Billy moved at the same time, whirling toward the gunman and kicking out, knocking the man’s gun hand upward, but his grip on the pistol didn’t falter. As Ellie rushed him, the gunman swung at Billy, using the weapon as a club, hitting the boy in the side of the head hard enough to knock him down. He didn’t get up.

“Billy!” Ellie punched the man in the face, then slammed her fist into his stomach. She tried to knee him in the groin, went for his eyes, but he was taller and stronger, his body lean and fit.

He leveled the pistol at Billy as he wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. “I knew you’d be a fighter.” Billy was unconscious, and there was no way she could abandon him and run for help.

“Leave him here, and I’ll go with you,” she said. “I won’t give you any more trouble.”

“Oh, you’re going with me.”

That voice. Anger burned through her. She forced herself to stay calm. “I know who you are. You’re Richard Egan.” She had to keep him talking. Every minute out of the car was a chance to survive. “Earl said something about Frank knowing you from the mine. The more I searched, the more I thought it was either you or Phillip.”

“Frank should have kept his mouth shut. If he had, Earl wouldn’t be dead.” He reached up and pulled off the ski mask, stuffed it into the pocket of his jeans. “Now get going. It’s going to take us over an hour to get there.”

“Where? Where are you taking me?”

“You can’t guess? I bet you’ll figure it out on the way.

She looked into Rick Egan’s too-handsome face. Dark-haired and good-looking, Savannah had said. Solid athletic build. Ellie had theorized that the man who’d killed Frank and Earl was the same man who’d killed Heather, the same man who’d killed Barbara Meeks. She thought of the ski mask. Vail and skiing, the common denominator. Icy fear clawed at her insides.

She glanced down at Billy, couldn’t tell if he was breathing and prayed that he was.

Egan followed her gaze. “The kid was just a means to an end. He doesn’t know jack shit. If he lives through the ball-freezing night, maybe he’ll make it. Now head for the car. I won’t ask you again.”