Chapter 29
Somewhere in the back of Jacob’s mind an alarm clanged, telling him it wasn’t a good thing that his feet didn’t hurt anymore.
He shrugged away the annoying thought. What time was it? He looked up. Between the heavy gray clouds and the mountains stretching high all around him, it could’ve been twilight or high noon for all he could tell. He sniffed. Not like it mattered anyway.
Jacob loosened the reins and let Kip choose his way. He didn’t care where he was going as long as it was north. North into the wilderness, far away from everything and everyone. He had been hurt one time too many. He had decided to leave it all behind.
He’d been riding like this for eight days. He’d run out of food yesterday morning.
“At least we’ve got no end of water,” Jacob muttered sarcastically, glowering at the snow that had hindered his progress and made him completely miserable.
He kicked himself again for leaving his hat in the dirt at Kate’s feet.
He’d tied one of his spare shirts over his ears.
When was the last time he’d been warm? Unbidden, a memory blossomed inside of him, of holding Kate in his arms, kissing her fiercely, the heat of her body against his, his hand in her hair, the taste of her mouth.
He groaned. He came out here to forget her.
He didn’t want to think of her ever again.
Jacob booted Kip in the ribs, and his mount stumbled forward into an exhausted jog, head low, his hot breath snorting in great clouds of white in the frigid mountain air.
Why couldn’t he forget her? Kate haunted him, dogging his every step, her voice whispering in the pines, her face floating in his dreams. He shook his head angrily.
How could she? How could she let him declare his love for her like an absolute fool and not say anything?
How could she kiss him with such wild abandon, driving him nearly mad in his desire for her, then rip his heart out and stand by as some usurper snatched his dreams away?
Was it some cruel joke to her? Some sadistic game to stoke the fire of passion and laugh at him while he burned?
Time slipped around him as he stewed in his blinding anger.
Kip stumbled, almost falling to his knees, wrenching Jacob out of his furious thoughts.
“Sorry, bud,” he growled in self-recrimination and eased his wearied gelding to a slow walk, fighting the urge to gallop into the wild until they both dropped dead. “Guess it ain’t fair for you to suffer too.”
Jacob patted Kip’s trembling neck with a numb hand and took stock of his surroundings.
They were in a flat, narrow valley surrounded on all sides by forbidding, white-wreathed peaks.
When had it started to snow? Jacob adjusted his collar against the rising wind and grunted, realizing his fingers weren’t working properly.
He shoved his right hand in his armpit, wincing.
The lowering clouds, slate gray and portentously heavy, seemed to suck the light from the world.
Was it that close to sundown already? Jacob’s brow creased as he pulled Kip to a stop.
He swiveled his head. Nothing but a few stunted bushes could be seen in the already thickening snowfall.
A thrill of alarm shot through his body. He needed to find cover.
Jacob’s mind raced against the fading light.
Had he passed any sort of shelter? A copse of trees, or even a snowbank deep enough to burrow into?
Nothing. He cursed. He’d been too wrapped up in his anger to pay attention.
Jacob’s breath quickened, his frantic heart beat thundering in his ears.
A black, cancerous fear gnawed at his belly.
Flurries swirled angrily around them, thickening until he could barely see ten yards past Kip’s ears, the wind rising to a maddening keen, laughing at him, taunting him, shouting murderous threats in his ears.
Jacob panicked, booting Kip into a savage run, his mind overrun by rabid terror, fleeing into the darkening blizzard with Death biting at his heels.
Without warning, the ground opened up beneath them and he tumbled forward into the waiting blackness, a terrified yell ringing in his ears.