Free Storm Front by Monette Michaels

sublimated during her short climb hit her all at once. As she slid into a nauseating, pain-filled abyss, her last clear thought was she wouldn’t live to go to a Bulls game with Earl.
    She’d really wanted to take a chance on Earl.

Chapter 5
    10:55 a.m.
    “She couldn’t have gotten very far,” Ren said as he pulled out of the Lodge’s underground garage.
    “How so?” Earl sat in the Hummer’s passenger seat and stared at the blowing snow; so much snow, it was almost a white out. The wind chill was well below zero. It wouldn’t take long for a person out in this weather to lose body heat, get frost bit. At least Tessa was in a vehicle with heat.
    “The boys had to come in because they couldn’t see well enough to plow.” Ren took the snowy curves at a steady forty miles per hour. “The drop offs on the lower part of the entry road are pretty steep.”
    “So, you’re sure Tessa will run into deep snow and have to turn back?” Earl glanced at Ren whose posture was the picture of a man in complete control of his immediate surroundings.
    Like Earl and his military experiences, Ren had served in some of the roughest, coldest, and most extreme conditions in the world while serving with the SEALs in Afghanistan. Winter in the Bitterroots was a mere walk in the park in comparison.
    “Yes,” Ren frowned and shook his head, “but she should’ve turned back by now. I hope she didn’t run into the deep snow and get stuck.” He spoke into his headset. “Trey, where’s Tessa’s tracker now?”
    Trey’s voice came back. “Just this side of the bridge. Not moving.”
    The sick feeling that had earlier lodged in Earl’s gut like a big ball of ice grew worse. He turned toward Ren and asked, “Where, exactly, did the guys stop plowing?”
    Earl pulled up a mental image of the twisting, torturous road that wound its way among the mountains from the state highway and the “official” spot in the road called Sanctuary up to the Lodge and the main SSI installation.
    “Right before the bridge over the stream.” Ren slowed to take a particularly sharp curve. “It’s just around this corner.”
    Shit! Stopping the plowing on either side of the bridge presented a dangerous scenario. The berms on the approaches to the bridge were narrow, and the low stone walls were more for decoration than a protection against someone going over the side.
    In fact, he’d bet Ren and the others had designed the road that way on purpose as a defense; with the knowledge of the terrain and proper skills, the SSI men could use the dangerous road to repel invaders.
    But Tessa didn’t have the knowledge or the proper defensive driving skills, and, for her, the road was a treacherous and potentially deadly obstacle course.
    “I’ve got a bad feeling.” Earl fixed his stare on the snow-covered road.
    As they rounded the curve, he saw no car—only a deep drift of snow across the entry to the bridge. The bottom fell out of his world for a split second; an anguish so vast threatened to throw him into a deep well of despair and grief.
    “Shit,” Ren cursed. “Where is she?” He pulled to the side of the road, the Hummer’s right-side wheels on the snow-covered berm, well away from the deep drop-off on the opposite of the road.
    Earl was out of the car before it had come to a complete stop. The other Hummer, carrying Tweeter, Price Teague, and the Walsh twins, pulled in behind them.
    “She went off the road!” Earl yelled as he ran to the skid marks which hadn’t fully filled with new snow.
    He approached the edge cautiously. The top of the low stone wall had been sheared off. The icy boulder lodged in his gut exploded and chilled him to the bone. He was scared to look, but he did so anyway.
    The SUV lay on its passenger side in the fast-moving stream, hung up on a large rock. The driver’s side had some damage, but was intact enough Tessa could’ve survived. But she’d be hurt. Alone. If conscious, scared and