Ice by Linda Howard

Author:Linda Howard [Howard, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Suspense
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2009-07-05T04:00:00+00:00

Gabriel spared him only the briefest glance. “He’s dead.” His tone didn’t reveal a shred of regret. The elbow to the nose, smashing it and driving bone fragments into the brain, hadn’t been an accident.

Deep in the forest, another limb gave up its life with a sharp crack, and crashed down. Hard on the heels of it came another one, this one much closer.

Lolly was still on the ground, her eyes huge dark pools in a stark white face as she stared up at him. He leaned down and caught her arm, pulled her to her feet. “We have to go back to the house,” he said. “We can’t walk out now, not with limbs already coming down.”

Solemnly she nodded, but she asked, “What about Niki? That’s her name,” she explained in a vague tone. She gestured at the body on the ground. “His name is Darwin. Was Darwin.” A faint note of satisfaction leaked into her voice. Looking around, as if searching for the missing woman, she added, “She might be at the house.”

“Maybe,” Gabriel said grimly. “If she is, I’ll handle it. From what this asshole said, they’re out of ammo. If she didn’t go back to the house, if she’s out here somewhere … she can freeze to death, for all I care.”

Still Lolly just stood there, and he gentled his tone. “Lolly, we don’t have a choice.” He bent and collected the flashlight Lolly had dropped, as well as Darwin’s empty pistol. The pistol he slipped into his front pants pocket. His own flashlight was still secured in his coat pocket; he’d use the other one as long as the battery held out, because who knew how long they’d be in the house before the road was clear? If the electricity at the house hadn’t already gone out, it would soon.

“I know,” she said, her voice subdued.

God, he was cold. His knit cap was gone and the damn miserable rain had formed ice crystals in his hair. Not even his good cold weather gear could keep his body warm when he was losing so much heat through his uncovered head. He shivered convulsively, but forced himself to concentrate. He could see that Lolly’s pants were dark with moisture from mid-thigh down, moisture that would leach all of her body heat away, too. They had to get dry. They had to get warm. The exertion of the fight had warmed him while it was happening, but now the letdown was leaving him even colder, and Lolly would be in worse shape because she had neither his muscle mass nor the experience in handling the aftermath of an adrenaline burn.

He turned her toward the house, his arm behind her back, urging her forward. “Are you cold?” he asked, though of course she was.

“I was,” she said. She sounded exhausted. He’d expected that; it was normal. “I don’t think I am now, though. But I can’t feel my feet.”

He shuddered again, his body trying to generate some heat, and suddenly he noticed that Lolly wasn’t shivering.

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