Storm Front (7 page)

Coward.

Shut up.

She drove with caution. While the driveway slash road was somewhat cleared, blowing snow had caused drifts over portions. Caution was also needed because the road had lots of curves and several deep drop-offs on one side or the other. Used to driving in rough, lake-effect winters in Chicago, Tessa was confident of her driving ability, and the all-wheel-drive SUV handled like a dream.

As she rounded a sharp curve which led to a bridge over a deep mountain ravine and stream, the road ended in a pile of snow that would reach the middle of the SUV’s doors.

“Shit!” She pumped the brakes to slow her forward speed; she didn’t want to throw the SUV into a wild skid. But it was too little, too late. The heavy SUV had too much forward momentum and not enough traction or time to stop. She turned the wheel sharply to avoid ramming into what looked like three plus feet of snow in the middle of the road.

“Damn. Damn. Shit.” She gripped the steering wheel and turned sharply to the right to throw the SUV into a 180-degree-turn.

A sigh of relief hissed through her clenched teeth and jaw when the vehicle avoided the snow and was now aimed toward the Lodge. She pressed the accelerator and straightened the wheels, but the SUV instead of moving forward began to slide toward the steep drop off.

“No. No. No.” She yanked the steering to the left, but the wheels had locked, had no traction. All she could do was hold on and pray the stone parapet would stop the vehicle from going over.

But it didn’t.

The SUV’s momentum and weight tore off the top of the low stone wall, and the vehicle plunged over the edge in a crunching of metal and whining of the engine, then fell into the steep ravine.

Tessa screamed and held the steering wheel in a death’s grip. Her shoulder harness held her to the seat, but didn’t keep her head from hitting the roof of the car and the windows as she bounced around.

She closed her eyes. She was going to die and didn’t want to see it coming. She wished it were over already. But time had slowed down and seemed to stop.

God, when would this be over?

And then the sensation of falling vanished. The whine of the still-running engine was the only noise she could hear above the pounding of her heart.

She was still alive. How?

Don’t question. Just thank God.

Tessa opened her eyes. She shut off the engine and looked around. She wasn’t at the bottom of the ravine.

All of a sudden her neck refused to support her head. She rested her forehead on the steering wheel and breathed out a sobbing “thank God.” It had been a close call.

You ain’t home free yet.

Right. She lifted her head and began to examine the SUV’s current status and how she would accomplish getting out of the vehicle.

Good news was a larger pine had blocked the SUV from falling farther.

Bad news was the SUV was lodged between the tree and the rocky incline at an awkward angle.

“Oh, shit.” The driver’s door was toward the mountain side. She wouldn’t be able to open the door.

As she looked at the moon roof and wondered about getting out that way, a strong gust of wind hit the vehicle and the SUV teetered and tottered. A large creak and almost a groan came from the tree holding the SUV against the side of the ravine.

“Oh … my … God … no!” Tessa screeched as the SUV tipped even farther away from the solid rock. She held on to the wheel. “Hold, please hold.”

Another jerking movement and the SUV groaned, right along with the pine tree.

Ohgod, ohgod, ohgod.

God has nothing to do with this. You do. Get your ass out of the car before it falls.

The SUV stopped rocking and the tree held … but for how long?

She had to get out … now.

Passenger side was out—it was a straight drop into the ravine on that side. Driver’s side door was still mostly blocked. Driver’s side window was her only safe possibility.

Turning on the ignition to accessories only, she powered down the driver’s window. Her gut told her she’d only have one chance at this. Pull up and out. Reach and grab. And don’t look down. And fucking breathe.

A quick glance upward showed her vertical granite rock walls with small cracks, crevices, and occasional jutting rock ledges. Her mind processed these as hand and toeholds.

You can do this. Think of it like the climbing wall at the gym. Just go.

The tree cracked ominously.

Move. Now
.

Habit had Tessa pulling her purse over her head; it hung over her back. “No guts, no glory.”

Tessa released her safety belt. She ignored all the bruises and aches. She could breathe and move and that was all she needed.

Carefully, she maneuvered until her feet were aimed toward the passenger door. She reached over her head and grasped the outside of the SUV’s roof and pulled herself out of the vehicle in one smooth move like a reverse pull-up.

The SUV rocked at her movement. “Ohgod, ohgod.” She froze and barely even breathed until the vehicle stopped rocking.

Too close. Her breaths came in gasps, and she was a sweaty, wet mess beneath her shearling coat.

She was afraid to move, afraid not to.

A gust of wind made the decision for her as the SUV groaned in chorus with the pine tree. She reached up and to her right. A small sapling anchored in the rock wall was just out of reach. She sobbed and stretched her arm even farther. The stress on her shoulders was torture.

Better than dead.

At that moment, the pine tree holding her SUV shifted away from the incline even more. A loud crack accompanied the root movement.

Tessa, grab now.

Tessa shoved against the center console of the SUV with her feet, giving her a few inches of boost, and grabbed at the sapling with both hands. Her body bumped through the car window as the SUV fell away, along with its former anchor, the tree.

She screamed and held on to the small sapling with everything in her, her torso and legs dangling in open space and hitting the side of the ravine as she swayed.

The subsequent crash of the SUV boomed and echoed off the ravine’s steep rock walls.

Ohgod. Ohgod. Ohgod.

She gasped and shuddered at the close call. Her tears, a mixture of fear and relief, froze on her face in the gelid wind. She held on to the small tree and scrabbled to find footing. Her feet in their après ski boots slid and slipped off the icy, wet rock wall.

Calm down. You’re wasting energy and your strength. Breathe.

Tessa stopped struggling to find footing. Then she breathed. In. Out. In. Out.

When her heart stopped fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings, she chanced a look around and … ohmygod … down.

The SUV was crumpled at the bottom of the gorge. It had landed in the rushing waters of the mountain stream. It looked like a boat as it bounced and moved with the rapid current. It was hung up on the rocks … where she could have been.

Stop it, Tessa. Look at your feet. Find footing. And climb.

Her arms and shoulders ached; her body trembled from shock and the cold air. With concentration and effort, she managed to move her legs. But she couldn’t find a place to put a foot.

Her upper body strength weakening, she chanced another look down and found a likely toehold. After several long, agonizing moments, she managed to get her right foot on a slight jutting of the rock face. The immediate relief on her strained shoulders and arms felt wonderful and gave her a small boost of confidence.

No resting on laurels. Keep moving.

She looked down long enough to find a place for her left foot.

“Thank you, God.” With both feet now on solid bases and her arms still anchored around the tree as if hugging a lover, she took a few seconds to calm her breathing and rest. She wondered how much time had passed since she’d left the Lodge and gone over the edge of the road. Would anyone miss her? Come look for her?

Not long. Rest later. Back at the Lodge. Move your ass now. Can’t wait for rescue.

Right. The cold was getting to her. The shock. The pain. She had to keep moving. Resting on the side of a rock wall meant sure death.

Tessa raised her head and looked upward, toward her goal—road level.

Sweet Jesus. It had to be fifty feet. She sobbed. It might as well be fifty miles.

The climb looked impossible. Even with the ravine wall’s many nooks, crannies, and small ledges, this wouldn’t be an easy climb. It was nothing like the rock wall she climbed at the gym, the nice, dry, warm gym with ropes, a climbing harness, and a spotter. Here she had no gear, no buddy. Plus the elements conspired against her—besides the below-freezing cold and gusting winds, the snow had started again.

As if to prove Mother Nature was her enemy, the hold for her left foot broke away. No! She almost lost her grip on the sapling in her resultant panic.

“Tessa, get your ass in gear,” she muttered between chattering teeth. Her arms and hands strained under her one-hundred-forty-pound weight. If she didn’t do something proactive and do it soon, she’d lose hold and die.

She pulled herself up until she had her arms and legs around the sapling, which bowed under her weight and hung out over the chasm. The sensation took her back to a day in a Chicago park when she hung upside down on a jungle gym while playing with Callie’s brothers. She hadn’t liked the feeling then, and she sure as hell didn’t like it now.

Forget liking. Look for another way up. This tree isn’t going to hold your weight for long.

Yeah, yeah, as if I wasn’t trying.

Quickly, Tessa eyed the areas above and around her. Between gusts of snow-laden wind, she thought she’d found a solution. But she’d have to use every inch of her long arm reach and legs to do it—and it meant letting go of her little tree.

Go for it.

Shut up. She only had one chance at this.

Accepting the necessity of moving, she found to her right a series of small, jutting ledges.

Giddy relief swamped her. She could do this. It would be like climbing a ladder, a very rough, slippery, and freezing-cold ladder.

Mother Nature taunted and tested her once more. A particularly strong gust of arctic wind hit her. Her tree held, but she shivered, a full-body set of shakes that indicated her body was attempting to stay warm. Her fingers, toes, and nose were so cold she soon wouldn’t be able to sense her extremities well enough to climb. Hypothermia and all the attendant issues were mere minutes away.

Her next move was a swing and grab to an outcropping of rock almost six feet above her. And once she made it to the one outcropping, she’d have to do it all over, again and again, until she reached the road above.

Take one ledge at a time. Go
.

After several deep breaths, she tested the sapling with a small swinging of her body. It held. Thankyougod, thankyougod. After several more breaths, she went for it.

When she let loose of the sapling on the upswing, she grabbed for the small rock ledge. She held on, digging her fingers into the cold rock. She let out a whoosh of air as she hit the rock wall with her torso, but managed to keep her grip. Her legs dangled for a second or so as gravity dragged at her. She finally found two crevices with her toes and took some of the pressure off her fingers, arms, and shoulders, which now all pulsed with pain from the abuse.

Pain is good. Use the pain. Pain means life.

With her right hand she latched on to a small tree which grew out of the side of the hill, then she moved her left hand. Using the sapling, she pulled her body up. Then, ignoring the pain from a new set of bruises, she scrabbled against the rocks until she found footholds, which allowed her to climb up and onto the ledge fully.

For a brief second, she lay on her front on the very narrow ledge, a safe haven in the storm swirling around her. She panted and sobbed and muttered prayers she hadn’t used in years.

She’d made it and only had forty-four feet or so to go. God, how could she do it? She was tired, cold, hurt, and scared out of her ever-loving mind.

Just do it. Stop whining.

Tessa took several fortifying breaths. God, it was cold. Her lungs would freeze at this rate.

Not if you move. Keep moving. Keep warm.

Okay. She shoved the fear threatening to debilitate her to the corner of her mind where she shelved her nightmares. While some fear was good—it was part of the instinct to survive, the emotion that jump-started her primitive brain—too much fear was crippling.

Tessa needed to find the balance. She’d walked the same fine line in the past and had survived. She could again.

Then it hit her. Her panicked flight from the Lodge had been stupid, an over-reaction—too bad it had taken a life-threatening event to bring the truth home.

She was a survivor and nothing, not even a cyberstalker or a rock climb in crappy weather, would be allowed to defeat her.

And Earl? In another epiphany, she knew her attraction for the big alpha male and his for her was not a bad thing, but a wondrous connection. One she wanted to explore. Callie knew her better than she knew herself. Earl was exactly the kind of man Tessa needed; she’d been too scared to take a chance with him before. Now, it was all she wanted.

The wind and snow pummeled her, whistling and reminding her doom was near with every second that ticked by. She had a battle on her hands—against her body’s limitations and the elements. But if she made it through this test, she could deal with anything, face anything her cyberstalker threw at her. She could face her past, because deep down she was a fighter.

Why … she could even take a chance at loving a man like Earl.

Now, you get it. Wish you’d gotten it before we landed in this mess.
Yeah, well, she probably had needed a karmic slap in the face to bring it all home, but she wished it could have been a slightly more gentle hit than the one she’d been dealt. No use crying over bad choices. She had a climb to make and then a long walk back to the Lodge.