her against his chest, the stink that rose to his nostrils was unmistakable. “Good Lord,” he muttered. “This one needs changing.”
“She’s a baby. Deal with it.” Tessa looked frayed. “Give her back. I’ve got a better idea. You’re taller than I am. You climb into the raft and I’ll pass the girls down to you, one at a time.”
“Good idea.” Dragan wondered why he hadn’t thought of it himself. Handing the reeking Maddie back to her mother, he took the purse and diaper bag, looped the handles over his shoulder and climbed down onto the float. The raft was a step below, secured to the plane by the tether.
From the door he could see Tessa buckling Missy into her safety seat. She managed to do it while balancing Maddie between her arm and her hip, a remarkable feat. Dropping the bags into the raft he kept his weight on the float and held up his arms for Maddie.
The transfer was going to be tricky. The raft wasn’t made for standing, and he couldn’t risk putting Maddie down there by herself. He would need to take both twins, sit on the float with them and shift from there into the raft.
Maddie came to him without a fuss. Bracing his senses against her rank aroma, he circled her with his left arm. By the time he had a firm grip on her Tessa had unbuckled Missy and was ready to hand her down. Dragan could see the worry in her eyes as she passed him her whimpering child. She was trusting him only because she had no other choice.
* * *
Tessa watched, holding her breath as Dragan, with one twin under each arm, managed to maneuver from the float to the raft without a spill. Now she stood alone in the plane, looking down at them from the cargo door. Clouds were drifting across the inlet, graying the afternoon sunlight. The wind was getting stronger and colder.
Dragan placed the babies next to him and covered them with his leather jacket. When Maddie tried to crawl away he pulled her back and held her by her pink coverall straps. “Give me your shoes, Tessa,” he said. “You’ll have better footing without them.”
She stepped out of her low-heeled tan pumps and tossed them one at a time. He caught them with his free hand. “We’ll need the tether undone,” he said. “Untie it and bring it with you. I’ll come back and close the door later.”
The stout nylon rope was looped around a grip handle next to the cargo door. Tessa untied it and, with the end in her hand, climbed gingerly onto the float. By now the raft was rolling on the wind-whipped water. The next step wasn’t going to be easy.
“Give me your hand,” Dragan said, leaning toward her.
She’d put one foot onto the inflated side of the raft and was just reaching for him when a harsh gust blasted across the inlet. The plane rocked. The float pitched upward, lifting away from the raft. Caught between, Tess lost her footing and tumbled into the water.
It was cold. Deathly cold. Tessa was a fair swimmer, but in the few seconds before she broke the surface and caught Dragan’s outstretched hand she was chilled to the bone. Her teeth chattered as he pulled her into the raft.
“Here—” He yanked off his flannel shirt and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Hang on,” he muttered. “We’ve got to get you someplace warm.”
The raft kit was equipped with a collapsible paddle. Snapping it together, he pushed hard for the beach.
Tessa huddled with her twins and watched his broad shoulders labor under the gray thermal T-shirt he wore. He was pushing against the wind, making slow but steady progress. Under the woolen shirt, her skin felt clammy. Her fingers and toes were numb. She’d heard enough stories about cold Alaskan waters to know that she could have died of hypothermia in minutes if he hadn’t pulled her out. Even on the raft, freed from the water, she wasn’t out of danger. Her wet clothes were turning icy in the wind. She was worried about her little girls, too. Dragan’s leather jacket was giving them some protection, but they needed to get indoors and get warm.
She could see the lodge through the trees. Even at a distance she could see that it was no paltry wilderness cabin. Solidly built of logs, it was the size of a large one-story home with a tall stone chimney and a covered porch running along the front. The windows had been shuttered for the winter. The door would be securely locked.
Would Dragan have the key? If he’d brought it along that would be a sure sign he’d planned this whole misadventure. If he could keep her away from Anchorage, her testimony at the trial—perhaps the trial itself—would have to be delayed. Worse yet, the trial could go ahead without her, and without her testimony to give weight to her claims, she’d lose her case.
But that wouldn’t be the end, she vowed. If this little escapade cost her a victory in court, she would do everything in her power to make Dragan pay for it.
A narrow floating dock led from the sloping beach into the water. By the time Tessa had found her shoes and put them on, the raft had bumped against the side. The dock was an easy step above the raft. After climbing up, Dragan secured the tether to a capstan and reached down for the twins.
Wrapping the squirming Maddie in the leather jacket, she passed her up to his waiting arms. Missy came next. This time she went to him willingly. Tessa followed, her purse and diaper bag slung over her shoulder.
“Can you make it to the lodge all right?” he asked.
“I’ll be fine. Just hang on to the girls and keep them warm.” Tessa’s feet were too numb to feel the ground beneath her shoes, but she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other.
He walked beside her; the twins snuggled against his chest, still covered by his leather jacket.
“The lodge looks closed up,” she said. “Will we have any trouble getting in?”
“Don’t worry. I have a key.”
Tessa had thought she couldn’t get any colder. But a jolt of frigid rage penetrated all the way to her heart. So he did have the key. He could have planned this all along, luring her onto the plane and then faking an emergency to strand her and her children in the middle of nowhere.
The front steps of the lodge were carpeted with dead needles from the surrounding lodgepole pines, but the covered porch was swept clean. A raven, scolding from the roofline, flapped into the trees as Dragan handed off Maddie and fished a ring of keys out of his pocket.
The heavy front door was secured with a cast-iron hasp and an industrial-weight padlock. Without a pause, Dragan chose a key from the half dozen on the ring and thrust it into the lock, which parted with a well-lubricated click.
Lifting the lock free of the hasp, Dragan swung the door open and ushered Tessa into a rustic Shangri-La.
The great room encompassed a sitting area in front of a huge stone fireplace, with a dining table and wet bar at the far end. Double swinging doors concealed what she assumed to be the kitchen. A hallway opening off one side led, presumably, to the bedrooms and bathrooms.
The layout of the lodge wasn’t surprising. It was the construction of the place that made Tessa catch her breath. Seen in the faint light that fell through the shutter vanes and the open door, massive trees, stripped of their bark, supported the cathedral ceiling of the great room. The chandelier that hung from the center beam was a rustically elegant filigree of twisted wood and glass that had probably cost more than she would earn in a lifetime. The floors were dark wood, the thick sheepskin rugs almost floating on their polished surface. The cream-colored leather divans grouped around the fireplace looked as soft as baby skin. The surface of the coffee table was a slab of black marble. The tall windows, if uncovered, would have offered a view of the inlet through the trees.
The place was spectacular—but one thing it wasn’t was warm. Tessa’s skin had shrunk to goose bumps beneath her wet clothes. Her teeth were chattering.
“Come on!” Dragan took her arm and led her down a hallway lined with doors. “While you get out of those wet clothes, I’ll light the fireplace and turn on the water. The pipes have been drained for the winter, so it’ll take a few minutes. You can use