Page 55 of Mountain Target

“Okay. So that’s not the problem.”

“I’m worried about her. Some days I think she’s okay, other days I worry she’ll never be okay. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought her here. I could have moved to Paris, looked for a job there, and—“

“I’m going to stop you right there, Val. You know, for a doctor, sometimes you have some silly ideas. Ren’s problem wasn’t the move to Chamonix. Ren’s problem is that her mother died, and she needs time to grieve. You lost your sister, and you need exactly the same thing. And yes, it’s a process, Val, as anyone who’s lost someone will tell you. Sometimes you feel fine, and then you go back to not feeling fine. What she needs—what I think you both need—is to spend time together, and continue getting to know each other. Not in the relationship you used to have, but in the relationship you have now.”

“But I’ll never be—“

Marie raised her hand. “No. You’ll never replace Ren’s mother, and that’s not what you’re trying to do. You need to be yourself. If I can give you some advice, Val, turn your phone off when you leave the hospital today. Pick Ren up from school and take her somewhere to get a hot chocolate. Spend some time together.”

Val’s eyes filled with tears. “Thanks for listening, Marie. And for the free advice. I think I’ll do exactly that.”

Marie leaned back, the plate of fries empty before her. “Good. Then my work here is done for the day.”

16

Beau

Fuck.

The boy’s going to lose his hand if we don’t figure this out.

Beau silenced the thought. That wasn’t the kind of thinking that was going to help them here.

Beau and his team had arrived minutes earlier, hiking double-time from the helicopter drop-off point to get to the accident site.

The boy had been screaming when they arrived, in that loud, shrill voice of a child whose voice still hasn’t fully changed. Beau’d found the screams hard to bear, but it was even harder now that he’d passed out.

Beau’s gaze connected with Ry’s, who stood by the boy’s uninjured left side.

“Pulse’s steady, Commandant, but that could change any second. We need to free him now.”

“Please. Please help my son,” a voice begged in a clipped British accent. “Michael’s only fourteen.” Beau looked at the pale, bearded man, wondering at the fortitude he was showing, the way he’d moved aside to make space for them, when other men might have hovered or even lost their mind altogether, in the same situation.

He wondered if he’d be as strong if something happened to Ren—

The thought made him pause. Ren wasn’t his daughter. Hell, for all he knew, Ren’s aunt wasn’t even on speaking terms with him anymore.

He shook his head. He had to focus.

“His mom and his little brother are waiting for us in town. We just came out for a short—“

“We’re doing all we can, Sir,” he said. He should have left it at that, but couldn’t help himself. “We’ll get him out.”

One fucking way or another.

Beau spoke in a low voice on his mic, keeping his words as generic as possible so as not to scare the man further. “Where are you on the parcel?”

“ETA three minutes,” Lorenz replied calmly. Only a soft, huffing sound in the background told him Lorenz was running at top speed, the fifty-pound backpack strapped to his back.

When the emergency call had come in, Beau, Ry, Hugo and Alex had been closer. The hope had been that the four of them could find and free the boy whose arm had reportedly been trapped by rockfall.

It had taken them less than a minute to evaluate the situation and realize the boy’s situation was dire—they were going to need more support.

Beside them, Ry had started an IV on the boy’s arm. “Does your son have any allergies, Sir?”

The man shook his head quickly. “No. None. He’s always been so healthy, so—“

Beau looked at the man again and nodded quickly to Alex, hoping his friend would understand. They needed to get the man away from here in order to do their job, and Alex, with his friendly and personable demeanor and an accent that most closely matched that of the man, was the best person to achieve that.