Snowbound

  “Who are the other men?”

  “I don’t know. One is Hispanic, maybe another Alpha. Other two are white.”

  “Well, we know why they’re here—for what we did to Javier’s family, to him, possibly those men I killed in Fairbanks three days ago.” She threw back the blankets.

  “The Alaskan mob?”

  “They’re probably cocounsel with the Alphas on this.”

  “Aren’t you really the one they—”

  “Oh sure. Walk out and explain the situation to them, Will. I dragged you into this. It’s all my fault. I bet they give you a pass, probably even fly you and your family out of here before the shit starts to fly.”

  SIXTY

  Rachael, Will, and Devlin were following Kalyn down the first-floor corridor.

  “All right,” she said. “So here’s how I see it. What do they want?”

  “To kill us.”

  “No, you’re rushing ahead. Think of a more concrete motivation.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “First, they want to get inside this lodge. We want to keep them out, or at least know if they make it in and be ready to deal with that.”

  “Okay.”

  “So we start thinking about all the points of entry.”

  “How many are there?”

  “Right now? Probably more than forty.”

  “How’s that possible?”

  Kalyn stopped, opened the door of room 111, pointed to the window. “First priority is locking every room on every corridor.” She knocked on the wood. “These doors are thick, and the locks look damn near indestructible. That’s not to say they won’t be able to get through, but they’ll make a hell of a lot of noise doing it. You have a master key, Will?”

  “Yes.”

  “Give it to Devlin, let her go and do that right now.”

  “I don’t feel comfortable with her running around by her—”

  “I think we have some time to work with here.”

  Will pulled one of the master keys out of his pocket, handed it to his daughter. “Go,” he said. “Be careful, and remember to check every door after you lock it.”

  As Devlin took off back toward the lobby, they reached the alcove.

  “Here’s our first trouble spot,” Kalyn said. “I’ll bet they try to come in through a window either here or at the north-wing alcove. Or both. We should station someone, maybe even two people, a little ways back in the corridor with shotguns.”

  “Who? There’s just me, Rachael, and—”

  “We’ll need help from Sean and Ken, maybe even some of the women. Come on.”

  They jogged back down the corridor, emerging finally into the lobby.

  Kalyn pointed to the entrance.

  “I’m not terribly worried about those doors. We’ll lock them, but no one storms the castle through the front door. With those iron bolts, they’d literally need to blow it off the hinges. I’m not sure they’re going to announce their presence like that, since they won’t know what they’re facing.”

  She led them through the passage, past the dining hall, to a door that opened onto the veranda. “We’ll need someone here.”

  They backtracked into the lobby, now approaching the library.

  Devlin was already to the end of the first floor of the south wing. Will could hear the doors slamming, locks turning.

  They entered the library.

  “No one can be in here, since they could pick us off through the windows. We’ll station someone in the lobby to watch this door and the front entrance and back up the corridors.” She opened the small door to the right of the fireplace. “This would be another great point of entry.”

  They started down the spiral staircase, their footfalls echoing on the metal, causing it to vibrate, Will gliding his hand along the railing.

  “Move very slowly,” he said.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Will. Don’t know if you’ve realized, but we need each other.”

  They reached the floor of the cellar. Peering just ahead, Will could see a door outlined by seams of light where the sun passed between the cracks.

  Kalyn opened it. Light poured in. He saw the empty cages.

  “They won’t all enter the same way, but this is where I’d come in.”

  Kalyn’s eyes fell upon something that made her smile.

  She approached a wall adorned with ancient tools—saddles, scythes, machetes. Kalyn tapped one of two enormous bear traps.

  “This thing’s made to catch grizzlies,” she said. “Break a man’s leg like it was nothing.”

  “You think they still work? Looks pretty rusted out to me.”

  “We’ll see. Come on, let’s head back up. I want to take a look through the binoculars.”

  SIXTY-ONE

  I don’t see them,” she said. “It’s just the plane.”

  Kalyn stepped back inside, and Rachael shut the doors and locked them.

  “How much time you think we have?” Will asked. “That’s deep snow. Might take them what? An hour? Hour and a half to get here? And we’ve burned thirty minutes already.”

  Kalyn shook her head. “I actually think we’ve got time on our side. They flew right over the lodge, ballsy fuckers, set down in plain site, so they have to realize we’re aware of them. For all they know, we’ve got a small army in this lodge.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “I’m fairly certain they won’t make their move until dark.”

  Rachael said, “I felt better when I thought this was going to happen in daylight.”

  “No, it’s good. Gives us time to prepare. We should meet with Sean and Ken and the women, tell them the good news, sign up a few recruits. But I’d like a moment with my sister first. I only saw her through a peephole yesterday. I don’t even think she knows I’m here.”

  “She doesn’t,” Will said.

  “Well?”

  “You really think we have time for a family reunion?”

  “Please, Will.”

  “Five minutes.”

  Will unlocked the door and walked inside, caught him rising out of bed, puffy-eyed from dehydration and looking very afraid.

  “Sit down, Sean.”

  Sean complied as Will closed the door and dragged a chair away from the desk. He sat facing the young man, the shotgun lying across his lap.

  “Are you going to kill me?” Sean asked.

  Will shook his head. “My daughter overheard a conversation between you and your father yesterday morning. You know what I’m talking about?”

  Sean stared at his bare feet for a moment. “You mean in the library? After breakfast?”

  Will nodded. “You didn’t want to be here, did you, Sean?”

  “I didn’t know what this lodge was. I swear to you.”

  “Did your father?”

  “No. I mean, he’d heard it was a wild place, but we didn’t have any idea. Would you have believed it without seeing it?”

  “My wife has been here for five years.”

  “I’m sorry, man. Really.”

  “I need to know something.”

  “What?”

  Will locked his gaze on Sean.

  “Did you help yourself to any of the women here?”

  “No.”

  “You can tell me the truth.”

  “I swear to you. This place makes me sick.”

  “Then what did you do yesterday?”

  “I stayed in my room.”

  “All day?”

  “Until dinner.”

  “What about your father?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think he would have hurt anyone. That’s not like him.”

  Will stood. “Did you grow up with firearms around the house?”

  “My dad and I go elk hunting in Montana every fall.”

  “Good.”

  “Why is that good?”

  Will walked to the door, pulled it open, cold air from the corridor sweeping in.

  “Let’s go talk to yo
ur father. I’ve got some bad news.”

  Lucy Dahl sat in a chair by a fireplace in one of the guest rooms, a book in her lap, her legs propped on a footstool, basking in the heat.

  Kalyn closed the door and moved quietly across the room toward her sister, no sound but the shift of smoldering logs and the paper scrape as Lucy turned the pages of her book.

  It had been three years since Kalyn had laid eyes on her sister, and their last words had been angry ones, a stupid fight that Kalyn had started—big sis telling little sis what was best for her life.

  Two steps from the chair, Kalyn’s eyes welled up. She couldn’t see Lucy look up from her book through the lens of salt water shivering on the surface of her eyes.

  “Kalyn? Oh my God.”

  They sat on the floor by the fire, Lucy crying, Kalyn whispering, “I’m here, honey. I’m here.” Wanting to tell her she was safe now, that they had a plane waiting on the lake to take her home, back to her husband, away from this nightmare.

  Lucy must have sensed her holding back, because she said, “What’s wrong, K? What is it?”

  Kalyn shook her head, footsteps entering the boondocks of her perception, Will already coming back, the five minutes gone faster than it seemed possible.

  “We’re together,” she said. “Just that we aren’t home yet.”

  Will stood in front of the hearth in what had been Ethan’s room, facing twenty-two women (most of whom watched him with the desperate blankness of refugees) and Sean and Ken (still massively hungover from the previous night and looking more than a little uncertain about their demoted stations under the new management).

  “As Rachael mentioned to you all, four men have landed on the inner lake. While Kalyn and I are the primary targets, you’re all in danger here, and we have to prepare. Kalyn and I can’t defend everyone on our own, and I know you’ve been through so much hell, and I’m sorry we have to deal with this, but we need your help. Sean and Ken have come on board, along with Kalyn’s sister, but we need one more volunteer.”

  The women glanced at one another. A few began to cry.

  It was thirty seconds before a hand went up—raised by a dark-haired woman who appeared to be in the first trimester of her pregnancy.

  Will said, “Yeah? What’s your name?”

  “Suzanne Tyrpak. I’ll fight. I’ve never even touched a gun before, but if you show me how, I’ll do it. I mean, if this is what we gotta do to get back to our families.”

  There were no other volunteers, the rest too weak or pregnant or broken, some still whispering to themselves—incoherent, devastated babblings.

  He looked at Kalyn. “That makes eight of us. Can we pull this off?”

  . . .

  “The beautiful thing about a twelve-gauge,” Kalyn said, “is you can be a terrible shot, and it doesn’t matter.” They all stood outside the supply room—the Innises, Kalyn, her sister, Suzanne Tyrpak, and the oilmen—shouldering pump-action Mossbergs.

  Kalyn said, “I think these guys may come wearing bulletproof vests, which is why I want you to aim either below the waist or at the head. You have to pump it after every shot.” She pumped her shotgun. “The kick is strong, so remember to lean into it.”

  “Is it loud?” Suzanne asked. “When you pull the trigger?”

  “Loud as hell. All right, let me show you how to load.”

  It took both Kalyn and Will to pull the grizzly traps off the wall, the monstrous contraptions weighing in at forty-eight pounds of rusted cast iron apiece, with jaw spreads of seventeen inches. Will stepped on the release, and they strained to force the jaws open.

  Although barely legible, American Fur and Trade Company, HBC No. 6 had been engraved into the iron of the pan. When Kalyn popped it with one of the pitchforks, the snare jumped, the giant teeth chomping together, snapping the wooden handle in two.

  The sun hung low in the sky, sitting just over the horizon at the end of the lake, turning clouds and snow pink, the water scarlet. Devlin watched from a window on the third floor, thought it was the most striking end of day she’d ever seen, the sky at war with itself.

  Kalyn stood at the window in Rachael’s old room on the fourth floor, glassing what she could see of the surrounding grounds and forest behind the lodge.

  “Light’s getting bad,” she said. “I thought maybe I’d see tracks or something.”

  “You think they’re out in the woods somewhere?” Will asked.

  “I would imagine, but the trees are too loaded with snow to see that far into them.”

  “What if we went ahead and cut the power? Might give us an advantage, since we know the lodge better than they do.”

  “Not if they have night-vision goggles. One of the things the Alphas are known for is using state-of-the-art equipment. I mean, we might as well have a Force Recon team coming after us.” She lowered the binoculars. “What’s my role from here on out? I’ve helped you prepare. Will you trust me? Let me fight when the time comes?”

  “You mean am I going to give you a gun?”

  “Will, no one here is as proficient as—”

  “I understand that, but what you need to know is that part of me is more afraid of you than of what’s coming.”

  “Will, you don’t under—”

  “I understand plenty. Come on. Let’s go check the other side.”

  Will found Rachael and Devlin eating leftovers with the others in the kitchen.

  He asked them to walk with him, and they followed, going back up the passage, then out into the lobby, where he finally pulled them into the library and shut the door.

  “Come here, guys.”

  The Innises sat down in a corner by the French doors, protected from the view of anyone who might be watching from outside.

  Above the skyline of firs, evening faded from pink into purple.

  “It’s gonna be dark soon,” Will said, and already he could feel the sadness rising in his throat. He looked at his long-lost wife. His teenage daughter. “It’s gonna be a long, long night, and the truth is, we don’t know what’s going to happen. If we’re gonna be together in the morning. Or if this is the last . . .” He ground his molars together, fighting the surge of emotion. Be strong for them. He reached out, touched his daughter’s face. “I’m so proud of you, Devlin. The courage, the nerve you’ve shown.”

  “But I’m afraid, Dad.”

  “I know. We all are, and that’s okay. What matters is how you handle it. That you don’t let it handle you.” They all embraced, held on to one another for nearly a minute.

  When they came apart, Will grabbed Rachael’s hands. “I want you to see the little farmhouse we have in Colorado. There are mountains, aspen trees. There’s a river nearby, and sometimes you can hear it from our bedroom. I want to be there with you and Devi and this little guy.” He touched Rachael’s rounded belly. “I’m gonna do everything I can tonight to make that possible. You both know what you have to do?” His girls nodded. “No matter what happens, I love you, Rachael. I love you, Devlin.” Rachael was crying, Devlin’s chin quivering. “All right,” Will said. “I guess it’s time.”

  SIXTY-TWO

  Ethan’s old room was already stocked with food and water and plenty of blankets, since they couldn’t risk the light or smell of a fire. Will and Kalyn had set the weakest women on the mattress and swaddled them in covers, left Devlin in charge of protecting the women who couldn’t fight.

  “This is your room now, Devi,” her father said, “and these women are your responsibility. You kill anyone who comes through that door to hurt you.”

  “I will.”

  “There’re two more shotguns, fully loaded, and three boxes of shells on the bedside table. I don’t care what you hear out there, stay put.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Through the glass, the sky deepened from purple to navy.

  “Keep them quiet, away from the windows, and use no light.” Will tapped the walkie-talkie in the pocket of her parka. “Emergencies only. You remember the
channel?”

  Outside in the corridor, Will closed and locked the door. He looked at Kalyn, said, “Come with me,” and led her down to the supply room, which he unlocked. “Go on, pick out whatever you think you’ll need.”

  Kalyn stepped inside, pulled a shotgun from one of the glass cases, then broke open a box of shells. She loaded it and crammed the pockets of her fleece jacket with as many shells of buckshot as they would hold. Then she opened a drawer, took out a Browning 9-mm.

  “Will?” she said while loading a magazine with hollow-point rounds.

  “What?”

  “Thank you for not telling my sister about what I—”

  “It’s not the time to deal with that.”

  Kalyn lifted the shotgun strap over her head, slammed a magazine into the Browning.

  Suzanne and Lucy sat side by side near the end of the south-wing corridor, twenty feet back from the alcove, the shotguns lying across their laps.

  It was perfectly silent—just the steady pulse of their heartbeats and the humming of a ceiling lamp above their heads.

  Sean and Ken waited twenty feet back in the passage, their shotguns trained on the thick wooden door that led to the veranda.

  Their only light was a lantern mounted on the passage wall.

  “Dad?” Sean said.

  “Yeah.”

  “We’re in trouble here.”

  Ken glanced at his son in the lantern light. “Your old man’s working on something.”

  “What?”

  “A way to get us out of this.”

  Kalyn sat on the stone of the freestanding hearth. With a quick turn of her head, she could keep an eye on either the front entrance or the library door, now closed and locked. She could also look down the first-floor corridor of both wings, see Suzanne and Lucy camped near the end of the south, Will walking toward the end of the north. She kept replaying the afternoon and evening and all the preparations they’d made, haunted with the fear she’d overlooked something.