On her next step her left foot slipped and she quickly planted her right only to have her leg sink to the thigh in a deep drift. As she went down the weight of her backpack shifted sending her careening to the side onto her hip and shoulder, half burying her from head to toe.
“Motherfucking cock sucking?—”
“Whoa. You kiss your mother with that dirty mouth, Officer Murdock?”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” She was lying on her right side, her weapon underneath her with no way of getting to it fast. Panic bubbled in her veins for a split second before it fizzled out when her numb from the cold brain recognized the voice. Looking up, she squinted against the falling snow. “Nash?”
“You got me.”
Shoving her hands into the snow she tried to find purchase and stand but only managed to get her top half vertical while sinking her lower half deeper into the cold—and wet—snow. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
“That was my question.” Wrapping long fingers around her upper arms, he easily pulled her out of the snowdrift and onto her feet in front of him as though she weighed nothing. “You know there’s a blizzard winding up, right?”
Yanking her arms from his grip she kept her balanced and huffed, “Yes. Of course I do. I’ve being doing well checks in Broken Bay all day.” Not that she needed to explain herself to him.
“Okay…?”
Clearly the man needed more information. “I got a flat on the way back to Winter Lake. Unfortunately, the cruiser ended up in a ditch beside the road and now I’m heading to the abandoned Lakeside Inn to find shelter.”
“Abandoned?”
“Yes. It’s been vacant a year or so. I’ll break in if I have to, get out of the wind and snow, get a fire going and—” A thought struck. “Wait. What are you doing out here? And how did you get here?”
Glancing around she couldn’t see a vehicle. Not even a snow mobile, which would have been handy to have right about now.
“I saw someone walking through the snow and figured I should check on them.”
“You saw me?” She’d walked a good distance from the main road and couldn’t see it anymore, so how had Nash seen her? “From where?”
“Yep, hard to miss that yellow vest. Spotted it bobbing around in the snow from my place.”
“Your place?” She ignored the comment about her safety vest and arched a brow, her lopsided—thanks to her fall—beanie slipping down over her left eye. Pushing it out of the way with a snow covered glove she eyed him skeptically though the dusting of snow on her lashes. “You saw me from your place clear across the lake?”
“Ah, yeah, my place. It isn’t across the lake anymore.”
“What are you talking about? Of course it is. You’re in the apartment above Della’s Dina.” She liked to keep abreast of who lived where in her town. Helped her keep the locals and tourists safe to know who was where and when.
He grinned down at her. She didn’t like that grin. It screamed I’m about to say something that will piss you off, and she should know. Nash had used that grin on her numerous times over the years since he arrived in town to work for her cousin Alex.
“What?” Her back had stiffened and it had nothing to do with the cold that had crawled deep in her bones or the fact her blood was the consistency of a slushy if not frozen solid.
“Lakeside Inn is no longer abandoned,” was all he said around that gloating grin.
She didn’t need him to say another word. The smile and twinkle in his eyes was enough. “Motherfucker.”
Nash laughed. A full bodied rolling laugh that made her equal parts turned on and pissed off.
Christ this man did her head in. She could never decide if she should punch him or kiss him, which mean she ignored him most of the time.
Sighing, she turned in the direction she’d been heading. “Lead the way.”
“No need to sound like you’re on your way to the gallows, Officer Murdock.”
“I’m cold and getting colder. Let’s just get out of this damn weather.”
“You let dispatch know where you were going?” he asked, his stride matching hers in spite of his longer legs.
“Not yet. Radio went out. I was hoping to get a couple of bars on my cell once I got closer to the lake.”
