She hauled the gun off the floor and struggled to her feet, unstable. Eyes heavy, she limped toward the kitchen table and collapsed into the same chair she’d sat in as he’d stitched the wound in her side. “There are only two people I care about right now, and after you help me stitch up this wound, I’m going to find them.”
Chapter Eight
She wiped crusted blood from her face, flashlight to the ground.
The power was still cut from the cabin, but they didn’t have time to fix it now. Olivia was out here, in the cold and on the run. Whoever’d pushed Ana through that window would be on the girl’s trail. Had maybe even caught up with her already. The thought exposed the very real fear climbing her spine, but she pushed forward, forcing her attacker’s parting words to the back of her mind. She might not be strong enough to beat this particular threat, but she’d sure as hell slow him down. As for Benning... Whatever illusions he had about her would have to wait. The kidnapper had given them twenty-four hours to hand over the evidence Benning had pulled from that wall. They had three hours left until the deadline. Not enough time to recover the skull, find Olivia and save Owen, but Ana would fight until the end. “Over here.”
Small footprints interrupted the smooth surface of fresh snow between larger divots, heading south, away from the cabin and into the tree line. Olivia had gone out the cabin’s front door after Ana had screamed at her to run, but according to Benning, the girl had attacked the shooter just before he’d put a bullet in Benning’s shoulder and been gone when he’d woken. From the looks of it, she’d changed direction when she’d run and tried to hide her tracks by dragging something behind her. A smile tugged at one side of Ana’s mouth. Good girl.
No fresh tire tracks interrupted the area around the cabin. Their attacker hadn’t driven a vehicle straight up to the safe house. Too obvious. They would’ve heard him coming the moment he’d hit the head of the driveway, which meant he had to have come from the tree line. A snowmobile or an ATV? Either would get him on and off the property relatively quickly. Silence pressed on her from every direction. He had to know the area. Had to know the layout of the land and all the best places to attack from. He’d known exactly how to find them and when they’d been the most vulnerable.
Raising the flashlight to follow the trail, she struggled against the invisible lead in her legs as they headed into the woods. The hand-sewn stitches in her thigh wouldn’t last long, but they’d have to do for now. Benning seemed to be handling the bullet in his shoulder. Or maybe desperation had finally caught up with him and the pain didn’t matter. “I can’t decide if your daughter is a genius or if she’s read too many mystery novels.”
“Both.” Benning kept a safe distance from behind, but she could still feel him on her skin. Could still feel his chest pressed against her back as he’d held on to her, remembered the vibration of his words against her spine, and her body heat hiked a few more degrees. Then again, it could be the shock of losing so much blood finally starting to take a toll. Either way, she had to focus, had to keep moving. Because the longer they were out here, the higher chance Olivia would succumb to the elements. “You should see her room. She’s decorated it in crime-scene tape.”
Benning helped her as she hauled her injured leg over a fallen tree, still following the trail in the snow. Her toes and fingers had already gone numb from dropping temperatures, and she couldn’t imagine Olivia much better off. Had the girl even been wearing a jacket? Or shoes? Ana couldn’t remember. Stabbing pain had dulled to an ache around the wound, but there was still a chance the glass had nicked something larger. The possibility of not making it out of these trees alive, of failing Olivia, Owen, Benning, just as she’d failed Samantha Perry, pushed her harder.
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind she could’ve saved that girl if she’d been focused on doing her job and not the man at her side, but she couldn’t get his admission out of her head. He needed her, cared about her. Not the emotionally isolated investigator she’d presented to her team and to the world, but the woman hiding behind the mistakes she’d made. The real her, the one he’d claimed he’d fallen in love with before her world had been ripped apart. She leaned into his hard frame for support. Did that woman even exist anymore? She wanted her to, if for nothing else than to shed the guilt that had taken control of her life for so long, to carve her own path. To be the kind of woman Benning would be proud to have in his and his kids’ lives. The idea thickened the saliva in her mouth. She wasn’t sure that future was a possibility anymore. Not for her. “You were right before.”
This close, his body heat tunneled through her coat, and her exhales started crystallizing on the air as they moved as one. He took most of her weight, but even with the bullet in his shoulder, his control never broke. “About what?”
“I’ve been blinded by my mistakes. My...failures.” The word turned bitter on her tongue. “I detached myself from the people who care about me, from everyone, because it was the easy thing to do.” Her breath shuddered in her chest as they navigated through the trees. “I blamed myself for what happened to Samantha Perry. I thought since she didn’t get to be with the people who loved her, the least I could do is put myself
