EDGE (31 page)

Surviving off the land was the Ascension way of life. Young Jed wouldn’t have had any problem adjusting from the wilderness of Oregon, where’d he’d grown up year-round, to an Alaskan summer on the Kachemak Bay.

Jed had been nine when she’d been taken to the cult. So excited to have her there, his new sister and second mother. She’d been so afraid and Jed had actually provided a bright spot in all that horror.

He hadn’t wanted anything from her then. What did he want from her now?

She wasn’t nuts enough to think his intentions were good. If they were why hadn’t he introduced himself? Contacted her face to face, rather than play Peeping Tom with her over the last month? She’d felt watched about that long. Noticed little things that should have had bells ringing out warnings. Why hadn’t she trusted her instincts and ferreted out the threat? A few years ago she would have. She’d gotten soft and looked at what it cost her.

Her heart, her sanity, her misfit family.

She’d have to leave now. Find a new place to hide. Damn, she was so tired of hiding.

How had she been so naive?

She replayed the time she and Cache had spent together. Reliving it with the truth of his betrayal crystallizing the images.

What an idiot she’d been.

She couldn’t go through losing who she was again. Everyone wanting a piece of her, treating her like a thing instead of a person. Her privacy would end and so would her way of life. She operated under a veil of secrets. In college she’d dropped Amelia and went by Mel, and Bennett was a common enough surname that without Amelia attached to it—

Cache had called her Amelia
.

A sob caught in her throat. When they’d first made love, Cache had called her by Amelia not Mel. Why hadn’t she picked up on it?

Nobody called her Amelia.

First a hiccup of a sob escaped, quickly followed by torrent of tears. Tears, she refused to let fall before, fell freely now. With no one but the loons around, she gave in and cried. Cried for what was and what had been.

A lone loon joined in, calling for its mate. A strange unearthly cry, half laugh and half wail, pierced the summer twilight.

“It’s been two days. Where the hell is she?” Cache asked Linnet, Nicole, and Sergei, who sat around the deck. David was beachcombing with the boys and Emily had taken up residence in the hammock. The Whitneys were inside lost in a game of chess.

They glanced up at his question, shared a look, and then turned back to him.

“Do you have a clue? Any idea of where’d she go?” he asked, hoping for a different answer this time.

“We’ve been over this. She’ll return when she wants to.” Linnet inhaled on a cigarette as though bored of the subject. “Until then, we wait.”

“What if she’s in trouble? Hurt?” Cache persisted. Sitting around and waiting was hell.

“I don’t know of many who can take care of themselves to the degree that Mel can. Her life is a testament of that,” Linnet said.

“She’s still a woman alone in a country populated with more animals than people.” Didn’t they see the dangers that he did? Peril was all around them, and Mel was out there in the middle of it.

Alone.

Damn it. He needed to do something.

“Why don’t you let me make you a drink?” Linnet asked. “Scotch? Brandy?”

“Vodka?” Sergei asked, his eyes brightening. “Might vant to be heavy in your cups vhen Mel does return.” He nodded to Cache.

“Not a bad idea,” Linnet agreed.

“I think you should leave before she gets back,” Nicole put in, her look set in stone. She’d been sending him eye daggers since the night Mel took off.

“I’m not leaving.” Cache folded his arms across his chest.

“What do you think you’re going to accomplish?” Nicole asked. “Mel will never give you permission to tell her story.”

“Forget the damn story.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair and leaned against the counter. “I’m in love with her.”

“
I knew it
.” Linnet slapped her knee and turned to Sergei. “That’s twenty big ones you owe me.”

“Love her?” Nicole rose from her seat and advanced toward Cache. “You
love
her, and you showed that by
betraying
her?”

Cache found he couldn’t meet Nicole’s piercing eyes. “I didn’t mean to betray her. I had every intention of telling her who I really was but—”

“Your dick got in the way,” Linnet said with a smirk then nodded. “Just like a man.”

“Hey
,
” Sergei said, scowling at Linnet.

“All right.” Linnet shrugged as though conceding. “Maybe Russian men don’t think
all
the time with their dicks, what with the cold climate and such.”

“I’ll have you know Russian men are great lovers. Ve are vorld renowned for our prowess and stamina.” He made a victorious fist in the air.

“I thought that was the French,” Linnet said.

“French!
Nyet
. They know nothing compared to Russians.”

“Can we get off the sex talk and back to Cache leaving?” Nicole glanced with annoyance at both of them.

“I’m still not all right vith the thinking vith the dick thing,” Sergei mumbled under his breath as he slouched down in his seat.

“Well noted,” Linnet said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Cache said to Nicole.

“Mel wants you gone, and after what you’ve done to her, you should respect her wishes,” Nicole said.

Damn if she didn’t make a solid argument, Cache thought. “Mel and I are good for each other—”

“What possible good have you brought into her life? Do I need to paint you a picture of what your photograph did to her twenty years ago? Now you’re back to do it again.” Nicole had venom in her eyes.

“Okay, enough,” Linnet said, grounding out her cigarette in an ashtray resting on the arm of her chair. “Nicole, until Mel returns and convinces Cache to leave, there’s nothing we can do. Besides, I believe facing Cache and what he represents will be good for Mel.”

“How? Bringing up all that she has been through? How much more is she going to have to suffer?” Nicole stabbed Cache with another of her cutting stares as she asked the last question. The force of it had him turning away.

Nicole was right. How much more did Mel have to endure because of him? In a round about way, he’d brought Jedidiah Dawson’s son here too.

No
. Thinking like that would get him right where Nicole wanted him. Off The Edge and away from Mel. He was good for Mel, and she was good for him. They needed each other.

Christ, he hoped she needed him like he needed her. He couldn’t think of a life with the alternative.

Linnet’s head snapped up, and she cocked an ear toward the east. “Well, it sounds like the party is about to begin.”

Sergei straightened in his seat and look around the sky. “Ahh, party. I get it.”

“I have no idea what the two of you are talking...about,” Nicole said, also glancing up.

Cache caught the telltale sounds of a float plane coming in for a landing.

Nerves erupted like pinpricks on his skin. No one moved, and then they all moved at once. Nicole was the first down the stairs of the deck, like a mother bear ready to protect her cub. Cache didn’t think Mel needed anyone protecting her. She had teeth of her own.

And he had a feeling he was about to be chewed on.

Mel shut down the engine and let the plane’s momentum float her to shore and beach on the sand. She watched Nicole, Linnet, Sergei, and Cache coming to greet her.

Well, hell’s bell.
Why was it that if you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself?

She unsnapped her seatbelt and told herself it didn’t matter. She’d get rid of him, along with Jed, and then all would be like it was before.

She’d make damn sure of it.

Mel opened the cockpit door and stepped out onto the pontoon. Sergei was there to help with her gear.

“Velcome home, Mel,” he said. “About Cache—”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Mel said.

Sergei nodded his head, his eyes showing something that looked like pity.

Damn, he knew.
Another thing to blame Cache for. Sergei turned and carried Mel’s gear to the lodge.

Mel ignored—as best as she could—the remaining crowd of Linnet, Nicole, and Cache. Where was Rinka? Normally she was dancing in the surf when Mel returned to The Edge.

She tied the plane up to the running line and pushed it out into the water. Linnet pulled the line on the pulley system, floating the plane farther out of reach of the breaking waves.

Mel waded to the beach. Nicole was suddenly there, hugging her. Mel stood stiff in her arms.

“I’m glad you’re back.” Nicole blessedly let her go, and Mel stared at Cache.

“What the hell is he still doing here?” she asked, her voice hard.

Linnet and Nicole shared a look, but Linnet was the one who chose to answer. “He proved more difficult than spineless Tom.” She shrugged. “He’s paid up, and we couldn’t convince him that leaving would be in his best interest.”

Linnet didn’t seem to regard Mel any differently. No pity or curiosity. Mel tried not to find hope in that. Once the reality of what had happened to her was out in the open, things always changed. Her relationship with Linnet would never be the same. Repeated history had taught her that much.

“No need to talk like I’m not standing right here,” Cache said, stepping forward. “I’ll tell Mel why I refused to leave. Be glad to.”

Linnet moved back, but Nicole stood side by side with Mel. If she wasn’t so angry with Cache still in residence, she’d find the overprotective sister bit ironic.

Where was Nicole when she’d really needed her twenty years ago?

“
You
can wait. I’m not in the mood to hear it. I’m tired and in need of a shower.” She dismissed him and walked up the beach. It took everything she had not to look over her shoulder as she felt the heat of Cache’s stare.

She really hadn’t thought the man would have enough backbone to still be here when she returned. The feelings she’d tried to extinguish over the last few days rose like flames at the sight of him. Desire, hurt, love, and hatred battled to be in the forefront. It was anyone’s guess who’d be the victor.

Nicole caught up with Mel, and Linnet flanked her other side.

“We really did try to get rid of him,” Nicole said.

“I can see that,” Mel muttered.

“The man is tenacious,” Linnet said. “Probably what’s made him such a good reporter.”

“Tenacious or not, I want him off The Edge.” Even if she had to push him.

“How?” Nicole asked. “We’ve tried everything. Threatening, bullying. Linnet even offered him his money back.”

Mel looked at Linnet with surprise. “You did?”

“Of course I did.”

Maybe things hadn’t changed too much between them.

“I think there’s more to him staying than just a story,” Linnet added. “You have a hold on him.”