Page 5

TWO

Dani scrambled up off the couch, her head pounding worse than anything she’d ever felt. Her thoughts…nowhere to be found. “Who…who are you?”

Her captor stared at her with both hands up but said nothing. He frowned. The big guy wore a T-shirt and jeans and had a thick, full beard. Did she like beards?

Who was this guy?

She backed up and patted her coat pockets with trembling fingers, hunting for any kind of weapon. Or did she own a phone? This man was going to kill her. And she wasn’t going down without a fight.

The bearded lumberjack stood in the center of the room.

A living room? Where was she?

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He had a warm voice, soft, but she just knew he could be loud if necessary. He said, “We met, remember? I’m Grizz. You stopped by base camp on the way up Copper Mountain.”

“I don’t know you.” Think, Dani, think. “Where am I? Why did you take me?”

The big guy took two steps closer, and she shrank back until she hit a wall beside the door. Could she make a run for it? Would this grizzly bear of a man chase her?

“No one is going to hurt you, Dani.” He stopped moving. “You were in trouble, and I got you to safety. This is my cabin. In Alaska.”

Alaska? She lived in Washington, DC.

How had she wound up five time zones away?

Dani didn’t know much about him or what was happening, but she did know that she was an investigative journalist. As such, she’d get to the bottom of this story.

Just as soon as her insides stopped quaking.

She patted all of her pockets but couldn’t find her cell phone.

She definitely had a phone. But where was it?

And who would she even call?

“Did I have a cell phone on me?” Why had she asked? Like this guy would tell her the truth.

He shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t see one. You slid down the mountain in a mudslide, so you may have dropped it.”

Grizz stomped to the kitchen on the opposite side of the cabin, each footstep pounding in sync with Dani’s headache. “I’m going to make us some soup.”

The Midnight Sun hotshot logo on his T-shirt stretched across the man’s chest. Hotshot ?

Her mind scrambled for memories. Sounds of laughter haunted her. And someone calling her a diva?

She sank to the dusty wood floor, her back skidding down the wall. She needed to keep this guy talking. “What happened when you saw me? I don’t remember.”

He pulled a container out of the freezer and dumped the frozen contents into a pot.

A blue flame from the stove glowed. He stirred the meal with a wooden spoon.

“I’m a Midnight Sun hotshot. You and another man came into our base camp asking about some sort of secret compound in the woods.

We advised you against traipsing up the mountain by yourselves, but you headed out anyway. ”

“I was working on a story,” she whispered. “My—my boss encouraged me to follow a lead I got from an inside source here in Alaska. He gave me an ultimatum. I had to get the story.”

Grizz turned toward her, interest in his eyes.

She’d said too much.

She closed her eyes, and an image of Josh popped into her head. The sound of a gunshot reverberated, and she saw him fall. In her mind—her memories. Her eyes sprang open. “Where’s Josh? He was with me. You just told me he arrived when I did.”

Grizz ladled some soup into a mug and placed it on an end table by the couch. He held out his hand to her. “Come sit on the couch and have some soup.”

She complied, mainly because her stomach let out a gurgle as if to prove the man’s point.

“Fine.” But she waved off his hand and stood on her own. She sank onto the plush sofa, which was pretty nice for a bachelor pad. At least, she assumed the mountain man wasn’t married. The place lacked throw pillows or homey décor. But it was warm, dry, and immaculate.

She took the mug of soup and wrapped her hands around the warm stoneware. He sat down at the other end of the couch. “I don’t know where Josh is. You were caught in a mudslide and hit a rock. You probably bumped your head when you tumbled down the mountain and crashed into that boulder.”

She ran a hand through her hair and felt the knot on her temple. “Josh. He’s still out there?”

This was her story, and she remembered talking Josh into going with her. Now he was missing?

Grizz met her eyes. “Look, I don’t know what you found when you and Josh hiked up Copper Mountain, but given how I found you, I think he’s in trouble.”

“We have to go search for him.” She tried to stand, but her legs betrayed her, and she ended up on the couch again.

Grizz looked out the front picture window, where fat drops pelted the glass. “The rain is getting worse. It must have knocked out a cell tower, because I have no signal here. I promise, we’ll go look for Josh once this storm slows down. Right now, visibility is zero.”

“Why should I trust you?” She took a spoonful of the soup, then downed the whole mug. When was the last time she’d eaten?

He sipped the soup. “Because I’m Grizz. We’ve met.”

She set the mug down on the end table—which was basically a repurposed tree stump—refusing to admit the soup had made her head quit pounding so much.

“You live here alone?” She nodded to the living room, complete with exposed wood beams and bare walls. She half expected a moose head to grace the mantel over the fireplace, but the decorations were minimal.

“I do. I spend a lot of time at base camp, but this place belonged to my grandparents, and after they passed away, I fixed it up and stay here when I’m not at base camp.”

She squinted as she listened to the man’s deep, gravelly voice. Fuzzy images parked themselves just out of reach. They had met.

All she remembered about their encounter was this man’s gruff demeanor. “Is Grizz your first or last name? Or a nickname?”

He chugged the remnants of the soup from the mug and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Flecks of broth bits littered his beard. “Grizz is my last name.”

“Do I get a first name?”

He shook his head. “No one knows my first name. And if they do, they don’t dare say it.”

She snorted. “I can see why you go by Grizz. You’re meaner than a grizzly bear.”

He walked over to her and invaded her space. She recoiled. He stooped, collecting her mug while meeting her at eye level. “Really? Have you ever come face-to-face with a grizzly bear before?”

He backed off and headed to the kitchen before she could form a sarcastic retort.

Have you met a bathtub and razor before?

Oh yeah, that was a good one. But probably best not to poke the bear-man. She looked down at her own mud-crusted attire and cringed. She was one to judge. Her INN jacket had a tear, and why was she wearing white—now brown—boots?

Grizz had busied himself in the kitchen area, which was basically a refrigerator and the two-burner stove. Did the man have a coffee maker? No way could she live this primitively.

Her stomach gurgled, and she prayed he hadn’t heard.

“Grizz. I need to use a bathroom.”

He pointed to the front door, the beginning of a smile on his face. “Outhouse. Turn left at the fallen tree. Grab some leaves on the way for TP. Oh, and take a flashlight to scare the coyotes away. They don’t like the light.”

No. Just no.

An outhouse? With coyotes. “I’ve woken up in a nightmare.”

Grizz had the audacity to laugh at her.

She stood and moved toward the back window. There was no hope for that man. Clouds hung low in the sky, heavy with yet more rain, and she had no idea what time it was. Outside, there was a tiny shack on the side of the mountain.

He wasn’t kidding. And she really needed to use the facilities, however primitive and scary they were.

“Okay. I can do this.” She pulled her jacket tight around her and headed for the front door.

“Wait. I’m kidding. I mean, the house has an original outhouse, but it’s not what you think. I have two bedrooms and a bathroom at the back, with working plumbing. Here, I’ll show you.”

She followed him down a hallway that led to two bedrooms, the window at the end overlooking the forest. Grizz’s place was tucked up against the side of a mountain, so the view was trees and not much else. But it made the place feel cozy.

Warm. Safe.

He lumbered to the kitchen, and she used the restroom, surprised at how clean and fairly modern it was. It was possible that in her disorientation, and with a pounding headache, she might’ve been a smidge unfair in judging this man and his simple life.

A claw-foot tub with a big chip on the rim looked like it had been there for decades.

The idea of sinking into hot water and getting cleaned beckoned her in a way that made her nearly whimper.

But she needed to get off this mountain and away from the distracting man who had a fancy tub in his remote cabin in the middle of nowhere and made delicious soup. She needed to focus and find Josh.

She washed her face in the sink, then used a washcloth from the cupboard underneath to wipe the chunks of mud and dried blood from her hair. She looked in the mirror at her flushed face, and one blurry memory surfaced.

Diva Dani. That’s what Grizz had called her.

Oh, she’d show him the real Dani—the one that never gave up. Just as soon as she could think straight and find her way in a rainstorm, she would get out of here and search for Josh.

By herself.

Dani slipped into the room next to the bathroom, which looked like Grizz’s bedroom. Again, no decorations, just a basic black comforter covering the king-size bed.

Hang on a second. There was something tacked to the wall. Not art.

A bow.

Must be for hunting. Hanging next to it was a bag full of arrows.

She took the bow off the wall and grabbed an arrow. So she’d never even held a bow before, but at least it was a weapon.

She peered out the door of the bedroom and caught a glimpse of Grizz in the kitchen. The smell of coffee hit her, and her stomach rumbled again. But there wasn’t time for luxuries.

Her memory might have failed her, but she knew Josh was in trouble.