“We are not gonna freeze to death.” Ray looked up toward the ceiling. “I can block off those vents up there. It’ll be cold. I’ll grant you that. But we can make it ’til tomorrow afternoon.”

“Afternoon? What time does Luke show up for work?”

“I told him to be in around eleven.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Great management there, Ray. Top notch.”

“Noon at the latest.”

“Noon?”

“Unless he doesn’t get himself a bear.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then he might not come in at all.”

She stared at him, speechless. Ray ignored her and tried the door, hitting it hard with his hip. It shuddered but stayed shut. He grabbed one of the long beef hooks—the closest thing he had to a pry bar—and tried to wedge it between the door jamb and the metal door.

If it had been the new aluminum kind, it would have bent like a tin can, but this thing was heavy, solid steel, more bank safe than freezer. Of course, if it had been one of the new freezers, it would have a latch on the inside.

“No luck?” Ariana shivered, looking over his shoulder.

“If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any.” Ray gave up, swinging the beef hook idly as he looked around the freezer, assessing. He squinted up at the vents in the ceiling and then looked at Ariana, speculative. “Think you could fit through there?”

“Are you crazy?” Ariana blinked, looking between Ray and the vents, about a foot-square each.

He shrugged and tossed the beef hook aside, letting it clatter to the cement floor. “Well then, I guess we’ll have to hunker down and wait it out.”

“I could punch you in the face, Raymond.”

“Go ahead.” Ray jutted his chin out like an offering. “Hit me. At least that’s something. It’s better than twenty years of pretending.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Pretending you don’t hate me.”

“I hate you?” Ariana said, incredulous. She turned away from him, nudging the rubber flaps aside so she could get to the door, pounding on it with her fists. “Help! Help! Someone help us!”

She tried to twist away from the vice grip Ray had on her shoulders, pulling her back into the room.

“That’s not helping.”

Ariana panted, out of breath. “Well it’s more than you’re doing!”

“Look, we have to stay calm.” Ray turned her toward him, meeting her eyes. Ariana blinked back tears. “We’re going to be okay. Do you hear me?”

She nodded, teeth chattering, looking like she wanted to believe him.

“What are we going to do?”

Ray let her go and looked around, his lips thinning as he considered their options. “I’ve got butcher paper, tons of plastic wrap. We can keep ourselves warm if we have to until someone comes.”

“I can’t believe this is happening.” Ariana turned in slow circles, hugging herself close, eyes wild. “I can’t do this.”

Ray crossed his arms, leaning back against the butcher block. “I don’t want to be stuck in here with you either.”

She stared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ve been coming in here for what? Ten, fifteen years?” He asked the question, but they both knew just how long it had been. “Most days, you don’t even look at me. Don’t ever speak to me. I’m just another one of your hired help.”

“No. That’s not it. You...it’s you who—”

“What?” Ray stepped in a little closer. “You want to blame me for something?”

“I thought you hated me.”

“Really?”

“Don’t rush to say I’m wrong or anything.”

“Why would I hate you?” Ray asked.

“I think you know.”

“I’ve never hated you, Ariana. Not ever.” He shook his head. “Not even on the day I saw your engagement announcement.”

Ariana looked at the floor. “I was eighteen, Ray,” she said softly. “I was a kid.”

“So was I.”

Ariana looked away and shivered, hugging herself, focusing again on the door. “There’s really no way out of here?”

“That’s my girl, always looking for a way out.”

“Your girl?” Ariana’s eyebrow went up, but so did the corner of her mouth, almost a smile.

“Trust me, there’s no way out.” Ray looked at the vents again. “Besides the door, that’s it, and you’re right—even you couldn’t fit through those.”

“What about this other door?” Ariana avoided the butcher block as she went around Ray, heading for the back of the cooler. There were four hanging deer carcasses on hooks on one side of the freezer, their dead eyes filmy and vacant. The other side was lined with sides of beef, the ribs stark white curves of bone.

Ray grabbed her arm, yanking her back. “That’s not an exit.”

“What’s in there?”

“Just more freezer.” He steered her away, back toward the butcher block.

“I’m cold.”

“Here.” Ray grabbed an old Carhart coat off a hook and put it around her shoulders.

Ariana eased down against the wall and Ray sat beside her.

“There is a bright side,” he said.

“I’d love to hear it.”

“I keep the temperature at a steady thirty-seven degrees Fahrenheit.”

“So?”

“That means it’s warmer in here than outside.”

Ariana laughed. “You always were an optimist. Remember what I used to call you?”

“Mr. Sunshine.” Ray actually blushed.

“You were my happy golden boy. It’s funny. When I think of you back then, in high school I mean...when I picture you it’s always with that big shit-eating grin on your face.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“I didn’t think you still thought of me.”

“How could you say that?”

Ray shrugged.

“Those were such sweet times, Ray. Perfect times. That feeling that we could do anything we wanted. I felt...weightless. Sometimes, I think about them, and I can’t even breathe.”

“I probably shouldn’t say this but... well the only thing I ever really wanted in my whole life was you.”

She nudged him gently with her shoulder.

“It’s true. I was only ever happy because of you. You made my life worth living. Made me feel there was something more than just...this.” He gestured to the chorus of carcasses hanging all around them.

“My life hasn’t exactly been a work of art.”

“If I’d had the guts to come after you...” He hesitated, swallowed. “What would you have said?”

“Honestly? I don’t know, Ray. You and I...we didn’t really turn into people who take what they want, you know?”

“Yeah.”

Someone knocked on the freezer door—a slow, heavy pounding.

Ariana jumped up and ran to it.

“Help! We’re in here! Open up!”

The pounding continued, but something was wrong. It wasn’t coming from the door that led out into the shop. Someone was knocking on the inside of the other door, the one that led to more freezer.

Ariana looked at Ray. “Who’s in there?”

“Sometimes a hunter brings in a kill, and it’s not quite as dead as it looks.” He stood as Ariana moved toward the other door.

“You’re telling me there’s a live deer in there?”

“It happens.” Ray took two strides, bringing him around the table, standing between Ariana and the door. “Best just to leave it.”

“What if it’s hurt?”

Ray snorted. “It’s just meat, Ariana.”

“Well, shouldn’t we put it out of its misery or something?”

“Ever been kicked by a big buck?” he asked. “Blow to the head could kill a man.”

The pounding continued, steady, rhythmic, loud. And then there was a scream, high-pitched and keening.

“What the hell?” Ray exclaimed.

Startled, they both turned to face the door, Ariana staring at Ray with wide eyes.

“That doesn’t sound like a deer,” she whispered. “What else could it be?”

He shrugged. “They make all sorts of noises in their death throes.”

“I’ve lived with hunters all my life. I know what a dying deer sounds like.” She cocked her head at the silence.

Then the pounding came again, frantic this time, along with that guttural scream.

“We have to do something!” The door had the same latch as the one outside. Ariana grabbed it and pulled.