Prologue
It was the best day of her life.
Tammy Jo Sullivan clutched the inside door of the ATV, her heart racing and her breath seizing. Being sixteen and able to date, finally, was totally sick. The best ever. She grinned and looked over at Hunter as he drove up the rocky trail of Snowblood Peak in the Northern Cascades.
He smiled back, his teeth a flash of white against his tanned face. His family had gone to Mexico for Thanksgiving break, and he said he’d spent most of the time in the pool now that football season was over and he could relax. She’d had to work at her mom’s restaurant during the time off school, but that was okay.
Now she was on a date, in a four-wheeler, with Hunter freakin’ Jackson. He was a senior and she a sophomore, and never in her life had she thought he’d like her. When he’d asked her out, to go RZR riding on Saturday before the winter really hit, she’d nearly died on the spot. Now here she was, strapped into the passenger seat, watching the scraggly pine trees fly by on either side of them. She laughed out loud.
Sandy Jones turned around in the rig in front of them and waved. She was blurry through the back plastic window and her bright red hat flopped to the side.
Tammy Jo waved back at her friend, her smile so wide it made her cheeks hurt.
“Having fun?” Hunter twisted the wheel and turned them around another corner. The trail slid from mud to ice, and the tires spun. Mud and a sprinkling of snow covered the jagged rocks on his side of the trail, which led up into more dark, winter-stripped trees.
“Yeah,” she said, holding on and not looking as the ground and trees dropped away on her side. “We’re up high.”
He brushed a little bit of mud out of his thick blond hair, mud he’d gotten while helping Tyson change a belt on his Polaris earlier. It was cool how good they were at fixing whatever went wrong. “You’re safe. I know what I’m doing.” As he spoke, the tires in front of them threw up mud with a trace of ice.
She swallowed. “Um, my dad said not to go past the snow line since we’ve had such a rainy autumn. The ground won’t be solid.”
Hunter punched the gas pedal. “We’re fine. Don’t you want to see the top?”
For the first time, her stomach cramped. “My dad said—”
“The ground looks good to me. I’ll keep a close watch on it.” Hunter reached for the beer in the middle cup holder and drank the rest down. Although it was only nine in the morning, it was his fourth beer, but he seemed okay to drive. “Get me another, would you?” He tossed the can in the back.
The drop-off to her right made her head spin. “Um, when we stop. I don’t want to take off the seatbelt right now.” She closed her eyes until the dizziness passed.
“Sure.” He reached over and placed his hand over hers.
Her eyelids shot open. Hunter was holding her hand.Be cool.She had to be cool.Even so, she turned her hand over and tangled her fingers with his. His were a lot bigger than hers, and his palm was warm. She bit her lip to keep from smiling again. Life couldnotget any better. Like, ever.
Several clumps of dirt and rock rained down from high above and skidded across the path. Hunter removed his hand from hers and used both on the steering wheel to drive.
The rig jumped, and Tammy Jo clasped the handle on the dash. “Um, the earth is loose. We should stop.”
“We’re fine.” Hunter drove faster, his head down, as the vehicle bumped and jumped over the rocks.
The ground turned to pine needles and snow mixed with mud. Slushy with a side of freeze.
She craned her neck to look up the mountain. “There’s a lot of snow higher up. It’s not frozen, Hunter. Just the noise from the RZRs could cause problems. Vibrations and all of that.”
He shrugged a wide shoulder. “I can handle it. Don’t worry.”
She stared over the side of the cliff, biting the inside of her cheek until it stung. Forlorn-looking spruce, pine, and alder trees peppered the embankment down at least three thousand feet to the bottom of a deep gulley.
She shivered.
The mountain roared.
She jerked her head. “What’s—”
“Hold on!” Hunter yelled.
She gasped and swiveled as far as the harness would allow, to see snow and mud break loose from the craggy mountain face above them. “No, we—”
The avalanche poured down, right into them. The force struck the driver’s side, nearly tipping them over.
