Spiral (The Salzburg Saga Book One) (8 page)

Disliking standing around doing nothing, Nina moved toward Jake and Justin. “What can I do to help?”

Jake shook his head without looking up at her. “Conserve your energy, you were on that jet for longer than the rest of us and inhaled a lot of smoke. Plus, there’s no food.”

She rolled her eyes with impatience. “I know all that.”

He looked up at her then, his mouth tight with annoyance. “Then rest.”

She remained where she stood. “None of us are here because we want to be, but if building this cave takes a few hours, like Justin said, then we all need to help.” She glanced over at Neil and Angela. The strain on their faces made it clear they were in pain too, but they were doing what needed to be done. And so would she.

Jake considered her unyielding expression. “You telling me that you’re not in pain?”

Of course she was in pain. She ached, but she managed a stiff shrug. “Who isn’t? But that doesn’t change anything. We need to survive. To do that we all need to pull our weight.”

With a shrug Jake turned to Justin. “We have to be mindful for rocks. You know that?”

Justin’s mouth tightened. “I know that.”

“Why check for rocks?” Nina asked in confusion.

“We can’t build a snow cave on rocks,” Justin explained. “The slope needs to be clear and even underneath for us to build the snow.”

Nina frowned. “I’ve heard that probes are best to check for that.”

He arched an impatient brow. “You see any probes anywhere?”

She stared at his retreating back as he walked away. With that sobering reminder of their predicament, she began testing the ground with her gloved hands, digging out chunks to search for any offended rocks. Grateful to have her mind focused on something beside her aching body, she worked slowly and steadily with the others.

“How’s it going?” Jake called out to her a short while later.

“No rocks here,” she shouted back.

He crunched his way through the snow toward her. “Ready to rest now?” She detected a smile in his voice but his expression remained bland.

Yes, she wanted to rest. “Yeah, thanks.” She looked over to where Angela was already lying down beside Shayna and the baby.

Neil came up to her. “Go and join Ange for a rest,” he said. “You’ve both been troopers.”

“She’s waking up again,” was the first thing Nina heard when she awoke a while later. She’d fallen asleep soon after stretching out beside Ange, and she blinked up at the indigo sky above her. She sat up with effort. “What time is it?” .

Angela sighed. “Don’t know. Don’t want to know. I’d say you’ve only been sleeping for about two hours, though.”

Nina’s gaze moved to Parker who leaned over Hugh, and she realized it was him who’d she’d heard upon awakening. He was talking about Hugh.

Glancing across at Emily, Parker gestured toward Jake’s rucksack. “Is there nothing else in there we can give him?”

Nina gaped at him. He had to be joking, right?

Emily’s eyes were empty sockets in her lifeless face. “I don’t know, Parker.”

Justin staggered over to them, collapsing with a loud groan on the edge of the large mat.

Hugh’s eyes were open and blinking rapidly up at his father.

Parker leaned over him, gently tapping at Hugh’s cheeks. “Hugh, can you hear me?”

Justin eyed Emily as he slowly sat up. “You’re angry that my brother survived when your pilot friend didn’t, right?” he asked softly. His face was grim.

Parker looked up, beginning to berate him, but stopped when Emily only shook her head. “It’s okay,” she said. Her eyes hardened on Justin’s. “Ben wasn’t just a pilot, friend, or a colleague, he was my husband. And the only family I had.”

Nina sucked in a breath, Angela groaned, Justin looked away and Parker squeezed his eyes shut.

“Emily, I’m so sorry,” Nina whispered. Reaching for Emily’s hand, she squeezed it gently.

Emily swallowed, making an obvious effort to continue as Shayna put her arm across her shoulders. “I’ll never see him again.” Her voice fractured. ”I have to try and accept that.”

Justin stared at the ground.

“Emily–” Parker began in a whisper.

But she only shook her head, hunching her shoulders forward, her gaze still on Justin. “You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not concerned about your brother.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it. I–”

“Justin,” Neil called out impatiently. He stood beside Jake, both of them eyeing Justin. “You can’t take a break yet; we haven’t finished.”

With a groan, Justin rose and staggered back to join them.

“We’re ready to build the cave,” Jake told Justin when Justin joined him and Neil.

Justin squinted down into the dark hole in front of them. “You’re sure it’s several meters deep?”

Jake didn’t bother replying. “We need shovels,” he said instead. “You have any?” His gaze was challenging on the younger man.

Justin’s gaze jerked up, his eyes confused. “Shovels?”

“To dig out blocks for the individual rooms,” Jake enunciated each word slowly as if speaking to a dim-witted child. “I thought you said you knew how to build a snow cave?”

Justin bristled. “I do.”

“Right, so you know that using shovels will make this part a heck of a lot easier than using our bare hands.”

“Of course I know that,” Justin snapped. “But where the hell am I going to magically come up with shovels?” He flung his arms out to indicate his lack of belongings on his person. “Inside my ski boots?”

Jake’s smile was as warm as the snow under their boots. “Not quite the Boy Scout after all, huh?”

Justin moved to stand nose to nose with him. “Listen, you arrogant bas–”

“Stop it.” Moving between them, Neil placed a hand on Justin’s shoulders, shoving him back a step. “We don’t have time for a boxing match.”

Jake bared his teeth in a feral snarl. “We can make time.” He stepped forward.

Neil elbowed him back. “I’m serious.”

Justin’s nostrils flared. “If a fight’s what he wants, I’ll give him one.”

“We need somewhere to sleep tonight, remember?” Neil reminded them with barely strained patience. “Let’s put our leftover energy into that.”

“You’re right,” Jake muttered. He could pummel the twerp another time. They had several rooms to make, and no shovel, which would have made this job easier.

“You guys need help?” Angela called.

“I’ll start building the front rooms,” Justin muttered and stalked to the other side of the deep hole.

Angela peered down into the dark hole, eyes wide. “What do you need us to do?”

“You can start building the corridors,” Jake replied. “I’ll show you how. The corridor will make it possible for us all to move around the cave. I’ll help, along with building the sleeping platforms. You okay to do the roof, Neil?”

“Sure but you’ll need to show me how; I’ve never done this before.”

Under different circumstances, this could have been almost cathartic, Nina decided as she and Angela began scooping up large armfuls of snow. As it was, with bodily aches and pains and not as much as a sniff of any potential food, it was tough and muscle numbing work. Nina worked on autopilot, hardly taking note of what she did, simply doing as Jake instructed. She couldn’t help grunting as she lifted each armful of snow. Beside her, Angela panted as she worked, her eyes semi-closed against the cold damp wind battering them.

“Think Hazel will get anxious when you don’t call tonight?” Angela suddenly asked.

Nina paused with an armful of snow and met Angela’s gaze. “I don’t know.” She tossed the snow aside, watched it land beside their feet and meld into the snow already covering the ground. She let out a slow breath. “But then what?” She took a deep breath. “What about your Derek?” She searched Angela’s tense face. “Will he suspect anything out of the ordinary when you don’t call him?”

Angela bit down on her lower lip as she punched out a ledge of snow. “Unlikely. I’ve taken a trusted private jet with my biggest client. He’ll no doubt think I’m just too busy working and have forgotten to call.”

Nina grimaced at the truth of that.

“Plus,” Angela continued, “Des has a big presentation coming up in New York in a week.” Her voice hitched, became a fierce whisper, and Nina reached out to squeeze her arm in comfort. “I’ve got to get back in time to look after Jessica.”

Thinking of Angela’s five-year-old daughter made Nina’s heart ache.

“Des can’t look after her and go to New York, too.” Angela began to weep softly then.

“Ssh, it’s okay.” Miserable, Nina drew Angela into a loose embrace, mindful of both their bruises. “It’s okay; we’ll be out of here by then.” She willed herself to believe it, even as her conscious mind told her that there were no guarantees. “We’ll get a signal and be able to call everyone,” she insisted, wanting to comfort them both.

“There’s no phone signal here, Neen.” Angela’s voice was muffled against Nina’s cheek.

“Is she all right?” Neil called out. Dumping the truckload of snow he carried, he moved toward them with Jake following him. Neil placed a comforting hand on Ange’s shoulder.

“She’s worried about Jessie,” Nina told Neil.

He nodded grimly. “Jessie is her young daughter,” he explained to Jake.

Jake winced.

Several feet away, Justin sent Angela a quick look before continuing to dig without comment.

Jake slid a glance back to where Hugh was now sitting up, leaning heavily on Parker.

With a deep sigh, Angela pulled away from Nina, wiped her eyes, and visibly pulled herself together. “You’re right, Neen. We’ll get out of here. We’ll get through this.”

Nina smiled as the fight came back into her friend. “Definitely.”

Angela gave a wobbly smile. “When have we ever been wrong about anything?”

“Hardly ever,” Nina agreed, “that’s why we win all our cases. Let’s get back to work.”

An interesting trio
, Jake mused as he worked at digging out a straight line for the corridor. These lawyers weren’t a bunch of pampered soft-handed wimps. He couldn’t have abided that. He liked them, despite his best efforts not to. He liked the positivity they exuded despite the situation they found themselves in. Most of all, he appreciated their willingness to muck in without whining. As for the Drayton twerps…his mouth tightened. While Justin might be willing to bend his back a bit, he was still an insensitive foul-mouthed brat. And Hugh…no, he wouldn’t go there.

He thought of the clients that
Jets by Gwynne
regularly flew and remembered with particular disdain, the group of six executives he’d flown to Krvavec in Slovenia just last month. He’d had to make an emergency stopover for two days due to an ash cloud. There had been tantrums and hysteria - the male executives more vocal and petulant than the female ones. He almost laughed contemplating how they would have fared in this situation.

Building a snow cave was a systematic and taxing job, but he was glad to see them making steady progress. Emily had barely moved since they’d stopped. She hadn’t slept like Angela and Nina; she remained cross-legged and bleak eyed, and he hadn’t had it in him to ask her to help with building the cave. In a mere matter of hours, she’d lost the only family she’d had due to one man’s selfishness. It sickened him to think of it. He wasn’t a violent person but could happily strangle Hugh Drayton and smile while doing it.

As they added layers of snow to the structure of the cave, it hardened immediately, cementing its foundation with collaborative flexibility. He had to admit he’d been surprised that Justin knew how to build one of these. For himself, it came with being at 
Jets by Gwynne
. Gwynne made sure the entire team trained in survival skills. Emily knew how to build one; he had seen her do so with a team of others quickly and efficiently on more than one occasion in training.

“Coming along, isn’t it?” Neil commented on a labored breath.

Jake moved to stand beside Neil, Nina, and Angela to get a better view of the entire cave. So far, so good. Similar to an igloo in shape but bigger, rounder, and more intricately designed, their snow cave was indeed coming along nicely.

How long had they been at it?
he wondered, and checked his watch—almost an hour. They had the corridor finished, and had clearly defined the rooms and sleeping platforms. All it needed was much more layering and solidifying of the roof. It always amazed him what could be done with snow.

“It actually looks like a cave,” Angela breathed amazement. “I didn’t know what to expect when you started talking about it, Justin, but this just might work.”

"It's tis is better than the mat we’ve been using,” Jake said.

Justin pressed a gloved hand against the roof. “You’ve kept it curved so there won’t be any dripping. That’s good.”

Neil ran his hand along the top. “It’s a foot above the sleeping platforms like Jake said it needed to be.”

Angela frowned. “Won’t that entrance tunnel let cold air come in?”

“I’m going to put a snow block over it to avoid that,” Jake answered. “We’ll need to carve out a hole for ventilation, too.”

“With what?” Justin scoffed. “We could’ve used my ski poles but they’re gone, just like all our other stuff that cost a fortune.”

“Why the hell are you whining to me?” Jake’s eyes blazed with anger. “You think I care about what you’ve lost? I don’t. It was your maniac of a brother who landed us in this mess. Complain to him.”

“I’m just making a point,” Justin bit out, angry lips barely moving. “But I find it interesting that you managed to salvage your own stuff but none of our stuff–”

“Maybe there’s a way around the ski poles?” Neil cut in quickly when Jake looked ready to tear into the younger man.

“We’ll have to find another way,” Jake conceded.

“Okay then.” Neil let out a sigh. “Let’s do what we can.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Much later, Shayna peered into the cave, her eyes a mix of fascination and trepidation. The sky had turned an inky black now, stars shimmering silver against it, and all of them except Hugh stood analyzing their proposed dwelling. “We’re really going to be sleeping…on snow?” Shayna shot a disbelieving glance at Neil.