Page 64 of Mountain Struggle

What if this time he’s gone forever?

Suddenly, Damien exclaimed. “I have an incoming call from an unknown number, Drake. I’m putting you on hold.” Then a second later, he spoke again, his voice hard. “Gray.”

“Damien Gray. Finally, we get to speak.”

Tess was standing close enough that she could hear the deep voice on the other end of the phone—as clearly as she had weeks earlier, when the man had stopped her by the waterfall and asked her the time, except that time he’d spoken in English with her.

Though they were standing still, Tess felt as if the ground were dissolving around her. “That voice. It’s the same man,” she whispered, holding on to Damien’s sleeve.

Damien’s voice went hard. “Who are you? Where’s my son?”

“Let’s not worry about the first question for now. You already know I have your son.”

“Is Jamie okay?” Damien asked, anguish breaking his voice. “Let me speak with him, please.”

“The boy is fine. Now listen to me, you’re going to go to the Aiguille du Midi.”

The tightness around Damien’s mouth grew. “It will take me hours to get there,” he lied.

The man roared. For a second, Tess was sure he was going to hang up. Then his words came again. “Lie to me again, Gray, and the next time you hear from Jamie will be when you get a piece of him in the mail.”

“Please don’t hurt him,” Damien begged.

“I know you and the woman are up in the mountains. Bring her to me now, and I’ll let you choose which one of them lives. You have two hours.”

“I need more time.”

“Two hours, Gray. Just you and the woman. If I see so much as a lost hiker in the area, your son dies.”

“Please …” Damien began. “Fuck. He hung up.”

Tess felt herself begin to shake. She forced herself to uncurl her fingers from where they were digging into Damien’s arm. The last thing Damien needed was to have to worry about her. But the shaking got worse, and suddenly there wasn’t enough air in the mountains to breathe. She suddenly realized she was in the middle of a full-blown panic attack.

“Breathe, Tess, breathe,” Damien said roughly against her ear. He sounded worried. Then he was pulling her into his arms and down onto the floor, pushing her head forward between her legs.

As soon as she started breathing again, her head cleared. “We need to go,” she said, pulling against his arm. She’d seen the signs to Aiguille du Midi, and it was a long hike.

“Stay down, Tess, breathe,” Damien said, his voice gentler now. Then he was on the phone with someone again.

“I need your help. I got a call from the kidnapper. He’s got Jamie—wants me to head to Aiguille du Midi and hand Tess over as well.”

The conversation went on for a couple more minutes, but Tess wasn’t able to hear the voice on the other side. Then Damien kneeled down next to her.

“Tess? Honey? Are you okay?”

Her eyes filled with tears at his gentle tone. She looked up into his penetrating blue eyes. They were still full of worry, but something else shone in them as well now, something that looked like hope.

“Tess, listen to me. The man is waiting for something—he’ll keep Jamie alive until then. We’re going to get him back.”

She nodded, wanting to believe him but struggling to wrap her head around what was happening.

“So what do we do?”

“Kat and Drake were at the station already. They’ll take a helo and come here to pick us up. Kat will drop us off at the Aiguille du Midi and then take you back—”

“What?”

Damien repeated himself patiently, his eyes taking on a worried look. “I said Kat will take you into town and—”