her shoulder to the canyon floor, wondering where the man who had been following her had gone. Had he headed back when the storm struck? Or had he holed up as she had? In which case, he would be out looking for her again.
A shiver shook her so hard her teeth rattled. If not for Maddox, she would have died out there, saving the man following her the trouble of killing her.
Where would that leave her country? Without a ruler, without anyone to lead them into democracy, her people would fall back into chaos and warlords would take over. She needed to find out who was behind her father’s death. No matter what the news reports said, that car crash had begun with a bullet. A deliberate attack by a skilled assassin.
Whoever was after her did not plan on holding her hand and escorting her back to her country. He had taken several shots at her before she had lost him. Skimming through streams and across barren rocks had taken their toll on her snowmobile, but had bought her much-needed time to escape in an otherwise snow-covered landscape.
She had taken a huge risk crossing Minnesota and North Dakota in a car. The open farm fields and grasslands left little cover and concealment. But she kept moving just to escape the law and the predator tailing her. Only he had been persistent and tracked her every move. She was tired of running, tired of always looking over her shoulder, completely cut off from everyone who could possibly help.
As they climbed higher, the terrain became increasingly more treacherous and their footing more precarious. The more Kat looked back at the canyon floor, the dizzier she got. The canyon wall inclined at more than a forty-five-degree angle, the path they followed less than six inches wide in most places. How she longed to be on foot, rather than perched high on a horse’s back, even that much farther from the ground.
Nausea fought with vertigo, making her head spin. Kat squeezed her eyes shut and clung to the saddle horn. Because the stirrups were so long, her feet did not quite reach the footrests, giving her no way to balance her weight on the big animal. With her hands quickly freezing and the possibility of a frightening fall making her hold tighter, she thought the ride to the canyon’s rim would never end.
With one mighty lunge, the horse nearly unseated her, clearing the edge of the canyon and arriving on the plateau above.
Kat opened her eyes, the wind whipping her scarf across her face. For as far as she could see, semi-barren rolling hills stretched before her.
Behind her, the canyon cut a long, jagged swath out of the prairie walls blown free of snow, glowing a ruddy red in the increasing light from the muted sun. Every breath of the wickedly cold air stung her lungs and bored through her thick clothing. Chills shuddered across her body and she huddled lower in the saddle, praying for the journey to end, preferably in a hot tub. She groaned. How she would love to sink neck deep into a warm bath and stay there until her skin shriveled.
All the while she had been perched atop the giant stallion, Maddox had been climbing the hill. He had to be tired by now. Was he as cold as she was? Did he wish to be done with this trek—and her?
Several hundred feet from the rim of the canyon, Maddox stopped to catch his breath and speak to the horse in a language Katya did not understand. She assumed he spoke the language of the Lakota Nation.
In the light, she could finally see him. Dark skin, black eyes and straight, thick black hair falling to his shoulders. He tugged his fur-lined parka up around his face and turned to face her.
With the ease of one born to ride, he placed one foot into the stirrup and swung up onto the horse’s back, landing behind the saddle.
His arm wrapped around her waist and he lifted her, easing himself into the seat beneath her, settling her onto his thighs.
Immediately she could feel his warmth through her clothing. Just blocking the wind on one side made a difference. She sank back against him, glad for his presence and the balance he provided on the moving beast.
He did not say anything and with the wind so strong it could steal her breath away, Kat did not speak either.
For several miles, they rode in silence, curled into each other.
The gentle rocking motion of the horse, plus the constant cold, lulled Kat into a dull, half-sleep state. Snow turned to sleet, the tiny hard pellets slung sideways by the approaching storm.
“Don’t go to sleep, Kat Evans,” a voice said over the roar of the wind.
“Why?” she leaned against him, her eyelids dropping over snow-stung eyes. “I am exceedingly tired.”
“If you fall asleep, who will I talk to?”
She snorted softly. “You were not talking.” She turned her face into his jacket. “I am so cold.”
“We’ll be there in less than half an hour.”
“I need to sleep.”
“Talk to me, Kat,” he said, his chest rumbling against her back.
“About what?” she muttered, her eyes closed. She had to keep her secrets, but she didn’t have to stay awake, did she?
“How did you get into the canyon? We’re miles from the closest highway or public lands.”
In her sleepy haze she could not think straight. How much could she reveal? Did she care? She gave a halfhearted attempt at laughter and opted for mostly truth. “I did not see the canyon. I drove my snowmobile over the edge. It did not stop until it reached the bottom beside the riverbed.”
Funny how leaning against Maddox, with the soft swaying of the horse beneath her, lulled her into thinking the horrible tumble down the bluff was nothing but a bad dream. Except for a few bruises, she had survived, only to fall victim to the extreme cold and mind-numbing lethargy.
Other than her hands and feet, she was fairly warm in Maddox’s capable arms. They did not build men this rugged where she was from. Her brows furrowed. Or she had never met any men who had been built this sturdy. Her father had kept her surrounded by bodyguards and state officials everywhere she went in Trejikistan.
Maddox shifted her weight, pulling her closer against him. “Why were you snowmobiling out this far? Why not closer to Bismarck?”
“Cars cannot follow.” She yawned and settled back against him, her eyelids closing for the final count. “Unfortunately other snowmobiles can.”
“Isn’t that the idea with a snowmobile tour?” Maddox’s words were carried away on the wind as Katya slipped into a numbing sleep.
Maddox stopped the horse periodically to tuck Katya’s hands into his jacket and adjust her position to keep her from getting too cold in any one place. As he rode Bear through the storm, he went over Kat’s words again and again. They didn’t make any sense. Had she been out on a snowmobile tour and gotten lost? And what did she mean that cars couldn’t follow but snowmobiles could? Had she been running away from something? Was someone following her?
Maddox vowed to get to the bottom of it all when they finally made it back to the ranch. The one-hour ride from the canyon rim stretched into two as the storm settled in around them.
Sleet turned to snow, blowing in sideways, making it difficult for him to see more than two feet ahead of them. At one point, he took shelter in a ravine, the wind and sleet too harsh to be out on the open plains.
Too
