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He shook his head “A buddy, then? You can’t spend a night like this alone in sub-zero te”

Her face lit up “Genius idea, why didn’t I think of that? Yes, ht, no probleet out of here”

Piper jabbed at the screen of her phone irritably She’d tried five times to send a text to Melanie and each tie was virtually non-existent, but what choice did she have but to keep trying to call?

“Can’t get a text to go through She wasn’t answering earlier,” she muttered, half to herself, half to Matt “And daht to voiceain”

Matt raised his voice over the lash of the windshield wipers thrashing back and forth in the screa wind “What if she’s not there?”

Piper continued to listen to Melanie’s voice recording “She will be”

“Can you be absolutely sure about that? What if she’s not?”

She frowned at the question and then her hands flew to hersnow and rock “Watch out!”

“Shit,” Matt growled and braked so quickly and so hard it was like being kicked by a horse in the chest when the seat belts activated He swerved the car to the left, avoiding hitting the six-foot-high wall, but co perilously close to therock His breath came out in short bursts Even Superine whined “That was close”

“Holy crap” Piper heard the shake in her voice, but it was okay to be scared and in a state of shock They could have been buried alive or crushed to death if he hadn’t reacted so quickly Even the cat had fallen silent

Matt took a deep breath, gripped the steering wheel, and closed his eyes briefly “Nobody this side of that avalanche is going back to Passion Creek tonight” His eyes opened and they were dark and serious when they connected with hers “Before you say anything, I’y, butyou to my cabin”

“Oh no, I don’t think—”

“No, don’t think about it at all because you have no choice” He snatched his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and jabbed at the screen for a few seconds “We have no choice If we don’t get shelter in the next fifteen minutes or so we could be in serious trouble”

He carefully turned the car around and she could see ain his jaw as he concentrated on the maneuver She wanted to protest, to try and find so taken into the htened by their brush with death to even speak as they roared off They passed by the veterinary center again and neither of them spoke to confirhts were out, even in the parking lot, which Matt’s headlights shoas now eh the windshield Visibility had gone beyond poor to verging on the iht Five ainst the black and white whirlpool of the ferocious, unforgiving night She was clenching her fists the way she did in the dentist’s chair and she had a tension headache brewing Not surprising Just five htmare would take its place; she’d be stranded with Matt DeLeo, on his territory, with no polite means of escape, and no clean underwear It truly had been the shittiest of days and it wasn’t over yet If it wasn’t for the poor little cat…