Death Cache (15 page)

“Like you were ever going to come back to me with
him
around.” Robert jerked his thumb at Gage.

“Got that right, asshole,” Gage added.

“Gage, this is hardly the time for that.”

He let his smile shine through.

The door swung opened and Mac entered. “What’s taking you guys…oh. Hell, you never know from one minute to the next what’s going to happen on this competition of ours.” Mac threw Robert the rest of his clothes that had been tossed on the floor. “Get dressed. We have visitors.”

“The plane?” Nadia gasped, her eyes wide with surprise.

“No. Wolves.”

C
HAPTER
F
OURTEEN

“Seriously?” Tern swiveled for the door.

“You aren’t going out there.” Gage grabbed her arm and kept her from running out.

“I’m not going to miss the opportunity to see wolves in the wild. Where’s my camera? My nephew Fox would love to see this.”

“Tern, love,” Mac said. “These wolves are probably the ones that helped dispose of Lucky’s body. Most likely they followed the scent of his blood and decided to steal into camp. They aren’t to be messed with.”

Tern swallowed over the picture Mac had just drawn for her. “I’m not ignorant of the kind of predators they are. I wanted to see them, not pet them.”

“Could have fooled me,” Gage muttered.

“Enough gabbing,” Robert said, who was finally dressed. “We need to declare this camp our territory or the wolves will take it over.” Robert grabbed his gun.

“He’s right,” Mac said. “We’ve got to show them who the alphas are around here.” He nodded at Gage and Robert. “Girls, stay here.”

He opened the door and the three men walked out.

“
Girls?
” Tern repeated. She was getting sick of that. “Are you serious?”

Apparently. The door shut behind them, not letting her catch a glimpse of their visitors. Tern had her hand on the knob, twisting it when Nadia clutched her arm.

“Tern, please don’t go out there.”

“But, Nadia—”

“Please, I just had sex with Robert. Doesn’t that bother you?”

Tern had trouble switching gears. Did it bother her? Kinda. Yes. No, not really. “Nadia, I understand why you did it. You’re upset over Lucky and you needed to feel alive.” Not something she’d ever think to do, she hoped, but it fell under Psych 101 stuff.

Nadia nodded. “Yeah, that must have been it. I’m sorry. It just sort of…happened.”

Just stay away from Gage
, Tern wanted to threaten, but because the need to say it was so strong, she stayed quiet.

There was a repeat of a rifle being fired.

“That’s it. I’m not waiting inside here like a kid.” Tern swung open the door and almost took a step back.

The men were facing off a pack of wolves. Wolves that didn’t seem intimidated by their ‘alpha stance’ or sound of the rifle going off.

There were seven timber wolves in all. The one in front—black with tips of gray, his eyes obsidian pools—was gorgeous, and obviously in charge. Tern would have made a dive into Robert’s stuff, looking for a camera, if not for the fact that the wolves weren’t budging from their position. They continued their face off with the men. Gage and Mac raised their hands and hollered, but didn’t seem to impress the wolves one bit. In fact, the wolves advanced farther into camp, snarling, their black gum contrasting against white sharp teeth.

Mac fired a warning shot right in front of the leader, who had the smarts to back up and reevaluate. There was growling and lots of teeth gashing. The hair on the back of Tern’s neck rose until finally the alpha wolf howled what sounded like an expletive in wolf speak, and then loped off into the trees, followed by his pack.

One minute they were there, the next it was like they’d vanished into the waves of blowing snow. The only sign was the trail of large paw prints left behind, but as the seconds ticked by, they were quickly covered up too.

“Damn, but that was nerve-wracking,” Robert said, dashing into the cabin. Gage and Mac followed at a slower more watchful pace.

Gage shook the snow from his hair as he entered the small space. He stared at Tern as if the wild from the wolves had seeped into him. The fire reflected in his eyes suddenly heated her from the inside out. Tern could see he wanted to grab her and take her. She banked the answering spark simmering inside her and glanced down at the rough plank floor.

“We really need to get out of here.” Mac sat on the bunk, resting the butt of his rifle between his legs.

“We can’t leave,” Nadia whined once again, curling under the sleeping bag.

Tern couldn’t remember with all that had been happening if Nadia had dressed yet.

“Nadia, I’m not getting into this with you again,” Mac said. “We leave in the morning. Snow or not, we can’t stay here.”

“If we leave we’ll end up like Lucky.” She clutched the sleeping bag tighter around her.

“How do you know that?”

“Lucky complained the loudest yesterday,” she added. “The killer must have been listening, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t want to hike out of here in the snow, and Lord knows what else we’ll encounter. Wolves are out there. The plane will be here in four days. We’re armed. You could have shot those wolves. Why can’t we wait it out?”

“For the very fact that we already have one dead body,” Mac said. “Either the killer is in this room, or he’s waiting for us out there and planning his next move.”

“But—”

“Drop it, Nadia. We leave in the morning.” Mac eyed everyone else in the room. “Anyone else have anything to add?”

“Yeah, any ideas on what are we going to do today?” Robert asked.

“The weather’s already decided that,” Mac said. “I suggest we stand watch in shifts, rest and pack up. Gage and I have already mapped the route out of here. It goes without saying that no one is to be alone. Even on watch, I want teams. I don’t trust anyone. And neither should you.”

“Damn, old man, a bit paranoid?” Robert asked.

“You saw Lucky this morning. You want to be next?”

Robert gulped. “No.”

“Then better heed my advice. I know a thing or two about protection. Now, since you and Nadia are getting along so famously, you two can take the first watch.”

“I don’t want to go first. I just got warmed up,” Nadia complained.

It showed the maturity of the group, or the shock of one of them dead, that no one commented on how Nadia had gotten all ‘warmed up’, Tern thought.

“Dress accordingly,” Mac said with no room for further argument in his voice. He lay down on his bunk and draped his forearm over his eyes. “Holler if you need back up.”

Gage stood. “Tern, I’d like to talk to you.”

Since she didn’t want to spend any more time around Robert or Nadia—still trying to get the image of them humping each other out of her head—she followed Gage to his cabin. She entered behind him, stomping snow off her boots, and came up quick when she realized that Gage and Lucky had been sharing a cabin.

True to form, Lucky’s clothes were everywhere. He had always kept his hiking gear organized and clean, but not his personal items. She slowly walked over to his bunk and picked up one of his fallen flannel shirts. She clutched it in her hands and brought it to her nose, dragging his scent inside her.

God, she was going to miss him.
Tears snuck up on her and settled in her throat. She hugged Lucky’s shirt to her chest and slowly dropped onto his bunk.

“You okay?” Gage asked.

She nodded unable to get words passed the emotions clogging her throat.

“I’m sorry, Tern. I should have thought of how seeing Lucky’s things would affect you before bringing you in here.”

“Why did you bring me here?” Please tell me it wasn’t to follow up on the heated look they had shared earlier. She couldn’t get intimate with Gage. Not now. She believed in life after death, spirits, and at the moment she could swear Lucky was in the room with them. “Who killed him, Gage? Who would have done something like that to him, of all people?”

“I don’t know.” He fisted his hands. “I wish to God I did. But until we do know, please don’t leave my sight.”

She paused before responding. “What?”

He knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. “When we were looking for Lucky’s body, I couldn’t stop worrying about whether you were safe or not. Tern, I couldn’t handle anything happening to you.”

“Let me get this straight. You don’t want me out of your sight, but you don’t want me.”

“I want you, Tern. But I can’t have you.”

Well that made a lot of sense.
“Why?”

Gage glanced away.

“Don’t pull that shit. I can’t take it right now.” She yanked her hands free and grabbed the collar of Gage’s jacket, getting right in his face. “
You
left and never explained why. I get it that you were in jail, but why wasn’t I important enough for you to call? I thought we’d shared something special.”

“We did.” He ran shaky fingers through his hair. “I don’t want to get into it.”

“Too damn bad. You’re going to. Right now, right here. You are finally going to admit what the hell went wrong. What did I do that scared you off?”

“Damn it, Tern.” He covered her hands on his collar of his jacket. “You made me love you, okay? There you have it. Shit.” He yanked out of her grasp and stood.

“Excuse me? Why is loving me so horrible?” She got to her feet, too, not liking him glaring down at her from his full height.

“I don’t want to love you. And you, you’re…
too much
.”

“Huh?”

“You’re too much for me,” he repeated. “Too much woman, too much of everything. If I hadn’t cared so much, being with you wouldn’t be that big of an issue. I’ve made it clear up front with every woman I’ve been with that it was casual, no strings. When I tried to tell you the same thing, I couldn’t get the words out right. And then you would go and do something sexy and my brain would melt.”

“You aren’t making any sense.” Didn’t make his words hurt less, though.

“I know.” He dropped onto his bunk, stared at the floor for a few minutes and then finally met her eyes. “Take a seat. Please.”

Tern sat. He’d said please and besides, her legs were barely holding her up with the shock that he, on one hand
loved
her, and on the other didn’t want to be with her.

“I never told you about my mother.”

Why did it always go back to the mother?

He seemed to take forever as he struggled with his thoughts. She’d got caught up in the chinking pattern between the logs of the cabin by the time he finally spoke.

“My father was an asshole and my mother loved him to distraction. She not only loved him, but in a way, became enslaved by him. It didn’t matter what my father did, she forgave him. If he spent all the money, slept with other women, beat the shit out of her and us, she always forgave him.” He started shaking his head as though he couldn’t believe what his mother had tolerated. “Even though he ran off with our neighbor when I was sixteen, she’s still waiting for him to return to her today. Even prays for it. If he did show up on her doorstep after all these years, I’d have no doubt she’d take him back. Probably wouldn’t even ask for an apology.

“My sister, Rebecca…” He stopped and cleared his throat before starting again. “When I showed up and found her in the hospital, beaten, bloody, and childless, she
begged me
not to hurt Mitch. He’d almost killed her. There was no grieving for her baby. All she was worried about was her asshole of a husband.”

Tern started to see the pattern he was drawing out for her and didn’t like the direction he seemed to be taking.

“When Rebecca came home from the hospital, I left to pick up her prescriptions. Mitch showed up. I think he was watching the house. When I returned, he was inside and Rebecca was attempting to cook him dinner. He’d already hit her once, I didn’t give him a chance to hit her again. You know the rest. While the court threw out the case, labeling his death self-defense, Rebecca never wants to see me again. I saved her life and she blames me for killing her husband.” He rubbed the sides of his stubbled face. “I won’t love like that. I can’t be obsessed with you and that’s where I’m headed. I have to stop loving you, Tern, before loving you ruins me.”

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN

I have to stop loving you before loving you ruins me.

Wow. What did she do with that?

She sat there on Lucky’s bunk feeling like Gage had plunged her into the glacial lake and then held her under. It was hard to catch her breath, if breathing were even possible with her heart ripped out. She loved Gage. Loved him like she’d never cared for another man. That was why his leaving had hurt so badly. She’d take that hurt tenfold over the kind of pain she felt now. How did she comprehend that the man she loved, returned her love, but refused to give into his feelings because he thought she would ruin him?