She looked as if she wanted to touch it to check it was still there.
He sneered at it in his mind. Infernal shit. He hated that stuff, had wanted to roar at her when she had threatened him with it, his bear side quick to remember every damned time some bastard had sprayed him with it in the past. Humans were often a little too trigger happy when it came to bear spray. Not once had he been a threat to a male or female who had hit him with the fiery, horrific concoction the canister contained.
“We’ll need a fire.” She was sounding more like she was going to agree to finding a nice sheltered spot to bed down for the night. “I can make one.”
“I bet you can, but I think I can handle it just this once.” He guided her left, towards the cliff he had seen, and breathed a sigh of relief when it turned out to be the one he had been thinking about.
She froze and refused to move as she spotted the entrance to a small cave, one that was tucked in a bend in the rock, away from the direction of the wind. “What about bears?”
He inhaled, pretending to be getting ready to sigh when he was really scenting the air. “No bears. But I’ll check it out.”
He released her and went to walk away, but she grabbed his sleeve in a fierce grip. He looked back at her, his gaze colliding with hers as his eyebrows rose high on his forehead to disappear beneath his black hat.
“Won’t you need this?” She held the flashlight out to him.
“Oh. Yeah. That’ll help.” He smiled at her, took the light he didn’t need to be able to see in the dark and waggled it. “Silly me.”
It was hard remembering to act like a human when he hadn’t been around one in so long.
He pretended to use the flashlight, but kept his eyes away from the bright spot on the ground, not wanting to dampen his naturally good vision by looking at it. When he reached the small cave that extended back into the rock a good fifteen feet, he kept it pointed at the entrance, away from the rear of the cave. As he had suspected, no animals were occupying it. There wasn’t even a sign one had been using it recently.
Lowe went back to Cameo and handed her the flashlight. “Nothing in there. Come on.”
He helped her to the cave, settled her on the dirt inside it and left her for only as long as it took to find something he could use to make a fire. Thankfully, there were some twigs and branches inside the mouth of the cave, sheltered from the storm. They were dry enough to use for a fire. He made one close to the mouth of the cave and got it going, warmed his hands a little on it as he waited for the flames to catch and spread before adding more wood to it. It smoked a little, but it would do.
Lowe eased back into the cave, towards Cameo, and settled on his knees in front of her. She still had a death-grip on the flashlight, was using it to inspect every inch of the cave at least a dozen times.
“You good? Warming up?” He smiled when she looked at him and grimaced when she flashed the damned light right in his face.
“Sorry!” She lowered the beam. “Um, yes. I’m warming up a little.”
“That’s good.” He unzipped his black jacket, removed it and placed it around her shoulders.
“Wait. You need this.” She tried to take it off, but he gripped the two sides and held it in place.
“I’m good. I’m warm enough.” He was cold, but he could handle it and she couldn’t.
Her body was frail compared with his and shock was making her vulnerable to the icy chill in the air. He sank onto his backside in front of her boots and looked at her leg.
“When you’re warm enough, I’d like to take a look at that leg.” He nodded towards it and her gaze fell there, growing distant again.
When she didn’t answer, just remained silent with that lost look in her blue eyes, he tried to think of something to say, something to take her mind off the dead man they had left behind in the woods.
He wanted to question her, was worried by the fact there had been a human up in the valley with a handgun of all things. The dead male hadn’t been with Archangel, he had gotten that much from what he had seen, but he was trouble. Lowe had found several IDs on him, all of them likely fake, and no car keys.
Either he had lost them like Cameo had apparently lost hers, or there was someone else in the valley looking for her.
Once he had her comfortable at his cabin, safely inside it, he would ask her about what had happened. For now, he would concentrate on getting her to Black Ridge.
Saint wasn’t going to be happy with him when he rolled into the Ridge with Cameo in tow, but Lowe wouldn’t take no for an answer about her staying there.
They would just have to be careful while she was at the Ridge and keep their secret under wraps until she was gone. His bear side wanted to moan and roar, grew agitated at the thought of her leaving, and it made him restless, had him looking towards the mouth of the cave as a need to shift came over him.
“Did you hear something?” Cameo whispered.
Lowe shook his head. “Nothing out there. Not even my brother.”
“Your brother?” Her gaze drilled into the side of his face. “You mentioned him before. You think he’s out there in this storm?”
“I know he is. When I heard the gunshots, I left him on a trail to come find you.” And now he was worried about him because the storm was growing worse still and Knox had been a long way from the lodge and home when Lowe had left him.
The gods only knew where his brother was now.
Knox would have come after him, wanting to stick close and protect him. Chances were high that his brother was out there in the woods somewhere, searching for him in this blizzard. He could only hope his brother had enough sense to find somewhere to bed down for the night. Knox had the advantage over him there. He could shift into his bear form to sleep the night away and wouldn’t need a fire to keep him warm. His dense fur would do the job.
Lowe got to freeze his ass off in his human form instead.
“Are you worried about him?”
He looked back at Cameo. “Nah… A little. Knox can handle himself. He’ll pick a cave and bed down until the weather passes.”
“How long have you lived up here?” Her gaze grew curious.
Lowe shuffled back to face her and started unlacing her left boot. “A while. It’s nice up here. Quiet… Normally.”
He smiled at her.
She almost smiled back at him, but her gaze dropped to her foot as he pulled her boot off. Her very expensive boot. She had some serious socks on too, and he had noticed her jacket was top of the line. Whoever Cameo was, she was a woman who knew her stuff, who looked almost comfortable out here in the wilderness, as if she belonged here.
Lowe undid the zipper that ran a few inches up the leg of her salopettes from the hem, loosening them, and then gently eased the material up to reveal bare skin.
“Is it bad?” There was a tremble in her voice now.
He shook his head, because he wasn’t really sure what he was looking at. There were some nasty bruises on her shin and up her calf, and a few grazes. He removed his gloves and blew on his hands, trying to warm them up. She still tensed and hissed in a breath when he touched her calf.
“Sorry,” he muttered with a glance at her.
She shook her head, her lips tightly compressed as her eyes watered. Maybe it hadn’t been his cold hands that had caused that reaction in her.