A Conflict of Interest (7 page)

Max located the NCN affiliate and turned up the volume. He sat down on one of two matching sofas. Cara moved to join him in the living room area, choosing an armchair that faced the television.

Sure enough, they ran with the story. Jake had even managed to get some sound of Max explaining the fundamentals of snowboarding and the kids cheering each other on.

The segment was brief, but Cara was astonished by Max’s patience with the boys. It was clear they were in awe of him and just as clear that they were learning. Their techniques improved as they made their way down the slope. And, at the end, they were all obviously proud of their performance and overwhelmed by getting that kind of attention from a celebrity.

When Max signed everybody’s helmets, she had to blink back a tear.

“Wow,” said Max, shutting off the television. “That was quite the fluff piece.”

Cara’s emotion evaporated. “I thought it was nice.”

“They’ll milk it for suburban mom viewers, I guess,” said Max.

“You looked like you were having fun.” She couldn’t bring herself to believe he’d hated it. She found her hand resting on her stomach again, and her mind started down the dangerous path of Max’s suitability as a father.

“The whole time I was with them, I was wishing I could snowboard alone,” he told her. “But they were viewers, so I had to behave. It’ll never make the story. But given a choice, I’d have ditched the kids.”

Well, that certainly put a stop to Cara’s fanciful musings. “Are you saying it was all PR?”

“I’m saying that I’m not the saint the network would like me to be.”

“So, you still don’t like kids.”

“There’s a lot of real estate between liking kids and being friendly to the viewers. Just because I did my job, doesn’t mean I’m going to become a grade-school teacher.”

His phoned chimed, and he moved to the dining room table to retrieve it.

“Hey,” he said simply.

Then he paused. “Right now?” Another pause. “Yeah, we’ll be here. I’ll tell her. Okay. Bye.” He hung up.

“What is it?”

“Jake and Gillian won’t be coming back right away, because Gillian had to get on a conference call.”

Cara stomach fluttered. “Are you kidding me?”

“Apparently, it’s morning in China, and the Chinese office needed to talk to her before the start of business. Her laptop is in her hotel suite, so they’ve gone back there.”

“But...they...”

“Does that sound plausible to you?” Max asked, his face taking on a knowing expression. “Because I know Jake pretty well, and there’s every chance they might be—”

“That’s my
sister
you’re talking about.”

“Your sister doesn’t have a sex life?”

“She’s not sleeping with Jake.” The two had only just met. “She has business interests in China, important business interests in China. I’m sure it’s exactly what they say it is.”

“Okay.” Max held up his hands in surrender.

“I’m not blindly defending my sister’s honor.”

“You are, but that’s admirable.”

“I’m saying she does business with China.”

“And I’m saying Jake is attracted to her.”

“That doesn’t mean the feeling is mutual.”

Max returned to the living area. “We’ll likely never know.”

“I already know.”

“You’re cute, you know that?”

His smile sent an insidious warmth spreading through her body. It suddenly struck her exactly how foolish she’d been to let them end up alone.

“Max—” she began to protest, but then a rumbling sound distracted her. It was deep and low, a vibration as much as a sound.

Max’s face blanched. He stiffened for a second then let out a guttural cussword. Before she knew what was happening, his arm was around her waist and he was dragging her.

“What?” she managed to sputter, even as the sound grew louder and the floor began to shake.

Max pulled her through the door to the bathroom, lifting her into the giant tub. “Lie down!” he commanded, disappearing.

They were having an earthquake. She’d never heard of a bathtub as a refuge place, but it seemed as good a place as any. She lay down.

In a few seconds, Max was back with her. He’d dragged the big square coffee table into the bathroom. He quickly lay down above her and put the table facedown over the tub.

The roaring grew to a piercing screech. The entire world was shaking around them. Cara reflexively clung to him, burying her face in his shoulder.

“Earthquake?” she managed in a hoarse voice.

“Avalanche.” His arms tightened around her.

The lights flicked out, and the world turned murky gray.

* * *

“Are we still alive?” Cara’s voice was barely a whisper in Max’s ear.

The air had been silent around them for a full minute.

“We are,” he answered, straining to hear any sounds around them.

“Is it over?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“One avalanche can trigger another.” He kept his voice low, shifting onto his side to put her in a more comfortable position. In his rush to get her protected, he’d come down directly on top of her. “Am I hurting you?”

“No. I don’t think so.” She flexed. “Do we need to whisper?”

“No.”

They both fell silent.

“How long do we wait?” she asked.

He slipped his fingers into the crack between the upside-down table and the tub, pushing the table aside. “I think we’re okay.”

He levered himself out of the tub, then turned to offer Cara his hand. She took it, and he hoisted her out, making sure she was steady on her feet.

His cell phone chimed from the living room.

Her voice held a slight tremor. “Do you think anybody was hurt?”

“I don’t know.” Max feared the worst.

His villa was still standing, but he’d experienced avalanches close-up before, and this had been a big one. The phone trilled again.

“You should get that,” said Cara.

“You okay?”

She disentangled her hand from his. “I’m fine.”

She looked pale but seemed all right.

He went after his phone, noting Jake’s number.

“You guys okay?” Max said in greeting.

“Man, am I glad to hear your voice,” said Jake. “How’s Cara?”

“We’re fine.” Max watched as Cara came through the bathroom door. She paused to steady herself with a hand on the sofa back.

“They’re fine,” Jake informed someone at his end of the conversation. Max assumed it was Gillian.

“It must have just missed you,” Jake said to Max.

“I haven’t had a chance to look out. But I thought the villa was going to come off its foundation. What can you see from down there?”

“Half a mountainside covered in snow. The street is full of frightened people.”

“Did it reach the town?”

“No. And the main slide didn’t hit the ski hill.”

“Thank goodness for that. Anyone hurt?” Max was itching to get into the fray. But there was no way off the mountain.

“Search and rescue is scrambling. But I don’t think we’re going to know anything for a while. You two okay where you are?”

“Sure,” said Max. “The power’s out, but we’ve got the fireplace.”

“Judging from what I’m seeing here, you’ll be there overnight.”

“I guessed as much,” said Max with a glance at Cara. Some of the color was coming back to her face. “Can you keep the two of us out of the news?”

“Sure,” said Jake.

Max knew Cara wouldn’t want anyone to know they were together. “I’m a little tired of being the story.”

“Understood. I got some footage of it coming down. Had to use my tablet instead of a camera, but it looks like it came out okay.”

Max couldn’t help a half smile at that. Jake saw the world in video clips. While most people’s reaction to danger was to wisely turn and run, Jake’s reaction was to grab the nearest video recording device.

Jake wasn’t finished. “If your phone battery’s holding up, can you take a few minutes of footage from your vantage point?”

“I’ll see what I can get.”

“Can you put Cara on? Gillian wants to talk to her.”

“Sure.” Max moved to where Cara was sitting and held out the phone. “Gillian.”

Cara seemed to brace herself. “Hello?”

She listened for a moment. “Yes. I am.” Another pause. “Not a scratch. Well, maybe a little shell-shocked.” Then she gave a nervous laugh. “Really?”

Curious to see what had happened outside, Max headed onto the snowy balcony, pulling the door closed behind him.

The scene around him was surreal. The bulk of the slide had fallen to the north of the villa complex. It had created a jagged slope of solid packed snow. The edge of it had stacked up against the side of the villa. Max knew from experience it would be hard as concrete.

Max and Cara weren’t the only ones who’d been incredibly lucky in avoiding the disaster. The rest of the villas were south of Max’s, farther down the hill. To that side, the slide paths were smaller, narrow, crashing their way through ravines and gullies, sticking to the low ground and, from what Max could see, missing the buildings.

He heard the door slide open behind him.

“Oh, my—”

He turned to where Cara had stopped dead in the doorway, staring at the moonscape beside the villa.

“The road’s gone,” she stated in astonishment, remembering to come outside and close the door behind her.

“It’ll take a while to dig that out.”

She moved up beside him at the rail. “Are we stranded?”

“For now. They could send a helicopter for us. But they probably don’t have all that many resources, and the injured have to be their priority.”

“Of course,” Cara agreed. “Gillian said she offered them the use of her jet. They may need to evacuate some of the injured people to bigger hospitals and bring in more rescuers.”

“It’ll be dark soon,” Max couldn’t help observing. He sure hoped nobody was stranded on the ski hill in all this.

Cara shivered as she focused on the setting sun.

“We should go inside.” His instinct was to put an arm around her shoulders. But he quickly stopped himself.

She’d been firm on the boundaries of their relationship, and he couldn’t discount the possibility of telescope lenses trained on the avalanche damage picking them up.

“We really should go inside,” he repeated.

If there was any chance of prying eyes, he wanted Cara out of sight. The fewer people who knew she was with him, the better off she’d be.

This time, she turned. He swiftly moved to pull open the sliding glass door, letting her through first.

With the power out, it was going to get cold and dark inside the villa very soon. He was guessing other people were trapped at other villas, but they were spaced too far apart for him to know for sure. At least he hadn’t seen any villas with obvious structural damage. That was a good sign.

There was newspaper, matches and firewood next to the big stone fireplace. He’d also noticed two oil lamps on the mantel, and candles were placed at various spots around the room.

He lit the oil lamps, then handed the matches to Cara, keeping one for himself. “You want to look around and light a few candles?”

“Sure.” She took the matches from his hand.

He knew it was better to keep her busy. If she stood around thinking about their close call, there was still a chance she could go into shock.

While she moved around the room, he crouched down on one knee and began laying a fire.

Luckily, the villas seemed well-prepared for a rustic lifestyle. Either they’d done it for the ambiance or power outages were common up here. But he knew there was a larger wood box at the back of the storage room. They’d be fine overnight, for a few days if it came to that.

He lit the newspaper, watching as flames curled up around the smaller pieces of kindling. “Your sister has a jet?” he opened.

“Her company has a jet.”

“But she owns the company.”

“That she does.” Cara had lit half a dozen candles, and the room was filled with a soft glow of yellow light.

“Is it a big company?” Max added a couple of larger pieces to the fire. Satisfied with the crackling sound and the height of the flames, he closed the glass doors, adjusting the damper to the open position.

“It gets bigger all the time.” Cara handed back the matches, and he put them on the stone mantel.

“Define
bigger.
” He gestured to the sofa directly across from the fireplace. They might as well make themselves comfortable. Then he gave a laugh at his own question. “I guess it’s big enough to buy a jet.”

“One of their software applications has been widely adopted by the international health-care industry. Since that started, I think the sky’s the limit.” Cara settled into one corner of the sofa.

Max gave a low whistle as he took up the other end of the couch. “Successful family you’ve got going.”

“I think that depends on who you ask.”

“A member of the White House staff and an IT entrepreneur? Under what benchmark is that not successful?”

“Rural Wisconsin.”

“Wisconsin has something against high tech?”

“If my parents had their way, Gillian and I would have found ourselves a couple of nice dairy farmers, settled down in the Rim Creek area and started producing grandchildren.”

“Ahh.” Now he understood.

“Fortunately for everybody, my brother found a wonderful local girl and fell in love. She’s pregnant with their third at the moment, and they seem perfectly happy living on the farm.”

“Farm life’s not for you?”

Cara gave an exaggerated shudder. “Gillian and I couldn’t wait to leave.”

Then, unexpectedly, she smiled. “When I was in fifth grade, Gillian studied with me every night. We had a secret plan for me to skip grade six so we’d graduate the same year, and we could go off to college together.”

“Did it work?”

“Not that year. But I got far enough ahead that I was able to take extra classes in high school and finish early.”

Max couldn’t help but be impressed. “So it did work.”

“Eventually. We left together for Milwaukee. After a couple of years, I switched to Harvard, and she went to MIT.”

He couldn’t help taking in Cara’s fresh-faced beauty in the firelight. The young men of Rim Creek must have been very disappointed when she left. “You’d have made a cute dairymaid.”