I sat on the hearth, huddled under the hide, and gradually warmed up. Not hungry, I ignored the canned goods, but thought about the bed as a tempting feature. The tiny cabin heated quickly even as the storm intensified around it. The wind howled like a banshee across the mountains, forcing the flames into climbing the chimney.
Safe from its fury, warm, I quickly grew drowsy. My pain subsided a bit as my eyes closed. I drifted, my chin sinking to my chest.
Jacy,the voice whispered.
I jolted awake, panicked, pain surging within my back and my head. “What?”
The fire had burned low. I added a few chunks of wood, blew on the coals until fresh flames licked at the fresh meal.
Deciding I dreamed the voice, I rose stiffly and went to the bed to lie down. Covered neck to toe in the hide, I swiftly fell asleep.
I saw my father.
He smiled at me.You did good, Jacy. I’m proud of you.
Dad –
Jacy, be well, my daughter. Go home. They need you.
***
The shrill beeping of my cell brought me awake in an instant.
Gasping, still amid the throes of exhaustion and sleep, I grappled to find my phone in my pocket. I blinked twice, three times, before the name on my screen came into focus.
Avery.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Avery
“Pick up, dammit,” I grumbled, driving carefully along the unplowed mountain road. “Pick up.”
Declan slept in the rear seat while I maneuvered the SUV, in four-wheel drive, along a road we had no business being on. Snow drifts reached the running boards, sometimes higher, as we crept up the side of the mountain. I knew Jacy had to be up there somewhere.
It’s where she’d go to find Carter.
I lost the signal.
Cursing, I clung grimly to the steering wheel, prevented a fatal slide off the edge of the road and into the canyon below. My gut twisted. I risked Declan’s safety in a reckless attempt to find Jacy in the high mountains immediately after a blizzard.
“Why didn’t I find a babysitter, then fly in search of her? Lunatic.”
Upon reaching a swath of road clear of snow, I tried Jacy’s number again. It rang in my ear. Ring after ring after –
“Avery?”
I stamped on the brake and brought the SUV to a shuddering halt. “Jacy! Where are you? Christ, I’ve been looking for you since dawn.”
“I – I don’t know.”
Her weak voice sent alarm bells ringing more loudly than her cell. “Are you all right?”
“No.” Jacy began to cry. “I’m all broke up.”
“Is Carter alive? Is he there with you now?”
I listened as she inhaled sharply. “No. I – I killed him. He’s gone.”
