Nerd Gone Wild (39 page)

“So he knows.” The last shred of hope died. She had no family. The grief when Grammy died had been terrible, but this was worse. She’d believed in Uncle Kurt, believed he cared about her. And she was nothing to him except a way to get rich.

“Oh, he’s in this up to his eyeballs. He’ll pay to keep me quiet. He’ll pay, and pay, and pay. Your Caribbean retirement plan is peanuts compared to what I’ll get. I like peanuts, but I prefer caviar.”

As Ally thought about the faith she’d put in Uncle Kurt, how she’d dreamed of a life full of adventure with him as a big part of it, as the father she’d never had, she felt the pain of losing that dream. The pain was quickly followed by a white-hot anger. How dare he? How dare he take her dream and smash it into a million jagged pieces?

Without thinking, she yelled in rage and brought her camera up sharply, knocking the gun away from her face. It fired over her shoulder, the noise a loud, deafening roar in her ears as she tackled Vivian, landing on top of her in the snow. They rolled over and over as she tried to grab the gun, tried to knock it away.

But Vivian held on. With one wild swing of the gun, she managed to whack Ally in the head. Dazed, she lost focus for a second, and that was all it took for Vivian to straddle her and point the gun in her face again.

Panting, Vivian stared down at her, her blue eyes filled with rage. “You are
not
going to stop me.”

Ally struggled to get her breath. She figured the only reason Vivian hadn’t pulled the trigger was her love of power. That’s what the sexual aggression had been all about, and now she wanted to flaunt her power over Ally for as long as possible. Once she killed her prey, the fun would be over.

“You’re strong,” Ally said. “Stronger than I thought you’d be.”

Vivian smiled in satisfaction. “That’s more like it. Why don’t you try begging for your life? Who knows, I might reconsider.”

Oh, sure she would. Ally wasn’t into begging, but she was into stalling. The longer she stayed alive, the more likely she could figure out a way to overcome Vivian. “It’s a good thing you didn’t hook up with Mitch. You’re way too much woman for him.”

“I knew that.” Her lip curled. “Wimpy little nerdling. He missed out. I could have taught him a few things. I’m sure he’s boring in bed.”

“Oh, yeah, totally.” If Vivian didn’t kill her, she might be struck dead for telling such a whopper of a lie.

Vivian sighed. “I could have whipped him into shape. He has nice buns.”

“I suppose.” It was as if they were two girlfriends dishing about a guy they both knew. If the situation hadn’t been potentially lethal, Ally might have laughed.

“I insist on nice buns. That’s a number one prior—” She paused. “What’s that noise?”

Ally couldn’t hear much with the wind blowing and her head pressed into the snow.

“Maybe it’s hunters.” Still holding the gun on Ally, Vivian climbed off her. “Get up, but don’t try anything.”

Getting slowly to her feet as she kept her eye on Vivian’s trigger finger, she brushed off some of the snow. And now she heard the noise. A snowmobile.

She cautioned herself not to get too excited. Sound carried out here, and the snowmobile could be quite a distance away. It might not be headed in this direction at all. Except that the noise got louder. And louder. Soon she could see it, coming across the open area toward them. Coming fast.

“Get back toward the trees!” Vivian grabbed Ally’s camera out of the snowbank where it had fallen during their wrestling match. “If anybody asks, you and I are taking pictures. Got it?”

“Got it.” As if Ally planned to let these snowmobilers have a chat with them and leave. Uh-huh. And if Vivian thought Ally wouldn’t make use of this heaven-sent arrival, she was completely crazy. Which, of course, she was.

Nevertheless, Ally went back to the trees at gunpoint and brushed the snow off her camera, as if she’d go along with the story like a good girl. But no matter what she tried, she had to be careful not to put an innocent person in the line of fire. Vivian would shoot any witnesses in a heartbeat.

“I’ll stand behind you, so they won’t see the gun,”

“Yeah, they might get suspicious if they see the gun.”

“Shut up.” Vivian jammed the barrel right under Ally’s left shoulder blade.

As the snowmobile came nearer, Ally began to suspect who was driving it. Only one person in the area had both a snowmobile and a bushy red beard. And when she realized who was riding behind Rudy, she got really scared. She felt like yelling for them to go back. Mitch was not up to this.

But if he caught on to the situation, he would try to save her, bless his heart. And Vivian would get great pleasure out of shooting him, after he’d turned down her sexual advances. If she had the chance, she might even torture him first.

And Rudy was big and brawny, but he was also an old-fashioned kind of guy. He would probably hesitate to tackle a woman, so he could be a sitting duck for someone as deadly as Vivian. He’d never expect her to be serious about shooting someone with a gun. He might even assume it wasn’t loaded.

They’d probably come out here to see how the photo shoot was going. Mitch had been worried about Ally, so he’d probably talked Rudy into coming out here with him to check on them. Ally’s job was to tell them everything was fine and they could go back home now. She wasn’t about to let either of them get shot.

As they pulled up and climbed off the snowmobile, she smiled and waved. “Hi, guys! You just missed a pair of ptarmigan! I got a couple of really good shots.”

“Is that right?” Mitch was on the far side of the snowmobile and leaned down, doing something with his boot. Probably hadn’t zipped it up tight. Then he took off his goggles.

Ally expected him to put on his glasses after that, but he didn’t. That was strange. Maybe he’d left them back at the Loose Moose. Good God, now she’d have to worry about him even more if he was blind as a bat.

“So everything’s going good?” Rudy stood by the snowmobile, his hands in his pockets. He seemed to be waiting for Mitch.

“Yeah, Tanya and I are making terrific progress. So if that’s all you wanted to know, you can head on back. I’m sure Mitch was glad to get a ride, though. He loves these machines.”

Mitch came around from the snowmobile, his hands in his pockets, too. “Actually, we had a reason for coming out here besides that.”

Vivian laughed. “If you brought wine and cheese, that’s very sweet, but we’re working. This isn’t a picnic.”

Mitch drew closer, his boots crunching in the snow. He glanced around, as if taking note of the area where Vivian and Ally had rolled. Then he surveyed the two of them and their parkas, which still had plenty of snow clinging to them.

He didn’t seem to be squinting at all. In fact, he acted as if he could see perfectly well. “Oh, I’m sure it’s not a picnic, Vivian.”

It took a beat before Ally realized that Mitch had called Vivian by her real name. Her gaze locked with his. At that moment she knew he could see just fine without his glasses.

She didn’t have time to wonder about that now. Silently she mouthed the words
I know
. His eyesight had to be excellent, because he got the message. His nod was slight, but she saw it.

But Vivian wasn’t giving up. “Who are you referring to, Mitchell? There’s no one named Vivian here.”

“You mean there’s no one named Tanya Mandell here,” Rudy said. “You’re a fake. Tanya Mandell’s on one of them safaris in Africa.”

Vivian laughed. “I canceled that trip so I could come here! I guess I didn’t notify everyone. Where did you hear that, Mitchell?”

“Give it up, Vivian,” Mitch said. “Kurt told us who you are. So let’s all go back to Porcupine now, shall we?”

“No, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Vivian said.

“Yes, you will.” Mitch pulled a gun out of his pocket. “Now.”

Ally stared at it. Two guns in one day was two more than she’d ever seen in her life, except in the movies or on TV. So Mitch could see without his glasses and he had a gun. It was slightly possible Grammy had hired a bodyguard, after all.

“Why, Mitchell, you little sneak, you.” Vivian sounded more excited than worried by this turn of events. “You’re not a geeky boy after all, are you?”

“Oh, yeah, I still am. But now I’m a geeky boy with a gun. And we’re all going back to Porcupine. The police should be there by now. They might even be headed out this way.”

“Nicely finessed, Mitchell.” Vivian pulled the gun from behind Ally’s back and placed the muzzle up against her temple. “But I hate it when someone gives me orders. Really hate it. And you see, I still have the winning hand. Can you spell the word
ransom
, Mitchell?”

“Don’t try it, Vivian.” Mitch’s gun hand didn’t waver.

“Oh, I’ll do more than try it. I’ll do it. Either you head on back to Porcupine and call off the cops, or your rich little girlfriend’s brains will be splattered all over this clean, white snow. And I know how you’d hate to see that happen.”

Mitch paled and his throat moved in a swallow. But his voice remained steady. “You wouldn’t follow through,” he said. “You pull the trigger and you’re a dead woman.”

“I go back with you and I’m a dead woman. I crave freedom. I crave men. Lock me up in a cage with nothing but women around and no vibrator in sight? It would be a hundred times worse than dying! Don’t make the mistake of calling my bluff. I’m not bluffing.”

M
itch had played a lot of poker in his life, and most of the time he’d won, not counting when he’d wanted to lose, like last night with Ally. He could usually spot a bluffer. Unfortunately, Vivian didn’t show any of the signs.

“You had your little fun giving orders, Mitchell. Now it’s my turn. Toss your gun into that snowbank over there.” She tilted her head to Mitch’s right.

“Don’t do it, Mitch,” Ally said. “She’ll kill us all. That gun is your only insurance that she won’t.”

“How sweet. Your girlfriend’s worried about you, even if she puts herself at risk. It looks like true love. Too bad it’s doomed. I’ll count to three. On three, unless your gun’s in the snow, I’ll pull the trigger. One, t—”

Mitch tossed his gun away. He wondered what was going through Rudy’s mind right now. Damn, he didn’t even know if Rudy had ever shot a gun in his life. But at least they still had something going for them. Then he heard the sound of dogs barking, and wondered what in hell that was.

“That would be Ernie coming with his dogsled,” Rudy said. “And Dave.”

Oh, yeah. And Ernie might or might not be sober. And he had a shotgun. Mitch would have welcomed a sharpshooter with a rifle, but a drunk guy with a shotgun—not so much. Mitch noticed that Rudy didn’t mention the shotgun, though. Maybe Rudy was playing it cool, waiting to see what developed. Mitch wished he’d asked Rudy if he’d ever shot a gun before.

“My, my,” Vivian said. “Quite a little gathering we’ll have out here. Now you can all go back together. I’ll contact you and let you know where to send the check.”

The dogsled pulled up alongside the two snowmobiles and Dave hopped out first. “So what’s going on? Ernie said he wasn’t sure. He’d had a couple of drinks, and the phone connection wasn’t so good when Clyde called, but he got the idea that he should come on out here and see what was happening.”

“Hold it, everybody!” Ernie reached into the dogsled and pulled out a shotgun. “There’s a couple of ptarmigan in that tree about ten feet above where you’re standing. Them’s real good eatin’ and I just ran out of the ones I had stashed in the freezer. Just let me get a shot off, and then we can see what’s what.”

“Ernie, wait!” Mitch trembled to think what might happen if Ernie started shooting in Ally’s direction.

“Don’t do that, Ernie,” Dave said, starting back toward him.

“They taste great, I’m tellin’ ya. Now hold still, everybody!”

“No!” Vivian yelled. “Do not—”

The shotgun roared. A snow-covered branch cracked and fell right on top of Ally and Vivian. As they went down, another shot rang out.

Mitch leaped forward and pulled away the branch. “Ally! My God, Ally!”

She lay there motionless.

Vivian, however, staggered to her feet and started searching the snow for her gun.