Chapter Nine
Sunday, December 21
while the storm blew itself quiet. Patrick stayed awake, making the travois and keeping watch. His muscles ached from the tension, from praying the snow would fall until morning to keep Emyr Hughes from looking for them before they could escape.
He peered out the window, the first haze of daylight sparkling off the glittering snow. It was time to leave.
Meri lay on the cot before the fire, and he rested a gentle hand on her small shoulder. He’d allowed the fire to die out and already the chill crept through the room.
Meri opened her eyes, met his gaze. She gave a single nod. She was ready to face the day.
Patrick left her to get ready and woke his brother. “We need to get you on your feet.”
David shivered. “Leave me here. I’ll send Hughes on a goose chase.”
“No. Hughes would kill you, same as he would have if we’d left you at the camp.” Patrick tucked his arm under David’s shoulders and lifted. “I’ve hauled logs heavier than you. Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” Meri opened the door, and a gust of fine snow blew into their faces. Good. The wind might cover some of their tracks.
Patrick had considered leaving while there was still snow falling, but he couldn’t risk losing their way in the dark, not when David and Meri depended on him. The weight of it lay heavy on his shoulders, but he’d chosen this mantle. He wouldn’t fail like his father.
David squeezed his shoulder as if he heard Patrick’s inner thoughts. It bolstered him, knowing his brother believed in him. He laid David on the sled he had created, bundled all the dirty blankets they’d found in the cabin around him, then took up the two poles he’d use to pull his brother.
“Patrick.” Meri stopped in front of him, hands on her hips, her breath frosty in the rapidly lightening dawn. “Where are we going?”
This was the part he’d debated all night. David needed a doctor and Meri needed to get as far away from camp, and her father, as she could. That part was simple. As was the fact that both situations would be solved by following the ice road to the town of Manitowish Waters. The road would be empty. It being Sunday, the camp would remain quiet, the lumberjacks sleeping the day away. And therein lay the trouble. It allowed Hughes freedom to look for them and they’d be open targets on the road.
He took a step, the sled following despite his brother’s weight. Only, it brought him that much closer to Meri, and she wasn’t getting out of his way. It made the corner of his mouth turn up. This woman who had been tentative to his touch as recent as last night now blocked his way. He liked it. Liked seeing her trust him enough to stand up to him.
He shook his head. Now was not the time for that. “We have to follow the ice road to town. I see no other options. We have to get you away from camp and David to a doctor.” He glanced at the bump that was barely concealed within her coat, then at her shoes. “Can you walk that far?”
She raised her chin. “For my baby’s life, for yours and David’s, I’ll do anything.”
Meri stopped and rubbed her belly. The sun was fully up, betraying their slow pace. Without the proper boots, she was forced to walk beside the ice road rather than on it. Patrick had gotten her two sticks to help her walk in the deep snow that covered the uneven ground. The ache she’d felt before they had to run from her father was back.
She glanced over her shoulder. While Patrick’s hobnail books gave him traction on the snow-covered ice beside her, he struggled through the drifts that had blown over the road. The determined set of his jaw encouraged her on.
Lifting her knees high, she started forward again. Once they got to Manitowish Waters, what would happen? They would take David to the doctor, but then what? Where would she stay? Or go?
Perhaps we’ll move to Crow’s Nest.
Mrs. Nelson’s words from the other day came back to her—was Mrs. Nelson okay? And what if Meri could move to Crow’s Nest, too? Would Patrick help her get there?
Boom!
Meri screamed as the sound of a gunshot sent birds scattering into the air.
“Meri down. Get down.” Patrick pulled her into the snow. Someone had followed them, was shooting at them! She spun to Patrick, her panic making her unable to think of a plan. He would know what to do.
His eyes darted around them. The wind had covered his tracks along the ice road, but not hers alongside. They were clear and deep. Men’s voices grew closer. Had her father brought reinforcements? There was nowhere to run.
“Shh.” Patrick drew her into the circle of his arms and crouched down with her beside the travois, his body between her and the gunman. David shifted on the travois, and Patrick laid a hand on his shoulder. Meri’s heart pounded in her chest. The baby kicked at her ribs.
Out of the shadows, two men loomed.
Her father glared at her. The second man, Junior Aleric, Mr. Aleric’s son—what was he doing here?—smirked at her. “You know, Hughes, Kingsman never had these problems. Now get this road cleared for the shipment.”
Meri gasped. Kingsman? Leo Kingsman? Her Leo? And a shipment? Not lumber because the camp rested on Sundays. Moonshine. Leo was part of her father’s operation.
No, Junior’s operation.
Patrick leapt to his feet. Pain twisted Meri’s middle. This wasn’t happening. If Leo had been working with Father and Junior, then could Patrick betray her too?
Patrick stood wide, placing himself between danger and Meri and David, waiting for the inevitable. Whether taking the ice road had been a good plan or not, the execution had failed.
Poor word choice, that. His execution might very well occur within the next few minutes. Hughes had shot David, after all. What would stop him from finishing the job here and now? Patrick had no way to protect Meri or David, except with his life. And when he was gone, what good would that do for any of them? This is why he’d avoided responsibility all these years. Just like his father, he couldn’t be trusted.
“Martins.” Emyr Hughes pointed the pistol at him, his hand the steady one of a sober man. He stood beside a man Patrick remembered seeing in camp once before. Alaric’s son. A man who came to give orders without understanding the work.
“What are you waiting for?” The stranger crossed his arms, stretching the seams of his fur-collared, double-breasted coat. “If you can’t shoot him, Just make one of them marry her like Kingsman planned to do. You wanted to keep it all in the family.”
The snake!
Meri whimpered from where she remained crouched in the snow behind Patrick. The sound ripped something inside of him. His own soul had made such a sound at one time. It was the pain of betrayal. That Meri would experience it … and without the support Patrick had, the family he had taken for granted. But she had support—she had him. He wouldn’t leave her alone, just as his family had persistently stayed beside him, no matter how hard he’d pushed them away. He’d fight for Meri. Like David fought for him.
Patrick closed his fists to keep hold of his emotion as he confronted her father. “Leo Kingsman planned to marry your daughter because you made him?”
“He was willing enough.” Hughes waved his hand. “Until the end. Then he wanted out of the business, so I ended him.”
“You what?” Meri struggled to her feet. Patrick slipped a hand under her elbow to help her up the embankment and onto the road.
“He—” Hughes stopped as his gaze fell to Meri’s unborn child and filled with rage. His voice shook as he said, “Why didn’t I see it before? He did that to you, didn’t he?”
Tears dripped down Meri’s cheeks. “I thought he loved me, and when you were so angry with me, we planned to run away together. But he did it to spite you, didn’t he?”
If Leo hadn’t already died, Patrick would have shown him just what he thought of such behavior.
Junior snorted. “Kingsman had more of a backbone than I thought. Good for him. I’m sorry we had to lose him. Now, what do we do with all of you? Obviously, you know too much about our operation, so either you join us and we say we found you after you were lost in the blizzard, or we find a way to get rid of you for good.”
Meri’s breath caught, and Patrick tightened his fingers on her elbow. He wouldn’t let it come to that. He hoped.
“My daughter was never meant to be a pawn.” Hughes’s face turned purple. “I agreed to get rid of Kingsman because he wouldn’t be good for my daughter. I was willing to end these brothers because I thought they’d ruined her. Everything I’ve done has been to give her the best life I could. I promised my wife that. Our daughter would be a real lady someday. It was the least I could do after she died.”
“You …” Meri’s voice faltered.
Patrick gaped at the man. “You beat your daughter.” Whether or not that was what Meri had meant to say, it was the truth. “How is that doing the best you could?”
“Who cares?” Junior pulled out a gun. “I’m gonna recommend my father close the camp immediately. In the meantime, let’s put all of you out of your misery. Truly. This is pitiful.”
“No. I am the only man allowed to lay a hand on my daughter.” Hughes roared and swung his pistol at Junior. The younger man’s eyes went wide as Hughes pulled the trigger.
Patrick tucked Meri’s face into his chest and crouched with her again, shielding her as best he could. She sobbed into his chest as he watched Hughes stand over Junior. Would the next bullet be for Patrick?
“Drop your weapon!” a new voice shouted. He would know that man’s voice anywhere. He’d heard it often enough, and with that commanding tone too.
Meri trembled. “Who is that?”
“My uncle.” How had the old detective gotten here? And with a companion? “I don’t know who he brought with him.”
The man wore a knit cap over brown hair and a thick jacket. It rode up on the bottom as he approached Hughes and Patrick caught the shine of a sheriff’s badge.
“You kids okay?” Uncle Mike’s mustache bobbed as he studied them. Patrick’s words failed, so he nodded. Junior needed medical attention more urgently than they did. His uncle seemed to understand because he knelt beside Junior. “He’s gone.”
“Mr. Hughes, you are under arrest for murder.” The sheriff took possession of Hughes’s pistol.
“You take care of her.” Hughes looked directly at Patrick as the sheriff pushed Hughes to his knees. “Don’t you betray her like Kingsman. You be better to her than I ever could be, y’hear?”
Patrick tucked his chin to catch a glimpse of Meri’s face. It was white as the snow, but still so beautiful. Patrick met Hughes’s stare. “That is why I couldn’t let you lay another hand on her. Even if it cost me everything.”
Meri shuddered. Her arms wrapped around her stomach.
“Your scene, Yarwood.” Uncle Mike spoke to the sheriff.
“Stay here.” Yarwood secured Hughes’ wrists. “I’ll take this one back to Manitowish Waters and send my deputy with the coroner.”
The two law enforcement officers discussed a few more details, but Patrick ignored them, more concerned about Meri and David. His brother’s face was scrunched in pain, but he gave the slightest of nods. Approval. It ignited a thought that would have been the furthest possible idea to ever have entered Patrick’s mind not many days ago—and he’d be torn apart if Meri said no.