“Take a breath.” His hands landed on her shoulders. “He’s fine. My father is tending to him. It’s just a scrape, but I was worried so . . .” He made a face. “I know I said we needed to avoid each other, but—”

“Thank you, Dodge.”

She said it softly, a little more relief in it than she had intended, but maybe that was okay because it slowed him down, and he swallowed as if he wasn’t sure what to do.

Finally, he nodded. “What’s going on with Peyton?”

“I’m not sure. Some of my dogs came home without her, and now Iceman, and . . .” She grabbed her helmet off her snow machine. “I’m just worried that she’s lost out here, or in trouble. I need to find her.”

He caught her arm just as she made to put on the helmet. “Echo—it’s been at least two days of a storm that no one should be in . . . maybe we should call search and rescue.”

“We are search and rescue, Dodge.”

He shook his head, and she couldn’t help it. Maybe it was the aftermath of her encounter with Idaho, or maybe just Dodge’s grim tone but—

She put her helmet down and took a few steps away from him. “When did you become the guy who gave up hope? You always believed in more, and now you’re . . . I don’t even know you!”

His mouth tightened. “No, you probably don’t. But I’m also just trying to be real here. Peyton is—”

“Not. Dead.” She met Dodge’s eyes, her own filling.

He sighed. “Aw, Echo.” Then he walked over and pulled her against him.

And he was just so solid, and here, and she couldn’t stop herself from moving her arms around him and hanging on. “I can’t leave her, Dodge. I can’t. What if the bear got her? It’s just like—”

“Charlie. I know.”

She drew in a breath, hating how it seemed too terribly close, the raw-edged fear. “I’m scared.”

There, she said it. Really scared. And not just about Peyton, maybe.

He held her a moment longer. “Okay, Echo. Where do we look?” He pushed her away. Met her eyes. And she saw in them the Dodge who’d been her friend.

Her best friend, especially when she’d needed one the most.

It made her want to weep, again. But she didn’t have time to fall apart. Not now, not probably ever.

“We’re going to the cabin on Peters Lake. It’s on our route, and there’s a camera there that is trained on another legacy den. She could have gone there and maybe something happened.”

He was picturing it. She could see the trek mapping in his head. “There’s that ridge there, it overlooks the cabin.”