Chapter 5

Helen covered the difference at the pharmacy window, waving off my apologies with a quiet shake of her head.

"You pay me back when you have it, Ava," she said, sliding the white paper bag across the truck's bench seat. "Not before."

I gave Sam his dose the moment we got back to the cabin. He sat on the sofa by the woodstove, watching the flames behind the glass door while I heated water for oatmeal.

By midnight, the temperature in the foothills had dropped into the low twenties.

The wind came off the ridge, finding every unsealed gap in…