LIZZIE STOOD IN THE BITING wind. Her dad had his arms wrapped around her against the cold. The man with the shotgun stood close by.
A few more feet away, Carter and Travis argued.
Lizzie heard a low thrum sounded over the blasting snow and wind. Her father heard it, too. His eyes scanned the blinding white all around them. The rumble grew louder.
“Independents,” the shotgun-toting guard growled. Men sprang into action.
“Scatter!” Carter hollered. His men headed in various directions, their weapons ready.
Lizzie’s dad dragged her away from the road. The motors got louder. Snowmobiles. She stumbled, pushing herself to keep up with her dad. The lights cut through the darkness over their heads. Mannie lifted her off her feet and dumped her into a snowbank.
“Stay down,” her dad said, his voice low and forceful. “Get under the trees.”
Then he ran away from her as fast as he could. Not again. Tears stung her eyes.
One of the snowmobiles crested the rise, engine howling at an ear-piercing pitch. Shouts rang out, gunshots exploded and the sound died in the snowfall.
He wasn’t deserting her, she reassured herself, but leading them away. The lights had him pinned, then he disappeared. The snowmobile dove down into the drifts, sliding, twisting, and pulled up short. Must be a cliff she couldn’t see down there. If he got himself killed now…
The rider stood up, and swept a giant black flashlight across the snow. The flashlight swung toward her and she face-planted in the snow. She raised her head after a moment, icy trickles leaking down her cheeks. The rider holstered his light and spit snow in a broad curving turn.
As the snowmobile climbed the hill Lizzie slipped away. Her legs sank in up to her knees in a snow-drift. She slogged forward, glad she wasn’t naked. Above her, loud angry voices echoed.
Lizzie glanced back to make certain no one followed on foot. She kept moving, but took a misstep into a hole as she twisted. The snow came up to greet her in slow motion. At least it was soft to fall into.
“Give me your hand.”
Lizzie’s heart jumped and continued pounding. “Shit, Dad,” she muttered, “How the hell did you sneak up on me like that?”
“‘Army training, sir,’” he whispered, smiling with his eyes, helping her regain her feet. “Let’s get around where we can do something.”
“With what? Our bare hands?”
“I don’t know yet. Maybe we can sneak around behind the other trucks.” He brushed some snow from her hair. “Sorry, I was a bit rough.”
Lizzie nodded, biting her lip. “It’s okay.”
“Come on, let’s get past the tree line,” he said. “Easier to move and to hide.”
Lizzie followed her father’s footsteps through the deep snow. It was easier to move when someone else broke a path. Inside the trees the snow piled in places where it opened to the sky, but elsewhere the ground was bare.
They crept alongside the road under cover of the trees. Lizzie spotted the white RAV4 Zach and Duke had come in. Just knowing Duke as well as she did, she suspected there might be weapons inside and mimed “guns” to her dad. He nodded and pointed both fingers to his eyes and then away.
Even without army training, Lizzie understood: Let’s check it out.
Another engine roared on the hillside above as Mannie led Lizzie to a spot they could make a run for the RAV. A big truck, diesel engine from the lup-a-lup sound of the engine, came into view. It pulled a long trailer behind it for the snowmobiles.A pack of barking dogs leaped from the bed of the truck.
Nobody else had gotten away. Her friends were all up on the hillside with arms raised in surrender. She stumbled after her father.
When they reached the place where the treeline curved closest to the RAV, he whispered, “This is as good as we’re going to get. They’ll be able to see us if they look. So, as fast as you can, get in, look for weapons, get out. Then we meet back here.”
Lizzie nodded, catching her breath.
He paused, searching her face. “Lizzie—”
“I know, Dad.” She bear-hugged him.
He said it anyway. “I love you, Elizabeth.”
When they ran, she knew he was with her every step of the way. She reached the vehicle and jerked open the front door as he pulled open the back. Spike piled out on top of her.
Her father yanked Spike off her. Spike yelped.
“Dad, it’s Spike. It’s okay.” His hot breath panted on her. In the distance dogs barked.
“Lizzie.” Her father placed a shotgun in her hands, staring warily at Spike. “Here.”
Her stomach flipped. The dogs had seen them and were running down the snow bank.
“Run,” her father ordered.
Spike turned this way and that, he was scared. But he saw the dogs and Lizzie’s reaction to them. There was understanding in his eyes. He lumbered uphill toward the dogs.
Lizzie froze. “Spike. Don’t!"