"Says the guy who hasn't tried it,” Korbie returned snidely. "I'd give anything for a filet of salmon right now. My family always eats salmon at our cabin. Salmon with jasmine rice and steamed green beans. In the summer we eat salmon with arugula and pine nuts. Sometimes my mom makes this incredible mango chutney to go with it."
"Well, go on,” Shaun said, setting his spoon down harder than necessary. "Tell us what you had to drink, and what you ate for dessert."
"Are you making fun of me?" she said, pouting.
"Just eat the chili,” Mason said from across the room, and I wondered why he'd gotten involved. He'd made it clear he wanted nothing to do with us. There had to be a long list of things he'd rather be doing that skulking around the dinner table.
"The botulism risk is looking pretty high,” Korbie said snobbishly. "I'll pass. This is what you get for asking Britt to cook with you. I warned you she's awful in the kitchen."
Shaun chuckled under his breath, but it seemed to carry a harsh undertone. I was sure I'd imagined it until he said in a stiff, eerie voice, "Don't be ungrateful, Korbie."
"I see how it is. You can make fun of the chili but I can't? Isn't that kind of shallow?"Korbie teased him. "Besides, I was blaming Britt."
"Eat the damn chili." The soft, threatening way Shaun said it made the hairs on my arms stand up.
"This is why you should have brought fresh food,” Korbie said, turning up her nose.
"Give him a break,” I murmured to Korbie, who was evidently still bemused and not feeling the tense charge in the air.
"If we wake up with stomach cramps in the middle of the night, we'll know who to blame,” she said, eyeing me blackly. I wasn't sure Korbie understood that even though she was targeting me, she was inadvertently being rude and ungrateful to Shaun. And it was clearly digging under his skin. I wished she'd get over her anger at me long enough to see that she was making things very strained for everyone.
I glanced at Shaun. His face had transformed to rigid angles, his blue eyes snapping. I squirmed in my seat. My heart beat faster, but I was more uncertain than afraid. Again, that feeling that something wasn't right. The whole room felt alive with voltage, but surely Shaun wasn't upset over the insults. That was just Korbie. She never knew when to shut her mouth. And even when she did know better, it didn't stop her-her mouth was on autopilot. She had to have the final say. Hadn't he figured that out by now?
"Give me the chili,” Mason said, striding over and breaking the tension that seemed to crackle around the table like electricity. He scooped up Korbie's bowl, but not before giving her a dark, berating look.
Korbie blinked at him, too stunned to respond.
After a moment, Shaun tipped his chair back on its hind legs and laced his fingers behind his head. He grinned at us in turn, as if nothing had happened. "Ace, I think we should probably get down to business."
"If we're talking about washing dishes, I'm out,” Korbie said. "I vote Mas the Ace does them,” she added with a vengeful glitter in her eyes. "He seems quite enamored with my bowl. He's cradling it almost affectionately in his hands. Let him play out his romantic fantasy a couple more minutes. You like them when they don't talk back, right, Ace? You like them about as mannered and conversational as yourself?"
I snickered behind my hand. Partially out of nervousness, and partially to diffuse whatever was going on. The tension in the air was thick enough to touch.
"What gear did you bring?"
It took me a moment to realize Mason was addressing me. He'd carried Korbie's bowl to the sink, and had asked the question without bothering to turn around and face me.
"Your car. What gear did you pack?" he repeated. "What did you bring to the mountains?"
"Why?" I didn't see what our gear had to do with anything. "Sleeping bags, tents, nonperishable food? Anything useful?" "Useful to who? You already have a furnished cabin."
"We have sleeping bags, a tent, first aid, and some food,” Korbie said. "But everything's stuck in the car. Which is stuck in the road. Which is why we came here." She spoke each word slowly, implying that we'd already gone over this and Mason wasn't very quick on the draw.
Ignoring Korbie, Mason asked me, "Matches?" "No, a fire starter."
"Compass and map?"
"Compass." For whatever reason, I left Calvin's map out. It was still tucked in my back pocket.
"Flashlights?"
"Yes, and headlamps.”
”Ice axe?"
"No." I'd thought about bringing one, but didn't think I'd get a chance to use it-not with Korbie's definition of backpacking.
"Why does any of this matter?"Korbie interjected, exasperated. "Because,” Shaun said, rising to his feet, "Ace and I are stuck here too, waiting out the storm. Only we didn't bring gear, because we didn't plan on staying long. If we're going to get out of here before the snow melts and the roads clear, we'll need your gear. And that's exactly what we're going to do-get off this damn mountain as soon as possible."
It took me a minute to register that the object he pulled from the waistband of his jeans was a gun. He waved it indolently at me, and a strange urge to laugh bubbled in my throat. The picture I was seeing and the picture in my mind weren't matching up. A gun. Pointed at me. The reality of it floated just out of reach.
"Shaun?" I asked, believing this had to be a joke, his quirky sense of humor.
He didn't acknowledge me.
"Both of you, in the den,” he directed in a cold, detached voice. "We can do this the easy way, or the way that gets you killed. And believe me, if you scream or fight or argue, I will shoot."
I stared back, my body numb. That bizarre urge to laugh continued to tickle my throat. And then I saw Shaun's eyes. They were icy and unfeeling, and I wondered how I'd missed it before.
He said, "If there's one thing you need to know about me, it's that I don't bluff. Your bodies won't be found for days, and by then Ace and I will be through the mountains and far from here. We've got nothing to lose. So, girls." He watched us. "What's it gonna be?"
CHAPTER SIX
Icy fear fluttered in my veins, but I did exactly as he directed.
Rising from the kitchen table, I numbly allowed Shaun to corral me out of the room. Korbie was directly behind me, and I heard her sniffiing. I knew what she was thinking, because it was the same thought racing through my own mind. How long until Calvin realized we were in trouble and came looking for us?