True Love at Silver Creek Ranch(98)

“There was an intensity about him tonight,” he insisted. “He’s not letting this go. So if he was following his brother out of town, where would he go?”

“I can’t believe he’d go to Aspen. What would be there for Cody? It’s not like he’s a thief looking for rich fools to fleece.”

“Then we go the other way, to Basalt. I just can’t sit and wait.”

Leaving the shelter of the town buildings and entering the full force of the storm only made him even more aware of the danger Tyler and Steph could be in. They crept along the road well below the speed limit, flashers on, the window defrost blasting them in the face with heat. But that was the only way to keep the windshield from icing over. Snow blew directly into the headlights, distorting their perception like some kind of video game.

Neither of them spoke, as he needed all his concentration to stay on the slippery road. Occasionally they passed a car creeping along even slower than they were, but it was never Steph’s pickup.

“What’s that?” Brooke demanded, pointing ahead.

Through the snow, he could see the red flash of a flare on the far side of the highway.

“I think it’s an accident,” she said quietly.

Adam gripped the wheel even tighter. As they got closer, they could see a car’s hazard lights tilted at an awkward angle, and eventually he realized the vehicle had slid off into a ditch. A pickup. They couldn’t see inside the fogged cab, and soon had to keep driving past.

“Was that Steph’s?” he demanded.

Brooke twisted in her seat to look behind them. “It might be!”

He had to wait for the next light to make a safe U-turn without heading into a ditch themselves. It seemed to take forever to get back to the pickup, and all he could imagine was finding the kids hurt or bleeding, or—

And then the bright light of the flare finally appeared out of the swirling snow. He pulled in behind the pickup, flashing his high beams. For a moment, nothing happened, then the passenger door opened and a figure half fell, half jumped out of the tilted vehicle.

After trudging up the knee-high snow in the ditch, the person waved his arms. By their headlights, Adam could see the grinning face of Tyler.

“He looks pleased to see us,” she said dryly.

“Way too pleased.”

Adam and Brooke jumped out of their own pickup. Snow stung his face and tugged at his wool cap. He was tempted to yell out every worry, every fear, but he knew he’d only make things worse.

“Wow, are we glad you found us!” Tyler called, rubbing his arms.

Of course, his jacket couldn’t even be called a winter coat.

“Steph’s okay?” Brooke asked, speaking louder as the wind roared across the highway.

“She’s in the pickup. It’s tilted at such an angle it’s hard to get out, and it’s wet at the bottom of the ditch.” He pointed to the water that drenched him to his knees. “No point in both of us getting soaked.”

“You’ll catch pneumonia like that!” Brooke said.

“It’s warm in the cab,” Tyler insisted. “Do you have chains to pull us out?”

“What the hell happened?” Adam demanded. “Why did you drive out into this?” He flung both hands wide.

Tyler didn’t even bother to look remorseful. “I had to find my brother, to stop him doing something crazy. I mean, he disappeared every night, and wouldn’t tell me where he was going or what he was doing.”

“And did you find him?” Brooke said with exasperation, stamping her boots in the cold.

Wearing the most lighthearted grin, Tyler nodded as if he no longer had a care in the world. “He has a job! He’s been going every night, but after all his talk about making something of himself, he didn’t want me to know he was working at a fast-food place in Basalt. He was embarrassed! What an idiot!”

Adam glanced at Brooke, whose lips quivered as she strove to control a smile. “And you thought it was necessary to risk your lives to discover this tonight of all nights?” he demanded.

Tyler finally had the grace to wince and look around. “Yeah, I can see it looks pretty stupid now. And Cody meant to come to the house renovation, but he got called in to work at the last minute. I told Steph if there was any damage to the truck, I’d pay for it, though it might take me a while. I have to wait until my community service is over to get a job.”

“I’m not sure that’ll satisfy her father.”

The last of Tyler’s smile faded. “He already doesn’t like me, and he doesn’t even know Steph and I’ve been hanging together.”

“We can’t deal with that now,” Adam said. “Let’s get the chains out and see what we can do.”