Page 79 of Wind Valley

Andrea shot him a narrow-eyed glance. “That’s my business.”

“And Dr. Reed’s,” said Lachlan. “It’s his brainchild. He owns the rights. Is that why he’s accusing you of industrial sabotage, because he wants you to stay away from it?”

“He was the one who dragged me out there and nearly killed me and the kids a hundred times over,” she spat. “Then he wants to just walk away?” She shook her head, her blue eyes dark with anger. “Absolutely not.”

“See?” Lachlan said to SS. “Are you hearing all this? Wind Valley, man. It all starts with Wind Valley.”

SS scowled down at Maura. “Do you know the place he’s talking about?”

Maura shot a quick glance at Lachlan, who set his expression to “please trust me here.”

“Yes,” she told SS. “I know where it is. It’s east of here, about two miles away.”

“We can get there on the snowmobile?”

After another quick glance at Lachlan, she said, “Yes. But I haven’t been there.”

“Isn’t everything buried under snow anyway?” SS growled the question in Lachlan’s direction.

“It doesn’t matter. Snow doesn’t affect it. Does it, Andrea? That’s why he wanted to test it in these conditions. Cold, snow, ice, none of that matters.”

“No,” Andrea said curtly. “It doesn’t. But there’s no point in anyone going there. You don’t know what to look for.”

“Of course she’d say that.” Lachlan smirked. “She doesn’t think you’re smart enough to find it. She might be right.”

“Shut the fuck up.” SS hesitated, eyeing Lachlan, then Maura. Then he shrugged. “Wind Valley, huh? Sure, why not?”

SS kicked open the door, letting in a gust of cold air, and dragged Maura through it. He slammed it behind him, and a moment later Lachlan heard the sound of a snowmobile starting up.

So much for the Skidoo armada arriving in time. At least he knew which way SS was headed. A plan formed quickly in his head—a crazy, Hail Mary pass, but the only thing he could think of right now.

“Come on,” he said urgently to Andrea. “Get this bungee cord off me. We have to move fast.”

She stood up and folded her arms across her chest. Tall and athletic, she towered over poor Pinky in his chair. “Why should I help you? I don’t even know who you are. Whatever you’re up to, it has nothing to do with me.”

“That man is a stalker and a kidnapper. Don’t you want to help?” When that didn’t seem to affect her, he quickly switched gears. “If you help me, I’ll help you.”

She snorted. “How could you possibly help me, random stranger?”

“You’re looking for the remote trigger for your ex-husband’s energy experiment, aren’t you?”

Her head snapped up and she looked at him in shock. “What do you know about it?”

“Not everything. I know Dr. Reed was working on a device in Wind Valley using magnetic energy. The earthquake shifted something, didn’t it? The device started emitting a signal. Everyone thought it was dead, but it’s still alive. That’s when you took the semester off and started working on a plan to develop it.”

Her expression confirmed that everything he’d said was correct, so he kept going.

“I know you’ve been working with the Chilkoots. You want to develop it with funding from your family, but you can’t do anything without that trigger, not this time of year. That’s why you’re here at Pinky’s.”

“Jason left this stuff here so I wouldn’t find it. I only figured it out recently, and I know the trigger’s here somewhere.” She planted her fists on her hips and looked around at the small cabin with disgust. “God, I hate Alaska.”

He turned to Pinky. “Pinky, did the Nutty Professor give you anything else when he left these boxes here? Something mechanical, like a remote control, a handheld device of some kind?”

The old man looked more confused than anything else. Lachlan got the sense he’d given up on following the conversation. He screwed up his face. “I don’t know what you all are talking about.”

“It’s okay, Pinky, even if you recycled it for something else, that’s fine. You didn’t think they were coming back.”

“He said not to give her anything.” He gestured at Andrea with his chin. “She tied me up. I ain’t telling her nothing.”

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