Rocky Mountain Mayhem (27 page)

Shick and Smith sat at opposite ends of the
large patio, one in front of Felix’s and the other by Timberline.
Vivian didn’t see Hayes and Finck but figured they were out there
somewhere.

“It’s so quiet here,” Kate said and leaned
her head back on her chair. “Look, it’s a waxing moon. Perfect time
to cast spells for new beginnings, progression and growth.”

“Cast what?” Vivian asked. “Do I need to get
you a pointy hat and a broom?”

Kate smiled. “I get it from my mom’s
side.”

“Steve and I could use a new beginning,” Lucy
said. “But I don’t know any spells.”

“Me, neither,” Vivian said. “But I could damn
sure use a new beginning! Cast something my way, would ya?”

“Ouuuuuuuuu, ouuuuuu,” Wendy sang out,
stretching her legs and propping her feet up on the ledge.

“Witchyyyy,” Lucy sang.

“Woman,” Kate finished.

“I love the Eagles,” Wendy said.

Nelson shifted in his chair.

“I don’t actually know any spells,” Kate said
and picked up a skewer. “But who wants a marshmallow?”

All of the girls did. Nelson didn’t
respond.

She pointed a skewer at him. “It’s probably
not illegal for you to partake, Agent Nelson. We won’t tell your
superiors.”

He looked at the Hershey’s and caved. “Yeah,
I’ll take one.”

The night was perfect, not too cold, and the
fire warmed Vivian just enough. A sliver of moon peaked in and out
of the clouds that rolled across the mountaintops. The smell of the
roasting marshmallows and melting chocolate mixed with the
surrounding evergreens helped. She closed her eyes and took a deep
breath, enjoying the peacefulness.

Kate and Lucy passed around some s’mores and
they roasted more marshmallows. Lucy caught hers on fire and ran
around the fire pit, singing the Olympic theme. She stepped back
onto the ledge and blew out what was left of the charred mess. “Who
wants this one?”

“It’s a throwback,” Vivian said. “Toss it in
the fire.”

Wendy sang, “Burn, baby burn,” and the girls
joined her in singing “Disco Inferno” by the Tramps.

Vivian resumed her peaceful state, sipped her
wine, ate her s’more and put her feet up on the ledge.

“So why the FBI?” Lucy asked Agent
Nelson.

Nelson wiped the graham cracker crumbs from
his lap. “Finished school with a masters in criminal justice. I can
speak seven languages, and I have an extensive information
technology background.” He smirked a little.

“What does that mean, extensive IT
background?” Kate prodded.

“As a teenager I was mischievous. For fun,
I’d hack into company networks. I never did anything malicious, but
I shouldn’t have done it.”

“You little criminal you,” Vivian teased.

“I never got caught, thank god. You have to
have a squeaky clean record for the FBI, you know.”

“Then what?” Wendy asked.

“My senior year I got lucky. I had a computer
science teacher who figured out that my skills outmatched his own
by a long shot. His brother worked in the FBI, and he got me
connected to the FBI’s honors internship program. For 10 weeks I
worked alongside agents at FBI headquarters in D.C. After that, I
was hooked. I figured out what I needed to do in college, including
take a lot of languages, then got my masters.”

“Seven languages, geez!” Lucy said. “How do
you say ‘overachiever’ in Farsi?”

Vivian heard a sound off to the right. She
leaned around her chair and looked but didn’t see anything. Then
she heard it again, a rustling, scratching in the darkness.

Nelson got up and put his hand on his
holster.

“What?” Shick stood up.

“I thought I heard something over there.”
Vivian pointed into the night.

“Go inside. Now!” Nelson jumped in front of
her, shielding her from the invisible threat.

The girls grabbed their wine and Lucy grabbed
the chocolate (priorities), and they hustled into the great room.
Hayes and Finck rushed past them, out the door, guns drawn.

Nelson sent the agents in different
directions as Vivian and the girls watched from behind the
windows.

“Should we hide behind something?” Wendy
asked.

“Maybe,” Kate said.

“What did you hear?” Lucy asked Vivian.

“Something moving, for sure.”

They crouched down behind one of the couches,
but continued to watch the action outside. Nelson used his phone as
a flashlight, holding it in one hand and his gun in the other. He
scanned the outer seating area surrounding the fire pit. He flashed
the light toward the ski lift. One of the chairs was swinging back
and forth. He moved in that direction as Shick flanked him. They
moved around either side of the lift and came back together.

Finck and Smith had gone in opposite
directions, Finck toward the cabana and pool, Smith toward a
grassy, open area that led to condominiums.

Hayes walked close to the fire pit and then
stopped, listening. He turned his head to the right and glanced at
the trash can. When he reached to remove the lid, a raccoon jumped
out at him, hissing, causing Hayes to yell and throw his gun in the
air. The other agents trained their guns on the little animal, only
to pull back once they saw it scurry away.

The girls walked outside to the fire pit,
laughing at the scene.

“Bandit get ya?” Finck said to Hayes.

“Girly man, afwade of a wittle animal,” Smith
teased.

“Both of you shut up,” Hayes said, picking up
his weapon. “I’ve had no sleep the past 48 hours.” He jerked his
thumb toward Finck. “You try sleeping in the same room with this
snore machine.”

Finck shrugged. “Earplugs.” He fell into one
of the chairs around the fire pit. “May I?” He pointed to the
s’mores fixings.

“Sure thing,” Lucy said.

“I think this calls for Buttery Nipple
shots,” Kate said. “Wendy, I don’t really know what’s in those.
Will you go up to the room and get it. Please?”

“Buddy system!” Lucy chimed in, then nudged
Nelson in the shoulder.

WENDY and Agent Nelson made their way to the
elevators.

“So I guess you were assigned Craig’s case
because of your mad computer skills?”

“That’s part of it.”

“What’s the other part?”

The elevator doors opened. Wendy tapped the
12.

“I think the other part was luck,” Nelson
said. He moved in close as the doors shut, wrapped his arms around
her and kissed her deeply.

She let him.

The doors opened and closed on their floor,
but neither moved to step off. Wendy reached around him, feeling
his muscular form, and moved her fingers up and down his back. He
caressed her face and ran his hand through her long, brown
hair.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he said, then kissed
her again.

He felt amazing to her. Her breath quickened
and she pushed him against the wall, wanting to feel all of him.
Her hands slid over his chest and down to his waist. She was
tugging on his shirttail when the door opened and she heard an
“Oh!”

Lucy and Kate.

“Oh, errrr, sorry to interrupt,” Kate said.
“We were going to grab another layer, it’s getting chilly.”

Wendy’s cheeks, already filled with crimson,
flushed an even brighter shade. She couldn’t speak but moved away
from Nelson. In the corner of her eye she saw him adjust his
shirt.

Kate hit the 12 and everyone was quiet until
Lucy started tapping her foot and humming Aerosmith’s “Love in an
Elevator.”

The doors opened, and they all got out. Lucy
continued to hum as they walked down the hall and Kate giggled.

Wendy grabbed Lucy’s elbow. “Okay, okay,
enough.”

“What, I’m just singing about an elevator.
And loooooove.”

“Cool it!”

Lucy winked at her. “Okay, you naughty
girl.”

Agent Nelson let them into the suite and
waited by the door as they gathered their stuff.

“Do you need a jacket?” Kate asked Wendy. “Or
are you pretty warmed up without it?”

Wendy went into the bathroom.
What the
hell am I doing
? she thought as she looked at herself in the
mirror. She took a moment to brush her hair, then went into the
living area and put on her red suede coat, then grabbed the shot
stuff.

“Didn’t think you’d need that,” Lucy said,
tugging her jacket as they walked out the door.

Wendy didn’t say a word, only led the way
back to the elevator, smacking the down button several times.

As they walked out to the fire pit, Vivian
could tell that something big had gone down. Lucy’s eyes were wide
open and she shifted them from Wendy to Nelson. Kate looked at
Vivian and winked, then tossed her a coat and scarf. Wendy took her
same spot and started making shots.

She poured herself one first, slammed it
back, then made four more, passing them out to each of the girls.
She held her second one high.

“To whatever tomorrow brings,” she said.

They drank their shots and warmed themselves
by the fire.

“What’d ya do down here all by yourself with
these big boys?” Lucy asked playfully.

Vivian’s face lit up. “I called mom. She said
the kiddos were in bed but had been doing great. Audrey painted a
picture out on the back porch of a bumblebee, and Lauren’s been
having fun playing games and reading books with Nana. Mom said the
twins were doing great, being big eaters, and that Ben and Olivia
had been playing together, rolling a ball to each other. And she
had gotten video of it! Yay, Mom!”

“Aw, how sweet,” Kate said.

“Does your mom know what’s going on?” Wendy
asked.

Vivian kicked at the fire pit. “I told her
about what Craig did to the house before I left, just in case he
showed up.”

“You kinda had to, I guess,” Lucy said. “It’s
safer that way.”

“Yep, even though it freaked her out.”

“What’s on tap for tomorrow?” Kate asked
changing the subject.

Vivian looked toward Nelson. He was speaking
to Finck near the Timberline. “Guess we need to ask him.”

Lucy couldn’t resist. “Wendy, maybe
you
should go ask?”

Wendy shook her head and crossed her arms.
“I’m stayin’ right here.”

“What the hell happened up there?” Vivian
asked her.

“Agent Nelson got frisked,” Kate giggled.

“I’ll tell you later,” Wendy whispered. “We
can’t talk about it right now.”

Nelson walked back to the fire pit.

“Any developments?” Vivian asked.

“Afraid not.”

“We need a plan for tomorrow. It’s our last,
full day here. We’re running out of Craig-catching chances.”

“I’m aware of that, but because he’s notching
up the violence and completely unpredictable, I’m not using you as
bait.”

“Agent Nelson, we’ve been over this and you
know how I feel,” Vivian said as she picked up a skewer and pointed
it at him. “He’s going to continue to come after me, and I’m not
going home until he’s caught.”

“By putting yourself in danger, you’re
putting your friends in danger. Do you understand that?” Nelson
stole a glance at Wendy, then looked at Lucy and Kate. “Do you guys
understand the seriousness of the situation?”

Kate moved from her chair and sat on the
ledge, close to Vivian.

“We understand he’s unpredictable right now,
but we’re sticking with her until Craig is caught.”

Wendy touched Nelson’s arm, then quickly
pulled it back. “She’d do it for us.” Wendy laid her hand on his
arm this time. “And we trust you completely to keep us safe.”

Nelson looked at her but was quiet, an
internal war waging.

“I have an idea,” Lucy said, reaching for her
wine. “We could go snow tubing. It’s still open in Frisco.”

“What’s that?” Vivian asked.

“Oh my gosh, it’s super fun. I did it last
year when my sister was here. You go up the mountain on this
conveyor belt thingy, then come down on these trails made just for
the tubes. You go really fast, well, not going up, but coming down.
There’re bumps and humps and they’ll spin ya around. It’s
awesome!”

“What do you think, Agent Nelson?” Kate
asked. “This sound like something we could try?”

“I’m familiar with the Frisco Adventure
Park.”

Vivian tried to form an image in her mind of
Nelson having fun snow tubing. Didn’t work.

“I’d have to set up a team to act as
employees and I’m a little concerned about manpower. I can work
with local police to establish a perimeter.” He crossed his arms,
then tapped a finger to his cheek. “And I like the fact that you’re
moving quickly going down. It’s the slower trip up that worries
me.”

“We could go for a hike,” Kate offered. “We
haven’t done that.”

“Again, manpower is the issue.”

“I can snow tube like a mad woman or hike the
shit out of Colorado,” Vivian said, handing Wendy her shot cup for
a refill. “Let’s set something,
anything
up.”

AS they wrapped up their night by the fire
pit, Nelson excused himself to go upstairs to make calls and do
some paperwork. He said he’d have an answer about tomorrow’s
activities before they went to bed. He instructed the four agents
to stay outside, close by.

Vivian saw him linger in the great room for a
minute before disappearing toward the elevator.
I bet he was
waiting for Weeeeendy
! She sang in her head.

“So what the heck happened upstairs?” Vivian
asked Wendy, who groaned.

“I’m out of control. Oh my god, I cheated on
Jake.”

Lucy giggled. “Actually, it wasn’t up any
stairs at all, it was love…in an elevator.”

“What are you talking about?”

Wendy leaned forward and spoke quietly. “I
kissed Wade in the elevator. Well, actually he kissed me first, but
then I went completely passion crazy.”