“Which direction are we heading?”
“East.” Ren pointed the opposite way from where they’d come last night. “If I’m not mistaken that should take us into a lower altitude and should be the most direct route to civilization and/or cell phone coverage.”
Natalie figured he had just as much to lose—more since he had a business and family—as she did, and since she had no idea which direction they should take, his plan sounded as good as any. Plus, if he had plans to hurt her, he certainly could’ve done it by now.
But he hadn’t. The opposite, in fact. It didn’t take much to remember the feel of his arms—his whole body—wrapped around her, keeping her safe, warm, protected.
She forced the thought from her mind. “Sounds good. Let’s go.”
They began walking.
“Just let me know if you need a break, okay?” He looked over his shoulder since he was leading. “Don’t let things spiral. If we need to stop, we need to stop. That’s not a problem.”
She nodded, a little embarrassed that he had to say it. She knew her paranoia, and not just about snow, sometimes got the best of her. Knew her mind was a little broken after what Damien had done to her. All she could do was try to keep everything in check for right now. Just this one minute. She’d survived that way before. She could do it again.
Chapter Eight
Ren wasn’t sure exactly what sort of conduct he’d been expecting from Natalie as they walked. Based on last night’s behavior, more distress as they’d walked through the wilderness and snow.
It wasn’t easy hiking. Even his muscles were complaining, not to mention a couple of his wounds from his special forces days that tended to act up in the cold. But he knew exactly where they were going and how long it would take to get to the hunter’s cabin that would be the crux of this entire mission.
If he was like Natalie and didn’t know how far they had to go—if they would be able to find shelter before the weather turned worse, and had some sort of snow phobia—he definitely wouldn’t be acting the way she had since they’d started walking.
Focused.
She hadn’t muttered a single complaint since they’d left this morning, even though they’d walked for miles. She’d only stopped to drink water and eat a nutrition bar. Every time he’d glanced at her, she was doggedly putting one foot in front of the other.
The weather had been getting steadily worse, and since he knew there was shelter at the end of this little excursion, he’d had her take out the sleeping bag and wrap it around herself. If she insisted one more time that he take a turn with it, he was going to start feeling bad about leading her in circles in the icy wilderness.
“I can’t believe it,” he finally said as he led them exactly where he’d planned at exactly the time he’d planned it. He stopped staring at the small structure in front of them. Natalie peeked out from behind him and gasped.
“Is that ahouse?”
She made it sound like a ten-bedroom mansion. He chuckled. “I thinkhousemight be a bit too generous.”
She stepped around him, giving him a grin. “It’s got walls and a roof. That’s a house!”
She beelined to the door, but he caught up to her before she reached it. “Hang on a second, let me check it first.”
He grabbed the door and pushed it open. Inside was exactly like it had been when he’d seen it last week. One large room with a small kitchen on one end and a full-size bed in the corner on the opposite side. An old-fashioned metal wood-burning stove sat in the middle of the room with a couch in front of it.
Natalie was already pushing at his back. “Is it safe? What’s it like? Please tell me the roof isn’t leaking.”
He stepped all the way in so she could follow. He expected a bit of disdain for the small, almost barren space, especially given the size of her Santa Barbara beach house, but she surprised him again.
“Is this not the most amazing place you’ve ever seen?” Her grin was ear to ear.
He shook his head. “You must really be glad to get out of the snow to think this is the best place ever.”
She laughed. “Okay, it’s not the White House. But what about that stove, right? And it already feels warmer in here.”
“That’s because the wind is blocked. But yeah, let’s see about getting the stove to work.”
They checked the two other doors in the room. One led to a large shed, stacked with wood in the back of the cabin, the other to a detached outhouse. Within fifteen minutes, Ren had a fireblazing and the cabin was warm enough that they had to remove their jackets.
Natalie wandered into the kitchen, gasping as she found cans of soup and vegetables in the small pantry.
“What is this place? Obviously it gets used. Are we closer to civilization than we think?”
