36
Their three snowmobiles roared out of the carriage house. They heard shots—at least the two men left behind didn’t hit anyone. Nick feared pursuit, but they kept going away from their lit house that was to have been their refuge. If they got enough of a head start, pursuit might be futile.
Without a look back, he led them along the curving shoreside road into the teeth of the wind. They had to go slower than he wanted because of the fog, though, thank God, it seemed to be lifting.
Nick and Claire rode on the first snowmobile with Lexi between them. Bronco and Nita came second, pulling the supply sled with Jace and Ames. Heck and Gina brought up the rear.
They found the entrance to the ice bridge, the only nonflight exit from the island now. It was clearly marked. Nick’s heart pounded so loud he wasn’t sure what was the engine and what was him. Claire held to him hard. Was this attempted escape over the ice insane? But, especially if Ames had others coming to kidnap or kill them, this was saving lives, not hazarding them. If it was the last thing he ever did, he was handing Ames over to Rob for trial.
He braced his feet on the running boards. He’d been told riding on ice was different, more risky. Hell, he was risking all their lives, but escape was the best way for now. With the airport closed for the night, what else could they do?
He knew to stick to the marked trail to avoid spots of thin ice. Electric lanterns and fir branches marked the way. He could only hope the wind had not shifted some of them. At least, out here, the fog was blowing away. He saw in the fading winter light that it was true what they said about the ice. It was glass-like, so clear he could see through it to the water. Beautiful, but scary. It seemed deserted out here, but in this weather, normal, sane people were home.
“We’ve stopped Ames and we’ve got him now!” Claire shouted over the roar of the engine. “Nick, this is my fault! He saw Lexi and me on TV in Mexico and traced us that way, sent that Tom guy here to watch us and scare us!”
“None of this is your fault,” he shouted back. “It’s mine, and we’re going to begin to live the way we should as soon as...”
He stopped in midthought when he heard shouts from behind—Bronco, Heck—a woman’s scream. Fearing they were being followed, he leaned out to look back.
Bronco must have steered or slid off the path. He’d either made or hit a hole in the ice, which Heck had bypassed. But the second snowmobile pulling Jace and Ames was tilted hood up with its red tail brake lights sinking into the jagged, widening hole.
Nita had scrambled away, but Bronco was trying to reach the wooden supply box sled they’d towed. It was not floating but was being sucked into the lake by its heavy metal runners. Beside it, in the water, Jace floundered in the frigid water, trying to hold Ames’s head up.
Nick killed the motor of his machine. “Get off and stay away!” he shouted at Claire. “Move Lexi back.”
“Bronco, you’re too heavy!” he yelled at the big man. “Back off! Heck, see if your cell works out here to call for help.”
Nick crawled toward the hole, then slid closer on his belly, using the toes of his shoes to propel himself along. If Ames’s men were trailing them, they were sitting ducks now, but Ames usually lied. Nick had always known that he had killed his father and staged his suicide.
Jace was trying to hold Ames’s head above water, since he was still wrapped in the tablecloth. Both were gasping for air and kept going under in their heavy, soaked winter coats. If Jace was lost here, Claire would be his alone, because he knew she still cared for Jace. Lexi would really need a new dad then. But he meant to save Jace over Ames, if it came to that. He owed Jace, and his girls loved him.
“Jace, take my hand to keep your head up!” he yelled.
“He’s too heavy,” Jace gasped out. “We’re going under. I know you want him to stand trial—all that work...”
“Shut up and take my hand before you go numb. If you have to, let him go, and we’ll fish him out later. Do it, Jace!”
Jace’s hand was slippery, so cold. They locked wrists.
“I can’t hold him! I can’t boost him up,” Jace cried as the snowmobile shifted lower.
“He doomed himself years ago. If we can get him out, we will. You first. Heck!” Nick shouted when he realized he had no traction to haul Jace out. “Lie down and hold my legs! Pull my legs! Bronco’s too heavy!”
Heck did, and Gina held his legs. Slowly, they pulled Jace out, head, shoulders, onto his stomach. The ice began to crack around him again.
“Pull now!” Nick yelled and they did, dragging Jace out where Heck could get to him and tug him back.
Nick, on his belly on the ice, inched closer to the hole, wondering if Ames might surface again. But he only stared at empty, choppy water where the snowmobile and Ames had been. He’d slipped under and—God help them all—was staring wide-eyed and very dead with his mouth and eyes open, gazing up at Nick through the glassy ice.
Nick saw again his father’s dead gaze when he’d found him so many years ago. Finally, justice. Salvation. It was over, and a new, safe life for him, his little family and their friends had just begun.