Page 9 of Manhunt in the Narrows (Red Rock Murders #1)

She couldn’t stop shaking.

Sayles had changed out of her wet clothing with her back to the FBI agent invading her one-person tent, but she’d lost all sense of embarrassment as she’d forgotten how to ask him for the hand warmers she’d packed.

Dry gear hadn’t made a difference. Her head felt as though it’d been split down the middle with the effort of trying to keep her teeth from chattering.

She was getting worse. Her joints ached, not just stiff from the impact of the log that’d tried to kill her but from the uncontrollable shivers racking her.

The pulse at the base of her neck wasn’t normal. Too elevated. Breathing too shallow.

And Elias… Concern had etched into his expression a long time ago and hadn’t slipped since.

He’d taken the lead in getting the tent set up and unrolling their sleeping bags.

There was barely enough space for the Mylar material let alone two bodies, but what annoyed her more was the fact that she’d missed the log’s approach at all.

She’d put them in this situation, and she didn’t want his concern.

She’d put their lives at risk, but she would be the only one to pay the price. She’d make sure of it.

“Are…you shivering, too?” Hell. She sounded out of it even to her own ears. She just wanted to sleep but knew how slim the chances were of waking up in the morning if she closed her eyes now. “Or dizzy?”

“No.” He’d changed into dry gear after helping her out of her wet clothes and boots.

The sun had gone down over an hour ago, leaving them with nothing but a single flashlight beam.

They’d save the batteries of the second by limiting their resources for now.

“You gotta tell me what to do, Sayles. Please.”

“I’m…fine.” She wasn’t fine. Her desperation to take care of herself—to make her own choices and be in control of her own body—was winning out over simple survival.

Stupid. She was being stupid risking her lift like this.

For what? So another man didn’t have leverage to use against her?

How would that happen if she was dead? Sayles’s let her eyes drift closed.

She was so tired. “I’m already…warming up. I just need…to rest.”

“All right. If you’re not going to tell me how to help, I’ll figure it out myself.” He dragged her pack into his lap and started removing everything she’d meticulously organized.

She forced her eyes open. “What…are you…doing?”

“Looking for those cards. The ones with survival tips on them.” Pulling the slim yellow box free of her pack, he shuffled through the contents until he landed on the red heart cards.

“Seek shelter. Done. Replace wet clothing, especially socks. Did that. Insulate from the ground. Sleeping bag takes care of that. Eat carbohydrates and drink an electrolyte solution. Great.”

He didn’t wait for her permission to dig through the rest of her gear. In seconds, he produced a peanut butter and jelly sandwich she’d made before leaving the visitors’ center and an electrolyte mix. “Eat.”

Nausea twisted in her gut. “I’m not…hungry.”

“Card says you have to eat carbs. Bread is carbs. Eat.” He wiggled the sandwich in front of her until she grabbed for it just to get it out of her face.

The first two bites sank to the pit of her stomach and remained there. The next few went down a little easier as he handed off her metal water bottle with the electrolyte mix. Within minutes, the fog in her brain started dissipating. Okay. Maybe there was something to those cards after all.

Elias went back to reading off steps to treat hypothermia. “Use chemical hot pads in armpits and sides of chest.” More of her supplies hit the bottom of her sleeping bag as he dug for the hand and foot warmers she’d stashed.

“Between…the thighs.” The cards gave good advice, but she was a ranger. In the past five months, she’d seen more people die than on the news from small mistakes rather than big ones. Not utilizing the femoral artery to reverse hypothermia was one of them. “Bigger arteries…pump faster.”

“Okay. Let’s do both.” He cracked the hand and foot warmers and shook them to ignite the heat inside. Like a glow stick. Only this was one that could save her life. “For the record, I’m only feeling you up to save your life.”

Her smile pulled at chapped lips. “I won’t file…charges.”

“Glad we’re on the same page.” Elias tugged her the sleeping bag she’d cocooned herself inside and slipped calloused hands along the front of her body.

She parted her knees for him and pinched the warmer between her legs as he got it into position.

Her heart did the rest, pumping the new source of heat into her veins and throughout her body.

Elias kept to the plan and positioned two more hand warmers in both of her armpits.

Immediate warmth cascaded through her. And not just from the addition of the warmers. “Thank you.”

“Hey, you’re not slurring your words together. Progress.” His thumbs-up broke the tension. “Looks like I’m better at this survival stuff than I thought.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” She snuggled deeper into the sleeping bag.

The heaviness of the day—and nearly meeting her creator—pinned her in place, but she couldn’t deny the sense of…

safety she felt having Elias here. He’d pulled her from the river.

Had administered CPR. He’d bulldozed through her pride to save her life, and she wouldn’t be here without him.

Despite his chosen profession and the air of superiority she’d assigned him when they’d first met, he’d done nothing but ensure the success of this assignment.

“Don’t forget. I was the one to patch up your thigh because you wore jeans on an in-stream hike. ”

His laugh was softer than the times she’d heard it before. Soothing. “How are you feeling now?”

“Mmmm?” She must’ve drifted off for a second because she was peeling her eyes open to look at him. The shivers had settled. Her fingers and toes would take longer to recover feeling, but she could finally think clearly. “Better. The warmers are doing a marvelous job.”

“Good.” Elias grabbed her gear, repacking everything he’d extracted from her pack. She couldn’t even get her ex-husband to pick up his dirty socks off the floor. No matter how many times she’d asked.

“Why aren’t you feeling symptoms?” It wasn’t fair. They’d both gone under. Though she might’ve been exposed to the frigid waters longer. “Shouldn’t you be wrapped up shivering your ass off, too?”

“I have more insulation.” He slapped his stomach twice. Followed by that brilliant smile that didn’t see the light of day—or flashlight—often.

“Now you’re just complimenting yourself.

There isn’t a single ounce of fat on you.

” She liked this. The ease between them.

In the few short hours they’d been partnered together, she’d dropped the mask she’d donned to stay small and unnoticeable to everyone around her.

It felt…good. Freeing. The truth was she didn’t have the energy to put it back in place, and wasn’t that why she’d come all the way to southern Utah?

For the freedom it provided? Only now, she realized, she’d done exactly as she always had.

Becoming the person she thought she needed to be to accommodate others.

For Risner, her fellow rangers, for Elias. It was all so exhausting.

There was that laugh again, and her body temperature rose another degree from the effect. “You say that now. Wait until you’re sweating from sleeping next to me.”

After setting their packs at one end of the tent, he secured the front zipper of the enclosure before positioning himself along her back.

Hints of his natural scent—mixed with river water—tickled her nose.

Something earthy. Then again, she smelled like mud and water, too.

There was no escape out here in the middle of the desert.

Her breath shuddered out of her as Elias shifted his hips against hers.

“What are you doing?” Panic spiked her voice.

“Those hand and foot warmers aren’t going to last more than an hour, and you’re still suffering from hypothermia symptoms.” He dragged the edge of her sleeping bags higher, under her neck. “I’m here to make sure you stay warm.”

“By crawling into my sleeping bag?” Okay. Yes. Sharing body heat was shown to drastically help with regulating body temperature, but the last time she’d let someone get this close, it was her ex. Heat that had nothing to do with the warmers or his body stirred low in her belly.

“You got a better idea?” He shook against her. And not in laughter.

Had he lied about feeling the effects of the freezing temps? Sayles craned her head over her shoulder, putting him in her line of sight. His gauzed forearm threaded over her rib cage and pulled her closer, cutting off her inhale. “Your arm needs stitches.”

“Go to sleep, Sayles.” Elias set his head against his biceps. Completely at peace while she was anything but. “We can deal with it in the morning.”

He was putting her need for rest above his need for medical attention, and she didn’t know what to do with that information.

If she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t sure she could sew in a straight line right now.

She’d probably end up butchering any chance of a neat scar.

He probably knew that. Knew she wasn’t at 100 percent and didn’t want to risk his annoyingly good looks on a hack job. “Don’t bleed on me.”

“I’ll try to keep my blood where it belongs.” His chest rumbled through her back. The soft rocking helped release the tension in her aching joints, and she felt herself relax against him.

His arm secured around her, as if Elias couldn’t stand any sort of distance between them. She didn’t have the energy to fight for those precious few inches of air, but that didn’t mean she trusted him. “Did you know him?”

“Who?” His voice graveled this close to sleep. The effect did something to her insides.

“My ex-husband.” Her pulse slowly receded from the rafters.

The few things he’d done—making her eat, drink and warm up—were doing the job.

Five months of hiding—of healing—she’d kept herself in check.

Wouldn’t let herself think of the pain and betrayal and rage that came with reliving the past. But in a matter of hours, Elias had pulled it all to the surface.

His arm tightened around her middle. “No.”

She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath for his answer. Sweat beaded at the base of her neck. Within minutes, he’d managed to chase back the cold, and she found herself wanting to lean more into it. Into him. “Oh.”

“We didn’t finish our conversation from earlier.” His whisper sent tendrils of breath across the back of her neck.

“You mean when we were plowed over by a log?” Her ribs still hurt.

She wouldn’t be surprised to find her body covered with bruises in the morning.

If they made it until the sun rose. Another freak storm and they’d be washed down this river all over again.

Only with no escape from the tent and nothing to hold on to but each other.

“He had you arrested for murder.” Hints of anger stained his voice. Or had she imagined it? “Whose?”

She could still feel the pinch of the cuffs as two officers had placed her under arrest. Sayles stopped herself from rubbing at the healed skin, afraid to lose herself to the fear all over again.

But that didn’t happen. The heat at her back refused to let her slip from this moment, and she clung to it with everything she had left as she lost the battle to her exhaustion. “His.”