Heart Of Gold (39 page)

“Why?
I'm having a grand old time.” Nick's eyes met Ivan's. “Besides,
weren't you telling me the other day I needed more upper body
conditioning?”

“That
I was. Those sails can be heavy lifting. You need to be in shape.”

“See?”
Nick tightened his grip even more, watching the man's eyes bulge. “You
could become part of my regular workouts. We could keep you here in the corner.
Hang you from the ceiling and use you as a punching bag.”

“Go...
to. ..hell...”

“So
tell me, how does hypoxia feel? I imagine your vision's beginning to get blurry
and your extremities are going numb. Your lungs have got to feel like they're
on fire.”

“Supposed
to be just like drowning,” Ivan supplied helpfully.

“Let
go . . .” Lyst's voice was a strained whisper.

“I
want you to stay the hell away from me and mine.”

“Fine,”
Lyst croaked.

Nick
released his hand and the man collapsed, gasping for breath.

“Here's
the deal,” Nick told him forcefully. “If you go to the newspapers, if
you come onto my property again, if you go anywhere near Carter, even after she
leaves here, I will hunt you down and make your life more miserable than it
already is. Got it?”

Lyst's
head lolled around his shoulders but his eyes rose with challenge. “What
if she wants to see me?”

“I
doubt that will be a problem.”

“You
can't control her.”

“Then
you better pray she doesn't want anything to do with you. It'll greatly
increase your chances of survival.” Nick turned to Ivan. “Get this
piece of crap out of here.”

* * *

“What?”
Ellie exclaimed indignantly.

She
couldn't possibly have heard her father right.

“You've
got to go,” Buddy repeated gently.

“What
are you talking about? No, I don't!” The girl flushed.

She just
couldn't leave, not when things with Cort were looking so promising. He'd even
opened up the night before and told her about losing his parents. They were
getting close, real close. Boyfriend and girlfriend close.

Her
father put a hand on her shoulder, his expression a mixture of concern and
resolve that made her feel like she had a noose around her neck.

“We're
almost done here.”

“Almost,”
she
snapped. “So why do I have to leave?”

“There's
a train that will take you to Albany and a bus will get you from there to Boston. I'll call your mother to pick you up.”

Ellie's
eyes narrowed and she searched his face. “You're not telling me
something.”

Her
father shrugged. “There's nothing much left to do. If you go back now, you
can still get into the summer program at Harvard.”

“I've
worked as hard as everyone else has and I deserve to finish the project. I want
to stay here.” She glanced over at Cort.

“You
can always have visitors back home,” Buddy said softly.

“I'm
not going!”

“I'm
sorry . ..”

“There's
nothing to apologize for. I’m staying.”

Unexpectedly,
her father's voice dropped an octave and became something close to a growl.
“Pack your bags or I'll do it for you.”

Ellie was
speechless. He never sounded that authoritative unless there was something
really wrong.

She had a
right to know whatever it was, she thought.

But
before she could say anything else, she caught Cort's eye. He gave her a brief
nod that seemed to say, Just agree and we'll figure something out.

“I
can't believe you're being like this,” she grumbled. When she went into
her tent to start packing, Cort followed her inside.

It was
gratifying to see the distress in his face as they sat down on her cot.

“I
don't want to go,” she whispered. “What are we going to do?”

“Can't
you talk him out of it?”

Dispirited,
she shook her head. “I've seen him like this once or twice before. He's
not going to budge. I wish we knew what started all this.”

“I'll
tell you about it later. Can you call your mom? Maybe she could change his
mind.”

“No.
She was upset I was going to be away for so long to begin with. She'll be
thrilled to get me home.”

“Could
Carter talk to him?”

“Maybe.
But I doubt if even she could change his mind.” Ellie stared into space,
hoping that a solution would come out of the air.

Cort took
a deep breath and then blurted, “Okay, so we're going to get out of
here.”

Ellie
looked at him with surprise. “What are you saying?”

“Let's
go away. Just the two of us.”

“You
can't be serious.”

“I
sure am.”

“Wait,
that's crazy.” She shook her head. “Where would we go? And they're
just going to find us anyway.”

“So
let them. At least we'll have a couple of days to ourselves. I'm tired of being
watched all the time, and they aren't going to change. For once, let's make
them work for it. If they want us, they can come after us.”

The
growing confidence in Cort's voice made the idea seem not so ridiculous.

“But
when? I'm supposed to leave tonight.”

“Tell
your father you want to stay for a final dinner. After we eat, we'll say we
want to go say good-bye. They'll let us. We'll sneak out of the house and head
up the mountain. We can hook up with the old logging trail that'll take us
around the summit and down the other side. From there, we can go to my friends'
house. The Canton brothers know how to deal with this kind of stuff. They do crap
like this all the time. They'll help us out.”

Fear and
excitement made Ellie's heart race. She'd never disobeyed her parents before
but an adventure, with Cort, was too tempting to turn away from.

“What
if we get lost on the mountain?”

“We
won't. I've been hiking this monster for years.”

She
thought for a moment. “But what about Ivan? He'll be able to track
us.”

“I
overheard him talking to Gertie. “He's going fishing tomorrow which means he'll
be out after night crawlers tonight. They’ll have trouble finding him and
that'll give us some time.” Cort took her hands, holding them tight. His
eyes had a soulful glow in them that made her light-headed. “I'll take
care of you. I promise.”

His
conviction was rock solid, and she was ready to believe in him completely. All
those times he'd gotten his distant look and disappeared, all the wondering
whether he liked her as much as she liked him, all the ambiguities seemed clear
now. They would go off together, be together.

“Okay.
Let's do it,” she said breathlessly.

Just
after sunset, she and Cort went down on the four-wheeler with two duffle bags
full of her clothes. Before they left, Cort distracted the grown-ups while she
hid a pack in the woods beyond the fringes of camp. Inside, she'd stashed
money, some food, and clothes. After they made their getaway, they would swing
through and retrieve it as well as her sleeping bag, which was still spread out
on the floor of her tent.

While she
and Cort raced down the mountain, she held on to him really tight, thrilled by
all the possibilities before them.

“I
can't wait for tonight,” she said in his ear as they zoomed over the
trail, speeding headlong into the gathering darkness.

* * *

Dinner
was served in the formal dining room despite the fact that everyone was in
shorts. It was a tense, silent meal. Repeatedly, Carter could feel Nick's eyes
pierce through the still summer air in her direction. When he abruptly threw
down his napkin and left the table without a word, she let out the breath she'd
been holding.

Buddy
looked at his watch and then his daughter. “We need to leave soon.”

“Will
you let us say good-bye?” Ellie's voice was clipped short.

After he
nodded, the two teenagers left. In their wake, Buddy pushed his plate away and
sat back in his chair. “Not exactly a great example of family-style
eating, was it.”

“You
want dessert?” Carter asked as she got up and went to the sideboard.

“Yeah.
I might as well self-medicate with cobbler. And don't go light on the whip
cream.”

She
brought him a plateful and they sat quietly under the sparkling chandelier
while Buddy devoured dessert. She fiddled with her cobbler until he ate it,
too.

“I
better go get her,” he said when he was done.

Carter
stayed behind to clean up and she'd just finished taking the plates into the
kitchen when Buddy came back in.

“Has
Ellie been through here?” he asked tensely.

“No.”

“I
can't find them.”

“You
try down by the boathouse?”

Buddy's
face registered relief. “Maybe that's where they are.”

But when
he returned wearing a look of alarm, Carter began to feel sick to her stomach.

“Cars
are here, boats are docked, four-wheeler's in the garage,” he reported.

“Would
they go back to camp?”

“I
can't think why.”

“You
take the four-wheeler up and check,” she said briskly. “I'll tell
Nick.”

When
Carter got to the study, the door was open a crack. She knocked and when there
was no answer, she pushed the door open and went in.

“Nick?”

The room
was empty. She was about to leave when something on his desk caught her eye. On
top of the sea of white papers, there was a color photograph.

Of her.

Carter's
breath caught.

It was a
picture Cort had taken, back when they had found the second set of bones and
right after  she and Nick had gone on their sail. She had a wide-open grin on
her face from laughing at one of Buddy's calamities.

“Looking
for something?” Nick spoke sharply.

Startled,
she bolted upright. “Cort and Ellie are missing.”

His
expression didn't change but she caught the tightening of his mouth. “For
how long?”

“Twenty
minutes or so.”

“You
check the house?”

She
nodded. “Everywhere except for upstairs. Buddy's gone up the
mountain.”

Nick
shrugged. “Maybe they just went for a walk.”

“She
was leaving.”

Nick's
brow came down over his eyes. “Leaving? To go where?”

“Home.”

“Why?”

“I
don't have time to explain. We've got to find them,” Carter said urgently.

Worry
surged through the harsh lines of his face. “You look down in the
boathouse?"

She
nodded.

“Then
let's check upstairs.”

The two
made quick work of the second story and came up empty. By that time,
they could hear the sound of the four-wheeler coming back. They met Buddy at
the front door.

“She's
gone,” he said desperately. “And her sleeping bag is missing. They
must be on the mountain.”

Nick went
to a phone. “Gertie? I need Ivan, now.”

The pause
that followed was too long to be good news.

“All
right, when you get him, tell him that the kids are missing. We need him on the
mountain,” He hung up with a scowl. “Ivan's out looking for bait.
She's going to try and find him.”

Abruptly,
Nick went to the kitchen and Buddy and Carter followed. They watched as he
walked over to the sink, bent down, and pulled out the trash bin. When he
emptied it on the floor and began searching through the garbage, they could
only watch in confusion.

“Thank
God,” Nick said, holding up a resealed hypodermic needle and an empty
glass vial.

“What's
that?” Carter asked.

“Cort's
a diabetic. He's taken his shot tonight. We've got some time.”

Carter
felt like she'd been hit with ice water. “My God, I had no idea.”

“He
prefers to keep it quiet,” Nick said as he stood up. “His mother was
one, too.”

“How
severe?”

“Bad
enough.” He walked over to a cabinet. After looking inside, he took a deep
breath. “Good boy. He's taken plenty of insulin with him.”

When Nick
turned around, he was visibly more calm.

“We'll
start at the campsite.” Nick quickly kicked off his loafers and put on hiking
boots. ”You two take the back trail on the four-wheeler. I'll run up the
front."

He
couldn't get the laces tied up fast enough.

As he got
to his feet, he looked at Carter. In the midst of his fear, he was struck by
the tender concern on her face. It shored up his strength, enabling him to
focus.

“Nick,
I. . .” Her voice trailed off as Buddy raced out the door.

She took
a hesitant step forward, raising her hand as if she was going to touch him, but
then she hesitated. As she turned away, he grabbed her and pulled her against
his body. Burying his face in her hair, he felt her arms come around him.

“I
don't want anything to happen to him,” Nick said softly.

“We'll
find them.”

Nick
pulled back and brushed his hand down her cheek. For a moment, he felt the
tension between them dissolve.

Then she
tore out of the house and he heard the four-wheeler roar off into the night.

Hastily,
he scribbled a note to Gertie with the time and the areas they were going to
cover. He knew she and Ivan would come as soon as they could. Picking up a
flashlight, he leapt outside and broke into a jog. Halfway across the meadow,
he wheeled around and returned to the house. A moment later, he re emerged and
began running.

The trip
up to the campsite was a blur. Visions of Cort lost in the wilderness spurred
Nick on, carrying him up the mountainside. When he arrived, he found Carter and
Buddy walking around, their flashlights trained on the ground.

Carter
updated him. “There was no sign of them on the back trail. ”We've
been trying to figure out which way they went but it's impossible with all the
footprints around here."