Untraceable

The man shrugged.

Isaiah sent up a prayer.

“You praying again?”

“Yep. Praying that Liam doesn’t lose his way.”

Zach’s face paled. “How could he? The tents are right there.”

“You’ve never been in a blizzard like this. It’s called a whiteout for a reason. You can’t see where the sky meets the ground. You can’t see where you’re going. You can even get vertigo.”

“That sounds like a bunch of bologne to me.”

Was that the answer? Should they just let Zach have his way and try to lead him and his crew out during the whiteout? No. Then they would all be at risk.

A few minutes passed. “Let’s pull out the food, get it ready for the others.”

Isaiah busied himself starting up the small camping stove. He opened the vents in the tent.

“What’s taking him so long?” Zach raked his hand through his hair. “How hard could it be?”

“You should have been the one to go.” Isaiah decided he took a little too much pleasure in taunting this guy. “I can go check on them if you want.”

“No. You stay right here.”

“Okay, then we’re both left to wonder if he even made it.” Planting the seed of fear in Zach had worked out better than Isaiah thought.

Zach was suddenly in Isaiah’s face, pressing the muzzle of his gun under his chin. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you? One down, three to go.”

Should he wrestle with Zach? Take the gun from him? It was now or never. Squeezing his eyes shut, he reined in the images of taking the gun from Zach. What would that gain him? Jason still had a weapon trained on Cade. He wasn’t sure if Rhea had one, as well.

All he knew was that this wasn’t the right moment.

Someone unzipped the tent and stepped inside.

Heidi.

Isaiah’s heart jumped.

Cade followed.

Isaiah had made the right decision—wrestling with the weapon could have set it off and killed her or Cade.

Liam tried to come inside, too.

“Go with Jason,” Zach said. “There’s not enough room here.”

Heidi sent Isaiah a soft smile, the strain of a restless night in her face. She crawled over next to him, took off her gloves and shrugged out of her coat. “It’s warm in here. How are you holding up?”

“Good.”

She slid her hand over his and squeezed.

Isaiah tried to ignore what her touch did to his heart. He pulled his hand away.

God, I have to get her out of here.

Maybe if he could save her—and Cade, too—then Isaiah could redeem himself. Although he knew that wasn’t true. Only Christ was the true Redeemer. But maybe if he could right this wrong, it would be something. Although he hadn’t been arrested or convicted, hadn’t killed anyone, he knew in some roundabout way, he’d played a role in that murder.

SIX (#ulink_e6c4a759-abe4-5242-80ac-aae9f1681cf3)

Bundled in her winter gear, Heidi exited the tent.

They’d stared at the maps long enough.

Conserving what water they had, Heidi had used the camping stove to melt snow to drink, and portioned out the energy bars. When the wind had died down, the quiet drew them outside to assess the damage.

Cade, Isaiah and Zach stood next to the snow wall. The tents were nearly buried again, even though the men had taken turns scraping off the snow. Liam, Jason and Rhea were still eating their energy bars, their gazes drawn to the exquisite splendor surrounding them—a pristine but deadly beauty that had threatened their lives.