Page 24 of Mountain Struggle

On the way out, she stumbled across Bailey. She remembered the way the dog had braved the current to get the rope to her. She’d probably saved their lives. She raised her eyes to find Hiro, Bailey’s handler.

“Is it okay if I pet him?”

“Of course.”

“I should have brought you a treat,” she said, petting the dog’s black head gently. Bailey leaned into her touch. “Is it okay if I get him a treat?”

Hiro nodded, looking serious. The man didn’t look like he smiled much. “Of course. Just no sugar, no garlic and no onions. They’re bad for her.”

She laughed. “I’ll remember that. You can count on me, Bailey. Next time we meet I’ll have something special for you.”

Tess let Damien lead her outside. It was a beautiful late summer morning, the sun was shining, and the town of Chamonix was its usual lively, bustling self. Tourists strolled in and out of tea houses, smoothie bars and shops, going about with their day. Colorful wildflowers hung from most balconies.

Tess felt a moment’s apprehension as two tall, loud men approached, speaking loudly to each other in a language she didn’t recognize.

I never saw his face. He could be any of these men.

Damien shifted to place himself between her and the men, his arm going around her shoulders protectively.

“It’s okay, Tess,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”

She nodded, straightening her shoulders. As nice as his arms felt around her, she couldn’t have him thinking she couldn’t take care of herself.

“Are you hungry? Would you like to grab some lunch?”

Her heart sped up—for a moment she thought Damien was asking her out on a date. Then she realized he literally meant lunch, and her spirits fell.

“No, thank you. I’ll eat something at home. I need to get back to my writing.”

Damien nodded tightly, his expression unreadable.

Together, they walked past one of the more fashionable cafés in town. People queued for hours to sit at one of the small tables on the terrace, overlooking Mont Blanc. She’d done that herself when she first arrived—her attention had been riveted not so much by the sight of the highest mountain, but by the ribbons of breathtaking peaks extending in every direction around it.

The crowd sitting there now was composed mainly of chic, fit, older couples—the quintessential Chamonix summer visitor.

Her stomach rumbled. A part of her wished she’d said yes to lunch, but she wasn’t about to change her mind now.

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

Chapter 9

Damien

They quickly settled back into some kind of normalcy. Or at least, Tess and Jamie did.

Damien watched both of them carefully. Jamie seemed to have put the incident out of his mind, though he was acting clingier than usual—something to be expected—and he’d had nightmares of a wild moose chasing after him in the mountains. That hadn’t happened before.

As for Tess, Damien had caught her locking the front door three times for luck as she and Jamie walked home from the playground, and she sometimes got a faraway look to her face that worried him.

But overall, they were both doing remarkably well. Jamie had gotten a new pair of glasses—these were blue, so Jamie liked them even more than the previous pair. Both Damien and Tess had gotten new cell phones, both of them waterproof this time around.

So everything was back to normal, and Tess and Jamie looked like they were doing okay.

Really, I’m the one having the most trouble.

There’d been no sign of the people who tried to take his son. By the time the teams found the abandoned hut, it’d been wiped clean of any prints. Damien had seen the small room where Tess and Jamie had been locked up—the blanket she’d placed on the windowsill to help their escape. But there’d been no sign of the kidnapper, and nothing that might lead them to him.

There was also no reason for anybody to target his son. He wasn’t a rich man—he made a good living, but Chamonix was a town filled with the world’s richest people nine months of every twelve—he and his team were downright poor by Chamonix standards.