Shivers wracked Ray’s entire frame. He glared at his companion across the weak fire between them. They were in a cave. Dark, dank, and freezing cold, lit only by the flickering light of the flames. A horrible smell drifted from further into the cave, which Aaron had informed him was “probably hibernating bears”.

Ray wanted to rip the man’s head off, but knew that would be stupid. Not only was he trapped up here on the mountain, now there was a fucking snow storm outside. They’d been moving from cave to cave for the last day. Luckily, Aaron was familiar enough with this mountain that he knew where each cave was, even with the poor visibility outside. Ray refused to stay still and get trapped with the man longer than necessary, not when he had a wife—and money—to find.

But they couldn’t go much farther today.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here until it blows over?” Aaron said, throwing another stick on the fire. It hissed and smoked, too wet to burn properly, which made Ray even more irrationally angry.

“No. We go at first light.”

The scratch on his leg still burned, and he was out of toilet paper again. Howie’s roll hadn’t lasted him. His head swam, making it difficult to concentrate, but Ray didn’t take his eye off his companion. He didn’t trust the man as far as he could throw him.

He’d barely slept last night, keeping one eye on Aaron with his gun pointed loosely at him. He’d dozed, only to be woken by pain, or dizziness, or anger at his wife.

He blamed her for this, of course. If she hadn’t fucked off—with half his money—he’d still be at home, in relatively warm weather for winter, enjoying wine, and women, and all the toilet paper he could want.

Now, he was stuck with a smug asshole, melting snow, and moss. Ugh.

He scratched absently at the wound on his leg, then winced in pain. Aaron didn’t miss a beat, his crafty eyes darting from Ray, to his leg, to the gun in his lap, and back to Ray.

Yeah, he didn’t trust the fucker at all.

“How long until we find my wife?” he gritted out, shifting closer to the fire to steal more of its meager warmth. He’d taken his boots off to dry them, but hadn’t wanted to lose the socks. Bare feet in this weather didn’t seem like a good idea. And, worse, his feet were so painful Ray didn’t want to know what he’d find. If it was bad, he’d deal with it once he got off this damned mountain.

Besides, he had no intention of showing weakness to Aaron, since the man had been watching him, waiting for him to drop his guard.

Aaron shrugged off his question. “All trace of their path is gone with the storm. We’ll never find her.”

Ray nodded, but inside his rage exploded. Thwarted at every turn, including by Mother Nature herself. Another bitch to add to his hit list.

He should’ve given up. His wife was probably dead. What did she know about keeping herself alive in snow storms? If she hadn’t taken his money, he wouldn’t have cared. But even if she was dead, chances were his money was still out there, crumbling to nothing next to her rotting corpse. And that was a fucking waste. Particularly when he needed that money.

But how to find her?

Aaron was right, the snow storm had obliterated anything useful. Visibility was poor, and likely would be for days. So how to—

“Their?” he asked sharply.

Aaron’s head snapped up. “What?”

“You said “all trace of their path is gone”, not “her path”.”

Aaron shook his head, tension lining his body. “Did I? Are you sure you heard right?”

“Don’t fuck with me, I know what you said.” Stupid prick.

Aaron shrugged. “I must have misspoke.”

Ray’s fingers curled around the gun and he aimed it directly at Aaron’s head. “What did you mean?” he enunciated through his fury. His hand shook with cold, with exhaustion, with rage. But surely Aaron wasn’t stupid enough to figure Ray had no chance of hitting his target at this close range.

“If you kill me, you’ll die out here,” Aaron reminded him.

“If I go home empty handed I’m dead anyway,” Ray sneered. “What did you see at the crash site?”

Aaron sighed. “There was only one set of footprints.” He hesitated. “But they weren’t your wife’s.”

Ray stared at him for a long moment. “So she didn’t walk off on her own? Someone took her?”

Aaron shrugged. “Looks that way.”

“Who?”

“How am I meant to know?”

The asshole was lying. Ray cocked the gun. “Who?” he repeated.

Aaron gritted his teeth. “There’s only one person I know who lives around here, so probably him. Unless it was a rescuer we don’t know about yet.”

They’d lost contact because of the storm. If anyone had found her—and his money—in the meantime, he and Aaron wouldn’t know until the weather cleared.

“This guy you know. Where’s his house? Or cave? Or whatever-the-fuck?”

Aaron grimaced. “I don’t know, not exactly. I’ve never been there.”

“Not exactly. But you know approximately.” It was a statement, not a question.

Aaron hesitated, then gave a single nod.

“Where?” Ray demanded.

Reluctantly, Aaron waved a hand in the direction of the cave entrance. Ray followed the movement and pictured it in his head.

His jaw worked for a full minute before he could bite out his next words. “You mean it’s in the opposite direction to the one we were going in?”

Aaron glared at him impotently.

“You were leading me away from them.”

Aaron shrugged. “I led you to shelter so we wouldn’t die, but think what you want.”

Ray sneered. He knew the man lied. The bastard had been using the snowstorm and poor visibility as cover to lead Ray away from his friend and farther down the mountain.

“I ought to shoot you right now.”

“You can try,” Aaron said. “But I’ll take comfort in the fact the gunshot will wake the bears. And they won’t let you out of here alive.”

His smug smile was back and Ray narrowed his eyes. The asshole was right. Ray didn’t want to kill him yet, because he knew jack shit about surviving in this weather. And he wouldn’t sign his own death warrant when there was still a chance he’d get his money. He’d simply have to watch his guide more carefully from now on.

He shivered again. Aaron, infuriatingly, didn’t seem affected by the cold. Ray hoped that didn’t mean he was sick from this miserable weather. That was the last fucking thing he’d need. Though with the way his head swam and muscles ached, he wouldn’t be surprised to find he had the flu. Or worse.

Instead, he shuffled until the cave wall was at his back, his feet stretched out in front of him to dry near the fire. Steam rose from his wet socks. His companion sat calmly on the other side of the flames. The man’s lack of visible fear made Ray’s fury worse.

He would definitely kill this man before he got off the fucking mountain.