Death Cache (27 page)

Go, Nadia.

Tern rotated back toward the stream.

Why did the two of them hooking up bother her so much? She didn’t want Robert, and with him being occupied with Nadia he’d leave her alone. That was if Nadia let him close again after his unfortunate faux pas.

At this point, Tern wouldn’t be surprised if Nadia made a play for Gage.

She really shouldn’t be so quick to judge. She and Gage had gotten it on too. He’d brought her to climax in the same cave. He’d sent her to heights of desire and she hadn’t given a damn who was around. If Gage would have pushed it, she would have taken him inside her body and relished him coming inside her, regardless who was around to witness.

And yes, Robert had been right. She’d skipped on him that night in the bar when Lucky had appeared. But she hadn’t slept with Lucky. They’d caught each other up on where their lives were over drinks, then over coffee and breakfast. She’d returned in the early morning to find Robert waiting for her inside her house. She’d never figured how’d he’d gotten in, and he’d never admitted how he had either.

At the time, it had seemed easier to let Robert think she’d cheated on him with Lucky, hoping that would finally sever their relationship. It had. Even though he’d continued to pop in whenever she least expected it.

Her sister, Raven, had suggested getting a restraining order, but then Gage had entered her life, and Robert had stayed away. It’d seemed as though her life was perfect, until Gage had disappeared, and then everything had come crashing down.

There’d been that one stupid night where she’d let Robert hold her while she’d cried her broken heart out. He’d started showing up with food and flowers, being smart enough to have his daughter in tow.

She’d done a lot of things wrong. Nobody was perfect. But had her actions brought a killer after those she loved? Was his ultimate goal to kill her after she’d suffered the deaths of the others?

Tern shook off the thoughts to dissect later, and dropped her backpack, unzipping and taking out a cloth to wash with. Filling her hands with the clear icy water from the stream, she drank deep. Next, she splashed her face, gasping when the icy water hit her skin and trickled down her neck. It helped to clear her head somewhat. She needed a baptism in this water to completely think straight.

Wetting the washcloth, she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. Blinding colors of pain exploded before her as something solid smacked her alongside the head.

Her last conscious thought, as she tumbled face-first into the glacial stream, was that she really didn’t want words carved into her forehead.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
N
INE

Like frost on windowpanes, ice crystallized over her consciousness, cold and callous and fractured.

It wasn’t half bad. Numb. Quiet in a kind of blissful way. It had been forever since she hadn’t felt emotions poke at her with pinpricks. The icy darkness beckoned with a seduction that was painful to resist.

A raven cawed overhead, causing a fissure to crack the surface.

“Tern!” Gage hollered, his voice high and shaky. His arms lifted her and held her tight against his chest. “Come on, Tern. Come back to me.”

God, her head hurt. She wanted to be left alone, wanted some peace. The raven caw-cawed again, sounding impatient. She moaned.

“That’s it, honey. Open your eyes.”

She peered through an eyelid. Bad idea. Sunlight cracked through her muddled brain matter, splintering more of the ice. She tried to raise her hand to investigate the source of the slicing pain, but it was too much trouble. Her hand fell back to the ground. She just wanted to rest, to sleep the next century away, but someone who smelled and felt a lot like Gage kept shaking and shouting at her.

Inconsiderate bastard.

“Tern, don’t do this to me. Wake up!” Another hard shake. This one rattled her teeth. She tried to push him away, get him to stop, but her limbs just flopped against his stone-hard chest. It was like she was a bowl of noodles.

Overhead the raven cawed again, the sound piercing her ears. The pounding in her head increased its tempo, and she became more aware of the wet clothes clinging to her cold skin. What she wouldn’t give for another dip in the hot springs. Darkness lured her back into its embrace.

“Damn it, Tern, open those beautiful brown eyes for me.”

No, don’t do it.

It’s going to hurt. She needed to stay here, where everything was vague and words didn’t have the power to slice. Objects wouldn’t fly at her head from out of nowhere from unknown assailants.

The raven cawed sharp enough to break up the rest of the ice netting around her consciousness.

“I’m going to shoot that damn bird,” Robert said.

Robert? Aw, man, did he have to be here?

“Shh, Raven,” Tern whispered. “’S okay.”

“Who the hell she talking to?” Robert asked. “The bird?”

“I don’t care as long as she’s talking.” Gage caressed the side of her face with fingers that shook. She winced when they brushed the source of the throbbing at her temple. “You’ve got one hell of a goose egg here, Tern.”

“No shit,” she said, the words sounding like they were coming from somebody else far away.

“What the hell happened?” Gage asked.

“Somebody hit me.”

“No shit,” Robert repeated her words.

“Why am I wet?”

“The son of a bitch left you to drown in the stream,” Gage said.

“Where’s Nadia?”

“She’s…fine.” There was something in Gage’s voice that said he wasn’t telling her the whole truth.

“Help me sit up.” The world spun.

Gage held her steady with an arm behind her back.

“Whoa.” She wanted to close her eyes and give into that seductive darkness, but gritted her teeth and fought back the blackness. Her gaze landed on Nadia, propped up against the trunk of a birch tree holding blood-soaked fabric to her head.

“I thought you said Nadia was fine?”

“I lied,” Gage said, carefully running his hands along the back of her head and neck. “Anything else hurt?”

“What happened?” Tern grabbed her head, trying to stop the spinning.

“Looks like both of you got beamed in the head,” Robert said, his shotgun still pointed in the direction of the treetops. “Seems yours is harder than Nadia’s, since hers spilt open.” A raven croaked above him and he swung around. “Where the hell did that raven go?”

“Forget about the damn bird,” Gage said. “Check on Nadia.”

“I’m not turning my back on that black devil. You didn’t see the way it looked at me with its beady eye. It marked me for death.”

“Wrong tribal legend,” Tern muttered. “Raven is the bringer of the sun.”

“I thought it was a trickster?” Gage said.

“Sometimes.”

“And storyteller?”

“That too.”

“See, then it can also bring death,” Robert muttered.

“Guess you’re next then.” She was in no mood to argue with him.

“Not funny,” Robert said.

“Do you mind?” Nadia said. “Bleeding over here.”

“Robert!” Gage hollered, making Tern wince.

“Going,” Robert grumbled, but took another quick look at the treetops, waving his shotgun around, before giving it up. He knelt before Nadia, and lifted the bloodied rag. “It’s stopped bleeding. You’ll be fine.”

“Thanks for all the concern.” Nadia grabbed the rag from Robert and gingerly placed it back over her forehead.

“Want to tell me why the hell you took off?” Gage asked Tern, and then looked at Nadia. “There’s a nut out there and both of you are alone.”

Nadia adjusted the cloth. Her left eyebrow was cut and swollen, dried blood smeared her face and stained her shirt. She gestured to Robert. “This nitwit stalked off and left me alone without a backward glance. Where the hell were you?”

“I needed a moment,” Gage said. The reason why hung heavy in the early morning air.

“You weren’t the only one who needed space.” Tern shivered in her damp clothes.

“You’re lucky you aren’t dead.” Gage turned on her, fear and anger flaring in his eyes. “Both of you.”

“We aren’t, and I need a change of clothes, so yell at me later.” She was tired and hurt and cold. She wasn’t going to be interrogated until she was dry and had downed a few Tylenol. Oh, that’s right. They didn’t fucking have any. “Where’s my backpack?”

Gage stood and grabbed it, knelt in front of her and unzipped the middle pocket. “Tell me what happened.” He pulled out a sweatshirt and her only other pair of pants.

“Can it wait until I change?” she asked, giving him a pointed look to give her some privacy.

“Forget it. You’re not leaving my sight.” His dark look settled on Robert until he gave them his back while muttering under his breath. Gage turned back to her. His touch was gentle as he lifted her t-shirt up and over her pounding head, though his face was hard and his jaw tight with anger. “Now, tell me what happened.”

“I was washing my face. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something, and then, bam, lights out.”

“Did you see who hit you?” He whipped off her bra like it was nothing, and then stuffed her into the sweatshirt.

She shrugged then wished she hadn’t, as that simple movement sent jabs of pain icing over her. “It’s all a blur.”

Gage turned to Nadia. “What about you?”

“Sorry. I heard the splash, came around the corner, and this log came flying at me. I screamed, which brought you guys, but to save my life, I couldn’t give you a description. It all happened so fast.”

Gage knelt at Tern’s ankles and started pulling at the laces of her hiking boots. Frustration radiated off of him.

“This is so fucked up,” Robert said. “I don’t want to be running from a goddamn killer. I have things to live for. My life is waiting for me. I need to get home.”

“We all do, asshole,” Nadia said, curling her lips in disgust. “You aren’t the only one who has a life.”

“Really? Who’s waiting for you at home, huh? I have a little girl depending on me.”

“Then why the hell did you leave her at home to begin with? Did you really think you had a chance getting back with Tern?” Nadia scoffed.

“Bitch,” Robert spat.

“Guys.” Tern grabbed her head as their voices escalated.

“So help me, if you two don’t stop your bitching, I’ll shut you up myself,” Gage threatened. “You won’t need to worry about some unseen killer, I’ll be right in front of your fucking face. Got it?”

Both gave him jerky nods.

He was quite impressive reverting to caveman, Tern thought. That shouldn’t send her heart thudding harder in her chest. Especially with how they’d ended things earlier. Maybe the bash on her head had scrambled more of her brains than she’d figured.

“Now,” Gage continued. “Robert, clean Nadia up and check her over. We need to get out of here. You want to get home, put some effort into it or I’ll leave you behind.” He rotated toward Tern, and the combination of dread and rage blistering off him had Tern wanting to scoot back.

He knelt at her feet and took off her other boot. “Think you can stand?” His eyes bored into hers. Hidden behind the rage was fear, and it had her catching her breath.

She went to nod, and then thought better of it and gave him her hands. He slowly pulled her to her feet and the world tipped. He held her against his chest until things settled back to their rightful place.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Don’t have much choice, do I?” she softly answered.

He shook his head. The only way to safety was to suck it up.

Very efficiently, Gage stripped her of her wet pants and underwear. Her body started to shake. Whether from the cold, being attacked and knocked unconscious, or from Gage impersonally stripping her of her clothes, she didn’t have a clue.

“Hold onto my shoulders,” Gage instructed. His tone sounded strained as he knelt and held underwear for her to step into. He smoothed them up and over her hips.

Were his hands trembling?

She didn’t have time to focus on that as he now held out dry pants for her to step into, and then socks and boots. Luckily, she hadn’t been submerged in the water, so her boots had remained on shore and therefore were still dry. Hiking in wet boots was never a good idea. People died of infection from raw blisters. She needed to be grateful for the killer’s oversight of not tossing all of her into the swollen stream. Her boots must have acted as a type of anchor. A splitting headache and slightly blurred vision would be easier to deal with since her feet would be dry. At least, she hoped so.

Gage stood, zipped and buttoned her pants, his eyes hot and searing into hers.

“I could’ve done that,” she whispered.

He held her gaze for a minute longer, before letting go of her completely. “You going to be okay?” he asked.

“I’ll have to be.”

His lips quirked into a half smile. “You are one hell of a woman.” He hitched her backpack over his shoulders to rest next to his.