“I’m just glad their pilot was able to make that emergency call,” Hazel said. “I didn’t get to tell you on the drive home that the pilot told Mr. Gwynne that they’d built a snow cave?”
Both her brother’s faces brightened with relief.
“Brilliant,” Alistair declared. “You can’t get better than a snow cave in those conditions.” Some of the worry that had been shadowing his eyes lifted. “Neen’s obviously with people who know what they’re doing.”
Hazel put her fork down. “So snow caves are actually good? Both Frank and people online were saying it, but I thought they were just trying to make me feel better.”
“Nope,” Seb said. “Snow caves are great. They prevent things like frostbite and hypothermia.”
With obvious reluctance, Katie rose from the table with her half-eaten plate of bolognaise. “I better get started on that assignment. Nice to see you guys again. I’ll eat the rest of this while I study with the others, Haze.”
“Sure” Hazel smiled up at her. “See you later.”
As soon as the kitchen door closed behind her, Hazel grimaced at her brothers. “I told Alex what had happened.”
Their faces darkened immediately. “What did he have to say?” Alistair asked. “I doubt he offered to join the rescue team.”
“As if. Last night Becky and I went to Neen’s flat. He was sleeping.” She didn’t bother mentioning the state of the living room.
Alistair leaned back in his chair, eyes hard. “I don’t want to think about him right now because it’s liable to bring on a cramp. I just want Neen to be all right.”
“She’ll be fine,” Seb said in a staunch voice. “Neen’s a survivor.”
Hazel glanced over at the leftover spaghetti pot on the stove. “Want more?”
“No, I’m good.” Seb sent her a lazy grin. “How much did you cook?”
Her smile was sheepish. “More than necessary, I think.” In fact, she hadn’t paid attention to how much spaghetti she’d placed in the boiling water and naturally, she’d cooked too much.
Her brothers pushed back from the table and stood. “Why don’t you show us where we’ll be sleeping?” Alistair said. “I’m done for the night and need to try and get some sleep. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.”
Chapter 7
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What else would go wrong?
Jake didn’t want the answer to that question, but all through the night the question had refused to leave his head. By morning, it had wrung him out.
Today marked their third day since the jet had crashed. Hunger had become his best friend, and denial his constant companion.
He glanced up at the candle he had since replaced after the first one had finished. This second one burned steadily. He tried to squash down on the resentment he felt boiling up inside him to be responsible for these kinds of things. None of the others had a clue what to do. If it were left up to them, they’d all choke to death, suffocated by carbon monoxide. Although, he conceded, Justin knew a little more about the great outdoors. But why couldn’t Hugh take responsibility for the stupid candle? For their need for clean poison less air? But all Hugh had contributed was death, misery, and injury.
He had finished his turn watching over Angela, and Rita had now taken over. Unable to sleep in the same room he’d shared with Emily, he had retreated to the cave corridor, sitting upright against the wall. Uncomfortable yes, but sleeping opposite Emily’s empty sleeping platform was even more so.
He’d known Emily for nine years, and Ben even longer. He’d known them before they’d become a couple and when they’d got together.
They’d been better together.
Emily had clearly thought so too.
Angela couldn’t have foreseen what would happen out on that lake, but she’d become a victim anyway. Just like Ben, and consequently, Emily. He almost felt grateful his phone battery had died so he wouldn’t have to share that news with Gwynne.
He winced when remembering how he’d taken his anger out on Nina. It wasn’t her fault, he knew it, but she’d been an easy target. And he’d let his emotions get the better of him. He had been brutally honest with Parker Drayton their first night out here. Emily had obviously heard that altercation with his grim forecast, and he sucked in a pained breath at the realization that his resentment towards Parker had made Emily lose hope in her own future. He’d always been one to call things as he saw them...but perhaps that had inadvertently extinguished any hope Emily had harbored. He rolled his shoulders restlessly, wanting to dislodge the guilt that had settled there like two heavy rucksack straps. He should have lied about the gravity of their situation, he realized with bitter regret. He should have watered down the size of their predicament. At least then, maybe Em would still be alive. God. He covered his face with his hands as a shudder wracked his body. Was he to blame for Em’s lack of hope, for carefully and strategically planning her own death. He couldn’t bear the thought of it. How much easier it was to lay everything at the crooked feet of Hugh Drayton. So, so much easier. And he still did lay most of the blame at that twerp’s feet. But Emily knew him much better than she knew Hugh. She had looked for him for comfort, for reassurance. Had he destroyed that for her? After all, there were bound to be people looking for them. A plane didn’t go down with no one knowing. Especially one carrying a multi-millionaire such as Parker Drayton.
The lawyers hadn’t wanted him to sugarcoat their situation, he remembered with some relief. Especially Nina. Their first night out here she had wanted the truth, not false hope wrapped up in fluffy cotton wool.
His gaze flicked toward the Drayton’s room. What was it about being in a crisis or stuck in small confined spaces that made people reveal their deepest secrets? Parker’s confession to Nina last night had shocked them all. Not in a million years had he seen that coming. When he felt sympathy rise up in his gut for Justin and Hugh he squashed it. Maybe now, with both Justin and Hugh feeling a part of themselves had been lost due to Parker’s revelations, they could begin to develop some empathy for others.
Shock and tragedy often had that effect.
With a tired sigh Jake closed his eyes. Immediately the memory of the plane going down flashed behind his eyes. He remembered the manic blur of the landscape as the jet plummeted, his complete lack of control as the jet spiraled down at a sickening ninety degree angle, the way rivulets of sweat had poured down his back as he fruitlessly tried to change the plane’s direction. He had never felt that loss of control on a plane before.
His boss Frank would expect action from him, he knew. Frank was all about action and solutions. His boss didn’t like his team to bemoan what might have been. A great mindset, Jake acknowledged, but difficult to adopt if stranded in backcountry with two of your colleagues already dead.
“Morning.”
Jake’s eyes snapped open. Neil stood in front of him. Luke sat nestled in his arms gurgling contentedly.
“Hey.” Tentatively, Jake massaged his stiff thighs.
Neil eyed him. “You slept out here?”
Jake shrugged.
“Hard to stay in that room after what happened to Emily?” Neil asked softly.
Jeez, was he that transparent? Feeling exposed, Jake attempted to appear that he had a grip on things. “I’m fine.” He nodded at the baby Neil held. “How’s the little one holding up?” Luke was looking around the cave with an innocence only a small child could display.
Neil stroked the top of his son’s head but his face was tight with worry and fear. “Rita’s worried about him. We can hardly keep giving him snow to eat like the rest of us have been doing.”
And even they, as adults, had struggled with that, Jake thought. Snow was hardly edible, no matter what some survival guides that he had read in the past said. Until you were forced to do it was when you realized how awful it was. He was curious about Rita continuing to breastfeed Luke as she had their first night out here, but refrained from asking. For some reason asking
Neil about his wife’s breast milk didn’t feel appropriate. Truth was, that Luke looked fine, remarkably. He’d leave Neil and Rita to figure out the rest.
“This trip has been a nightmare from the start.” Neil rubbed Luke’s back now, seeming to derive as much comfort from the slow, soothing motion as the cooing baby. “You heard them arguing last night?”
“The Draytons? Yeah. Impossible to block out.”
“Parker’s a good guy. He’s obviously had his share of troubles like the rest of us. Justin and Hugh...” Neil trailed off with a sigh. “What Parker revealed last night...I feel for them all.”
No one deserved what Justin and Hugh had gone through as kids, Jake conceded, but none of them deserved to be here in this situation, either. And Ben and Emily sure as heck didn’t deserve to be dead. “How’s Rita?” he asked, wanting to change the subject.
Neil looked away. “She was growing close to Emily.”
Jake had seen it. Emily had derived more comfort from Rita and Luke than she had from the rest of them. He imagined the family unit Rita and Luke represented had been what she’d wanted for herself and Ben. He watched Luke snuggle closer to Neil. Trust was in the gesture, he noted, along with the knowledge that Neil had always been and would likely always be there. Lucky kid.
“Think you’ll get a chance to call your office again?” Neil asked him.
“Phone battery’s dead.”
Neil grimaced, and then accepted it with a nod. “I’m hoping Ange will make it.”
Jake saw little use in pointing out that hypothermia often came quickly, ruthlessly, and stayed until it killed the person who had caught it. Unless they were found, very soon, the chances of Angela surviving were slim. “I gave my team back in London as much information as I could...under the circumstances, which wasn’t much.”
“I know. We were lucky you were even able to make contact.”
Jake cast a quick glance towards the entranceway of the cave. Nothing awaited them outside but cold damp air and howling winds. Though he was sure people would be looking for them, how could he be sure with how the avalanche had fallen? Better not to say anything then get people’s hopes up. He thought of Emily again and winced. Emily was different, he assured himself. Because Ben had gone she still may have done what she did despite what he had told her. That thought made him feel better, and he decided he’d stick with it.
The snowfall he’d expected hadn’t come yet, but it would, just as surely as the sun would rise. They’d have to be prepared for whatever came with it.
“She’s not getting better.”
Neil turned to reveal Nina standing two feet behind him. Still in the mismatch combination of clothes she had borrowed from the rest of them, she looked dejected, her left eye still blackened by Emily’s violence, she resembled nothing of the polished lawyer Jake had seen on the jet just before takeoff. Then again, none of them looked as they had that first day. No doubt with his beard growing by the minute, he looked nothing like the shaved and cologne-smelling pilot she had seen that first day either.
“She–” Nina swallowed, and Jake rose as Neil started toward her. “I think....” She pressed her hand to her mouth, her eyes large as they held Neil’s gaze. “I think she’s...I think she’s...dying.”
Chapter 8
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She couldn’t face another death; Nina’s stomach still heaved each time she recalled the feverish gleam in Emily’s eyes as she had orchestrated her own. She glanced at Neil as they both stood beside Angela. “Parker said you weren’t able to find her asthma pump.”
“No.” Shoulders slumped, Neil dug the heel of the hand not holding Luke into his eyes. “We checked all around the area. I think it fell into the lake.”
Nina clutched Angela’s gloves in her hands. How different Ange looked from the dynamic solicitor that she and Neil knew her to be. Angela, like her, should be in London in her own office. All of them should be, Nina thought on a shaky breath. She yearned to have that back again, yearned for her London routine of work meetings and briefs. She missed her afternoon swimming sessions at Ange’s health club. A health club that Ange had found and Nina had soon joined too. Ange had a knack for discovering the best things that life had to offer, and the health club, a large oasis nestled in the middle of central London, was definitely that. Though her body ached now from this ordeal, Nina knew she would feel even worse if she hadn’t been someone who regularly worked out.
Neil passed Luke to her to carry, and then pressed his hand on Angela’s forehead. Gently, he took the gloves Nina still held and worked them carefully back over Angela’s fingers. “Not by much, but her extremities aren’t as cold this morning as they were last night.”
Jake’s eyes were grim. “If we could have given her hot drinks and helped her thaw out.” He exhaled a harsh breath at the injustice of it all. “As it is...we’ll just have to wait and see. She’s still breathing...”
“Yes.” Agitated, Nina handed Luke back to Neil. “But she’ll need her pump soon. She’s stopped shivering.” She fought against a rise of panic. “She’s stopped shivering,” she repeated. “Parker said that means the hypothermia’s getting worse.”
“Sometimes, but body-to-body heat would help,” Jake said. “Let’s concentrate on doing that.” He started out of the room. “I’ll go and get the thermometer; see what her body temp is.”
“She’s not responding to anything I say, Neil.”
“She can’t,” he said, his tone flat. “Her body had too much of a shock. Water that cold?” He hissed through his teeth, evidently chilled just thinking of it. “Jake said when he pulled her out she seemed lifeless.”
Nina’s gaze was as blank as a doll. “Yeah. And when Emily went down, she had nothing but underwear on. Her skin had turned blue. Her eyes scared me. She was blue. So blue and–”
“Neen,” he cut in quickly, his voice pained. “You’ve got to try and block it out.”
“I’ve tried.” Nina rubbed her constricted throat. “I’ve tried, but I just...I’m struggling.” When he curved an arm across her shoulder, she let herself take a few moments of comfort before stepping back. “Ben died doing his job. Now Emily’s gone, and the way she went...” When her lips trembled, she deliberately firmed them. “I keep wondering what that cold water’s done to her body now. If her limbs have become–”
“Stop it.” Neil broke through her babbling with the brisk tone he reserved for their panicked clients. “Remember what you said to Ange that first night out here? We have to stay positive.”
She took two deep breaths and nodded. “Yes. Yes I remember. Stay positive.” Tentatively she sat down hard on the edge of her sleeping platform.
“Got it.” Jake returned with the thermometer. Nina recognized it as Emily’s, and felt her stomach roll with nausea all over again.
“What temperature are we looking for?” Neil asked him.
“Anything above ninety-five is good.” Jake carefully slid the thermometer between Angela’s stiff lips and held it there for a moment.
Come on, Ange, Nina begged silently, and clasping her hands together, she closed her eyes and said a quick prayer.
“Ninety-three,” Jake announced a moment later.
Nina’s eyes popped open. “What? What did you say it was?”
“Ninety-three degrees.” Jake’s eyes were narrow on the thermometer. “Not bad, but it needs to be a couple of degrees higher. She’s not dangerously chilled so that’s good. We need to continue keeping her warm.”
Neil gestured at her hands, still clasped and pressed against her chin. “You were praying?”
“Oh.” She unclasped her hands and shrugged with a smile. “Yeah.”
“I’ve never seen you pray before. That’s more Ange and Rita.”
She sighed. “I’ve never been in this situation before. Are you going to pray?”
He sighed and shook his head. “No.” He paused before saying. “You know what Derek would do in this situation don’
t you, Neen? If it were one of us in his position he’d speak over the situation. She’d act as if we were perfectly alright and were getting better.”
Derek, Ange’s husband, Nina thought, her eyes widening with realization. “You’re right,” she breathed. “He’d speak healing over us. He’d refuse to believe that we wouldn’t be okay.”
“Exactly.” Neil smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Derek and Ange have always believed in the spiritual. So has Rita.”
“I know,” she agreed softly. She wanted to talk to him more about it but was very aware of Jake standing there listening, and so she pushed it back. Later, she decided. But she would take what he had said on board because he had been right, Ange would do all she could do believe they were alright. She might lapse and have her moments, but she would strive to act and be positive. That meant, Nina realized, acting normally. Because ultimately she believed.
Jake glanced from her to Neil but said nothing. He pocketed the thermometer.
“We’ll keep monitoring her, Nina told Jake. “How often shall we check her temp?”
“Every two hours at least.”
She rubbed a hand over her hair. It sat matted, tangled, and dirty, but she was past caring. “How’s Rita?” she asked Neil. “Did she manage to sleep last night?”
“Some. Let me go check on her.”
“And Luke?” she pressed.
He nodded. “Holding up better than expected. I’ll see you both later.”
She began to call him back. No! Don’t leave me here with Jake, she wanted to hiss at him, but Neil was already gone. She had been stuck with Jake earlier when it had been his turn to watch over Ange, but she had managed to avoid speaking to him by turning over and going to sleep. No chance of that now. Awkward she thought. Very awkward. Well, he was in her and Ange’s room so it was his place to leave, not hers. If he–
“I’m sorry for what I said last night, Nina.”
Her gaze shot to his. His eyes were hooded but he was looking straight at her,
Spiral and Torn Books 1 and 2 of The Salzburg Saga Trilogy Page 20
