Page 10

Shawn

T he grocery store was a mess.

Daniel refused to come in at first, content to fuck with his phone in the car. I wasn’t about to let that fly and made him come in because if he was participating this week, he was going to pick out things he liked. I wasn’t about to play this guessing game with him.

We walked up and down the aisles, tossing things into the cart. It should have been an easy trip, but he insisted on fighting me about everything. We couldn’t just get tortilla chips, it had to be a very specific brand. Were they gluten-free? Non-GMO?

Did Daniel have dietary restrictions? It would be easy to ask him, but I honestly think he was doing it to fuck with me. Because, after the tortilla chip incident, he didn’t hesitate to grab a bag of Goldfish Crackers in the next aisle. Not to mention the countless times I’d seen him sipping on a beer.

Once we safely loaded all the groceries into the trunk of my car, we got on the road. Daniel snagged that bag of crackers and ripped them open. He was contentedly snacking away on them as he stared at the scenery as it passed us by. I usually didn’t allow anyone to eat in my car, but he was quiet and not fighting with me for the first time today, so he could do whatever the hell he wanted. Please don’t get any crumbs on my upholstery.

As we drove, the clouds rolled in, making me uneasy. Of course, I’d looked at the weather forecast beforehand. It was irresponsible not to. It didn’t change the fact that Seattle meteorologists often got it wrong. Those clouds screamed snow, and I only prayed that it held off long enough for everyone to make it to the cabin. If they closed the passes, we’d be fucked.

No one would be more fucked than Daniel.

While I’d told him we were coming up early, I hadn’t told him we would be there an entire day before everyone else. For all he knew, that meant we would be there a few hours before everyone else.

“Do you think you’ll get out and hike at all while we’re up there?”

Daniel turned to stare at me. “What part of ‘ no small talk ’ didn’t click?”

I clenched my teeth and stared out the windshield. In the grand scheme of things, an hour’s drive wasn’t long, but when I desperately wanted to pick apart the brain of the one person sitting next to me... yeah, this was outright torture. My fingers drummed against the steering wheel. The silence was beginning to get to me. At the time, when Daniel had made the request for no music and no small talk, it didn’t seem like a big deal. Now that I was experiencing it? Yeah... I wasn’t a fan. What the hell had I been thinking about agreeing to those terms?

I’d spent the last several days since meeting Daniel’s parents, trying to dig up what I could online. It was obvious they were just as locked down as he was about what had happened. Who the hell were these friends that were now in jail, and why did he deserve such a big break?

After authorities caught Arturo Sanchez in August for breaking and entering, they sentenced him to serve a year at Grays Harbor County Jail. He and his girlfriend had been in possession of the fine jewelry they had stolen. In their car were numerous receipts from pawn shops from Aberdeen to Olympia. Anyone who had lost anything from their thefts would have a hell of a time tracking everything down.

Matilda “Tilly” Sawyer was in Purdy, which was where they sent most of the women. She also had a year to her sentence.

What was interesting was with the digging was that not once had Tilly tried to reach out to Daniel. Arturo had tried at least twice a week for months. Daniel had never accepted a single phone call.

Maybe it was a little weird that I had been able to track down those phone records, but what was even more strange was that the crime-dealing couple had no contact while one of them was constantly trying to track down the one person who supposedly wasn’t involved.

It led to my other dilemma. How the hell did I pick apart Daniel’s brain? I wanted to know what happened. There was an obvious connection there.

The thick evergreen trees flew by the windows, occasionally interspersed with patches of old snow. That feeling of dread that the sky would open and all hell would break loose only grew worse the higher we climbed in elevation.

Daniel shifted in his seat, drawing my attention to him. His fingers pulled at the sleeves of his hoodie as he watched out the window. I’d give anything to know his thoughts. I’d never had someone dislike me so much. It was no secret I had a habit of getting under his skin, but it was the only way I could get any kind of reaction out of him. Why was he such a mystery?

Dark brown eyes flicked in my direction, and I turned my attention back to the road. Warmth spread up my neck after catching me staring at him.

The snow was getting thicker along the edges of the highway and the clouds were getting darker. I swallowed when a flake landed on my windshield. There was no need to panic yet. One tiny snowflake didn’t mean snowmageddon.

Except that one snowflake turned into two. Then three and four. Just as suddenly as it started, sheets of white covered my field of vision.

“Well, fuck.”

“What’s wrong?”

Daniel’s sudden question startled me. “They said it wasn’t supposed to snow.”

Daniel squinted out the windshield before sinking deeper into his seat. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. It just started. For all we know, it’ll dump like this for a few minutes and then stop.”

He had a point, but the longer we drove, the feeling that this was about to get a whole lot worse didn’t let up.

When we finally arrived at the cabin, the snow was piling up on the ground and coming down thicker and thicker. It was a good thing we made it when we had, because if it continued, I wouldn’t have felt safe driving.

“This is bullshit,” Daniel cursed, knocking on the trunk of the car, waiting for me to open it so that he could get his stuff out. It popped open the second I hit the button on my key fob and we both rushed to get our bags and the groceries we’d bought inside.

“I swear to God I double checked the weather.”

Daniel’s laugh was derisive as he pulled his bag behind him through the house. “I don’t give a fuck. What room is mine? I need some space after that drive.”

I frowned. I’d done well to respect his wishes for the drive, so there was no need for him to be rude now.

When I didn’t answer, Daniel rolled his eyes and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. It didn’t matter which one he chose, there was enough space for everyone and he would have his own room, no matter what.

Silence fell over the cabin as the bedroom door clicked shut and I stared at the mountain of groceries on the counter. A feeling of unease settled in when I looked out the window and the snow was now coming down so thick that I couldn’t see my car in the driveway. Would I be stuck up here with Daniel?

Worrying about it right now wouldn’t do anyone any good. I busied myself by putting groceries into the fridge and the other food in the pantry. As suspected, there were still a bunch of non-perishables from the last time my family had been here.

Once everything was put away, my mind wandered. To distract myself, I grabbed a beer from the fridge and popped the cap. Taking a swig of the cool, hoppy beverage, I collapsed onto the couch and reached for the TV remote, flipping it on. The news was what I landed on as they were already talking about the unexpected snow that had blown in. I wanted to laugh. No shit, Sherlock .

“With winds shifting from the northeast, we have unexpected flurries in the passes.”

That had my attention. Flurries? The last I checked, what I had just come in from was more blizzard type conditions than a small dusting of snow.

“We’ll keep an eye through the evening, but Snoqualmie Pass is already reporting backups and requiring snow tires.”

And there it was. The news that I was dreading. If they were already requiring snow tires, it was only a matter of time before the pass closed completely. If that happened, no one would make it up here tomorrow. That meant that it would be just me and Daniel. Until whenever people could get through again.