The Eligible Suspect. Jennifer Morey

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ of the lodge. Savanna skied ahead of him. He didn’t know the way. She did. And the safest. This was dangerous avalanche country.

      Snowcapped peaks were hidden under building clouds. Pine and blue spruce trees sagged beneath the weight of snow. A blanket of smooth white powder stretched before her to the edge of the trees. She headed for a path that led to Hurley’s yurt-touring trails.

      Finding the trail, she skied to a stop and looked back at her house. From here it looked peaceful. Leaving tore at her.

      Korbin skied to a stop beside her. “Let’s get moving.”

      She looked at him with doubt before skiing ahead of him through the trees. The sound of a snowmobile made her push harder. The man would easily find their tracks and follow.

      A few minutes later, the sound faded and all she heard were their skis swishing through the snow.

      At the base of the hill, she stopped. Climbing would slow them down. So would the weather. The wind had begun to blow, lifting fresh powder off the surface.

      Savanna searched through the trees and listened for the snowmobile, briefly meeting Korbin’s eyes before moving on. The trail reached an avalanche chute. Korbin stopped, looking up the steep slope and not skiing across. After the heavy snow, the danger was high right now.

      She skied out onto the slope, traversing it carefully until she made it to the trees on the other side. Korbin followed and they picked up the trail again.

      At the top of the slope, Savanna heard something moving in the trees. She stopped to scan their surroundings.

      Korbin did the same. It was probably a deer or branches falling under the weight of snow.

      “How much farther to the lodge?” Korbin asked.

      “We won’t make it there by tonight.”

      His gaze shot to her. It was already midafternoon and snow had begun to fall.

      She explained about the mountain. “Crimson Morning is the closest yurt to my house and the farthest from the lodge. We have another hard climb and then it’s mostly downhill from there to reach it. We should stay at Crimson Morning tonight and try to make it to the lodge in the morning.”

      “What do you mean, try?”

      “It’s going to take us another two hours to get to Crimson Morning. Maybe longer in this weather.”

      He looked ahead at the trail in consternation. As an experienced skier, he had to know it took roughly an hour per mile to ski in this terrain, and another hour for every thousand vertical feet. Longer in bad weather.

      “How far is the next yurt after Crimson Morning?”

      “Silver Plume will take us another two or three hours.”

      “Then we ski to Silver Plume today.”

      Savanna tipped her head back to observe the sky. “That could be dangerous.” Wind carried heavier falling snow down upon them. She’d rather play it safe and stay at Crimson Morning.

      “It’s a risk we have to take.”

      She met his look. Whoever had shot at him and why must have him worried. It had her worried. It upset her calm world and thrust her into a frightening unknown. People shot at her brother Lincoln, not her. Well, Autumn, too. What was it with their family? They seemed to be living their very own action movie.

      The snap of a twig made her jerk to her right. There was no sound of a snowmobile. The man who’d attacked them couldn’t walk through this snow. It was too deep. Had he taken a pair of skis from her house?

      Korbin pulled out the gun and aimed into the forest. She looked in that direction but saw nothing. Then a figure moved among the trunks. A mountain lion prowled forward and stopped when it saw them.

      Savanna’s heart slammed in her chest, but she remained still and quiet.

      Korbin didn’t fire. He waited. A gunshot would alert the man after them of their whereabouts. One good thing about the snow is that it would soon cover their tracks. The big cat’s head faced them, studied them and then sprang into an acrobatic run through the forest in the opposite direction.

      He turned toward her. Calm. Full of secrets. Different from the man she’d spent an evening with, showing off her train set and watching a movie. Handling a gun was not unfamiliar to him. What was he hiding?

      * * *

      Crimson Morning came into view. Korbin had taken the lead and they’d made good time. Savanna showed no signs of tiring, but he skied to a stop in front of the yurt. No other skiers were there. The lodge had likely held off any tours until after the storm.

      Korbin looked for signs of the shooter. He hadn’t heard the snowmobile, which could mean he’d taken to skis for quieter stalking.

      He looked at Savanna. “Are you okay to press on?”

      She nodded. She must feel better about the time they’d made getting here. Korbin loved that about her. She hadn’t asked him about the gunman, either. Getting to safety was the top priority, but he knew she was thinking about it. He’d have to explain it eventually. She was a tough woman, albeit in a slender, feminine body.

      Korbin skied past Crimson Morning and began another climb. A feeling came over him about halfway up the mountain. Had he heard something? They were in a clearing. He looked into the trees and didn’t see anything. But then a slight movement just upslope caught his eye. As soon as he spotted a black hat poking up above a fallen log, the explosion of a rifle echoed off the mountainside. The bullet splintered a tree trunk beside him. Pieces of bark hit his jacket.

      “Get down!” he yelled, scrambling on his skis to take cover behind the tree.

      A second gunshot cracked. He heard it hit the snow near his feet. He leaned his shoulder against the tree and checked on Savanna. She’d crouched behind another tree not far from him, gripping her poles, eyes wide with terror, breath misting the air, giving their position away.

      Korbin pulled out the gun.

      Another gunshot erupted. The bullet tore through his backpack, giving his body a jerk. If he tried to peer around the trunk, he just might get a bullet in the head for the effort.

      The shooter had a clear shot. All he had to do was wait for them to move. Damen. Korbin had known it was him as soon as he’d heard the snowmobile back at Savanna’s house. He had followed him here, maybe even predicted where he’d go. He had a snowmobile, a pistol, a rifle and skis. He’d planned well. Korbin had to predict his next move. But how? He and Savanna would have heard him if he’d ridden this far. Unless he’d ridden to this point and waited for them, knowing they’d try to seek help at the lodge. Korbin wouldn’t have thought Damen was smart enough to pull something like this off. And his biggest question was why? Why come after him? Why try so hard to kill him?

      He looked for a way to escape. The trees where they had taken shelter weren’t thick. Just on the other side, another clearing offered a possibility. There were two drawbacks, however. One, the trees were spaced wide enough to offer little protection, and two, the clearing over there was an avalanche chute. But if they could reach it and ski away...

      Spotting СКАЧАТЬ