Cold Woods by S. L. Hansen

Author:S. L. Hansen [S. L. Hansen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adventure Press, LLC
Published: 2023-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Glacier National Park, Montana

Everything hurt.

Kenzie had been on her feet since sunrise. Sweat pooled at her back beneath the heavy pack, laden with her overnight supplies. The claustrophobic trail along the lake had finally opened up, and they’d been climbing steadily for the past couple of hours. Kenzie was in great shape. She was required to pass a rigorous fitness exam yearly as a part of the FBI, but this was more like a death march. Now, as the sun beat down on them from directly above, muscles she didn’t know she had protested under the grueling hike. She focused on the pain, using it as a distraction.

“Kenzie!”

She stopped and turned. The sharpness of her name on Derek’s tongue made her suspect he’d been calling her for a while. Kenzie’s vision had tunneled long ago, focusing solely on the path in front of her. She tried to imagine the looming trees weren’t there, tried to ignore the sounds of the woods that pressed around her. But the look on Derek’s face suggested he didn’t approve of her survival strategy. “Sorry, what’s up?”

“You’re limping.”

Kenzie looked down at her feet. “What?”

“You’ve been favoring your right foot for the last fifteen minutes. Does it hurt?”

She shrugged. “No more than the rest of me.”

He frowned. “Hikers have no tolerance for blisters. It can ruin a trip. Let’s look.” He guided her to a nearby rock and helped her sit. Before she could protest, he had her boot and sock off and was holding her foot up to examine it. “Hot spot forming on your heel. You need to wear thicker socks with these boots.”

“It’s too hot for thick socks.” Hell, it was too hot for clothes. Even at this high elevation, the temperature was in the eighties, and the cloudless sky provided no relief.

“They make thick socks that don’t hold in the heat. We’ll get you some. Let me grab some moleskin from my pack.”

He rooted through his pack and come up with a small square of material that looked like a cross between a Band-Aid and a thicker gauze pad. His hand was warm on her ankle as he taped the small piece in place.

“Put your sock and boot on and see how that feels. Then we’ll do the other one,” Derek said. He took a sweeping glance around them as he waited for her.

Derek was hyperaware of his surroundings in the woods. But he didn’t jump out of his skin at the slightest noise like she did. He finished her other foot, and they returned to the trail.

“How much farther?” she asked.

“You tell me.” It was the same answer he’d given to any of her questions once he’d shown her how to do something twice.

She stopped and pulled out her phone. She had downloaded the trail maps for the park to her phone long ago. Cell service was non-existent, but at least the GPS mostly worked. Derek cleared his throat and gave her a stern look. No wonder Sydney found him overbearing sometimes.

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