Hard Line - Pamela Clare Page 0,74
frostbite. “I wasn’t going to let you die.”
“Malik said you’re the toughest man he knows.”
“Jones talks too much.” Then Thor kissed her.
Samantha savored Thor’s kiss, the warm brush of his lips against hers proof that they were both still alive. “I can’t believe I’m not dead. You could have shot him. You could have killed him. But instead, you came for me.”
He cupped her cheek in his palm. “Of course, I did.”
What he’d suffered was written on his body. Lines of pain and exhaustion on his face. Patches of red skin on his cheeks, forehead, nose, chin, and ears from frostbite. The bloody bandage covering the bullet wound in his shoulder.
“And now he’s got the Golden Horde components?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure what he’s planning to do next. He’s stuck here just like everyone else.”
Then it came to her. “Where are the others?”
“Locked in the life pod. Hardin has the station locked down.”
“That bastard!”
“He didn’t take your radio, which is the only reason I’m in touch with them.” Thor reached for the replacement radio he’d given her.
“He took the other one—and my phone. He didn’t know about this one.” She shivered, the horror of what the bastard had done snaking through her. “He was so cold about it. He lied to me, told me he needed help answering some questions from Patty’s parents. But when I got there, he injected me with that sedative. I tried to fight him, but the drug made it hard to think, hard to stand.”
“There’s no way you could have fought him off, even if he hadn’t drugged you.”
“I begged him for a parka, a hat, gloves. I was so afraid. He told me that hypothermia was a relatively painless way to die compared to … compared to methanol poisoning.” Tears filled her eyes, anguish sharp in her chest. “He told me he kept Patty in his office to make sure she couldn’t get medical help. She suffered, Thor. She suffered while that bastard sat there waiting for the methanol to incapacitate her. She must have been so afraid.”
Thor’s jaw went tight, his blue eyes going ice cold. He drew her against him, held her close with his good arm. “I’m so sorry. He won’t get away with this. I promise.”
“Why? Why did he do this? Why would he betray his country?”
“I don’t know.” Thor looked into her eyes, smiled. “You need to rest and get back to huffing that oxygen. You’re still hypothermic. Lie back and let me get you tucked in with those body warmers. I’ll make more hot cocoa.”
He got to one hand and his knees to crawl out of their little tent, his left arm tucked against his chest, a bloody bandage on his thigh.
“Oh, Thor. He shot you in the leg, too?”
“I’ll be fine.” He crawled out, and she heard him rummaging around at the bar.
She went back to using the oxygen, a puff every time she inhaled, a kind of numbness settling over her. She let the numbness take her, grateful just to be alive.
She was alive. Thor was hurt, but also alive.
You’ll get through this.
He returned with two cups of cocoa, one for himself and one that he insisted on holding for her. “I want you under that blanket.”
She indulged him, letting him give her sip after sip. It did make her feel better, though she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel warm again.
A burst of static.
“Isaksen, this is Jones.”
Thor reached for the radio. “Isaksen here.”
“We’re doing all communication with you from the life pod’s command center—the computer room. We don’t want to risk someone overhearing and betraying us to Hardin. Can you update us on your medical situation?”
“Dr. Park is conscious. Our frostbite will heal. My shoulder still has a bullet in it. What’s going on there?”
“Lance and Charli have been working on the life pod computer system with help from Shields. They can shut down the power to the station and transfer it to the life pod, but that would cut off the power to your building and all labs around the station. All of them run off the main power grid.”
It was all surreal to Samantha.
Thor didn’t look happy about this news. “Okay, so that’s out. Can they lock him out of their system and prevent him from turning off the power to the life pod?”
“Affirmative. They’ve already done that.”
“Good. What about the doors?”
“Lance hacked those controls. We can open the doors now, but Hardin will know it. There’s no way for us to get out of