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“It may be a rat or marmot. We just need to stay perfectly still. They don’t bite.” Maybe. He’d made that last part up because he had no idea, but he didn’t want to stress her out any more. Marmots could be violent when it came to protecting their turf.

Whatever it was, the animal circled their feet and chirped. Dani hiccupped a squeal. She was squished against Grizz to the point that he couldn’t tell if it was his thumping heartbeat or hers.

“I can’t take this much more. I’m not good in tight spaces with rats.” Dani shifted but then settled down.

They held steady for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only ten minutes. Unless it was a ruse to get them to come out, the men had retreated.

“I think it’s safe to climb out.” He let go of his hold on her, more reluctant to do that than he was okay with. As if she’d welcome his touch when they weren’t in mortal danger.

She shimmied out of the cave opening first, and Grizz followed. He looked into the hole they’d just crawled out of and saw the ticked-off marmot.

“We got a little too close to her babies.” Grizz pointed at the nest of baby marmots. “No wonder she kept moving around.”

Dani shuddered. “That was as close as I ever want to be to wildlife.”

Grizz looked around for signs of the men or danger. This wasn’t over. Those guys might return with reinforcements from the compound. After all, this was twice now that someone had found their camp.

Had they found his ATV yet?

“We still can head to the ATV. If they went back to camp, they might not have spotted it yet.”

Dani nodded, a shell-shocked look in her eyes. “Yes, let’s get out of here. You’re right, we need to get help. These men are dangerous, and whatever they’ve done to Josh, they could do to us.”

“If only I had a recording to replay your words . You’re right. ”

She elbowed him and he pretended it hurt. “You’ve only saved my life three times now. I’ll admit that I’m out of my element, but don’t count me out just yet.”

That was one thing he’d never do again. Underestimate Dani Barlowe. The woman was tenacious in her quest for the truth. He loved that fighting spirit in her. While she might not have his survival skills in the wilds of Alaska, she could hold her own.

He guided them to the area where he’d stashed the ATV, using the sun as an indicator of their direction.

“How do you know how to navigate so well?”

“I was born and raised in Alaska. Grew up in Copper Mountain, not too far from where we are. My cousin has a summer home out here, and we spent a lot of time there with my family.” Well, before he’d disappointed them all. Now that his father had passed, he rarely saw his mom or sister anymore.

“It’s really beautiful out here. And peaceful.”

Had he really experienced peace on this mountain? It was more of a refuge for him to keep the storms at bay. He’d worked too hard to keep people out to let peace in. His judgment was flawed when it came to trusting people, so it was easier to just keep people at a distance.

But somehow, Dani had snuck through his security perimeter.

She kept talking, chattering like a bird in spring.

“It makes me think of God, in a way. I don’t actually believe in a God who cares about our mundane lives.

I mean, my mom always made my sister and me go to church every Sunday.

But it’s different when you think about the fact that someone had to create all of this.

” She gestured to the thick trees all around them.

“You don’t believe God cares?” Hmm. That kind of sounded like him. His grandfather had been the most faithful man on the planet, but Grizz just couldn’t trust that easily. Not when God hadn’t saved his friend’s life.

She shrugged, her sweatshirt crusted with mud. But it didn’t matter what she wore; the woman still looked like she’d spent hours putting together her outfit.

And why was he looking at her in that way?

“As far as I’ve seen, it’s more like God is mean.”

“Really?” He pushed a branch out of her way. “Most of the church services I attended as a kid said the opposite. That God loves us. Unconditionally.” Even if that hadn’t been his experience.

“No one loves unconditionally. Eventually we’ll fail—we fail each other, and someone always gets hurt. And then we’re on our own.”

“I kind of agree with you.” He’d rather take action now than trust a God he couldn’t see. At least he’d be doing something rather than waiting around for a God who might show up. Or not.

She stopped short. “No way. Something we have in common finally?”

“I just think God is too capricious to trust Him with what I love. I prefer to take care of things myself.”

“And if you can’t?”

Well, that was when he’d become a hermit—when he wasn’t with the hotshot crew—and shut everyone out of his personal life rather than let them down. Again. But he wasn’t ready to say that to Dani.

The reporter was shaking him down for a story, and he refused to be her next headline.

Grizz stopped short and sniffed.

“What is it?” Dani’s eyes darted around.

“A storm is coming. I can smell it.” To prove his point, thunder rumbled in the distance, and the clouds swirled overhead. A breeze rustled through the tree branches.

But there was a different smell that had Grizz concerned.

The smell of death.

Buzzards circled in the distance. The ATV was still about a quarter mile away, and those birds spelled trouble. They’d have to walk by them.

It could be a dead animal, but Grizz’s gut twisted in an unrelenting knot.

Up ahead lay a mound of dirt. The kind that signaled a shallow grave. And then Grizz saw it. A sneaker sticking out of the heap of earth.

“Hey, Dani?” He needed to guide her gently through this.

Dani pulled up short. “Oh no. No. No.”

Oh no was an understatement.

“It can’t be. That’s Josh’s sneaker. I used to make fun of how much he spent on those designer Nikes.” Dani rushed to the spot. Her hand flew to cover her face. She tripped a few feet in front of the mound and sobbed.

Grizz got on the ground next to Dani and crushed her against his chest. “Don’t look, Dani. Just don’t look.”

Grizz used a tree branch to brush away some of the dirt to uncover a man’s lifeless face.

They’d found Josh, and a bullet hole in the man’s temple revealed the dangerous game these militiamen were playing.

He had to get Dani out of the woods.

These men were full-blown killers.