Chapter 13
Anna
The storm hit as the weather report had promised, and it was a bad one. I was glad Luke had brought out the radio. I didn’t know how he coped without being in touch with the outside world, how he didn’t listen to the news when he had the means to do so. He had told me that he barely used the radio, and judging by how dusty the machine was, I believed him.
I was glad we’d had a warning about the storm. Luke had been able to bring in wood, and we hadn’t set out to Dillon the way we might have if we hadn’t known what was coming.
Snow started falling at first, coming in a steady sheet of white fluff. Slowly, the wind picked up, blowing the snow around in swirls that seemed to coat the trees that it collided with from every angle. The world was transformed once again, and before long, it was impossible to see much further than a few feet around the cabin.
I was fascinated by the snow, by how easily it could cover everything as if there had been nothing in the first place.
With the storm raging outside, the wind howling through the trees, there wasn’t much to do. I played around with the radio until I managed to get a signal again, and Luke and I listened to what they had to say about the weather. They reported it was the worst storm of the century.
“That’s saying something if you consider the types of storms we get up here,” Luke said. “It’s not strange to be snowed in a couple of weeks through the winter. But this is a lot worse than anything I’ve seen.”
I nodded. It was beautiful even though it was so intense. I thought about the night I had headed out into the snow to find civilization when my car battery had died. I had been so lucky that Luke had found me. Now that I had lived in this weather for a while, I realized how dangerous it had been and how easily I could have died. I was once again so grateful for Luke and that he had saved me.
I was glad I was snowed in with Luke, of all people. He had been so good to me, and he was an amazing person. I had started caring for him. To think I would never have met him if I hadn’t gotten stranded in the snow made me happy about how things had worked out, even if it had been life-threatening. But he had been my white knight in shining armor. Or rather, my rugged mountain man.
My thoughts went to Lizabeth and her parents. I would have stayed in Steamboat if it hadn’t been for the mistakes I had made along the way. Even though I was glad I was here with Luke, I was worried about Lizabeth. She had to be worried about me. She knew my situation now, and she knew that I couldn’t call as often as I would have, had I had cell service. Still, I didn’t want to make her worry.
“When do you think we’ll be able to go to Dillon again?” I asked Luke.
“Why?” he asked. “Do you need something?”
I shook my head. “I want to check in with Lizabeth, let her now I’m okay.”
Luke nodded. “I think we’ll be able to go into Dillon tomorrow if the storm lets up by morning. The highway shouldn’t be shut down, at least not between us and Dillon. We’ll have to see in the morning how things go.”
Luke walked to the window and looked out, leaning from side to side as if he was looking for something. He seemed worried.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Luke said. But he didn’t move away from the window, and he didn’t stop looking around. I wondered what he was looking for.
The storm didn’t last for very long. It was over before night fell. When it had been quiet for a while, Luke announced he was going outside to check the traps. He put on his jacket, and it was only after he had stepped out into the thick snow that I thought about what he had said. Why would he go out to check the traps right after a storm? We had enough supplies not to need any extra food, and there would be no animals. He was the one that had explained that to me.
When Luke came back, I confronted him about it.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” I said when I explained it to him. “Why do you keep going outside or checking the window? It’s like you’re waiting for something.”
Luke hesitated as if he was trying to decide if he should tell me or not.
“Just tell me,” I said when he hesitated too long.
“I’ve been watching out for a mountain lion.”
It took a moment for the information to sink in before my body ran cold.
“A what?”
Luke just looked at me. He knew I’d heard him.
“I thought you said they don’t come close to the cabin because there are people here.”
Luke nodded. “Usually, yeah. But this one is getting arrogant. He’s been around the traps lately, and I found paw prints close to the house.”
I was starting to panic. As if it wasn’t bad enough that I was running from my dad and the people who worked for him, now I was being hunted by an animal.
“I didn’t want you to worry,” Luke said. “I made sure we were safe. I was keeping an eye on things.”
I shook my head. “How do you know we’re safe?”
“Because I’m watching the pattern, seeing the tracks. It can’t get into the cabin so it’s only when we’re outside that we need to be careful right now. But so far, it’s only been coming out when it’s quiet around the cabin. It knows that we’re around, and it’s not trying to get close to us.”
“Yet,” I said.
“We’ll be okay,” Luke said again. “Trust me.”
But I was terrified. To make matters worse, we heard a raspy roar. Luke turned his head toward the window. I heard the sound again, and it made my stomach turn.
“Is that it?” I asked.
Luke nodded. At least he wasn’t lying to me. He’d kept information from me to protect me, but he didn’t lie to me.
“It sounded very close,” I said softly.
“It did,” Luke said. He walked to the hearth where a rifle was mounted against the wall and took it down.
“I thought that was ornamental,” I said in a small voice.
“Out here it’s never bad to have a gun,” Luke answered and opened the front door. I froze. A big cat stood about fifty feet away from us, right in front of the cabin, looking at us as if it didn’t have a care in the world. If I wasn’t so terrified of it, knowing a killer was so close to us, I would have been in awe at how majestic the creature was. It was like an overgrown house cat with sandy colored fur and pig paws. The eyes were yellow and watching us with intelligence. It yawned as if it was bored or showing off its teeth, and I shivered. The mouth full of teeth was terrifying, the teeth sharp and white as if the animal took care of them.
Luke lifted his gun.
“Don’t,” I whispered frantically. “You can’t just kill it.” I was nervous about the animal being so close to the cabin, but it was such a beautiful creature, and it was a shame to shoot something so magnificent.
“I’m not going to shoot it,” Luke said. “I only want to scare it away.” He had barely spoken the words when he pulled the trigger, and the bang was so loud my ears rang. I jumped at the same time.
Luke had aimed to the side of the cat, the bullets hitting the snow and kicking up a spray.
The mountain lion whipped its head around before turning back to us, unfaltering. It hadn’t thought Luke’s shots to be a threat.
“It’s arrogant,” Luke said. “I’m going to have to try again. It’s not a good sign that it’s so comfortable with the bullets snapping that close to it.”
I understood what Luke said even though I wasn’t a hunter. If a wild animal—one that could kill us—was okay with guns and bullets whizzing around its head, we would have to kill it or be killed ourselves. It was not the scenario I had hoped for. I had hoped it would run off and not come back so we could coexist in peace.
Luke aimed again and pulled the trigger. It hit the snow closer to the cat this time. I had pressed my hands over my ears, ready for the bang this time.
“Cheeky bastard,” Luke said under his breath. He stood, facing off with the big cat, deciding what he was going to do next. I didn’t want him to kill the cat, but if it was between our lives or the cat’s life, the decision was an easy one.
“Once more,” Luke said, aiming again and firing. This time, the cat ran away. It had finally been too close for comfort. Luke closed the door and leaned against it as if the cat would try to fight its way into the cabin.
“That was too close for comfort,” Luke said. “I’m not sure why it’s coming so close to the cabin. It’s not normal. It’s never been here before that I’ve seen.”
“Do you think it will come back?” I asked.
Luke nodded. “I’m afraid it might. It wasn’t scared enough of the gun. It might take its chances. We’ll have to be careful for the next while, taking care when we go out to get wood or head out to the truck. We’ll have to watch each other’s backs. Maybe we’re lucky, and we’ll never see it again, but I would rather play it safe.”
I agreed with Luke. We had to be safe. It was terrifying to think our lives could be in danger because a mountain lion might lay in wait for us. But out here, it was a reality we had to cope with. I didn’t like thinking there were predators out there that could kill me. I had enough going on in my life already.
In a way, the mountain lion was a much better enemy than my father. It was straightforward. I knew its intentions, and it was predictable if I knew how it operated. My father wasn’t the same. I had never been able to trust his word. He was unpredictable and that made him unstable, and I never knew what I was going to get. A hug or a threat or a cold shoulder.
Maybe, compared to the hell I had been through, the mountain lion wasn’t so bad. Besides, I had Luke who knew what he was doing and who would protect me. I felt the same about how he would react if he ever had to run into my dad. Luke would always try to fight for me.
It was one of the qualities I liked so much about him. There were many, and I found more every day I got to know him better. But I knew that if I had to face off with my dad, Luke would take my side and say and do what was needed. Which was why the mountain lion, scary as it was, seemed so much better than having to face anything else in my life. Because there were worse things.