She opened her mouth and shut it—why add noise to a silence already rife with emotion?
When she didn’t speak—and for some reason she got the impression he expected her to—he grabbed the headlamp and took off into the long passage that led to their temporary restrooms.
Just as discombobulated by her reaction to the man as the bumps on her head, she sat up slowly and leaned against the wall. Gingerly, she lifted one heavy arm, pushed her hood back, and investigated her scalp.
It was numb. Why couldn’t she feel anything?
A few panicked seconds passed before it occurred to her to remove her glove. Right. She yanked it off and tried again, this time relieved to touch fingertips to hair—matted though it was—and to finally find the tender bits, covered with a bandage.
Her gaze caught the front of what had once been her gray coat, now mostly brown with blood.
The reality of her near miss smacked her with a wave of dizziness and she eased her way back onto her sleeping bag. She could have lost an eye in that crash. Could have died. Instead, she’d come out with a cut head and a hangover.
Would she have gotten out if Elias hadn’t shown up? No. She’d have bled out or wandered around, eventually freezing to death, or—more likely—been murdered.
What was probably delayed shock made her shiver, even after she’d slid back into her sleeping bag, wishing he were here to warm her.
She owed her life to Elias Thorne. Whoever he was, whatever he’d done, there was no doubt about that. Now, she needed to repay him.
***
Say nothing.
Trust no one.
Two rules to live by.
So, what now? He watched the woman as she slept, thinking he too should get more rest before the weather changed, turning this brief respite into a race for their lives.
But he was way too antsy for that. Like Bo, whose eyeballs flicked back and forth from him to the entrance, as if to sayCome on! Let’s hunt!he wanted to get out there, put some distance between them and the enemy.
And he’d do it if it were just the two of them. But this woman changed things.
I could leave her.
The thought lodged in his chest like a blood clot.
Rather than dwell on what an absolute prick he was for even considering it, he got up and led Bo outside, where she braved the elements with glee. As a malamute-husky mix she was pretty much made for this place.
He stopped just inside the glacier cave’s camouflaged opening and watched her bound over the thick layer of ice, completely unheeding the nasty crap falling from the sky. How much longer would this last?
With daybreak, what had started as ice could turn into rain too damn quickly. And rain meant snowmelt. A bad time to be out there, running for their lives.
When Bo returned, he took a final look at the sky and followed her inside, eager to slide back into his bag. Not to be close to Leo, he assured himself. But to get warm and rest before the long haul out of here.
He and Bo had just settled down as far from Leo as possible when they heard something—and this time it wasn’t outside.
***
“Gotta move, Leo.”
A light burned, so bright it hurt her eyeballs. Hands grabbed, nudged her. She slapped them away.
“Leo. Get up. Now.” Another nudge made her hunker down and try to cover her head. “Come on.”
She batted at the relentless hands, mumbling for them to stop.
“Leontyne.” The voice was quiet, deep, in her head.
