“The InReach still isn’t working.” She shook her head, disbelief thick like clay.
“Maybe it got damaged.” He trailed his lips up her neck toward her ear.
“No. Everything’s working. It’s just showing no signal whatsoever.” She turned to him and shoved the device into his hands. “I’ve got the best model out there. This bad boy would work at the North Pole. It did work there when Gunnar and Julie called for a pickup. It has always connected.”
He really didn’t want to think about calling out. Right now, he was more interested in celebrating. He groaned, frustrated that she was right.
“More problems or kissing?” He held his hands opened, one balancing the InReach, and moved them up and down like he weighed his options.
“Davis, this is serious.” She rolled her eyes.
“So am I.” He winked at her.
The lightheartedness normally on her face couldn’t be teased out. Her forehead scrunched and face clouded with frustration. She adjusted so she sat on his lap with her legs around him, but the tension didn’t leave her muscles. He sighed and surveyed the InReach in his hand. Looked like the celebration would have to wait.
“How is it that it worked perfectly until the day at your camp?” She tapped the device. “It’s working, has a full battery and everything. We should get a signal.”
He twisted the thing in his hands, examining every side and button while she watched. The thing looked in perfect working order. It was like all the satellites circling the atmosphere had disappeared.
“I’ve been thinking—”
He groaned at the dread her words conjured.
“No thinking. We just need to move. Get safe.” He rubbed the tension in the back of his neck.
“That’s the thing. We can’t make it all the way to Chicken.”
“What do you mean? Of course, we can. We stay low and work our way there.” He wasn’t about to give up now.
“No, look––” She pulled her pack close and yanked out her map, opening it to the area. “In this terrain, we’ll be lucky to make four miles a day. That’s if the weather holds.” She pointed at the map, dragging her finger to her starred destination. “Chicken is between fifty and sixty miles away. At this rate, it’ll take us two weeks to get there if nothing else goes wrong and we don’t have to adjust our course to evade the bad guys.”
“Sunny, this isn’t new intel.” He shrugged, not understanding where she was going with all this. “You planned two weeks for the trek. You said so on your video.”
Her smile flickered on her face, lighting it up. “You watched that one?”
“I’ve watched all of them, remember?” He handed her the device back, leaning over to sneak in a quick kiss.
“Focus, Fields. I’m trying to make a point,” she complained against his lips, but wrapped her hand around the back of his head and crushed his mouth with so much sizzling heat he’d blister. She yanked away, pushing on his good shoulder for some distance. “You’re distracting me.”
“I believe you were the one creating the diversion that time.” His mouth lifted on one side in a satisfied smirk.
“Don’t you smile all sexy like that.” She raised her finger in a scold.
“Like what?” He raised his eyebrow and quirked the side of his mouth again.
“Okay, listen. Ugh, I can’t think with you so close.” She stood abruptly, pacing two steps before spinning back to him. “We need to change our plan.”
“So… what? We find a nice, abandoned cabin and hole up for a while? Scavenge berries and roots and shoot small game with a homemade slingshot?” He shrugged as he stood. “More time with you? I’m game.”
“No.” She tapped on the map. “I think we head to the exploratory mine.”
His entire body froze like she had dipped him in the Arctic Ocean.
“Are you nuts?” The words exploded from him, shattering the ice in his veins with hot fear.
“Think about it—”
“Not an option.” He spoke over her.
“We’re less than five miles away from their facility. They haven’t relented in their search for us, and I’m betting they’ll expect us to head for Chicken. It’s the closest place for help.” She stepped toward him, and his entire core trembled with her logic. “The last place they will look for us is at their base. We sneak in, get a message out with a rendezvous location, sneak out, and then wait for the cavalry to arrive.”
“We have no clue what we’re up against.” He grabbed her arms, hoping to talk some sense into her. “You don’t have any training in killing people, Sunny. What if I freeze up and can’t protect you? You’ll get hurt… killed.”
“If we get there and it’s Fort Knox, then we circle back toward Chicken.” She wrapped her fingers around his elbows and squeezed. “But if we can get help in here, if you can contact someone who can bring an army, then Justin’s murderers won’t get away, and whatever is going on there will be stopped.”
Terror burned acid in his throat. This was crazy. He couldn’t take her there.
As she stared determinedly into his eyes, dread spun up the acid rolling in his gut to a boil. She would go through with this loco plan. His hands trembled as bloodied images from the past tumbled and mixed with images of her killed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t push those thoughts aside, so he did his best to focus on the details she’d laid out.