Chapter 13: Dawn on the Mountain**
The storm passed before sunrise, leaving the world bathed in pristine, untouched white. The morning sun broke over the mountain crest, turning the snowfields into blinding fields of diamond light.
Down on the logging road, the distant sound of heavy diesel engines rumbled through the quiet valley. Jax woke instantly, his hand moving toward his empty pistol before he recognized the sound of a state rescue siren mingling with the roar of a familiar four-barrel carburetor.
Clara’s old pickup pulled into the clearing below, followed closely by two county search-and-rescue snowmobiles. Clara climbed out of the passenger seat, wrapped in a heavy parka, her breath pluming like a steam locomotive.
Jax leaned against the doorframe of the cabin, Toby holding firmly onto his hand. When Clara saw them standing in the doorway, she stopped dead in her tracks, pressed her hands to her mouth, and let out a breathless, sobbing laugh.
"You stubborn old bastard," she called up the slope, tears freezing instantly on her cheeks. "I knew you were too mean to freeze to death."
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Beside her, a paramedic unloaded a stretcher, but Jax shook his head slowly as they approached. With Toby walking proudly beside him, Jax walked down the hill on his own two feet, refusing to let the boy see him fall.
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