Death Cache (23 page)

Robert also knew about the arctic tern her dad had carved for her.

He knew about the gold.

Then again, he couldn’t get his hands on it unless they were married.

He hadn’t taken her rejection of his proposal well either, and the whole time she’d been dating Gage, Robert had found excuses to ‘pop’ into her shop. He’d used Chloe the most, which was inexcusable. Especially because it worked, the manipulative bastard. Robert had also returned unharmed from finding the geocache full of Almond Joys. He was talented with a knife, and could have easily stolen Nadia’s sleeping pills and planted them in the coffee. He’d been alone in their cabin that first night when she’d returned from her walk by the lake.

Could Robert have taken the pills?

She shook as the possibilities added up. Had she misjudged him so much?

Nadia brushed her shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”

Oh God, Robert was right behind Nadia.

Would he target her next? Tern flicked a glance at Robert, who held hers without any problem. She was the first to turn away. It hurt looking at him. She’d made love with this man. Had contemplated making a life with him, having his children. Where had she gone so wrong in her estimation of people? She used to be a good judge of character. But then she’d also fallen in love with a man who was afraid loving her would ruin him.

She gave Nadia a jerky nod and continued forward as though she was fine.

What did she do?

She had to get Nadia away from Robert, but if she let on that she knew Robert was behind this then what reasons would he have to continue the game? As long as they were ‘playing’ they were still alive. If she were him and he figured out she was onto him, Gage would be the next to go.

Gage was the biggest threat physically. It made sense that he would be the next target, and then Nadia, leaving Tern for last. For some reason Robert wanted her to suffer. But how did he figure to get out of this without the authorities coming after him?

Easy. Alaska.

How many people had lost their lives in the back country of Alaska? Too many to count. Most were never found, thanks to the huge population of predators. All Robert had to do was leave their bodies out for the unfriendlies to dispose of.

What a brilliant plan. He had the skills and the strength to survive out here on his own for a long time. Yeah, he was bitching about being hungry, but he was a hunter. He could pick up dinner in the same amount of time it would take him to have a pizza delivered in town if he wanted.

She needed to get Nadia away from him and warn Gage.

How did she do that when Robert—rifle in hand—hiked behind them all?

“Seriously, Gage,” Nadia whined. “I need a bathroom.”

Gage stopped. “Fine.” He turned to face the little group and was immediately arrested by the fear in Tern’s gaze. She stared at him as though trying to convey a message.

“We’ll break here,” he said, moving closer to Tern and glancing around the area. They were still in the woods though the trees had thinned. It was as good a place to rest for a minute as any, he figured. “Anyone else need to go?”

Tern shook her head.

“Hell, I might as well,” Robert said.

Gage glanced at his watch. “You have five minutes.”

“Might take me longer than five minutes to take a shit.” Robert chuckled at his joke as he traipsed off into the trees.

Nadia went in the opposite direction and Tern’s shoulders slumped.

“You figured something out,” Gage said.

Tern waited until Nadia and Robert were out of earshot, and then stepped closer to him until their chests were almost touching. He couldn’t help from reaching out and putting his hands on the sides of her hips. It was an immediate reaction, and he hated that it seemed so natural.

“I think I know who the killer is,” she whispered. The words had him letting go of her and tightening his hold on his gun.

“Who?” He surveyed the surrounding trees.

“I think it’s Robert.” She bit her lip.

He narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“He had opportunity and motive.”

“Explain.” She had his full attention now.

“He’s the jealous sort. He hated Lucky and didn’t warm to Mac. He also knew about the arctic tern my dad carved for me and where I kept it.”

“What does he have against you?”

“Since I wouldn’t marry him, I think he’s out to make me suffer. He’s always had a temper. He was alone in my cabin the first night when I returned. He could have found Nadia’s sleeping pills. He could have easily drugged himself after he killed Mac…” She had to pause and swallow over Mac’s name.

Gage knew every time Tern said his name she saw his dead body and it hurt her all over again.

“The guy was really wigged out about sleeping next to a dead man,” Gage added, playing devil’s advocate. “It was like he had some kind of phobia of dead people.”

“It could have been an act,” she suggested.

He nodded. It sure as hell could have been.

Whistling announced Robert’s return. Gage studied him as he ambled out of the shadows of black spruce.

“What?” Robert stopped and checked his fly.

“Where’s Nadia?” Tern asked, stepping in the direction Nadia had taken. “She should be back by now too.”

“You know girls,” Robert said. “They take forever.”

A gunshot spilt the air, followed by Nadia’s piercing scream.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
F
OUR

They rushed in the direction of Nadia’s scream.

“If she can scream, she’s alive,” Gage hollered as they hurried.

Unless she was bleeding out from a gunshot wound and dying this very minute. Tern tried to dispel the image before panic overtook her.

Robert’s heavy footsteps echoed like death drums behind her. A bullet ricocheted off the tree she passed.

“Get down!” Gage yelled.

Robert tackled her from behind. The breath in her body whooshed out as she hit the ground with Robert’s heavy weight on top of her.

“Tern!” Gage swiveled mid-step, dropping to the ground. “Tern?”

“F-fine,” she choked out.

Another gunshot penetrated the earth too close to them, dirt spraying them in the face.

“Son of a fucking bitch.” Robert continued to swear a blue streak on top of her.

Gage scuttled backward on his stomach to her and Robert, his .30-06 at his shoulder pointed in the direction of the bullets. “Nadia!” he hollered.

There was no answer.

“No, no, no,” Tern cried, struggling to buck Robert off her back. “Let me up!”

“Shh!” Robert settled more heavily until she could only drag in air by short, choppy breaths.

Gage scooted until he lay beside them, his finger on the trigger of his rifle, ready to shoot anything that flinched.

Then she heard it, a shuffling of brush, breaking of twigs. Thin birch branches bent, their leaves rustling against each other like sandpaper.

Nadia scurried from the forest, skidding to a stop in surprise at Gage’s rifle aimed at her. Her eyes widened, becoming huge disks.

“Oh, thank God,” Tern breathed out, dropping her head onto the damp earth.

“Someone’s shooting at us,” Nadia said, her chest heaving. “Are you shooting? Why are you shooting? You could have hit me!”

Gage reached up and pulled Nadia to the ground. “I haven’t fired a damn shot.”

“Who then?” Nadia asked, her voice trembling.

Gage didn’t bother to answer. He looked at Tern, Robert still covering her body with his. “You hit?”

“No,” Tern said.

“Yes,” Robert said, rolling off Tern and grunting in pain. “I’ve been hit.”

“What?” Tern crawled over Robert where he lay next to her. His eyes were closed, his face pale, and his shoulder and sleeve were covered in blood. “Oh, no.”

“How bad?” Gage asked.

“Hurts like a son of a bitch.” Robert gasped.

“How bad?” Gage repeated.

“I don’t fucking know,” Robert gritted out.

“Well, if you can bitch, you can’t be hurt that bad. Put pressure on it. We’ve got to get out of here. Come on.” Gage inched back in the brush, staying close to the trees, keeping his head down.

The rest of them followed suit. When they reached a large outcropping of boulders, Gage took cover, propping his rifle on the rock, and peered over.

Tern helped Robert lean against the stone shield, biting back her worry at the blood staining his left sleeve.

Nadia sidled up between her and Gage, taking in Robert. “Is it bad?”

“Of course it’s bad. I took a fucking bullet!”

Tern flicked open her pocketknife and cut into the wet, sticky flannel of Robert’s sleeve, then used her hands to tear the material up to the shoulder seam, revealing torn, bloody flesh. She sagged with relief, falling back on her haunches. “It’s only a flesh wound.”

“Sure as hell doesn’t feel like a flesh wound.” Robert grimaced as Tern probed around the area. “Son of a bitch. Shit.”

“Everyone, quiet,” Gage whispered, peaking over the boulder again. They hushed, and Tern strained until she swore she heard her own pulse thunder. After a nerve-wracking few minutes, Gage relaxed his hold on the trigger of his rifle and stared at Nadia. “We were being shot at from the direction that you relieved yourself.”

“Yeah, so?”

“What do you think?”

“You can’t be serious,” Nadia scoffed.

“Gage, Nadia wouldn’t—”

“Tern, stay out of this.” His eyes didn’t stray from Nadia. Silenced ticked by until Nadia yanked her pistol free of her waistband.

Tern gasped. Robert swore, and Gage pinned Nadia with his rifle. “Drop it.”

“Damn it, I was just going to hand it to you, you freaking idiot. Look at it. Tell me if my gun’s been fired.” Nadia shoved her pistol at Gage with her thumb and forefinger.

He took her gun but didn’t drop his from where it pointed at her chest. He checked her weapon before lowering his rifle. “Her gun hasn’t been fired.” But he didn’t sound convinced. “Got an explanation for the bullets ceasing once you showed up?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Don’t have a clue.”

“That’s enough,” Tern said, expelling the breath she didn’t realize she’d held.

“Right.” Robert swallowed. “I’m bleeding to death here.”

Tern focused on what she could do something about. “Does anyone have any bandages? Disinfectant?”

“Check my backpack, I’ve got a t-shirt that I haven’t worn,” Gage said. “It’s about as good as I think we can do right now.” He handed Nadia her pistol back.

“I’ve got some water left,” Nadia said, taking her gun and sliding it back in the waistband of her jeans and grabbing her water bottle.

“We’ll need to sterilize it,” Tern said.

“Not here.” Gage glanced around the enclosed area. “It’ll have to wait. This is a good place to ambush us.”

“The wound needs to be wrapped, Gage,” Tern said.

“Yeah,” Robert added. “Plus, I don’t feel like hiking another hundred miles,”

“You’d rather be dead?”

“Let’s calm down,” Tern said.

“Tern, wrap his arm with the sleeve you cut off his shirt.” Gage surveyed the area. “Let’s get moving. We’ll stop as soon as we find a place where we aren’t so trapped.”

“Shit,” Robert grumbled. Tern did as Gage said, slicing his sleeve into smaller strips and using it to tie around the wound. “Fuck, this hurts.”

“Be a man,” Tern said, though she wanted to swear with him. Just minutes before she was thinking he was the threat. Now she didn’t know what to think.

The man had taken a bullet for her.

If Robert hadn’t thrown her to the ground, she’d be the one with a bullet hole right now. She’d be dead.

Tern finished doctoring up Robert with shaky hands and glanced up at Gage, seeing fear, rage, and worry in his eyes. Their situation had been bad before, but now with one of them wounded, the stakes had gotten higher.