Operation: Midnight Guardian by Linda Castillo Page A

overwhelmed his need for caution. He walked over to her, set his hands on her shoulders and squeezed gently. “Don’t think about them,” he said.
    “I’m not like you,” she said. “I can’t shut things out.”
    He wanted to tell her he wasn’t so good at it, either, but figured they’d both be better off if he let it go. “We need to keep moving. Find shelter.” He looked up at the slate-gray sky. “From the looks of those clouds, there’s more snow on the way.”
    A humorless laugh broke from her lips. “At least there’s no one shooting at us.”
    For now, Cutter thought, and removed the scrap of paper from his pocket. “I found this.”
    Her eyes flicked down to the paper in his hand. “What is it?”
    “Part of a map.” He unfolded it, taking care not to damage the burned edges.
    “It’s pretty scorched. I don’t see how it’s going to help us.”
    “Scorched, but not completely destroyed.” He set his finger against a circle someone had drawn on the map. “We’re here, near the Canadian border.”
    “Can we get across into Canada?”
    “The border is pretty open and wild. As long as we stay off the roads and away from bridges we should be all right.”
    Her eyes widened as realization set in. “There’s a town just a few miles away! We can get to a phone—”
    “Six miles to the north, Mattie. It will be a tough hike to say the least. But if we hustle we can make it before dark.”
    “We can do it.”
    “We haven’t eaten. We don’t have gear or clothing.”
    “Cutter, I can do it.” Newfound determination hardened her voice. “I’ll do anything to stop this nightmare. I’ll do even more to prove I’m innocent.”
    Staring into her pretty eyes, he didn’t have the heart to tell her that she might never get the chance.
     
    MATTIE WAS NO STRANGER to physical exhaustion. In the past forty-eight hours she had become intimately familiar with its every facet. But the trek to Silver Lake, a small ski town in the Canadian province of Alberta, took her beyond exhaustion to a whole new level of misery. Several times, she considered giving up.Just lying down in the snow and letting hypothermia take her to a place where she didn’t have to hurt. Only the hope of clearing her name and getting her life back kept her going.
    And Sean Cutter.
    For the first time since their ordeal had begun, he talked to her. Not as a federal agent, but person to person. He encouraged her. He held her hand when she needed it. He egged her on when all she wanted to do was collapse. He carried her when she finally dropped.
    They reached Silver Lake at dusk. It was like stepping into a Bavarian wonderland. Christmas lights adorned ornate streetlamps. Yellow light slanted through the mullioned windows of the storefronts, cafes and shops along the main street.
    Mattie took it all in with a weary sense of awe. “I can’t believe we made it,” she said as they stepped onto the cobblestone sidewalk.
    Cutter shot her a smile, touched her shoulder. “You did good, Mattie.”
    “I want to take a bath. I want to eat a six-course meal and sleep for a week.”
    “I’ll settle for a bed and clean sheets.”
    “Speaking of.” She pointed to a Tudor style bed and breakfast just off the main street.
    “Let’s hope they have a vacancy,” he said.
    It did not elude Mattie that Cutter kept looking over his shoulder or that his eyes continuously scanned the cars moving along the street and the tourists walking the sidewalks. She knew there was a possibility that The Jaguar or some of his men had followed them here. But she was so exhausted, both physically and emotionally, that she didn’t have the energy to care.
    The clerk greeted them with a halfhearted smile when they entered the bed and breakfast. “Welcome to the Chateau Maurier.”
    Mattie arched a brow when Cutter spoke to him in fluent French. “What did he say?” she asked.
    Cutter grimaced. “They have one room. One bed.”
    It gave her pause, but