knee-deep bank of snow. Her arms flailed for something to grab hold of, but trees were small, scrubby. Not to mention, few and far between. She landed hard on her hip against an icy boulder. An arctic fox darted out and away. The hackles rose along Chewie’s back.
She rolled to the side and fell on her butt. Snow edged into a gap in her bib overalls where her coat had ridden up. A critical mistake.
Keep moving. Don’t stop. She braced a hand on Chewie’s back, found her balance again, and plowed forward.
Every frozen breath stabbed at her lungs, already hungry for oxygen. She glanced over her shoulder. Wade trekked after her, surefooted and gaining fast. As seasoned as she was navigating this region, he was far more adept.
And stronger.
Most would have given out at this altitude long ago. But not him. She had a serious problem on her hands.
The rocky path narrowed ahead. Yes, she was racing in the opposite direction from the pass that would take her to the valley where she lived, but she refused to lead him to her brother’s doorstep. And if she remembered correctly, there was another cave to duck into a couple of miles away, which in these conditions could mean walking for hours, but she couldn’t dwell on that. Focus instead on the hot springs in the cave ahead, bubbling waters heated from a volcano, which could provide warmth through to her cold core.
Her guilty core.
A stitch started in her side. She forced her feet to move, one in front of the other, even when the stitch turned into a stab. Her legs felt like lead—
Wade tackled her from behind. She slammed into the ground. The weight of him pressing against her back knocked the breath from her. Rock and ice chunks bit into the exposed patches of her face. God, he was solid as a tank.
Chewie’s growl echoed lowly in the distance, but for some reason her dog didn’t lend a helping paw. The traitor.
“Let me go, damn it.” She bucked underneath him, desperate for air and freedom. “I’m not your prisoner. You can’t force me to stay here with you.”
He clamped his hands around her wrists. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing or who you’re running from, but we can’t keep playing this game of freeze tag.”
The hell they couldn’t. She forced herself to go slack beneath him, making the most of the second to catch her breath, to rest up for her next move. “You’re right. It was silly of me to try to get away.”
Holding her breath, she listened to him breathing against her ear. The heat of him seeped into her like a furnace against her back, made all the hotter in contrast to the ice under her stomach. They were out here alone at the ends of the earth. No people. Rocky landscape with sparse, low trees. Nothing but miles of barren horizon stretched over water, with hovering clouds threatening and this exasperating man—a tenacious, exasperating man who had the uncanny knack of pushing her buttons, which pissed her off all the more.
“Listen, Wade,” she gasped, pushing aside the Gore-Tex hood that covered her mouth, “please just let me leave. I do not want to be rescued.”
“Are you on a suicide mission?” he growled.
“I only want to be left alone.” She wriggled beneath him until she faced him, their bodies sealed chest to chest.
His hand gravitated to his hip—to his sidearm. “Are you running from the law?”
Could she bring herself to take the gun she felt strapped to his leg? She shivered. No. There had to be another way for her. She couldn’t risk the weapon accidentally going off. She couldn’t risk shooting him. He hadn’t done anything wrong, only tried to save her.
She thumped his shoulders, once, twice, and again even harder until finally he let her slide out from under him. Not that he took his hard, wary eyes off her for even a second.
Sitting, Sunny dusted off her snow pants. “I am not a criminal.”
“Does someone think you are?” he snapped back.
She weighed her words carefully. “No one in any law enforcement agency is on the lookout for me.” Her brother, however… “Please stop wasting your time on me. Aren’t there people out there who need the skills you have to offer more than I do?”
“As a matter of fact, there are. But I don’t have the luxury of choosing where I go.” He planted his hand on the snow, leaning toward