had done it. Relief poured through him, so intense that his breath caught in his throat. He had failed Sunny, but he had not failed Ellie—not yet. That meant something. If he could be there for Ellie right now, maybe he could get out from the heaviness that clouded every morning, every night, even his dreams. Maybe. After all, he had found himself praying when faith had escaped him for years.
But the burst of hope was chased with a twist of guilt. How had he connected Ellie and Sunny so easily in his mind? Sunny had been his soul mate, his perfect match, and he hardly knew Ellie. Michael pushed away the messy thoughts. They were in the middle of a forest buried in snow, and a truck had just tried to run them off the road—a truck almost certainly driven by two men who had already tried to kidnap Ellie. And those two men weren’t the only ones after her. They were nowhere near safe yet.
Finally, he turned to Ellie. She had taken off her helmet and was scanning the forest with a dazed look in her eyes, like she was just as shaken up as he was. Her fiery hair was tamped down from the helmet, but when she shook her head, her curls sprang back to life.
Michael took off his helmet and looked into her gray eyes, wide and serious.
“Thank you,” she said.
Michael’s breath caught at the ring of her voice in the still winter forest, so full of gratitude and a hint of awe.
“You’re welcome.” He swallowed, forcing him to focus on the urgency of the situation, not the way his heartbeat sped up when she met his eyes. “Tell me what’s going on. Everything you remember.”