Author's Note: Oh where Oh where have all my reviewers gone? Super big thanks to those that did review, but the ratio of feedback to hits on this story is kind of discouraging. I know I haven't been as good at speedy updates as I have in the past, but I didn't realize I'd lost majority of my readers because of it. Oh well, I'll continue because I do still have a handful of you loyal ones that want to read it. Consider that my whining for the day. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
JJ shivered awake for what seemed to be the hundredth time since letting sleep first take her. Her body was exhausted, her eyes burned from the cold, and she'd almost completely lost all feeling in her injured foot. Despite the exhaustion, her shivering kept her from getting the rest she needed. Rossi and Reid had huddled in close on each side of her, sharing their natural heat and making her feel safer. They'd eventually put on their Kevlar vests to help keep their core temperatures up, but they were stiff and uncomfortable in the tight space. The wind was whistling through the cracks in their shelter and attacked the fire from the hole they'd left for it to vent. They'd moved all of their collected wood toward the flames, hoping the heat would dry it out. It had worked, but their supply was dwindling. She only hoped it would last until the storm died down enough for them to collect more.
Next to her, Reid shifted wincing in his sleep and sinking himself further into his big red coat. Throughout the night, their excitement of making contact with the team had worn off, and their injuries began weighing on them. Reid had finally given in and asked for some of the aspirin from the bottle in the first aid kit to help with the pain in his knee. Even Rossi had admitted to a headache but refused the aspirin. Their cramped quarters and the cold air did nothing for the soreness in any of their muscles. She didn't even want to think about how stiff they would be by the time anyone got up the mountain to save them.
With a sigh she dug her cell phone from her pocket. They had no signal, they'd checked, but she wasn't trying to make a call. The clock on the screen said it was just after 2am. They had at least four hours until the sun would come up and hopefully bring an end to the storm and warm things up. Until then, she'd take comfort in knowing that rest of their teams was out there, aware of their situation, and she had Rossi and Reid with her.
It was mid morning when the high winds and pelting ice began slowing, signaling the lull in the storm. The team had spent the night in their small office, watching the weather report, listening for the radio, and studying area maps of the mountain. Eventually they'd all drifted to sleep, either on folded arms at the table or on the broken down couch in the corner. Garcia had made contact with Devin Foster early in the morning and felt confident that the boy had some sort of contact with his real mother. But as the morning stretched on and they'd heard nothing from Cassi, their hopes that she'd not only received the message, but would answer it were becoming more and more slim.
"Garcia, get on the phone with someone in the control room," Hotch instructed, pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee, "I need to know if we can get a chopper in the air soon. Preferably, we won't even need Cassi and can locate the crash site from the air."
"We really shouldn't be surprised," Morgan spoke, refilling his coffee cup as well, "why would she serve herself up on a silver platter when she's been home free for a year."
"That's assuming she even got the message," Prentiss added.
"Hello, this is Penelope Garcia with the FBI," Garcia chirped into the phone, quieting the rest of the group, "I have Special Agent in Charge Aaron Hotchner for you."
Garcia quickly handed the phone to Hotch and three sets of eyes stayed on him as he spoke into the receiver.
"This is SSA Hotchner. I'm calling to check on the status of the FAA's grounding order."
I'm sorry Agent Hotchner, we're still grounded. The voice on the other end replied.
"But the storm is dying down. Visibility has to be at least a mile by now. Why hasn't the order lifted?"
"The wind speeds are still too fast. I'm estimating at least another hour until they lift it. Trust me Agent Hotchner, when the order is lifted, you'll be the first to know."
Hotch scowled and handed the phone back to Garcia shaking his head in answer to their silent question.
"They've been out there for twelve hours," Morgan grumbled, "I hate this waiting."
"There's really nothing else we can do," Hotch replied, "Hopefully in another hour we can be in the air. With a little luck we can locate the crash site and if not extract them, we can drop off the supplies they'll need."
Prentiss half listened to the two men as she slowly walked across the small room toward the window. She glanced down at her watch before crossing her arms over her chest and staring out at the steadily falling snow as it whipped around in the wind. She could clearly see all of the buildings and aircraft hangers to the end of the snow covered runway now. The clouds were still hanging low and thick enough that she couldn't make out any of the surrounding mountains which told her that her friends were still getting hit with some serious weather. Her simple presence at the window caused a light fog on the glass, showing just how cold it was on the other side of the office walls. None of these observations did anything to help calm the twist of worry in her gut.
She continued to ignore the conversation going on between Morgan and Hotch. She didn't need to hear that there was nothing they could do anymore. She dropped her hands and stretched her back and neck. Sleeping hunched over at the kitchen table for a few hours had made her muscles stiff. If it hadn't been for the rickety old wall heater, the cold room would have made the stiff muscles even more painful with cramps. This realization made her stomach turn with guilt. Rossi, Reid, and JJ had no heater. For all she knew, they didn't even have anything blocking them from the wind. Hotch had made brief contact with them and Rossi had said they were alright, but that was nearly twelve hours ago. Nightfall would have dropped the temperature considerably. Until they heard from them again, or better yet, found them, she wouldn't be able to calm her worry. She only hoped Rossi's love for the outdoors came with some knowledge of surviving it.
After she twisted out the kinks in her neck, she turned her attention back out the window. A dark shape in the clouds caught her attention. That hadn't been there before, she was sure of it. She watched it curiously as it got larger and moved closer into view.
"Hotch!" she called, breaking into their light conversation.
Hotch and Morgan both turned to look at her and she waved them over, never taking her eyes from the window. By the time they crossed the room and joined her near the window, they could hear the loud steady thump of the approaching rotors.
"Is that a helicopter?" Garcia asked, rushing over to crowd them.
Hotch didn't answer. He was already moving to the door with Prentiss and Morgan close behind him. He ripped the door open, blasting them in the faces with cold wet air and they stepped out into the ankle deep snow that had collected outside throughout the night. The helicopter moved in quickly, swaying sideways in the wind, spinning slightly and picking up funnels of snow as it got lower to the ground. Hotch lifted his hand to shield his face from the torrent of wind and ice debris until the helicopter was solidly on the ground.
Two figures emerged from the side door of the chopper, ducking low against the wind as the engine whined down and the blades slowed. Hotch squinted against the brightness of the snow, suddenly aware of how dim the inside of their office actually was. One of the figures turned away from the helicopter to face them then tapped the other on the shoulder and pointed. The other turned to look, said something to the first and began walking toward him. She had only closed in a few feet before Hotch recognized her. Every nerve in his body told him to draw his weapon, to stop her before she got too close. She seemed to sense his discomfort and lifted her hands casually at her sides, showing that they were empty while never slowing her stride.
"Hotch," she greeted when she finally stopped in front of him.
He didn't say anything. He hadn't prepared himself for her arrival. He never thought she would actually come. She looked the same as he remembered. Her dark hair was in the same short cut, not dyed or grown out in ways of a disguise. The only thing that was missing was the wire framed glasses she'd worn before, which he doubted she ever really needed. Though she looked the same, something about her was infinitely different. During the time they had worked with her before, she was relaxed, unobtrusive, even coming across as timid at times. But now she had an air of confidence about her. Her posture was straight and demanding and her eyes bored into his, challenging him.
Before he could say anything, her eyes broke contact to look beyond his shoulder just before a loud shout behind him startled him. He turned his head to look at the burly flight controller who approached while shouting and waving his pointing finger at them.
"What the hell is going on?" he shouted, "I told you the grounding order wasn't lifted yet Agent Hotchner. You're in direct violation of a federal law lady!"
He stuck his finger in Cassi's face and she responded with a grin that would have appeared charming if Hotch didn't know any better.
"Cassi Parker, and you are?" she asked, extending her hand.
"Don't bat those baby blues and think you're getting away with this," he growled, "This is a serious offense. The FAA will have your pilot's license for this."
"Relax Boss," she dropped her unshaken hand, "We've been granted flight privileges by the FAA due to extenuating circumstances. The lives of three federal agents are at stake here sir. The FAA would like to avoid the fallout that would inevitably land on their doorstep if everything that could be done to save these agents, was not done."
"We're following every protocol we have for this. We have a search and rescue team on standby to deploy as soon as it's safe enough for them to go."
"That won't be necessary. My team will take over search and rescue operations. With a little luck, we can have them down by dinner time."
"Who the hell are you?" he raised a suspicious eyebrow as the two men from the chopper came to stand behind her.
"I'm someone that doesn't agree with a protocol that allows people to slowly freeze to death because their rescue team is afraid to take some risks," she answered, "Now if you don't mind, I think you've wasted enough of my time and I'd like to bring those people down."
"You know I'll have to check on this," he warned, after thinking it through for a few seconds.
"Of course you do," her cheeks dimpled as she smiled, "While you do that, my team and I will be briefing with Agent Hotchner, Oh, and I plan to be back in the air in an hour. Run that by the FAA operator too if you feel the need."
The man took a deep defiant breath, spun on his heels and stormed back to the office. All eyes followed his exit and when he disappeared behind the closed door of the office, Cassi's smile was gone and she barked at one of the two men that had joined her from the helicopter.
"Milo, the man's calling the FAA. Make sure he gets what he needs."
The smaller man to her left nodded and jogged back to the helicopter. Hotch could see him moving around, digging through things inside the helicopter, then settle into the seat and pull a headset over his ears. Then Cassi was in his line of vision.
"We should really take this inside," she said, motioning for him to lead the way.
Hotch glared down at her for a few seconds, making sure she knew that he wasn't intimidated by her arrival, or her new presumptuous attitude. Regardless of his mixed feelings for the woman, they'd asked for her help. They needed her help. So he waved his hand, directing them toward the small office. Prentiss stepped out of her way as she moved toward it. Morgan however stood firmly in her path, arms crossed over his chest. She stopped in front of him, looked directly into his eyes and grinned. This only made him glare harder at her, giving her a silent warning before letting her step around him. The stocky man, who'd been the pilot of the helicopter, followed behind her flashing a wink at Morgan as he passed.
"Hotch, Man I don't like this," Morgan said quietly as they fell into step behind them.
"Neither do I," Hotch agreed, "stay alert."
Garcia had watched the short exchange from the office, swiping at the fog on the window every few seconds until the group moved in her direction. She hurried away from the window and sat down at the table, pulling the laptop in front of her, trying to appear the least bit interested in the arrival of their guests. When the door opened, she glanced up casually, and the whole group filed into the office, crowding the tight space. Cassi's eyes met hers momentarily before she turned her back to her and addressed the group.
"Hotch, Mason," she pointed from Hotch to her pilot in way of introduction, "Mason, Agents Hotchner, Morgan, and Prentiss. What do we know?"
Hotch thought for a moment, still slightly shocked by the situation. What were they thinking calling her here for help? Save your friends his mind answered immediately.
"Not much," he answered. He turned one of the laptops around on the table to face them and pointed to the map, "their plane went down somewhere around here a little over twelve hours ago. We were able to make brief contact with them yesterday. Whether they have injuries or not, I don't know, but they were all alright when we spoke."
Cassi's brows drew together as she studied the map on the screen. She took a few paces to stand behind Garcia, crossing her arms over her chest and chewing at her lip in concentration.
"What's the storm doing now?" she asked. She leaned over Garcia's chair to look at the screen and Garcia tensed. Cassi seemed to sense her discomfort, whispered an apology and stood back up.
"Its uh…" Garcia cleared her throat, "it's moving east. Winds are staying at a steady fifteen to twenty mph right now but expected to pick up again in the next six hours."
The room was silent. Cassi was thinking and everyone else was watching her. At this moment, things could either move along, or stop directly in a confrontation that they hadn't really planned for. If Cassi didn't think they could face the storm, they would have to move on her now. That left the concerns of her guests. They hadn't planned for her to have company with her. They knew nothing about these two men or what they were capable of.
"Mason," Cassi finally broke the silence, "Help Milo. We'll need all the gear boxes unloaded and brought inside. We'll get him set up and then prep for takeoff."
The pilot stared at her for a second before looking around the room at each of them before reluctantly exiting the building. Alone with only the team, Cassi's shoulders dropped slightly and her features softened.
"You realize how difficult this is going to be, don't you?" she addressed the whole room. "I'll have Milo down here to give Garcia a hand, but not only do you have a severe storm circling in, but we're talking terrain like nothing anywhere else. It's safe to assume you'll be coming along?"
"Morgan and Prentiss will be going with you." Hotch confirmed. Now more than before he was sure he had to stay behind. There was no way Garcia would be left alone with a colleague of a killer.
Cassi took a deep breath and let it out slowly. In one motion she pulled a concealed pistol from the back of her waistband and firmly set it on the table, causing Garcia to jump and Morgan and Prentiss to reach for their own sidearms. She moved her hand, leaving the gun on the table.
"As uncomfortable as I know we all are with this, if anyone is going to come back down off of that mountain alive you're going to have to trust me." Her eyes bored into each of them as she spoke.
Hotch glanced from her to the gun and back. It was an offering of trust from one person that he knew he couldn't. There had to be a catch. She had to have a plan.
"Who are the men?" Hotch asked, hand still on his sidearm.
"Colleagues. Mason Reno and Milo Green. We need a pilot to get us up there and Mason is the best. Milo is a resource. He'll run communications and help Garcia. He's harmless."
"Harmless?" Morgan raised an eyebrow, "and Mason?"
"Not so harmless," she confessed, "but he's a friend. He may not like it, but he'll do what he's told. Listen, I'm not stupid and I know none of you are either. I walked into this fully aware that if I make it off that mountain in one piece, I'm going straight into a jail cell. I know that and I came anyway. You saved my son. It's time to return the favor. That gun is the only one I have and you're free to check. I'm turning myself in willingly."
Hotch stared at her dumbfounded. He'd sworn to himself that she would never surprise them again. She'd just made a liar out of him. He was surprised. He studied her face, searching for any twitch or shift that would hint at deceit but she was as determined as he had ever seen her. He let his eyes move from her face to look to his friends. Garcia's jaw had dropped and Morgan and Prentiss held similarly shocked expressions. If this was another plan to deceive them, they'd all fallen for it again.
The tension was broken by the door slamming open, dropping snow from the door frame onto the floor and the man she'd introduced as Milo shuffled in carrying too large plastic boxes. He mumbled something to Mason who was walking behind him carrying identical boxes as he pushed past them toward the table.
"Oh come on Cass," he set down a box and pointed at the gun on the table, "Didn't you mother ever tell you not to leave your toys lyin around."
Cassi looked to the gun, then to Hotch. He sighed and picked it up, tucking it into the back of his belt. Milo shook his head and heaved one of the boxes onto the table where the gun had been. Garcia scooted her computers away from the intrusive object, offended by the lack of finesse to her gear.
"Garcia, meet Milo," Cassi introduced, "put him to work."
"Oh so this is…" Milo started saying then shut up when Cassi shook her head, "nevermind then, nice to meet you."
Cassi rolled her eyes then picked up another of the boxes, carried it over to the couch in the corner and opened it up then turned to Morgan and Prentiss.
"I'm hoping you have some sort of clothes for this little mission," she said.
"We did some shopping," Emily answered, "We had our packs ready to go, just in case."
"Of course you did," Cassi smirked, "Milo, bring up the maps."
"On it Boss." Milo pulled a laptop from the box, dropping it onto the table and powering it up. While it hummed to life, he continued unloading piece by piece of computer equipment from the bin, crowding the table and the counter with gadgets.
Garcia quietly watched, eyeing each computer, modem, printer, radio base station, and monitor he pulled from the boxes. The man was a mobile command center. For a moment she wondered if he could do half of things that she could with it. She quickly pushed the thought aside with a smirk. Nobody could do what she could.
By the time he was done hooking a printer to the computer, the laptop had booted up and held the image of a typographical map on its screen. He quickly printed out the image and passed it over to Cassi.
"You said their plane went down around here?" she asked, pointing at the printout.
Hotch nodded, "they said they went down somewhere within a six mile radius of this area."
Cassi winced, "let's hope we spot them from the air."
"If we don't," Emily asked.
"It's a lot of ground to cover on foot in a storm." Cassie replied, "Not saying we can't do it. Just that it's a lot. It looks like there's a river running through to the east. Depending on how fast it's moving, it may or may not be frozen over. We may have to cross it at some point. Have either of you ever done anything like this before?"
"I spent a lot of time in the Alps, but never in a storm," Emily answered. Morgan simply shook his head no.
"Okay," Cassi took a deep breath and released it in a sigh, "Mason, ready the chopper. We're looking at an elevation of about thirteen thousand feet, air temp at eighteen Fahrenheit, wind speeds from the east at sixteen mph. It's changing fast so we need to move."
Mason nodded and exited the building without a word. Cassi turned to the box she'd opened on the couch earlier and pulled two hand held radios from inside and handed them to Morgan and Prentiss. Each radio was connected to an earpiece and a tactical microphone that wrapped around the neck and picked up speech directly from the vibrations of the wearers throat.
"They're already programmed to a secure frequency that will repeat right back to the base station Milo is hooking up on Garcia's desk." Cassi explained. "It'll also be picking up the small satellite booster that he'll be hooking up outside so we should have clear communications no matter where we are on the mountain. Put them on underneath your outerwear and keep the extra batteries in your inside coat pockets otherwise the cold will drain them long before we're done."
Finally getting over the initial tension of the reunion, the whole room buzzed with activity. Hotch helped Garcia and Milo hook up the various assortments of technological gadgets from Milo's boxes, while Morgan and Prentiss pulled the tags from their new extreme cold weather clothes that they purchased at the recreation store the night before. Cassi had unloaded another two boxes full of gear and helped them repack their packs with added survival equipment that made them worry more about their friends that had no such gear.
A half an hour later, the room had been transformed into a crowded computerized command center and Morgan, Prentiss and Cassi looked as if they were preparing to compete in the Iditarod. The wind outside had come to as much of a lull as it was going to and nobody came out from the control room when they began loading their things back onto the chopper.
"Morgan, Prentiss," Hotch stopped them outside and ushered them away from the group, "This is your last chance to change your minds about this. If either you aren't ready for this, walk away now."
The two agents looked at each other briefly then back to Hotch.
"We're going Hotch," Morgan answered.
"I don't know if we can trust her to really turn herself in after all of this," Emily added, "but I do trust her to do what she does best and keep us all safe up there."
"If not, we know that we're armed, and she isn't," Morgan replied, "You just keep on an eye on those two friends of hers."
Hotch nodded and they rejoined the group near the helicopter. Just as Mason cranked the engine to life, Garcia jogged over to the group and pulled Morgan and Prentiss into a tight hug.
"Please, please be careful!" she said directly into their ears, "and bring them home."
They promised and she finally let go. While they climbed into the rear of the helicopter Garcia turned to Cassi, whose hard features had softened a bit since she'd arrived.
"I'll take care of them," Cassi said, reading Garcia's silent request and turned to climb in after them.
Garcia called out her name and she stopped and turned to look at her. Garcia waved her over and when she approached, she pulled her coat around herself for comfort from the wind as well as the unease of the situation.
"You didn't have to explain yourself back in D.C., but you still called back to do it. Why?" Garcia asked.
Cassi thought for a moment before speaking, "because you would have felt guilty for the rest of your life if I didn't."
"Why did you come back now?"
"Because you asked me to."
"But why did you come?"
"Garcia, we need to go," Cassi turned to leave but Garcia caught her arm.
"I need to know," she begged, tears forming in her eyes, "the lives of my entire family are in your hands and I need to know what your motives are."
Cassi swallowed uncomfortably, and stepped in closer, "because I owe them a debt that I can never fully repay. And because they've proven to me that there are still good people in the world, and because I have to believe that I can sometimes be one of them."
Garcia took a deep breath, calming her nerves and wiped the tears from her eye, "God, Cass, that better be true."
Cassi smirked and leaned in closer, whispering, "If it wasn't, I would have killed you for involving my son again."
She stepped away, ignoring the shock on Garcia's face. She gave her a wink and a dimpled smile before turning on her heels and climbing up into the helicopter.
Once the helicopter was in the air, Cassi pulled on a headset to be able to hear Mason in the cockpit. Emily and Morgan were watching her every move intently.
"I hope neither of you get airsick," she yelled over the noise, "it's probably gonna get bumpy."
"What's the plan?" Emily yelled back.
"We'll circle the area a few times and see if we can spot them, or at least any signs of them. Then we get in as close as we can and drop down."
"Drop down?" Emily asked nervously and Cassi gave her a smile that did nothing to ease her stomach.
It took them nearly forty minutes to reach the area the plane had supposedly gone down. The weather was starting to turn on them again and the ride in the helicopter was getting pretty turbulent. They watched Mason turn his head, speaking into his headset to Cassi. Cassi turned and yelled over her should at them.
"We're in range," she told them and they all peered out the windows, searching the ground below for anything that would lead them to the plane.
They circled the area for what felt like a lifetime but the ground below held no signs of them.
"Are you positive that this is where they went down?" Cassi finally shouted from the cockpit.
"That's what air traffic control told us," Morgan answered, "they suffered a bird strike and stalled."
"This is where hit the bird or this is where they crashed?"
"I don't know."
"So it's possible they were still in flight when they called in?"
"I guess it's possible."
Cassi swore, "Then we have a much larger area than we thought."
Emily frowned at the revelation that they were probably looking in the wrong spot. They were playing all their cards on the idea of them being within the six miles. Now Cassi and Mason appeared to be in a frantic recalculation that neither she nor Morgan could hear without headsets. The weather was turning on them again and soon they would have to make the choice of going back or risking the search on the ground.
"We're going to try a new search area," Cassi shouted back to them, "We've got about forty-five minutes before this storm gets really bad. You might want to tighten your seatbelts."
Rossi climbed through the small opening in the side of the plane and tossed the new branches he and Kyle had collected on the floor and pulled the makeshift door closed behind him. The storm had died down enough for them to go outside, stretch their achy muscles and collect more wood for their dying fire. The scene outside hadn't changed all that much other than a few feet of snow against the windy side of their shelter. Rossi was happy to tell himself it would only help to stabilize the fuselage and insulate them on that side.
They'd tried contacting Hotch again, but the radio seemed to be completely dead now. They had no way of letting them know where they were, or even that they were still alright. To make things worse, they were all starting to get hungry. JJ had finally fallen asleep while they were out, and Rossi was beginning to worry about her. She hadn't complained about her foot, but he was worried about infection setting in. Reid still seemed to be doing alright, despite the pain he'd voiced in his knee.
Rossi was pulled from his thoughts from the sound of a soft crunching of snow on the other side of the wall near his head. He froze for a second, ears sharp. He heard it again. It had to have been sort of animal walking around outside. He didn't want to alert the rest of them. If it was as big as it sounded, it was probably a bear. The last thing they needed was a hungry Grizzly lurking around.
"Hello?"
The muffled voice caught him by surprise. Reid and Kyle both spun to look in his direction.
"What was that?" Reid asked, "Is there someone outside?"
"Anybody in there?" the voice called louder.
"Hello," Rossi shouted back, startling JJ awake and pushing his way out of the side of the plane.
Right outside their door stood the best thing Rossi could have hoped for, aside from his team. A tall, dark skinned man with a large black hound dog at his side had appeared from nowhere.
"My god man," the man said, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Rossi stuttered, still surprised, "Yeah, we're alright. Who are you?"
"Name's Dan." He pointed to the dog, "That's Dozer"
"How did you find us?" Reid asked, emerging from the plane.
"I was at my hunting cabin about a mile from here. I saw you going down yesterday and started out this way as soon as the weather died down. I didn't expect to find anyone alive.
"Do you have a phone at your cabin?" Rossi asked.
"No electricity up here. It's just a simple place to lay your head while out huntin. Sure beats sleepin in a busted up bush plane though. We better hurry though, the weather looks like it's turnin again."
Dan eyed Reid, who leaned lightly on Kyle for support off of his injured knee as Rossi disappeared back into the plane. Rossi helped JJ slide her way back to the door, since there was no room to stand before ignoring her protest and just lifting her up into his arms.
"I didn't realize there was four of ya," Dan smiled, "usually these things are just full of boxes and a pilot."
He kicked at one of the wet soggy boxes on the ground to emphasize his point, and Rossi groaned as it broke open, covering the man's boot with white powder. Dan stared down at his foot, confused by the substance and Reid shouted out when the dog moved in to sniff it.
"No, Sir, your dog," he said, "don't let him inhale it."
"What the hell?" Dan swore, grabbing the dog's collar and kicking his foot into the snow to rinse off the powder. "Are you drug smugglers? I ain't housing no drug smugglers!"
"No," Reid replied, "No, we aren't drug smugglers. We're FBI Agents."
Reid quickly dug into his back pocket and removed his credentials, flipping it open for him to see. Then to make his point, he unzipped his coat, pointing at the white letters of the Kevlar vest he wore underneath.
"FBI? What the hell are you all doin way out here? Was this a drug bust or something?"
"Yes," Rossi cut off Reid before he could answer. They were running out of time and he really wanted to beat the storm to the cabin, "We were transporting evidence back to Kotzebue when we crashed. Can we please just get ahead of that storm."
"Of course, I'm sorry." Dan nodded, moving around to Reid's other side to help Kyle support him. "You can never be too sure with people and drugs.
Author's Note: And there's chapter 4. I hope you enjoyed it and want to read further. If you do, Let me know! I'm a feedback whore and need it to be motivated!