TY REMINGTON blamed the homemade orange marmalade cake for why he found himself huddled under an overhang off some faraway path in Glacier National Park, shivering, praying he might live through the night.
Rain bulleted the enclave, a shallow divot in the granite at the lip of a now-rising flowing mountain creek. Wind tore at his thin rain jacket—he’d given his fleece to the couple huddled behind him, eking warmth from the scant fire he’d built. The blaze gave off a meager trickle of smoke and heat, hopefully enough to keep them from hypothermia.
If it hadn’t been for the growl in his stomach when the fragrance of Karen Reycraft’s signature cake, not to mention Pat Boberg’s fried chicken, tugged at him, arresting his escape from the Fourth of July celebration at Mercy Falls Community Church, he’d be sitting on his leather sofa watching some Western, waiting for fireworks to light over the river bridge in town.
Or he might have said yes to Gage’s invitation to join him and his girlfriend, Ella, for a movie, the latest Marvel superhero release.
Instead, he’d grabbed a plate and fell into the potluck line ahead of Renee Jordan, proprietor of the local B & B. Who happened to be worried about a couple of guests who hadn’t shown up for breakfast that morning. “They left for a hike in the park yesterday and never came back.”
Yes, she’d knocked on their door, just in case.
Ty reined in the urge to remind Renee that she ran a vacation rental. That maybe Mr. and Mrs. Berkley wanted to be left alone.
And this was where he blamed the cake, because as he’d debated, then surrendered to a piece, she added, “I just know how scary it is to be out there in the park with a storm coming. I was hoping, since you’re on that rescue team . . .”
There went his appetite, because unwittingly Renee had landed a lethal blow with the trifecta of arguments: Storm, alone, and the fact that they might be in real trouble.
Most of all, maybe he could help.
Ty’s gut had begun to roil with the weight of what-if. His chicken grew cold as he pulled out his map of the park and found the moderately strenuous and remote trail Renee had suggested to them. “The Dawson Pass hike has the best huckleberries,” she said in defense.
Yes. It also passed through prime grizzly territory.
Not to mention the 2,935-foot climb.
Although, with its sweeping views of Dawson Pass, the seven-mile trek to No Name Lake could be the most dramatic day hike in the park.
“Maybe I’m overreacting,” she said.
Ty had finally left his soggy chicken behind and headed over to PEAK HQ.
“You sure they’re out there?” This question had come from Chet King, co-founder of the team.
After a thorough study of the map, as well as a call in to local park rangers, Ty’s best answer had been, “Not in the least. But my gut thinks yes.”
His gut. He’d actually looked at Chet and delivered that statement. And yes, okay, he’d added a wince, a little what-to-do shrug, but still, he’d stood there like his gut might be all they needed to activate a callout.
Chet had pursed his lips. Added a deep breath.
So maybe Ty shouldn’t be listening to his gut. But it had told him the truth more than once.
Like when it warned him that journalist Brette Arnold would only cause trouble. He just hadn’t quite realized it meant she’d break his heart.
Clearly, his gut needed to be more specific.
With Renee’s words, however, it had grabbed ahold of him, an uncanny, bone-deep feeling that someone was hurt. And, “Since you’re on that rescue team . . .”
A place holder, really, the guy who helped carry things. Once upon a time, he’d been the chopper pilot, but he’d screwed that up, and royally, so now he simply showed up for callouts, hoping not to ride the bench.
Maybe he could really help, for once.
“It’s a holiday, no need to call in the team. I’ll just ride out there and take a look,” Ty had said.
“It won’t be nice for long, so put a hup into your step,” Chet said. “Take a radio with you.”
Ty parked his truck at the Two Medicine Lake campground and knocked off the first four miles by taking the ferry across the lake.
A mile in, as he turned toward the Dawson Pass Trail, the faintest rumble of thunder sounded beyond Flinsch Peak to the north.
He spotted a couple hikers headed down the trail from No Name Lake and asked them about Jan and Richard Berkley, but they hadn’t seen them.
He stopped for a moment at No Name, sweat trickling down his spine. He’d shoved a first-aid kit, an overnight survival kit, and an extra blanket into his pack. The weight of it burned into his shoulders.
Maybe his gut was just reacting to the wannabe inside him. The fact that he hated standing on the sidelines, that without EMT training or rescue climber certification, he usually drove the truck or hauled up the stretchers, muscle that filled a gap in the team’s roster.
Frankly, they could replace him with any number of the volunteers that showed up every year for callout training.
Ty had no doubt that only Chet’s affection for him kept him on the payroll.
Ty had glanced at the storm gathering to the northwest. A rolling black thunderhead, still forming on the horizon, was dissected by jagged mountain peaks and rimmed on all sides by the midafternoon sun.
A couple miles later, he emerged through the tree line to the spit of a light rain. No Name and Two Medicine lakes tucked into the valley below. The wind bit at him as he turned, ascending the south slope of Flinsch Peak. Bighorn sheep scuttled off the shale-littered trail.
When Ty’s foot slipped on the slick rock, he stopped, breathing hard.
This was silly. The Berkleys had probably risen early and headed to Bigfork for breakfast at the Echo Lake Café.
Ty was leaning over, cupping his hands over his knees, when he heard it. A scream, and it echoed through the canyon, up the slope.
Maybe a hawk, but he stood up, listened.
It sounded again, and this time he recognized it as the shrill rasp of a whistle.
He reached for his own whistle and let out a long blow.
Three short bursts answered, the universal signal for help, and the hum in his gut roared to life. Returning the signal, he dug out his binoculars and cast his gaze over the trail that jogged up toward the pass. Then he swept his vision down, across the forest of lodgepole pine and huckleberry that dropped into a steep tumble from the trail.
The whistle continued to blast.
He stepped off the trail to angle his search and nearly slipped on the now-icy layer of snow that crusted a fissure in the rock. As he looked down, his heart simply stopped, lodged in his ribs at the footprints that bled down the snowfield.
Not a steep pitch at first, but the crust had broken off, and as he dragged his glasses over the field, he spotted the debris of where falling bodies had churned up snow, probably fighting for purchase before plunging down a scree slope into the trees.
A fall of nearly one hundred feet, although not straight down. He couldn’t make out anyone at the bottom, but he followed his hunch anyway and backtracked down the trail. Finding a crossing place, he hiked down the base of the scree, shot out three blasts from his whistle along with a shout, received an answering report, and headed into the trees.
Jan and Richard Berkley had huddled up for the night under the wings of a towering lodgepole, both nursing significant ambulatory injuries.
When she spied him hiking down through the bramble of forest and shaggy fir, Jan had dropped the whistle from her mouth, pressed her hands over her face, and wept.
“Hey, hey. It’s going to be okay.” Ty swung his pack off his shoulder and assessed the couple. In her midfifties, Jan suffered from a seriously sprained, if not fractured, ankle.
“It’s my fault. I was taking a picture, and I just . . . it was stupid.” This from the husband, Richard, who spoke through pain-gritted teeth. Medium build and athletic, with graying hair at the temples, Richard reminded him a little of Mark Harmon. He held his arm possessively to his body, but it was his leg that had Ty worried. Broken for sure, the foot hung at a grotesque angle.
“I tried to stop him, but he just went over—” Jan started.
“And I took her with me.” Richard’s voice tightened. “Stupid. We tried to hike out, but . . .”
Ty knew he should probably take the EMT course at the local college because he’d really love to know whether it was shock, pain, or just the cold of the storm turning Richard pale. He worked off Richard’s shoe and checked for a pedal pulse.
“He has blood flow,” Jan said. “I’ve been checking. And I think we’re past the danger of shock, although I know he’s in a lot of pain.” She wiped her eyes. “Sorry. I’m just tired. And cold.”
Cold, yes. Because with the storm spitting down at them, hypothermia, even in July, could be their worst enemy. “Let’s find protection, and then I’ll go for help.”
“What?” Jan grabbed his arm. “No—please. You can’t leave us.”
“I have a radio, but the pass will block the signal. I need to hike out if I hope to contact my team.”
“There’s a storm coming. Please don’t leave.”
Please don’t leave.
Like a punch to the sternum, the words, the earnestness of her voice, unseated him. He drew in a shaky breath, the memory just as swift and brutal. Please, Ty, don’t leave.
“Let’s find shelter,” he’d said, hating the promises he was already making.
He’d twisted his bad knee carrying Richard down the mountain, but he gritted his teeth until he found the overhang, and by the time he gathered kindling and made a fire, the night had fallen in a hard slash around him, the sky igniting with slivers of lightning, the rain icy on his skin.
Not a hope of the PEAK team hearing from—or finding him—on a night light this.
Ty slid back inside the cave, made sure that the fleece stayed tucked up to Richard’s neck, then coaxed the fire back to life with one of the few still-dry branches he’d found. Low-hanging, dead arms of a nearby pine tree.
“How did you find us?” Jan pressed her fingers to her husband’s neck, checked her watch.
“Renee Jordan corralled me at church. Said you were missing.”
Jan settled by the fire, put her swollen ankle up on her backpack. “And that’s it—you just decided to come look for us?”
Huh. When she put it like that . . . But he could hardly add, “My gut told me you were out here.” “I dunno. I guess the thought of you out here, alone, hurt . . .” He lifted a shoulder. “Besides, I’m on a rescue team.”
“Oh, so you’re a natural hero.” Jan smiled at him from across the flames, and for some reason, it spilled warmth through him.
Still, he shook his head. “No. Trust me, I’m not the hero on the team. I just . . . I know what it feels like to be alone and hurt and . . .” He couldn’t say much more, the memory fast and lurking, knocking.
So he shut his mouth, his throat burning. He didn’t look at Jan.
The silence that fell between them turned lethal to his resolve to keep the story to himself. He blew out a breath. “I was in a car accident when I was ten, in the middle of a blizzard, and I . . . I wanted to go for help, but . . . anyway, I watched my mom die right in front of me. So . . .”
He clenched his teeth against a crazy, forbidden, and ancient grief. Strange, but he decided to blame Jan and her uncanny resemblance to Elyse Remington.
“I’m sorry,” Jan said.
He looked out at the storm. “I should have hiked out.”
“And get lost in the storm? You were ten.”
He blinked at her for a second, then caught up. He was actually talking about the storm raging here, on the mountain. Nevertheless, Jan’s words still sunk in, found grip, broke him free of the darkness.
He stopped shivering and held out his hand to the warmth of the flames. “I’ll leave at first light. We’ll get you out.”
“Richard’s injuries aren’t life-threatening.” Jan grabbed his hand, squeezed. “I’m a doctor, trust me. We’ll be okay. It’s enough to know we’re not alone.”
Not alone.
And somehow—Ty could blame fatigue, the storm, maybe even the ache in his knee—but right then Brette Arnold tiptoed into his brain.
Even after nearly eighteen months, she still had the power to run an ache through his bones, right to his heart. With it rose a desire to hit something, to let out a shout.
In his less sane moments, it even caused him to resume his search for her.
Because, deep in his gut, he knew that she was in terrible, painful, probably overwhelming trouble. And regardless of the fact that she hadn’t had the courage to stick around, didn’t have the courage to reach out, didn’t have the courage to admit she needed him . . . she did.
And, if Ty knew one thing, his gut was rarely, if ever, wrong.