Page 62 of Mountain Challenge

Saint-Gervais-les-Bains was further down the valley.Past the tunnels. A spark of hope lit up inside Ry.

“Is his uncle there now?”

Adeline shook her head. “He passed away last year. He left the house to Miles. I kept telling him he should sell it. It’s falling apart, and he doesn’t have the money to renovate it. But he wouldn’t listen to?—“

“Do you know the address?”

“Uh, no. But it’s easy to find once you get to Saint-Gervais.”

“Can you take us there,Mademoiselle?” Vincent asked with thinly veiled urgency.

Isla

Sitting there in the dark with a ball gag in her mouth, with Laura’s shivering body lying next to her, Isla had made three important decisions.

We’re not going to die here.

That was the first big one. Somehow—she hadn’t quite figured that bit out yet, but she knew time was running short to execute on it—she was getting Laura out of here.

She was going to find time for Ry.

That was the second decision. She’d done a lot of soul searching, and while her studio was as important to her as it’d ever been, so was Ry. She wasn’t going to relegate him to dinneronce a week, or whenever the stars in their schedules aligned. She was going to tell him how she felt and she was going to?—

The noise outside interrupted her train of thought.

You won’t be saying anything to Ry unless you find your way out of here.

The third big decision—or maybe it was a subset of the second decision—was that she was going to do whatever it took to get the men to let them go.

Whatever it takes.

She was ready to beg, grovel, maim, or kill. Whatever looked like the best option to get them out of here. Her heart fluttered inside her chest. She was terrified. She’d never been this afraid before. But she couldn’t afford to let that stop her, because this was two lives she was fighting for. Her life and Laura’s. And she would not let her best friend die at the hands of a madman.

Her frozen hand shook around the spoon in her hand. She’d read stories where impressive feats had been accomplished with a mere spoon. But she wasn’t going to be able to dig her way out of this. No. The spoon was a weapon. Given half the chance, she was going to stick this spoon through his neck. She clutched it tighter in her hand. There was no other choice.

She could hear noises on the other side of the door. The two men were there, talking loudly.

Please let only one of them come inside.

When the door finally opened, she held her breath. Yes. This was her chance. Except it wasn’t, because both men walked through the door at the same time. Or rather, Getty shoved Richard through the door.

“What the fuck were you doing?” Miles bellowed. Anger reddened his face, and his blue eyes bulged in a way that made him look inhuman.

He’s taken something.

“I didn’t call anyone, Miles. I swear.” In his trembling hand, Richard still clutched a phone.

Miles took a threatening step forward and swatted the phone away, where it clattered onto the hard stone ground. Isla followed it with her eyes.She needed that phone.“But you were thinking of it. I can tell. I can fucking tell just by looking at you.”

Isla wanted to throw herself on the floor after that phone, but some instinct told her to stay put. There was no way she was getting to that phone before Getty saw her. All she’d be doing was calling attention to herself.

“Come on, Miles,” Richard sobbed. “We don’t want to hurt them.”

“We don’t want to hurt them?” Miles mocked, his tone incredulous. “What the fuck did you think we were going to do with two women in our trunk?”

“I thought we were going to give the guy a fright, that was all,” Richard sobbed. “But I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.” He pulled at his thin, ratty hair. “Let’s send them back.”

“Are you an idiot? This one has seen our faces.”

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