Cabin Fever

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Cabin Fever Page 15

by Anastasia Dawson


  “Go first.” He nodded to the open window and Kate moved over to it.

  She pushed her hair out of her face and frantically shook her head.

  “I can’t shimmy down a drainpipe!” she hissed at him.

  “It’s this way, or going down the stairs back there and making it through the house without ending up looking like Swiss cheese!” He grabbed her arm and pushed her back towards the window.

  Kate tried to focus on the absurdity of what he was asking her to do and ignored the flicker of desire his assertiveness had stirred in her.

  “I can’t… seriously… me and heights…” She gave him a panicked look and he sighed.

  “If I go first, you’ll follow?” He gently cleared the hair from her face and smiled into her eyes. “I’ll make a soft landing place if you fall.”

  Kate half smiled at his comment and then nodded in agreement.

  “Just make sure you do follow me,” he said and looked out of the window. She looked there too and saw a man walking away. “And do it sharpish.”

  She took a deep relaxing breath as she watched him step out onto the log clad outside and move to the drainpipe. She couldn’t believe that she was going to do this. The last time she’d gone down a drainpipe she had been sixteen and was sneaking out of the house, and it had been a very short distance. The floors on the cabin seemed a lot taller to her than those of her old house. It was either that or she hadn’t been as scared back then.

  Waiting until Jack was down the drainpipe, she eased herself out onto the ledge and gripped onto the windowsill for dear life. She closed her eyes as she edged over to the pipe and grabbed hold of it. Taking another deep breath, she began to descend. The supports were too far apart for her legs to stretch but she told herself that she had to keep going. It was either down or up, and down looked a lot easier right now.

  Jack shot his head around as he heard a noise and he saw two of the men were coming towards them where they were hidden in the shadows.

  Moving his concentration back to Kate, he waved his hands, intimating for her to hurry up. He could hear the men getting closer, their conversation about the state of the road getting clearer as they neared.

  Kate felt sick with nerves and adrenaline as she saw the two men rounding the corner.

  Dropping the last few feet to the ground, she kept still as she watched them walking towards the road.

  She started slightly as Jack’s gloved hand slipped into hers and she followed his lead as he crept towards the edge of the house. The courtyard was clear and the guard was almost at the other side now. Besides the two men that were heading down the road, there was no other sign of danger.

  Jack squeezed her hand and nodded towards the skidoos. She frowned for a moment and then raised her brows when she understood what he was implying—they were going to steal them.

  She instinctively kept her eyes fixed on the two men that were walking towards the woods as Jack began leading her over to the skidoos. The gap seemed like an impossible distance to her. They were already out in the open and still had a good fifty feet to go before they reached the safety of the outbuilding and the three skidoos.

  “Hey!”

  Kate jumped as she heard the guard shout from across the other side of the courtyard and she gave the two men on the road a panicked look as Jack started to run. She tried to resist the desire to shut her eyes as they opened fire. Running as fast as she could and ignoring the pain in her ankle, she kept her head down and fixed her eyes on their destination.

  It seemed even further away than it had been just a moment ago.

  Jack was sure he was holding her hand so tightly that he was hurting her but he couldn’t let her drop the pace. They had to make it to the cover of the outbuilding and get at least one of the skidoos before the men caught up with them.

  His arm jerked backwards and he almost fell over. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as he ground to a halt and felt Kate let go of his hand. His eyes widened as he turned to see her on the floor. She was kneeling in the snow, her hand gripping her left upper arm and her face screwed up in pain.

  There was blood seeping through the gaps between her fingers.

  Bending down, he grabbed her under her right arm and hauled her to her feet at the same time as pulling his gun out. He clenched his jaw as he shot the man responsible for hurting her and then wrapped his arm about her waist, helping her run to the skidoos.

  Taking a shot at the other man, he was surprised when Kate hopped onto the skidoo nearest the woods and revved it into life. Jumping on behind her, he held her tightly around the waist with one arm and turned the skidoo hard towards the forest. Looking back as he reached the outskirts, he saw the other man starting up a skidoo.

  Letting go of Kate, he grabbed his gun and aimed at the tank of the vehicle.

  He felt Kate tense as both skidoos exploded.

  Jack put his arm about her waist again as she slumped slightly and then gave one last glance to the cabin before heading into the woods.

  “Hold on, Kate… even if you feel sleepy, you’ve got to hold on, understand?” he whispered softly in her ear and smiled as she nodded. It was a positive sign that she had responded so quickly. She wasn’t going into shock, yet. He directed the skidoo deeper into the woods and then stopped and looked at her. “I don’t know where to go.”

  Kate winced as her arm ached and her head spun. Pressing her hand against the wound, she bit her lower lip and frowned.

  “Cabin.” She pushed the word out through clenched teeth. She felt sick. The pain in her arm was getting worse and she felt so cold. The only thing keeping her warm was Jack’s body where he was holding her against him.

  “About that… it’s gone. They blew it up.” He realised that it was probably a good time to mention it. Right now, she didn’t have the strength to beat the living daylights out of him.

  He frowned as she was silent for a few seconds and he leant forwards, trying to catch a glimpse of her face to see if she was still awake.

  “The Frakes’… it’s about two miles… south-east.” She pointed weakly and then continued to breath labouredly as she rested her head against his chest.

  Jack held her a little tighter and headed in the direction she’d pointed. Driving through the woods, he was thankful that the snowstorm had managed to penetrate the trees and lay a thick blanket of snow all around them. It was hard to avoid the logs, branches and stumps that were hidden below it, but he did his best, for Kate’s sake. She was starting to lag now. He could feel her tiredness in how heavily she was leaning against him and he felt useless. All he could do was keep talking to her and keep her talking to him.

  “Sorry about the cabin,” he whispered to her and turned the skidoo so they went around a tree.

  “Mhmm.” Kate battled against her overwhelming tiredness. Her eyelids were so heavy that she was finding it nigh on impossible to keep them open. Her body felt numb everywhere except her arm, where it throbbed with white-hot pain that felt as though someone was searing her with a branding iron. She swallowed and took a deep breath as she tried to quash the panic that had settled in her stomach.

  There was no way that she was going to die.

  She was too young to die.

  He wouldn’t let her die.

  “Don’t let me die.” The words slipped out as nothing more than a barely audible whisper.

  Jack brushed his fingers against her side where he was holding her, hoping it would go someway towards reassuring her.

  “I won’t let you die, Kate. I promise you.” He sighed as he looked at her where she was resting against him.

  Her skin was almost as white as the snow. A quick glance at her arm told him that it wasn’t as bad as he’d first thought. He could see blood, but not enough for it to be serious. Shock and exhaustion were probably making it seem worse than it was. She hadn’t broken anything because he’d watched her moving her arm and when her hand had been away from the wound, he’d seen the tear in her clothes
the bullet had made. It must have skimmed her arm, cutting her enough to push her fear over the limit and send her into shock.

  He had to get her somewhere safe and get her something to press against the wound. It would slow the bleeding and buy him time to dispose of the skidoo and cover their trail. He wanted to give her priority, but if he did that, he risked leaving a clear trail for Donovan to follow.

  Peering through the dark trees ahead of them, he felt relieved when he saw a small cabin in a clearing.

  Kate blinked languidly at him as they stopped outside the cabin. He bent over and carefully scooped her up. He carried her towards the house and went around the back.

  Jack set her down carefully on a seat on the back porch of the Frakes’ cabin and eyed up the door. Punching a hole through the glass, he unlatched it and opened it.

  He walked a few feet into the cabin and searched for any sign of it being occupied and then turned around to go back to Kate.

  He smiled as he saw her standing in the doorway looking tired and bemused. Picking her up again, he walked with her through the house and savoured the way she felt as she leant against him.

  Kate’s head came to rest against his neck as he carried her into the house. There was something so comforting about being held by him, as though as long as his arms were around her nothing bad could happen.

  She watched the pictures on the wall go by as she was carried upstairs and then closed her eyes as he set her down on a bed. She wanted to sleep so badly but she knew that she had to keep awake like he’d told her to.

  She tried to focus on him as he knelt in front of her and sighed. He looked concerned again, his beautiful hazel eyes showing her all his worry.

  And it was all about her.

  Jack brushed his fingers against her cheek and smiled into her eyes, trying to hide how scared she was making him by looking so close to death. He knew that the cold had sapped her warmth as much as it had sapped his, and he knew that he was almost as pale as she was, but it didn’t stop the worry that was eating away at him.

  Peeling her hand off her arm, he looked at the wound through the holes in her jumper. He smiled at her reassuringly, glad that his observation had been right and that it wasn’t bad.

  “Don’t move,” he said softly as he put his hand back over the wound. “Keep pressure on it. I won’t be long. I need to get rid of the skidoo.”

  It took Kate a moment to realise that he was leaving her and as she watched him stand, she managed to stifle the panic that it sparked off inside her. He had to go out. She could see that he didn’t want to leave her when she was hurt, but he had to make sure they weren’t followed.

  When he gave her a look that said he needed an answer, she nodded.

  He gave her one last look and then headed out of the room.

  Kate listened to the door close and then heard the skidoo engine start up.

  Pressing her hand harder against her arm, she ignored the way the pain and the feeling of warm blood on her fingers combined to make her feel even sicker and kept pressure on the wound like he had instructed.

  The sound of the skidoo drifted into the distance.

  She watched the door, waiting for him to return to her.

  Chapter 16

  Jack looked back at the skidoo where he’d rammed it into a tree about a mile from the cabin and then aimed his gun at it. He looked at it for a few seconds and then decided against it. If he blew it up then it would give Donovan a place to send his men. It was best if it took them longer to find the skidoo.

  He’d backtracked as far as possible towards Donovan’s cabin and had erased the trail by dragging a pine branch over the snow. The storm clouds had closed in again and the snow had started to fall, heavy enough that it was bound to cover anything that he’d missed.

  He’d driven the skidoo towards Kate’s cabin, leading Donovan away from where they really were.

  And there he stood.

  Now all he had to do was get back to Kate as quickly as possible. He’d been gone so long already that he was starting to worry about whether she’d even be conscious when he got back.

  Moving through the snow, he erased his tracks as he walked swiftly back to the Frakes’ cabin.

  On reaching it, he went straight around to the back and into the kitchen. Closing the door, he rifled through the drawers, searching for a method of covering the windows. He grabbed an armful of black bin liners and managed to find some tape.

  Going around the house, he hurriedly covered each window with the bin liners and taped them into place before drawing the curtains over them. Hopefully it would block out any light and would keep them hidden for a few hours longer.

  Heading up the stairs, he taped the bin liners to all the windows and then walked into the bedroom where he’d put Kate.

  He frowned as he saw her huddled up on the bed. She was shaking badly from the mixture of cold and shock, her teeth chattering as she tightly held herself. Coming to kneel in front of her, he gave her an apologetic look and placed his hand over hers where it was pressing against the wound.

  “I’m sorry we can’t light a fire. I wish we could, but it would let everyone know where we are.” The corners of his mouth curved into a slight smile. “I’m going to cover the windows so we can light some candles and take a look at that wound.”

  Kate nodded. It seemed like forever since he’d left and she couldn’t remember any of it. All she could remember was feeling cold and alone.

  And very scared.

  Her eyes followed him as he moved about the room, taping the black sacks over the windows and then drawing the curtains. As he walked back to her, she watched his fingers as he took the candle off the side and lit it.

  Jack sighed as he looked at her. In the pale candlelight, he could see the sticky wet patch of blood on her jumper. Her fingers were coated in it. He looked down at his hands and realised hers weren’t the only ones that were covered in her blood.

  Wiping his hand on his combats, he looked around the room and smiled as he saw the bathroom behind him.

  “I need to get a look at that wound, Kate.”

  She looked up at him with raised brows, not quite following what he was saying as her arm throbbed. She felt drowsy, docile, as she sat on the edge of the bed gripping her arm.

  He pointed awkwardly at her top and then ran his hand over his hair.

  She frowned at his expression and then looked down at her top, and realised what had him so embarrassed.

  He wanted her to strip.

  Letting go of her arm, she gritted her teeth as she tried to shimmy her good arm out of the jumper and then smiled gratefully at Jack as he helped her. She watched his hands as he gently slid her arm out of one sleeve and brought the jumper over her head before carefully manoeuvring it off over her injured arm. He did the same with her thermal top.

  Jack frowned when he saw the wound on her arm. The bullet had missed the bone and there wasn’t as much blood as he’d been expecting. By the looks of things, it had gone straight in and straight out again, barely below the surface and not deep enough to hit any major veins.

  “It’s not serious. I’ve seen worse,” he said lightly, trying to reassure her that she was going to be okay and it was mostly shock that she was feeling.

  He remembered how scared he’d been the first time he’d been shot. The bullet had embedded itself in his shoulder blade, fracturing it at the same time. It had hurt like hell and he’d sworn to God that he was going to die. The man he was on the mission with at the time had told him it was just a scratch.

  It seemed like so long ago, so far away.

  Jack roused himself from his thoughts as he stood in front of Kate and cocked his head to one side as he watched her. She was trying to cover herself. His eyes moved to rest on her chest and he smiled internally at the sight of her dark red bra clad breasts.

  Dragging his eyes away from her so he didn’t make her feel more uncomfortable, he grabbed his knife and went into the bathroom. He took a sm
all towel off the rack and split it into strips with his knife, cutting it so far and then tearing it the rest.

  “Here, keep the pressure on it.” He handed one of the strips to Kate and she dropped her jumper as she took hold of it, letting it fall away from her body and revealing herself to him again.

  Gritting his teeth and trying to stifle the urges that were swiftly threatening to overtake his common sense, he turned away and walked back into the bathroom.

  He focused on washing the blood off his hands, trying to scrub them clean so he didn’t give her an infection when he dealt with her arm. Splashing some of the cold water on his face, he looked up at himself in the mirror on the door of the medicine cabinet and sighed.

  She was beautiful.

  And he couldn’t deny that there was a connection.

  An attraction.

  He yanked the door to the medicine cabinet open and told himself not to be so ridiculous. The girl had just been shot. It wasn’t exactly the best time to be acting on desires and feelings.

  Taking down the large medical kit, he opened it up and rifled through it. He was stunned when he saw the surgical needle and thread and then remembered where they were. Home surgery was probably the best option when you were stuck on a mountainside a good thirty miles from the nearest hospital. It would at least bridge the gap until they got Kate to a doctor.

  “People come prepared for anything up here.” He held the needle up as he walked back into the room.

  Kate nodded and looked sick as she saw what he was holding.

  He noticed the fear in her eyes as he placed the medical kit down on the bed beside her.

  “There’s nothing to be afraid of. It will hurt at first, but it’ll pass, and I’ll do it as quickly as I can.” He gave her a reassuring look as he opened the clear packet the needle was in and threaded it.

  As he removed her hand from the wound and took the piece of towel away, Kate shook her head and shrank backwards, trying to evade him.

  “Kate…” He looked into her wide eyes and kept his voice gentle. “If it makes you feel better, you can hold my hand, squeeze it to death.”

 

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