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flickered to life, lifting the darkness enough to move around.
    “Please tell me you’ve got an underground tunnel or powered heaters or something,” he asked Tag as he kicked out of his boots and wondered if he’d look like an idiot if he left on his snow pants and parka. How did people live in this godforsaken frozen wilderness? His face was still numb.
    Justice looked at Tag like he was praying the man would say yes to Ian’s question. Instead, Tag rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve got both of those, plus a spaceship to fly us up, up, and away.” He finished by muttering, “Assholes,” as Ian spotted an indoor bathroom.
    Okay, well, that was something.
    The rumbling eased, and when it finally stopped, Tag strode over to the fireplace, swiped his fingers over a stone midway up the chimney, and a panel slid open. With a few flips of switches, the outside monitors came on. Two of them, anyway.
    Ian was pretty damned impressed with how prepared Tag and his cabin both were. Calm, cool, and collected in the face of a natural disaster. Not so much when facing his past, though, but Ian couldn’t exactly blame him.
    “Looks like a couple of the cameras are casualties,” Tag said. “But the good news is that the avalanche only sideswiped us.” He hit a few more switches around the room, and the metal shutters on the windows slid open. The ones in the front were clear, but snow completely obscured the windows in the rear of the house.
    “I need to check the damage outside,” Tag said, then rounded on Ian. “But first, you gonna tell me what the fuck you’re doing here?”
    He gestured at Justice. “You wanna tell me what he’s doing here?”
    Glaring at Ian, Justice took a possessive step toward Tag, all hackles raised and ready for a fight. “He called me, dickwad.”
    “And it’s something I shouldn’t have done,” Tag snapped. Ian smirked, but he didn’t have time to get cocky because, in an instant, Tag was in his face again. “Did you bring Itor? Are they waiting for your signal to attack?”
    “I’m on the run from them too, Tag.”
    Tag snorted. “You think I’m going to believe anything you say? You’re a Seducer. You’re trained to lie.”
    “He’s a fucking Excedo and Seducer?” Justice’s eyes were wide, a healthy dose of respect and a little edge of holy motherfucker in his tone. “Jesus Christ, Tag. How could you be so stupid?”
    “He’s not stupid,” Ian growled, not willing to let the man who’d wrecked Tag do any more damage. “I’m just really goddamned good at my job.”
    “Yeah.” Tag’s voice was laced with sarcasm. “You should be so proud.”
    Ouch. “I’m sorry—”
    “Fuck sorry!” Tag yelled. “I spent a year in hell because of you. Do you have any idea what Itor did to me? Do you know what they made me do?”
    Ian knew some of it, had done his best to check up on Taggart when he could, but ultimately, as a mercenary and not an actual Itor employee, Ian wasn’t high on the chain of command, and access to information had been scarce at best. Not to mention the fact that his variety of jobs meant he was rarely even on the same continent as Tag at any given time.
    “I tried to help,” he said. “I swear, I didn’t want that for you. That’s why I’m here. I thought you were dead after the ACRO attack. Itor is starting to pick up the pieces, and when they learned you were alive, they came to me. Told me to locate you. I used their resources to throw them off the track—I couldn’t let them know I’d known the entire time where you’d be. I planned other routes so they’d find those and I could keep your locale safe. And I intend to.”
    “By coming here and letting Itor follow,” Justice added.
    Ian ignored him. “Tag, I only came here to warn you. To get you someplace safe.”
    “Fuck this,” Justice said. “He’s lying, and he probably led Itor to the doorstep.” He raised the pistol, leveling it at Ian’s chest. “Let’s put his carcass