Kylie and her mother wouldn’t notice, not unless they needed her, and even then, they would assume she’d just gotten involved in something.
But Chris ...
The last time she hadn’t returned his texts or calls, he had come looking for her. Hopefully, he’d do so again. But ... he’d have no idea where to look. She hadn’t texted him, wanting to do something unexpected and spontaneous.
Her spirits took a sudden and decided downturn.
Kate turned off the motor to conserve fuel and considered her options. As there were only two, it didn’t take long. She could stay right where she was and wait, or she could try to go for help. Common sense suggested she stay where she was—at least for the time being. Hiking the mountain could be challenging under the best of circumstances. Attempting to do so with injuries during a snowstorm, even more so.
Please come looking for me, Chris.
She must have fallen asleep again because when she woke up, the Jeep was covered in snow, and her feet were numb. She knew she had to clear the area around the tailpipe before she could restart the engine again. After all this, she sure as hell wasn’t going to give herself carbon-monoxide poisoning, though the thought of climbing over the seats again filled her with dread.
Summoning her courage, she worked her way through the back, glad she had when she saw that the snow was really coming down, twice as fast and hard as it had been earlier. Several more inches had accumulated. She supposed that outlier model had been right after all.
She was brushing away the area around the exhaust when she heard it—the distant whine of a snowmobile—and knew in her heart that it was Chris.
Adrenalin and a sense of urgency coursed through her. She scrambled back into the Jeep as quickly as her injuries would allow and started the engine. Then, she flicked the lights off and on and laid on the horn in a repeated SOS pattern—short, short, short, long, long, long, short, short, short.
Every now and then, she’d stop long enough to listen, her heart pounding increasingly hard and fast when she heard the vehicle getting closer.
She’d never, ever in a million years forget the joy she felt when she heard that first snowmobile stop beside her.
“KATE!”
She couldn’t see who it was; the windows were covered in snow again. It wasn’t Chris’s voice, but she recognized it as one of the guys from Sanctuary.
“YES!” she yelled back, laying twice on the horn in quick succession as well for good measure.
“I got her,” she heard him say, and then he rattled off a set of coordinates. A gloved hand wiped the snow away from the driver’s-side window, and she looked into the face of a shadow with goggles. “Are you hurt?”
“Minor injuries,” she said. “The door’s jammed. Wait, I can crawl out the back.”
In her haste, she wasn’t as careful with her movements as she had been in her earlier ventures. She paid for it in the form of pain and nausea.
“Move!” she yelled as she exited out the back, stumbled to the side, and promptly threw up.
When she straightened and turned around again, her rescuer had removed his goggles. Enough of his face was revealed through the high-tech-looking balaclava for her to recognize Matt Winston.
“Sorry about that,” she apologized.
He guided her toward the bumper and had her lean against it, his eyes creasing in concern when he focused on the side of her face. “How bad are you hurt?”
“I hit my head,” she said, starting with the obvious. “My left side took the brunt of it. I think I might have bruised some ribs and my knee, and I know I broke my arm. Otherwise, I’m good.”
“Good, huh?”
She nodded. He shook his head. She had the impression he was smiling, but since she couldn’t see his mouth, she couldn’t be sure.
“I’m pretty tough.”
“Yes, I can see that.”
Within minutes, a second snowmobile came racing down the slope at breakneck speed. Chris was off the snowmobile and pulling her into his arms a moment later. It hurt like hell, but it was worth every ounce of pain.
“Ow.”
He took a step back and gently cradled her face. “Jesus, Kate. Are you okay?”
“Super now that you’re here.” She tried to smile. She thought she had.
“She admitted to head trauma, bruised ribs and knee, and a broken arm before you got here,” Matt told him.
“Fuck, baby.”
“I like when you call me baby.”
Chris’s eyes narrowed, and he turned to Matt. “I think she’s going into shock. Where the fuck is Doc?”
“Right here.”
Two more snowmobiles had joined the party. She squinted and made out Doc and Sandy’s guy ... she couldn’t remember his name. Something that started with an H maybe. Her thoughts were fuzzy, and it was getting harder to focus as the pain escalated to new levels.
A kind face filled her field of vision. “Hey, Kate. Remember me?”
“Yeah. Doc, right?”
“Right. How are you feeling?” Doc’s face intently peered into hers.
“A little woozy,” she answered honestly. “I think I moved too fast, getting out of the truck. Sorry about the bad breath. Do you have a mint?”
Someone off to the side said something as Doc gently lifted her eyelid.
“You have a broken arm, and your ribs hurt?”
She nodded. Her vision blurred. “And my knee. And my head.”
“Anything else?”
“Isn’t that enough?”
His eyes crinkled, just like Matt’s had. “Yeah, that’s plenty. What do you say we get you out of here and do something about that?”
“I say, what are we waiting for? Let’s blow this Popsicle stand. Uh-oh. Clear the deck, boys.” She leaned over, threw up again, and passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mad Dog
Mad Dog caught Kate before she hit the ground, scooping her limp body up into his arms as gently as he could.
Doc was right there, shining a light into her face and lifting her eyelids. “She’s out.”
“No shit, Sherlock. She needs medical attention.”
“Agreed. More than I can provide though. We need to get her to the hospital.”
“The mountain road is impassable.”
“Good thing we have these then,” piped up Heff, making a sweeping gesture with his arm like some kind of game-show host.
They briefly discussed the logistics of transporting Kate safely and with minimal impact. Before long, she was positioned in front of him on the machine, using straps to keep her securely against him and freeing both his hands. Church and Heff took the lead, forging a diagonal path downward toward the town, while Doc stuck close on his six. He was glad Kate was out; as careful as he tried to be, it was a bumpy ride, and she would have been in agony.
They eventually hit a road, and after that, it was smoother sailing. The governor had declared a state of emergency, requiring citizens to stay off the roads. That definitely made it easier on them since it meant a clear path. Things became slightly trickier when they hit the town limits, but the snow was coming down so fast and so hard that the plows couldn’t keep up. As a result, they had no problem in getting where they needed to go on the snowmobiles.