“This way.” There’d been no time to dump the contents of the sled, so he dragged the whole thing deeper into the crevasse field. Carefully. From the look of them, some of these seracs were a light brush away from becoming an icefall. If one fell, it could turn into an avalanche down here, burying them, along with the virus.
At least they’d take a few of those assholes with them, if they were lucky.
He narrowed his eyes. At the far end of this crevasse was a tunnel. And above them, an ice overhang provided the perfect cover for Angel while he stashed the cores. “Wait under here,” he whispered. “Be right back.”
He dragged the sled into a long cave, glowing pure fluorescent blue at the entrance, turning shadowy the deeper he went. About eight feet in, another crack bisected that one and Coop wasted no time shoving the cores out of sight.
“Ford!” Angel whisper-called. “They’re close!”
After grabbing a couple items from the sled, he ran back, put his arm around her waist, and guided her into one of the side crevasses, then left into another, and down another. Deep into the web of ice. And he and Angel were the spiders.
“Mash-up of my two worst nightmares,” Angel hissed, then glanced at him. Was she smiling under there? “Remix version.”
He grinned unexpectedly, affection tightening his chest. Shit, he had to save her. If notthemor the virus, at least her.
“I’m with you this time.”
“Great.” There was definite humor in her voice. “So now I haveyouto worry about, too.”
That surprised a laugh from him. Even now, running for their lives, she made him laugh.
Shit. Please don’t let that be my last laugh.
By the time they found a spot they could defend, she was trembling. Fear, he thought, not cold.
Well, maybe cold, too.
“You okay?”
“Dandy.”
He huffed out a breath and gathered her close, whispering four words against the side of her face. “Stop, look, listen. Smell.” When he didn’t feel the tension leave her body, he tightened his hands and rasped, “Learned it in the army. Try it. Stop.”
She breathed deeply.
“Look.”
Slowly, her head swiveled, taking in the electric-blue walls around them, then tilted back to look up at the sky.
“Listen,” he whispered into her ear and waited for her breathing to change, to quiet. “Smell.”
It was too cold to smell with sinuses like burnt shells, but he imagined he got a whiff of that soap they’d used back at the hut. He shut his eyes hard as the memory assailed him—her behind the curtain. Warmth and food and the woman of his dreams.
After a few seconds, she nodded, the movement minute against him, then gradually, her shaking eased, while his pulse slowed to an almost normal cadence.
“Okay?” The word wasn’t even a whisper against the fleece covering her face, but she felt it and gave him another nod, shifting up enough to put her mouth close to his, their neck gaiters barring a kiss. “I smellyou.”
It was insane how his body reacted to that statement, but he shouldn’t have been surprised.
This was more than chemistry.
Jesus, was this what love felt like? This hot, hard, twanging burn in his muscles—deeper—his bones? Death washerefor them—just meters away while they hid in the center of a virtual minefield—and the only thing holding him together was her. Like if he lost her now, he’d be nothing but a Ford soup, melting into the ice to form his own inexplicable layer.
He gripped her harder, pressed her tighter to his chest. Behind the beating of his heart, he heard them, drawing closer. Their feet crunching over the ice. Impatient, he pulled his mask up and over his ears, the better to hear. He shut his eyes and listened, doing his best to separate out the sounds.
Adrenaline flooded his system along with something he’d managed to restrain for so long. Something hungry and violent. His breathing slowed while the beast inside him grew, taking over his heart and lungs, seeping into his limbs.
One man was close, tromping right toward the crevasse field, though he might not even know it. From up there, without the sun’s shadows providing depth, everything was flat and white. They might not realize that they were about to fall into—
