Montana Daddy. Charlotte Maclay

can’t mean to send Kristi out there on her own.” Rory was appalled his brother would even consider the possibility. “For one thing, she’d probably freeze to death before she got a mile from town.

      And if she made it that far, she’d probably get lost.”

      “Not if you went with her as a guide.”

      The room went very still. Only the low hum of the shortwave radio broke the silence. And everyone was looking at Rory.

      “I’d go myself, bro,” Eric continued, “but I’ve got to stay in town to organize the disaster plan. Besides, you know the area better than anyone else.”

      Rory looked for an escape route. Granted, he could probably find the Durfee cabin in a blizzard, but he didn’t want to put Kristi at risk. He wasn’t worried about himself. He’d gone out in rougher weather than this to rescue or doctor animals. Kristi hadn’t. She didn’t know what she was up against. The threat of frostbite. Getting lost and disoriented in a howling storm. Freezing to death. No way would he let her go on her own.

      “How ’bout I take the gear to the Durfees,” he said. “I can do an IV as well as Kristi, and your heart monitor can’t be all that different from the one I use during surgeries.”

      “I told you they were proud folks, young man. I can’t see Jane letting a veterinarian treat her husband no matter how bad off he is. If we’re gonna do this, Kristi has to go, too.”

      “I’m willing,” Kristi said. “It’s not like I haven’t been on a snowmobile before. I’ll be fine.”

      Rory glared at her, but she wasn’t going to back down. What the hell!

      “You think Everett will last till morning?” Rory asked.

      Justine considered her answer. “His health has otherwise been good, and he’s as strong as a horse. He’s got a better-than-average chance to last out the night.”

      “That’s good, because trying to make it to that cabin in the dark and in this storm would be asking for more trouble than anyone could handle. Myself included.”

      “I agree,” Eric said.

      Rory figured the fat was in the fire, so to speak. No way could he back out. “Okay, we’ll take two snowmobiles, one of them pulling a sled. We can bring Everett back here, then we can figure out how to get him to Great Falls. And Jane can ride double on the second snowmobile. She’ll want to come along with Everett.”

      Justine nodded her agreement. “That seems like a reasonable plan to me. I can trust you to take care of Kristi. And with her there, Everett could hold on till the weather clears a bit if necessary. We can be in touch by radio.”

      His brother shot Rory a smug look. “Looks like you’ll have your big chance to impress Kristi, bro. Good strategy!”

      Both Rory and Kristi argued that wasn’t the situation at all. But they really had no choice. A man was in trouble. He could die. Both of them needed to do what they could to save Everett Durfee.

      It was simply their nature, and Rory mentally cursed Kristi’s unselfishness, which would put her at risk as well.

      By radio, Doc Justine let Jane know of their plan. There had been no change in Everett’s condition, which brought a renewed frown to the doctor’s forehead.

      “The longer he goes without treatment, the greater the damage to his heart could be,” she reminded the rescue team.

      “I’ll pack up the medical equipment we’ll need.” Kristi’s gaze slid to Rory. A slight frown tugged her brows together, her expression more determined than worried. Courageous and unselfish.

      “I’ll get our cold-weather gear and supplies together,” Rory said. “And I promise I’ll get you there and bring you back safely. You can count on me.”

      “I hope so. This time.”

      She turned and walked toward the examining rooms, leaving Rory wondering what she’d meant by her last remark. Whatever it was, he imagined neither one of them would get much sleep before they had to head out at first light.

      DAWN BROUGHT very little illumination to the landscape. The gray light cast few shadows, making it difficult to follow the old roadway. Pine trees and firs were buried until only their snow-laden tips showed above the drifts. If there were any houses in the area, they were invisible beyond the curtain of falling snow. No glimmer of sunrise gave a hint of the direction they were traveling. Without Rory guiding her, Kristi would have been lost a half mile out of town.

      She kept her snowmobile in the tracks left by Rory’s snowmobile and the sled he was pulling, letting him cut the trail. In addition to the medical equipment she’d gathered together, they’d brought along survival gear, including a rifle strapped onto Rory’s machine, which she sincerely hoped he wouldn’t have to use against a marauding black bear.

      They were bundled up against the weather in so many layers of clothing, it was a wonder either of them could move. Even so, bits of ice and snow crept past zippers and slipped behind her visor, stinging her flesh and threatening to drop her body temperature to dangerous levels. They hadn’t gone far before she began to wonder how foolhardy this trip might be.

      As long as there was some way to reach Everett Durfee and bring him to safety, her conscience wouldn’t have permitted her not to try. But she didn’t want to lose her own life in the process. She didn’t want to do anything so foolish that she’d deprive Adam of a mother, particularly since he was growing up without a father.

      I’ll get you there and bring you back safely, Rory had said. Surely this time she could trust his word.

      She glanced ahead, beyond the turkey-tail of snow blowing back from Rory’s snowmobile. How would he react if he knew the truth? Did she dare risk finding out? Or would that be even more dangerous than this freezing-cold rescue attempt through the woods.

      The small radio in her helmet sputtered over the roar of the snowmobile, startling her.

      “You okay back there?”

      She quickly blocked the fears that had plagued her since she’d made the decision to return to Grass Valley to help her grandmother—and tell Rory the truth. “I’m mentally planning a trip to Palm Springs when this is all over,” she quipped.

      “Great. We can get hot together there. Right about now a little slow heat sounds good to me, too.”

      He’d responded in a low, intimate baritone, and a shudder went through Kristi. This time it wasn’t from the cold. They’d been hot together that summer she’d fallen in love, hot enough to singe the sheets. And once their fervent lovemaking had nearly melted a scratchy blanket they’d taken on a picnic to a secluded spot near the river.

      “Come to think of it,” he continued, his disembodied voice caressing her in ways she hadn’t been touched in a long time, “I’ve never seen you in a swimsuit. The one time we went swimming in the river, we omitted that little item of clothing.”

      The chips of ice that had reached her flesh melted with the heat that flushed her body. “Rory!” She swallowed hard. “Will you hush up. This isn’t a private phone line. Somebody could be listening to the radio.”

      His warm chuckle made her acutely aware of the vibrating snowmobile she was straddling. Her whole body trembled with every motion of the vehicle, and a sensation of warmth formed in the overheated vee between her thighs.

      “Not much chance of that, sweetheart. These radios only transmit about a mile. It’s just the two of us out here in the woods.”

      “Well, there could be someone listening. I’d just as soon not give them your version of phone sex to talk about.”

      “It’d make their day. I know it’s making mine.” His voice dropped to an even more private note. “We were great together, Kristi.”

      Erotic images flooded her