Darkwind: Ancient Enemy 2 by Mark Lukens Page A

the edge of the small ridge and stood beside a pine tree. He stared down the hill and then looked back at Stella and motioned for her to join him.
    Stella stuffed her hands down into her coat pockets. She closed her fingers around the gun’s handle nestled in the right front pocket. Her gloves were bulky but she would try like hell to shoot Cole if he tried anything. He might try to push her down this ridge, or club her with the butt of his pistol, or even shoot her right here in the woods.
    “The town’s down there,” Cole told her as she walked towards him. He watched her. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said as she got closer to him, seemingly reading her mind.
    When Stella stood beside Cole she saw that what she’d thought was a ridge was really just the sharp crest of a hill that sloped gently down into a massive clearing below. The town of Cody’s Pass was nestled down in that clearing between the mountains.
    “I’m not going to hurt you or David,” Cole said again. “I wish you would believe that. If I wanted to hurt you two, I would’ve done it back at the cabin, or at any point between there and here.”
    Stella nodded, but she wouldn’t let herself become too relaxed around him. He could be lying just so she and David would go along with him and provide cover until they were far enough south where he could get rid of them. He was a thief and possibly a murderer, so lying wouldn’t be out of the question for him.
    “We’ve got a few options here,” Cole said. “After we robbed the bank we stashed our snowmobiles a few miles back in the woods, about a mile or so off the road.”
    “I don’t know how to ride one of those things,” Stella said right away, lying to Cole.
    He stared at her for a few seconds, and she could tell that he didn’t believe her. But he didn’t challenge her on it. He looked back down at the town below them. “It’s too risky anyway. Those snowmobiles might’ve been discovered by now. Cops might even be watching them.”
    Stella looked down at the town. Even though the town of Cody’s Pass was in a clearing, a lot of the suburbs were built on the foothills of the mountains surrounding it. Roads wound up into those foothills, meandering through the buildings and houses where lights burned in a lot of the windows. The traffic lights blinked from green to yellow to red and then back to green along the main road through the town and on several of the major cross streets. Apparently the storm hadn’t knocked out the electricity to the town or it had already been restored.
    “We need some kind of vehicle to get out of here,” Cole said. “Preferably some kind of truck since these roads still look pretty bad. Looks like some plowing has been done on the main roads down there.”
    Stella just nodded.
    “We need a place to stay for the afternoon, maybe even the night.”
    “There’s a motel in town,” Stella said. “You can’t see it from here, but it’s way down that main road a ways. I stopped there for a few hours on my way into town. We slept in my truck for a few hours until it got too cold for us.”
    Cole seemed to consider the idea. “Motel could be kind of risky. Maybe we could find an empty house.”
    Stella didn’t think any of the houses were going to be empty.
    Cole thought it over for a moment. “A motel could work if you and David checked in by yourselves, and then I could sneak in later.”
    Stella just nodded again.
    “We’ll ride down closer to the town and stash the snowmobile in those bushes over there.” He pointed at a stand of brush and trees far off in the distance. “Then we’ll walk to this motel you’re talking about. Use the cash you have on you for the room. But first we’ll stop at a store, pick up a few things. We need some food and water. And we need some rest. And lastly, we need some information. I need to see what the weather’s going to be like and find out what the cops know about us so far. Then we’ll work on