wring Ashley’s neck. He was really tired of her attitude and her silly games. Did she think she was going to win some points by disappearing on him? He looked around, the thick flakes obscuring his vision, hoping to see Ashley’s red parka somewhere nearby. Once he found her, he intended to give her a lecture she wouldn’t forget.
Perhaps she wasn’t aware of it, but he—and Ron—had the authority to end this little vacation of hers if, in their opinion, they were unable to adequately protect her.
He spotted Derek removing his skis, but there was no sign of Ashley.
He made his way over to him. “Where’s Ashley?”
Derek stopped unfastening his skis and looked up at Nick in surprise. “I haven’t seen her. I thought she was with you.”
Nick scanned the area. There were several red parkas, but none of them belonged to Ashley. He began to feel uneasy. At the rate the snow was falling, it was hard to tell the color of anything.
He muttered an unprintable word and turned away.
“Where are you going?” Derek called.
“To find Ashley.”
“Don’t worry about her. She was born on a pair of skis. She probably got off course a little. It’s coming down like a son of a—”
“I don’t need a weather report,” Nick growled to himself, moving toward the lifts again.
What really alarmed him was how she had managed to get away from him. One minute she was there just ahead of him, the next minute there’d been no sign of her. Was it intentional? Was she in danger? He didn’t know why he bothered to question her disappearance. Of course it was intentional.
He turned and watched as more skiers came down the mountain. One of them looked familiar. He moved toward the snow-covered figure who was moving very slowly in his direction. As he drew closer, he recognized Craig.
“Have you seen Ashley?” Nick asked him.
Craig shook his head. “No. I took a spill up there. By the time I could get started again, I’d lost track of Everybody.” He looked around. “You mean she isn’t down here?”
“Derek hasn’t seen her. She was ahead of me, but I lost sight of her about halfway down.”
Craig shrugged. “Yeah, well, I was ahead of all of you, for what that’s worth. If I hadn’t been showing off, I would have been the first one down.” He rubbed his shoulder. “You don’t suppose she fell, do you?”
“I have no way of knowing. I’m going back to look for her.”
“You want me to come with you?”
Nick shook his head. “Thanks, but that won’t be necessary.”
Craig looked relieved. “I don’t envy you going up there in all of this. What a mess.”
Nicked waved as he shoved off for the lift. If she was hurt somewhere up there, he needed every minute he had to try to find her. All the while he rode up the mountainside he watched for her red parka. There were so many things that could happen, even to an experienced skier. He didn’t want to think about some of the possible problems she may have encountered.
By the time he reached the top, the wind and snow had caused the visibility to be measured in inches rather than feet. Nick was aware of the adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream.
His first full day in charge of her and he’d managed to misplace his charge. How could he have allowed this to happen?
He started down the same run they’d chosen earlier, watching for tracks leaving the marked area, but of course that was a waste of time with the amount of snow that had already fallen. There was no sign of her anywhere.
By the time he reached the bottom of the run, he was ready to call in reinforcements.
“Hey, Nick, she’s okay!”
Craig waved at him from one of the wind-protected areas. Nick skied over to him. “Have you seen her?”
“No. But I’ve been asking people coming down if they had spotted her. One of the guys I just talked with said a young woman matching her description had been at one of the restaurants having coffee. He said he’d chatted with her while they were in line. She told him she’d gotten separated from her party. He said she would probably be down soon.”
Nick hadn’t taken his eyes off the trails during their conversation, wondering which way she would be coming down. It was then that he saw a bright red dot swooping down in an almost vertical drop on one of the more difficult runs.
Craig pointed. “Look! I bet that’s her! Didn’t I tell you she’d be down soon? Just look at her go.”
Oh, he was looking, all right. Of all the dangerously foolhardy stunts he’d ever seen, she was definitely pulling one now. Did she have any idea how fast she was going? And if anyone got in her way… He didn’t want to think about it.
Luckily for Ashley there was no one else on that particular run. Nick stood and watched as she finally slowed her heart-stopping drop downward. She moved into a leisurely curving S down the side of the mountain, looking for all the world as though she was enjoying herself, instead of battling a heavy snowfall that could cause all kinds of damage if she hit something covered by the new snow.
The fact that she made it without a problem did not endear her to him at all. However, at the moment, he was just damned glad to see her safe.
He stood and waited, knowing that she would have to pass by his location on her way to the lodge. It was only when she got closer that he saw her white face. He knew exactly when she spotted him. She called out to him. “Oh, Nick, am I ever glad to see you!” she said, and skied over to one of the benches, where she dropped, exhausted. She removed her goggles with fumbling fingers and began to tug at the straps of her skis.
Nick sat down beside her and took off his skis, then he knelt in front of her and gently brushed her hands away from hers. With an economy of movement he removed hers, as well.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she said, sounding Breathless. “I missed one of the turns on the trail, then I couldn’t see anything, it was snowing so hard.” She brushed tendrils of hair away from her eyes. “After a while I came across one of the restaurants up there, so I stopped for a few minutes to get warm.” She was still out of breath and trying to cover the fact that she was shaking. “Then it seemed as though a break came because the snow lessened and the visibility cleared. I knew I had to go right then, fast as I could, before I lost my nerve and the visibility went back to zero.”
Nick stood, then pulled her up and handed her skis to her. He turned and gathered up his, then dropped his arm around her shoulders. Neither one of them spoke during the walk to the chalet. Once there, Nick placed their equipment in the storage area.
Only then did he speak to her. “I think we need to get you warm,” he said brusquely. “The lodge has a big fire going and plenty of hot drinks. I think that’s where everyone else is.”
She shivered, than laughed with more than a hint of shakiness.
“I don’t think it’s the
