AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Slowly, ever so slowly, they made their way down the tree. A few times, Anne faltered. Blane caught her each time. She wasn’t going to die here, not if he had anything to say about it. Regardless of what had come before. He was who he was. And people didn’t die under his watch.
It felt like an eternity, but finally they reached the ground. The plane was smoldering, but not on fire. Blane was exhausted. Anne couldn’t even walk straight. She kept stumbling. His worry for her took precedence over his own fatigue. They walked for a bit, getting as far away from the volatile plane as their physical condition would allow.
Finally, he said, “This is far enough. Sit down. I’ll gather some wood.”
Anne collapsed on a nearby fallen log, looking as though she wouldn’t make it through the night. Blane was concerned, but then he steeled himself against it. This was a woman who’d been intimate with him, a woman whom he’d saved on multiple occasions. She’d lied and betrayed him. He should feel as much for her as he would a traveling roach.
“You all right?” he asked gruffly.
“What do you care?” Her response was muted and filled with finality. As if she knew she wouldn’t make it through this.
“I’m guessing your memory is coming back,” he said. “Let’s just be clear that we’re in this situation because of you.”
She didn’t respond, just absently scrubbed at the blood staining her chin, and Blane didn’t have the heart to berate her further. Now they needed to focus on survival.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” he asked.
Anne shrugged. “Somewhere in the Northeast. Maine, maybe?”
“Where were you taking me?”
“Iceland.”
Well. That was unexpected. One of the few places he hadn’t been to, though it was on his bucket list.
“And how long had we been in the air?”
“A bit over two hours.”
From DC on a private plane instead of commercial jet, that sounded about right for Maine. Great. Inhospitable terrain and sparsely populated. He’d done his SEREs training around here and it had been hell. Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. He’d need the first one and hoped he wouldn’t need the rest. Would Smithson assume they’d died in the crash? Or would he send a team to check?
Blane assumed the latter. Someone had to find his body. It would make sense the DOJ would be notified of his disappearance and check on him. They’d find his sadly dead body and put out the news. And if he was still alive? Well, they’d probably take care of that, too.
They needed shelter but it was the middle of the night. He could barely see enough to gather kindling. Lighting a fire was going to be a bitch.
Anne didn’t say anything more as she sat on the log. It took Blane longer than he wanted to get the spark of fire going, but hey, it had been a while since he’d had to play caveman.
Finally, a merrily burning fire was going, cutting through the inky darkness and cold. It was September in Maine. The temperature felt to be in the low fifties, and neither of them were dressed for warmth in this temperature. Tomorrow, they’d need water first thing, then see about hiking out of here.
He sank down beside Anne. She looked up at him.
“Why would he do this?” she asked. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“He knows I’m going to run for the office,” Blane responded. “And I’d do some house cleaning, starting with the DOJ. He wants to hold on to his power.”
“That seems like a flimsy excuse. We don’t know that someone else wasn’t involved. I bet you have many enemies, Kirk.”
“We’re back to Kirk then,” Blane observed. “I take it you still think I had something to do with your brother?”
“I have no reason to think otherwise. Just because Smithson may want you out of the picture doesn’t mean what he told me isn’t true.” A shiver went through her and her eyes slipped closed for a moment. “Are we going to die out here?”
The change of subject surprised Blane, but he supposed her own survival was higher on her list of concerns at the moment than her brother’s death.
“Maybe,” he replied. “Though I have a keen desire to remain amongst the living.” Reaching out, he drew her closer to him until she was pressed against his side. “We need to share our warmth,” he explained.
She nodded listlessly. Blane didn’t like seeing her like this. He was worried about the wound on her head.
His stomach chose that moment to erupt in growls of hunger. It had been a long time since he’d eaten. Anne was probably starving, too. And she had fewer bodily reserves than he did. Plus, he’d been starved before. He doubted she’d ever had to endure hunger or thirst. But she didn’t say anything.
