Chapter 9 - The Cornered Rat
Chapter 9 - The Cornered Rat
Hearing the sirens, panic finally broke through Thomas’s arrogance. He turned and shoved his way through the crowd of stunned guests, bursting out the French doors onto the snow-covered terrace.
"He’s heading for the helipad!" Alexander shouted over the din of the crowd.
We sprinted after him, bursting into the freezing night air. The wind whipped my dress around my legs, the cold biting at my exposed skin. Ahead of us, Thomas was trudging furiously through the knee-deep snow toward the north ridge, where the dark silhouette of a chopper sat waiting.
"Thomas, stop!" I yelled, my voice lost in the wind. "It's over!"
He didn't listen. He reached the edge of the helipad, which jutted out over a steep, rocky ravine. The pilot, seeing the approaching police lights winding up the mountain road, was already starting the rotors.
Thomas scrambled onto the icy metal grating of the pad. But in his panic and smooth leather dress shoes, he slipped.
He fell hard, sliding toward the edge of the platform. He screamed as his legs went over the side, his hands scrambling desperately for purchase on the ice-slicked metal. He was dangling over a two-hundred-foot drop into the ravine.
"Help!" he shrieked, his arrogance completely gone, replaced by raw, pathetic terror.
I didn't think. Despite everything he had done to me, to my grandfather's legacy, I ran onto the slippery pad. I dropped to my stomach and grabbed his wrist just as his fingers slipped.
The weight of him nearly pulled me over. My shoulder screamed in agony.
"Hold on!" I gritted my teeth.
Alexander was right behind me. He dropped down, grabbing Thomas’s other arm with his powerful hands. Together, with a massive heave, we dragged my trembling, sobbing uncle back onto the solid ground of the helipad.
Thomas lay in the snow, hyperventilating. I stood over him, panting, looking down at the man who had tried to ruin my life.
"You aren't worth my grandfather's name, Thomas," I said coldly. "But you aren't going to die on my mountain, either."
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Local police officers swarmed the helipad, pulling Thomas to his feet and snapping handcuffs onto his wrists. As they read him his rights and dragged him away, Alexander wrapped his warm suit jacket tightly around my freezing shoulders.
He pulled me into his chest, holding me secure against the wind. For the first time since I arrived, I let myself lean on someone else.
