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She had to move. Now.
Her mind urged her body to scramble up the incline to the triangle bolder, but her legs were mired in molasses. The distance to the four-foot-high rock seemed miles. But she hadn't come this far to lie down and wait for Snips to do his worst.
One boot-clad foot clomped in front of the other as she made her way upward. With nothing to hold on to, she slipped on the wet snow a few times but managed to fight her way to the bolder. Climbing the two-foot incline zapped more of her energy than it should have and she leaned her back against Rebecca's landmark. Icy snow soaked through her T-shirt along her spine, from the small of her back to between her shoulder blades, and another set of shivers shook her.
She glanced around, hoping to find a nice little cabin with smoke billowing from the fireplace. No such luck. The only things she spotted were rocks and a few pine trees covered in white. A natural path had been worn in the stone bluff from centuries of people traveling across it, curving around into what she couldn't see. Well, she knew full well what kind of trouble followed behind her so she might as well go forward.
Josie marched on, too exhausted and cold to worry about the tracks she left in the snow. The path's slope grew steeper and she had to lean forward as she walked. Higher and higher she went, passing snow-covered rocks and trees, but not finding anything that would offer protection from the wind. At least the snow had stopped. Thank God for small favors.
By now, her body twitched with cold on an almost constant basis and she'd begun to lose hope of ever finding a safe spot to stop. The bluff's limestone walls went straight up on the right. On the left, the landscape dropped in a steep slope to a badlands of deep ravines. Looking out at the blanket of white as far as she could see, she couldn't help but remember Rebecca's words. There was a harsh beauty to this place. If it didn't turn you into a human Popsicle first.
Bringing her gaze back down to the snowy path, she forced herself to keep moving. Her pace had slowed to the speed of an eighty-year-old crossing the road, but she was making progress. As a bonus, the frosty temperature didn't bother the white tips on her fingers anymore.
A few minutes, hours or days later—really, she'd lost all ability to track time—she passed into a deep shadow. She blinked a few times in response to the light change and glanced up. A slab of rock crossed above the path, creating a land bridge from one part of the bluff to another.
A fuzzy picture formed in her mind. A sketch. Had she painted a similar formation? No. Rebecca. It was the third or fourth drawing on the map. Somehow, she'd stumbled upon it.
She pressed her back against the limestone wall and looked up at the rock, her entire body weary. With no destination in mind, would it really matter if she took a short rest? Her eyelids drooped. Just for a couple of minutes of shuteye and then she'd get moving again.
Darkness surrounded her and sank into her bones. Everything became heavy. She was going to die out here, only to be found by some hiker in the spring. What a fucking way to go. Maybe she should have taken her chances with Snips. Too late for second-guessing now.
Even the effort to stay upright proved too much and she slid down the hard limestone wall. Rocks shook loose behind her, showering her shoulders with chunks of the chalky limestone.
The wall crashed around her and Josie tumbled back into a small cave, landing flat on her back.
The impact knocked the breath out of her frozen lungs and jarred to the surface the pain that had been waiting just under the numbness. Agony pierced her skin and she curled into the fetal position in an instinctual attempt to block it all out.
Desperate to think about anything but the stabbing pain, she forced herself to take in her surroundings. If this qualified as a cave, it was the studio apartments of caves. It was so small she could reach out and touch both walls at the same time. It ended about eight feet back from the entrance, where the two walls came together to form a V.
Mercifully, the wind couldn't penetrate beyond the cave's mouth. Maybe if she was lucky, Snips would find her soon. Right about now, she'd pick him over freezing to death. She snorted, sending a puff of dust into the air. Well, if that right there doesn't tell you you're fucked, then nothing does.
Josie rolled over to her stomach. She half crawled, half slid to the back of the cave.
A small, intricately carved wood box the length of a business envelope lay nestled in the corner. An ornate R stood out on the lid.
Rebecca’s Bounty.
So many people had searched for the treasure and she'd found it. Now she'd die with it.
Resigned to her fate, she sat up, pulled her legs to her chest and curled her upper body downward, trapping her hands and Rebecca's Bounty between her thighs and boobs. The V of the walls coming together fit snug against her shoulders and she let herself loosen her tenuous hold on reality. If she was going to embark on that final adventure, she might as well go happy.
Relaxing into herself, she imagined it was Sam holding her tight, whispering her name into the nape of her neck. The blackness came again, eating at the edges of her vision. Too tired to fight it anymore, she closed her eyes and surrendered.
The howling wind became silent.
Her breathing slowed.
The beating in her chest grew soft.
Her fantasy lover warmed her with his strong arms and she pressed her icy cheek against his welcoming chest. God, he smelled of warm leather and old books. She wrapped her arms around his waist, tucking her hands into his waistband above his firm ass. Even in this in-between place, she couldn't let go of Sam.
Sam stared out at the white-covered fields as Hank's cruiser crawled down the highway toward the original McNerny boarding house, hampered by the fast-falling snow. All that was left was a historical marker, but there was an old farmhouse nearby. There was a good chance Snips had taken Josie there to wait out the storm. Whereever she was, they'd find her. They had to.
“Sheriff, the state patrol is closing down the Interstate,” a voice crackled on the police radio.
Hank cursed under his breath and grabbed the radio mic. “How many of our folks are still on the highways, Darlene?”
“All of them. Phillips just reported the southern sections of the county are getting hit hard. How is it up north where you are?”
