Page 72 of Face Her Fear

“We have to use one of the cabins. We have no choice.”

Josie got on the other side of Sandrine, hooking a hand under her other armpit. “It’s going to be a tough climb.”

Together, they started hauling Sandrine toward the main house. “I don’t care,” Alice said. “We can’t stay here. Josie, I’m telling you, Nicola is batshit crazy. She just completely lost it.”

Josie guided them toward the tracks she and Brian had made on their way back from his cabin. “Walk and talk,” she told Alice.

As the three of them hobbled back up the trail, Alice recounted what had happened; Josie kept panning the woods on either side of them, searching for any additional threats. Every nerve in her body was stretched taut.

“We were just sitting there, against the wall, waiting for you to come back. Nicola got up and went to the door. I don’t know if she was watching the fire or waiting to see if Brian was coming back but I asked if she could close the door. More smoke was getting inside. She told me to shut my mouth. So I said she should shut her own mouth—that I wouldn’t have to say anything if she would just stop letting all the damn smoke inside, and that I didn’t understand why she let you go after Brian while she stayed behind. Then I said…I said…that if he came back but you didn’t, I would make both of them pay.”

“Alice,” Josie said. They passed Sandrine’s cabin. Now the side of it closest to the main house sagged, as if it was an ice cream cake that had begun to melt.

“I know, I know, but I was so frustrated and afraid and I’m tired of being afraid, Josie. I’m sick and tired of it. I don’t even know why I said that! What am I going to do? Fight them both? I was sorry as soon as the words came out of my mouth. Then Nicola picked up a piece of glass and threatened me. Sandrine stood up and said we should both calm down.”

Josie felt Sandrine’s body shivering between them but she said nothing.

Alice went on. “Then Nicola told Sandrine to stay out of it or she would kill her. Then she said, ‘You deserve it, you heartless bitch,’ and she just started stabbing her. I pulled her away and I grabbed Sandrine and we got out of there.”

A gust of wind blew a plume of smoke directly at them. They buried their mouths and noses in the crooks of their elbows. The smoke was thick but luckily, it passed over them quickly. Every muscle in Josie’s body ached with the effort of helping Sandrine up the hill through the smoke. She didn’t know that much about fires or their ability to jump or whether the snow would offer any insulation against the fire spreading but she prayed that it would stay contained to the main house and not spread to the other buildings, or worse, cause a forest fire.

“Which cabin?” Alice asked, once they were past it.

Josie pointed to the top of the slope. “Yours. It’s the last one, furthest from the fire and we can see the entire camp from there.”

What she meant was that they’d be able to see if Nicola or Brian tried to come after them.

FORTY-EIGHT

Time slowed down. It seemed to take hours to cross the tiny kitchen. As he got closer, Noah noticed Cooper’s eyes widen. His hands started to lift. His mouth opened. Before he could do anything more than that, Noah tackled him, driving his shoulder square into Cooper’s chest. He heard a puff of air expel from Cooper’s mouth. Then they were flying together, feet completely off the ground for a short moment before they landed on the coffee table in the living room. It splintered under their combined weight. As Noah straddled Cooper, he felt some satisfaction realizing that he’d knocked the wind out of him. He watched him struggle for oxygen for a second before he looked around the room for his gun—or any gun—or something to restrain him with.

There were only curtains.

Before Cooper could get his breath back, Noah tore the curtains from their rods. He flipped Cooper onto his stomach and started to tie his hands behind his back. The fabric was slippery. Noah wasn’t fast enough. Cooper flailed and bucked. His hands slipped out of the flimsy binding, and he wriggled off the remnants of the coffee table onto the floor. Noah followed but tripped over the discarded curtain and fell, landing next to Cooper.

Before he could get his bearings, Cooper hooked a leg across Noah’s body, straddling him. His hands squeezed Noah’s throat. “I told you I would kill you,” he snarled. “You can’t keep me away from her. No one will keep me away from her.”

Noah swung a wild fist at Cooper’s head, glancing a blow off his jaw. It was enough to stun him. Folding his arms across Cooper’s wrists, Noah broke his grip. He lifted his hips and rolled Cooper onto his back. He had no idea where the hammer went. He had nothing but his hands.

He took great pleasure in smashing his fist into Cooper’s nose.

Bone crunched. Blood poured from Cooper’s nostrils. “You son of a bitch,” he cried. “I’m gonna fucking kill you!”

Noah shifted his weight, getting onto one foot so he could roll Cooper onto his stomach. Wrenching his hands behind his back again, Noah said, “Not today, asshole.”

Into the carpet, Cooper mumbled a long stream of expletives.

Noah leaned down and into his ear, asked, “Who are you? Who are you really and what are you doing here?”

A blast of cold air smacked against his back. He looked over his shoulder to see the front door wide open. A man filled its frame, tall and broad. He had thick, curly gray hair, and penetrating blue eyes. A dark purple bruise shadowed one side of his face. A deep cut scored his bottom lip. His clothes were wet. When he took a step inside, his right leg dragged behind him. Blood streaked his pantleg.

In his hands was a rifle, the barrel pointed at Noah. “Who the hell are you two and what are you doing in my damn house?”

FORTY-NINE

It was only marginally warmer inside Alice’s cabin. At first, it felt cloying. Josie stripped off her coat and helped Alice get Sandrine’s utility jacket off in order to assess her injuries. Then Josie locked the door and pushed the metal bed frame in front of it. It was precious little weight to keep someone from breaking inside, but it was something. Soon, the sweat on her face and running down her back dried and the cold set in. She quickly put her coat back on. “How bad is it?” she asked Alice.

“It’s just this one cut on the palm.” Alice held Sandrine’s left hand out. “It’s pretty bad. You’ll definitely need stitches,” she told Sandrine. “But it will have to wait till we get off this mountain. If we ever do. I need something to wrap this.”

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