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But suddenly a hand reached across and grabbed mine, clutching it tight.
Zautland didn’t look at me, but whispered, “Close your eyes.”
Chapter Four
Zautland
We weren’t going to make it.
I didn’t come out and say that, but I knew it the minute the snow started pouring down. It wasn’t going to happen.
It quickly turned into a blizzard, which quickly turned into a whiteout.
The car was starting to spin on the snow filled road and we had no water, no food, nothing but my phone, which would lose service soon and ten minutes at the very least left to go until we hit the cabin.
We had to hike.
That’s all I kept thinking as I held her hand.
There was no driving up to the cabin and the only place that had anything we needed was a ten-minute drive, possibly a thirty-minute walk, depending on the weather.
I pulled over immediately. “Take this.” I handed over my jacket to Samira and cut the engine, snow was piling up too fast and I knew the hill would be too tall and that I couldn’t actually see up it clear enough to get us there.
I checked the tank.
We had enough to make it, but not enough to last the night if we waited in the car. Guess that axe would come in handy after all.
“Okay.” I had to say it out loud. “Okay,” I said it again, maybe for me, not for her. “We either walk to the cabin, build a fire and survive, or we stay here and try to fight through overnight.”
The hesitation wasn’t there. Samira jerked open the car door, looked over her shoulder with snow slamming against her face and said. “We walk.”
Walk it is.
I said nothing. I got out of the car, took my keys, cell, and started walking. To her credit, she didn’t complain at all.
I could hear her slipping behind me to the point that I grabbed her by the hand and just held it as we continued to go through the trenches.
Hunger.
Thirst.
Hypothermia.
All real things that could happen in nature.
But she held my hand and refused to back down and at the most pivotal moments as we did walk, she gripped my fingers harder and I thought to myself I would never forget how her thumb felt as it rubbed against mine as if to say, We would keep walking and I’d keep obsessing over the way her hands even felt warm through my leather gloves.
Snow started to pile light enough that we could walk through it, but it was so slippery that falling was a huge issue and she had no preparation, she was in tall designer heels for shit’s sake, pretty heels, not that I should focus on that at all, but they had zero chance of making it through the ice and snow, and it kept piling and piling.
“Hey.” I grabbed Samira’s hand again and stopped us. “Get on my back, we’ll be there soon.”
“No.” She waved me off like it wasn’t a big deal, even though she was stumbling in the snow on wobbly heels. “I’ll walk, I’ll—”
She slipped across the ice and collapsed against my chest, her hands gripped my wool coat. “Still think you’ll walk?”
She shrugged away, her hair caught in her pretty pink lipstick. Was it horrible that I wanted it to smudge a bit, so I’d have an excuse to keep touching?
She was insufferable, but she was also strong, and strength was admirable in someone who was always shoved into a spot where she had no choice but to say thank you, please, nod her head, smile, accept a proposal you never wanted and all in favor of your country and how you’ve been raised.
