The Tourist Attraction (Moose Springs, Alaska)

by Sarah Morgenthaler

  The heavier the storm clouds, the darker the woods, enough that the running lights on the ATVs were actually useful. But the wind whipping through her hair, the trees and thick underbrush streaming past as they drove down the path were exhilarating. Every time they hit a mud puddle, splashed through a creek, or got to gun the vehicles around a curve, Zoey felt sheer delight. Only realizing now that Haleigh and Enzo were adrenaline junkies, Zoey could hear them whooping through the worst of the trail’s bumps and mud splashes. She couldn’t see Killian, but she could hear his voice, sounding just as happy as his friends.

  Following Enzo as they turned at a wood marker post, they slowed down. Eventually, the trail ended, and they turned back around. The guide indicated for them to all cut their engines so he could talk to them over the wind blowing through the trees.

  “Normally, we go down this trail, down to the river, and then get some pictures by the waterfall,” Cory said, clearly unfazed by the rain and wind. “But it’s going to get muddy. It’s up to you.”

  They glanced at each other, but Killian only hopped off his ATV when Zoey nodded.

  “Let’s do this,” he said.

  The trail was often used by grizzlies, which made it even more exciting. They slipped and slid down a very steep path leading down to a river, and Cory was right. The waterfall was absolutely great to take pictures in front of. Zoey was never going to enjoy the company of Enzo and Haleigh, but she was more than happy to squeeze in with them, enjoying herself immensely as Cory hung dangerously off the side of a tree, taking pictures of them.

  Over the rushing of the waterfall, a crash of thunder made Zoey jump, then laugh because Killian had jumped too.

  “I hate to say it, but this is getting bad.” Their guide cast around. “We need to get in. The lightning is coming.”

  The path back up the trail wasn’t nearly as easy as the way down. The light rain turned heavier, and the slick slope became a muddy mess, requiring linked arms around tree trunks and chained hands to get back up. By the time they managed the climb, it was dangerously dark. Cory pulled out a light, but Zoey caught a glance of his face and saw true concern.

  “Come on. We need to hurry,” he shouted at them, his voice nearly lost in the screaming wind. “We stayed too long!”

  That was when the rain hit. Sheeting so bad Zoey could barely see in front of her, she was grateful for Killian keeping a hand on her arm as if afraid he would lose her over the edge of the cliff they knew was only feet away from them. The exhilaration quickly turned to fear as lighting filled the sky, the thunder rocking them.

  They raced to the ATVs, starting them up. “Stay together!” Cory yelled, twisting to make sure they all were there before he stood up, pointed the direction of the trail, and took off. Killian and Haleigh raced after them, but Enzo’s ATV stalled. Cursing, he fought it before it caught gear, then he gunned forward, spinning mud and grass all over Zoey.

  “Wait, I can’t see!” Zoey yelled, slowing enough to wipe the mud from her glasses on the relative dryness of her shirt beneath her raincoat. It was a streaked mess, with splatters of muck mixing with rain on the lenses.

  Frustrated, she wiped them again, cleaning them enough so she could see. Even as she put them back on, her glasses were already covered with more rain. But Zoey couldn’t wait any longer. Hitting the accelerator, she took off dangerously fast, barely able to see the trail and hoping to glimpse Enzo’s taillights ahead. She never did. Through twist and turn, she tried to find her way, but in the stormy darkness, it was impossible to recognize anything.

  Finally, she saw a familiar wooden marker post, but as she paused, trying to wipe the water from her glasses, Zoey couldn’t tell which way she was supposed to go. She didn’t know if the water rushing past her was because of the storm or if this was even the marker post she thought it was.

  And as the storm unleashed itself, the skies opening right on top of her, Zoey knew she was screwed.

  * * *

  Answering a call from this particular person was the last thing Graham wanted to do. But Graham meant it when he said Lana was his friend, and when a friend called, he picked up—most of the time.

  Besides, she’d called him three times in a row and seemed determined not to be ignored.

  “What is it, L?” Maybe he was a teeny bit grumpy. “I’m busy being brokenhearted over here.”

  “Graham, something happened.” Lana’s voice was panicked. “I need Easton’s number. He can find people, right?”

  Standing up from his kitchen chair, Graham tensed. “Lana, calm down. I can get you to East, but tell me what happened first.”

  “They went out on a tour, and when they came back, she was gone. They tried to find her, but she’s missing.”

  “Who’s missing?”

  “Zoey. Graham, she’s out in this. Someone needs to find her.”

  With a curse, Graham told Lana to stay by her phone. This wasn’t the first time someone had gotten lost in these mountains. This wasn’t the first time this year someone had gotten lost in these mountains. But this wasn’t someone, it was Graham’s someone, and the storm outside raged. Graham knew far too well how much danger she was in, and his heart stayed in his stomach, twisted up in knots as he called everyone he knew to meet them at the ATV tour site.

  Easton and Ash pulled up right as Graham skidded into the drive, both dressed for the weather and grim faced. Jonah, Rick, Marcus Garcia and his partner, even Frankie and Graham’s cousin…everyone who knew these mountains was there. Even Lana was there, although she was the last person Graham would send into the mountains to look for Zoey.

  They all knew how bad this was.

  The kid, Cory, was young and stupid enough to have taken them out. He was also brave enough to have spent the last hour trying to find Zoey, soaked to the bone and pale from cold. He told the same story to Easton and Graham, how he made sure they were all there. How he paused halfway back, thought he saw four sets of lights behind him, and kept going.

  The kid was crushed, his hands shivering. “Maybe it was the last guy going over a bump? The rain was so bad. I screwed up, I screwed up. I sent them all to the resort to get help, and I went looking for her. I need to go back out there and keep searching. She’s out there because of me.”

  The storm had whipped itself into a frenzy, with trees bending from the violent gusts of winds and sheets of sideways rain driving into anyone not taking cover. The skies had grown dangerously dark for anyone out in the woods. Streak after streak of lightning cutting through the darkness illuminated Easton’s features.

  “Cory, you’re not going anywhere,” Easton said sternly, taking control of the group. “You’re dead on your feet, and this will turn into a double rescue instead of just her. We can’t risk anyone going out in this.”

  Graham inhaled a tight breath, drawing himself up furiously, ready to fight, but Easton shot him a look. “Until it clears off, just the three of us will look. Ash, Graham, you follow the trail they were supposed to be on. You both know these woods blindfolded. Don’t let a tree fall on you, and keep those radios on. I’ll scout wider. But no one else.”

  “Without a bigger search party, we might not find her.” Ash didn’t need to add the unspoken “in time.” They all knew what she was thinking.

  “It’s the best we can do for now.” Easton turned to Jonah and Marcus. “As soon as the weather breaks, get dogs out here and get everyone involved.”

  Taking his supplies and a gassed-up ATV, Graham looked at Ash. “We’ll find her,” she promised.

  Sometimes people got lost in these mountains and never came back. But Graham wasn’t going to come back without her, weather be damned. He’d left her thinking he didn’t love her, and if that was the last conversation they had, Graham would never be able to forgive himself.

  “We’ll find her.” Graham started the engine with a snarl of his own. “And th
en I’m never letting her go again.”

  As they retraced the trail Cory had taken, the visibility was nearly nonexistent. Graham bellowed himself hoarse calling Zoey’s name, knowing Ash was doing the same just behind him. And still he could barely hear her. Rain and wind beat at them from all directions, and the storm had brought down tree limbs into their path. They rounded a corner and found a huge evergreen had downed across the trail, impossible to get around.

  “What do you want to do?” Ash leaned into his shoulder, yelling into his ear to be heard. “Do you want to keep going?”

  “I’m not leaving her out here!”

  Pink hair plastered to her face, Ash nodded. “I’ll radio East and let him know we’re going ahead on foot.”

  The fallen tree was massive, and Graham was still trying to find a good place to go over it when Ash came back, waving her radio in her hand.

  “It’s Easton! He found her!”

  “Is she okay?”

  “I don’t know. I could barely hear him. But he says come back in.”

  * * *

  Zoey stood in the center of the angry mass of people in the hotel lobby, holding a blanket Easton had found her wrapped tight around her shoulders. He hadn’t left her side since returning to the resort, standing so close her shoulder brushed his arm.

  She just couldn’t get warm, no matter how much body heat Easton gave off.

  “You need to sit,” Easton rumbled, his gravelly voice like a slow rockslide. “You’re pale as a sheet.”

  “I’m fine. Just cold.”

  Which was mostly true. Zoey was physically fine, if more than a little shaken up. She didn’t know how long she’d been lost, trying to find her way back to the trail, but she’d hit deep mud and gotten stuck. Faced with staying on the ATV and in the path of rising water or backtracking on foot, she’d chosen to go it on foot. Terrified and half-drowned, Zoey had turned a bend and there he’d been, a massive, bearded man in the woods. Even if her rescuer had looked like Sasquatch on an ATV, she had nearly cried in relief, desperately grateful to not be alone.

  Zoey hadn’t even realized until they were in front of the lights of his ATV that Easton Lockett was the one who’d found her.

  Once, Graham had told her Easton knew these woods better than anyone, and now Zoey believed it. Arms around his waist, she’d simply held on as he took trail after trail, cut across a field she only vaguely recognized from her horseback-riding trip, and ended up at the barn Mugs had rejected her in. Grateful to be out of the rain, Zoey waited as Easton radioed that she had been found.

  Assuring her that no one would mind, Easton borrowed one of the stable’s work trucks, driving her back to the resort. He could have left her there, his work done, but the storm had knocked out the hotel’s power, and the hotel had descended into chaos as the computer systems went down. Everyone’s keycards were no longer working, and no one could get in their rooms. Hundreds of more important—or at least angrier—people than Zoey were screaming at the overwhelmed staff.

  Lana was in the midst of it, fighting for their place in line, determined that Zoey was going to get her hot shower before she died from pneumonia. A hot shower or some time in the sauna followed by a change of clothes would be awesome, but Zoey doubted that would happen anytime soon.

  She should sit, but Zoey was rattled enough that she couldn’t. Besides, there wasn’t anywhere to sit but the floor, and she wasn’t sure she could find a corner where she wouldn’t accidentally get trampled.

  Easton moved closer, his heavy hand coming down on her shoulder. Zoey was too exhausted and emotionally ravaged to feel intimidated by his presence. This was Graham’s friend, and in this moment, he was her friend too. So she leaned into his hand, thinking she was dangerously close to becoming a pile of muddy Mickey Mouse sweatshirt and muddier jeans on the floor.

  “Screw this,” Easton suddenly growled. “I’m taking you back to Graham’s place.”

  “I can’t. He doesn’t want me there.”

  The mountain at her side snorted. “If he doesn’t want you there, he’s doing a terrible job of acting like it. Come on.”

  The hand on her shoulder became a heavy arm around her shoulders as Easton steered her toward the hotel entrance. She was too exhausted to fight him and too overwhelmed by the other resort guests to want to stay in the lobby any longer.

  “Okay, but I need to tell Lana.”

  There were so many people in between her and the desk that there was no way Zoey could even start to find her friend.

  “Zoey.”

  A bellman almost lost a limb when one of the entry doors slammed open with far too much force. When Graham’s familiar voice roared her name over the angry yelling all around her, Zoey’s heart leapt in her chest.

  Easton was head and shoulders above everyone else, but Graham was tall and strong and pissed, wearing almost as much mud as she was.

  She hadn’t realized how much she needed him until his eyes locked onto her from across the lobby. Graham didn’t part the crowd as he strode toward her…he walked right over them. Ignoring more than one offended look and harsh word, he bulldozed his way to her. He crushed her into his body, arms wrapping around her shoulders.

  “Are you okay?” Graham rasped, voice harsh and desperate. “Are you hurt?”

  He stepped back a little and ran his hands over her body, checking her for injuries even as he hauled her close.

  “I’m okay. Easton found me.”

  “Thank God.” Then those warm, strong hands were tilting her face up, tracing her jaw, tangling into her soaked and bedraggled hair.

  “I can’t believe my glasses survived all that. Look, the tape held.”

  Even Zoey could hear the edge of hysteria in her voice. Graham must have heard it too, because he tightened his arms around her even more.

  “Zoey. What happened out there?”

  Her answer was muffled by his chest as she whispered, “It was a bad morning. Killian was trying to be nice, offering a trip out when mine had been canceled. We knew we were going to get muddy, but we were planning on getting back before the storm hit.”

  Graham shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. These summer storms hit fast.”

  “Don’t interrupt her,” Easton grunted. “Keep going.”

  “We went down that hill to the waterfall to take pictures, but we stayed too long, and the storm started getting bad. We raced back, and I was the last of the group, and the ground was a mess. They took off, but it kicked mud up into my face. I couldn’t see and…”

  She trailed off. At her side, Easton went still. Graham’s eyes widened, then his tanned features went pale with rage.

  “They left you?”

  Even with her silence, Zoey knew the truth was written all over her face.

  “I tried, but I couldn’t remember my way back. Then the four-wheeler got stuck, and I scratched up my glasses. I’m so glad Easton found me.” She didn’t add how terrifying it had been to be lost in the woods alone in such a violent storm. “It’s my own fault. My decision to go out in the weather, my decision to stay too long at the waterfall. It’s no one’s fault but mine.”

  “I found her on Switchback Trail,” Easton growled. “She was headed right for the ravine. In that visibility…”

  A shudder of sheer rage rolled through him, and then Graham was twisting on his heel, heading right for Killian.

  “Graham, don’t!” Zoey tried to stop him, grabbing for Graham’s arm, but he ignored her as he stalked up to Lana’s cousin.

  “You left her?” With a snarl, Graham shoved Killian backward. “She could have died out there.”

  “It wasn’t his fault,” Zoey tried, but he wasn’t listening to her.

  “Hey, we didn’t even know she wasn’t there until we got back.” Killian held up his hands in defense, but Graham didn’t bother to wait
for an explanation. Even over the crowd, Zoey could hear the crunch of a nose when Graham slammed his fist into Killian’s handsome face.

  Easton breathed out a curse, pushing Zoey behind him just as Graham tackled Killian around the waist. Both men fell into the delicately carved cedar statues decorating that side of the lobby. Killian wasn’t going down without a fight, but Graham had lost it completely. He had the other man beneath him, slamming his fists into Killian’s face and torso.

  “Graham, stop!” Zoey yelled again.

  “Enough,” Easton barked. “He’s done, man.”

  When Graham ignored them both, Easton strode forward, forcefully hauling Graham off Killian. Zoey caught a brief glance of Lana crouching by Killian, helping him sit up, but her attention was diverted as Hannah shoved her way into the mess. Just as the lights flickered back on, Hannah grabbed Graham’s shirt, forcing him to listen to her. “Out! Get out of my hotel, Graham. Don’t come back here.”

  For a long moment, Graham just stared in sheer hatred at Killian, then he stepped back, away from Hannah, away from Zoey, away from all of them.

  “Graham,” Zoey started, but he shook his head.

  “Don’t. I knew better than to start this with you. Just don’t, Zo.”

  * * *

  A hot shower would have been amazing. Theoretically.

  Too many guests had the exact same idea as Zoey, leaving the water pressure less than impressive and the temperature lukewarm at best. Still, it was good to wash the mud from her hair, face, and limbs.

  Lana was waiting for her when Zoey came out, bundled up in one of the thick bathrobes provided by the hotel. Brush in hand, Lana settled on the couch next to her. Letting her friend brush her already combed hair was incredibly soothing to her frazzled nerves. Even better than a hot shower would have been.

  “He was frightened for you,” Lana said softly. “I’ve known Graham for a long time, and I’ve never seen him so upset. When he realized you were still out in the storm, he went right out there. He’d still be out there if Easton hadn’t found you. You should call him.”