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“We can’t leave.” He looked over at his youngest brother. “Rescue won’t make it out to her in time.”
Damian held his gaze for a second, then, finally, showed some emotion. Not fear, or even his default anger, but that good old Hunter family obstinance. He pressed his lips together and nodded. “We’ll keep going. Nate, you good with that?”
They both glanced back at him. Nate was looking more than a little green, but he gave them a thumbs up.
It was stupid. Absolutely, suicidally stupid. And yet his brothers didn’t think twice about literally following him into the storm. He owed them more than he could ever repay.
Ellis refocused his binoculars on the ground. Also stupid, because the possibility of him spotting anything through the snow was next to nil, but he had to do something. He had to—
As the chopper’s spotlight splashed over the riverbank below, he thought he saw a quicksilver flash of a reflection. He focused on the area and saw several animals gathered there. His heart started to pound, already knowing what they were even before his brain made sense of what his eyes were telling him.
Dogs. With reflective harnesses.
“Wait, Day. Set us down. I see the dogs!”
Damian didn’t protest or ask questions. He simply turned the helicopter around and set it down in a clearing. Ellis landed in snow up to his knees when he jumped out, but he didn’t care. He scrambled toward the trees where he’d seen the flash of reflective harness…
And there they were. Norte, Chilly, Nugget, Diggy, and Indigo. Norte saw him first and started a happy song, which Diggy and Nugget joined. Indigo cowered, his ears pressed against his head. Chilly watched his approach with her typical calm demeanor.
“Good dogs,” he told them. “Good puppies. Where’s your mama?”
Norte lunged against his harness, but the team didn’t move. As he got closer, he saw why. The sled had become wedged on its side between two trees. He scanned the immediate area but saw no signs of human activity. No footprints. But she had to be here. She wouldn’t leave her dogs.
He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted her name. The wind carried it away. He doubted even his brothers, only a handful of feet behind him, could hear it.
“She’s not here. She’s not fucking here!” Dread coiled around his chest. Only the direst of circumstances would cause her to leave her dogs. Was she injured? Or worse.
Someone grabbed his shoulder. Nate. And Damian at his other side. He didn’t realize his knees had buckled until he felt their grips keeping up upright.
He shook them off. “She has to be nearby. I can find her. I’ll find her.” He muttered it over and over again as he waded through the snow to the sled. He gave it a shove. It didn’t move. “Help me free this thing!”
It felt like forever before his brothers joined him and another eternity before they pried the sled free of the sapling holding it. He did a quick inspection. Everything seemed to be in working order, except there was only a frayed roped where the snow hook should be.
Had the dogs gotten free? But he couldn’t imagine Norte leaving Bree behind. She once said these dogs were her world, but she was Norte’s. No way he’d leave her. Even now, with nothing holding them in place, the dogs didn’t move. Norte gazed back at him with a question in his mismatched eyes.
“Yeah, pal. We’ll find her.” Ellis tucked the rope into the sled and climbed onto the runners.
Damian eyed him skeptically. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“Mostly. Bree taught me.”
“What do you need from us?” Nate asked.
“Call your girlfriend and tell her where we found the dogs.”
“She’s not my—” Nate stopped short. Shook his head. “Forget it. Do you have a gun?”
“Uh…” Shit. He hadn’t thought this through.
“Hang on,” Damian said. He slogged back to the helicopter and returned several minutes later with a rifle and a box of ammo. “Figured there’d be some kind of weapon in that chopper. Everyone up here has guns.” He also produced a knife and sheath from under his anorak. “You might want this too.”
Ellis took the knife and instantly recognized the old leather sheath with the initials W.H. burned into the side. “This was Dad’s.”
“Yeah,” Damian confirmed. “The only thing he ever gave me.”
“And you kept it?”
Damian didn’t respond to the question. Instead, he said, “Go. Call if you find anything and we’ll direct the rescue team your way.”
