Angels In Red (2 page)

A thick layer of dust coated every surface in the room. Nothing had been touched since her mother’s death five years ago. She closed her eyes and inhaled the lingering scent of Lily-of-the-Valley perfume.

Oh God, how I miss you…

“Jenna! I think somebody is coming up the stairs.”

Her friend’s warning abruptly ended the bittersweet memory. As much as she wanted to stay, she feared her father might abuse this moment, threatening to get rid of everything if she didn’t marry Howard
.

Darting her gaze around the room, she sought something, anything that might make her feel close to her mother.
Of course.
Jenna took two long strides to her mother’s writing table, careful not to disturb anything, and opened the center drawer. The leather bound journal she’d seen her writing in on a few occasions sat atop a number of papers and pens.

“Jenna!”

She grabbed the journal and pushed the drawer shut, hard enough to send a cloud of dust upwards making her sneeze. Part of her still wanted to lock the door and remain in the midst of her mother’s memory. Thoughts of her father using all of these treasures for blackmail gave cause to take one last, quick glance around before following the same footsteps she’d left imprinted in the plush carpet.

Before closing the door, she glanced back over her shoulder.

I’ll be back, Mother.

“Oh! What are you doing here?” Jenna gasped, startled by Edna’s presence in front of her. “Don’t even bother to try and stop me.”

The longtime housekeeper smiled and gently laid her hand on the diary. “I wouldn’t think of it. I heard everything, and I’m so sorry you were put in such a…uncomfortable situation.”

“Does he really believe I’ll agree to marry that drunk?”
             

“He isn’t thinking of your feelings, Jenna. Your father is only thinking of himself. I wouldn’t blame you one bit if you got away from here for a while.”

Jenna hugged her dear friend. “I love you, Edna. Maybe I will take off for a while. I can’t even stand the thought of seeing him right now.”

“You do whatever your heart tells you to do.” The plump woman stepped back and dabbed at her eyes with the hanky she always had tucked away in the sleeve of her uniform. “I love you. You better go. The last thing you need right now is for your father to find you here.”

Jenna nodded and kissed the flushed cheek in passing. Buffy stood in the hallway and practically dragged her away. There was no sign of anyone, making her wonder if there really had been someone coming up the stairs. Her best friend pushed her into her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her. A click of the lock preceded Buffy’s long-winded breaths.

Jenna spun on her heel. “Can you believe the nerve of my father?
Howard Meed?
” She shuddered, utterly revolted by the mere thought of being married to the creep.

“Hey, I’m on your side. I’m just so scared for you.” Her platinum curls bounced with each step she took to sit on the end of Jenna’s bed. “Maybe you shouldn’t have made a scene? I’ve never seen your father so angry.”

She could hardly believe her ears. “So, you think I should’ve played nice, and smiled in all the right places?”

“Well, yes.” Her bare shoulders rose and fell. “You could have flipped out on him in private. Don’t you think?”

Without giving it a second thought, she grabbed Buffy’s arm and led her across the room. “Get out!”  Jenna flipped the lock and yanked open the door, pushing her childhood friend out into the hallway.  She paused momentarily to look into far too big blue eyes filled with confusion. “Why don’t you go downstairs and
play nice
with Howard Meed. Maybe he’ll marry
you
, ‘cause he sure as hell won’t be marrying me.”

Buffy opened her mouth to speak, but Jenna wanted no part in hearing anything she had to say. She slammed the door in her face, flipping the lock before leaning back heavily. Her chest heaved as the tears fell.

“Please, Jenna. Don’t be like that. Let me in so we can talk about all of this.”

She resisted the urge to give in.
I don’t want to deal with anyone right now!
Maybe she was being unreasonable, but if one more person told her to placate her father she’d surely lose what little control she had left over her faculties. She set the journal on her bed and slipped out of her dress, letting it pool around her ankles.

Her bedroom was bigger than the ground floor of most people’s homes, and she still felt like the walls were closing in on her. “I need to get away from here.”

She rushed to her closet and dressed faster than ever, casually in jeans and a sweatshirt topped with a lightweight parka of royal blue. Jenna then grabbed her mother’s diary and tucked it safely away in an oversized pocket of her coat before pushing her feet into fur-lined boots.

Maybe I should pack a bag… No, I can buy anything I need.
Jenna checked her wallet for credit cards before throwing her purse over her shoulder. She rolled back her shoulders and left the room, running past her best friend who pleaded for her to reason. Charles stood at the bottom of the staircase with arms folded across his broad chest.

“Just where do you think you’re going? They’re calling for a lot of snow this evening, Jenna. Quit being so childish and come with me, we can talk over a cup of coffee in the kitchen,”

Jenna shrugged his hand from her shoulder. “Please, Charles, just let me go. You of all people should understand why I need to put some distance between me and my father.”

His big hand pressed against the door above her head, barring her way. “I get it, Jenna. I really do. Can you at least take Buffy with you?”

She turned, and made her features soften as she stepped toward her best friend.

Buffy opened her arms. “Thank God. You’ll be able to think more clearly once you have a chance to calm down.”

Jenna spun around, catching Charles off guard, she ignored their shouts from the front doorway as she trudged through the snow to the carports housing a fleet of cars. She opened the glass-encased peg board and snatched her keys before letting herself in the port reserved for her Jag. 

Charles still stood at the front doors when she pulled up and lowered her window. “I’ll call later.”

He descended the stairs, but she took off down the cleared driveway from the house. He grew smaller in her rearview mirror, completely out of sight by the time she pushed a button on her key ring and drove through the parting front gates.  She’d never done anything remotely this defiant in all of her twenty-two years.

I’ll just give him a little time to come to his senses. Once he realizes how serious I am, he’ll rescind the offer of my hand in marriage…won’t he?
She grimaced into the mirror.
You better hope so, girl.

Jenna stopped for coffee-to-go at the Canada/USA border—separating her from her father back in Thunder Bay, and the serenity of Eagle Ridge ski resort in Minnesota’s Lutsen Mountains.
The taunting strains of ‘I’ll be Home for Christmas’ filled the car. Despite the steady snow fall and poorly lit road, it didn’t take a genius to figure out she’d taken the wrong mountain access to the resort on the summit of Moose Mountain. A light on her dash flashed red, warning her gas was running low.

“Oh God, please don’t.”
You idiot, why didn’t you fill up at the border?

Suddenly, two green orbs of light pierced the darkness. Her heart pounded as she swerved to avoid the fear-stricken deer in her headlights. The steering wheel slipped through her fingers as the Jag slid out of control. Her body jerked forward as the crunch of her front end bursting through the guardrail ravaged her eardrums.

Plummeting down the side of the mountain, Jenna screamed as the door flew off and sucked her out into the frigid winter’s night.  Forcing her arms up to protect her face, she spiraled down into a vast expanse of nothingness.

Silence…

Her eyes fluttered open, momentarily blinded by a wall of white. Only the rush of blood sounded in her ears. Incredible pressure restricted her from moving. Her mind scrambled for a thread of memory.

Cold…white... I’m alive...

Oh my God! I’m buried in the snow...

She teetered on the edge of hysteria as her memory slowly unraveled...the deer...crashing though the guardrail.

How long have I been here?

Jenna made a futile attempt to move. Her muscles contracted, but her legs wouldn’t budge under the heavy snow.
How much is on top of me?
She couldn’t tell, but luckily there seemed to be an air pocket in front of her face. It made no sense, but she thanked God for it. If the snow continued to fall, it was only a matter of time before the pressure strangled the flow of blood through her veins. Her teeth chattered, never had she been as cold.

One of her arms lay beneath her. An attempt to move her fingers brought tears to her eyes.  Daggers shot up the other arm resting against her side. The wall of snow in front of her stained red, spreading from ice-numbed skin she couldn’t. She wasn’t sure how long she’d survive like this, but she was smart enough to know she was in
big
trouble.

Jenna faded in and out, fighting to stay awake, scared if she fell asleep she might never open her eyes again. Tears froze on her cheeks until, unable to fight any longer, she closed her eyes and succumbed to the cold tiredness invading her limbs.

Jack Davis looked through his telescope at the stars when a sudden flash of light stole his attention. He steered the lens down just as a car smashed through the guardrail and over the mountain ridge.

“Holy shit!”

He dashed around the cabin to the front, knowing with each passing moment the chances of finding the driver alive grew slim. He fumbled with harnesses and hooked up the two dogs to the sled, battling the biting winds and blowing snow. By the time he reached the destination, the sports car was completely engulfed in flames, squelching any hope of finding someone alive. Through the inferno, he noticed the driver’s door was missing.

Did somebody make it out before it hit the ground?

The light attached to his hat illuminated the snow-covered land between his sled and where the car came down. Snow continued to fall heavily, and as the wind picked up even more, the possibility of there being a survivor became less than likely. If the driver had been ejected, there was no way of telling where he or she landed.

“Sasha, Tito...search and find.” He unclipped their leads, and the two dogs bounded atop the snow effortlessly. The only chance of finding someone alive relied entirely with his Huskies. In between litters, he worked hard with them for just such an emergency.

The dogs suddenly stopped, ears twitching, snouts stuck up in the air. They’d caught wind of something and took off to the base of the mountain, clawing at a mound of snow.

Jack saw no sign of life in or around the area they were digging through. No footsteps, no nothing.

“There’s nothing here, you two. Come on. Let’s go.”

Sasha and Tito ignored his command and continued digging at a frantic pace. He angled the light on the front of the sled on them. His brow crinkled, knowing they wouldn’t dismiss him without reason.

Jack lunged forward and dropped to his knees, burrowing through the snow with his gloved hands. A piece of blue fabric urged him to pick up speed. Someone lay face down—no way of telling if they were alive or hurt.

Sweat dripped from his brow, his throat ablaze as he gasped for breath. He grabbed a hand shovel from the sled and dug out trenches on both sides of the body, removing enough snow for him to slip his hands under and lift it out, carefully flipping the person over to lie on the snow face up. For a split second, he was awestruck by this sleeping beauty with a sweet smile on her bluish lips. Jack pulled his glove off with his teeth and put two fingers to her ice-cold neck, breathing a sigh of relief to find a pulse.

His hand came away wet and sticky, but he couldn’t tell where she bled from. He
did
know if he didn’t get her warm, fast, nothing else mattered
.
A gust of wind passed through the spot he’d dug out, revealing an object in the middle of blood-stained snow. Half-hidden by a drift, he picked up a book and stuffed it in the inside pocket of his vest.

“Sasha, come. Lie down.” He snapped his fingers next to her and the dog stretched out beside the woman, inching in as close as possible. Another snap of his fingers and Tito followed suit on the other side. “Stay.”

He took off his scarf and secured it as best he could across her face, covering her nose and mouth loosely before trudging to his sled. The wind pelted his now exposed face mercilessly as he fought his way back; the blowing snow obstructed the light, making it impossible to see past the tip of his sled. Living in the middle of this vast, snow-covered expanse where everything looked the same, he’d acquired an incredible sense of direction.

Luckily, the light on his hat enabled him to at least see what his hands were doing. In a matter of minutes, he had the woman on the sled with a blanket tucked tightly around her slight body and his scarf secured. From what he could tell, she bled from the back of her head. The sooner he got her home, the faster he could tend to her.