He’ll take down their pursuers...

If she gets them out of the wilderness alive.

Pursued through the wilderness after an ambush that left his partner dead, Anchorage police officer Micah Reed stumbles on his assailants’ other target—backcountry tracker Kate Dawson. His best friend’s sister’s just the person to help him outrun the criminals…and solve his case. But with their pursuers closing in, can they rely on each other’s strength to survive this hazardous chase?

SARAH VARLAND lives near the mountains in Alaska, where she loves writing, hiking, kayaking and spending time with her family. She’s happily married to her college sweetheart, John, and is the mom of two active and adorable boys, Joshua and Timothy, as well as another baby in heaven. Sarah has been writing almost since she could hold a pencil and especially loves writing romantic suspense, where she gets to combine her love for happily-ever-afters, inspired by her own, with her love for suspense, inspired by her dad, who has spent a career in law enforcement. You can find Sarah online through her blog, espressoinalatteworld.blogspot.com.

Also By Sarah Varland

Treasure Point Secrets

Tundra Threat

Cold Case Witness

Silent Night Shadows

Perilous Homecoming

Mountain Refuge

Alaskan Hideout

Alaskan Ambush

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Alaskan Ambush

Sarah Varland

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09643-0

ALASKAN AMBUSH

© 2019 Sarah Varland

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

MILLS & BOON

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

“Almost there.” Every step they took, Kate grew more cautious.

“Where will we come out?”

“At the main trailhead.”

Micah nodded. “Okay, that works. You have a car there?”

“Yes. Not much farther.”

They moved into another area thick with trees that Micah recognized from years ago. Another couple hundred yards and they’d be to the trailhead. They just had to navigate this last section, steep with rocks littering the dirt pathway.

Kate slipped at the top of an incline, kicked one of the bigger rocks. Micah caught her, alarmed at the way he reacted to the feeling of her in his arms, even for a second.

He stayed still for a minute, with Kate, waiting for the rock to finish crashing down the hill, on edge and alert in case someone heard the sound and attacked them.

But the attack didn’t come in the form he was ready for.

Instead a concussive blast shook the mountain beneath them, loosening more rock.

Kate screamed as the pieces fell together in Micah’s mind.

Someone had set a trip wire for them.

Dear Reader,

Thanks for coming back to Moose Haven with me! I have had so much fun setting these books in a fictional town in Alaska’s very real Kenai Peninsula, a place I love to go to get away. If you ever find yourself in Alaska and want to pretend you’re in Moose Haven, feel free to visit Seward, Alaska, one of the best towns I’ve ever been to. It’s much like the fictional town it inspired, tucked between the mountains and Resurrection Bay.

Writing Kate’s story was a challenge. She’s been one of my favorite of the Dawson siblings since I came up with the series idea (although probably they’re all my favorite at different times), but when it came time to write her book, it was hard to get her to open up to me as a character—she’s not an easy woman to figure out. It got me thinking about how different we all are, as I started thinking about the people Kate reminds me of, and my own personality differences from her. I love the way God made us all so unique and this book was a lot of fun because I got to make what I feel like is a pretty unique heroine. I wish Kate was real; I’d see if she’d go hiking with me and teach me some of her backcountry skills.

One facet of Kate’s personality was the way she was shaped by trauma in her past. We all have our own levels of grief and it takes just as much bravery to work through the ones in your life as it did for Kate to face that avalanche. I hope and pray that whatever you’ve faced in your past, you come to see how God can use it for good and that it brings you closer to Him.

I love hearing from readers! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a challenging writing week and then opened my computer to find an encouraging letter from a reader. You can email me at sarahvarland@gmail.com, or you can find me online at facebook.com/sarahvarlandauthor, where I post writing news and a lot of Alaska photos.

Sara Varland

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

—Philippians 1:6

To my grandmother Kate Bryan. I borrowed your name for this book heroine, and maybe a tiny bit of your spunk, too. You’ve been in heaven for years, but it didn’t seem right to dedicate this one to anyone else. Thanks for all you taught me.

Acknowledgments

To my family, THANK YOU for everything you do, book related and not. I love you all. Thanks to my friends for being supportive. Special thanks also to Mark and Penny Agnew for that talk over brownies that helped lead to this book. Mark, thanks for the information about trackers—I tried to capture their spirit with Kate’s character, but any mistakes are mine.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

Acknowledgments

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

ONE

The gunshot cracked loud in the snowy silence, confirming Kate Dawson’s worst fear: someone wanted her dead.

So she ran. She didn’t look around, didn’t try to identify where it had come from, because it would almost be impossible to tell in the winter darkness with trees surrounding her, and if she didn’t run, she might get hit.

Dying wasn’t an option for her, especially on someone else’s terms. No, if Kate died young, it would be from her taking her outdoor adventures one step too far, not from whatever it was she’d stumbled into when she’d gone home tonight. Whoever was after her had been in her house in town, had ransacked it completely, like they were looking for something. Kate didn’t have what they wanted, didn’t have a clue what it might be, but knew she needed to get out of there fast. Shivers had run up and down her spine on the walk from her house to her car; she’d known even then she was being watched.

She ran faster, legs burning as she powered through the powdery snow toward her cabin, the one place she might have a chance to escape. Kate dodged another birch tree and powered up the last hill before her cabin. Less than a quarter of a mile. She could do it, even with the backpack on her back. She’d never been so thankful to be in good shape.

As the bag slammed in rhythm against her back, she called herself every kind of fool for not mentioning to her brother Noah that she’d felt like she was being followed. She knew he was already worried enough that her home had been broken into. As chief of the Moose Haven police, he would have known what to do and would have mobilized the entire department to help her. Except she hadn’t known what kind of trouble she was in, hadn’t been sure if he could help and hadn’t wanted to bring danger to her family’s doorstep by going to their lodge.

So instead she’d driven around town, trying to lose whatever tail she had, and finally parked her car at the Hope Mountain Trailhead and headed for the safety of her cabin. Her plan had been to stay for a few days, try to figure out who could be after her and why, and alert Noah via the satphone she carried in her pack.

Something else to be thankful for in addition to her fitness level—she was always prepared in the backcountry.

Another pop and snow flew less than ten feet to the right of Kate. She could see her cabin now, not that it did her any good. Or did it? She might be able to hole up there. She had a .44 in her backpack in case any confused bears had awakened from hibernation for a snack. But that seemed like a bad plan. Unnecessarily dangerous.

Still, it was all she had. Get in the cabin, shut the door, get her own weapon out as fast as possible.

Fear clawed at her throat, made it hard to breathe, and Kate hated the sensation. She was rarely afraid for her safety—years taking risks in the backcountry had seen to that—but she hated feeling powerless.

She swallowed hard. Braced herself for the fight.

Because a person couldn’t run forever—she’d spent the last decade denying that was true. But out here, facing a cold-blooded killer’s bullets?

The only way through a problem was through it, just like her dad had always taught her.

With a last burst of speed, she made for the door, shut it behind her and took a deep breath before bending down to get into her backpack, remove the gun and the satphone. It was past time to call Noah.

As she did so, she looked around at her cabin, ready to assess the scene like she would in one of the disaster scenarios in one of the backcountry survival classes she’d attended for years. This was different than facing the elements, or even wildlife, but hopefully the skills transferred. They were all she had. The cabin was destroyed, just like the main floor of her house. The cushions had been ripped from the wood-framed futon that sat against the wall with the window that looked out into the woods. That would be the most likely place for an attack against her to originate from, if her assailant didn’t come straight in the door. The drawer of the little side table had been pulled out and lay cracked on the floor and the books had all been pulled off her bookshelf.

Kate had her house, her car, her phone, a camera, this cabin. That was the extent of her worldly possessions, at least those that might be worth stealing. Not that this felt like simple stealing to her at all. This wasn’t a crime of opportunity. She was being targeted.

Why?

She ran her hands along the cold wooden grips of the .44, took a deep breath and hoped she’d be strong enough to use it if she had to. Kate hated the idea of killing anything, especially a person, but if someone broke in here intent on killing her...she wasn’t opposed to self-defense.

Another gunshot, this one so loud she knew her pursuers must be right outside the cabin. But if so, why hadn’t it hit the cabin, shattered a window?

More gunshots, these farther away.

Kate tightened her grip on the .44, frowned. Two sets of shooters. Both shooting at her, or shooting at each other?

The shots paused.

The cabin door creaked.

Kate raised the .44, hands trembling more than she wanted to admit, and waited for her shot.

* * *

The cold of the snow was the first thing that registered in Micah Reed’s mind when he came to. He blinked his eyes against the darkness, could make out the shapes of dark trees around him.

How long had he been unconscious? He rubbed his throbbing head, the blackness threatening to pull him under again. He wouldn’t let it. He had to get up, get away from the scene of the ambush that had taken place. He and his partner had thought they’d been prepared to make this arrest, but something had gone wrong.

Micah focused on the pain in his upper arm, willing it to help him stay conscious, grounded in reality. It gave him something to grit his teeth against, another reason to fight. He struggled to sit up, to get his bearings and figure out how far he’d made it from Jared Delaney’s cabin.

His partner of three years was lying dead somewhere behind him, on the cold Alaskan ground, shot dead by criminals they’d been attempting to apprehend and arrest.

He still didn’t know what had gone wrong, though there would be plenty of time to analyze every aspect later on when he had to fill out the incident paperwork. But right now all Micah knew was that they’d been so sure they had had what they needed to arrest Jared and Christopher Delaney to take them down for their part in a ring of thefts from several places in Anchorage: museums, high-end gift shops, even hotel lobbies displaying Native Alaskan artwork that the group later sold. They’d been confident the two brothers were the heads of the operation, though not desperate enough to pose a huge danger.

Of course every arrest had danger in it. Everything he did as an Anchorage police officer did—traffic stops included. It was part of the job, a risk inherent in it, and one Micah had accepted. He’d known one day he might die doing what he thought was right, protecting people who were more and more resentful of that protection.

He hadn’t counted on losing a fellow officer, though. He’d assumed his commitment to not let that happen would be enough, would somehow keep those around him safe.

He’d thought wrong.

Micah swallowed hard. Thinking was good, it was better than letting himself fade back into unconsciousness, but he needed to get up, get backing this, do what he could to arrest them on his own. Now that he knew they were willing to kill...making the arrest solo wasn’t ideal, but he’d do what he had to do.

He pushed himself up, the cold of the snow stinging his bare hands as he did so. His gloves...where...? That’s right, he had taken them off when they’d approached the cabin and shoved them in his pockets. He felt for them now but they were gone. Probably lost in the pursuit, when they’d realized their tip was a setup and the Delaneys were waiting... When Stephen had gotten shot and Micah had managed to drag him away from the scene only to watch his life ebb away under a spruce tree...

He owed it to Stephen to make sure justice was done here.

Although...

He forced his mind to focus, to go back to the ambush. The one where they should have been able to arrest the Delaneys, put an end to their crimes and tie the entire case up with a nice bow. But the Delaneys’ cabin had been guarded by far more than two men. He wasn’t sure how many. Four? Six? Only three well-prepared and well-armed men? He didn’t know. Easy enough to explain, as the Delaneys had men working under them. But something rubbed him wrong about that, his mind wouldn’t let that answer be sufficient.

It hadn’t seemed like the Delaneys were the ones calling the shots. They weren’t the ones yelling orders; there’d been someone else, a man, but his voice was too foggy in Micah’s memory to do any good.

Which meant they’d missed something in their investigation. Missed someone.

Micah rubbed his hands on his pants, glanced down at the blood running down his arm. The wound had stopped bleeding when he was still but had picked up some now that he was using it again.

He needed to get moving. He could feel the edge of his mind growing fuzzy, maybe shock setting in, maybe the beginnings of hypothermia, he didn’t know. They’d come prepared for the hike to Jared Delaney’s cabin but at the last minute he’d left his backpack with some gear behind in the patrol car. Time had been of the essence and he’d thought it would be better not to be weighed down by too many safeguards.

Stephen had protested, as usual. They balanced each other out, Stephen’s safety-conscious streak and Micah’s willingness to take chances. They’d both had on their vests, should have been well enough protected had the Delaneys and whoever was with them not had such a high-caliber weapon. Why the round had hit Stephen and not Micah, who’d been only eighteen inches away, he didn’t know. The men had been aiming at both of them, Micah knew that, but guilt still ate at him. Why Stephen? Why not him?

But he couldn’t begin to think it through right now. He owed it to his partner to finish what they’d started.

He couldn’t think about this anymore. He had to do something. Find the Delaneys. No—foolish with only one officer. Better to focus his energies on getting off this mountain—ironically enough, called Hope Mountain—and into Moose Haven to see a doctor.

He’d thought he’d be able to come down here for a few hours, arrest the Delaneys and leave. When he and Stephen had discovered the Delaneys’ connection to the little Kenai Peninsula town and found evidence that their cabin on the outskirts had been used for illegal activities related to their theft ring, they’d thought it was a straightforward mission. Find the cabin, arrest the two brothers. No trip into Moose Haven proper necessary.

Nothing had gone as planned. And Micah felt like he’d been sent straight back to square one.

Now instead of avoiding the town and the people in it, he was going to have to head straight into the heart of his past, back where he’d been born and spent the first sixteen years of his life before his parents had moved to Anchorage for work and taken him with them.

Micah kept aware as he walked, scanning the woods, which were darkening. He glanced at his watch. Three o’clock, almost sunset here in the middle of January, at least not long before it. The darkness would make it easier for him to hike down undetected, but he didn’t relish the idea of finding his way in the deepening blackness. He had a flashlight—that hadn’t fallen from his belt, thankfully—but he couldn’t use it without risking detection. Micah wasn’t sure if they were after him or not, but figured there was a good chance. They wouldn’t want to leave anyone alive.

He didn’t like feeling hunted.

Micah crept along as quietly as he could, feeling keenly the difference between apprehending suspects on the city streets he was accustomed to and this kind of backcountry work. The last time he’d spent substantial time hiking on a mountain like this had been in high school, on this mountain, before his life had changed course dramatically. Back when he was practically an honorary member of Moose Haven’s Dawson family.

He wasn’t far from the Dawson lodge now. If he got down this mountain—no, when, because failure wasn’t an option—the first place he’d go was to find Noah and talk to his friend for the second time in fifteen years. He’d called Noah last week to give him a brief rundown on the Delaneys, since it seemed they were using Moose Haven as a base of operations even though most of their crimes were actually perpetrated in and around Anchorage. If Noah had been surprised to hear from him, he’d hid it, treated him the same as he had when the two were inseparable, chasing each other through these woods playing cops and robbers, honing their sense of justice as they played as kids.

Movement in front of him caught his attention, off to the left in the trees. He squinted in the gathering darkness. One of the Delaneys, but he couldn’t tell which. Where was the other brother? It was too much to hope for that he’d been injured during their earlier skirmish, because Micah had been coherent enough to know that only he and his partner had been hit by the bullets that flew.

He hated it when it felt like the bad guys were winning.

Keeping quiet, he crept toward the shadowed figure, followed him at a distance. Was he tracking Micah, but poorly? Or had he given him up for dead and was doing something else now?

That’s when he saw another figure, up ahead in the trail, just obscured enough by a stand of trees to be safe for now, but wouldn’t be for much longer if he or she was who Delaney was tracking. It was a woman, petite, but in excellent shape given the pace she was keeping. It wasn’t quite a run yet, but close, and she held herself tensely, like any second she’d sprint away.

Run. He tried to silently will her, eyes darting from her to Delaney, both of them too far away from Micah to do any good.

As he watched them, his foot caught on something. He glance down—tree root—and in the time it took him to look back up, a shot was fired.

Had Delaney fired it?

Micah assumed so, because the woman, whoever she was, was at a sprint now. One of the brothers must have fired the shot. Her pace in this snow was impressive; Micah looked at where Delaney had been.

Nothing.

He’d lost him in the dim midwinter light.

Biting back his frustration, he unholstered his own service weapon, which was thankfully still at his side, and moved forward. His arm throbbed and he realized he’d be shooting with mostly one hand, since his other arm was not able to grip as tightly as he was accustomed to.

He hurried through the woods, staying parallel to the trail, watching.

The sound of another gunshot gave him a chance to pinpoint Delaney’s location. There. Not far from the cabin the woman was running into.

Micah couldn’t let him reach that cabin.

He fired two rounds at Delaney when he had a clear shot, thankful that the last bit of daylight was enough. Any darker and he’d have had no choice but to put his weapon away. Micah had learned gun safety here in the woods, from Alaskans who took their weapons too seriously not to be safe with them.

Delaney fired back, reminding him of earlier, outside the Delaneys’ cabin. Remnants of the firefight echoed in Micah’s mind and he swallowed hard, his partner’s yell so loud in his ear he could almost promise it was happening right now.

He couldn’t get derailed by that, had to focus on right now.

Micah returned fire. God, help me keep it together. Make him stop shooting, and let me check on that woman. His prayers were disjointed but sincere. He shouldn’t be alive right now; that bullet his partner had taken had been meant for him. And this had been primarily his case.

God must have some purpose in keeping him alive. And that meant He wasn’t finished with Micah yet.

Help me, God.

Seconds passed. Nothing. Only silence.

Micah swallowed hard, moved through the trees toward the cabin, around to the opposite side where Delaney had been shooting. Darkness was almost all encompassing now, providing him the cover to get to the door. Hopefully.

He pushed at the door, surprised it wasn’t locked.

And found himself staring down the barrel of a .44 Magnum.

Held not by one of the Delaneys, but by a woman who looked uncannily like a girl he’d known fifteen years ago. She wore a winter hat that her dark hair spilled out of at the bottom, in silky brown waves he’d always wondered what it would be like to touch. Her eyes were mossy green. Focused right on him.

“Kate?” He barely breathed the word, heart squeezing in his chest.

TWO

Of all the things Kate might have expected would happen in quiet Moose Haven, getting shot at was not one of them. She’d once longed for a life in law enforcement, and if that had happened, maybe it would make more sense. But right up there with being shot at was seeing Micah Reed again. That is, if the uniformed man in front of her, decked out in Anchorage Police Department gear, was Micah. Could the guy with the well-over-six-foot frame and broad shoulders really be the same kid who’d hung out with her older brother and practically been the third Dawson brother in two years of high school?

And then he’d just left. Not even bothered to say goodbye to her. Apparently she’d never been more than Noah’s pesky younger sister, despite thinking they might have been friends.

Okay, and despite the fact that her ridiculous fourteen-year-old heart had harbored a small crush and wondered if they might be something more. When they were older. If he had stayed.

“What are you doing here?” She lowered the revolver slightly even as she glanced at the window, wondering if the person shooting at her was still outside.

Or if he was right here in her cabin. She raised the gun slightly again, heart pounding in her chest. It was impossible that Micah could be the shooter, wasn’t it? Time could change people; she knew that better than most. She couldn’t assume she was safe just because she’d known him years ago.

“You mind putting that away?” Micah stepped inside, letting the door shut behind him.

His voice was even, not in the least flustered, but he was out of breath and now that she’d had a minute to study him she could see that he was bleeding from one arm. Not the one holding his weapon, but his right hand.

“Are you the one shooting at me?”

“No.”

“Do you know who is?”

“Yes.”

Kate lowered the gun. “All right, tell me.”

Micah shook his head, holstered his own weapon. “There’s no time. I don’t know where he went but he saw you come in here and you can be sure if he intended to kill you earlier, he’s not going to leave you alone until he’s...” His voice trailed off and Kate raised her eyebrows as she studied the expression on his face. If she’d had any questions about whether or not he still saw her as a kid, his friend’s little sister, they were answered in his eyes and his hesitation. He was still trying to protect her, still saw her as a child, or at the very least like someone fragile who needed special care.

“Killed me?” she finished.

He winced like she’d hit him. Instead of feeling reassured, knowing that he did care about her well-being, she was frustrated. She was tired of her brothers treading lightly around her, trying to protect her because she was the youngest Dawson. Because she’d been through events that had almost taken her from her family.

Those things had happened after Micah had left town. But small-town gossip was a strong force and news had probably found its way to Anchorage. Now he’d be overprotective like all the rest. As long as he didn’t whisper, like some people did, that would be enough for her. She’d heard someone in the grocery store just last week. That’s the one, Kate Dawson. She never did seem the same after that avalanche...

“So what’s the plan?” she asked him, because he knew who they were dealing with. Generally she preferred to be the one making decisions. A lifetime of leading search-and-rescue work had gotten her used to it.

“Stay out of the Delaneys’ way until I can get back to Moose Haven and call for backup and arrest them.”

“Who are the Delaneys?” Kate knew everyone in Moose Haven, at least the year-round residents. The town grew in size substantially in the summer and she didn’t claim to know all the tourists who had seasonal cabins around the area. But this was winter. Not exactly high tourist season.

“It’s a long story. Seriously, we have to go. He’s out there somewhere.”

“He didn’t hit us earlier, so he can’t be that good a shot.” Kate tried to keep her voice even, rolled her eyes for effect, even though her insides were shaking. For all the high-risk situations she’d been in, she’d never been shot at before. She didn’t like it at all. Put this adventure down on the “do not repeat” list.

“They killed my partner.”

She swallowed hard, no response seemed appropriate. Her flippant comment about him not being a good shot stung now, but she didn’t know how to make it right.

“I need your help, Kate. I wouldn’t ask if I had any choice, and I’d rather just whisk you away and keep you safe and be some kind of superhero, but I can’t.”

“I’m not asking you to—”

“I know. But I’m asking you.”

“What do you want?” Again, she struggled with her voice, to keep her fears, her feelings out of it.

“We need to get off this mountain without getting shot. We need to get to town so I can report everything that’s happened.”

“I have a satphone. We can call now.”

“It’s enabled with tracking, correct?” Micah asked.

Kate saw his point. She had the phone off now, but when it was turned on she had it set to give regular updates about her GPS location. It wouldn’t take someone exceptionally good with technology to access that data. And while she didn’t know if the people after her were tracking her, it wasn’t worth the risk.

Micah continued, “When we were kids you knew these trails even better than Noah and I did. You notice things other people don’t, Kate. At least you always used to. Since I found you out here, alone, in the dark, I assume you haven’t changed.”

The admiration in his voice didn’t escape her notice and Kate felt her face warm with the praise. Should what he thought mean so much to her still? Whether or not she wanted to deny it, it did.

But he was wrong about one thing—she had changed. But not in that way. She was still the best tracker Moose Haven had, and she appreciated that Micah remembered, had confidence in her that wasn’t swayed by her small size, her gender. She’d had to convince more than one new SAR volunteer that she was, indeed, in charge of their team and capable of it. Kate nodded. “I can get us off the mountain.”

“I’d appreciate it. If there was any other way, if I could lock you up here and know you’d be safe and find my way down alone...”

“But you can’t.”

“I know. But just...know that I would.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I hate that I’m dragging you into this.”

“You aren’t.”

The way he narrowed his eyes made it clear to Kate she wasn’t the only one who struggled with past familiarity with someone warring against a suspicious nature. Micah Reed, suspicious? She could see him as a cop. He’d always wanted to help people and it was a way to do that, a noble one. But he had been one of the most trusting people she’d known, back then.

Maybe they’d both changed.

Maybe not for the better.

“Seriously, Micah.” His name rolled so easily off her tongue, and she wondered for half a second how it would feel to start a friendship again with this man, who’d been one of her closest childhood friends—she’d always found it easier to be friends with boys than other girls. “Someone is after me. I’m already dragged in.”

“Who?”

Kate raised her eyebrows. “The guy who was shooting at me. So are you going to tell me who he is?”

“Later. I have questions too, but if we don’t leave now...”

Micah moved toward the door and Kate followed, then hesitated. “Actually maybe it’s better if we stay. You know?”

“Why?”

“He hasn’t shot at us lately. We have shelter here. He could be waiting outside the door.”

Micah shook his head. “No. We need to leave.”

“Why?”

“Call it gut instinct.”

“I don’t believe in instinct—I believe in observations and making choices based on those.”

Was that a snort she heard from him? “Kate, come with me. I really think—”

A sudden shot shattered the glass, which rained down on the cabin floor in a spray of shards. Kate felt the world slow as Micah reached out, took her in his arms and moved between her and where the shot had come from all in one smooth motion. “Run. I’ll follow you. But pick the best, most isolated path down this mountain that you can.”

Kate nodded, and went for the door.

“On my count,” Micah said as another bullet came in the open window and pinged off the edge of one of her metal stools. “One... Two...”

“Three.”

She shoved the door open, stepped into the blackness.

Before her eyes had even adjusted, she began to run, determined to use every ounce of energy she had if it meant they could outpace whoever was after them. The moon had been full only a few nights before and even now as it was waning, providing enough light for her to see through the darkened shadows the trees created against the bright white-blue of the moonlit snow. Kate dodged a long-hanging branch, wound through the spruce trees and did her best to bury them so deeply in the brush that no one would be able to find their trail, despite the fresh snow. Even if someone did find the trail, Kate already had a plan for that. She could circle the area where they camped tonight, create some false tracks. Anything that would throw off whoever was following them.

Because they weren’t getting off the mountain tonight. And Kate knew enough from her basic first-aid classes to know that even if he’d rather press on and play hero, Micah would need to rest at least for a short time to give his body a chance to recuperate. The gunshot was only the beginning of what he’d been through, if Kate’s guess was correct. She had a small first-aid kit in her backpack that she never went into the mountains without. When they could stop, she’d do what she could for him.

“Go faster! Don’t wait on me—I can keep up.”

Kate had already been pushing as hard as she could—but she found another gear somewhere, avoided a tree root that curved upward enough it stuck out of the snow and took a sharp left turn.

“Be careful!” She barely raised her voice above a whisper, not wanting to give away their location, but wanting to warn him as the trail she’d picked suddenly sloped downhill. Kate kept running. She paused for a second at a drop-off, only about five feet, then climbed down it before picking up her pace.

A glance back now and then confirmed Micah was staying with her. She didn’t see the shooter anywhere.

Kate didn’t know how long she ran, only knew that by the time she felt she had no choice but to slow down, her heart was beating out a crazy rhythm and her lungs were burning for air. She took a deep breath of it, reached into her backpack pocket for her water bottle and took a long swig.

“Why did you stop?”

“Because some of us didn’t have to pass a police fitness test and I needed to breathe.”

“You’re the very definition of an Alaska girl.” He surveyed her doubtfully. “You aren’t going easy on me because of my arm?”

In the chaos, the urgency, she’d actually forgotten about his arm for a little while, besides the reminder to herself that they’d need to stop eventually. He honestly seemed to be concerned that she’d gone too easy on him, though, which was nice. She’d rather be overestimated than underestimated and she’d had plenty of the second in her life, first as a kid trying to keep up with her brothers and their friends, and even as an adult woman working search and rescue.

“No, I have to breathe.” She took a few more breaths then looked behind them, listening but hearing nothing other than the sounds of scraping spruce branches in the wind. For the moment, there was a brief calm.

Rather than being reassured, though, Kate felt her chest tighten, then her whole body. Her muscles were all ready for fight or flight, and probably would be for some time.

“Tell me who you were after. What are these guys like?” she asked around panting breaths.

Micah frowned. “I said we could talk later.”

She shook her head. “Tell me now. Knowing a person I’m tracking, knowing what they’re like, routes they’re likely to take based on what I can gather of their personalities—it all helps. I’ve never tried to avoid being tracked, but I assume it’s the same concept in reverse.”

He nodded in understanding, shifted on his feet as he thought. “Thieves and smugglers. We thought they were the heads of the organization but now it seems they’re just extremely talented but lower ranking. No known activities besides their illegal ones. No legitimate jobs.”

“Not from Moose Haven, right?”

“One of them has a cabin here, but no.”

“They’re from Anchorage then?”

“Wasilla. But their crimes have mostly been committed in Anchorage, with a few in other locations. Fairbanks. Juneau.”

“Sounds pretty far-reaching.” She nodded, running through criminal profiles again in her mind, trying to get a handle on what they’d be like. “All right, ready?”

“If you are.”

She paused. “Can I see about your arm first?”

He shook his head. “Later. I want more space between us and whoever is shooting.”

Kate started running again, hoping the people pursuing them would lose the trail in the darkness. She was almost tempted to pray; she was so desperate to not be caught. The idea of how close she’d already been to several bullets—she didn’t want to think about it. People knew she was tough; she’d certainly heard her siblings brag about that many times and while it always made her smile, it wasn’t entirely true. She was tough in one context—the woods and the mountains and the backcountry. The backcountry could kill you, but it was logical, usually played by the rules. Even wildlife behavior could be predicted to a degree and Kate had had several run-ins with moose and bears that had ended well for everyone because she’d understood the rules too and played by them.

These men who were after them now?

They didn’t play by the rules.

And that was exactly why she was terrified.

* * *

Following Kate, Micah ran through the darkness, through the trees that were thick on this lower half of the mountain. He supposed he should be thankful they weren’t above the tree line, where there would be no way to avoid detection and nowhere to take shelter.

The way he figured it, they’d have to stop for at least an hour or so later. Neither had to sleep if they didn’t feel like it, but they’d need to eat and rest a little before continuing on. And he needed to pack something around his arm, since over the time he ran it leaked a little more blood. It wasn’t enough to cause problems, at least he didn’t think so, but when they could stop, he’d take better care of it. The pain was a wave of intensity as he ran, but with enough focus he could ignore it, power through it. It was when they stopped that the constant throbbing made him grit his teeth.

His mind turned to his partner again and he felt anger seethe in his middle. The arrest should have gone smoothly. They had done their due diligence to assure that it would and it had still gone wrong and they’d missed something, gotten a huge part of the case wrong.

Who had the third man been? The other man with the Delaneys? He wore a mask over his face, so all Micah knew was that he was a male of average build—not much to go on especially in a state where men outnumbered women.

He felt his frustration grow, this time with himself. Even with his partner, Stephen too, though that made him feel worse—once people were dead weren’t you supposed to think only good things about them? Either way, neither of them realized there was a high-ranking third person involved in this operation; while Micah knew if he was honest that it hadn’t been his fault or Stephen’s that they’d missed it, the criminals had just hidden it well, it still burned that they’d made a mistake, been outnumbered.

Lost one of the good guys.

Micah shook the ache, the events of the last few hours out of his mind. The loss of his partner stung, cut deep. But this wasn’t the time for grieving. He owed it to Stephen to finish what they’d started. Right now that meant focusing on following the woman in front of him. He’d never have thought he’d run into Kate Dawson up here, and wished in a way it was anybody else. Besides Noah, his best friend growing up, Kate had been his favorite of the Dawson siblings. He’d admired her daring, her ability to keep up even though she was two years younger than he was and even more years behind her oldest brother. She wasn’t like other girls he’d known then and she wasn’t like any women he’d met since.

He hated that she was in danger now.

Although if he was honest, she was one of the best-equipped people to handle it. The Kate he’d known years ago didn’t back down, didn’t give up. She seemed even tougher now.

And now that he was down one partner and running for his life, Kate was exactly the kind of person he needed on his team. Already she’d saved him from finding his way down the mountain in the dark, and her determined attitude was infectious too. He could use some more of it right now.

“I’ve got to stop soon.”

Kate slowed her pace, came back to where he was, looked around as though Micah himself hadn’t been keeping himself highly aware of their surroundings and looked at his arm. “Pain getting worse?”

“No but the bleeding keeps starting up again.”

She wrinkled her nose.

“You don’t do blood?”

“It’s not my favorite, but I can handle it.” She looked to the right, then behind them. “We are about half a mile from where I’d wanted to stop. Can you make it that far?”

“Yes.” Especially when he was looking at a pair of dark hazel green eyes practically daring him, challenging him.

He hadn’t been fair to her earlier, when he’d thought about her as a kid. She’d always done more than keep up, just like now. She was the one who set the pace.

The half mile to Kate’s planned stopping place was slower going than the trail had been earlier, and more than once a spruce branch that Kate had pushed back without holding it slapped Micah.

“I’m sorry. I’m usually alone—I’m not used to thinking about someone behind me.”

“You just go. I’m fine. I can handle it.”

So she’d listened. The trees were thicker here, and he suspected Kate wanted to make sure their trail was as difficult to find and follow as possible since they’d soon be stopping to rest.

Micah was already making plans for that—one of them would be awake at all times. Unless the situation changed for the worst, he might even take a quick nap. He’d seen the way Kate handled that .44. She could more than handle protecting them for a short time; that was how confident she’d seemed with her weapon. And it was a good thing because he needed a nap, at least half an hour. He’d lost count now of how many hours he’d been awake but it had to be edging toward or past the twenty-four-hour mark.

Just as he was starting to question how well Kate measured distance, the woods cleared. Something ahead of them made a hill in the snow, but he couldn’t quite tell what. He looked around the clearing, but didn’t see anywhere that seemed like a good place to stop. It would be difficult to find where someone would start attempting to track them from, with all the tight trails through the trees Kate had taken, but they also needed shelter. He didn’t see anything that fit the bill.

“Where were you planning...” Micah trailed off as he watched Kate walk over to the mound and a grin spread across his face. A cabin. She’d found them an old cabin, sunken down into the earth and now covered with snow. They’d be protected, sheltered because no one who wasn’t looking for this would see it, and warm. A good thing since they couldn’t risk starting a fire for fear of being detected.

He glanced back at their tracks, noting how fast the still-falling snow was covering them. Another hour or so and all evidence of them being here would be erased.

“How did you know about this?” He didn’t even try to keep the admiration out of his voice and Kate could tell too—he knew from the way she smiled back at him, obviously proud of herself.

“I’ve hiked all over this mountain, on every marked trail I’ve found and some unmarked ones.” She shrugged.

“Why?”

Another shrug. “I like it out here. Life makes more sense.”

Interesting. He’d love to follow up on that later. The Dawsons lived a charmed life—cozy lodge, warm family. Even though their parents had died, the siblings’ bond remained strong and it seemed they’d all worked through their grief and were living pretty happy lives. Not like Micah. His parents had given him everything he needed in the physical sense, but their preoccupation with their jobs had kept them from spending time with him. As an adult he saw them maybe once a year. They always sent a Christmas card, though.

No, not like the charmed life the Dawsons lived at all.

What about Kate’s life could she not make sense of unless she was in the woods?

He followed Kate’s tracks to the cabin and helped her dig out the snow in front of the door enough that they could open it without letting a pile of snow into the structure, but not so much that it would make an obvious entrance to the snow covered mound if trouble did happen to follow them here.

“We should be safe here.” She nodded, looked around one more time, then climbed down into the cabin.

Micah followed, closing the door behind him and looking around. There was a stove in the corner. The cabin itself was decades old and in disrepair, but there was a box of blankets in the corner that looked like someone had put them there recently, at least in the last few years.

Kate didn’t seem surprised by the box.

“Did you put that there?”

She nodded. “I don’t know how many other people know this place is here, but I figured if anyone got into trouble they could use some supplies. Not everyone is as prepared as they should be out here.”

“Is that something your parents taught you? I don’t remember them spending too much time in the woods.”

Kate seemed to consider the question and finally nodded. “In some ways, yes. You know they loved it up here, but they didn’t venture into the woods often, so they didn’t teach us everything we would eventually need to know. I sort of just learned from experience.”

Her tone said there was a lot behind the word experience, but she didn’t owe him stories of her high school years and later. He’d been the one to leave town and no, he hadn’t had a choice about that, but in an age of internet and social media, it wouldn’t have been hard to keep in touch. He’d been the one to choose not to. He hadn’t wanted to watch her grow up into the woman he’d already been able to tell she was becoming when he left. While they’d only been friends, his feelings toward her had started shifting just before he left in a way that made him resist the idea of watching her fall in love with someone, get married, raise babies.

And know that it wasn’t him.

He swallowed hard, the truth about his past feelings for Kate something he hadn’t wanted to deal with then, and still didn’t want to deal with now. It was better if he kept her at a distance, though being back in her town and in such close proximity was making that a challenge.

Kate spoke up, saved him from his own mind. “Some of my experience has come through search-and-rescue work. That takes up most of my time.” It was like she’d read his mind and decided to answer at least one of the questions he hadn’t asked. Micah was grateful. She spoke up again. “Tell me a little more about who these men are and why they’re after me.”

“I wish I could do the second, but I have no idea. You’ve never met the Delaneys before? Either of the brothers?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Tell me everything about today, what happened before you were shot at.”

She met his eyes, seemed to be considering whether she was ready to talk.

Micah clenched his jaw. Did his best to wait. Someone was after her specifically, but he didn’t know why the Delaneys could possibly have something against her. From the investigating he’d done, it was clear they didn’t spend much time in Moose Haven, so they couldn’t have interacted with Kate, at least not often.

So why target her?

He’d thought earlier that his day couldn’t have gotten much worse, with the case in a tangled mess he didn’t know if he could untwist and his partner dead. But he couldn’t have imagined someone after Kate, a woman he cared about more than he should.

More than as his friend. More than as his other friend’s little sister.

But the day had gotten worse. Knowing Kate was in danger made it hard to breathe, but it sharpened his focus, made him want to do a better job on this case.

He had to because her safety depended on it. And he wouldn’t let her down.

THREE

Kate pulled a blanket tighter around herself and leaned against the cabin wall. She didn’t remember the last time she’d pushed herself that hard physically and it felt good. No wonder her sister ran around mountain trails for fun. Today was almost enough to convince Kate to take it up herself.

If only she’d been doing it for fun, and not to save her own life. She shuddered, tried to push the past twenty-four hours out of her mind, but she knew she shouldn’t bother. Micah needed to know what had happened, for the sake of his investigation, and she was the only one who could tell him.

Time to admit defeat and do it. Almost. “I’ll tell you as soon as I call Noah.”

She’d just reached her backpack when Micah stopped her, his hands coming down on hers. “Stop.”

“I need to tell him where I am.” She stared at him, trying to figure out why he wouldn’t let her... “Oh. Right.”

“Your satphone will give the Delaneys something to trace.”

In all her efforts to make sure they weren’t tracked, she hadn’t thought of electronic issues. Micah had mentioned it earlier but she’d forgotten.

Micah seemed to read the look on her face. “Is it on?”

Kate shook her head. She was thankful for that at least. She’d been in too big of a hurry when she packed her bag to power the phone on. Her siblings would have said God was taking care of her. Kate didn’t know. “No, it’s off.”

“We should be okay, then, but don’t use it.”

“My siblings will worry.”

“Better that they worry tonight and have you get back safely tomorrow than make them feel better now and tell the Delaneys our exact location.”

She nodded and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. Her hands had started to shake slightly. She gripped the blanket and took a deep breath, willing her body to calm down. “Everything about today was normal until lunchtime.”

“What happened then?”

“I’d been out this morning, at the lodge taking some pictures to include in the new brochure Tyler and Emma made up to advertise the lodge. I went home to get lunch and my house had been torn apart. Drawers open, mess everywhere and furniture cushions slashed, just like at the cabin here.”

It had been jarring, helping her brother and new sister-in-law, seeing their excitement over the shots she’d gotten, and then finding the destruction at her house.

“Someone trying to threaten you? Warn you away from something?” Micah asked.

She shrugged. “Could be, but it looked more like they were searching for something. Any idea what?”

She studied his face, but he gave nothing away with his expressions. Something he’d probably learned from being a cop, because when he was a kid Kate had been able to read practically every thought on his face. She’d never told him that, but apparently someone had pointed out his lack of poker face and he’d fixed it at some point in the last few years. It disappointed her, and then surprised her that it had.

“Did I tell you what the Delaneys are accused of doing?”

“Yes. You didn’t mention any violent crimes, though. Do they have a history of assault? Or murder?”

“Not until today.” This time she could read his face. His partner. She winced, almost feeling his pain for herself, shutting out the memories that threatened to overtake her. They were always there, waiting in the edges of her mind, no matter how high she climbed, how many rivers she white-watered down, how many ocean passages she kayaked.

But she’d probably never give up trying to outrun them.

“They do kill people that get in their way, though.” Kate said the words to ground them both, focus them both back on the present.

Micah nodded slowly.

“How did I get in the way?” She tried to wrap her mind around it, come up with some kind of working theory, but couldn’t settle on anything. She’d had a low-key week, besides more rescues than usual due to the avalanche conditions. Four backcountry skiers had needed to be rescued within the span of five days and two had died from injuries suffered in the avalanches they’d been caught in.

Every single loss hurt. Kate took every one personally, despite the fact that she told the new SAR recruits to never do that. Mountains and avalanches weren’t sentient, weren’t out to get anyone.

But when it came down to it?

It sometimes seemed that was the truth.

Micah hadn’t offered any new thoughts, yet, so Kate used the silence to go back over her week again, see what she could be missing. Had she acquired something they needed to search for? Had she talked to one of them unknowingly? The avalanche rescues did tend to attract crowds and one of the Delaneys could easily have been in one of them.

But that didn’t give them any motive to kill her.

Unless... She wondered...“Do you know all of the people involved in whatever kind of criminal group this is?”

“We don’t. We’re missing quite a few people.”

“I’m going to give you two names. Both of them area skiers I tried to rescue last week and both died. Different avalanches. Gabriel Hernandez and Jay Twindley.”

“You think they might be connected?” He’d taken a seat beside her but he sat up a little straighter now. Kate nodded.

“I don’t know how but...it’s the only explanation for how I could have gotten on anyone’s radar, at least that I can think of.” She felt her eyes narrow. “Gabriel. Look him up first because we know how the avalanche that killed Jay Twindley broke loose but the one Gabriel was caught in was remotely triggered and something about it felt...off to me.”

“That would be unusual, wouldn’t it? For an avalanche to be used as a way to intentionally kill someone?” Micah asked. She appreciated that he was able to follow her train of thought without long explanations, because she wasn’t good at those. Didn’t enjoy them.

“Extremely.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if it’s likely at all. But it’s all I’ve got. I don’t have anything of anyone’s. I know that much.” She looked over at Micah, met his eyes and found so much familiarity there, even after all these years, that she looked away. She hadn’t let a friend get as close to her as Micah since Drew.

And Drew had died. She hadn’t been able to save him.

Making friends had been harder since then.

She looked away from Micah’s eyes, from the gut-wrenching, heart-cleansing kind of honesty she was tempted to proclaim when she looked there. She wanted to tell him everything that had happened since he’d left, how it made her feel, all the things her siblings had asked that she hadn’t been able to articulate, things the counselor she’d seen exactly once had mentioned but she’d not been interested in discussing.

In her struggle to avoid Micah’s eyes, his arm caught her eye. They’d both forgotten about it, though she didn’t know how Micah had; it must be hurting intensely.

“Let me see what we can do for your arm, okay?”

Before he could answer she’d already pushed the blanket off herself and moved to a kneeling position. Her backpack had some basic first-aid supplies in it and she should be able to do a better job with it than what had been done so far—not a difficult proposition, since that added up to exactly nothing.

“Take your jacket off.” He did so without complaint and she rolled her eyes. “You have on a short-sleeved T-shirt.”

“I would think that would make what you’re doing right now easier.”

“Sure, yes, it does.” Kate tried not to laugh but failed. “But I can’t believe you’re not hypothermic. You’re from here—don’t you remember how to dress in the woods in the winter?”

“I wasn’t planning to be in the woods for this long.”

“No one ever is. Be more prepared next time.”

She felt his gaze without meeting it. She knew she’d sounded too serious, given away too much, betrayed the terror that still lurked inside at the idea of being unprepared.

“This is going to hurt a little.” She cleaned the wound the best she could, thankful that while it was worse than a graze, it was just on the edge of his arm. She didn’t have any experience doing first aid for gunshot-wound victims, but this seemed like it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. She handled it the best she could, then looked over at Micah. Hopefully he wasn’t planning to use this time to catch up, because she was exhausted, and while part of her wanted to know what he’d been up to for the last decade, she reminded herself that keeping him at arm’s length was the best idea. He was here temporarily, just until he closed this case and then he’d be back to Anchorage. And the life she was living was in Moose Haven.

“We should get some sleep. At least one of us.” Her shoulders sank with relief at his words. No small talk.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“You can’t sleep?”

Couldn’t? Or wouldn’t? In addition to the fact that someone shooting at her didn’t do wonders for her ability to wind down, she didn’t want to sleep in a room with Micah. The nightmares didn’t come every night. They were down to just a few times a month. But she didn’t want to risk tonight being the night she had one.

She shook her head. “Not yet anyway,” she said to soften her words.

“Okay, you take first shift. Wake me if you hear anything off.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re seriously going to sleep?”

“I’m going to catch a nap, yeah. This cabin is secure, you have a gun and you know how to use it and I have no need to play hero and stay awake when it’s not necessary. Wake me in an hour.”

“Okay.” Kate didn’t argue, just sat there and watched him as he closed his eyes. His shoulders fully relaxed seven minutes later, not that she’d been staring at those broad shoulders.

Micah Reed was back in Moose Haven. Someone had shot at her.

Both improbable situations chased each other around her mind, like the irritating black miniature poodles her neighbors had. Eagle bait, she called them when no one was listening. If only the issues facing her now were as innocuous as those annoying dogs.

Neither made sense, unless one of the avalanches she’d worked recently had been caused by humans. In that case, though, why target her? She’d been the first one to the scene, but not the only one. Moose Haven Police Department had come too and as far as she knew, none of them were being threatened. She’d double-check with Noah to make sure, but that explanation didn’t seem right to her at the moment.

Having thought through that subject, she moved back to Micah.

Yeah, she had nothing there either.

He was tall, handsome and all grown up, but still very much the same as he’d been from everything she’d seen in the last few hours. He didn’t take himself too seriously, but he was sure of himself. Enough so that it didn’t threaten his masculinity or his legitimacy as law enforcement to let Kate take the first shift while he napped.

She liked that kind of attitude in a man.

Or would, if she let herself spend any time thinking about men. About anything, really, besides work. Search and rescue had become her existence, the entirety of it. It was easy to justify. They needed her; it was her paying job; so many of the workers were volunteers... Blah, blah, blah. Her siblings usually addressed those issues when they tried to convince Kate to have a life outside it.

But that wasn’t the reason she was a workaholic. Only Kate knew the truth—that saving lives was all she deserved to give her time to doing now. She owed it to Drew, for not being able to save his. And she had to stay focused.

The hour dragged on, and the quiet, usually something Kate appreciated, only magnified the thoughts in her mind that she’d rather not be wrestling with right now. When sixty minutes had finally passed, she set a hand on Micah’s upper arm, feeling the firmness of his muscle beneath her hands. His eyes immediately opened.

“Your turn.” He grinned at her.

Kate shook her head.

“Come on, close your eyes. Humor me.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” she returned with a smile, but she closed her eyes, just to make him happy. And to make him stop talking...

Kate blinked her eyes open, jerked out of sleep and realized she’d nodded off. She stole a glance at Micah, who was looking around the cabin, seeming fully awake and watchful.

She trusted him to keep them safe, she realized as she blinked her eyes, more slowly this time, and let sleep claim her again.

* * *

Micah didn’t know what surprised him more—the fact that he’d been able to catch a short nap while Kate was awake, or that she’d trusted him enough to nod off and sleep for almost two hours. She’d trusted him when they were kids, and there hadn’t been this awkward distance between them, but years had passed. He hadn’t earned her trust yet as an adult, something he felt the truth of deep into his heart.

She’d downplayed her own level of exhaustion on that run, or he just hadn’t picked up on it, because she seemed drained in an extreme way.

“Ready to go?”

But she was in control again this morning, no hint of the shaking she’d experienced when she first realized she couldn’t use her satphone and the reality of someone being after her had sunken in. Micah was pretty sure she’d be mortified if she realized he’d seen that; she appeared that committed to the strong, brave front she liked to put forward.

But she’d let it drop last night, just for a little while, even if it had been unintentional, maybe from exhaustion. There was something in her eyes that hadn’t been there years ago, and it was more than just evidence that she’d grown up. She was different. It was as if she was more cautious inside. Eager to be prepared.

He glanced over at her, where she stood now without a trace of hesitation on her face.

She’d always been one of the strongest people he’d ever known but even she had a breaking point. He just hoped she was aware of that. Wondered if she was trusting God to help her or just powering through alone.

“I’m ready.”

Taking one last look at the cabin that had been shelter when they needed it so badly, he sent up a quick prayer of thanks and then followed Kate back into the outside.

And almost ran into her. She’d stopped right outside the door.

“What—”

“Shh.”

He stopped talking. Listened like she was doing but heard nothing.

“Let’s go.” She started walking and he followed.

The woods were easier to navigate in the daylight, but Micah was still thankful he had Kate with him because she took several turns down trails so narrow he’d never have seen them. Some of them were already packed down by animals, which would keep them from leaving tracks.

“How much longer to town?”

“We’re close.”

They walked for another hour in the woods before they came to a lower spot on the mountain that had more cleared areas. Micah felt his muscles tensing. It was the ideal location for an ambush. Would the Delaneys have realized they’d come this way? Or had Kate managed to lose them last night?

“I don’t like how open this is.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t like a lot of things about it, but if you want to get back to Moose Haven, this is the best way.”

But she was tense too—he could see it in her jawline, in her shoulders. Still, he followed her down the slope, noting the way she kept looking all around them, head tilted slightly to the side like she was listening for something. Expecting something.

“You’re worried about avalanches?” He was guessing but by the way she whirled around, he could tell he’d probably come close.

“I’m not worried about anything except whoever is after us. But there’s nothing wrong with being cautious when conditions are ideal for there to be trouble.”

So that was a yes, then.

With every step they took, she grew more circumspect and while Micah knew he hadn’t been able to see well last night, he felt that the routes she was choosing today were a little safer. A little more careful than last night’s sprint down the mountain at what could have been literal breakneck speed.

Thankfully they made it down without incident and Micah watched Kate relax a little more.

“Almost there.”

“Where will we come out?”

“At the main trailhead.”

Micah nodded. “Okay, that works. You have a car there?”

“Yes. Not much farther.”

They moved into another area thick with trees that Micah recognized from years ago. Another couple hundred yards and they’d be to the trailhead. They just had to navigate this last section, steep with rocks littering the dirt pathway.

Kate slipped at the top of an incline, kicked one of the bigger rocks. Micah caught her, closed his arms around her out of instinct. They were closer than they’d ever been and his heartbeat quickened. Letting her go was the last thing he wanted to do, which was why he removed his arms the second she seemed to catch her balance. He never would have guessed he’d have reacted this way to the feeling of her in his arms, even for a second, even though he’d known his feelings had danced over the line between friendship and attraction. This was part of the reason he’d not returned to Moose Haven, even after he’d graduated high school and had been free to. Because it didn’t matter if he’d had a crush on Kate then or felt a slight attraction to her now. She was one of the Dawsons, a family who knew how to be there for each other, something he knew nothing about. Much as he’d envied their closeness when he was a kid, he knew he’d never be able to duplicate it if he ever had a family one day, and Kate deserved better. She was far out of his league, and he could only think of her like the little sister he’d never had.

They were only ever going to be just friends.

He stayed still for a minute, with Kate, waiting for the rock to finish crashing down the hill, on edge and alert in case someone heard the sound and attacked them.

But the assault didn’t come in the form he was ready for.

Instead a concussive blast shook the mountain beneath them, loosening more rock.

Kate screamed as the puzzle pieces came together in Micah’s mind.

Someone had set a trip wire for them. Someone who could still be here, watching.

Waiting for them.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.