Fifteen years later
Fifteen years laterTwo days of trudging across the Chugach backcountry in a downpour had put Kai in a lousy mood. Now, finally, by some miracle, he’d stumbled across the two teenage girls who’d gotten separated from their outdoor education group. The girls he’d been searching for with barely a break.
Chelsea and Heather, both sixteen, city girls on their own in the Alaska wilderness. They were huddled together in the shelter of a fallen spruce, staring at him with big eyes.
“I’m Kai, I’m here to rescue you,” he said, absurdly, to his mind. Why else would he have trekked through alders and across glacial creeks? The two girls clung even closer together, as if he was Yeti come to life.
Oh, right. He touched his jaw and the two-day growth of beard there. He probably lo
