Disarranged (12 page)

"I'm going, too!" Rose insists. "Let me get my jacket."

She's so driven, I barely have time to smile at her before she's gone up the stairs.

Chapter Six

In Which Rose Jensen Gets Lost

***

ROSE

***

I take the stairs up to my room two at a time. The idea of Morgan out in the snow, all by herself, is sending waves of nausea all over my body. I feel like I want to throw up again. She’s so sweet, and young, and brave. She must be terrified.

Morgan’s parents and their hard shell of privileged haughtiness had melted completely away when I talked to them. They’re so worried they can barely speak properly, but I got the gist of it – they woke up and Morgan was gone. She wasn’t in her bed, or anywhere in the lodge, or the other lodges. Her skis were gone. She’d left a handwritten note that said she was going looking for me – someone told her I’d broken my leg on the Alligator slope and needed help. That scares me twice over. Morgan likes me enough to brave the snow and the intimidating Alligator slope to look for me, and someone in this lodge was sick enough to convince a child of something false to get them outside and potentially kill them. The rangers had been informed, so they’re keeping an eye out for anyone who’s acting suspiciously, but still. It’s scary to think someone that evil is in the lodge. Not even Kiera would do something like that, I think.

I duck into our room and pull my jacket on, and a pair of snow pants. As I’m walking back, I hear them – footsteps. It’s the same person, and they’re following me again. Panic surges up in my throat like a white-hot plug, but I keep moving forward steadily. I can’t be afraid. Morgan is out there, more afraid than I’ll ever be. I have to find her. I can’t let this person who’s been stalking me get to me.

I whirl around, and this time, I come face-to-face with Farlon.

“You!” I back up. “You’re the one who’s been following me?”

“Following is such a coarse word,” he sighs. His hair is way grayer than I remember, and he looks like he hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep, lately. “It makes me sound like some sort of criminal.”

“You’ve been trying to scare me,” I say. I won’t let him see how angry I am, or how disturbed. I have a little girl to find out there. I have to make this quick, and decisive. I won’t let fear slow me down.

“I had to make sure.” Farlon shakes his head. “And now I know for sure.”

“Make sure of what?” I narrow my eyes.

“I know what happened that night in the hotel,” Farlon says. “Right before the Christmas charity event. You and my son had sex.”

I almost laugh. Yeah, we had sex. We had sex a lot of times before that, too. Why does he care?

“I’m sorry,” I say. “That I had sex with your son. Are you one of those types who wants their kid to wait for marriage or something?”

“No. Not at all. I know Lee’s been…
active
for some time. That’s not my concern. My concern is he was always careful with the others. With you – you stripped his control from him. No. To put it more accurately, you made him lose control. With you, he was not so careful.”

“‘Careful’? What are you talking about?”

Farlon steps close to me. I back up, but he shakes his head, and something in his eyes softens.

“I am sorry for everything that happened. I am sorry for what I made him do. He and I…we haven’t had the best relationship since his mother died. He’s never forgiven me for letting her die. I had my own selfish reasons for making him marry Kiera –”

“Making him marry her? I don’t understand what you’re saying!”

“I was hasty,” he sighs. “I deemed you unfit for him simply because you were just another in a long line of girlfriends of his. You are a fine person, Rose. After watching you for longer, I know that now. I thought I was breaking up a mere fling. I thought he was more truly in love with Kiera. But I’ve been watching carefully, and I’ve seen the damage it’s done to him, and to you. And I apologize.”

“Since when did you break up anything? And why bother telling me this now?”

He shakes his head. “It’s not my place to tell you any of that. Lee will tell you. It’s his job. He did not guard his heart with you, and now he’s made quite the mess.”

Farlon’s eyes are riveted to my chest, then my stomach. He’s a jerk, and now he’s transformed into some kind of perv? I cross my arms and snap.

“If you’re not going to tell me what you’re talking about clearly, I’m going to go. There’s a girl I have to find out in the snow, all alone.”

Farlon smiles. “Yes. She likes you, and you like her very much. You’re good with children.”

“There won’t be a child to be good with if I don’t hurry,” I say, and push past him, his strange words ringing in my ears.

***

LEE

***

The crowd of volunteer searchers is getting restless. Felix sighs.

"I gotta go out there, too. I can't let that little girl be by herself out there."

Grace nods and elbows me in a 'let's go' way. We return to our rooms and bundle up, and when we get back the ranger passes out supplies - radios, flares, bottled water, rations, and blankets. Rose is so eager to go she's the first out of the door once the ranger's assigned her a group with Grace and a few others. I argue with him to be assigned to her group too, but their group is already so far away outside the ranger just shrugs and says he'll put me in the next one.

"I have to go with her!" I argue.

"You cannot!" The ranger snaps, his French accent heavy. "I 'ave a clipboard here, it tells me names of group. You are not in group, you must be in other group. Do this the right way or other people will get lost and hurt."

I swear, and jog outside before anyone can stop me. I catch up with Rose, and grasp her on the shoulder.

"Hey! Look at me!"

She whirls around, a fire sparking in her eyes that could probably melt the snow around her if it was a real flame. I lean in and kiss her forehead.

"Be safe. You gave me a scare this morning. Don't do it again, or I'll learn some black magic, resurrect you from the grave, and kill you again."

She laughs and hugs me, tight and long. "You always know what to say to a girl."

Grace pats my shoulder. "Don't worry about her. I'll make sure she gets back okay."

"You too." I point at her. "You stay safe too."

"I always do, worrywart."

It pains me to see Rose walk away from me again, but she's got her goal in mind. I know her when she gets like that - nothing can stop her. All I can do is support her and hope she knows what the hell she's doing. And she has Grace with her. Grace knows how much she means to me. She won't let Rose get in trouble.

I trudge back inside, every fiber in my body on high alert. Worry courses through me like adrenaline. Felix and I wait for the ranger to sift through the huge crowd and assign us a group, too, but it's taking forever. Small clusters of people leave the lodge and being their search. The crowd slowly dwindles. Felix nudges me in the ribs and points to a corner of the lobby, where Kiera is sitting in a puffy jacket on one of the seats by the window. She's not volunteering to search, of course. And she's smiling. That's always a bad sign. Felix jerks his head towards her, wordlessly telling me we should question her. I nod, and we walk over to her.

She claps her hands. "My two favorite boys in the whole world! Hello. Please sit down."

"In case you haven't noticed," I snarl. "There's a little girl missing. We're going to help find her."

"Out in this weather?" Kiera looks genuinely shocked. "You're going to freeze to death! Oh well, suit yourself."

"It's strange," Felix says slowly. "Bad things are happening, one after another. And it's always when you're around."

Kiera laughs. "Felix! How long have you known me? Fifteen years? I'm perfectly innocent. I'm not the one who spiked a girl's drink last night and took her back to my bedroom."

I narrow my eyes. "You told him to. And you were the one who took pictures, and scattered those condoms. You wanted me to think they slept together to force me apart from Rose."

"I shouldn't need to force you apart!" Her voice pitches up. "You agreed to marry me, Lee! I filled my half of the conditions. I paid for everything. I stayed away from her for months. I've been waiting for you to fulfill your half! But you still hang on. Every time you look at her I know you're still hanging on!"

She stands, expression livid and her hands balled into fists.

"Do you know what that's like? Having someone promise you something, and having them go back on that promise after you've kept your side of the bargain? It feels like shit. It feels like shit!"

Her scream draws attention from the crowd to us, but only for a moment. Felix is tense beside me, standing straight and wincing when she raises her voice. Poor guy. He really does like her. Kiera seems to realize she's making a scene, and composes herself, her smile returning as she saunters slowly closer to me. She laces her arms around my neck and breathes in my ear.

"I only want you, Lee. I've done everything you've asked, everything you've wanted. So let me just have you." 

Felix clenches his fists tighter. Kiera's hand glances down my stomach.

The sick guilt in me rises up, but this time I know what to do with it. I grab her hand and force it away. I put space between us, and I look her directly in the eye, like you'd look at a charging bear.

"The deal's off, Kiera. I'm not marrying you."

Felix visibly relaxes. Kiera's face goes from happy, to forcefully happier, to flat and deadly when she realizes I'm not kidding after a minute of silence.

"You can't." She says, voice low.

"I can. And I just did."

She snarls, and then halfway through starts laughing. She makes as if to lunge for me, but stops herself, and laughs more. She laughs until people are staring and there are tears in the corners of her eyes. She slaps her knee and comes up for air.

"O-Oh alright. That's fine. That's just fine. You won't marry me. But you can't marry her, either."

I'm quiet, and she raises her voice and points to the TV in the lobby, which is on the weather channel.

"You'll never marry her. You'll never see her again."

I look up, my heart doing flip-flops. The weatherman points to a map of France, his French rapid and quick, but you don't have to know it to understand what the giant swathe of blueish white moving across the map of the Alps is.

"Daddy's friend at NASA so kindly told me it was coming. They know before everybody else. Isn't it wonderful?" Kiera laughs. "We're going to get snowed in!"

Rose is going to be caught in a blizzard. Grace, too.

I turn and run to the ranger, who's on his radio.

"Sir -" I push through the crowd. "There's a blizzard -"

He looks up. "I know, non! I'm calling everyone back!"

He shouts something in French and the search groups just leaving the lodge slowly trundle back inside. The mother and father of Morgan are being comforted by police, now. They speak in low, broken English.

"It's alright. Professionals will find her."

"Our baby's in that blizzard!" The mother shrieks. Her husband grabs her shoulder and pulls her close.

"They'll find her. They've got police and search and rescue coming. I promise, they'll find her."

I turn back to the ranger. "What about the first group? They left a half hour ago!"

"I'm contacting their radio as fast as I can, monsieur -"

The lights suddenly cut out. Several people yelp in surprise as the lodge is plunged into total darkness. The ranger shouts in French, and the police do, too, directing the panicky people to sit down on couches and chairs. A few of them go to the front desk, others head towards the rooms, and a few more go to the kitchens. The snow outside has started moving sideways, the wind whipping it with vicious brutality. And it's only getting worse. In the distance is a massive bank of white, like mist, completely obscuring the trees. The sky is almost as dark as night, heavy gray clouds blocking all light from the weak sun.

I can see Felix, angrily gesturing as he talks with a smug Kiera.

She's not just smug. She's officially insane. I stare at her, trying to make her understand what she's done.

But she knows exactly what she's done. I don’t know how she did it. But she’s pulled her final ace card. She’s truly manipulated someone to death. Two someone’s. Maybe more.

I won’t let that happen.

I grab a radio and food rations and my coat. In the blackout and the confusion, it’s simple to slip out unnoticed through the side door of the lobby.

***

ROSE

***

All I can think about as I push through the heavy snow is Morgan's face. How happy she looked putting that snowman together with Lee and I, how happy she looked skiing. Morgan rushed out here because of me, because someone convinced her I was in trouble. She's out here because of that evil person, but also because of me. If she gets hurt -

I shake my head and push harder through the snow drift. I can't think like that. I'll find her, and she'll be perfectly okay.

"Rose!" Grace calls, panting. "Slow down!"

"We need to check these tree lines!" I shout. I turn back to the group, and motion to the dark green rows of trees sitting on the mountain ridge below us. "I'll get this side, you guys get the others!"

"Madam!" The ranger accompanying us calls. "Madam, you must stay with us, together!"

"It's fine!" I wave. "I've got Grace with me! And the sky's clear, we can see each other perfectly! We'll just be right there."

"We'll just be searching the woods and tripping over bears," Grace puffs under her breath.

"There are no bears out here." I frown. "At least I don't think so. If there are, they stay the hell away, since humans scare them and the ski resort's right there."