Chapter 23 #2
Too much. Too soon. Before he knew it, he’d be picking out flowers for their wedding the way he’d picked out Daisy Montana’s engagement ring for Jordan Krychek. They hadn’t even been on that coffee date yet.
He cleared his throat. “I just needed you to know that.”
She caught his hand. Squeezed his gloved fingers, and broke his heart. “Thank you.”
Nora stared at Sebastian’s handsome, earnest face.
Wanted to kiss him, not with lust but with a tenderness that scared her more than any surface desire.
For opening up and telling her something that was so obviously personal, for being vulnerable, for viewing her childhood trauma through a lens of understanding and compassion with just the correct amount of righteous vengeance.
When she’d woken earlier, she’d concluded that Sebastian had been a massive mistake and had been determined to put him firmly in the past, but now she felt herself actively falling in love with the guy.
This whole thing had been an emotional rollercoaster, and she wasn’t sure how it would end or if they’d be uninjured by the ride.
But she wasn’t ready to give him up yet.
The breeze zipped across her cheeks like razorblades and reminded her where they were.
She was ready to help find a little girl who needed them. To fulfill the promise she’d made to rescue her.
Chance stared at the two of them with his wet nose twitching, tail held high, impatient to get on with the day. The others were out of sight now, swallowed up by the trees.
She focused on what they needed to do. “Let me give Chance the scent article again, and we can get started.”
Sebastian removed the plastic bag containing Summer’s sneaker from his backpack and Nora took it from him and opened the seal.
Chance stuck his nose inside and gave an audible snort.
Once, twice. Then he lifted his head and sat waiting enthusiastically for the command, back-end wiggling as his tail windshield-wipered the snow.
She closed the bag and handed it back to Sebastian. His fingers brushed hers, and she wanted to lean into the moment and the man. But this wasn’t the place, and Summer needed their expertise, not their infatuation with one another.
“Find.” Her dog took a leap and almost pulled her over in his eagerness, forgetting he was on a leash. “Shit.” She untangled the line and switched her pole hand as Chance started to pull her backwards. “What the heck.”
Sebastian grabbed her, steadied her when she would have fallen.
Her pulse raced as she held Sebastian’s gaze. “He wants to go that way.”
Sebastian looked at where the others had gone. “Think it’s a mistake?”
Nora’s back went rigid, and her shoulders straightened.
One side of Sebastian’s lips curled into a smile he was trying to suppress. “I’m not doubting your dog, Nora. I’m simply asking for information.”
She forced herself to relax, to stop being so sensitive to perceived criticism. “He can smell something, and we need to check it out.”
He eyed the hillside. “Let’s cut up there and see if we find any sign.”
Ryan had come back into view, and Sebastian gave him hand signals telling him to hold this position and explaining what they were doing, even though they all wore earpieces for group comms. They were conserving the batteries because they had no idea how long they’d be out in the wilderness this time.
It was hard going uphill in skis, and Nora resisted the temptation to remove them and scramble up in her boots. Sebastian was right there beside her, patiently moving with no sense of urgency although there was a heightened sense of awareness in how he watched their surroundings.
About twenty feet up the steep incline, they came to a trail obviously used by wildlife but also displaying tracks that looked very much like a sled being dragged behind a pair of skis.
“Motherfucker.” Sebastian turned on the comms, pulled out the satphone, and put a call in to the IC.
“Ranger Deacon and Chance just led us to tracks on the east side of the valley opposite the NPS station. K9 is indicating northwest for Summer Eastman, and there are sled tracks. All teams need to move north of our intended search area.”
“Alpha Squad, stay in pursuit,” Novak instructed.
“We’ll recalculate based on this update and drop Omega Team north of the lake.
They can pick up Cadell and Hugo on the way too to assist with apprehension.
I’ll inform Beta Team, and they can turn around and shadow you from the other side of the valley in case Eastman changes direction.
Same plan as before but mirrored to the north. ”
“Understood.”
“Drones will be up shortly and will pick you up on the monitors first then follow the trail.”
“Roger that. Over and out.”
Nora’s heart raced. These tracks looked relatively fresh, the wind hadn’t eroded the edges much, which placed them within the past twelve hours. Which meant, assuming this was Summer—and Nora was 99.99 percent confident it was—Eastman was putting in a superhuman effort to escape.
Adrenaline surged. They had to find them before the snow started to fly again, before he crossed the border where they couldn’t follow. They had to move fast to have any hope of catching up with them.
“Let’s go.” She started to ski in the direction the sled had taken. Then decided to switch Chance’s leash for the longer one they used for training.
“Wait a second.” Sebastian was on the comms to their group.
She blocked out the conversation. “Come on.” She let Chance’s leash out until it was the full ten meters. The dog’s barely contained excitement meant he was pretty much towing her now.
Sebastian caught up to them quickly. “Nora, don’t forget who we’re dealing with here.”
She slowed.
Shit. She’d forgotten in the moment that while her target was Summer, Eastman had murdered two people and left explosives in the mine to hurt anyone hunting him.
She reined Chance in and slowed down, glanced behind her.
Sebastian looked worried but wasn’t ordering her about even though he was the team leader and had every right to.
The realization that he was trusting her to be a professional, to be a team player, made her pull off to one side and let him take the lead.
He wasn’t doubting her or Chance’s abilities.
He wasn’t babying her or looking at her with pity.
He was asking her to be careful because this fugitive was dangerous.
Chance had already proven he could track while walking behind another person, and the trail was as clear as a neon sign flashing in the dark.
She saw the others behind them now, pushing hard.
They’d acclimated to the higher altitudes over the past few days and their fitness showed.
She followed Sebastian but pretty soon, Cas had overtaken her with a quick salute, and the others were strung out behind.
It wasn’t lost on her that technically they were all destroying evidence by following the trail Eastman had made, but they needed all the advantages they could get to catch up with this guy as quickly as possible. Summer was their priority.
Chance wasn’t wrong.
She trusted her dog.
She heard a faint buzz in the air, the drone, that was soon replaced by the powerful throb of a chopper as it, too, came in their direction.
It flew beyond the western range, out of sight, heading north, and hopefully fooling Eastman into believing they weren’t onto him yet.
Chance gave her a happy grin. He had no idea that finding Summer wasn’t the end of their mission. He simply knew they were getting closer.
Two hours later, she was sweating and needed to take a short break. She touched her ear to turn on the comms and admitted reluctantly, “I need a few minutes. I can catch you up.”
They had the tracks. Technically, they didn’t need her anymore. She didn’t want to hold them back.
“Negative. Grady, Donnelly, scout ahead. Then take five until we get there.”
Everyone slowed. Nora shucked her backpack and pulled out Chance’s water bowl, popping it out and filling it with water.
Sebastian offered her his water bottle, and she chugged it down, not noticing Cas’s expression until after she’d wiped her lips.
She handed the bottle back to Sebastian and hitched a brow. “What?”
The man smiled. “Nothing.”
Sebastian handed her an energy bar, which she took a chunk out of while she fed Chance small pieces of his favorite pepperoni sausage.
“Any news?” As the words left her mouth an explosion rocked the side of the mountain and boomed around the surrounding granite theater. Her mouth went dry, and she looked up and heard the distinctive crack of thousands of tons of snow giving way to gravity.
Fuck.
“Avalanche!”