I pressed Nora and myself flat against the floor as more shots were fired. When I looked up again, the second man was down, and Jake was helping Mikhail restrain the first.
“More coming,” Jake panted. “We need to move. Now.”
“Where’s Caleb?” I asked, getting to my feet with Nora still clinging to me.
A shadow passed over his face. “Hit. He’s holding the front, but he can’t last long.”
Mikhail finished securing the man’s hands with what looked like an electrical cord. “The back way, through the kitchen. There’s a path that leads down to the river.”
Jake nodded. “Go. I’ll cover you.”
“No,” Mikhail argued. “You take them. I’ll stay with Caleb.”
“This isn’t a debate,” Jake snapped. “You know the path better than I do. Get them out.”
“You’re shot. I’m not.” The two men stared at each other, some unspoken understanding passing between them. “Five minutes,” Mikhail said finally. “Then we follow.”
Jake nodded, then turned to me. “Stay close. Move fast. Don’t stop for anything.”
I hitched Nora higher on my hip, but then he took her from me. “Jake, your arm—”
“It's fine,” he cut me off. “Let’s go.”
We made our way through the cabin, stepping over broken furniture and shattered glass. In the living room, Caleb was propped against the wall, a makeshift bandage wrapped around his thigh. His face was pale, but he managed a grim smile.
“About time,” he said. “Was getting lonely out here.”
“Hang on,” Jake told him, gripping his shoulder briefly. “Mikhail’s staying with you. Help’s coming.”
Caleb nodded weakly. “Go on then. We’ll be right behind you.”
The kitchen was untouched by the violence that had swept through the rest of the cabin. Jake led us to a small door half-hidden behind the pantry.
“Service entrance,” he explained, easing it open with one hand while the other held onto Nora. “Leads out back.”
“How did you know that it was there?”
“Scoped out the place earlier.”
The night air hit us like a slap—bitter cold and heavy with snow. Nora whimpered as she looked at me over Jake’s shoulder.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “We’re going on an adventure, that’s all.”
“I need you to take her for a minute,” he said, passing her over to me. He moved ahead of us, clearing a path through the deep snow. I followed, struggling to keep up with Nora’s weight in my arms. The forest was pitch black except for the faint glow of moonlight on snow, the trees looming like sentinels on either side of the narrow path.
Behind us, more gunshots echoed from the cabin. I didn’t look back, focusing only on Jake’s broad shoulders ahead of me, on putting one foot in front of the other.
We had gone perhaps a quarter mile when he suddenly stopped, holding up his hand for silence. I froze, straining to hear what had caught his attention.
Footsteps. Coming fast through the snow.
“Down,” he whispered, pulling us off the path and into the shelter of a massive pine. “Don’t move.”
I crouched in the snow, Nora pressed against my chest, her face buried in my coat. My heart was pounding so loudly, I was sure whoever was following us would hear it.
The footsteps grew closer, then paused. A beam of light swept across the path where we had just been standing.
“They came this way,” a man’s voice said in Russian. “The tracks are fresh.”
