Sharon Dunn - Wilderness Secrets

She had gathered moss and a few twigs. She blew on the flickering flames before putting a few bigger twigs on the fire. He sat down beside her as she put some bigger logs on the fire. It smoked a bit from the dampness of the logs.

He laid down the logs he’d found and sat beside her.

The fire began to throw some heat. He put his palms up to it.

She picked up the tarp from where he’d dropped it, then peeled off her coat and the vest underneath. She threw them on a nearby log, where the heat from the fire would dry them out. Then she turned toward him. “Hand me your coat. You’ll dry out faster this way.”

He took off his coat and tossed it toward her.

Still dripping wet, she perched close to the fire on her knees and crossed her arms over her body. “You know, I’ve been part of a team that found lost hunters in the most impossible places, and I’ve guided people to safety under extreme weather conditions. No one has ever died or been seriously injured on my watch.”

He wasn’t sure why she was telling him this. “I can appreciate that.”

“I have worked as a guide since I was a teenager. I come from a family of guides. Eighty percent of the people who want to come up to these remote regions are men, and every single time, I have to prove myself and be questioned in a way that I’ve never seen happen to male guides.”

The fire crackled with a rhythm that was harmonious and comforting. As it grew, the heat surrounded him. He stared at the flames. Now he knew why she was so upset with him. “I’m sorry I questioned your choice.”

“I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. It’s just that it gets old after a while. What I did back there probably kept us alive.”

This wasn’t even her fight. It was his mess to untangle, and yet she felt a responsibility to get him out of the mountains at the risk of her own life. “I never should have dragged you into all this. It’s just that I couldn’t get up here on my own. I would have died.”

In that moment, he felt how alone he was in the world. Lee had so thoroughly smeared his name that he didn’t know if anyone at the DEA would believe his innocence. He’d worked with those men and women for close to seven years, but there was no way to discern who would turn him in and who would rely on what they knew about his character.

She stared at the fire. Her voice grew softer. “Well, whether I like it or not, we are in this together. I can’t in good conscience just walk away from you, and I kind of think those men would kill me just as fast as they would kill you, given what I know and what I’ve seen.”

He felt a rush of gratitude toward her. “Thank you, Abigail.”

“I will get you off this mountain alive,” she said.

He felt a new appreciation for her and how she had taken on such a responsibility in the face of so much danger.

He hated that he’d put her at risk. That had not been his intention. Everything was so tenuous and uncertain. Abigail could identify the men who had come after them. Would she even be safe once they got back to Fort Madison...if they got back to Fort Madison?

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