I'll Be Home for Christmas Read online

  “I’m here,” he yelled above the raging storm. “You okay?”

  “That depends on how...you define okay.” The wind made it difficult to communicate, but at least she seemed to be making sense. The shock of the crash had caused her to react with a sort of stunned lethargy. He was under the impression that she’d still be sitting in her seat if he hadn’t unbuckled her restraint and prodded her to get moving. But that didn’t surprise him. There’d actually been studies showing that only a small fraction of the people involved in plane wrecks got themselves out. Another small percentage grew hysterical. The majority did neither. They simply stayed put and allowed themselves to die.

  A bang resounded far below, indicating that the plane had come to rest.

  The pilot was still inside.

  The image of Cox’s body, now probably as mangled as the twisted metal that encased it, made Maxim sick. But he couldn’t change what was, couldn’t turn back time. His only choice was to do what he’d done with Chloe’s death—bury the shock and grief in some other part of his brain so he could function. If the panic he held at bay ever took root, it’d spread so fast he wouldn’t be able to stop it. Just as Adelaide had remained buckled in her seat, watching flames devour the cockpit, he’d find himself lying in the snow, unable to move or even think. And if ever he needed to keep his wits about him, it was now. Together with a wing and some other debris from the crash, which looked more like props in a movie, they were a few feet from the edge of a steep precipice. The wind whipped at them feverishly. If they weren’t careful, those gusts would toss them over the side just like the main body of the plane.

  Why had he put himself in this situation? Why had he listened when Cox insisted they could beat the storm? They should’ve stayed in Tahoe as they’d initially discussed. Instead, Maxim had succumbed to the pressure of Governor Livingston’s phone call. But only because he’d wanted to make the party. He couldn’t slow down, couldn’t stop working. That would give the emptiness in his life a chance to catch up with him.

  “What are we going to do?” Adelaide called.

  The irony of being caught in this situation with the one person he disliked more than any other hit him, and he began to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked. “We’re stranded on the side of a cliff in one of the worst storms to hit the Sierras in a decade. We’re going to die up here, and you’re laughing?”

  He felt no obligation to explain. “I’ve finally pushed fate too far,” he muttered instead.

  He doubted she’d heard his reply, but she must’ve understood a little of what he was thinking because she shouted, “Who do you figure will win the primary if we’re...not there?”

  There was only one person with any real prospects. Luke Silici, who worked for the governor’s office, had been making noises about running for the senate, until Adelaide stepped up and surprised everyone. Then, feeling she’d get more party support than he would, he’d backed off at the last minute. “Luke Silici will enter in your absence. The die-hard conservatives won’t have a prayer of producing someone who can beat him. Not this late in the game. That’s why they pressured you to run against me. You were their best shot. Not that I believe you could’ve taken me.”

  She shouldn’t have had a chance. He was the incumbent. But Adelaide had her husband’s tremendous popularity on her side, the sympathy factor, the support of key Republicans who possessed the power to swing a large number of votes, and the success of her multimillion-dollar energy conservation company, which established her business acumen. She’d even stolen the Salazar endorsement.

  He expected her to come back at him, listing those assets as proof that retaining his seat was far from a given—and welcomed the argument that would start. This was his first opportunity to privately confront the stunning widow who’d pulled her support from him the moment he began to oppose legislation her husband had favored. If they were about to die, he could say whatever he wanted, knowing he wouldn’t be quoted in the Sacramento Bee the following morning.

  But Ms. Fairfax didn’t return fire. She merely said, “They didn’t have to pressure me.”

  Those six words put him in his place and removed the distraction he’d so eagerly embraced.

  “We have to find shelter or we’ll wish we’d gone over with the plane,” she said and made a move to get up.

  “Not so fast.” He yanked her down by her expensive wool coat and rolled onto his hands and knees. That was when he realized—as inappropriately as he was dressed for winter survival in a fifteen-hundred-dollar business suit—her apparel included a skirt. Although her legs had proved quite a diversion when he was boarding the plane, the panty hose and high heels that showed them off so well would give her little protection from the elements.

  How could this have happened? He was freezing his ass off, staring at nothing but snow, and still couldn’t believe he was stranded in a blizzard instead of on his way toward the fundraiser, where he’d hoped to convince the majority of his party, once and for all, that Adelaide Fairfax didn’t have what it took to win against the Democrats come November.

  “What are you doing?” she asked as he surveyed the mountain.

  They had to continue shouting. “I’m trying to figure out where we should go in order to increase our chances of survival.”

  “Are you w-worried about an—an avalanche?”

  Her teeth chattered as she spoke. Her coordination would start to suffer next. Mild hypothermia began with uncontrolled shivering, impaired coordination and blue lips. It could progress quickly to more serious problems and eventually death. Anyone who’d seen a survival movie knew that.

  Death seemed to wait at the end of every avenue. He was astonished that they’d both escaped this far. Cox hadn’t been so lucky.

  “That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” he said, speaking more loudly.

  “Are we in an—an avalanche area?”

  Evidently, she wasn’t much of a ski buff. “Any steep mountain covered with snow can avalanche. But they occur most often when new snow falls onto cement pack.”

  “Like it’s doing now.”

  The wryness in her voice encouraged him. He hoped it meant she was tougher than she seemed. She’d certainly done well navigating the predominantly male world of business. But the way she’d reacted in that plane had him worried. “You got it, ace. The wet, heavy snow sitting on top of the hardened ice slides right off, especially when it’s steep.”

  “Great. So if we d-don’t want to go hurtling to the b-bottom of the canyon, what should we do?”

  “Move carefully and get on stable ground.”

  “Say that again?”

  “We need to find a safe place to build a shelter!”

  “Out of what?”

  “The only thing we’ve got—snow.” Fortunately, he’d been an Eagle Scout and knew about snow caves. He’d had to build a total of three in his lifetime, on various campouts. Of course, those had been for fun, for practice. And it’d been twenty-seven years since he’d built the last one.

  She cupped her hands around her mouth. “What about the p-plane? Maybe we can f-find some emergency supplies in the wreckage.”

  She was right. Legally, the pilot would’ve had to carry certain articles. But it wasn’t as if the plane or the pilot came from Alaska. California was known for its predominately mild weather. Had the members of the state legislature concerned themselves with winter in the high Sierras when they considered emergency gear legislation?

  Maxim hadn’t seen any such bill since he’d been in office. He could only pray that they had.

  “Regulations would demand some sort of supplies, but who knows how well the owner or pilot complied. Or if those supplies went over with the main body of the plane.” It was very likely they had. The pilot himself had gone over, hadn’t he?

  Maxim
didn’t want to think about that. Christmas was next week. What kind of holiday would Cox’s family have? And what about the two of them? Any? Probably not. But he didn’t believe it was advisable to extinguish all hope. Adelaide was losing body heat faster than he was; it wouldn’t help to discourage her. “We’ll look, but first we’ll get warm and wait out the storm.”

  “Sounds g-good.”

  Not as “g-good” as waking up to discover this was just a nightmare, that he could still look forward to seeing his daughters next week when school ended. But at least he wasn’t alone. He’d found it ironic to be stranded with Fairfax’s young widow. Now he was grateful for her company. Because the only thing worse than being stuck out here with her was being stuck out here alone.

  Three

  Maxim had no idea how long it took them to dig the cave. He couldn’t see his Rolex, couldn’t see much of anything. He wasn’t even sure they were tunneling in a safe spot. They hadn’t had the time, the visibility or the mobility to look around. They’d found what appeared to be a level spot and started digging. It was either that or continue to brave the cold without any shelter, which wasn’t a viable option. If they didn’t warm their extremities soon, they’d lose them to frostbite.

  At least the physical nature of the work kept them somewhat warm. They covered their hands with the sleeves of their coats and took turns using a metal piece from the plane to scoop snow.

  Adelaide had fallen silent almost as soon as they’d begun. Maxim knew her legs and feet must be even more frozen than his, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Not until they had some way to block the wind.

  “I wish we had supplies to build a fire,” he said. It was a lame comment, but he wanted her to interact with him.

  His efforts to draw her out didn’t help. She said nothing. He only knew she was still alive because he had to let her take over with the shovel every now and then or he’d begin to sweat, heightening the danger of acute hypothermia. She needed to keep moving more than he did, anyway.

  She attempted to further their progress, but her movements grew slower and more uncoordinated as the minutes ticked by. He was losing her.

  The panic that struck at that thought didn’t correspond to the way he felt about her in regular life. In the campaign, he’d forced himself to stick to the issues, but it hadn’t been easy in the midst of her more personal attacks. Especially because her husband had done some unconscionable things and no one knew it, except Maxim and Harvey Sillinger, his campaign manager. Harvey was angrier than a junkyard dog that he wasn’t allowed to expose what he’d learned. But Mark Fairfax was dead. The only person who’d be hurt by his duplicity was the wife he’d left behind.

  Destroy the squeaky-clean image of her late husband, and you wipe away her power. This is a fight, man! Go for the jugular! She’s running on the popularity of a man who pretended to have integrity but didn’t. Harvey made this argument almost daily. Maybe they could remove the threat Adelaide posed by leaking a few carefully chosen details. But it would also destroy the positive memories she had of her husband, and Maxim refused to stoop that low. He knew what Mark’s death had cost her. At the time of his funeral, he and the Fairfaxes had been political allies.

  “Keep digging!” he snapped, hoping impatience would have some effect since persuasion hadn’t. “Now! Hurry up!”

  The added intensity seemed to work. At first. After the next few scoops, however, she grew completely unresponsive no matter how much he shouted.

  “Shit!” he yelled to no one in particular. They were out of time.

  Maxim gauged the depth of the hole. It wasn’t as deep as he would’ve liked. They couldn’t be too close to the walls or ceiling, or the snow would melt, and he couldn’t have that. They had to stay as dry as possible. But staying dry would be a moot point if Adelaide couldn’t make it long enough to take advantage of the shelter.

  Stripping off his raincoat to cover the floor of the cave, he set their makeshift shovel near the opening so they could dig their way out if they got blocked in. He was supposed to leave a hole, but the metal plug was the best he could do under the circumstances.

  If Adelaide had considered the possibility of being buried alive, she didn’t mention it. She backed inside when he told her to and didn’t resist when he began stripping off her clothes.

  “Stay with me.” Going by touch alone, he fumbled with the buttons on her suit. “I’ll get you warm. Do you understand? Are you aware of what I’m telling you? Hang on.”

  The shallowness of her breathing alarmed him. He could barely feel it against his cheek. And what he felt wasn’t as warm as it should’ve been. He was afraid her core temperature was dropping. He’d never felt a woman’s skin that was so cold, so deathlike. Even Chloe had been warm when he’d found her...

  “The outside temperature can fall to seventy below in a storm like this.” He hoped his voice would give her something to concentrate on in the dark. “This cave should make it a whole hundred degrees warmer.” He carefully removed her wet skirt. “That sounds practically tropical, doesn’t it?”

  Shivering, she held her arms close to her almost naked body. “N-no.”

  It wasn’t the answer he’d been hoping to hear, but it proved she was coherent. “Talk to me, Adelaide. You can’t go to sleep. You know that, right?”

  He didn’t think she’d respond again, but more words came...after a long delay. “That’s all I w-want to d-do.”

  “If you sleep, you die,” he said. “And we’ve got to get back home. We have an election battle to wage—against each other.”

  “S-somehow...the n-nomination doesn’t...m-matter...anymore.”

  “I’ll remember you said that once we’re both safe and warm.”

  Thanks to the narrow confines of the cave, Maxim had trouble taking off his suit jacket. His button-down shirt wasn’t any easier because his numb fingers couldn’t seem to loosen his tie.

  “W-what...are you...doing?” she asked.

  “Only what I have to.”

  At last, he untied the damn knot. He wrapped his tie around his wrist, in case he saw some use for it later, and started to peel off the rubber boots that protected his Italian leather shoes.

  “M-Maxim?”

  “I think that’s the first time you’ve ever used my first name,” he said.

  “Are you g-getting naked?”

  “Yes. As fast as I can.”

  “Okay.”

  He laughed. “Somehow that wasn’t what I expected you to say.”

  He took off her sensible pumps, which seemed anything but sensible in this situation, and slipped his socks, which were dry thanks to the overboots, on her feet. Then he put the overboots on over them, to insure they stayed dry, and pulled his leather shoes back on his own feet.

  “Does that help?” he asked.

  She didn’t answer.

  “Adelaide?”

  “I’m f-fine. We’ll be fine.”

  “That’s the attitude,” he said, but he sensed it was more of a capitulation than anything else. She didn’t want him to bother her anymore. She preferred to be left alone. So she could drift into unconsciousness?

  “You can’t sleep,” he reminded her and wondered what to do about her bra. Leave it on or take it off? It didn’t seem wet, but if he was going to die, there were worse ways to go than pressed against the soft body of a woman.

  In the end, he couldn’t justify taking that liberty.

  Leaving the bra on, he drew her into his arms.

  “Oh! That feels g-good.”

  Her comment made him wish he’d removed her bra. Then it would’ve felt that much better. Having her even partially undressed was enough to bring his libido roaring to life. It’d been too damn long since he’d been with a woman, and he wanted to live while he could. What else would
they do for the next several hours? They couldn’t sleep—and nothing else had as much potential for distraction.

  But the same vigilant conscience that wouldn’t allow him to remove her bra wouldn’t allow him to do anything else, either. Not when he suspected she wasn’t thinking clearly.

  When she wedged one slim leg between his thighs, he knew he wasn’t thinking clearly, either. This was Adelaide Fairfax, his nemesis. She’d been stealing his endorsements and financial backers right and left, and hammering away at his Achilles’ heel—his voting record on taxation issues—since September. Yet the feel of her against him provoked a sudden recklessness that made him want to roll her beneath him and make love to her more desperately and feverishly than he’d ever made love to a woman. The anger and resentment he’d felt toward her for the past four months only made that desire more potent. His grudging admiration of her beauty and equally grudging respect for her poise created a powerful drive to possess—and it happened more quickly than a match dropped in gasoline could burst into flame.

  * * *

  They were definitely making use of their clothing but they weren’t actually wearing much of it. While Maxim’s water-resistant coat protected them from the snow beneath, his suit jacket and Adelaide’s wool coat covered them like blankets. She had on only her bra, panties and nylons; he was still wearing his boxers. But Adelaide wouldn’t have cared if they were completely naked. It didn’t matter that he was her enemy. He was warm. And he even smelled good.

  She pressed her frozen nose into his neck and breathed in the scent of soap. Maxim Donahue was built like a Giorgio Armani model—long, lean and spare. He dressed like one, too, in expensive tailor-made suits he wore as easily and comfortably as other men wore sweat suits.