On Thin Ice
Lily Munroe, veterinarian, lives on a cattle ranch helping the cows birth calves, fearful of planes – her mother died in a plane crash, where her father was the pilot… her father remarried & his grown stepson is also a vet… she married Sean, a lying, cheating, con man – who only wanted her because his friend, Derek, wanted her first… he left her on their honeymoon night (having taken her virginity) to pick up a woman at the bar downstairs. She wanted to divorce him, but then he told her he had terminal cancer and 6 months to live – and she, being her, could not leave him – it took him 3 years to die… Sean & Derek had purchased Diablo – a masterful bull whose sperm was worth a million dollars a canister - and Sean set up an international network to sell other bull’s sperm, forging her vet signature that the sperm belonged to Diablo – and with online gambling he lost millions weekly – he did set up an account in her name in the Caymans with lots of money. And Lily has raced the Iditarod 5 times, and raises and trains dogs to run the race.
Derek, TFLAC, owns a ranch in Texas, and Sean was his foreman… Sean begs & threatens Derek to purchase a ranch in Montana – the ranch Sean grew up on, and whose father kicked him off of, and for an unclear reason Derek did… and he allowed Sean to lie and say he owned the ranch and Derek was his foreman… Derek hires the right people who can take care of things in his absence, when he goes out on assignments… and when he sees Lily, he falls in love… they go on 3 dates, and they get carried away kissing against his truck – and Lily is overwhelmed by the passion she feels, and runs scared – right into Sean’s arms – Sean who reads people and says and does all the right things until their wedding night. And Derek isn’t with another woman – though he allows others to believe that when he goes out on assignment he is with women. And Derek spends as much time as he can to help Lily with Sean… trying to relieve her burdens…
Sean died 6 months ago, finally… Derek is investigating and breaking down the sperm con network, and he has decided Lily has spent enough time mourning… he spends time with her, teasing her – flirting with her – and he is also running the Iditarod, and plans to have her as his by the end of the 10 days… Lily found out 6 weeks earlier about the sperm con, overhearing 2 of the hands talking about business as usual… and they figure out she knows… she is concerned that Derek is a part of it, and figures to confront him after the race, after her PI has reported back to her… she does not want an affair with Derek, she does not want to risk her heart – sure he will leave her, that he isn’t a permanent kind of guy – so she argues with him, she tells him no, he calls him on his flirting, and yet she feels safe when he is near – training his dogs alongside her own to be sure that they will be ready.
There is a 3rd person who checks in every so often – one of the ranch hands who was offered $10,000 to kill Lily, and to make it look like an accident. And then, since this is afterall a T-FLAC novel, there is a terrorist threat in Alaska, location unknown, by Derek’s archenemy – one who is famous for using dirty bombs – so Derek is on alert.
The Iditarod begins, she is competitive – especially where Derek is concerned… He ties her to him with a gps locater and a microphone/headphones… On the 2nd morning, she goes to find a private place to void her bladder, and someone with a rifle starts taking shots at her – missing her, she struggles to roll around, pull up her pants, find cover – and the shooter is obviously an amateur and continues to miss her. Derek thinks this is related to the terrorist… the shooter was a 2nd ranch hand, and the 1st one comes up on him, is angry that they sent someone else to do his job and take his money – so he slashes his neck killing him… Derek tracks the shooter, finds him dead, recognizes him… and still ties it to his terrorist… brings his team in to clean up.
He gets ahead of her, to a steep down where one needs switchbacks… she talks him through it, and is 10 minutes behind him… he decides to wait for her at the first pull out… and as she gets close, he hears an explosion, and a mini avalanche catches her… a dozen pages on how the dogs, and him, and her work together to unbury her, the sled & 2 dogs… again, he thinks it’s his terrorists… hmmmm … He takes her to safety, makes camp, and puts her together with him in his tent… and though they are both exhausted, they do share some passionate kissing… she wakes up in his arms… the barriers are dropping, the sexual tension is growing…
They spend another 16 hours, and then end up in a town where he has made reservations for a shared room – 2 beds… they exchange looks, but he assures her he will stay in his own bed… and she takes a shower while he goes for food… when he makes it back up, she is sleeping… an hour later she wakes up, and invites him to have sex – maybe it would help her to relax & get him out of her system… she’d be happy enough … and he decides to take her up on it, but not to hurry through it… she asks if he has a condom, he says yes, but he hasn’t bee with a woman in 6 years, and has a clean bill of health… she tells him she was more worried about Sean, and his history and what she might be carrying… and she confesses she only had sex with Sean once on their honeymoon, and learned of his cheating ways then… Derek realizes that she is a virgin for all practical purposes, and slowly makes love to her, insuring her pleasure…
The next day, he is behind her, wanting to protect her… his plan to get her to the next stop whener his people will take her in a plane to safety (yeah, right, does he know this woman?)… he hears a snowmobile tracking them, he is on the phone with his TFLAC crew – and with her… and she timidly asks him to confirm that he did not know about the sperm con… he admits he did, but that he was investigating it and had put some people away and was still working on closing it down… when he realizes she knows, he realizes she has been the target all along… he warns her to find cover as he lost the sound of the snowmobile… she is traveling down a frozen river, and before she can go back up the bank, the shooter shoots at the ice in front of her, causing cracks… another dozen pages describing how he dogs avoided the cracks, but that black ice broke, and she went over a bump, and she fell off the sled into the water… Derek gets to her, but can’t reach her hands without falling in the ice himself – she uses her knife anchor the ice, pull herself forward, finally getting close enough to reach for the belt he tosses her and pulls him to her… and then he works quickly to warm her up… and they ultimately end up having sex…. Ahhhh
He goes after the shooter (who thought he had been successful)… and tells Lily not to trust anyone… He returns on the guys snowmobile, she doesn’t recognize him, she tries to shoot a warning shot, but her rifle jammed… and as he gets near her (and he doesn’t know she doesn’t know who he is) she swings the barrel of the gun at him, knocking him out… once he regains consciousness, one eye is swollen closed. Then his people call him with a location of the bomb – set to take out a new surveillance station near Nome … and a storm is there which prevents his crew to get there in time – he needs to take the dogs and get there himself… he tells Alex about being TFLAC (to which she responds cool) and she forces him to take her with him – both to keep her safe, and so that she can be his eyes…
They get to the base … there’s an old plane, she takes refuge in it with the dogs… he takes out the 1st wave of terrorists, gets to the bomb, but can’t see well enough to diffuse it – he calls for Lily to help, he tells her which wire to cut – working the way through the other wires delicately and then he defends them against the 2nd wave – getting a shot in the arm… he forces her back on the plane, and takes off (shooting at the 3rd wave) – and she is terrified & almost passes out… and when she starts to calm down, she notices Derek has passed out… she manages to get into the pilot’s chair… and doesn’t want to know what to do… but then along side her is one of Derek’s men, in a helicopter – on his way to the base and seeing their problem… he talks her through the landing…
In the hospital, she gets 3 stitches where she was grazed… and he gets through surgery… she meets his brothers & others of the TFLAC crew and some of their wives… and she breaks down, crying – too much had happened, and now she is certain she has lost Derek… she sleeps, she wakes up with Derek sitting next to her – she tries to noble with her goodby, he tells her he loves her and doesn’t want to go – she sends him away – he accuses her of letting her fear of abandonment skew her faith in him… she insists she needs space.
A miserable week passes – she doesn’t speak with him… she goes to his barn when Don, one of the hands, calls for her – she can hear him & his brothers & wives in the house having dinner… in the barn she is confronted by Derek’s arch enemy – and he wants her to call him to the barn so that he can kill him… she dials his phone from her pocket, and they all mobilize immediately… the bad guys are caught/killed, and she is in his arms… he takes her upstairs to shower (she has the bad guys blood on her) and tells his sisterinlaw to leave them alone for 24 hours… she admits she needs him, she was afrais, and she jumps into his arms, telling him this is her leap of faith…
And two days later is his fatgher’s wedding… during the toasts, he says something for his father, then to Lily, inviting her to the library, where he has set up candles & theminister, so that thye can be married also… ahhhhh…