“Go, go, go, go. Real slow,” he whispers.
Carefully, they back away, plastering themselves to the buildings, averting their gazes and staying low, trying to look harmless.
The bear grunts, puffing cold air from its nostrils that evaporates in the setting sun, before turning its attention back to the buffet.
They aren’t dying here, after all. At least not here, in this moment.
He’s going to get ‘a polar bear saved my life’put on a t-shirt if they ever get back home.
Chapter 13
They’re barely two feet into the sheriff’s station, but Nora’s been vibrating with anger the whole way here. It even outweighed her fear of the polar bear, which is saying something considering she’d been certain they were both about to join the pile of the dead it ripped apart.
It takes everything in her not to explode the moment the door shuts and to wait until they’ve cleared the area of any threats. Thankfully, it takes all of thirty seconds to check the main portions in the front and back and find it clear. She’s never been more grateful for pint-sized buildings because it frees up her attention to erupt at Theo as the heat starts to waft over them both and she sheds her outer layers.
“Why the hell would you do that?” she yells.
Theo squints, the finger of one glove between his teeth, about to be pulled off. “Do what?”
“I didn’t ask you to attempt to sacrifice yourself for me.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I dunno what I was thinking. What a rude, inconsiderate, selfish thing that was.”
His deadpan delivery rakes across her nerves as she gets stuck inside her coat, struggling to remove her arms from it, seething all the while. “When you say it like that, it makes me sound like the asshole. You know that isn’t what I mean.”
“What do you mean, then?”
She grumbles under her breath, losing her composure as her struggle inside the coat continues. He offers help to pry it off, only to be shrugged away as she explodes in a whirlwind of motion that finally flings the offending garment across the room.
It must be slightly comical because Theo is already trying to suppress a laugh. That just upsets her more. Can’t he see that she’s terrified of losing him? Can’t he see that he almost died out there for her, and she isn’t worth that? Not by a long shot.
“We do this together. All of it. That’s been the plan this whole time,” she replies, with nothing but false calm. “You can’t put yourself at risk like that. You’re not disposable. We make it together or we don’t make it.”
His gaze softens in a mixture of affection and puzzled confusion. “You’re growing fond of me.”
“Oh my god. That fondness is dissipating with every additional word coming out of your mouth.”
That’s a lie. She is more than fond of him, and his delighted half smile when he voiced his realization is already melting her rage despite her resistance.
“I’m not going to let you die if I can stop it,” he says evenly.
“And if that ends up getting you killed? That’s just fine?”
“Not fine, but…if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes.”
Her eyes prickle, but she shoves the emotion down deep until it strangles her. “I don’t want you to do that. Promise me you won’t again.”
“I can’t make that promise.”
“Theo…” she shakes her head, turning away to pace the small office, wincing when the blood in her toes and thighs starts circulating again, squeezing her muscles. “I’m not worth your life.And I need you.I won’t make it out here alone anyway, so….if you want to keep me safe, then that means you stick around to make sure I am.”
“I think you’ve got more survival skills than you give yourself credit for. You’d be fine.”
“No. This is the deal. Take it or leave it.”
He raises a brow in a mock challenge, his voice repeating her earlier words with less of the sting. “Or what? You’ll leave me behind?”
She huffs with a roll of her eyes. “Well, aside from the fact that leaving you behind would only force the problem we’re trying to avoid…fuck, maybe. Yes. Yes, I’ll leave your ass behind in the snow with only a polar bear for company and a helicopter you obnoxiously cannot fly.”
