with the fact it was tired and weak.
“I’m starving. What have we got to eat?” Liam dug through the pack inside the tent.
“MREs and energy bars. I’d recommend the energy bar. Quick and simple.” Isaiah was too bushed to eat one. He’d get one in the morning.
“They might try to contact us again, you know. So be ready to toss me the radio.” Isaiah prepared to slip into the sleeping bag and prayed he could actually sleep. This was going to be a long night. A long, hard journey to the ice field.
“Don’t give me orders.” Zach held up a rope, then proceeded to tie Isaiah’s wrists. “I won’t bother tying your ankles. You’re not going anywhere.”
Now it was Isaiah’s turn to laugh, and his wasn’t so feeble. “Now that I’m all tied up, you get to go outside and scrape the snow off before it gets too heavy or buries us alive in the tent.”
Liam stiffened. He looked to Zach for answers. When he got none, he studied Isaiah. “How often do we have to do that?”
Isaiah shrugged. “Depends on the storm. I’d say every hour for starters. Then if it snows hard enough, maybe every fifteen minutes.”
“How will we know?”
“You’ll know.” Isaiah lay back down on the sleeping bag, grateful for small things. He wouldn’t have to dig them out tonight. He could actually sleep, maybe, and trust God to make it peaceful.
“I say when. Remember, you’re not in charge. I am.”
A raging retort surged to Isaiah’s lips, and he tried holding himself in check but failed. “Really? We just saved your lives tonight. And we delivered you down to this ridge under impossible circumstances. You couldn’t have done that on your own.”
“Whatever.”
Isaiah sat up, adrenaline coursing through him once again. He needed to say the words. Get them out. He pointed a finger at Zach, holding up both tied hands. “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, we’ve ever done, as a team. Don’t expect us to do anything like that again. You’re fortunate that we all survived. But don’t push it.”
“You guys are as good as it gets, there’s no doubt there. I know what to expect from you now. How hard I can push.”
Isaiah believed that God had protected them. Answered their prayers. But as to how hard Zach could push them? Isaiah didn’t bother answering. Zach wouldn’t listen anyway. He had nothing to lose by pushing them.
Liam turned the flashlight off. They lay in the darkness, the storm beginning to rage around them. Isaiah couldn’t stand to think about what tomorrow would bring, and hoped he would drift quickly to sleep, but escape plans exploded in his head.
If they’d retained their weapons, they could have won the day. Maybe. But they’d been caught off guard.
And...Heidi.
A pang stabbed through him. Why did she have to be the one to come? Isaiah couldn’t stand that it was Heidi with them. Not on this mission. But he’d better not say that to Heidi. Still, she had to see that Zach appeared intent on using her against Isaiah and Cade.
Isaiah thought back to the good times they’d shared since he’d met her. He’d run from Montana to hide in Mountain Cove, Alaska. Even changed his name to start a new life.
He’d been struck by her soft, kind and huge brown eyes and that dark mahogany mane of hers. But the most beautiful part of her was on the inside. What man wouldn’t be attracted to her? He’d done well enough, keeping his distance. They worked together for one thing. Or used to before he’d changed his schedule around. But he’d been able to keep his relationship with her as an easy friendship, that is, until that day not quite a year ago.
The sunset had dazzled them with the most amazing hues of orange and pink as they stood looking out over the channel, waiting for Cade and Leah to return from another trip to Seattle. Isaiah’s gaze had veered from the sunset to Heidi, and he’d made the mistake of letting himself take her in for a little too long. When she looked at him—something happened between them. Something and yet nothing at all. He couldn’t put words to it. But they’d connected. He’d felt it. She’d felt it. He knew she had. Maybe it had been building for a long time.
He also knew that he’d hurt her by backing away.
But what else could he do? He couldn’t let himself get close to anyone like that. Not after everything he’d been involved in. He was almost thankful the wind howled outside the tent as it drowned out his sullen thoughts. On the other hand, it brought him back to their deadly predicament.
Heidi opened her eyes. Something had jarred her awake.
She couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. The storm wailed outside. What could she have heard over the din? Was Rhea still asleep, or moving around in the tent? Maybe she planned to smother Heidi in her sleep.
Or was it one of the guys scraping the snow off their tent? Liam had informed them earlier that he and Jason had been tasked with the job.
Wary, she shifted inside the insulated sleeping bag, grateful for the smallest of comforts, but concerned about sleeping in the tent with Rhea. Thank goodness they had both collapsed with exhaustion, or at least Heidi thought Rhea had conked out first. The woman had creeped Heidi out from the beginning of this ordeal, and she hadn’t relished the idea of sharing tent space with her, but better Rhea than one of the others in Zach’s mangy troop.
Rhea was a weird person, and had to be more than a little disturbed to be with a guy like Zach. To admire him. Heidi sensed Rhea’s pure and lethal hatred toward her because of Zach’s unwarranted attention. Couldn’t the woman see that Zach was simply using Heidi against Cade and Isaiah?
Except that wasn’t completely true, either. There was something about Heidi that Zach liked. A girl just knew these things. A chill scuttled over her, even though the inside of the tent was relatively warm.
Why had she let her mind take her down this path? She needed sleep, and thinking about the crazy people who could kill them at some point didn’t help. They had to get out of this.
Heidi repositioned herself and sighed.
“What’s with all the racket over there?” Rhea asked.
“I’m not doing anything. It’s the storm.”
“I hear you sighing and huffing and puffing. Every time you move in that sleeping bag, I hear it.”
Maybe Heidi had been the one to make the noise and had woken herself up. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t know why I had to be in here with you instead of with Zach.”
“Do you love him, Rhea?” Now, why had Heidi asked the woman such a question? Why else would she be with a man like that?
“Why? You think you can have him? Well, he’s mine. All mine.”
“That’s not why I asked.
