Death Cache (11 page)

“Why didn’t you marry him?”

“Dang it, Mac. Why do we need to go into that?”

“Motivation, love. Now give it up.”

She huffed out a breath. “He’s too clingy, I guess you could say. I couldn’t go anywhere without him needing to know where and why and with whom. It got old. Plus, the chemistry while in the beginning was okay, by the end it was forced.”

“You stuck it out for his kid.”

She nodded. “I fell in love with her, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t love Robert. He’s too controlling, and—” She broke off the rest of what she was going to say because she didn’t like where her thought process took her.

“And?”

Of course, Mac wasn’t going to let it go. “He knows about the gold.”

“Ahh.” Mac stood. “Does Nadia?”

“No.”

“Gage?”

“No. You know I don’t like people to know since they treat me differently.”

“Does Gage know the story behind your father’s death?”

“We never got that far.” Tern looked down at her hands. She really needed a manicure. It was easier to concentrate on that than the past and all she and her family had lost at the hands of a killer.

“How far did you and Gage get?”

“I thought I loved him. He didn’t feel the same.”

“What happened?”

“No. No, I’m not getting into it. All you need to know is that he left, and I haven’t seen him in six months.”

“Did he have opportunity to set this up?”

“I don’t know.You know as much as I do of where he’s been. I haven’t talked to him, or seen him. Nothing in six months, okay.”

“It’s all right, Tern. Settle down.”

“Don’t do that. You started this. Don’t get all ‘adult’ on me when it makes me upset.”

“Fine.”

“Plus, Gage doesn’t have any motivation to do all this. Why would he?
He
left
me
, remember.”

“Then we need to look at the rest of your life. People you might have upset, unwittingly. Someone who is jealous of you.”

“I can’t do this anymore, Mac.” Her hold on her emotions was tenuous at best. If he kept chipping away at her, making her think things she couldn’t comprehend about the people she loved, she was going to break apart.

“All right, we’ll take a break. But I need you to be thinking who in your life, either someone here, or someone back in Fairbanks, who might—and I don’t care how ridiculous you think it sounds—have set this up. I think you’re in real danger here, Tern.”

Of course, the first person Tern saw when she and Mac returned to camp was Gage. His gaze held hers until she had to look away, but not before she caught the tightening of his jaw and narrowing of his eyes. Nadia had emerged from the cabin and sat around the campfire looking pale and tired. Lucky fidgeted around her and seemed to be pissing her off.

“Where’s Robert?” Mac asked.

Gage nodded his head toward the cabin. “Taking a nap.”

“Still?” Mac lowered his rifle to rest at his feet as he took a seat by Gage.

Gage shrugged, looked from Mac to Tern and then into the flames he was poking with a stick. He must have moved the pans farther away from the heat of the fire that he’d built up to combat the lower temperature.

She pulled her sleeve on her hoodie down over her hand, using it as a sort of hot pad and took off the lid to the ptarmigan. She needed to thank Gage for watching over the meal. The bird was ready to serve, and since she’d been gone so long with Mac it could have been overcooked and then inedible. They didn’t have the luxury of heading down to the corner market or calling for takeout if dinner was ruined.

“Is that all there is?” Lucky asked, peering over her shoulder.

“I have some greens that I gathered, and a little leftover rice.” Lucky’s vegetarian diet was going to suffer. There weren’t any protein substitutes handy. He’d have to go to the source in order to keep his strength up.

“Any cheese left?”

“Sorry, no. We ate the last of that for lunch. I know this goes against your beliefs, but you’ll need to compromise if we’re going to hike out of here.”

“Bad idea,” Nadia spoke up. “We really need to stay here. I can’t hike down the mountain. Not with this humongous headache.”

Tern and Mac shared a look. Mac obviously had taken in Nadia’s pallor and sunken eyes and thought the same thing she had.

“You’re right, Nadia,” Mac said. “We’ll give you another day to rest and then reassess the situation.”

“What?” Lucky asked. “Listen, we need to leave tomorrow. The sooner we get back to civilization, and some tofu, the better.”

“The rest of us can find food with what we can hunt,” Mac said. “But if you’re going to stick to plant food, Leroy, you won’t make it out of here.”

Tern could feel an argument heating up between the-meat-and-potatoes kind of guy and tofu-and-nut kind. “Mac, would you fetch Robert so we can eat? The food is ready.”

Mac wanted to stay and drill into Lucky the stupidity of his choices, but he grabbed his rifle and trekked to the cabin to get Robert.

“Nice save,” Gage commented, giving her a small smile.

“Thanks.” Tern didn’t like the way he was looking at her. It was like before, when she’d thought he loved her, wanted to be with her forever. All soft and appreciative with a hint of I-can’t-wait-to-get-you-naked. He must have realized it, because he tightened his lips and stood, putting distance between them.

Mac returned to the group. “Robert’s gone.”

C
HAPTER
T
EN

“Gone?” Tern asked, rising to her feet. “What do you mean Robert’s gone?”

“As in not in his cabin.” Mac turned to the three who had been in camp while she and Mac had been down by the lake.

“Did anyone see him leave? Head to the latrine?”

Nadia shook her head and then had to grab it. “No,” she muttered, her voice clenched with pain. “I’d just gotten out here before you two showed. I haven’t seen Robert since before I laid down.”

“I was watching over Nadia,” Lucky added.

They all turned to Gage. “Hey, I didn’t do anything to him. After you two headed down to the lake, he headed toward the cabin. If he left, I never heard or saw him.” His tone clearly said he wouldn’t miss the man either.

“Shit,” Mac said. “I told everyone not to leave camp and never to go anywhere alone.”

“Which is probably why he left.” Tern laid a comforting hand on Mac’s arm. The muscles under her fingers were tense and bunched. “He doesn’t like taking orders.”

“Well, pissy for him. He’s going to get himself killed.” Mac swept the clearing with his eagle eyes. “No one’s got his back out there. If there is someone pulling the strings, he’s on his own.”

“Unless, he’s the puppet master,” Gage said.

Nadia sucked in her breath, a hand covering her mouth.

“Oh, come on,” Tern scoffed. “Robert wouldn’t be behind this. He has a daughter.”

“So did Ted Bundy,” Nadia said.

“She’s got a point,” Lucky said. “Just because Robert has a little girl doesn’t mean he isn’t a killer. He admitted to killing his friends in high school.”

“It was an accident,” Tern reminded. “One that you had the misfortune to experience yourself.”

“He’d admitted to drinking,” Lucky said.

“Drinking and driving, while stupid on so many levels, is not premeditated.”

“Might as well be if you ask me,” Lucky muttered.

“All right, enough,” Gage said. “Are we going to go after him?”

“We have no idea what direction he went,” Lucky said. “I’ve seen what happens when people go off searching for some idiot in a horror movie.” He ran his finger across his throat.

This was starting to feel like a horror movie.

“There he is!” Tern pointed with relief at Robert as he came out of the trees, carrying a white bucket by the handle.

Everyone started talking at once, except Mac. Robert entered the circle around the campfire.

“You are a fucking dumbass,” Mac said. “What were you thinking of heading out there alone?” Mac pointed to the dark forest that Robert had emerged from. “You have a daughter. You have no business risking your life.”

“Back off, old man.” Robert looked at the rest of the worried faces and settled on Tern’s. “I went looking for another of the caches listed. Sweetheart, you gotta see what I found.” He set the bucket down. It was a standard five gallon bucket that someone would store flour or sugar in.

Robert popped the lid off.

Tern gasped as the contents were exposed.

C
HAPTER
E
LEVEN

Tern squealed. Chocolate. Better than that, Almond Joys. Coconut and almonds drenched in chocolate. She reached her hand into the bucket to grab a candy bar.

“Stop!” Mac barked. “Don’t touch them. They could have been tampered with.” He reached for the bucket. “Hand me that.”

“Oh, come on,” Robert scoffed. “You seriously going to inspect a bunch of Almond Joys, like a
parent
with a bag of Halloween candy?”

“Yes.” Mac’s glare dared Robert to argue with him. “And what the hell were you thinking, leaving camp
alone
when I gave everyone orders not to?”

“Last I knew I had rights, and you have no right to order me shit.”

Mac clenched his fist around the handle of the bucket. Any minute now he was going to haul off and plant it in Robert’s face. Tern thought he was justified and took a step back.

“This isn’t helping anything.” Gage was the voice of reason. “Robert, you’re being an ass. Mac, inspect that candy because if it’s fine, I want a few.”

“Me too,” Lucky said, licking his lips. “And I don’t even like coconut.”

“I’d kill for some chocolate,” Nadia added, smiling in obvious anticipation.

Tern was glad to see Nadia crack a smile. The tension between Robert and Mac lessened a tad, though she knew any spark would light it up again.

Mac dumped out the chocolate bars onto the rough, makeshift table they’d been using to prepare food, and carefully inspected each commercially wrapped candy bar. While he did that, Tern served up dinner to the rest, hoping that feeding Robert would also help soothe his temper.

“Wow, Tern.” Gage swallowed a bite of her ptarmigan. “This is five-star restaurant quality.”

“Uhmm…thanks,” she mumbled, not knowing how to take the compliment when they’d been slinging barbs at each other most of the time. She was much more comfortable in that role than one of appreciation. If he started being nice to her now, she’d be a goner, and she hated women who fell back into love with deadbeats.

“It
is
really good,” Nadia added, her color looking better.

Tern handed her the mug of willow tea she’d reheated from earlier. “Drink another cup of this.”

“Do I have to, Mom?” Nadia asked in whiny child’s voice.

“If you want dessert.”

Nadia rolled her eyes and then shut them as pain crossed her face. She reached out a shaky hand for the mug. “Gimme.”

Mac sat next to Tern and picked up the plate she’d made for him. She raised brows, and everyone else waited with baited breath for Mac’s verdict, except Robert who shoveled food into his mouth and still had a pissed off expression tainting his face.

“The candy seems safe,” Mac announced.

“Woohoo,” Tern said, with a beaming smile. She’d been too long without chocolate. It hadn’t been that long since they’d left Fairbanks, but it seemed like forever.

“I don’t like it though,” Mac continued.

“Neither do I,” Gage added.

“Hell, what
do
the two of you like?” Robert muttered, shaking his head.

“Let’s not do this again.” Tern set down her plate, no longer hungry. At Gage’s expectant look, she handed him her leftovers.

“Am I the only one who hates being ordered around?” Robert scanned the group, settling on Lucky. “What about you, Lucky? You enjoy being bossed around?”