He looked as if he wanted to say no, but then he walked away from her. She tried to work her way in the opposite direction to him as she gathered branches and twigs, anything she thought might burn, but he foiled her by stopping a good fifteen feet from her and then turning back and following her. By the time she had an armful of wood, he had caught up with her.
“Here, let me take that.” He smiled at her as he reached for the wood she had bundled up in her arms and she wanted to tell him no, but he was taking it from her before she could find her voice. His hand brushed her chest as he took the branches, adding them to the pile in his arm, and his gaze leaped to hers and then dropped to her mouth.
“I’ll get some more.” Skye was quick to pivot on her heel and hurry away from him, her heart thundering and fast breaths fogging the air in front of her face. She slowed as she heard him talk to Karl and realised he wasn’t following her.
She glanced back. Cooper had cleared a decent-sized hole in the snow and Patrick had pulled one of the fallen logs out from the trees. The large man was kicking snow away from the area between the log and the fire, clearing down to the dirt, and Cooper moved to help him. Skye took a moment to breathe, steadying her nerves again.
Wade didn’t give her a chance.
He dropped off his load and came back to her. “Karl says we need more.”
She bet he did. She shrugged and was deeply aware of Wade as he tailed her, sticking painfully close to her heels. For the first time in her life, she bent with her knees, making sure she didn’t give him any ideas. She gathered more wood and he took it from her when she stood.
She scowled at him. “This will go a lot quicker if you gather your own.”
She motioned towards the trees, trying to shoo him away.
“Karl also said I’m not to let you out of my sight.” Wade grinned at her, a salacious one that turned her stomach.
“Then you can gather wood while I help set up the camp. That way Karl will know I’m not going to go running off.” She stomped back to the other two men and paused by Cooper before Wade could say anything. “Can you be a darling and help Wade gather firewood?”
He nodded. “Sure thing.”
The young man strode towards Wade and she could practically feel Wade glaring at her back, ignored him as she turned to Patrick.
“Here. Let me help.” She shuffled with her feet, clearing the snow from around the fire Karl was building. She glanced at his work. A good fire. The man was more capable than she had thought given he was clearly a city guy. She smiled at Patrick. “Let’s haul that other log in here too. Then there’ll be plenty of space for all of us to sit.”
And she would be picking the smaller of the logs, one that was only big enough for two, and she would make damned sure that Wade wasn’t the other one sitting on it with her.
She went with Patrick and wrestled with the other log, one that weighed far more than she had anticipated. It took them close to ten minutes to wrangle it into the clearing. She wiped her brow to clear the sweat away as she fought to catch her breath.
Patrick looked as tired as she felt as he sank onto the log.
She checked the fire again. Karl had it going already, the flames catching swiftly despite the slightly damp wood. She turned back to Patrick.
“You should take your boots off and put them near the fire. Your socks too.” She stepped over the log and went to her pack, grabbed it and carried it back to him. He bent to untie his boots and she opened her pack, rifled through it and found what she was looking for. A spare pair of socks. She offered them to Patrick. “They’ll be too small, but hopefully you can keep most of your feet covered with them, your toes in particular, while your socks dry.”
He gave her a grateful smile and took them, tugged them on over his toes and managed to make them reach his heels. She took his boots and placed them by the fire and draped his damp socks over them.
Skye breathed a sigh of relief when she glanced at the smaller log and found Cooper already sitting there, bent over his pack. She hurried over to it and planted her ass beside him, tossed a smile at him as she reached into her backpack and found a protein bar. She opened and nibbled it as she stared at the fire, enjoying the warmth of the flames as they chased the cold from her hands and feet and her face.
“Do you have any more of those?” Cooper nodded towards the bar in her hand.
She glanced at his pack. “There’s no food in there?”
“Your food looks better,” he muttered.
She looked at the others and caught them all looking at her hand, even Karl. Her gaze locked with his across the fire and then he looked at the flames. She imagined all of them were hungry by now and decided it wouldn’t hurt to curry a little favour.
Skye pulled the pan off her pack and set it down on the dirt beside her. She dug through her pack, finding two cans of beans she had been saving for an emergency and emptied them into the pan. Cooper’s gaze drilled into her as she kneeled and held the pan over the fire, gently warming the beans. When they were bubbling and hot, she sat back on the log, tipped some of the beans into one of the cans, some into the other, and then grabbed some of the plastic cutlery she always kept in her pack. She placed one spoon in one can and one in the pan.
She offered the can to Cooper. “Share it with Wade.”
She stood and rounded the fire, and held the pan out to Karl.
“I’ll split it with Patrick.” He took it with a nod, genuine warmth in his eyes, and she went back to her seat.
She ate her beans in peace, relishing the satisfied noises Cooper and Patrick, and even Karl made as they ate their share. When she was done, she used snow to clean out the pan and noticed that Karl didn’t stop her as she went searching for more clean snow. She scooped some into the pan and hurried back to the fire, and set it over the flames.
By the time it was boiling, the men were done with the beans. She added some coffee grounds to the water, swirled it and then emptied some of it into the only two metal cups she had, reserving enough for everyone.
Skye offered the first cup to Karl and then showed she knew exactly how their little group worked by offering the second one to Wade.
He tried charming her by offering it back to her, but she held her hand out to stop him.
“I’ll have some when you’re done.” She went back to her seat.
It didn’t take them long to pass the cups back. She filled them again and gave one to Patrick and one to Cooper. Cooper was quick to drink his and offer his cup back to her with a smile that earned him a black look from Wade.
She poured the rest of the coffee into the mug and set it down beside her to cool while she washed out the pan and placed the empty food cans in a plastic bag and sealed it. Bears weren’t awake at this time of year, but it was better not to risk attracting them.
She settled down and sipped her coffee, listening to the murmured conversation and trying to stay awake. As silence slowly fell and the night wore on, she grew increasingly aware that Knox was out there somewhere. Watching her?
Waiting to make a move?
That should have had her on high alert, but fatigue washed over her and her eyelids grew heavy. No matter how hard she fought it, she slowly sank forwards, sleep overcoming her. She would just rest her eyes for a moment.
“Need to drain the snake,” Patrick muttered, his voice rousing her.