Page 52 of Kiss Across the Universe
“I don’t know Canmore like a local. Where’s the Stoney foothills?”
He pointed to the peaks to Alannah’s left. They were the chain of mountains to the east of them. The western ranges were much farther away and hidden behind the taller lodgepole pines. “The foothills are on the other side of them.”
Alannah’s mouth dropped open. “You don’t mean to walkoverthe mountains?” she breathed.
“Through them. There are passes. I’ve been heading toward the easiest pass all afternoon.”
“I thought you were heading toward a cell tower!” Her heart was jumping about and her stomach was clenching, making her wish she hadn’t eaten any cheezies at all.
“Where do you think the cell tower is? They don’t forge trails to set those things up, if there’s a perfectly good one to hand.”
“I’m wearing yoga pants! And a cotton top under a cotton jacket…I won’t last in the cold! It’sOctober, Kit!”
“And a warm October, at that,” Kit replied with the steady, unmoving calmness that made her want to scream at him to see him react. “You haven’t said you can’t walk the pass, but I already know you can. You’re just concerned about cold, and you don’t have to be. I’ll get you through the pass with not a touch of frostbite.”
She blew out her breath, aware that she was trembling. She knew enough about hiking to know that cold was one of the killers that every hiker worked hard to combat with specialized layers of garments and at least three ways to make fire. It didn’t take too much of a drop in temperature to disorient a hiker, or make them think that instead of moving briskly on toward civilization, they should stay right where they were, as they slowly froze to death.
And the snow caps on the mountains here were considerably lower than they had been the last time Alannah had jumped to Canmore. It would be very cold in the passes.
The old safety mantras ran through her mind.Shelter, warmth, food. Three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food.They could both survive even if they didn’t eat another bite, and water would be easy to collect, up at the snow level.
She shivered again.
“You’ll be fine,” Kit said, his voice low. “Trust me.”
“I have to, don’t I?” Alannah replied. She was horrified to hear the tremble in her voice and realized she was very near tears. The thought of crying in front of him was even more upsetting than the idea of walking over the Rockies.
She pushed the cheezies bag even further away, then bent her knee and tugged at the lacing on her borrowed boot.
“What are you doing?” Kit asked, his tone merely curious.
“I’m going to sleep,”Alannah said. “I’m going to need it, apparently.” But what she really wanted to do was lie down and close her eyes, and pull the bag over her head so she didn’t have to show her face to Kit McDonald any more. He read way too much about her from it.
He saw way too much about how she really felt.
Chapter Twenty-One
On the screen, Rafael rubbedhis hair, making it spike in all directions. “I just don’t think going there is a good idea,” he said, his tone insistent. “Remi, you’re the criminal. Back me up here.”
Aran hid his smile at the criminal jab, because he was on camera, too. They all were. He found it interesting that everyone in the chat room; Alexander, Sydney, Rafe, Neven, London and Remi, and Jesse, too, were all using their own devices. Not one of them was sharing a camera.
From the background behind Remi, Neven and London, Aran guessed the three of them were all sitting around the tiny table in their kitchen in Brittany.
Alex, Rafe and Sydney were all in different rooms of their sprawling house in Spain. Rafe was in his book-lined office, while Alex looked to be in his surgery—Aran suspected he had the laptop propped on the surgery bed itself. Sydney was in her regal office, with the grand curtains behind her.
Jesse was upstairs in the reading nook, and Aran could hear the children on her microphone feed. They were sleepy and cranky, for they were on Greenwich time and Jesse had woken them up for Aran to bring them here.
Remi pulled himself upright with the haughtiness only a Frenchman could display with the single adjustment of his shoulders. “Former criminal, you Byzantine gutter rat.”
Rafe grinned. “You’ll have to try harder than that.”
Aran cleared his throat. “As much as I hate to agree with Rafe on this, he has a point. This guy, Iron Grey, hasn’t shown any ability to jump. We’re pretty sure that’s why he wants Alannah. But if she’s out of reach, he’ll come after me, next, because I’m right here.”
“And local,” Rafe added. “While we’re hours away via commercial travel. And if heisfrom the future, there’s a chance he doesn’t have documentation that will let him cross borders.”
“Nyara’s people always have very authentic papers,” Sydney pointed out.
“But they’re the official travelers,” Neven said. “They do their research and have resources to acquire authentic documents. This guy…I get the feeling he’s here unofficially.”
