A Matter of Trust

by Susan May Warren

  But Ella was doing the math. “But you have time to go in, drop someone off, right?”

  The woman glanced at Gage, back to Ella. Gave a slight nod. “But in order to do that, we’d need the Mercy Falls sheriff’s department to issue a formal callout. Otherwise, we don’t have the funding—”

  “I’ll pay for it.” Ella turned to Gage. “Please.” This time she didn’t care if he pushed her away. “Please, go up and get them. Ollie—or Bradley—could be injured right now on the mountain. And if they’re not, then you could find them, help them get down the mountain—”

  “Ella . . .” Gage started, his voice low, almost a growl.

  “I know that I shouldn’t be asking you this, but Ollie is my only flesh and blood.” She took a breath, closed her eyes, swallowed her voice back into submission. Then, “He’s young. And he thinks he’s doing something that will make him famous—”

  “Like his big sister,” Gage said, a little derision in his voice.

  She tried not to wince. “I know I don’t deserve your help. You have every right to walk away—”

  “That’s not why I can’t go up there.” Gage’s voice was tight. “Of course I’ll help you, but—”

  “Only you can ski this ridge. Only you understand it, only you can get them down safely.”

  She hadn’t even realized she’d put her hand on his chest, and now he put his hand on hers. This time he closed his over it. “Ella, just calm down. I haven’t skied terrain like this for three years—”

  “Oh, c’mon! You’re the best freeriding snowboarder in the entire world, and we all know it!”

  He drew in a breath as her voice echoed in the silence of the room.

  Gage let her hand go, stepped back from her. “Even if I did go up there, with the storm coming, it’s too dangerous, especially alone.” He glanced at Ty, then back to Ella. “And you’re right. I’m the only one who can get down that mountain.” He shook his head, turned away, and reached out to roll up the map. “If they don’t show up at the bottom in a day, then we’ll assemble a rescue team and go in after the storm passes.”

  “He’ll be dead by then! And you’ll be back to regretting your choices all over again.”

  He stilled. And with everything inside her, she wanted to yank back her words. Especially when his mouth tightened. His chest rose and fell as if he might be trying not to flinch.

  “I’m sorry—”

  He held up his hand to ward off her words. “Leave it, Ella.”

  “No, I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. You’re not the guy everyone accused you of being—arrogant and reckless. I know you regret what happened with everything inside you.”

  He rounded on her, his voice desperately low, his eyes sharp. “Of course you do. And you used it to destroy my life.”

  She didn’t care who was looking. “Yeah, I did. And I regret that too, but I doubt that guy I knew can live with himself any better now if my brother dies on the mountain than he did when he chased Dylan McMahon down an avalanche to save his life.”

  “Dylan died because of me,” Gage growled. “And now, your stupid brother is out there—again, because of me.”

  “No, he made his own choice, just like Dylan did. But that doesn’t mean his sorry hide doesn’t need saving. Please, go after him.” She wanted to add “for me,” but that wouldn’t do her any good at all. So, “I know you’re a good guy, Gage.”

  He gripped the map in his fist. “You don’t know anything of the kind.” He stalked away from her.

  But she scrambled after him, ignoring Brette’s hand on her arm. “Yes, I do. The guy—the guy I fell in love with was generous and protective, and he wouldn’t let some stupid kid lose his life if he could save him.”

  And that’s when Gage stopped short. Whirled around. She nearly plowed into him and put a hand out to his chest to stop herself.

  He didn’t move, but the look in his eyes turned her cold.

  “First—that guy, the one you met three years ago? He’s gone. Why? Because he tried to do something right, and the world, not to mention the woman I . . .” He cut his words off. “That guy was idealistic and thought he could save someone who really didn’t want saving. Because of it, my career, my entire life was eviscerated. And I learned a few things about trusting people and doing the smart thing instead of the right thing. So I don’t think you know me at all, Ella. And . . . as for falling in love with me? You have a pretty interesting definition of love.”

  Her eyes filled, but she didn’t move, her jaw tight, as she fought to pull words from her aching chest. “Okay then, what about the rescuer I met last night? The guy who showed up on my doorstep hoping to stop my brother from making an epic mistake? Where is he, because I want to talk to him.”

  Gage glanced behind her, probably at his friend Ty. And she could see him thinking, practically wearing that same expression as when he’d been asked why he’d taken Dylan McMahon onto a mountain that would take his life. “Because I thought I could keep him alive.”

  “Yes. You probably could have if you had just stopped him.” Her words from the past nearly tripped out.

  Instead, she added, “That guy could save my brother’s life, if he wanted to.”

  Gage closed his eyes, almost as if in pain. Then he took a long breath and turned to his chopper pilot. “How soon can we leave?”

  8

  “LISTEN, GAGE. You get on the mountain, find this kid’s trail, if the wind hasn’t scraped it clean, grab these kids, and get off the mountain.” Chet King hadn’t been thrilled with the prospect of sending his only chopper up the mountain. Gage sat on a table in the lunchroom, his feet on the bench, listening to his instruction through the phone while Jess and Ty assembled his gear.

  “And I don’t like you going alone. It’s dangerous. Can’t you take Pete? Or Jess?”

  Gage knew the dangers, too well, having skied alone the first time. He ran a hand across his forehead. “Sorry, boss, but no one can ski the big stuff.” If Ty didn’t have a busted knee, maybe . . .

  Of course, there was one other person who could keep up, but really, that was out of the question.

  Gage could nearly see the old man standing in his office, probably staring at the mountain range, even see his grim expression as he sighed.

  “Okay, but remember, you aren’t alone out there.”

  “Yeah, I know. PEAK will track me—”

  “Yes, but no, I meant God is with you.”

  Gage drew in a breath.

  Chet must have read his silence. “I know you have a history with God, Gage. Once upon a time, you trusted him.”

  “That was before I . . .” Gage looked around, cut his voice low. “Listen, I made some bad decisions, and they backfired. Since then, God and I have agreed to stay out of each other’s way.”

  Gage glanced over at Ty assembling his navigational gear—GPS, compass, map.

  “Don’t for a minute think that God has forgotten about you or doesn’t have your back. And don’t base God’s love or desire to help you on your opinion of yourself. Base it on who God says he is.”

  Gage said nothing, and thankfully, Chet didn’t press him. Instead, “Now listen, you stay safe and come back.”

  In other words, live.

  “Roger, Boss.”

  The simple objective ticked off in the back of his brain as Gage hung up and took inventory of his gear.

  Ty added the navigation equipment to the table. “You’ve got skins, an avi beacon, a probe, a signaling mirror, a whistle, an ice ax, and a two-way radio.”

  “Grab me another set of batteries,” Gage said. He added a head lamp, a first aid kit, matches, a lighter, a camp stove, a knife, a two-man bivvy, and a sleeping bag to the pile.

  “I really hope I can find these kids in the next couple hours. I don’t want to spend the night on the mountain.” He grabbed his pack and began to tuck in the supplies.

  “I don’t want you to either.” This from Jess, who came over with rations—energy b
ars, a dehydrated pack of chili mac, and some beef stroganoff. “I’m still trying to decide if I think you’re crazy or brave.”

  “He’s in love with the girl,” Ty said, bringing over an emergency blanket. “Ella.”

  Gage looked up at him. “What?”

  Ty handed Jess the blanket. “I figured it out.” He turned to Jess. “Last night, when he saw Ella Blair, he went white and turned grouchy.”

  “I was trying to find her brother before he did something stupid. Like this,” Gage growled. To the back of the pack he attached his folding ski poles and tucked his skins into a side pocket.

  “And then we got back to the condo, and he went into hiding. Turned on The Fugitive.”

  “Wow, yeah, that’s bad,” Jess said.

  Gage frowned at them. “The Fugitive is a classic.”

  “I’m just saying—when you want to think and pretend you’re not brooding, you watch classics.” Jess folded her arms. “Usually westerns, but I can see the draw of The Fugitive. All that running.”

  “Whatever.”

  “He knows Ella, from before,” Ty said. And then he turned to Gage. “And that’s where it gets complicated. I kept thinking, the entire time she was talking today, why would Gage even talk to the woman who’d prosecuted him in civil court, stripped away everything he had—”

  “Her brother is missing!”

  “And then I went back to what he said last night about knowing her—he went skiing with her a few times.”

  “Gage went skiing with her?” Jess looked up at him.

  Gage held up his hand. “Enough.”

  “Oh, Gage. Dude.” Jess stood up. “Now you’re really busted because we know you—you ski alone. Always.”

  Ty walked up and handed Jess toilet paper, an extra pair of socks, and binoculars. “Exactly. And the rest isn’t hard to figure out. The way I see it, Gage fell for Ella, somehow, and then she broke his heart.”

  Gage stood up. “Quit analyzing my life.”

  “And he hasn’t gotten over her,” Ty finished.

  Jess gave him a sad look, and he wanted to punch Ty in the mouth. “Thanks for that.” He nearly said something about the torrid nonaffair these two were having, trying to fool everyone, but he had more important things to worry about.

  Still. “We had one date, nothing more. She only liked me because I was famous in that corner of the world.” He knelt and shoved his sleeping bag into the top of his pack. Then he added an insulated hydration bottle to the outside pocket.

  “Let’s go.” He hoisted the pack onto one shoulder and grabbed his helmet. “I’ll keep in contact with PEAK once I get to the top. Hopefully I’ll be back for pizza tonight at the ranch.”

  Ty sobered now, clamped him on the shoulder. “And here’s where I say I wish I were going with you.”

  “Your knee still isn’t what it should be and we both know it. The stress of the powder would make you the third person I have to carry off the mountain. There’s plenty of things you can do that I can’t, Ty. It just so happens that backcountry skiing is in my wheelhouse. I’ll be fine. You show up at the bottom, okay?”

  Ty nodded, and both Ty and Jess followed him out into the lunchroom. He’d opted out of his red ski patrol jacket and now grabbed his gray down ski jacket. He picked up a smaller terrain map, folded it, and shoved it into his zippered pocket. Then he pulled his gaiter over his neck, zipped up his jacket.

  “He’s in love with the girl.”

  Maybe, once upon a time. But that was before she’d walked into his life and then proceeded to dismantle it. But despite their one date, as he’d put it, she still knew how to lay his heart open with her words, make him see something in himself he didn’t know he possessed.

  “That guy could save my brother’s life, if he wanted to.”

  He wished she hadn’t said that because looking at her, so much confidence in her beautiful blue-gray eyes, well, for a second, he did want to. Wanted to be the hero he’d been, the one who’d pulled her from the pool, held her in his arms, who’d watched her eyes light up when he suggested he find her in Vermont.

  That guy had risen from the dead and volunteered, like a love-sick teen, to risk his sorry neck on some nearly unskiable mountain in Glacier National Park.

  But he wasn’t doing this for her. He was doing it because, for all his mistakes, he still couldn’t get past the fact that it was the right thing to do.

  Oh, this was going to be fun.

  The sky still shone blue and bright, just the finest hint of gray cumulus to the west as he stepped out onto the patrol shack porch. He pulled on his pack, put on his helmet, and grabbed his board. His gloves dangled from the clip on his jacket, and he’d shoved a headband into his pocket for the high-altitude winds.

  Then he tucked his board under his arm and headed out toward the chopper.

  Kacey met him as he approached the gated area. She wore a down jacket over her jumpsuit and her helmet.

  “She won’t leave.”

  Huh?

  Kacey turned, walking with him as he headed toward the chopper. “That girl, Ella Blair. She’s sitting in the chopper. She was there when I came out, wearing a backpack, dressed for Siberia, and holding her board. It looks like she’s going with you.”

  He stared at her, the words sliding through him, latching on. Then, “Oh, no, she’s not.”

  Ella was sitting in the second row of seats, already strapped in, as if that meant something. She was wearing an orange ski jacket and had her helmet on, her pack stowed between her feet.

  He opened the door.

  She glanced at him, then looked straight ahead. “I’m going.”

  “No,” he said, climbing aboard. He shoved his board into the back of the chopper. “You’re leaving. Right now.”

  “I’m going. You know I can keep up with you, and it’s my brother.”

  Gage drew in a breath. “I know you can keep up with me—on tamed powder. This isn’t that—this is backcountry skiing down a steep face—”

  “I’ve been backcountry skiing. With you.” She turned, her mouth in a tight bud of defiance. “Redemption Ridge?”

  “That was different. It was practically a highway—”

  “I went off a cliff. I followed your line perfectly. I’ll do it again—I’ll stay right in your line, do everything you—”

  “Ella, you’re not going!” He reached over then, frustrated, and grabbed her buckle.

  She shot him an elbow in his chest. “Get off me!”

  He fell back in his seat, his chest burning. “Please. You’re just making this harder. Don’t be so stubborn.”

  She rounded on him. “Do you even remember anything about me? The reason we met in the first place? I came a thousand miles for a guy who was a friend of the family. This is my brother we’re talking about.”

  He stared at her, the flash in those devastating blue-gray eyes, the pout of her lips, the way she met his gaze, unflinching. “Oh yeah, I remember,” he said quietly.

  She sucked in a breath, and he wondered which part she thought he might be referring to. Then she nodded. “Good.”

  “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go. This is dangerous enough for me. I’m not going to let you get hurt.”

  “I won’t get hurt. You’ll keep me safe.”

  Oh. And what was he supposed to do with that?

  “No.”

  She sighed. “Fine. Then I’ll just hire this Curry guy and ask him to—”

  “Stop it, Ella! I’m not playing this game with you. If you want to risk your neck, alone, then fine—but I’m not giving in to threats. Not again.”

  That took the fire out of her. She looked at him, then away. “Sorry. You’re right. That was . . . a desperate attempt.”

  “Or a low blow.”

  She closed her eyes then. Nodded. “I’m sorry.”

  Her soft answer knocked some of the edge off his anger. “No—I get it. I know you want to go. And yeah, you’re a good skier, Ella. Pro
bably one of the best amateurs I’ve ever met. But it’s . . . dangerous. And there’s a storm coming in, so I have to ski fast. Find them, lead them off the mountain.”

  “I know. And I’ll stay right on your trail. I went to the ski store—I bought everything. A pack, sleeping bag, extra clothes, food, and my own avalanche beacon. I’m ready.”

  Kacey had climbed into the front cockpit and now glanced back at Gage.

  “Do your preflight, Kacey,” he said. She put on her helmet, raised an eyebrow, but nodded. He heard her on the radio, calling PEAK HQ.

  “Listen to me, Gage,” Ella said. “You’re right—it is dangerous. But you might as well not go at all than go alone. What if you do find my brother, and he’s hurt? Are you going to ski him down alone? Even my brother brought a buddy.”

  He looked out the window. Ty stood beside Jess at the edge of the gate, and Gage heard his friend’s words twine through his head. “Let’s just say that Jess needs me . . . that’s what teammates are for. Standing beside each other even if it doesn’t make sense.”

  Brette, Ella’s friend, walked up, stood next to Ty.

  Gage turned to Ella. “Let me see that backpack.”

  She handed it over. As he sifted through it, he had to admit that she’d thought of everything, and quickly, including hand and foot warmer packets and even a folding snow shovel. He’d forgotten that.

  “I’m ready,” she said, as if confirming his thoughts.

  “You promise to stay in my line? Trust everything I do, even if it doesn’t make sense?”

  “I promise.”

  “And you have to promise me, Ella, that if I say we need to get off the mountain, and we haven’t found your brother, you won’t freak out. You’ll obey me, even if it hurts.”

  She swallowed. Nodded.

  “And then, after this is over, you leave. And I never have to see you again.”

  She hitched her breath, as if he’d slapped her. But nodded.

  “Fine.” He tightened his jaw and turned to Kacey. “Take us in.”

  God, please bring them home.