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"Mable's bringing my grandmother up the mountain?"
For a split second, my steps falter as that registers in my head. If I Mable Hart is headed toward my grandmother for anything other than a fight, she's really worried.
"I'm gonna head down the Driveway," I bark into my phone, "he's got Birdy and I got a bad feeling about where he's headed."
"Meet you there."
The call goes dead and I don't waste any more time. Hawk knows where to meet up with me, men like us speak the same language.
ChapterNine
Sparrow
It'd be a pretty ride if it wasn't with Travis and if I wasn't tied to the damn handles. The trail wide, over well-groomed snow that's been compacted into a smooth road for nearly anything on skis to travel along the back-country route.
The sun can't compete with the windchill factor though. I'm glad I tied the belt on the robe tight before I went outside. Of course, now I wish I'd put on the borrowed snow gear. Nah, strike that, now I wish I hadn't been outside at all. At least, not without Vale right beside me.
Every fiber of my being is sure that Vale is on his way. He's probably got half the mountain waiting the other end of this trail, ready to make sure Travis never sets foot up here again-- possible to make sure hecan'tset foot up here again.
I could kick Travis. Probably hard enough to knock him off the seat in front of me, but going over the cliff, cuffed to a thousand pounds of snowmobile doesn't strike me as solution to the problem, so I concentrate on breaking through the nylon ties and freeing my hands.
Travis makes an awkward maneuver, nearly sending me off the back of the seat behind him, as he turns the snowmobile off the easy-to-follow track just before we cross the river.
I stop struggling against my bonds to try to process where I am. The river is running to one side of us; up ahead, the towering granite mountains part in a wide valley and there's nothing but blue skies and the sound of traffic.
Traffic? That can't be right.
Mentally I try to picture Moonshine Ridge on a map. There highway that twists up the mountain to Serenity Springs-- the Diaz resort-- is far behind us, on the other side of another row of rugged peaks. I think. Maybe I'm all mixed up and the trail curved back toward the main road without me noticing.
Still-- there's not a road with that much traffic on it till you get to the interstate corridor on the other side of Slow River Valley. Where the fuck are we?
And that's when Travis stops the sled.
"Did you know there is the cutest little museum of local history right across from that bar you work in?"
Travis stands next to the machine and casually takes off his visor and gloves while he tells me about the little museum that Mable Hart runs in town-- I keep twisting at the cord on my wrist, feeling hopeful when I notice a break in the edge.
"The old lady that runs the place was telling me all about how these waterfalls up here are named after your boyfriend's family."
The falls?
Now I realize that what sounds like busy highway traffic up ahead is actually the river plunging down the seventy-eight-foot cliff to the valley below.
"Travis," I almost have one hand free, even though I can feel the cable tie biting into my wrist as I twist to break through the strong, nylon plastic. I can't worry about that, or how my feet have gone so cold I can't feel my toes, or how the wind from the ride went straight through the thick robe and I'm feeling chaffed and freezer burnt.
"Yeah sweetie?" Travis uses a pocket knife and easily cuts through the tie holding down my arm on the side closest to him.
"Why would you bring me out to see some stupid waterfall?"
I was going to try for theconvince him I want to go home with himapproach, but the band on my other wrist snaps and my hand comes free with momentum that I use to knock Travis off balance with a surprise fist to the side of his face.
Pain blooms through my hand as it connects but inertia is on my side, sending me off the seat and into the snow beside the skimobile.
Unfortunately, my frozen numb feet aren't ready to catch me, and I fall on my knees right beside an incredibly pissed off Travis.
"Get the fuck up," he seethes between clenched teeth as he hauls me off the ground, "I wanted to tell you this story I heard."
He's shoving me closer to the edge of the river and telling me about some woman who threw herself off the falls because her lover died going over them.
