Page 119 of Love Me Dangerous

I brush snow with my gloved fingers below the edge of the lip. Down, down, down, like some mad painter.

I find a second tread. Taken together, it looks like the vehicle merged onto the road heading to the right.

But if I’m wrong, and they turned left…

I step onto the road, heading right. The clouds swirl around me, battering my ears and cutting my face. A sudden blip of light reveals twin depressions beneath the snow that signals a vehicle moved in this direction.

I’m coming, Sofie.

What visibility I had narrows. I’m walking in a void. If not for my feet sinking through the snow, I would swear I’m floating. Have I been running for so long that the sun is starting to set? Or is it the storm?

I start to imagine Henry and Barb, galloping out of the white, Leo and Bea’s powerful muscles rippling. Then I’m with my dad, out in the pasture with the red-tailed hawk he set free. The bird lifted off, wings beating the air so hard I felt it on my forehead.

Maybe it’s the cold finally getting to me.

But if I stop, I’ll die. Of that, I’m certain.

What will happen to Sofie? What is Dustin planning?

And what about William? If I fail, a predator will steal his innocence. My brother’s hope that I’m coming back for him will be crushed to dust.

No. I’m not giving up. I just have to keep going.

I’m so lost in my mantra that I almost miss the gap in the barbed wire fencing lining the road, signaling another choice I need to make. But there’s too much snow now, erasing any trace of where Dustin may have gone.

The only way is to trust my gut.

Breathing hard, the icy snow crystals like chipped glass in my throat, I take the spur, the snow thick and deep here. The more I run, the more I doubt myself. I should turn around. At least if I collapse on a paved road, someone might find my body. Out here, the buzzards will find me at first thaw to pick my bones clean.

I sing “Thunder Road” in time with my shuffling gait.

In the silent cool in the dark ofdusk

We’ll play for keeps on the Thunder Road

Inside my shirt, my hand is throbbing, but I don’t know if that means it’s warming up or a signal that the very tissue is dying.

Out of the white, dark circles start to dance. I’ve been focusing so long that my vision is shutting down—snow blindness. The dark circles get bigger, dancing and flashing.

Only they aren’t circles. There’s something ahead. Something big and black.

It’s a truck. I extend my hand, expecting to swipe through space. My mind is playing tricks on me. But my fingertips brush hard metal. Along the left side, the wind isn’t as loud. I rub the snow from the side window and look in the bed, but it’s dark.

This has to be Dustin’s.

“Sofie!” I call out. I press my ear to the window, but there’s no sound.

A gust rocks the truck, making the chassis squeak. I move alongside the truck bed, my brain screaming CAUTION! Because Dustin has that gun, and what if I’m walking into a trap?

At the driver’s window, I cup my hand around the glass and peer inside the cab.

It’s empty.

Where is she?

“Sofie!” I cry out, but the whipping wind steals my words. I move to the front of the truck and peer into the storm. Where would they go?

I will the blowing snow to quit so I can figure out where to go from here. There has to be some reason they’re not in the truck.Where, where, where?

---