I held out my hands, like I was trying to calm a wild animal. “I’m not going to hurt you. You have hypothermia. We need to get you warm.”
She looked back at the closed door. “The men…”
The sound of snowmobiles had gotten closer, but now they were idling.
“Don’t worry about them. Rafe and Jude will take care of it.” I started to saytrust me, then realized that was about as dumb a thing as I could say to Lilah Abbott. “I was a medic in the military. I want to make sure you don’t lose any of your fingers or toes.”
Or worse. I left that part out because I didn’t want to scare her, but I knew she was in real danger. Her core body temp was obviously low, her system shutting down as her body used every resource it had to keep her organs running.
I reached for her again, slowly, and was relieved when she let me help her off the floor.
Rafe pulled on his parka and opened the door, gun in hand. He stared across the snowy field leading to the woods.
“Who the fuck are these fuckers?” Jude muttered, pulling on his coat and following Rafe's gaze.
From my vantage point in the foyer, I could see a row of three snowmobiles idling at the tree line. Their riders wore bulky coats and balaclavas, making it impossible to see their faces.
Not that it mattered.
Rafe stepped outside, followed by Jude. The door swung shut behind them.
“This way.” I reached out to touch Lilah’s arm and she pulled back, her eyes wild. Right. That was a bad idea. “Follow me.”
I was worried she might collapse before we could get to the living room, but since she didn’t want me touching her, I led the way and hoped she could make it to the sofa.
“Sit down.” I gestured at the sofa and pulled off my sweatshirt. She needed a blanket, but that would have to come from the other room. “Put this on. I’m going to get my bag.”
She hesitated, then tried to take the sweatshirt from my hands. It slipped from her fingers. “My hands…”
“You have some frostbite.” I picked the sweatshirt up off the floor. We needed to raise her core body temperature. That would get her circulation going again, get some blood to her fingers and toes. “Can I put this on you?”
More hesitation before she nodded.
I sat next to her and slipped the sweatshirt over her head, then helped her get her arms through it. She looked small and helpless, like a wounded bird, but I knew from the hate still shining in her eyes that she’d become a fighter.
A familiar swell of shame rolled through me. She hadn’t always been a fighter. She’d been forced to become one.
Because of us.
“I’ll be right back.”
3
JUDE
I registeredthe cold from a distance the way I registered the number of yards between us and the snowmobiles. I registered other things too: the snow falling thick and heavy, the expensive snowmobiles, the way their riders’ heads moved, like they were talking to each other, trying to decide what to do.
I raised my rifle, more so I could use the scope than because I planned to shoot it, although shooting it wasn’t out of the question.
The details, my attempt at gaining control over the situation, were about more than just years of training. I was trying not to think about the fact that Lilah Abbott was inside the house, that someone had been after her, and in the most unlikely twist of all, she’d ended up here.
That and trying to get a handle on what we were dealing with before Rafe got irritated, because when Rafe was irritated he tended to shoot first and ask questions later (the proof was in our dishonorable discharge) and I wasn’t down for a visit from the Blackwell PD — or an attempt at getting rid of three bodies when the ground was frozen.
“What do you see?” Rafe asked. His voice was strung tight, the way it was when he was under threat, when any of us were under threat. He’d been that way as long as I’d known him, since the day we’d banded together in third grade to take down Jake Morelli, the school bully who’d made fun of Nolan because he had to go to the nurse’s office twice a day.
“Not much. It’s really coming down and their faces are covered.” The scope magnified the three men at the tree line but their balaclavas prevented me from making out any of their facial features. “Snowmobiles are expensive though. Newer.”
Rafe took a step toward the porch stairs.