Page 51 of Knot a Chance in Hell

Ezekiel pulled on his boots and coat. “The truck was still out there, but I’m going to check the shed.”

The dogs followed him out into the blizzard and left me to pace. This was bullshit. I’d left the clinic to find Silas and have it out with him, but we never got as far as blows because my dadand Ezekiel arrived. The only reason we stopped and came back home together was because Ezekiel said Nicolette needed us. She was upset that we were fighting and that was a dull blade in my guts. I couldn’t stand that I was doing something that made her unhappy.

“She left, didn’t she?” Silas stared out the windows as the snow whipped at them. “We were being selfish pricks and she couldn’t take it anymore.”

“We?” I snorted.

“Yeah, all of us.” Silas shot me a look. He was right, but I wasn’t going to say that to him. “She hates when we fight.”

Nicolette tried so hard to keep the peace, and I was the ass who yelled for everyone to get out of my room at the clinic. I freaked out seeing that Silas claimed her. It should be me. She came to Alaska for me, and we fit so good together. I wanted her here with me forever.

Ezekiel burst through the front door with wild hair and snow dripping off his body. “One of the snow machines is gone. She left.” The dogs trotted in as if they had a romp on a warm and sunny day. The exact opposite of the wretched look on Ezekiel’s face. “I don’t get it. Why? She said she loved me.”

“What?” Silas and I barked at the same time. No way. Now Nicolette is in love with Ezekiel? Fuck my life.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “She said she loved you two as well. She loves us all.”

I put a hand on the wall to steady myself. Nicolette said she loved me. She was everything I ever wanted and she loved me. The immensity of it made it hard to breathe.

“Why the fuck are we standing around like idiots? Let’s go find her!” Silas rushed to the door and put on his coat and boots.

The sound of his voice broke the grip my heart had on me and pushed me to get dressed too. “Where would she be? In this storm…” Fucking hell. She was out in this. Fear that shewas freezing to death or that she took a wrong turn and was lost again raked through me. “She wasn’t going into town, wasn’t she?”

“I told her to stay here, so yes.” Ezekiel grunted. “But she packed her stuff. She was leaving, not coming to us.”

“But where would she go?” This was all crazy. She shouldn’t have gone anywhere with this storm. What made her so desperate that she had to leave now? “She can’t drive off the island, and she doesn’t know how to drive a boat. Why did she leave?” I looked to Ezekiel for that answer. He was the last one to see her. When he didn’t meet my gaze, I grabbed him by the front of his coat and slammed him against the wall. “Whydid she leave?”

He pushed me off of him and shouted, “I don’t know! Don’t you think I’m as freaked out about this as you are?” He stared at the floor for a few seconds and then forced out in a low voice, “I claimed her.” What the fuck? “But that can’t be the reason why. There was something in her eyes since we left the clinic.”

First Silas and then Ezekiel. Both of them claimed the Omega I loved. No way was I going to allow that to happen.

I turned and ran out into the storm. I heard Silas tell my dad to stay at the house in case Nicolette returned, and then my friends followed me to the shed. Grabbing a helmet and keys, I revved up the nearest snow machine.

“The airport!” Silas yelled over the noise. “If she’s planning on leaving, she’ll wait out the storm there and catch the first flight off the island.”

The airport wouldn’t be open though.

But Nicolette wouldn’t know that. Shit.

I didn’t wait for the guys. I tore out of the shed and barreled down the drive. The snowcat’s deep tracks were almost covered by the snow already, it was blowing so hard. AndNicolette was out alone in this. No matter what little she learned recently, she wouldn’t be prepared to survive in a blizzard.

The snow machine’s top speed wasn’t fast enough. The airport seemed a world away. My heart beat hard as my blood roared through my veins. I would find her, and she would be okay.

Shehadto be okay.

Headlights flashed in my mirrors. The guys were behind me on their own machines.

I powered through twists and turns. So easily I could slide off the road. A deer or moose could dart out in front of me and kill me instantly. I didn’t care. I needed to get to Nicolette.

While I couldn’t see that far ahead of me, I knew exactly where to go. I could have taken the machine down through the woods if it hadn’t been storming. But on a day like today, this was the fastest way. And it wasn’t fast enough.

I couldn’t stop myself from picturing Nicolette curled up and covered in snow against the door of the airport. Even if she made it there. We wouldn’t be able to find her in this fucking mess if she went off the road.

Fuck.

The airport lights blurred into existence through the sheets of snow. I gunned the machine straight for the terminal. But even before I drove around the whole place, I could see no one was there. No snow machine. No Nicolette.

Ezekiel stopped his machine and ran to the door. He looked inside and then shook his helmeted head as he shouted something.

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