Stars Over Alaska (Wild River #4) - Jennifer Snow Page 0,2

bending at the knees. “Hop on.” She’d piggyback Selena inside.

“This is not how I meant.”

“Do you want to get inside or not?”

“Not really,” Selena said but she sighed and wrapped her arms around Leslie’s neck and her legs around her waist.

Leslie gripped her tight and stood, then kicked the door closed with her foot.

The temptation to “accidentally” drop Selena into the snowbank was so incredibly enticing, but if there was a sliver of hope that she could keep her job after this fiasco, Leslie was grasping for it. She wasn’t expecting a five-star review of her performance after this was over, but if she kept the woman safe, that had to count for something.

She hoped.

A former Alaska state trooper, working highway patrol for five years, Leslie had only ever known careers in protective services. It was in her blood—her mother had been the second official female state trooper in the northern state and her older sister and younger brother were in the force as well. Leslie didn’t want to be a cop anymore, and this new path suited her...and normally she enjoyed her job. Enjoyed the different challenges and obstacles, the element of high pressure and danger. It kept her adrenaline high and therefore reminded her she was alive.

She was one of the best—an especially impressive feat given that she was a woman and smaller than the other agents at the agency. So far she’d excelled at all of the assignments she’d been given.

But this assignment had quickly become her toughest one.

With the others, she’d been hired as a security measure...extra precaution during high-stress and high-visibility times for the client. But this time, there was an imminent threat to the person’s safety.

Failing this first real test of her skills wasn’t an option.

The snow was even deeper than it looked from the car and Leslie sank up to her knees with each step. Her feet were going numb and she struggled to take a deep breath in the cold mountain air that was thinner at this altitude than any of the hikes she’d done in the California mountain ranges.

Not much could prepare someone for the Alaskan wilderness in the colder months.

At the deck, she reached along the top of the door, through the coating of snow and ice and found the extra key.

“That’s safe,” Selena said.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere and there really isn’t anything of value inside the cabin, anyway.”

“Wow. Way to sell it,” Selena mumbled.

Leslie unlocked the door and stepped inside. She immediately dropped Selena back to her feet and rotated her shoulders. Between the mounting stress and carrying the other woman, her back and neck were a mess of tense knots. She’d deserve a week off once all of this was over.

She flicked on the lights and the place illuminated. Immediately Leslie’s stomach fell—memories of family time in that cabin rushing back at the worst possible time.

This place had been the last place she remembered feeling happy—truly happy, like only a kid with no worries could be. It wasn’t big and luxurious like those belonging to wealthy families closer to the water’s edge, but it was cozy with its loft-style bedrooms with their slanted ceilings, a real wood-burning stove and exposed log interior. She and her older sister shared one room and her brother had the other. Their parents had the bedroom downstairs. A small living space with exposed wood on the walls and ceiling, skylights allowing the stars and northern lights to shine down on them, a wood burning fireplace and some comfy furniture that they’d moved from the house in Wild River once it started showing its age. On the walls hung scenery photos of the surrounding trails and rivers. And several family photos from when she and her siblings were young—a lifetime ago.

The place even smelled the same, despite no one being up there in months. The lingering scent of firewood and slightly musty surroundings. Her mouth watered and she could almost taste the s’mores they’d roast over the open fire every night.

She shook it off. She wasn’t here on vacation or with her family. There was no time for nostalgia, she had to get her head straight and figure out what the hell she was going to do now that they were here...in the middle of nowhere, with no one to know where they were.

“Stay here. I’ll get the things from the car.” Not that she needed to tell Selena not to help. For the last three months since she’d been assigned the