“What? No. Uh-uh.” She took a step back.
His brows rose and what might have been hurt washed across his face. “You saying youdon’tlike me?”
“No.Oh, gosh no, I’m saying it wouldn’t work. It can’t work. There’s too much…um…”
He cocked his head, along with his right eyebrow. “Too much…?”
“I don’t know how to describe it.” She threw up her hands. “I just know that it’s a bad idea. That’s all. End of story.”
He mumbled something that she didn’t catch.
“What? What’s that?”
“Just said maybe this story’s got a different ending.”
She blinked. “From what?”
“From all your other stories. From the ones you…didn’t care about.” With a pointed look, he swung away, leaving her no choice but to follow him up. Up the mountain, toward the peak they’d have to crest in order to get where they were going. And to a spot where he’d said they just might have a chance of getting a real night’s sleep.
You like me.
Yeah, sure.
As if to punish her for lying—even to herself—the sky chose that moment to open up. It went from a cold mist to a torrent that made them small as ants. Just two tiny people and a dog, as inconsequential as dust against the big picture: mountains and sky, trees, rivers, and rocks, veined with glaciers made of million-year-old ice.
And somehow, that image—or maybe the extra danger or the exhaustion dragging at every cell of her body—pushed her to admit the truth. She did like him. And it made her very, very uncomfortable.
Chapter 28
Leo couldn’t count all the ways she’d been tired. There’d beenstudying for college coursestired andboot camptired, there’d beensurvival training, drag your ass through cold rivers just to passtired, and the electric exhaustion of a long flight over water, refueling in the air. She couldn’t bring herself to dwell on the desolate, lonely, sleepless hours right after Mom died. And the more recent time spent at Dad’s bedside. Tired because a few ill-timed seconds of shut-eye could mean never seeing him again.
Then there’d been the hypervigilant exhaustion of almost dying, dodging bullets for hours, doing her damnedest to keep an unseen enemy at bay from the relative safety of her grounded helo. In that case, the only thing between her and death had been her quick reflexes and three Navy SEALs. The bravest men she’d ever met.
And now this unplanned journey. The run over breaking ice, plowing straight into briars, collapsing on the ground with this man… The damn bear. She’d thought that was the worst this would get.
Wrong again, Eddowes.
Visibility was down to nothing, the path they trod so steep, every step was a risk they shouldn’t be taking.
But every time she considered yelling up at Elias and demanding they stop for the night, she was met with the sight of his big, broad back, hunched against the winds, soaking from the weather, but still stalking inexorably on. And if he could do it, well then, so could she.
I like him.
With frightening suddenness, her foot slipped out from under her and she was down, her knees and palms and head all ringing from the abrupt contact with solid earth.
She tried to get up and slid, not from the slime, but because she was literally knee deep in a rushing brook. Had this been here a minute ago?
Her eyes couldn’t focus on a single part of the slope, but when she leaned her head back and took in their surroundings, it was all rushing brook.
More like waterfall.
Another failed attempt at rising sent her facedown in the stuff. And now she was terrified. There hadn’t been a river here seconds ago. Was this runoff from the mountain?
It was pouring down and when she looked ahead, there was nothing to see. Back was the same thing, just a screen of rushing water and night, finally laying its dark curtain upon them.
She pushed up onto all fours, shaking, scrabbled at the slippery stones, and got a handhold on something that didn’t roll down the hill.
“Not far,” he’d told her a little ways back, and she’d believed him. So, rather than lie there, the way her body demanded, or try to get up again, which was futile at this point, she forged ahead at a crawl, climbing in the steep places, pulling herself up over ledges, helping Elias with the dog when Bo needed a boost.
