“Where’s Logan?” Dani smiled at her a little shyly. “You guys didn’t stay late at the party.”
They hadn’t seen him? He hadn’t gone back to the party? “He’s... just resting.”
She saw Connor glance sharply at her.
“I’m just going to grab my jacket,” she smiled. So not hungry.
Mortified, anxious, she walked through the great hall, then through the tunnel to the resort—and the guest pool and spa. There was no point looking out the window, it was all white. While the wind had died, cloud had crept in, obscuring all visibility.
No sign of Logan. She tried calling him again. Still the answer phone.
“Min?” Connor caught up with her as she walked back through to the hall. “Where’s Logan?”
Min swallowed and looked at the large painting decorating the wall. “I don’t know.”
She glanced at Connor for his reaction, but he nodded. He wasn’t surprised?
“When did you last see him?” he asked.
“Last n-n-night.”
Connor stood very still. “He didn’t come to bed at all?”
She shook her head.
“He’s not answering his phone?”
She shook her head. Not any calls from her, anyway.
“And you don’t know where he went?”
She shook her head again. Didn’t know where he went, or who he went with.
“You guys had a fight?” Connor’s voice dropped.
She froze.
“Sorry,” he sighed. “You don’t need to tell me the details. I can see you care about him.”
Min swallowed. She couldn’t have uttered a word, stutter or not. Connor saw that? But she saw Connor visibly trying to relax, not bark the questions at her.
“What did he say when he left?” he asked softly “You got any clues?”
Heat beat it’s way into her face. Did he think his brother had gone off with another woman? “He said he was going to blow off some steam.”
Connor stiffened and shot a glance out the window.
“What?” Min looked at him. “What would he have done?”
A muscle worked in Connor’s cheek as he kept his gaze fixed on the whiteness outside. “There was bad weather last night. There’s been a slight fall.”
“Fall?”
“Avalanche, on the north side.”
“What?” Min’s heart stopped as she tried to work out what Connor was thinking. “You don’t think he went up the mountain? In the dark?”
That niggling doubt that had wormed in during the smallest night-time hours now unfurled. It was the kind of thing Logan would do—following a whim. An impulse. Setting himself some kind of wild challenge. Because he’d been in a wild mood.
“He wouldn’t have,” she whispered. “He was in a tux.”
But Logan, when the mood took him?
Connor turned and regarded her steadily, saying nothing for a moment. “Look, for now we’ll keep it quiet. I’ll get Xander, Hunter and Roc to search the hotel and the town. I’ll get my ski-patrol guys to watch for any sign of someone up there. But they’re based in the tower. We can’t launch a proper search ‘til the whiteout clears anyway and we might have found him by then. He might be in one of the hotel rooms for all we know.”
But he didn’t think so? Panic bled into the anger she’d felt, obliterating it. She’d never thought Logan staying outside was a real possibility. But Connor did. And Connor knew his brother better than anyone, right?
What if he was up that mountain and hadn’t found shelter? What if he’d been caught in an avalanche?
“Don’t worry. He’s tougher than his pretty-boy looks would have you believe.”
“But we d-d-d—,” she gave up trying to talk. Turned away.
“Min.”
She turned back to Connor, not meeting his eyes.
“I’ll walk you back to your room, okay?”
She nodded.
Connor was silent as he accompanied her up the stairs. It was only when they got to her floor that he spoke. “He ever tell you about my accident?”
She shook her head.
“We were kids. I was ten, he was twelve. We were training. We spent a lot of time training.” He grimaced and grinned at the same time. “Logan was always faster, stronger. Always more daring. He just had it—the courage. The fearlessness. The drive. We were off piste, shouldn’t have been there. But we were... unsupervised... and we’d dared each other. I went over a rock face and fell. Busted my leg. Blood, bone, the works. I couldn’t move. I told him to wait, that they’d send out a search party soon enough. But I was bleeding badly and he knew it was a serious problem.”
Min stopped outside her bedroom door and waited, her pulse racing like she was the one in trouble.
Connor turned to her, his expression forbidding yet somehow proud. “Logan skied down a part of this mountain no one had skied down, not before or since. How the hell he did it, I’ll never know. He risked his life to save me and he succeeded. Now I’m telling you this only so you know that if anyone can survive bad conditions out there, Logan can. He’s tough.”
“But he told me he hasn’t skied in ages,” she whispered. “And he hates the cold.”
“He hasn’t so much in recent years,” Connor acknowledged. “But it’ll come back to him. It’s in his blood. He was born to be up there.”
And would he die up there too?
“Don’t worry.” Connor reached forward and opened her door. “We’ll find him. You stay here. I’ll be back soon.”
Min watched him go. He’d come across so businesslike. But underneath? He was kind. He cared about Logan. Perhaps more than anyone else.
Except her.
Yeah, now she knew it. She was gone on the guy.
Time ticked by on slow-mo. She couldn’t sit, so she paced again. Kept hold of her phone in case he rang at any moment.
When someone knocked on her door she flew across the room. Tried not to let her disappointment show when she saw Xander there with Chelsea. But Xander shook his head when she looked at him.
He wasn’t in the hotel or anywhere they’d looked in the small town.
“Is there anything I can do for you?” Chelsea asked, coming to sit on the corner of her bed.
Min looked at her. “Do you think you could distract my mother? I can’t face dealing with her today.”
“Don’t worry, Connor’s already booked her and Keith on a tour.” Xander answered.
“In this weather?”
“It’s a food tour, they’ll love it. And they’ll be out all day. I think they’re booked to return home tomorrow.”
Connor was amazing.
Min sat restless, wishing Chelsea and Xander would leave so she could curl into a ball and cry. But they didn’t. They just waited with her, silently offering support.
Finally the cloud lifted a little. Connor arrived with Hunter in tow.
“You guys go,” he said to Xander and Chelsea. “We’ve got this covered.”
“We’re not going anywhere ‘til we’ve found him. And beaten the crap out of him for scaring us all,” Xander answered.
“You can’t miss your flight, you’ll miss your connection.” Connor argued.
“Forget it,” Xander sat. “We’re not going ‘til he’s back.”
“Where are you going?” Min asked Chelsea as the men continued to argue.
“Mexico, just for a short break from winter.”
As Min nodded, the door suddenly opened. She vaguely heard the collective intake of breath, but she only had eyes for Logan.
He stood in the doorway. His tux was sodden and dirt-streaked, clinging like a second skin. But he stood tall, his ice-eyes blazing, piercing right through her.
For an instant no one moved. Min was pinned in place where she sat, feeling every possible emotion hit like punches to her gut.
Relief, anger, hope, anger, fear, anger.
Then Logan tore his glance away, taking note of the others in the
room.
“I didn’t realize there was another party?” He stepped forward and casually flicked the door shut behind him. “What?” he asked, with a so-Logan swagger. “Why are you all sitting around looking like you’ve seen a ghost?”
“If you don’t want a broken nose, you’ll shut up right now.” Connor growled. He looked Logan over. “No lasting injuries that I can see.” He strode to the door Logan had just closed and opened it. “You might want to spend some time with Min. The rest of us will beat you up later.”
Logan stood still ‘til they’d all filed out and closed the door again. But he kept his gaze on Min, ignoring the muted comment from Xander. In the dishevelled suit he looked more like a fallen angel than ever.
His mouth lifted in a small, self-mocking smile. “You were worried about me?”
It was too much for Min. Acid tears burned in her eyes and that anger unleashed. “F-f-f-uck you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
#Win
“I’m sorry if you were worried,” he said stiffly.
“I thought you were d-d-dead,” she tried to snap. “I thought you’d gone on some crazy ski run.”