Page 69 of K-9 Prime Target

She didn’t stop, but she didn’t run, either. She would conserve her flagging energy and only flee when she had to.

He stomped closer to her. “Where do you think you’re going?” he shouted.

She said nothing but turned to look at him. “You stupid woman,” he said. “You’re only going to freeze to death out here. Come back to the cabin, where you’ll be warm.”

“Make me,” she said, a sneer in her voice.

He gaped, then charged forward, moving faster than she would have thought him capable of. She had to leap to the side, then lurch forward again. When he lunged for her, she swung the ski pole and caught him on the ear. He howled and flailed at her, then tried to grab the pole, but she pulled it back and stumbled away.

Nicholson shouted, a mixture of obscenities and incomprehensible grunts. His fury was terrifying. He looked capable of tearing her apart with his bare hands as he churned through the snow toward her.

She swung the ski pole again, but this time he caught it and refused to let go. She tugged, and he tugged harder, dragging her toward him. Then she shoved forward, sending him onto his back in the snow. At the same time, she caught the distant roar of the snowmobile. She turned her back on Nicholson and raced toward the sound.

So much of this night had been like a bad dream, and the next few moments were no exception. She fought her way through ever deeper snow, moving in slow motion, seeming to make little progress, despite exertions that left her breathless and aching. Nicholson’s shouts grew ever closer, while the snowmobile remained far away.

She was crying now, tears of frustration freezing on her cheeks. “Liam!” she shouted.

“Nina!” Nicholson raged. “You won’t get away from me.”

Then the snowmobile raced into sight. Nina waved her arms over her head, directing Liam to her. He raced toward her, the single headlight almost blinding her so that she had to squint against the glare.

Then an arm came around her neck, and Nicholson was pulling her backward. The idea that he had captured her when she was so close to escape enraged her. She shot her elbow back, driving it hard into his ribs, then reached up one gloved hand to slam her fist into his eye.

His grip loosened enough for her to break free. Liam drew alongside her, and she leaped onto the snowmobile, scrambling to stay aboard as he swerved away from Nicholson. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face against his back as they roared over the snow, Nicholson’s howls swallowed up behind them by the cold and darkness.

Liam followed his and Nicholson’s tracks back to the ski hut, not daring to slow the snowmobile all the way. He said a prayer they wouldn’t run out of gas before they made it back, but didn’t share this fear with Nina. From time to time he looked back over his shoulder, half expecting to see Nicholson coming after them. But the snow behind them remained empty. Nina stayed pressed against him, frightfully still but breathing evenly, her warm presence reassuring.

The engine began to cough within sight of the ski hut. Nina lifted her head. “What’s wrong?”

“We’re out of gas.” He slowed and coasted as far as he could, before the snowmobile quit altogether and stopped. “We’ll have to walk from here,” he said. “But it’s not far.”

“You have your skis,” she said. He had made a point of picking up the skis on the way to retrieve Nina, not wanting to leave them behind for Nicholson.

“We’ll both walk,” he said, and rested the skis on one shoulder.

They set out, every step in the deep snow a misery. He took Nina’s hand and tugged her along when she faltered. They were within ten feet of the hut when they heard barking. “The dogs must have heard us,” Nina said.

They both moved faster. He found the key to the hut in his jacket pocket, but his fingers were too frozen to work properly. He cursed, fearful of dropping the key and having it fall between the boards on the small deck in front of the door.

“Give it to me,” Nina said, and took the key and fit it in the lock.

Warmth hit them like a gloved hand, followed by two cannonballing dogs, who leaped onto them, barking and whining. Nina sank to her knees and gathered the dogs close, and Liam followed suit. Angel licked his face and whimpered, then tried to climb his torso. Sky ran in circles around them, returning over and over to lick Nina’s hands or her cheeks.

After several minutes Liam made himself stand and close and lock the door, then he fed more logs into the fire. He stripped down to his long underwear, then helped Nina do the same. “Your neck!” she cried, and gingerly touched a raw place above his Adam’s apple.

“Nicholson tried to strangle me,” he said. “I passed out and he must have thought he succeeded, but the dogs managed to rouse me, and I was able to break the cord he used.” He pushed her gently away. “Come on. We need to get warm.”

He set water to boil on the stove. His fingers and toes burned painfully as warmth returned to them, but he ignored the pain. Nina sat on the sofa, a blanket pulled around her, a dog on either side of her. “Do you think he’ll come after us?” she asked. “He knows where we are.”

“He doesn’t have a snowmobile or skis,” Liam said. “He’s miles away. Even if he had the stamina to make the trek on foot, it would take him hours. And he’d freeze to death.”

“He said he had a heated vest. When I complained about being cold, he said I should get one, too. It was all I could do not to scream at him. But anyway, he said the vest kept him warm.”

“Those things use batteries,” Liam said. “I doubt they’d work all night in below-zero temperatures.”

“Then he’ll probably go back to the cabin where he took me and spend the night, and try to come here tomorrow,” she said.

“We’ll leave early,” he said. “We’ll have to go on skis, but it’s only a couple of hours to the trailhead, moving downhill. I’ll disable the snowmobile, just in case he has more gas stashed somewhere.”