The storm howled outside, shaking my tent but not breaking it. And I held onto the sound of Sam's voice in my memory, the feeling of his hands on my face, the certainty in his eyes when he'd told me I was his.
"Come find me," I whispered. "Please, Sam. Come find me."
And then there was nothing to do but wait.
Wait for the storm to pass.
Wait for rescue.
And for Sam to bring me home.
Chapter 6
Sam
Without a group of lawyers to babysit as they hiked down a trail, I was able to take my ATV down the mountain. I pushed it as hard as I dared through the storm. Amanda's inhaler was secure in my pack. The weather was getting worse—much worse than the forecast had predicted—but the trail was still navigable. I'd be at the bottom of the mountain in twenty minutes, tops.
Twenty minutes, and I'd have Jess safe in my arms. To hell what any of her coworkers thought. God, I wanted her.
The soft glow of the lodge at the bottom of the mountain was welcome and I was glad everyone had made it. But as I got closer, something felt wrong. Then, I saw my brothers clustered together outside in what looked like an intense discussion. What the hell were they doing outside in this weather?
My stomach dropped.
I killed the engine and was off the ATV before it fully stopped, my boots hitting the ground at a run.
"—can't just go back out in this—" Kevin was saying.
"We have to do something!" That was Neil, his voice tight with stress.
"What's going on?" I demanded.
All three of them turned to face me, and the expressions on their faces made all my happy thoughts die and I knew something was terribly wrong.
"Who did we lose?"
They looked at each other.
"Where's Jess?" The question came out deadly quiet.
The silence that followed lasted maybe three seconds.
It felt like a lifetime.
"We don't know," Shane finally said.
The world tilted sideways. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"She's not here, Sam." Kevin's voice was carefully controlled—the tone he used when he was trying to keep me from doing something reckless. "We thought we got everyone else down safe, but—"
"She’s not here," Neil finished, his face stricken.
Not here. Jess wasn't here.
"How?" The word came out as a snarl. "How the fuck did you lose her?"
"Sam—" Kevin tried to step closer, but I was moving now, heading for my ATV, my mind already calculating routes and survival odds.
“When was the last time you saw her?”
