Galya pulled a stool, which was nothing more than a chunk of a tree, over to the fireplace and sat down. She stretched her hands out, warming them. She grew solemn. “There was a time, when this cabin wasn’t occupied by myself alone, that that might have been true. But this bear is beyond her wild years. Now I’m just trying to live.” She looked at Rook, forcing a grin. “Not that you can really call this living. It’s closer to surviving.”

“You don’t like it here?”

“This is my home. It has been for twenty years.” She returned her gaze to the fire. “But it has been tainted since Kolya’s death two years ago. In the time since, I have kept up my duties and taken on his, simply waiting for death to rejoin us. Unfortunately for me, my mother and grandmother each lived to nearly one hundred.”

“That gives you what, another fifty years left to live?” Rook said.

She gave him a wry smile. “Still trying to get me in bed?”

Rook laughed and then winced. Even a subtle flexing of his stomach sent waves of pain through his body.

Seeing his pain, Galya stood. “We best get you back into bed.” She offered her hand to Rook and helped him stand.

Towering more than a foot over the old woman, Rook looked down at her with a wide grin. “I knew you couldn’t resist getting me in your bed.”

She swatted his chest. “Do you ever stop?”

“Not with people I like,” Rook said, though he knew the truth was far more complicated. The good company, humor, and alcohol were dulling more than just a physical pain. The memories of his teammates’ deaths were still fresh in his mind and he hoped to forget them, if only for a night.

With one arm around Rook’s back she helped him toward the bedroom. But before they reached the door, she paused. Rook noticed her attention turn swiftly toward the front windows. “Someone’s here,” she said.

The rumble of an engine grew louder and slowed with a squeak of brakes.

Adrenaline spiked inside Rook. They were here for him. “I’ll go out the back window.”

“You think it’s the men who shot you?” she asked.

“Do you get any visitors out here? Ever?”

Her frown answered the question. No.

Leaving Rook by the bedroom door, she moved to the front window and peeked out. Two men in camouflage uniforms stepped out of a black SUV. At first glance they appeared to be the very hunters Rook had spoken of, but the weapons they held—AK-74M assault rifles—identified them as Russian military. She swung around toward Rook. “You were shot by the military?”

Rook wasn’t sure if Galya would turn him in, but there was no sense in lying to her. “Yes.”

“Will they kill you now?”