“Just a little further,” he muttered.

A bullet chipped the bark of a birch tree next to my head, sending white splinters into the air.

The sound of the shot was muffled by the wind, but the threat was clear.

They were right behind us.

Adrian stopped, turning to face the woods below.

He raised his weapon, his arms steady despite the shivering.

He fired three shots into the shadows.

A dark figure forty yards back stumbled and fell into a snowbank.

“Keep moving,” Adrian said, his breath coming in heavy white plumes.

We scrambled over the top of the ridge.

The wind was stronger here, blowing snow across the open field that led to the secondary highway.

Adrian pulled his vibrating phone from his pocket.

The screen was still lit with a message notification.

He looked at it, his jaw tightening.

“What is it?” I asked, my teeth chattering.

“A contact in the city,” he said. “Leo accessed your medical records yesterday.”

My heart sank.

“The clinic,” I whispered. “I went to the clinic in the suburbs last week. I used my real name.”