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also relieve you of your cares? Was this an explanation for the drastic change in Sam’s disposition? It was a theory, anyway.
    “You ready?” he asked. Eve had produced her own gloves from her coat pocket, wriggled into them and raised her hood. “Then let’s move. There’s nothing more here for us.”
    Without waiting for her, he strode ahead through the trees. Snatching up her shoulder bag, Eve hurried after him. All right, she would admit it, at least to herself. Sam McDonough was a remarkable man. He could also be an exasperating one.
    He might have lost his memory, but not the qualities that must have made him an exceptional FBI agent. Like leadership. Or had that simply been built into his character from birth? Either way, he took charge, and as long as he didn’t bark orders at her, Eve let him.
    One thing was evident. Sam was in no way handicapped by either his injury or the amnesia it had produced. Except to check on her at regular intervals to make sure she was okay, he never faltered in his straight, southerly course through the forest, as if certain of their destination. Was it pure instinct, Eve wondered, or did the FBI train its agents in wilderness survival?
    It had stopped snowing shortly after they left the site of the wreckage, which was an advantage as far as seeing through the failing light was concerned. But the fresh powder on top of the accumulation below was not so easy to navigate. At least it wasn’t for Eve, who welcomed the places under the thicker canopies of the evergreens where the white cover was thin.
    The only sound was the crunch of their booted feet as they trudged through the snow. They talked infrequently and only in brief intervals, saving their wind for the trek. Even so, Eve was beginning to tire.
    She was also starting to wonder if this whole thing was madness. Whatever Sam’s easy assurance, maybe they were hunting for something that wasn’t there. Maybe they should have stayed with the plane. Didn’t pilots file flight plans? Yes, of course, they did. And when their plane didn’t arrive at its destination, wouldn’t a rescue team come searching for it?
    But we won’t be there when they find it.
    Eve was about to tell Sam this. She didn’t, because she understood something else then. It could be hours before anyone realized the plane was long overdue and an air search was mounted. And days after that before they located the wreckage, if ever. Long before that, she and Sam would have died of exposure. He was right. They had to find shelter of some kind, even if it was a cave.
    As miserable as tramping through this endless forest was, there was one thing Eve did enjoy. The sight of Sam in front of her with his steady, long-legged gait and erectness of body, almost military in its bearing. Not to mention his tight, sexy backside, what she could see of it, anyway, in that coat.
    She tried to tell herself it didn’t hurt to look, though she knew her interest was a mistake. Another attraction she should be resisting. But she couldn’t seem to help herself.
    Even that sight, however, was no longer entertaining when her legs started to ache and her weariness had her stumbling over half-buried logs and rocks. Fearing that darkness would overtake them out here, Eve was about to break their silence and ask him just how much farther he expected them to travel when he halted abruptly.
    “Look,” he said, moving aside so she could see his discovery.
    Light just through the trees! The last of daylight that seemed bright after the gloom of the forest. It had to be a clearing, maybe not natural, maybe man-made. And that could mean some form of civilization.
    It did disclose itself as a form of civilization when they reached it a moment later. But it was no longer occupied and hadn’t been in years, probably even decades.
    Eve could see in the fading light that the once-sizable clearing was being reclaimed by the forest. Young pine trees were everywhere in the tall, dry weeds that