Peyton must have read her mind. “You don’t have to stay, Echo. I’m okay.”

But—

And maybe she saw the past alight in Echo’s eyes, because she stepped up and touched her arm. “I’ll be fine.”

“I can come back tomorrow on a sled, if we need to,” Dodge said, looking at Peyton.

“I can run the dogs on my own, don’t worry. I know the way.” She looked at Echo. “You’re not the only one who can read the forest.”

Dodge headed for the door.

Peyton was right. Really.

“My gun and sleeping bag are outside. If the bear comes back—”

“I’ll have Granite with me.”

The older dog had come off the bed and now whined. Dodge turned around at the door. “Hey there, old buddy.” He knelt and Granite came over to Holly. Nudged her. “I’ll do the best I can,” Dodge said.

Then he got up and headed into the night.

“Go,” Peyton said, and Echo scrambled after him.

The wind whined in her ears as she followed Dodge out to the chopper, carrying his snowshoes. He waded through the snow, then opened the door with one hand and put Holly inside. He jumped in to secure her on a litter.

Echo climbed up on the skid and hoisted herself inside. Dodge leaned over and grabbed her jacket to help her in.

“You need to strap in. It’s a bumpy ride.”

He closed the door behind her and climbed through to the cockpit.

“I should stay with her—”

“Get up here and strap in.”

She bit back words and obeyed.

“It’s going to be dicey getting up, but once we’re in the air, the wind isn’t quite as rough.”

He was turning on the controls, his movements practiced from the way he grabbed the cyclic in one hand, the other on the collective between the seats, his feet on the pedals.

“I didn’t know you flew helicopters.”

He said nothing as they began to move. The wind took the bird and they spun. He fought it with his foot pedals and the cyclic. The tight-jawed expression on his face under the dim light of the cockpit instruments betrayed his focus.

She glanced back. Holly hadn’t moved.

Below, near the cabin, the campfire sparked into the sky, and she spotted Peyton retrieving her sleeping bag and gun.

Then Peyton stood and watched, waving as the chopper left the earth, trembling, spinning, fighting its way into the sky.

They cleared the trees, and he continued to ascend. Darkness spread over the land, but she could make out the shadows, the undulating hills, the glimmer of the river. And finally, the lights of Copper Mountain.

Dodge hadn’t spoken once, but with the wash of the rotors and the howl of the wind, she didn’t either.