The Devil's Deep Read online

  “All the better,” Dillon said, “The cats will push him around, break some more bones before they spot him. Come on, let’s get out of here.” And then they were gone.

  Zach lay gasping, trembling. But he wasn’t done yet. Through the agony of the broken kneecap and leg, the torn ACL and the shattered bones in his wrist, he tried to crawl out from underneath the snow gun. If he could get onto the trail, maybe he could find his coat and pants, get into them somehow. There was a lean-to another few hundred feet down, where they stored a rescue sled and blankets. If he could make it there. . .

  But he was in shock and the cold was already getting to him. Every movement sent pain lancing through his body. The snow enveloped his legs like quicksand, and more blasted down every second. His struggles only made him sink deeper. He couldn’t feel his feet or hands through the cold. It hadn’t yet taken the sheering pain.

  Through the agony he thought about the rope. How had they known he’d been hiding on top of the mountain? And that he’d take Lucy’s Couloir? It wasn’t just Dillon, that monster who would push a girl out of a ski lift to fall to her death.

  Two others. At least one of them had known which trail he would ski. This wasn’t one guy trying to avoid the police for murdering a girl. This was a conspiracy. Zach could see the terror on Rylie’s face. It was the terror he felt now, knowing he was about to die. And then he felt himself fading, all the pain and cold leaving his limbs.

  The last thing he heard was the roar of the snow guns.

  -end excerpt-