Chapter 13 #3
His manacle grip hurt, but she did not complain.
She did not want to die.
Every time he inched backward the ice beneath their joined hands shattered, but he didn’t slow their inexorable progress.
Both her arms were out of the water now, and they were closer to the bank.
The current was slower here. She finally was able to get her skis uncrossed, but one caught beneath a boulder.
“Wait!” She let go of him with one hand and, despite the temperature, put her face under water and awkwardly unsnapped the boot from the trapped ski with fingers so numb she could barely tell where they began or ended.
She came out of the water in a rush as Sebastian dragged her forcefully almost up onto the bank.
“Can you roll sideways onto the ice here?” His voice was tight with emotion.
He’d abandoned his weapons on the river bank, but still wore his skis and backpack. He couldn’t stand without letting her go, and he wasn’t letting her go until she was safe on solid ground.
She nodded and positioned herself sideways, raising the foot still attached to the ski up out of the water and then attempting to roll.
The fiberglass scraped awkwardly along the frozen ground.
Sebastian physically hauled her the rest of the way until she was fully on land.
Then he crawled over her to release her second ski.
She lay on her back, shivering so hard her teeth rattled. Chance licked her face, and she wanted to cry.
“I-it’s b-been so c-cold, I-I just a-assumed the ice was s-safe. I’m s-sorry.” What an idiot. She could have gotten them both killed. “I s-should h-have known b-better.”
Sebastian released his own skis and tried to pull her to him, but she braced her arm against his chest even though she desperately wanted that hug. “No. You’ll get w-w-wet and neither of us c-can a-afford that.”
He hesitated and nodded reluctantly. Let her go. He seemed to have lost the power of speech.
She struggled to her feet. The moisture in her clothes was already starting to freeze. Her gloves had come off at some point. She didn’t know when.
Sebastian came back into himself with a snap. “We need to build a fire and a shelter. And we need to do it in the next few minutes. You need to strip.”
“A-a f-fire might give us a-away,”—God, this stammer drove her mad—“if G-Glenn Eastman is c-close.”
“I don’t give a fuck. You’re going to die without a fire, Nora, and with this storm, he’s not going to see it anyway.”
She flinched away from the idea of dying and thought quickly.
“W-we passed a natural overhang back there.” It was part of where the old riverbank had fallen away when the river changed course decades ago.
Her whole arm shook as she tried to raise it.
Her body burned with cold. “I-it will p-protect us from the wind, and w-we can build a shelter against that. P-plenty of w-wood for a fire there.”
Sebastian took her hand. His gloves were gone too. “Can you walk?”
She nodded, but her teeth pummeled one another. She didn’t have long before hypothermia set in.
She tried to pick up her ski, but her fingers didn’t work.
“Leave it. I’ll come back for everything.” Sebastian tugged her impatiently. Maybe her brain wasn’t working the way it should, which was also a sign of hypothermia.
Every footstep was misery, and her feet felt like blocks of ice.
They arrived at the overhang, and Sebastian dropped his pack and pulled the first aid kit from his bag.
“Strip,” he said sharply. “Take off everything.”
Her numb fingers fumbled as they tried to find her zipper. “Y-you didn’t even buy me c-coffee yet.”
His gaze swung to her face, his throat worked convulsively as he tried to swallow.
He definitely did not appreciate her sense of humor, but it was her armor when fear threatened to bring her to her knees.
He pulled out a silver survival blanket and spread it on the ground.
Then he pulled out a second, larger survival bag and tossed it down.
“I’m going to get wood for a fire. Hurry. ”
Removing her wet gear did not feel good. Not when snow was flying and the frigid wind sliced, but if she didn’t do it quickly, she’d die. She moved deeper into the overhang, and it was better there. Out of the worst of the wind.
Chance followed her, a mournful expression on his face as if he knew something was wrong but wasn’t sure what.
She yanked off her soggy hat, then removed each layer, spread them on the ground as best she could, her camo jacket, fleece, pants. Every layer taken off laid her bare and vulnerable to the elements—and probably saved her life.
How could she have been so foolish?
Dammit.
She laid her firearm next to her clothes along with the magazine of spare ammo.
She was down to her thermal underwear. As much as she hated it, she peeled them off her skin along with her bra and panties. She wrapped the thin silver blanket around herself as she hopped from foot to foot.
Her pack was wet through. She undid the top and pulled out her supplies. Her spare clothes were all soaked except for a ball of wool socks rolled up inside everything else.
She pulled on the socks, so grateful for something dry to wear, even though she looked ridiculous. Who cared?
She slipped into the freezing survival bag and pulled the blanket around her shoulders as a cape. She jumped up and down in an attempt to warm her muscles.
Sebastian came back with a large armful of branches, which he dumped beside her. He scanned her features, then tugged off his hat and dragged it over her head.
She was grateful. Most heat was lost via the head.
She didn’t like the expression on his face though. Not when that worry was directed at her.
“I’m s-sorry.”
“I’m the one in charge of this mission. You have nothing to apologize for.”
“I made a p-poor d-decision—”
“I don’t want to argue about this, Nora. We don’t have time.” His voice brimmed with barely controlled anger.
At himself.
She gave up. The guy was going to beat himself up over something she’d caused. She couldn’t help him with that. Not right now. All her energy had to be focused on keeping her blood pumping around her body and producing enough heat to keep her alive.
He grabbed the thermos out of the side pocket of his backpack. Handed her a cup of mint tea, which she sipped slowly.
He quickly began making a fire beneath the overhang.
He had a flint in his pack, and the dried grasses he pulled from the nearby bank quickly caught.
The little fire struggled at first, buffeted by the rising wind, but he babied it as she said a little prayer, and the wood finally began to burn.
He fed it, stick by stick until it roared and he seemed confident it wasn’t going out.
Chance buffeted her leg, and she bent down to stroke him.
He didn’t like the crinkling of the survival material but wanted to be close.
She made herself put down the now empty cup.
Pulled out a bag of dog food and, with shaking hands, pushed out his bowl and fed him.
They were definitely going to be here for at least an hour.
Sebastian started to work on building a shelter. He grabbed her pants and stretched them around one of the snow shoes. The snow drift beside them was easily seven feet tall. He piled more and more snow on top and patted it down to compact it.
She frowned in confusion.
What was he doing?
Her limbs shook uncontrollably. She pulled the opening of the bag tight around her as she tried to capture any body heat she produced. She tried to move around, but stumbled.
Sebastian was at her side. Felt her brow with his rough palm.
She stared into that face. So classically handsome. So pretty. So angry and genuinely concerned.
The trees swayed overhead. They were pretty too. And the snow—it was truly beautiful.
He piled more branches on the fire until the flames were three feet high. “How do you feel?”
She frowned. She wasn’t sure. Her brain felt fuzzy, but she was beginning to feel warmer, but that could be hypothermia too. It liked to fuck with your head.
He scowled at the mound of snow beside them. “The snow will need about an hour to settle before I dig out the quinzhee.”
Ah. Of course, he was building a quinzhee. She loved that word.
“I’m going to get the skis, my weapons, and anything else we dropped by the river. When I get back, I will climb into the bag with you to help warm you up. Please don’t freak out. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
Climb in here? She examined the bag with a frown. That was going to be interesting. She blinked, but he was already gone. She chewed her lip as worry assailed her. What if he fell in and she wasn’t there to help him?
She went to take a step and almost fell flat on her face. She’d forgotten she was inside a bag.
Yeah, she was hypothermic all right.
She jumped up and down then huddled before the fire, but the shivers didn’t stop.
Grrh.
Sebastian came back as promised and propped his weapons, and hers, against the bank and laid the three remaining skis across her sodden clothes so they didn’t blow away.
Then he began to strip.