Denali Dreams (18 page)

“I’d say trouble came with you.”

“That’s impossible. They’re my friends! I know them.”

“Apparently, not as well as you think.” David held up the bottle. “If they messed with your water supply … It makes sense that you aren’t getting better though you’ve descended.”

It couldn’t be true. Though she’d had thoughts along the same line, hearing him voice them gave her fears credence. And scared her more. “How exactly did they give me mountain sickness?”

“It’s not mountain sickness. The symptoms seem the same, but there are a couple that have nothing to do with AMS.”

“That’s insane.”

“Maybe, but then how do you explain that someone broke my ice axe?”

Jolie widened her eyes. “
What?
“

He tugged it over and held it out. “These are gouges from a sharp object. I test my equipment just like everyone else’s before every climb. I tested it before I came after you. It was solid. No weak points.” David leaned over and dug into his pack. He pulled out another insulated water bottle. “Drink from this—and a lot. Let’s test my theory.”

“How?”

“Well, if you start feeling better, then we’re flushing whatever they poisoned you with.” His expression turned grim. “Let’s just hope we figured it out soon enough.”

Holding his navy and black bottle, Jolie stared at it. Had someone really put something in her water? Tried to
poison
her? Panic banged on the door of her heart. She wouldn’t let it in. Couldn’t. Not with a killer or would-be killer out there, trying to bury her on this mountain.

Oh, Daddy …

But he wasn’t there anymore. Neither was Gael.

Heaviness anchored her heart against the depths of despair.

“Hey,” David said, his voice low and near. “You okay?”

She snorted a laugh. “No.” Her voice cracked. “I can’t believe this. I mean, yeah, sure—I’ve had people hate me because my father was an oil baron.”

“Hey, it was different. There was more to it than that.”

Jolie smiled through her blurring vision.

“Besides, I didn’t
hate
you … not really.”

“Really?”

David hesitated then looked down. “I thought I did.” He sat on his bedroll, hugging one knee, his gaze down. When he spoke again, his words surprised her. “I miss her—Mariah.”

She could relate. A lot. “I understand.”

His gaze bounced to hers and he studied her for a moment, then lowered his eyes again. “Mariah was amazing. She … she kept me on track. Believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. She was incredible that way, ya know?”

“Gael was the same. So strong, always pushing me to be more responsible.” She scrunched her shoulders. “I sort of did the rebellious teen thing.”

“No—”

She shot him a look.

“You rocked it.” He laughed. “Every tabloid had you on its cover for a year or two.”

She groaned and sat cross-legged, nursing the water bottle he’d loaned her. “Don’t remind me. I thought I owned the world. I felt
entitled
to just about anything and everything I wanted.” She shook her head, embarrassed to confess to that.

“What changed you?”

“Gael.” Jolie chewed her lower lip as she dragged her gaze back to David. “His death, actually. Not having him around, I felt like a spinning compass with no direction. I didn’t know how to navigate life without him. I was angry and terrified.” Her throat burned with the truth of her words. “Everyone expected me to turn into trouble, collapse.”

“You don’t seem the type to really care what people think.”

“Normally, I don’t.” She took another sip, unwilling to look into those rich, dark irises and be exposed. “But there was this one guy I had a huge crush on—well, he pretty much shattered my world.”

“Yeah? How so?”

Twisting the neck brace of the bottle, Jolie toyed with the truth. Tell him, and she might very well humiliate herself.

Ah, but she’d already done that. A lot. What was there to lose?

“He yelled at me, right in front of my brother’s casket.”

She braved his expression.

Still and stunned, David watched her.

Wind gusted into the tent through a sliver of an opening and tossed her hair into her face. But she didn’t care. Her focus was trained on Ranger Grizzly, who suddenly didn’t seem so grizzlyish anymore. “Told me he hated me.”

“Me?” His voice pitched. “You had a crush—”
She had a crush on me?

And he’d shattered her world.

“Crazy, huh?” Soft and nervous, her voice betrayed her.

The most beautiful heiress in the world and she’d had a crush on him? Why couldn’t he get his mind to wrap around that? She had a crush on him. The words played over and over in his mind. Right along with the revelation of the wound he’d inflicted on her.

He needed to man up. “Jolie …” What could he say—assuming he could push his brain past the fact that this drop-dead gorgeous woman had liked him? How did one make something like that better? “I’m sorry. I … I don’t know what to say….” What a jerk! “I was drowning in my own grief.” And that gave him the right to hurt her?

Her smile rose then twisted to the side as she gave a one-shouldered shrug. “We live in different worlds. I guess I should’ve expected it.”

“But you didn’t.” Man, could he reverse time, take back his hatred?

“Nobody had ever spoken to me—or anyone else in my family—like that.”

“I was completely out of line.”

“Yes.” Jolie laughed. “Yes, you most definitely were.”

Though he was slow in coming to the conclusion, he did get to it: “But you never hated me.”

She ducked her head and gave a halfhearted shrug.

“Why?”

Because she still likes me.
His mind flashed to the kiss, to the way she fell into his arms, responded with one of her own kisses.

David let out a quick puff of air and looked away.
What do I do with this?

“I guess I deserved it.”

That comment came out of left field. “Deserved what?”

“Your anger, the figurative slap on the face.”

His gut cinched at the way she’d taken his rebuke, his tirade that had humiliated even his parents. “No, I don’t think anyone deserved that. Especially not you. We were both buried in our grief.”

Her gaze rose to his. “But you still hate me.”

His pulse thumped against her words. “No.” It was his turn to duck. But for him, it was shame that bent his head. “I hated the world … because I hated myself.”

Whoa. He’d never said that out loud. Never admitted it to himself, either.

“Mariah invited me on the climb with her and Gael, but I blew her off. I think even then, I was jealous of what she and Gael had found. It was so much like what my parents had, and being three years older than her, I hated that I was still alone.”

Why on earth was he spilling his guts like this? He verified Logan was sleeping. No way did he want that guy hearing all this. He’d never let David live it down.

“He really did love her.” She reached around her collar and fingered something, then tugged. “He went to the ‘Edge of the World’ with her.”

Noting her reference to a jagged portion of Denali near the peak, David eyed the ring dangling on a necklace. “What …?”

“It’s the engagement ring.” She craned her neck closer so he could see it better. “The jeweler messed up so it wasn’t ready when they left for the climb. I’d promised to fly out and meet them once they returned to Talkeetna, so he could give it to her then. But …”

“They never returned.”

Slowly, she shook her head.

David took the gold piece between his fingers and eyed the diamond. “Quite a rock.”

“He said it didn’t compare to her. See the engraving?”

“Easy to say when you have millions to toss around.” David smirked as he angled it to read the inscription.
Love Conquers All.

Except death. It hadn’t conquered that.

“A girl would wait a long time to get something like that from me—and only life insurance would cover the rest.”

“Well,” Jolie said, her voice soft as silk, “for the right guy, a girl doesn’t need extravagance. Just sincerity.”

Beautiful words, but it didn’t ease the ache he felt at remembering that she was way out of his league. At the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder if she meant more with those words than she said. He traced her face, searching for any indication …

Who was he kidding? She’d said she
had
a crush on him. Past tense.

But she kissed me back.

He had to know. “For the right guy, huh?

Jolie’s breathing slowed as those soft honey eyes rose. “Only the right guy.”

“Have you found him yet?”

“I don’t know. It depends.” Coy had a middle name: Jolie.

“On what?”

“Whether this guy is willing to start over,
tabula rasa.
“

“Huh?”

Jolie smiled—man, she had a great smile. “Blank slate. We’d have to start over. No more calling me a rich, spoiled girl.”

“Wow, that’s asking a lot. A man who’d lie for you.”

Her mouth gaped. She slapped his shoulder.

David laughed, glad that the suffocating moment had passed. Taunting, teasing, and confrontation—he knew what to do with those. But this … this mushy, softhearted stuff did strange things to him. And to Jolie, obviously. He wanted the feisty, no-holds-barred woman back.

David noticed movement behind Jolie and stilled. “You’re awake?”

Eyes closed, Logan didn’t move. “Never went to sleep.”

O
nce a grizzly, always a grizzly. Should’ve known she couldn’t tame the beast, or even draw him in to civility. Heart thundered with each pulse. Did he
really
think of her as spoiled? Or was it a tease? And look at how quickly he changed gears. He must be embarrassed that Logan overheard.

“We need your opinion,” David said as he dug through his pack.

“What’s that?” Logan said, still not moving.

Why couldn’t she fall for guys like Logan? Guys who were calm, steady, and not easily ruffled. Was she a magnet for aggressors?

“On whether Jolie is a spoiled rich girl.”

Humiliation spiked. Tears sprang to her eyes. Her chin quivered.

It’s exhaustion. That’s all.

Rustling to her left erupted as Logan came into view. “David, you have to be one of the biggest jerks I know.”

“What?” David said with a laugh.

“You just crushed her.”

David’s face swung toward her.

Jolie ducked her head—which freed a tear. Curse those things. “No,” she said weakly as she tried to look at him, but more tears escaped. “I’m fine.”

His expression, even though she only saw it through blurry, tear-filled eyes, went slack. He touched her shoulder. “Jolie? Seriously?”

She blinked. Hardened. Anything to get rid of the stupid tears. “Just—don’t worry about me. I know what you think of me now.” The hurt, the anger, bubbled to the surface. “Forget it.”

“Look, it was a joke.”

“See?” Logan said. “You’re a jerk.” He angled in closer to her.

And that only plucked more tears.
Stupid, stupid, tears!
She was stronger than this. And what angered her was that she was proving him right—bawling over a guy who’d just called her a name. Didn’t it mean she
was
a spoiled rich girl?

Always had money. Always had the things she wanted. As a teen she demanded her own way. But she’d changed. Even if he couldn’t see it.

She could never be good enough, domestic enough for David.

“You just never know when to stop, David.” Logan’s reprimand tightened the stale, icy air in the tent. “And when you start feeling trapped, you fight. You bring out all your guns and start blazing till there’s nobody left. And that’s what’s going to happen—you’re going to die a lonely, miserable old man if you don’t grow up and let go of this anger.”

Tears stemmed, Jolie looked between the two, surprised the quiet ranger had unleashed on the grizzly.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” The words David spoke held his infamous growl.

Oddly enough, Jolie found comfort in it. The raw power. But it was killing him, wasn’t it?

“Actually, as your best friend, I
do
know what I’m talking about.”

“Have you forgotten these people”—he stabbed a finger at Jolie, and the sensation speared straight to her heart—“killed Mariah.”

“You know better. Mariah got herself killed.”

“Liar!” His roar matched the storm raging outside.

Logan’s face twisted in grief. “God forgive me, but she did, David. She went up there. She wanted to be with Gael. She loved him. But you—you won’t stop blaming everyone else. What this is really about is that you didn’t save her. Have you ever thought that if you had you’d be dead, too?”

Deep, deep pain radiated off David.

“Jolie isn’t to blame. Gael and Mariah knew the dangers of climbing Denali. Everyone does because we brief them. They bear the blame of their deaths, if blame must be applied, which you seem to think it does. But if you don’t get over yourself, you’re going to lose Jolie, too.”

Sucking in a breath drew both of their gazes to her.

Logan looked down. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t mine to say.”