“I don’t care.I’ll face him.Maybe it’s time.”
“But it’s not just us,” she insisted; and, much as he didn’t want to, he had to listen.“There are others involved.Innocent people.He’ll hurt them, too.”
“Maybe he’s bluffing.”
“What if he isn’t?”
“He can only hurt people so much before the hurt boomerangs.”
“And in the meantime?”
Cutter thought about the meantime, and there was nothing comforting about it.He could quit the mine and leave Timiny Cove, but it was his home, the only place he knew.If he belonged anywhere, it was there, where he finally was respected to some extent.And the respect was two-sided.While it wasn’t exactly affection he felt for the people, he recognized their struggles and felt loyalty to them.They depended on him in subtle ways.While he wouldn’t go so far as to call them friends, he couldn’t desert them.
Nor could he desert Pam.She depended on him too.Even if he hadn’t loved her so much, he would have wanted to be there to protect her as Eugene would have done.
A spark of light came from his left.Pam whispereda frightened, “Oh God,” while he peered through the fogged-up windows.“It’s the security patrol.”She pushed away from him.“I have to leave.If the guard finds me here with you—”
“Too late.”Cutter caught her hand.He rolled down his window as the guard approached.“Evening, sir.”He glanced at the wrist where a watch would have been if he owned one.“We still have some time, don’t we?”
The guard aimed his flashlight into the truck.Pam held up a hand against its brightness, but she took Cutter’s lead and calmly leaned over his thigh toward the window.“We won’t be long.Another five minutes?It’s freezing out here.”
The guard, who looked far too old and wrinkled to protect active young women, gave a grunt.“I was thinking that myself when I stopped.But I never seen the truck here before, and it’s my job to check.”
“That’s good,” Cutter said.“I’m glad to know someone’s looking out for her when I’m not.”
Touching the flashlight to his forehead in a salute, the guard returned to his car and slowly drove off.
“He saw the truck,” Pam gasped as soon as the window was up again.“He’ll remember it now.Oh, God, I knew this would happen.”
Cutter linked his fingers through hers.“Nothing happened,” he said as smoothly as he could, although his heart was pounding.“As far as he’s concerned, we’re both happy and healthy.The old geezer’s probably already forgotten he saw us.”
“If he’d come five minutes earlier, do you know what he would have seen?”
Cutter grinned.
“You laugh!”she cried.“If we’d been caught like that, John would have strung you up by your heels.”
“It’s okay, honey.We weren’t caught.”But his grin was gone.Everything that had come before was crowding in on him.He started the engine.
“What are we going to do?”she asked again as he drove the short distance to her dorm.
He was asking himself the same question.The answer eluded him, but he knew one thing.“I won’t give you up, Pam.Not on John’s say-so.If you were to find someone else and tell me you didn’t love me anymore, that would be different.”
“I’ll always love you.”
“Someday you might not.”
“No.Always.”
His need to hear the words was enough to stop him from arguing more.“Then we’ll find a way to see each other now.”He drew her close for a kiss.“You’re my life,” he whispered.She ran her fingers over his forehead, across his cheek to his mouth, following with her eyes in a way that made him uneasy.“Don’t memorize things, Pam.We’ll be together next weekend.”Still she looked at him as though her heart were going to break.“Pam?”
“Gotta run.”The words were no more than a broken breath, but they hung in the air for a long minute.Then she came up the few inches to his mouth.Her lips were soft and hungry, desperate in the way they clung to his.In seconds, his own desperation had him taking ravenous control of the kiss, but his tongue had barely filled hermouth when she tore herself away.Seconds later, she was out of the truck and running toward the dorm.
He started after her, then caught himself and straightened behind the wheel.She was upset, it was late, and the eyes of whoever cared to watch were on them.If he followed her, it would draw unwanted attention.He’d call her later to make sure she was okay.Maybe by that time he would come up with a brainstorm.
The brainstorm didn’t come during the ride home.Snow did.It fell gently, reflecting in his headlights to make the night look unnaturally bright.But the brightness didn’t spread to his insides.He was feeling cold and bleak when he pulled up to his home and cut the engine.Head down, he trudged to the door, only to stop short when he felt a prickling at the back of his neck.
His footprints weren’t the only ones in the snow.
