Page 78 of Stolen

“Or maybe he threw his phone into the ocean and ran away with a lover?” I suggested. “Maybe he decided that he wants to start a new life for himself in the woods, away from the stresses of this modern world.”

“God. I love your imagination.” Jacob chuckled before he pressed a soft kiss against my forehead. “No wonder you’re so creative.”

“I’m serious, Jacob,” I whined. “What am I supposed to do if we don’t have the airstrip shit figured out?—”

“I’ve got an idea.”

“Does it involve going to Brent’s house and making sure he’s still alive?”

“Something like that, sure.” Jacob grinned as he wrapped his arms around my waist, casually pulling me off the bar. “Do you trust me?”

“More than anything.”

I was standingoutside the lodge with the rest of the guys, Diego, Chris, Andrew, and Keith all lined up against the wall. We were all exchanging looks of confusion, as if none of us had any idea what was happening right now. A few moments later, Bradley and Jacob came out of the lodge, holding several shovels in their grip.

“Wait. Are we going to go shovel snow again?” I frowned. “I thought we already handled the snow at the airstrip.”

“Not the airstrip, no. Right here,” Jacob replied, handing me a shovel. “Bradley’s been scoping this place out since we got here. It turns out, when it’s not completely snowed in, they operate as a sports rental place, too.”

“A sports rental place?”

“Snowboards. Snowmobiles. That sort of thing,” he continued. “But the only problem is, everything’s currently snowed in behind a huge shed. I think if we can get the snow from out in front of it, we should be able to access everything.”

“Holy shit.” Chris’s eyes went wide. “Are you saying that we’ll actually be able to have some fun in the fucking snow? Fucking finally?”

“What are we waiting for? Point us in the right direction and let’s kill this!” Diego shouted as he pulled one of the shovels into his hands, soon raising it above his head. “Boys! Let’s go!”

Bradley silently led the way, as we all walked over to the storage shed. Jacob had been right about a huge mound of snow blocking everyone’s access to it, but the guys seemed absolutely determined to get inside of the shed ASAP. We all went to work,attacking the mound from different angles, some of us more eager than others.

Around half an hour later, the mound had pretty much disappeared, with smaller mounds of snow on either side of us from all the shoveling. Still silent, Bradley pulled open the shed, revealing a treasure trove of gear: snowboards, skis, and snowmobiles as far back into the shed as the eye could see.

“Hell yeah!” Andrew whistled. “Now, we’re talking.”

“Dibs on that snowboard!” Keith called out, as he ran over toward it. “Any of you brave enough to race me down one of the banks?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s very brave to take such an easy bet.” Diego laughed and shook his head.

“You’re on, Diego!” Keith flipped him off as he walked back out of the shed.

“Who cares about snowboards? They have skis here, guys!” Chris moved toward his gear of choice, his face beaming. “I’ll meet you out on the bank, but I might be zooming past ya’.”

“What do you think, Leo? What should we go for?” Jacob sidled up next to me as he looked into the shed.

“I’m sorry? What now?” I quirked an eyebrow over at him. “I assumed we were doing this for the athletes, you know, giving them something to kill time?”

“We are.” He smirked. “But we’re also doing this for us, to take your mind off of waiting around for Brent’s call.”

“It’s just that I’m not really a…”

“Sports person?” Jacob smirked again. “Despite that being your entire livelihood?”

“When you say it out loud like that, you make it sound ridiculous,” I murmured before I looked around the room. I pointed to a few pairs of what looked like oversized shoes, with heavy tracks underneath each sole. “What about those? What are those for?”

“Snowshoeing. Great choice.”

“Snowshoeing?”

“Basically, hiking in the snow,” Jacob explained. “We might be able to get some good views and it’s something more easily accessible for a beginner, so you don’t need to worry about the learning curve.”

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