Snow and the Seven Men

There was no chance it was a hunter in the middle of the night and not when I suddenly heard loud voices arguing nearby.

It wasn’t a dueling pair who I came across but Sasha, unconscious and bleeding in the snow. Yet I’d somehow known that was exactly who it was going to be all along.

“Oh shit!” I muttered, scooping her up in my arms. “Sasha! Sasha open your eyes!”

The voices were getting nearer and I knew whoever had shot her was coming back to finish the job. I had to get her out of there.

“AMANDA NO!” I heard a man yell. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“I’ll explain everything to you in a minute, Hunter,” Amanda muttered breathlessly. I could tell she was looking for Sasha but I wasn’t about to let her anywhere near the limp figure in my arms.

“Amanda, come back to the container with me,” Hunter told her.

“Not yet. I just have to—”

Her words abruptly cut out and then there was silence. I wondered if Hunter had knocked her out but I was already ducking back into the night with Sasha, trying to put as much distance between me and whatever firearm was out there. I wasn’t about to go investigate what those two were up to.

Harry was standing in the door I’d left wide open and I was struck by a peculiar sense of déjà vu as I hurried back into the cabin.

“What are you doing out there?” He demanded. “You left the door—”

He abruptly stopped speaking.

“I-is that Sasha?” He gasped.

“I need you to stand guard,” I growled. “There’s someone armed out there and she’s been shot. Get Stevie and Seth too.”

“W-what?” Harry choked but I was already racing into the dorm.

“Get up!” I yelled and instantly, five heads poked up from their respective beds. “Get up and get armed.”

Pandemonium broke loose as the men jumped to attention, the concern and confusion on their faces evident.

“What the hell happened?”

“Who did this?”

“What’s going on?”

I ripped open Sasha’s pajama top to look at the wound and exhaled.

“Bash, get me the medical kit. It’s a through and through.”

She was losing a lot of blood, her milky white skin almost translucent but the angle of the bullet seemed to have taken out only tissue. I prayed she wouldn’t have any mobility issues.

“Dammit, Dan, who did this?” Graham yelled, hovering over me as I applied pressure to the wound. I cast him a sidelong look as I continued to work.

“Her team,” I said flatly. “The woman, I think.”

“I told you!” Graham roared, kicking the foot of the bed. “Didn’t I tell you?”

“This isn’t the time for you to lose control, Graham,” I told him in an even tone. “If you’re not going to stand guard, then get out of my way.”

“I’m going to kill them both!” Graham raged and I grabbed his arm before he could move.

“I already told you once tonight,” I hissed. “Don’t do anything stupid. I’m going to patch her up and—”

“She’s waking up!” Graham interrupted and I whipped my head back toward her.

“Hey,” I said quietly. “How are you doing?”

“She’s trying to kill me!” Sasha squealed, trying to sit up. “Amanda Queenie—”

“I know,” I told her soothingly. “It’s all right. You need to be still. No one’s going to hurt you here.”

I shot the others a nervous look. I didn’t know how true that was. We could hold them off for a while, sure but if they came back with reinforcements…

“Why don’t you tell us what happened,” I said soothingly, my hand firmly on the wound to stop the bleeding.

“It’s Mirror, Mirror,” Sasha gasped. “They’re evil! They’re a danger to the environment and they’ve been covering it up. She’s been trying to kill me. She’s the one who sent me out into the storm. She’s the one who shot me. I don’t know who else knows…”

She wasn’t making a lot of sense but from what I could glean, she’d stumbled upon some form of corporate espionage.

And that was never good.

If the secret is worth killing for, we’re all in trouble.

“We’re going to get you out of here,” I promised her. “I’m going to cauterize the wound and we’ll fly you out on the chopper—tonight.”

“I’m going with her,” Graham said firmly.

“Me too!” Bash cried.

“Yeah, me too,” Harry offered and I nodded.

“I think we should all go with you,” I told her. “It’s the safest thing for everyone.”

Sasha looked at me dubiously before gazing around the room.

“You can’t just pick up and leave in the middle of a contract,” she murmured. “You’ve got work to do.”

Her gaze returned to me.

“You’re stressed enough as it is.”

I almost laughed.

She was bleeding from a gunshot wound, on the run for her life and she was worried about my stress levels.

“We’re doing this,” I told her, glancing up at my companions. “Unless anyone has any objections.”