‘Find his rescue toboggan. He had it right up until the last moment. It can’t be far away.’
It was a long shot, but they both searched the landscape in silence.
‘Over there,’ Thea cried out.
Ben swung around, following the direction of her outstretched arm. The toboggan wasn’t too far away, but the slope wasn’t a used one and the snow didn’t look bedded in.
‘Don’t move,’ he commanded as Thea edged her skis towards the slope, preparing to ski up the mountain. ‘I’ll go. You stay here with Tomas.’
Thea shook her head. ‘I have skis. I can side-slip up there. If I feel the snow start to give, I can ski out of there before the slide starts. You only have a snowboard—you can’t do it the same way.’
‘Makes no difference.’ He shook his head.
She snorted, half-angry, half-frustrated. ‘Of course it makes a difference. What makes your life any less valuable than mine? No—don’t answer that. Like you said, this whole thing is time-critical. I need to go, and you need to get back to Tomas in case he arrests again.’
Before Ben could say anything else she was off, carefully edging up the mountain, step by step, until she could traverse across to the toboggan. She knew he wanted to stop her, wanted to send her for help, but he also had to know that she was right. If they wanted to save Tomas and give the man any chance at a halfway decent recovery then they needed to get that toboggan.
He stood and watched her for several moments, inching very carefully up the treacherous slope, her heart in her mouth. She was relieved when his focus had to be split between the man lying on the snow in front of him and her, as she inched her way further and further into danger. She knew he’d be worried that she was too far away for him to do anything about it if something went wrong. This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted her here. It was also exactly why she hadn’t wanted him here. But he hadn’t listened to her. She didn’t think he’d even registered her.
Her heart hammering, she reached the toboggan and dug its metal arms out of the snow. Then, pulling it behind her, she skied carefully back down to Ben and Tomas. Ben practically snatched the handles out of her hands.
‘How is he?’ She kept her voice low.
‘Slipping in and out of consciousness,’ Ben murmured. ‘We need to get him down.’
‘Right.’ She checked the rucksack she’d recovered. ‘We can stabilise his neck, then get the scoop around him.’
Working quickly and carefully, they manoeuvred Tomas into position. He was barely conscious, and they could feel time slipping through their fingers.
‘You need to ski into town now,’ he told her when they were finished. ‘Be sure to stay well ahead of us in case the toboggan dislodges anything and it rolls down to you. Thea, remember this isn’t a designated slope—it isn’t safe. Be careful.’
She frowned. ‘Wait—you’re on foot?’
Ben shrugged, and she realised that of course it wasn’t as though he could pull the toboggan on his snowboard. Quickly releasing herself from her skis, she circled around him to grab his board from the webbing he’d thrown on to the snow earlier.
‘I’ll take the snowboard—you take my skis.’
‘You can’t snowboard,’ Ben objected irritably.
‘No—I don’t enjoy it as much as skiing. Doesn’t mean I can’t. I’ll get down faster than if I’m trying to ski through the snow anyway. And there’s no way you can walk and pull a toboggan.’
‘That’s an impossible maze of trees and rocks to try to navigate,’ he argued.
‘An
d I won’t be trying to do it whilst pulling a seriously injured man on a scoop.’
He closed his eyes for a moment. ‘I just want you off this dangerous slope. I want you safe. I don’t want an argument keeping you on this damned mountain any longer.’
‘So put on the skis and do what I’m suggesting.’ She stood her ground.
‘Fine.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘Thanks.’
She flipped the board around, clipped her ski boots in, and started off slowly down the wooded, rock-littered slope, trying to quell the rising terror. How was Ben possibly going to navigate it without causing more injury to Tomas? Alone, with only his ghosts to keep him company?
All along he had refused to entertain the idea of losing the skier. It meant more to him than just the rescue that it was. She’d seen the haunted look that had veiled his eyes the moment he’d seen the skier lying prone on the snow. Another of those PTSD triggers...
Thea wondered if he would ever be able to open up to her about that darkness he carried with him. She wanted to help him, but she wasn’t sure she could. Not until he wanted to help himself. She had a feeling that unless he did there was no hope of a future for them together.