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Sandrine wiped at the snot pouring from her nose. “None of them will ever understand. They probably don’t even believe me. What she did to me—no human being deserves that. They were lucky. They were lucky. They were lucky.”
She slouched even lower, eyes going unfocused much the way that Brian’s tended to do when he was disassociating.
“They were lucky. They were lucky,” Sandrine repeated, the words now a mantra.
Josie squeezed her hand. “Okay, Sandrine. Okay. That’s enough. I think right now the best thing we can do is try to get some rest. I’ll stay awake. You two close your eyes for a bit.”
She expected Alice to object, but she didn’t. Instead, she turned her back to Sandrine and curled onto her side. Josie waited until they both settled into a regular pattern of breathing before she took out her phone. It was down to twenty-three percent. She sent up a silent prayer for that she’d gotten service in the last couple of hours and then checked to see if her message had gone through to Gretchen. She took in a deep breath of relief when she saw that it had. One hour and thirteen minutes ago. There wasn’t a response to it but that only meant that whatever Gretchen wrote back had simply not yet reached her.
Josie stood up and went to the window, checking again to see if the others were nearby. All she could see was the black smoke from the main house floating up into the sky. The path they had all shoveled was empty. She sat back down beside Sandrine who stirred briefly, eyes popping open, blind with terror. Josie put a gentle hand on her back. “It’s okay. You’re safe for now. Go back to sleep.”
Sandrine blinked until her eyes focused on Josie. She smiled and patted Josie’s hand with her good one. Then she closed her eyes once more. She shifted a few times before finding a comfortable enough position to go back to sleep. Josie stayed upright, concentrating on the sensations in her body. The low vibration she’d come to know as her hypervigilance, her body on guard for any and all threats. The dull pounding in her temples. The aches in her feet and calves. The tension in her shoulder blades. The punishing cold enveloping her entire body.
Nothing good was coming of this body scan.
Instead, she turned to thoughts of Noah, trying to drown out her worry, and focus on him. She pictured his face, his thick dark hair, the puckered scar near his right shoulder where she’d shot him.
How had there ever been any question as to his devotion to her? She’d shot him and he’d still married her!
In her mind, she was snug in bed with him, his arms wrapped around her. Their dog, Trout, warmed her feet. She could feel his breath in her hair. She was so deep into the memory that she never even heard the crunch of feet over snow outside.
FIFTY
A pounding on the cabin door startled Josie back to reality. She jumped up and ran to the window. On the tiny stoop outside the cabin’s front door stood Nicola. Her coat was in shreds. Gone was the knit hat she’d been wearing the last time Josie saw her. Blood stained her strawberry-blonde hair and smudged her cheeks. When she lifted her arm to pound on the door again, blood flew from her fist. Josie couldn’t see where it landed from the angle of the window, but she imagined quite an impressive blood spatter on the front door. Beyond her, Brian lurched up the shoveled path, holding his head. Blood poured from between his fingers. He swayed and stumbled, fell to one knee and stayed there. He opened his mouth, calling out, but Josie couldn’t hear what he said.
Coming up behind her, Alice said, “We can’t let them in.”
Josie said, “They’re injured.”
Sandrine sat upright. “Nicola tried to kill me.”
“I know,” Josie said. “But they’re both bleeding.”
Alice craned her neck around Josie to peek out the window. “Maybe they tried to kill one another. Either way, it is not our problem.”
Nicola turned toward Brian and called back to him. Josie could see blood streaking down the side of her scalp, her neck, and inside the collar of her coat. She turned and rushed down the steps toward Brian. As she ran, her gaze remained locked on the path below them, as if she was expecting someone or something to follow.
The bear? Josie wondered. “They’re bleeding a lot.”
“That’s not our problem,” Alice said. “They can take shelter in another cabin until help arrives.”
Brian fell again, this time taking Nicola with him. Now crumpled onto the ground, Josie could see a trail of blood behind them.
“If they’re that badly hurt,” Josie said. “They’re not going to attack us. Alice, they need help.”
Once again, Nicola stood and got Brian to his feet. She slipped her shoulders under his arm and kept him upright. They had a small conversation. Nicola looked behind them—no one on the path—and they started toward the cabin again.
“No,” Sandrine said. “No. We can’t let them in here. Brian, maybe, but not Nicola. She attacked me!”
Alice said, “Josie, even if we did let them in, I’ve got nothing to work with. No first aid kit. No bandages, nothing to clean wounds with. Nothing! Sandrine is right, though. I was there! Nicola meant to kill her.”
Nicola and Brian reached the bottom of the steps. Brian waved her away, holding onto the railing with one hand while he touched the side of his head with the other. Nicola kept glancing from him to the lower path. He swayed a bit more but was able to remain standing.
Josie said, “They’re in bad shape.”
“I don’t care!” Alice said. “We cannot let them in.”
Nicola climbed the steps and started pounding on the door again. “I know you’re all in there!” she shouted. “Please! Let us in.”
