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I can’t think like that. She’s not as dumb as she’s acting, and I have to believe she’s just out of range.
Carter jumps over the couch and pulls his sweatshirt on.
“I have extra snow gear in my trunk. Do you have a good coat? I only have one.” He goes into rescue mode and looks over my fleece and jeans. I don’t have a coat, never needed one.
“I have one that may fit you.” Gentry comes up from behind us and goes back down to his basement to get the coat after sizing me up.
Carter is an EMT and local firefighter here in Drexton during the off season. He has flashlights, boots, snow pants, along with gloves and hats in his trunk. He flips the floodlights and top lights on so we can actually see the road.
“What was she thinking going out in this?” Carter groans as he heads toward the mountains.
In clear weather and clean roads, it’d take us forty-five minutes just to get to the beginning. Another hour or so to get to where the ski resort and cabins are. We can’t waste any more time.
“She wasn’t.” I shake my head, and stretch my arms in Gentry’s coat that is way too tight, but it’ll have to do. “She left before it got bad.”
“And you let her go?” He accuses me of knowing she was going up the mountain in a fucking blizzard.
“No!” I shout back at him. “I just got the fucking call that she went and they don’t know where she is.”
“Christ,” Carter grumbles.
He picks up speed to get there faster.
“They said the last contact was two hours ago. That she was lost but on the mountain.” I tell Carter everything I got out of Jocelyn. “She was going to see Vic.”
I try calling Willa’s phone, but it goes straight to voicemail.
“Vic, and anyone else he may be with’s, numbers are in here somewhere.” Carter tosses me his phone and tells me his password. “The fucking prick is cheating on her again.”
“Why do you care?” I ask as Vic’s voicemail comes on.
Leaving a message would be a waste of time. Instead, I moved on to his friends. Anyone who could possibly be in one of those cabins and could’ve taken Willa in.
“She’s too good for him.” Carter focused on the road, ignoring me.
It’s early in the morning and no one is answering their phone. I’d bet every one of them is passed out and still drunk.
“Fucking answer!” I yell into the phone when I start back at the beginning.
The snow is still coming down and looking even heavier than it was when we first drove out.
Finally, Roan picks up. A senior on the snowboard team and Kappa with Vic. But I find out he’s in a different cabin.
Roan hasn’t seen or heard from Willa. The guy even goes outside to see if he can see her, but the wind is rough and he can’t see anything but white. He checked all the rooms in his cabin with no sign of Willa.
Next, Braxton answers as they all start waking up. He and I don’t get along, and our conversation doesn’t start off too well. But once I tell him about Willa, he checks with the guys in his cabin. He’s in a large cabin with Vic and four other guys, but Willa isn’t there.
Vic couldn’t even bother to wake up. One of the other guys checks outside, but doesn’t see anything either.
We make it to the mountain in an hour. The storm is getting worse, and the road is barely visible.
“I know these roads,” Carter assures when he notices my nerves getting to me. “She would’ve stayed on the road. There’s no way her car could even make it past the shoulder.”
Carter has to slow down or risk us going off the road or hitting something stuck on it around the bends. Even his utility vehicle is being pushed by the wind. There’s no way Willa’s small hatchback would make it in this weather. Hopefully it wasn’t this bad before she stopped.
It takes us almost two hours to get to the first cabin. No sign of any cars that pulled over.
No sign of any life.
