He lifted his head, moaned faintly. His throat hurt.

You know. All the things she did for you. All she risked.

His eyes burned, and he closed them.

You found the one person on Earth you could count on, and you walked off.

With his eyes closed, he could see Ava standing in the road before him. Her steady gaze, her hair in the wind. The things she’d made him feel. He didn’t like it.

He stood and picked up the briefcase, the handle a stone in his grip. He followed his tracks between the trees and to the road. She was going to be gone. But he had to try. All she did was help, and you left her. You left her. And Matty could be anywhere.

He trudged along, feeling a weird shakiness. There were stands of trees to his left, and miles of vague snow lay on the right. He stopped and looked back at his tracks, but the thinking stump was gone. When he turned around, he could see the car idling at the end of the road.

He started to run. When he got there, he pulled open the door and got in.

Silence.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi.”

“I’m sorry I left you.”

“I’m sorry he found us.”

“I won’t leave you again.”

He looked at her, and she looked back. He needed to cry, but he didn’t.

“I know where Matty is,” she said.

His heart couldn’t take all this. He wanted to ask if she thought he was alive, but he couldn’t. Instead, he took a shaky breath.

She started the car. “We should go get him now.”

“Okay.”

XVI

I believed in second chances.

And third chances.

And fourth, and fifth.

They headed north on Route 20 toward Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The white roadway. Beyond the windows just the snow.

“We stick to the speed limit,” Jack said. “Keep an eye out.”

She nodded.

“The cops’ll have everyone looking.”

She nodded, her attention leveled on the road. Her hands gripped the wheel.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She looked at him. Her pale skin. Her eyes amber in the twilight.

“He has a mountain house,” she said, “near Island Park. This place he goes to be alone. Live life in the woods. You know? Like he thinks he’s Thoreau or something.”

“We’re going there?”

She didn’t answer. Her thoughts seemed elsewhere.

The falling snow. The soft hiss of the car heater. Jack shuddered. You just have to stay calm. “So we make a trade. The money for Matty.”

“He’ll find out what matters to you,” she said. “He’ll try to take it.”

Jack hardly heard her. “We’re all right. We just go and make a trade.”

“He doesn’t have weaknesses.”

“What?”

“He’s not like people. He doesn’t have weaknesses. Except one.”

“What do you mean?”