That night, after I clear the dinner dishes away and we have a totally normal game of post-threesome Monopoly, I try the radio again. Outside, the wind has stopped howling, and the snow is coming down at a normal rate.

It's still storming, but it's no longer near-whiteout conditions. That means that, at best, we've only got a few more days before we have to let Rose go home.

Because as much as I want her — as much as we want her — this is no place for a girl like her. She's got a family, she's got friends, she's got a life to get back to, down in the valley. A cabin in the middle of nowhere isn't the kind of place that Rose wants to live.

But I've got plans for the next few days, before the inevitable happens. Fuck yes, I've got plans.

That night, it's Logan's turn to have Rose in his bed. I'm still jealous, just a little, but then I remember the way she looked at me with my cock in her mouth, like she was just as desperate to swallow me as I was for her to do it, and I feel better.

Before I head into the bedroom myself, I check the radio again. I'm not expecting anything, since the storm hasn't even technically stopped. For a long moment, there's silence, and I'm just about to turn it off again when static crackles through.

I frown, turning it up.

"Hello? This is Pinecone Bluff Cabin calling in," I say into the mouthpiece.

There's another crackle of static. It sounds like it's not fixed.

"—Status of your — whiteout conditions — cave-in reports, but everyone is all right —"

And back to static.

"Do you read me?"

There are more bits of speech, too patchy to understand, but as I'm about to give up and turn it off again, a man's voice comes through, clear as day.

"Pinecone Bluff Cabin, do you copy?"

"I copy," I say, pulling the radio closer.

"All rangers reporting in?"

"Yes, we're all fine. And we've found a missing person."

The guy on the other end — I think it's Evan, the Salmon Creek Forest Regional Director — clears his throat.

"A missing person?"

"Yeah. Rose Hammett. She tried to take a shortcut over the mountain and her truck broke down. Luckily we found her just in time and she's fine."

Evan whistles, the noise crackling over the radio.

"She did get lucky," he agrees. I can hear him flipping papers on the other end.

I grin. Evan has no idea how lucky Rose has gotten.

"I don't see her name yet, but as you imagine things are a little chaotic right now. Communications are down, all that, but I'll find her missing persons report and let her loved ones know she's all right. Thanks for reporting in, Knox."

"Not a problem. Ten-four."

"Over and out."

There it is. Now that the outside world knows we've got her, it's a matter of time until we have to let her go.

I know it. Logan knows it. I think Rose knows it.

But I'll be damned if I'm not going to make good use of the time we've got left.

* * *

It's still dark when a loud squawk makes me nearly jump out of bed. I sit up straight, feet on the floor, heart racing as it sounds again. Logan's done the same, one arm protectively around Rose, who's wild-eyed.

"What is that?" she stage whispers.

It sounds again, the noise putting my teeth on edge. I jump out of bed and pad, naked, to the other room in the cabin.

"It's the emergency beacon," I hear Logan explain to her. "Goes off when there's an emergency."

I grab it from the shelf where we keep it. The thing is more or less another radio, but this one's equipped with GPS and works by satellite. It's expensive to run, so we still use the regular radio for most communication, but this one is pretty fancy.

"Pinecone Bluff," I growl into the receiver.

"Pinecone Bluff, this is the Whistlepig Department of Fish and Game," a no-nonsense woman says. "Sorry to wake you, but one of our cameras picked up a bobcat dragging its right foot in a poacher's trap."

My stomach sinks. Shit. The past few years, poaching has picked up in the National Forest, probably because this area's going through some rough economic times. The hunters are mostly going after bear and mountain lions, since those will sell for a pretty penny once they're stuffed, but it's not like animal traps discriminate.

"Which camera?" I ask.

"Section fourteen, camera MX two nine. It's about a hundred feet from where the ridge trail crosses Knob Creek."

I think quickly. That's about three miles away from us, and we're definitely the closest cabin. On a regular day, a six-mile round-trip hike would have us back by breakfast, but in a couple feet of snow, and coming back with a sedated-but-wounded critter?

That's an all-day hike in snowshoes.

Normally I wouldn't mind. Any other winter I'd be itching to do it, anything to get out of this cabin.

But I had... plans.

"Got it," I say to the voice on the other end of the line. "We'll find it and figure out what needs to be done."

"Thanks," she says. "Over and out."

I turn the unit off and head back into the bedroom, where Logan and Rose are sitting up in bed, against the headboard. They both scoot over and I sit on the other side of Rose, giving her a good morning kiss.

"Something got stuck in a trap?" Logan asks.

I sigh and nod.

"Bobcat. The camera trap by Knob Creek caught it. It's dragging something on its hind leg, so it can't have gotten too far."

Rose gasps, her blue eyes going wide.

"A bobcat got stuck in a camera trap?"

I laugh softly.

"Camera traps are harmless. They're just motion-sensing cameras set up to study wildlife. It's the poachers after bear and mountain lions with the spring-loaded traps who cause trouble."

She swallows, her beautiful eyes filling with tears.

"And you're going to rescue it?" she asks.

Logan smiles, his chest puffing a little.

"That's our job," he says.