Dana Mentink - Endless Night

That’s right, Roman. She doesn’t care about you anymore. That’s the way it will always be. Get that through your thick head. His head already knew—it was his heart that needed convincing, he thought grimly, even after two long years.

Roman turned his attention to the front loader, fired the engine to life and began scooping up piles of snow and dumping them into the ten-foot wooden forms that would mold it into perfect blocks for sculpting. When one was relatively full, Jackie would climb up and stomp it all down before he added another load. When the snow was uncrated it would create perfect ten-foot-by-ten-foot squares. They kept at it. He could see the fatigue in her body, the tired droop to her head, yet she worked without complaint until June caught his eye from the front porch and gestured for them to come in for lunch.

Roman killed the motor and jumped down from the front loader. His hands were stiff. They’d filled only eleven of the boxes completely—still another five to go. He made his way over to Jackie, who had not seen June’s summons. She was busily stomping down snow with a vengeance.

“Jackie? Lunch-break command from Mrs. D.”

She nodded and began to climb down the ladder. As she did so, the ladder pitched loose from the side of the box and wobbled, causing her to lose her footing. Jackie slipped, maintaining her grip on the ladder with only one hand, until she fell.

There wasn’t time to think about it. Roman caught her as they tumbled to the ground. She landed next to him, eyes wide, lips parted in shock. The feel of her small frame against his side, the softness of her hair tickling his chin drowned him in memory for a moment. He could have imagined it, but for the briefest second he felt her lean her head against his shoulder.

With a sudden movement she scrambled to her feet. Roman did the same. Jackie turned to face him, her cheeks flushed a deep crimson. “Thanks…I, I must be tired to fall off a ladder.”

He shrugged, hoping she could not read his feelings on his face. “You’ve been working hard. No harm done.”

Jackie giggled. “Sorry, but you’ve got a clump of snow stuck right to the top of your head.”

He held still while she reached out and brushed the snow off his hair.

He flushed and let her finish.

“Thanks again, for the soft landing.” She turned and started toward the lodge, pulling her gloves off and unzipping her pocket to put them inside. As she did so something small and metallic spiraled down. Jackie started frantically, twirling around, peering at the snow-covered ground to find the item. Her face was stark, body tense.

Roman joined her in the search. “What fell?”

“Nothing. Nothing important.”

The lie was obvious in her increasing panic. He bent over to squint at the harshly glittering snow until he saw the item and picked it up. He didn’t get time to look closely, as she snatched it from his fingers.

“Thanks. That’s it. Um, thank you. Thanks again.” Without a word of explanation, she jogged toward the building, leaving him to wonder.

Whatever was on that thumb drive, she acted like it was a matter of life and death.

She couldn’t get over the fear that had enveloped her when she’d dropped the thumb drive. And Roman—what had he thought when he retrieved it for her? She could still feel his big hands on her waist, trying to catch her as she fell. Those hands had comforted her through her entire youth, it seemed. For a split second she wished with every pore of her body that things had been different.

She made her way to her room with a tray of food provided by June and shot an uneasy glance at the sky, a brilliant blue that seemed to shimmer with intensity. She’d heard one of the kitchen staff mention that a blizzard was in the forecast, but she hoped it wasn’t true. Skip was counting on a successful snow-sculpture weekend, and she prayed he would get it.

Cresting the small ridge to her cabin, she was startled to see two people making their way in the deep snow off the path. The snowshoes strapped to their feet gave them a comical gait. It was Byron Lloyd and a smaller figure who it took her a moment to identify. Fallon. They both waved.

Jackie watched Fallon for a moment. The girl’s face was thrown back in laughter. She was a young woman, no longer a child, but there was still plenty of the girl showing through. Jackie’s heart squeezed, thinking about how much Danny’s death must have hurt Fallon. Jackie had been so wrapped in her own grief and anger, she hadn’t given much thought to Fallon’s.

Shaking her head to clear it, she unlocked the door to her cabin. Her stomach clenched as she stuck the key in and found the door already unlocked. As it swung open, all of her plans were forgotten. She screamed.

Skip made it to her cabin first, still holding a half-eaten sandwich in his hand, but Roman was close behind. Jackie stood immobile in the center of the room, surveying the damage around her. The contents of her bag were scattered over the bed, shirts, socks and pants draping the coverlet. The bathroom medicine cabinet was open and her few toiletries in disarray.

Skip swallowed the bite he’d been chewing. “What in the world?”

Roman moved closer and spoke softly. “Someone was looking for something. Anything taken that you can tell?”

Her eyes darted to the computer, the only real thing of value besides the satellite phone she’d had in her backpack. Both were still there, but the computer was on. She breathed a quick prayer of thanks that she’d deleted the message Asia had sent. But what if Asia had forwarded more while she was helping pile snow? What had the intruder seen? Her skin prickled, and she itched to scan her inbox but with Roman and Skip there, she didn’t dare.

“No, nothing taken.” She felt a shudder sweep through her, and she wrapped her arms around herself to hold it in.

Skip shook his head. “Never in the years I’ve owned this place has something like this happened. Whoever it was must have picked the lock or gotten the spare from the lodge office.” He sighed. “We’ll have to go to the police when we’re in town. See what they make of it.”

Jackie jumped. Was she ready to explain to the cops? How could she tell them about the break-in without revealing the whole sordid mess? “No, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Skip stared at her. “Why not?”

She forced a laugh. “It’s probably just a prank. There was no harm done, nothing stolen, no one hurt.” But it wasn’t a prank. The person who’d been snooping on her laptop hadn’t found what they were after, so they’d come back and searched more thoroughly.

Roman raised an eyebrow, but didn’t speak. He cocked his head and his long bangs shadowed his face. Jackie wished she could read his thoughts.

Skip looked unconvinced. “Well, if you’re sure, I certainly have other things to focus on today. I’d put you in another cabin, but we’re full up. In any case, I’ve got one of those latch locks we can add. I can try to get Dax to install it.”

“I’ll do it.”

Roman’s voice was so low she almost didn’t hear it.

Skip shot a glance at him and then at Jackie. “I’d sure appreciate it, Roman. I’d never ask, but I’m just plain swamped.”

“I’ll do it after my last flight this afternoon.”

Skip nodded and headed for the door. “I’m awful sorry about this, Jackie. I hope it doesn’t ruin your vacation. I can’t imagine who would do such a thing and why.” He plodded out into the snow.

At that moment her phone rang. She moved to a corner to answer, hands shaking.

“Ms. Swann?” The voice was muffled.

“Who is calling?”

“Officer Smith, S.F.P.D. We’ve been looking for you. We have some questions about the situation at your employer’s.”