Rare and Precious Things (24 page)

9th
January

Switzerland

THE
young prince
was quite the Renaissance man, I had discovered. He had skills on the slopes, and with the ladies as well. No wonder his grandfather was worried about him. The lad might very well be in some real serious danger here at XT Europe.

Of
death-by-fucking.

The
screaming shag-party he had going right now on the other side of the wall, fouled my mood even further. I was in sheer hell here—the teenage fuckathon next door notwithstanding. What I needed was to speak to Brynne and to hear her voice. The one thing might make the next days marginally bearable.

We hadn’t parted well at all.
A hideous row over keeping secrets. When the photos of her meeting Oakley were sent out in a Tweet, I received the alert straight away. I was utterly shocked of course, but when she got home, and I realized she wasn’t going to tell me why she would go behind my back to meet the man who ruined her life and nearly gotten her killed—I lost it.

Lost.
Exactly how I feel right now, without my girl.

I topped
off my glass from the bottle of Van Gogh and took a swig. My drink of choice—when I needed it. I surely fucking needed it to get to sleep tonight if the “oh, fuck yes’s” and “yeah, baby’s” didn’t shut off soon. Surely His Royal Highness would be shagged to within an inch of his life soon, and quiet might be a possibility.
Please, blessed Christ
.

Brynne
didn’t tell me anything about her visit with Oakley, during, or even after our row. I still didn’t know why she’d gone to meet him. Maybe I would never know.

She just kept telling me the same thing over and over.
I can’t talk about it right now, Ethan, and you’ll have to just accept that until something changes for me.

When I pushed her to tell me, she got angry and bit back with accusations about Sarah and our “private” meetings, saying I was shutting her out in favour of Sarah.
Was I? I didn’t think so, but then, when Brynne asked why Sarah had been to the flat to see me that night, I couldn’t tell her. I wasn’t ready yet.

Her face
had revealed how hurt she was, but I imagined mine did, too. We’d never quite been in this position before in our relationship. Both of us standing our ground on silent issues that had shaped so much of how we were made. It bloody sucked.

I think we could have worked things out if we’d had more time.

There had been no time, though. I’d had to come to this shitting job and leave her behind, pregnant and sad, and on her own. Well, not totally on her own. Neil and Elaina were keeping a close watch for me.

My girl and I
were due some serious attention to our problems when I returned, and I’d said as much to her when I had to leave very early the next morning.

She had tears in her eyes, which were red and swollen, when she nodded and agreed with me.

When I kissed her goodbye, her sweet lips melted beneath mine and her arms came up to hold me tightly against her scented softness. I hated to pull away. I had to though, and it fucking hurt me to have to do it. I had hope we’d solve our differences, and work through the doubts both of us were carrying. I wouldn’t accept any other alternative.

She held my face with her hands and told me, “Come back to me.”
I knew her words meant more than just my physical presence. I understood what she meant.

“
Nothing could ever stop me from coming back to you,” I said. “Or you, little one,” I whispered against her belly.

And I believed that.

THE banging that woke me was not the nice kind. In fact, whoever was doing it might need a lesson in etiquette, via my fists if they didn’t stop fucking about.

“Ethan!
Get up, man! We want to go for a backcountry run!”

I blinked at the bedside clock.
3:12 a.m. Stumbling out of my warm bed, I answered the door to find my young charge geared up and grinning wide.

“Now?”
I barked. “You’re going up now, Christian?” I might have hoped I was dreaming him in front of me, but sadly, I knew I wasn’t.

He laughed, “Yeah, man, suit up
. It’s a dead day otherwise. We leave now and can be up at the top by daylight. I need to blow off some steam before tomorrow.”

“You didn’t already? What was all the shag-racket from earlier then?” It
was a valid question. When the fuck did this kid sleep was another. He had the world at his feet with his money, good-looks, royal status, and celebrity. He had it all going for him. I couldn’t really blame Christian for any of that, but he still managed to annoy the motherfucking shit out of me.

“
That was just my bedtime story.” He shrugged happily and teetered on his toes, looking wired and anxious to get going. I highly doubted he was on anything because if he was he’d be DQ’d for doping and his snowboarding career finished. I think it was just his natural exuberance…and being bloody nineteen years old.
Good Lord Bollocks
.
If our child is this hyper, I am fucked.
Might as well crawl into an early grave and get it over with.

I s
hook my head at him and rolled my eyes. “Give me a minute to get my kit together, would you?”

“Sure thing, man.”
He grinned again, and for the first time in my life I felt rather old.

CHRISTIAN and his entourage of four
compatriots chose deep snow not far off-piste, but I didn’t let that give me a false sense of security because I was well aware there were risks to doing it. I told them straight up before we set out, to have their shovel and probe kit in their packs and their beacons on them. I’d seen how people become euphoric in the backcountry, and lose sight of danger. Snowpack could change so quickly, and a span of just a few feet could have different conditions. I’d witnessed skiers on slopes right next to avalanche slides like it was a completely normal thing to do. Some of them ended up dead eventually, from just that sort of mentality, too.

“Remember what I said—aim your board towards any trees or the ridge of the mountain if you hear a roaring sound behind you.” I eyeballed each one. “And don’t slow your ride. Keep going no matter what.”

Christian
snickered, his eyes laughing at me. “Yes, Dad,” he said. I noticed the colour of his eyes was like Brynne’s—they changed with the light, and with different hues of clothing. It made me miss her even more.

“
I’m serious. You do not fuck about when it comes to an avalanche.”

THE
third off-piste they chose was not a good prospect. I told them no. Too much fresh powder, with little time to settle, equaled too much risk.

The lads didn’t agree and were hell-bent on going down. Lukas and
Tobias called first-tracks and were off before I could call them back. Jakob and Felix started out right behind them. “Huck it, Ethan—if not now, when?” Christian shouted gleefully before he sailed down, his neon green jacket in my sights.

My choic
e was made for me at that point and I had to follow him.

I’m not sure who triggered it, but I heard th
e roar before I saw the cloud.

Bad news.

I cut toward a scrub of trees and grabbed the biggest one I could find and held on. A churning rush of snow blasted me off the tree and sent me arse-over-tit down the mountain. I lost sight of anything, or anyone, and could only pray the lads were riding off the sides to safety.

Jolted violently below the waist, I heard a snap. No pain, just an awareness
of coming to rest on a rock outcropping. An overhang which saved me from being buried by the second wave that followed about a minute later.

WHEN
I opened my eyes I could see the sky, which was a good sign. Meant I wasn’t buried under feet of snow. I could breathe. I looked down and discovered what the snapping sound had been about. My left boot was turned 180 degrees. I knew it was quite probable I’d sustained a compound fracture.
Fuck.
I struggled to sit up and take stock of my location.

I’d been
pushed so far off the main slide, my field of vision offered nothing beyond swaths of white. Bright drops of red spattered in the snow. I felt a tickle along the side of my face, but couldn’t tell through the gloves where the blood was coming from.

First order of business was to activate the beacon, so I did that
, and then checked out my leg. Fucking thing was so bashed. Hiking out was not going to happen. Board was long lost from my cartwheel down the mountain.