Double Black Diamond by A.G. Henley

Author:A.G. Henley [Henley, A.G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Central Park Books
Published: 2021-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

In the morning, Vail was covered in white.

“A foot overnight and more to come,” Gage said at breakfast. The room pulsed with excitement, but Veena had been quiet since we woke up. “Weather people underestimated, of course. You need to get moving. Newman said they might close the interstate. The vans are leaving early, too.”

We scarfed our food and hurried outside. Bart had already loaded Veena’s and my bags and all her snowboard gear into the black BMW.

As I held the car door open for her, her eyes were on the other teens flinging bags into the open back doors of three vans across the parking lot with Vail Mountain Academy emblazoned on the sides. Ali’s sunflower yellow ski jacket was visible through the swirling snow.

I smiled sympathetically. “You’ll be crammed in there with them again when this is all over.”

“When will that be?”

I didn’t have an answer. Until law enforcement tracked the extortionists down, she had to try to live her life. With each day that went by, I realized the stress that put on her, because I felt it myself. Was today the day the bad guys would quit threatening and act? Tomorrow? Would they wait until the Games? Maybe they never would. We didn’t know, and that was the crushing part.

We left town, traveling east on the highway. The view last time I came through here was gorgeous, peaks and valleys frosted with snow and framed by blue as far as I could see. Not today. Snowflakes hit the windshield faster than the wipers could clear them away. The car shifted sideways as the wind shoved it around. Near the top of Vail Pass, a jackknifed truck blocked the right lane and shoulder, a police car and tow truck behind it.

Bart drove with confidence through the piling snowdrifts but being on the road in this weather was obviously dangerous. Reasonable people would be curled in a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate right now.

We crested the pass and started down . . . which was way worse. Every time we approached a turn in the road, I imagined careening off the highway into the ravine below. Veena listened to music through her headphones, and Bart focused on the road, leaving me to clench the edge of the backseat with white knuckles.

At the bottom of the pass, several police cars waited, lights strobing blue and red. Over on the westbound side, a wide gate already blocked the road. Cars lined up behind it.

“What’s happening?” I asked Bart.

Veena’s eyes opened, and she freed an ear.

“They closed the pass going westbound,” he answered. “It looks like eastbound will be shut down, too.” We passed the still-open gate on our side. Workers in heavy coats and snow pants pushed it closed behind us.

Veena twisted to look back. “What about the vans?”

“They’ll have to stop or turn around,” Bart said.

“Celery,” Veena said.

I stared at her, perplexed. “If they don’t get there in time . . . shouldn’t that make things easier for you?”

She slumped against the seat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.