Page 18

EIGHTEEN

Tiikaan’s brother Magnus climbed up to sit next to Tiikaan on the picnic table where he watched his family and friends.

“Hey, man.” Magnus nudged Tiikaan’s shoulder before settling his arms on his knees. “How’s the Barrow Bachelor Bunk treating you?”

Tiikaan laughed, shaking his head. “I can’t believe Declan actually tells people that.”

“Dude, he couldn’t hold his excitement in when you agreed to stay there.” Magnus chuckled. “Something about reliving old times or some sentimental junk like that.”

“It’s been good, though I haven’t been around to hang out all that much.”

He kind of felt bad about ditching out on Declan to go to dinner so often with Merritt now. Not a very good friend. He’d have to do better after he got back north.

“So, who’s the kid?” Tiikaan pointed his red Solo cup at the blond boy hanging out with his sister Lena’s stepson, Carter.

Magnus’ sigh sounded like it came all the way from his toes. “He’s with me. That’s Oliver. He’s… a friend’s son.”

Since when did Magnus take on kids?

Must be serious.

“Just a friend?” Tiikaan couldn’t help asking.

“Yeah.” The hardness in his brother’s voice turned Tiikaan’s gaze to him. “Friend.”

Magnus’ muscle in his cheek popped as he clenched his teeth.

“Everything okay?” Tiikaan asked.

“Just peachy.” Magnus forced a smile as Oliver ran up.

“Carter said there are toads in the pond. Can we go see them?” The kid’s hands opened and closed beside him, his gaze widening before he looked at the dirt in front of his shoe.

“Absolutely.” Magnus climbed down from the picnic table.

Oliver’s mouth fell open as his head snapped up. “Really?”

“Of course.” Magnus clapped Tiikaan on the shoulder. “Catch you later.”

Tiikaan nodded, wondering just what Magnus’ deal was with Oliver. His life was wildfire fighting in the most dangerous situations.

Babysitting was the last thing Tiikaan imagined Magnus doing .

Tiikaan shook his head and glanced at his watch for the tenth time. Rolling his shoulders, he tried to let the festivities of his sister’s reception settle over him.

The upbeat oldies music his sister Sunny loved and the laughter as family and friends made fools of themselves on the makeshift dance floor should have been more than enough to distract Tiikaan from the nagging worry he’d made a mistake in leaving Merritt by herself.

He didn’t know why the trepidation had buried beneath his skin and settled in a rolling mass in his gut. It wasn’t like he was one of these special ops friends of Sunny’s groom from Stryker Security.

Rafe, the tech guru of Stryker, broke out into a sprinkler dance move, then shouted, “Everyone, line up!”

He grabbed Eva, the head of Stryker’s daughter’s hand, and pulled her into the Electric Slide, even though the half-century-old music didn’t suit. She fell into step with Rafe, her seven-year-old knobby elbows and knees cuter than a newborn moose calf.

“Come on, guys.” Rafe beckoned to the onlookers with his hands, then pointed to the groom. “Davis, let Sunny go before you suffocate her and come slide with your brother-in-law.”

“Nope.” Davis didn’t even tear his gaze from Sunny’s as he slow danced with her.

“Coop?” Rafe stood on his tiptoes and scanned the yard.

“No way, dude,” the giant named Cooper called from the buffet table.

“ Eres loco .” Sosimo pulled his very pregnant wife June into a slow dance, his hand affectionately cupping the side of her belly.

Tiikaan’s eyebrows furrowed as he climbed from the table before he got dragged onto the dance floor.

What would it have been like to have the type of unbreakable connection like the Stryker team had? Those guys—shoot, even his brothers—could probably sniff out trouble with just one faint hint.

Blindfolded.

Unlike him.

Tiikaan was good at two things, flying and sitting around waiting for hours on end.

Okay, fine.

He was decent at knowing where animals might be, but that only led him to more sitting.

Bailing from the Air Force just proved he’d been left out when the hero gene had been passed down. There was a reason it was nicknamed the Chair Force. Yet even it had put too much pressure on him.

Nope. Having his head in the clouds and his butt in the dirt had always been his preferred mode of operation.

Less chance of falling short.

Yet he’d somehow managed to do just that, if his bank account balance had a say. Even there, he’d taken the easy way out, playing air taxi for a ridiculous fee that had him putting his sit around and wait skills to the test.

“How’s it going up in Barrow?” Astryde asked from behind him, causing him to jerk and spill the punch he held all over his hand.

“Jeez, could you not sneak up on people?” He shook punch off his fingers. “This is a wedding, not a drug raid.”

“On edge, little brother?” Her laugh and teasing smile pulled the corner of his mouth up.

She’d always called him and Magnus little brother, even though both of them had shot past her five-four frame by the age of thirteen. She’d been bossy, too. Kind of decided she was their second mother, even when Mom had been around.

“Besides, my raiding days are over.” She averted her gaze and took a drink from her glass.

Tiikaan tilted his head to the side. Her pained expression made him wonder if she regretted leaving her investigator job with the troopers when she had.

If Astryde missed her work with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, he hoped she didn’t go back. He’d hated how her work in the Child Abuse Investigation Unit had dragged her down until she was a cynical shell of herself.

Which just reinforced his lack of hero genes.

He forced a smile. “How’s the fishing?”

“Slow. Salmon aren’t up here yet.”

“Yeah. Life of an outdoorsman. A lot of waiting followed by a lot of work.”

She huffed a laugh. “It’s the waiting part that’s driving me nuts.”

And yet that was the part of the hunt that settled him.

“So… you never answered my question.” She glanced at him over the rim of her cup.

“About?” He set his drink on a table and tipped his head toward the house. “I’m a little distracted by my fingers sticking together.”

“How’s it going in Barrow?” She stepped up next to him as he made his way inside.

“Slow.” He shot her a smile.

She rolled her eyes.

“It’s pretty much exactly like I expected. I fly Merritt to the mine site in the morning, wait around all day for her to be done, then fly back to Barrow in the evening.” He shrugged, then held the screen door open for Astryde.

“That’s got to be boring.” She beelined for the kitchen and flipped the water on. “What do you do all day, then?”

“Merritt took pity on me and gave me guard duty.”

He pumped two squirts of hand soap into his palm and sudsed up. “Though patrolling the perimeter of a remote mine might actually be worse than just twiddling my thumbs. It’s pretty much a guarantee nothing but the occasional moose or bear is venturing there, and even that’s slim with all the noise and activity constantly happening.”

“I’ve read the articles about the villages raising questions. With all that waiting around, have you seen anything off?” Astryde’s tone was casual, but there was a thread of something tight in it he couldn’t place.

The conversation he’d overheard with Silas and the safety guy popped into Tiikaan’s head, but should he say anything about that?

He ran his hands under the water, flipped the faucet off, then grabbed the towel hanging from the cabinet. Leaning his backside against the counter, he took his time drying his hands while he thought of an answer. He didn’t want to put a bad light on Merritt if his perception of the conversation was wrong.

“Not really.”

He tossed the towel onto the counter, then quickly picked it up and hung it on the hook. Mom would give him the stink eye if her kitchen wasn’t in order.

He turned to Astryde. “I wouldn’t know what I was looking for, even if there was.”

Astryde shrugged. “You’d know.”

Her immediate belief in him filled his lungs like he’d been drowning, but he pushed the air out in a slow, controlled breath. The Rebel family wore support and unshakeable devotion to each other like a badge.

He hadn’t done anything to deserve the faith.

Far from it.

He cleared his throat. “I do know that Merritt, the new CEO, is working around the clock to find out if the claims have any legitimacy.

“Supposedly, her dad spent his life making sure that HGR left as little impact on the land as possible. I watched a YouTube video of him at some conference adamantly declaring that clean mining wasn’t just a possibility, but their responsibility.”

“Yeah, but saying it in front of a crowd and actually doing it in the middle of the wilderness where no one would know are two different things.”

“You’re right, but I really don’t think that’s the case, at least not with Merritt.” He shook his head. “She wouldn’t do that. ”

Astryde stared at him, her gaze penetrating into his brain and making him want to shift. He held still.

Barely.

“Ah, I see,” she finally said with a small, sad smile that made him bristle. “Don’t let a pretty face lull you into complacency, little brother.”

“It’s not like that.”

Except it totally was.

Astryde snorted. She could see right through his lie. She hadn’t been awarded top investigator in the state three years in a row for nothing.

“So, nothing’s happened?” She raised one eyebrow, a smug smile twitching her lips.

He ran his hand through his hair. “We almost kissed.”

“I knew it.” Astryde’s smile broke free.

“Okay, so we’ve hung out after work a few times, and we may have almost kissed, but it doesn’t mean anything. I definitely admire what she’s done both before taking over HGR and after, but there won’t be anything between us.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I’m a Podunk bush pilot who’d rather be in the wilderness than around people, and she runs a multibillion-dollar business and is from one of the richest families in America.” He looked down at his scuffed boots. “We couldn’t get any more opposite on the spectrum.”

“Right.” Astryde drew out the word in disbelief.

“Besides, once she has the mine up and running, I doubt she’ll be staying in Alaska. And we both know I’d shrivel and die in the city, especially somewhere hot like Texas.”

He sighed and looked out the window at Sunny and Davis still slow dancing even though Rafe had somehow convinced others to line dance. For the first time ever, the mention of marriage didn’t send him running to the woods.

But no matter what angle he looked at the possibility of him and Merritt, it never added up to equal together. Pursuing her would end as a tragedy, not a happily ever after.

“Yeah, but at some point, losing something you love for someone you love makes the loss worth it.” She eased against the counter flush next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Maybe not hiding in the wilds, taking smelly men to hunt even smellier animals, and instead, chasing down the only person who has interested you in years would be the better road forward?”

Or it could plummet him further down the path of loneliness.

His phone vibrated his alarm in his pocket. Time to go. Wrapping his arm around Astryde’s shoulders, he moved her with him as he headed outside to say his goodbyes.

“I have to get going.” He pressed a kiss to Astryde’s hair. “The life of an air taxi pilot is at the beck and call of others.”

She squeezed him tight when he went to let go. “Just… be careful, okay? I know that people like to protest mines and everything, but sometimes the claims are right. And something just seems off to me.”

“I promise I’ll keep on my toes and my head on a swivel.”

Her eyes darted from one of his eyes to the other like she was searching for the truth of his words.

“Good.” She pushed to her toes and kissed his cheek. “Stay safe.”

“You, too.”

She might not be an investigator anymore, but commercial fishing held its own and many dangers. Astryde jogged to the dance floor to a round of cheers as she joined the line dancing.

Tiikaan heaved a sigh and headed to his parents talking with Bj?rn and his fiancée, Sadie.

“I’ve got to get back.” Tiikaan pulled his mom into a hug.

“So soon?” She held him tight.

“Yeah.” He kissed her on the top of the head and let go to hug Sadie and shake Bj?rn’s hand. “I promised I’d be there to take the boss lady back to Barrow this evening.”

“The job going okay?” Dad shook Tiikaan’s hand and pulled him into a crushing hug.

“Eh, it’s all right.”

He didn’t want to elaborate and have his family worry. They’d just gone through hell and back with Sunny’s disappearance and brush with death. Him telling them about the possibility of trouble, both at the mine and with him personally, would just make them anxious all over again.

Besides, he was just a glorified taxi in the air and patrol guard. None of the drama the company was dealing with had to affect him.

He’d just keep his head down, fly Merritt back and forth to the mine site, keep alert to any bears wandering close, and keep his heart firmly in check.

A text dinged on his phone as he crossed the field to his airplane. He waved one last time to his family as he pulled his phone from his pocket. His steps stalled to a halt at the words.

Merritt: I need to talk to you in private when you get back. I need help, and I don’t know who else to trust.