Page 83 of Mountain Trial

Luc just restrained himself from snorting out his beer―he didn’t feel able to inspire a mosquito, at the moment, but that wasn’t Coach’s problem. The man was only trying to help.

“I’ll think about it, Coach,” he said, dutifully. That didn’t commit him to anything.

The man’s expression became serious. He looked almost irritated. “Luc, we’ve been working together for a long time. You know I respect the hell out of you. But I have to say this to you now: get your head out of your ass.”

Luc’s mouth fell open.

“I know what you’re doing. You’re pining away for that young woman, and there’s no reason for you to do that. Go find her, tell her you love her, then come find me and we’ll keep doing cool things together.”

With that, the older man drained his beer, got up, and left. “Call me when you’re ready, okay, Fournier?”

Chapter 31

Kat

Damien and the colonel had offered her time off, but Kat had chosen to go back to work almost immediately.

Not working would only give her more time to think about how much she missed Luc―and that was the one thing she didn’t need.

At least, over the last four weeks, the investigation had progressed steadily. Upon seeing his boss in prison, one mercenary had cracked, so the anti-terrorist team finally had something to go by. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it’d all been a question of money. The plan had been to hold Mrs. Larsen hostage until her husband divested himself of a number of shares from their airline. The sell-off was supposed to have caused the price to fall rapidly, causing an uproar and allowing somebody else to pick them up cheap.

Who that person or people were, was still a mystery, but the investigators were chasing up on some phone calls made by Bull’s phone the day he was captured, and were confident they’d eventually find something there.

There was still much to be figured out, but that was somebody else’s job. For the Chamonix gendarmerie, things had gone back to normal now that the anti-terrorist team had taken the suspects back to Paris.

Normal.

Nothing felt normal for Kat anymore.

She’d seen Jacques once. He hadn’t left town yet. He’d waved away her thanks for what he’d done back at the hotel, and hadn’t tried to charm her. He’d been distant, polite … and genuinely remorseful for the way he’d behaved towards her. They would never be friends, but Kat had decided to forgive him.

Though she hadn’t seen Luc, she knew from speaking to others that he was still in town. But he hadn’t called, or sent any messages.

Kat had used Luc’s excuse herself, telling her team that she and Luc were giving each other some space.

Space.

More like an endless vacuum.

That’s what life felt like without him. She’d been fine before, because she’d never allowed herself to consider what she was missing―what life could be like, if she ever allowed herself to truly connect with someone.

The rational part of her knew she was lucky. She had a job she loved, great friends, a team that felt like family. Everything she ever could have hoped.

But, as much as all those things mattered, after having tasted life with Luc, she now wanted more―more time together. Time to learn what the two of them could become, if they gave it a chance.

Kat picked up last night’s pizza box from her living room floor. Tess and Isolde were coming over to see her tonight. Kat had delayed as long as possible, arguing she had lots of work, but of course Tess and Isolde lived with Damien and Drake, so they knew when she was telling the truth and when she was lying about work. And they also knew that, on this particular Saturday afternoon, she wasn’t on duty.

She fluffed the couch pillows and looked around, making sure everything looked more or less normal. She hadn’t dusted in a while, but at least she’d picked up after herself, so hopefully the dust wouldn’t be as noticeable.

Kat raised her hand to her red curls, realizing she hadn’t even brushed her hair that morning.

Let’s see what we can do about this.

Her face in the mirror scared her. She hadn’t been sleeping well the last month, but she hadn’t expected the bags under her eyes to look quite so pronounced.

Kat blew her nose loudly. On top of everything else, it seemed like she was coming down with some kind of flu. She was tired of being tired. She’d already thrown up twice that day and once the night before. Maybe she should call Tess and Isolde and cancel―

The downstairs buzzer rang, interrupting the thought.