Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“Marlena and Kedrov were married. Five years ago, when we pulled the job, they were already in the middle of a divorce. A vicious one. The Snowflake was listed as a joint asset—twenty million dollars that was supposed to be split between them in the settlement. But after we stole it, Kedrov reported it missing. On paper, the diamond ceased to exist. Which meant Marlena’s share of it ceased to exist too.”
Hailey’s eyes narrow. I can see her running the math.
“It gets worse. Kedrov had already moved the diamond into her column during the asset division. He knew it was gone before the lawyers finalized everything, but he let it stay on her side of the ledger. So when the settlement went through, Marlena was credited with receiving a twenty-million-dollar diamond that no longer existed. She got less of everything else because of it. Less real estate. Less liquid cash. Less of his tech portfolio.”
“He used our theft to cheat her in the divorce,” Hailey says.
“She lost tens of millions because of a diamond she never held in her hands. A diamond we stole.” I let that sit. “So when she tracked me down, this wasn’t about collecting a pretty stone. This was five years of rage at her ex-husband, five years of being humiliated by a man she already hated, and the two thieves who handed him the ammunition.”
The wind picks up, cutting through my jacket. Nobody speaks.
“I’m so fucking sorry.” The words feel inadequate. They are inadequate. “I can’t express it enough. To either of you.”
Knox goes still. Hailey wraps her arms around herself, and I can’t tell if it’s the cold or if she’s trying to hold herself together.
“Everything in the cabin—that was real.” I need them to understand this part. “My feelings. The connection. All of it. I wasn’t faking. I was trying to keep you alive while figuring out how to get us all out of this mess.” A pause. “I know that doesn’t make it better.”
More silence. The trees creak around us. Somewhere in the distance, a bird calls out, oblivious to the disaster happening in this clearing.
“You should have told us.” Hailey’s voice is quiet but steady. “In the cabin. When we were alone. You should have trusted us.”
“I know.” I sit on the edge of my snowmobile because my legs don’t feel entirely trustworthy right now. “I should have done a lot of things. I for sure should have done less. I fucked up. All of it.” My hands hang between my knees. “But I’m here now. And we’re alive. And Marlena doesn’t have the diamond.”
Knox exhales. For a long moment I think he’s going to tell me exactly where I can shove my apology, and honestly, I’d deserve it.
“Well.” He uncrosses his arms. “We’re all guilty of fucking up. But right now we need to focus on survival.” His gaze sweeps the clearing, the trees, the sky. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, freezing, with no real plan and a deranged woman who wants her diamond back and us dead.”
“Not quite square one.” I pull out the items I grabbed from the emergency kit before we fled—maps, compass, emergency beacon. “I know where we are. And I know how to get us somewhere safe.”
“Where?”
“There’s a ranger station about forty miles northwest. It’ll be manned, even in winter. We get there, we call for help, we get extracted.”
Knox’s eyebrows rise. “Forty miles on snowmobiles. In this cold. With no survival gear.” He shakes his head. “That’s nearly impossible.”
“Nearly isn’t never.” I unfold the map, trace the route with my finger. “And it’s our only shot.”
“What about the helicopter?” Hailey asks.
“Neither of us can fly one,” Knox says. “And even if we could, Marlena’s pilot isn’t going to hand over the keys.”
“So. Ranger station.”
We check supplies. One snowmobile has a partial emergency kit—some flares, a basic first aid kit, a survival blanket that looks like someone sat on it in 1987. Not enough, but something. The fuel gauges show half tanks, which should be enough for forty miles if we’re careful and don’t hit any obstacles.
The maps show the ranger station clearly—remote but accessible if we follow the frozen river system northwest.
“We need to move,” Hailey says. Her jaw is set, her eyes clear. Whatever emotional reckoning is coming, she’s filed it away for later. “Before Marlena’s people regroup. Before this cold becomes a bigger problem.”
We mount up—Hailey and Knox on one machine, me on the other. No one talks about what comes after. If we survive this. If we make it to safety. Then we’ll deal with the question of whether this fractured thing between us can ever be put back together.
First, we have to not die.
I take point, navigating by compass and the position of the sun through the trees. The terrain is brutal. Steep slopes that make the snowmobiles whine in protest. Dense forest where we have to slow to a crawl to weave between trunks. Frozen lakes we cross holding our breath, listening for any crack in the ice beneath us.