Wyoming Christmas Ransom. Nicole Helm

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       Chapter Five

      Gracie drove, white-knuckle against the slick, icy roads, and tried to ignore the way exhaustion was creeping into her. She didn’t have time to be hungry, or tired. There was so much to do.

      Her mind was so busy going through all the things she needed to accomplish—first and foremost convincing Will he needed to stay put in the hospital until his doctors cleared him—she didn’t notice tire tracks in the snowy road until she was almost halfway up the mountain to Will’s cabin.

      It had snowed last night. There shouldn’t be any tracks leading up here because any tracks Will had made coming down last night would have been mostly filled—not deep and fresh.

      Someone had tampered with Will’s car, enough so he’d had to jump out of the vehicle to save himself. It could only be a very bad sign that there were tracks leading up to his cabin now so soon after.

      The problem was there wasn’t really anywhere to stop or turn around, not with how icy and narrow the winding mountain road was. But if someone was up there, someone who’d purposefully hurt Will, Gracie didn’t think it would be best for her to head up there, either.

      She studied the road, the snow, the way her truck was beginning to lose traction as she eased off the accelerator. She needed to find a place to stop, to gather her thoughts.

      There was a slight flat spot on the curve, though it would mean parking perilously close to a very steep drop off, and she wasn’t 100 percent sure her truck would fit the small space. But it was the only choice. The only choice.

      She repeated those three words to herself as she navigated her truck toward the flat patch. She had to fight the urge to squeeze her eyes shut when the tires skidded on the ice. She gripped the steering wheel harder no matter how badly her hands were beginning to ache, and she carefully tapped the brake as she moved closer and closer to that awful edge.

      It took a full minute to realize the truck had stopped and she was no longer moving forward or sideways. She was safe and still, right on the edge of the road.

      She swallowed, breathed and then slowly peeled her hands off the steering wheel, wincing at the pain in her joints. But she was okay. Parked and okay.

      She turned off the engine, studying the tire tracks that led up and around the last curve before Will’s cabin came into view. She kept her gaze on the curve as she reached over and blindly pawed through her purse for her phone.

      She pulled up Laurel’s entry and hit Call and only when Laurel answered did Gracie remember to breathe.

      But at the same time Laurel spoke her greeting, the front of a car appeared on that curve, coming down. Gracie dove across the seats, losing her phone in the process. She lay there hoping they’d mistake her truck as abandoned. There was no way they’d miss it parked here, but they’d have a hard time stopping their own car, especially going down the slick road. Of course, they’d gone up it at some point and—

      A loud bang almost simultaneous with the sound of breaking glass had Gracie shrieking as shards of driver’s-side window shattered over her. She wanted to scream again, but she had enough presence of mind to know she had to be quiet. She had to focus.

      The car hadn’t moved, so she could only assume the bang and breaking of glass hadn’t been them crashing into her, but them shooting at her.

      The motor of the other car was still running and Gracie tried to focus on that. She didn’t know how many people there were in the vehicle, but surely they’d have to stop for any of them to get out. Were they stopped?

      But she listened, eyes squeezed shut, body frozen in its prone position across the front seats. The engine got quieter and quieter until she could barely hear it at all.

      Oh God, had they left? Just shot and left?

       Please God.

      She decided it was safe to move, though she didn’t get out of the truck yet. They could have left men behind. That could have been a warning and they were going to turn around at the bottom and come back up. She had no idea who it was or what they were after, so she could only try to protect herself as best she could.

      Find her phone, then try to get to Will’s cabin. Maybe on foot. She wasn’t too far away and she could get into Will’s place and find his rifle. It wasn’t foolproof, but it was the best she could do.

      She peered down at the floor of the truck and grabbed her phone. The previous call had ended, but Gracie redialed Laurel’s number as she carefully maneuvered back into a sitting position. She glanced at where the car had to have gone, and didn’t see or hear anyone returning, so she pushed out of her truck and onto the snowy road.

      “I have two county deputies headed toward Will’s cabin,” Laurel said by way of greeting. “What the hell is going on? Did you crash, too?”

      “No. I... Someone drove down from Will’s cabin and shot my car.”

      “Shot? Jesus, Gracie, did you call 911?”

      “No, it just broke my window. I’m fine.” She stumbled a little bit in a drift of snow as she tried to jog the distance to Will’s cabin.

      “Someone is shooting at you. You’re not fine. This is not fine.”