“Right now we’re just trying to put some distance between us and those bastards with guns,” he said.
She was starting to breathe hard again. The way a woman did when she was in the throes of lovemaking. The image of her with her head thrown back, her body welcoming his, flashed unbidden in his mind’s eye. He imagined his hands on her body, her breaths coming short and fast as he worked her toward release….
Shoving the image aside, he picked up the pace. “Faster,” he said.
She struggled to keep up. “You never told me what agency you’re working for.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“I like to know who I’m dealing with.”
“All you need to know is that I’m the man who’s going to save your life.”
“The way I see it, you’re the man who’s going to make sure I spend the rest of my life in prison for a crime I didn’t commit.”
“Save it for the judge, blondie.”
“The judge has already made his decision. A decision based on lies and planted evidence.”
“You got caught,” he snapped. “Deal with it, because you’re not going to get any sympathy from me. Got it?”
“What I got is railroaded. I can prove it, but not from inside a prison cell.”
“There are young men and women risking their lives every day to keep this country safe,” he snarled. “I don’t have any compassion for turncoats, so cut it out.”
For several minutes the only sound came from the pounding of their feet against the earth.
“You want to know what’s really frightening about all of this?” she asked.
“You have no idea what’s really frightening,” he said bitterly.
“The real culprit is still out there. They probably have access to the EDNA project. They’re probably trying to get their hands on the final-phase plans. And they’re probably still planning on selling the information when they do.”
Cutter stared hard at her, looking for the lie he knew was there. But the woman staring back at him had one of the most guileless faces he’d ever seen. He was not gullible when it came to female charms. Not by a long shot. But he could feel the draw to her. A draw that was part sexual, part…something else. Like a full moon pulling at a restless sea and causing a dangerously high tide.
Cutter was too smart to act on any of the crazy thoughts running through his head. He knew all too well what could happen when you mixed sex with an assignment. The last time he’d given in to temptation someone had ended up dead. He’d nearly been killed himself and had spent a good part of the next year wishing he hadn’t survived.
“Unless you want to end up dead,” he said, “you’ve got to keep moving.”
“Maybe that’s a better alternative to spending the rest of my life—”
His temper snapped. Stopping abruptly, he swung around to face her. Roughly he yanked her toward him so that her face was only inches from his. Close enough for him to smell the rosemary and lemon of her hair. He steeled himself against the sweet warmth of her breath against his face.
“If you think death is a better alternative than life,” he said, “then you haven’t seen it up close and personal. Believe me, there’s nothing dignified or honorable about it. It’s the ugliest thing you’ll ever see in your life. So don’t make stupid statements like that.”
She blinked as if his words had stunned her.
He hadn’t meant to lose his temper. Pulling himself back from a place he didn’t want to go, Cutter looked around, blew out a curse at the sight of the heavily falling snow. “The good news is that the snow will cover our tracks,” he grumbled.
“The way you said that makes me think there’s some bad news on the way.”
“Yeah, it’s called a blizzard.”
“At least fate is being consistent.”
Not wanting to think about just how bad their luck had been so far, he took her down a small hill and through a forest of sapling aspen and pi?on pine that opened to a clearing. A secondary trail ran north and into the higher elevations; to the south was a vertical drop of three hundred feet to the valley floor.
“Which way?” she asked.
“Definitely not down.” He stopped a few yards from the edge of the cliff.
She motioned toward a narrow trail that disappeared into a densely wooded area. “Looks like that trail hasn’t been used for a while.”
“Deer or elk trail probably.”
“Where does it go?”
He shrugged. “Into the higher elevations.”
“Are there any houses or ranger stations?”
“There used to be some hunting lodges in the area. If we’re lucky one of them might still be standing.”
“That doesn’t sound very promising.”
“Just keeping with the theme.”
“How far?”
“Don’t know exactly.”
“If you don’t know, how will we find it?”
“Don’t know that, either.”