Adam (8 page)

The two-hour drive from the Rapid City airport to the Marshall Ranch seemed to take forever, and he actually logged almost four hours behind the wheel before he made it to the ranch. Jason had decided to refuel and get the hell out of Dodge before he was locked into South Dakota for a week or twenty.

Doc’s frustration grew faster than the traffic flowed. The interstate crawled at a snail’s pace as traveler’s not used to driving in snow and ice crept along the frozen expanse of blacktop. The highway patrol announced via the local radio stations the interstate would be closing at 6:00pm due to the blizzard and drifting snow. Once Adam turned off the interstate onto the county roads and then gravel access roads, the trip slowed even more as the blizzard started to rage. Thank God for four-wheel drive and chains. He pulled up in front of the main ranch house about 5:00 in the evening. The front door flew open. Expecting to see Keelee, he did a double take when Aunt Betty greeted him with a distressed expression.

Adam hastened up the stairs. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Betty attempted a tenuous smile, but the effort failed miserably. “Oh Adam, thank God somebody’s back. Keelee’s gone up into the hills and she isn’t back yet. She said she would be back in time to feed. That was an hour ago. I was just about to call the Koehlers and ask them to go out searching for her. I’m probably just worried about nothing, but I got a bad feeling.”

He ushered the older woman into the house and shut the door, blocking out the bitter cold. “Betty, come on sweetheart, you need to explain that with a little more detail for me. Where’s Keelee?”

The woman pulled a shaking hand across her forehead. “Clint told her he thought he’d seen a family up at the old Franklin homestead. Said he saw them yesterday. Damned man didn’t do squat to help ‘em out, but, of course, he’d tell Keelee.”

“And because Keelee is Keelee she headed out in the storm to help the family. Did she take supplies?”

Betty nodded. “Some extra clothes, food and such. But she should’ve been back by now.”

“Okay, where is the Franklin homestead? When did she leave? Who went with her? Didn’t she take Clint?”

The older woman blinked at Adam like he had two heads. “No, she went herself. They don’t know she left. They hauled out of here right after they made sure the watering holes were clear of ice. They have their own property to get ready for the storm and were focused on that. But after she tightened down the hatches here, she packed up some supplies and headed up into the hills. She told the Koehlers she’d feed the horses tonight and not to come back until tomorrow morning, so they won’t be back this evening.”

Adam squatted down eyelevel in front of the older woman. “Where is the old Franklin homestead, Betty? Give me directions. I’ll go up and make sure she’s okay.”

“Oh. Bless you, son. How do I explain it? Do you know where the line shack up northeast of here is at?” He flinched at the newly restored memory resurrected by her innocent question. “Yes ma’am, I recall where it is.”

“The small valley right before the line shack? It crests to the east. Follow the ridge and when you come up to the peak, you can see the old place. If you take a snowmobile, you can get there in a little over an hour or two… maybe?”

Adam was heading out the door. “I’m going to the training facility to get some supplies and equipment. I’ll stop by before I head out to make sure she hasn’t already come back. Won’t take me but a couple of minutes. Don’t worry, Betty. Keelee is the most independent woman I’ve ever met. She’s okay.”

Adam raced the truck to the training facility. She might be independent, but so many things could have happened on the trail. In these weather conditions, she could freeze to death. He threw his emergency medical pack down and added a Sat-phone to the inside pouch. He changed into winter survival gear, grabbed an emergency rations kit and started throwing supplies into the bag, filling it to overflowing. It took him less than ten minutes to get back to the ranch house.

“Should I call Frank? Do you think he needs to come home?” Betty was pacing in front of the fireplace. Concern carved into her face.

Adam stopped and flashed his gaze back to the woman. “Betty, don’t call Frank just yet. This is probably his first vacation in years and Miss Amanda is with him. Those two need time together. I got this. I’ll call you as soon as I find her. I’ve got a Sat-phone. If I need any emergency assistance, I’ll contact the sheriff.”

“Amanda King is with Frank?”

Doc nodded.

“You don’t say? Huh… I didn’t see that one coming. Well, if you’re sure, Adam, I’ll wait.” The woman sat on the edge of the huge rocking chair, appearing smaller than her frame truly was.

“Betty, is Keelee’s relationship with Clint serious?”
Do I really fucking want to know? No, you idiot, but you need to know what the score is.

The older woman shook her head. “I don’t know, son. Clint’s made a pretty convincing case and no one else around here is interested. But Adam, he’s not
the
one. You know what I mean?”

Adam nodded. What else could he do? He’d been a big part of forcing the woman he loved into developing that relationship. Intentional or not, he needed to repair the damage he had done before it was too late. “I’ll call as soon as I locate her.”

Betty grabbed her coat and started to the door with him. “I’ll tend to the animals tonight. Bring our girl home, Adam.”

*

Keelee banked the small fire she had built in the far corner of the root cellar. The roof still hung partially over the area and blocked the snow from falling directly onto the flame. She’d pulled all the old dry wood she could move to the corner and had spread the clothes she brought in the packs on the earth. Her head hurt to the point she was nauseated. She was cold, and she was going to get colder. The weather forecast for tonight was for sub-zero temps. The only saving grace was most of the wind blew right past the hole in the ground. Keelee melted snow in the bottom of an old mason jar warmed by the fire and she would eat from the stores she had brought with her. Keeping her body strong was important to fight off the cold. She knew how to survive. Her dad had prepared her for a tough life because ranching wasn’t for sissies.

She stared up out of the hole in the ground and tried to calculate the hour. It was well past sunset. That happened a little after five these days. Six or seven? Maybe a bit later, but not much. That meant at least eighteen hours before she could start to hope for a rescue. No one could come way out here… at night… in a blizzard. Keelee dropped her head back against the wall and winced when the goose egg on the back of her head hit the hard earth.

She tucked her legs back against her chest and grimaced at the throbbing of her left ankle. She’d bruised herself up, that’s for sure. There wasn’t a muscle in her body that didn’t ache. The last time she had felt this sick was when she was at the line shack with Adam.

Her eyes misted and she swiped angrily at the tears. Adam—she had to learn to get past him. He had told her point blank what he thought of her, or rather, what he didn’t think of her. The humiliation and shame she felt as they rode down this very mountain in complete silence was as sharp today as it had been almost two years ago. Her face flamed at the memories. After a couple days, he’d tried to talk to her. God, she’d been mortified. She’d thought he desired her, but boy howdy, had she read that wrong.

Keelee closed her eyes and then opened them again in a panic. Sleeping right now with the whap she took to the head probably wouldn’t be the smartest action. She took several large chunks of wood shelving and added the fuel to the fire, banking it carefully to ensure coals would remain should she doze later.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she curled into a ball and thought of Adam. His muscled, sculpted body and thick blond hair were simply perfect. And those sexy dimples. God, Adam’s dimples were so prominent when he laughed. Not that she had seen that much since the line shack. They spoke now, in passing, and only as friends. But he never really smiled or laughed anymore. He’d changed so much.

Keelee shifted and gazed up out of the hole she was in.
Huh… wasn’t that just funny. You’re stuck in a pit
. Keelee snorted and then laughed. She spoke to the snowflakes that drifted into the void. “Girl, you hit your head just a smidge too hard this time, didn’t you?”

*

Adam cussed in frustration. He was supposed to have turned to the east prior to reaching the line shack, but in the dark and the blinding snow, he’d missed the landmarks Betty had told him to look for. After ensuring Keelee wasn’t inside the shack, he had circled back and found the pass. He gunned the machine up the ridge but lost precious time. He hadn’t seen any tracks from Keelee’s snowmobile—not that he expected to. The damn wind would cover anything in less than fifteen minutes. He prayed she was at the homestead. As he topped out and traveled through the pass, he said a silent prayer. He wasn’t a religious man, but he had faith. In his occupation, you knew there was a power higher than you at work. Some of the shit he’d seen… he’d swear on his soul there was a God and miracles did, in fact, happen.

At the cusp of the pass, he slowed and stopped his machine. Darkness enveloped him when he turned off the headlight. He sat for several minutes until his eye adjusted to the almost pitch black of the night. Damn, it was brutal cold. His arctic wear kept him from freezing, but it sure as hell wasn’t keeping him warm. He stood on the foot rails of the snowmobile and searched the night. In the distance, he saw a dull glow. About a thousand yards to his northeast. Adam hit the start switch and headed down the ridge. If that light was Keelee, she was in trouble. No one would camp in the middle of the meadow during a snowstorm.

He descended into a small bowl and immediately lost any sign of the illumination he had seen earlier. His headlight plowed into the darkness, allowing only a tunnel of vision. Heading toward where he believed he had observed the glow, he carefully reconned the area for anything that would indicate Keelee had been this way.

Adam cut the motor of the snowmobile again and sat waiting for his vision to acclimatize to the darkness. He lifted again and saw darkened structures to his right. A shell of a house lay dark, without signs of life. The howling wind had mounded drifts of snow and covered the area between the buildings. Adam got off the machine and shouldered his pack. The house would be the obvious place to shelter, so he struck out. The deep snow hindered his stride, but he made short work of traversing the open area. A barbed wire fence obscured by a rise of snow nearly cut him in half. Thank God for layers of clothes. Adam worked in between the top two strands of wire, throwing his bag over the fence before he ducked through.

The front door of the house stood open. Adam snapped on a flashlight and searched the abandoned structure. The small kitchen had a hand pump at the sink. There were two bedrooms off the tiny living room. Adam searched for any sign Keelee had been in the house. No indication anything human or animal had been in the house for a long time.

The only other place that would offer a break from the wind was the outbuilding. Shouldering his pack, he set out. Adam stilled as soon as he left the house. He lifted his head and drew in a deep breath of the blistering cold air. Smoke. He faced into the wind and drew another breath. The odor was definitely coming from upwind.

“Keelee!” His shout shattered the night. Adam brought his fingers to his lips and let loose with the loudest whistle he could manage. The sharp, piercing noise bounced off the house’s exterior.

Adam heard a faint sound.
A call? Maybe?
Once again, he rent the howling wind with a long whistle.
There.
He heard it again. The sound may have come from the remains of the outbuilding. Adam strode as quickly as the drifted snow would allow.

His whistle once again blasted forward. “Keelee!”

“Here! I’m down here!” Adam strained against the deep snow. His awkward run-shuffle brought him towards her voice.

“Keelee! Where are you?”

“Adam? Adam! Be careful! I’ve fallen into a root cellar!” Her voice seemed to float from the darkness.

“Keep talking! Where are you?” He turned on the flashlight, no longer needing his night vision.

“I’m down here. There is a massive hole at the top of a large mound between the barn and the house!”

Adam crested the small hill he had assumed was a drift and stopped a couple of feet from the edge. He could see the glow from the fire. It illuminated piles of dirt and snow, but he couldn’t see her.

“I’m here. Where are you?”

“I’m under you. This is the only part of the cellar that still has a roof. I can’t move. When I fell, I hurt my back and twisted my ankle. I built a fire, I shouldn’t have curled up by the fire. I stopped moving. I think the cold and the fall… God, I just hurt!”

Adam dropped his pack and opened it. She was talking and making sense. A good start. “All right. I got you. No worries. I’m going to secure a rope to my snowmobile and be right back.”

Adam made quick work of tying off the length of nylon rope. Testing the knots before he fashioned a harness around his legs, he rappelled into the hole. Several feet of earth that once comprised the roof crumbled under his direct weight on the rope as he dropped into the root cellar. Adam hit the floor and searched the corner. His eyes fell on her, huddled in the corner of the hole. She was filthy, covered in dirt and absolutely the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.