Page 35 of Montana Rain

Well, if the owner of the cabin really was a prepper, he probably had underground lines dug—and a couple of generators on top of it. Or maybe there were solar panels on the roof.

I realized I was staring at myself in the mirror. Dazed. Exhausted. I needed to sleep. I couldn’t even think about anything anymore.

Once out of the bathroom, I spotted Cole in the kitchen, now without his coat and boots. I stashed mine where he’d put his. He turned, holding a glass of water. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted anything more than this or if sleep is higher on the list.”

“It is. I feel like my brain is melting inside my skull.”

One corner of his mouth tipped up into a smile. “Well, we can’t have that.”

He handed me the water, and I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was. The whole glass was gone in less than ten seconds. “Holy crap.”

“Adrenaline will do that to you,” he said.

“Yeah. Adrenaline.”

I put the glass in the sink, leaning against the counter. Now that my energy was fading, I just…couldn’t move. It was easier to stay still than fight the inertia to move.

Cole stepped forward and stopped. “There’s only one bed. I’ll sleep on the couch. You need the rest.”

My head snapped up. “What?”

“I said I’ll sleep on the couch,” he said, eyebrows rising.

“I’m not sleeping in your bed, Cole.”

“It’s fine.”

I stood straight. “No, it’s not. You’re already taking me in to keep me from being murdered. I’m not kicking you out of your bed.”

He appraised me for a second before shrugging. “Suit yourself.”

Something about the way he said it made me think the argument wasn’t over, but it was for tonight.

“Okay. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I found a thick blanket on the back of the couch. I settled on the cushions and pulled it over myself.

“Good night,” Cole said. “Who knows? Maybe Daniel will have reached out to the right people at the FBI tomorrow, and everything will be resolved.”

“Yeah.”

I did hope. I hoped it would be that easy as exhaustion pulled me under.

* * *

It wasn’t that easy.

Partially because looking outside the windows of the cabin showed nothing but a wall of whirling white. A full-on blizzard, way too early. I knew it was meant to be a storm, but this?

Our first snow on the ground didn’t usually happen for another few weeks. So this was both rare and bad.

Cole didn’t have any signal on his phone, so there was no way we could receive any calls right now. I had no doubt that everything was worse because we were higher on the mountain.

The power flickered as I stood by the window. It had been doing that ever since I’d woken up at noon. I hadn’t slept in so late in years. Then again, home invasions weren’t exactly conducive to good sleep.

“Blizzards are like pots, Rayne. They don’t change if they’re being watched.”

“Because you’re so familiar with cold weather and snow?”

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