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Piper declared their shelter ready, and he crawled into the low space. She had cleared away all the rocks and gravel and laid out a bed of brush and smashed tumbleweed for them. She crawled in after him, and they cuddled on the surprisingly comfortable makeshift bed. Or maybe it just felt that good to lie down and quit moving at long last.

She groaned beside him. “How’s your shoulder?”

“It’ll be okay. Not high on the priority list at the moment.”

“We’re not going to make it out of here, are we?” she asked in a small voice.

He rolled onto his good shoulder and drew her close. Their breath mingled, and as their body heat did the same, he felt a little better. “I’m going to do my level best to get us out of this alive.”

“That’s not an answer.”

He sighed. “It’s the best I can do and still be honest with you.”

She laid her palm against his cheek and leaned back enough in his arms to stare up at him in the near total darkness. “There’s no need to sugar coat it for me. How bad is our situation?”

“If we don’t’ find water tomorrow, we’re going to be in a world of hurt. And it’s not like we can just sit out here and hunker down to work at surviving. We’ve got to get to civilization and let the authorities know how to stop the virus. And tell them all to start looking for El Noor. That he—or she—is the mastermind.”

They were silent for a few minutes, resting in each other’s arms. She said reflectively, “If I have to die, I’m glad it’s with you, Ian.”

“We’re not going to die!”

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not giving up. Not by a long stretch. I’d give anything to live to a ripe old age with you. I’m just saying. If we bothhaveto die, I’m glad you’re here with me.”

The idea of growing old with her rolled over him like a tidal wave. Yeah, he’d have liked that, too. Having some kids. A passel of grandkids who invaded his home on holidays with noise and laughter and the happy chaos he’d grown up with. Piper would make a hell of a mother, he’d bet.

He pushed her hair off her face to stare down at her. “Only thing youhaveto do is live. For me. For us.”

She smiled up at him sadly. “I appreciate the pep talk. I really do. But I know the score. We’ve got about one more day, and then we’ll die of dehydration. And if that doesn’t get us, the virus will. This is the mission that was bigger than us. The one that got away. But hey. It was a good run. And I got to meet you before the end.”

He would have cursed and raged and battered at her defeatist attitude if there was even the tiniest glimmer of hope that shewas wrong. But as it was, he could only sigh and pull her closer to him. “You’re a hell of a woman, Piper Roth.”

“Thank you for not lying to me,” she whispered, her words slipping into the night on silent wings.

“You’re welcome.”

“I do love you,” she murmured low.

He absorbed the words into himself like healing water, cool and soothing to his soul. “I love you, too.”

She went very still. “It’s a hell of a note that we found each other now, huh?”

“Better late than never.”

“Amen.”

To have found Piper just in time to lose her, to lose his life, was hard to swallow with grace. But for her sake, he did his best. He wasn’t about to give up on getting both of them out of this mess alive. He had to stay focused. But he couldn’t resist repeating, “I love you.”

Damn, it felt good to say that. Now, if only it weren’t too late to act upon it.

Piper stared at Ian’s shadowed profile in awe. Who knew three such simple little words could carry such profound meaning? She stared at him, letting his quiet, intense declaration of love and all the emotion and loss and discovery behind it sink into her soul.

She loved him, too. More than herself. More than life. This love filling her and spilling over into him felt bigger than both of them. Eternal. Sacred.

They might have failed in their mission, might have lost everything and merely be biding time until the end, but at leastthey’d found each other. And it was enough. She could die in peace.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for everything.”

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