Page 31 of Deadly Sins
His weak tone twisted Kate’s gut. She’d come so close to getting him killed…
Getting him back to Endurance had been one of the most frightening experiences of her life. Somehow, she’d managed to drag him onto the sled behind her machine and wrap him up in the emergency blankets they’d brought. Securing him on the sled had been the easy part. Spending the entire hour’s journey back wondering if he’d be frozen to death before she made it had been…
She gestured to the clerk. “Could you bring us up some hot tea? I don’t want to leave him alone.”
“Sure thing.” The clerk backed out of the room.
She turned back to Fenn, her heart heavy with a crushing sense of guilt. He looked so pale. A wave of self-recrimination washed over her.
Every bit of this was her fault. Her secrets, her past, had put Fenn in danger. And now, here he lay, injured and vulnerable,because of her. The weight of that knowledge settled on her chest, making it hard to breathe.
She reached out, her fingers trembling as she brushed a stray lock of hair from his forehead. The contact, so simple and yet so intimate, sent a jolt of electricity through her, mingling with the ache of guilt and the ever-present undercurrent of attraction.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. “I never meant for you to get hurt. Not because of me.”
The words felt inadequate, a mere drop in the ocean of her remorse. She knew that Fenn would brush off her apologies, would insist that he was fine, that it wasn’t her fault. But the truth remained, stark and unforgiving.
“Not your circus. Well, sure, yeah. It is your circus, but you didn’t ask for it.”
All she could do was shrug. Maybe not, but her actions planted the seeds.
Fenn searched her face. “So, what happened out there?”
Kate took a deep breath, the memory of finding him unconscious in the snow still fresh and painful. “I found you on the ground by the snowmobiles, out cold. Someone bashed you in the back of the head.”
His lips pressed into a thin line. “That explains the headache.” He frowned, his brow furrowing. “Did you see who it was?”
“No. By the time I got there, they were long gone.”
They fell silent for a moment, the weight of the situation settling over them like a heavy blanket. Kate’s mind raced, trying to piece together the puzzle.
“Why did they leave me alive?” Fenn asked.
Exactly what she was wondering. She closed her eyes, picturing the swales and footprints in the snow. After the attacker knocked Fenn out, he’d turned him over. Seen his face.Then the attacker had purposefully rolled Fenn back onto his stomach and left him to die.
No way to know for sure, of course, but if she had to bet…
A sudden realization dawned on her. “What if they weren’t after you? I’m almost your height. With our arctic gear and face masks, it wouldn’t have been hard to mistake you for me.”
Fenn’s eyes widened, the implications sinking in. “That makes sense.”
“We’re not going to find them,” he said, his voice resigned. “Not in this weather, with no leads.”
She fingered the bedspread, stretching the pilled polypro. “I know. But I’ve got to try. I can’t just let them get away with this.”
He struggled to sit up, wincing at the effort. “Kate, why are we still here? There are lots of ways out of town. We could come back for the plane later. What aren’t you telling me?”
The urge to keep her secrets warred with the need to be honest with Fenn. She looked at him, really looked at him, and saw the determination in his eyes, the strength of his soul.
She hadn’t given Fenn the credit he deserved. Not since they met. Behind the jokes and the laidback aura, the man was lion-hearted. She’d never seen him give up on a situation. He never faded. Never ran.
The thought struck her like a lightning bolt, leaving her breathless. Why hadn’t she seen it before?
Because she didn’t want to. Seeing the man behind the mask made him terrifically dangerous to her heart.
19
From his bed,Fenn watched Kate closely, his trained eyes taking in every minute detail of her body language. He noticed the way her pupils dilated, the slight tremor in her hands, and the tension in her jaw. Telltale signs of someone under immense emotional stress.