A Matter of Trust(32)

“I should have stepped aside, just the fact that I was so angry. I wanted to face Gage. Until I did. Seeing him like that . . . it took me apart. I wanted to run from the room. And then, the lead lawyer asked me to question Ramon. Oh, Ramon was mad—he didn’t want to reveal that Gage had his hesitations about Dylan’s abilities or that Dylan had paid him. I listed him as a hostile witness, and . . . I pulled it out of him.”

She closed her eyes again, and Brette wanted to reach out, touch her arm. “I couldn’t look at him as I did it. I knew he felt like I’d just shoved a knife through him. My own chest hurt.”

“Oh, Ella.”

“Gage didn’t even defend himself. Ramon’s testimony sealed the case. Gage’s lawyer settled, and Gage lost everything—his sponsorships, his earnings, and his sport.” She wiped her fingers across her cheek. “It was only after we’d settled, when I was going over the final papers of the case, that I discovered the truth.”

The truth?

She looked up at Brette again, this time her eyes clear, her face solemn. “And this can never be repeated, because it’s part of the sealed case. But . . . the family had a private autopsy done on Dylan. I’m not sure why—it was clear he died of suffocation and massive trauma. But the toxicology report was in the file, so I read it.” She swallowed. Took a breath.

“Dylan McMahon had THC in his system. Marijuana.”

Brette couldn’t move. Ella just stared at her, meeting her gaze. Then, she nodded. “Whether or not he was accomplished enough to ride that mountain didn’t matter. Dylan was high when he went down that mountain.”

“Gage should have been exonerated,” Brette said.

“Maybe. It was a civil case, so there may still have been damages awarded . . . but maybe not. It might have all gone away. I was horrified, but we’d settled, and I didn’t have the authority to open it back up. And I was on the side of the plaintiff.”

“Not to mention sworn to silence.”

Ella nodded. “Yeah. And that’s when things turned ugly. I confronted my boss, as well as the family, and he told me that I was required to keep quiet. I was so angry, I quit. I walked away from my law firm.”

“I remember that. I couldn’t believe you did that—especially since you were on your way to being a junior partner. I thought it was because of your mother—her cancer.”

“That was all about timing. She needed to step down, and she offered me her seat. Of course the governor endorsed me, and it was such a small election, I’m not sure anyone even really knew, but . . . by then I was just trying to fill her shoes.”

“And trying to forget Gage Watson,” Brette said softly.

Ella tugged a tissue from a nearby box, blew her nose. “But it wasn’t as if I could ever forget him. I’d always hoped for a chance to . . . I don’t know, fix it, maybe. Silly, I know, but—”

“Not silly. Because you’re still in love with him, aren’t you?” Brette asked quietly.

Ella sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Because there’s no way he’d ever love me. In fact, I’m the last person he would ever help. I can’t believe he actually took my phone call or that I still had the right number.”

A knock at the door jerked them both out of the conversation. Brette got up, walked to the door, glancing back at Ella.

She’d found her feet. Wrapped her arms around herself, looking as if a stiff wind might knock her over.

Brette opened the door.

Gage’s hot friend, Ty Remington, stood in the frame. Tall, with wind-tousled dark hair and amazing green eyes, he wore his black ski pants and red ski patrol jacket. “Uh . . . Gage sent me by to tell you . . .” He glanced past her, to Ella, then back to Brette. “It’s not good news. He found the chopper pilot who Oliver paid to bring them into the park.”

Brette hooked his arm, tugged him inside. He stepped into the foyer. Brette closed the door.

He looked over at Ella, kept his voice even. “He dropped your brother off on top of Heaven’s Peak over two hours ago.”



The replay of Dylan McMahon’s tragic tumble off Terminator Wall and the avalanche that followed him down looped in Ella’s mind as she pulled up to the Blackbear Mountain ski patrol shack.

Ty pulled in next to her in a shiny blue Mustang.

“Nice car,” Brette commented to Ella as she slid out of Ella’s rental SUV.

Ella had noticed Brette’s gaze lingering on Ty just a little longer than necessary as he’d explained how Gage had called his chopper pals and finally tracked down Deke Curry at AirCurry. He’d confirmed dropping off Bradley and Oliver at the top of Heaven’s Peak.