Page 21

21

When it was past eight, full dark outside, and Lila still hadn’t returned, Bear chased everyone out of the bar and closed the place down.

“Storm coming, everyone better get home,” he told them. Close enough—his weather radio was warning of a blizzard in the mountains to the east. But storms could change course at any moment and it would be best for everyone to go home and batten down the hatches. Especially for the first storm of the winter, which always functioned as a kind of shakedown cruise.

He hopped into his 1988 Toyota pickup, which he’d accepted as payment for a tab that had stretched for three and a half years. He didn’t want to panic if there was a perfectly innocent explanation for Lila’s delay. Maybe she was so deep in conversation with Paulina that she’d lost track of time. Maybe she’d agreed to model for her; Bear had made that mistake once, and it had eaten up half a day.

Or maybe she’d decided to drive out to Ice Falls since she had a vehicle at her disposal. Sometimes he worried that she worked so much she didn’t have a chance to enjoy this stunning part of the world. She could have paid a visit to the Chilkoots. He knew she was helping a few of the younger kids learn to read. Kids loved Lila, and not just young ones. She had a way of treating kids of any age as if they were important and wonderful.

She was fine, he kept telling himself, despite the fear gnawing through his gut.

What if she’d run into a bear? It was late in the season for bear run-ins, but there could be a few still heading for their winter dens. Did she know what to do if she saw one? Would she follow proper bear protocol or would she try to make friends with the damn thing? He could absolutely picture her shining a beautiful smile at a grizzly while he rose up on his hind legs and roared.

“ Stay in the truck,” he muttered out loud, as if she could hear him. “If you see a bear, don’t get out. I’m coming.”

First, he swung by the hardware store to make sure she wasn’t already home. Then he stopped outside Kathy’s general store. She often left the WiFi on even when it was closed, and she had much better service than he had at The Fang. He called Lila’s cell phone, then all of her friends. No one answered, which wasn’t unusual since Firelight Ridge had terribly spotty and inconsistent service.

All it means is that no one has a good signal , he told himself. Don’t jump to conclusions.

But he couldn’t help it, because the most terrifying conclusion of all was that something bad had happened to Lila and he hadn’t been there to help. He never should have let her take his truck. He never should have gone after her when she tried to leave. She should have left Firelight Ridge when she’d originally tried…at least she’d be safe from bears and icy roads and…

As he rounded a curve on the road to Paulina’s place, his headlights picked up a flash of red reflectors. Taillights. He screeched to a stop, backed up, and aimed the nose of his truck toward the forest.

What he saw made his heart stop.

His F-250 was wedged between two spruce trees, nose first, the rear end facing the road. The headlights were off, so was the engine. He couldn’t see any signs of life inside.

He grabbed a headlamp from his glove compartment, jumped out and ran toward his truck. During a rescue, you had to focus on the task at hand. You couldn’t allow yourself to act from emotion. But that was impossible right now. His heart pounded and his body drenched itself in sweat as he stumbled over a rotting log and nearly collided with the bed of his own truck.

By the time he reached the driver’s-side window, he was in such a state of panic that it took a moment for him to accept what he saw.

Lila was alive. Conscious. Shading her eyes from the light of his headlamp. A trickle of blood ran from a cut on her jaw.

“Bear, you found me. Thank God.” Her voice was muffled by the window between them. “Can you get the door open? I’ve been trying but it won’t budge. And my seat belt is stuck too.”

He touched his chest, willing his heart to slow its galloping pace. “How long have you been here?” He eyed the door, which was blocked by a tree branch wedged against it.

“I don’t know. I think I blacked out for a little bit. Don’t you have an airbag?”

“Not a very good one, it seems,” he muttered. “Are you hurt?”

“I feel sore, but that might be because the seat belt caught me. When I woke up the headlights were on but I turned them off because I didn’t want to use up the battery. I wasn’t sure if I should run the engine or not. If there’s a leak in the gas line that would be bad, right? The truck could explode?”

“Hang on.”

He dropped to his knees on the forest floor and played the headlamp over the undercarriage. He saw no signs of any drips or damage. He rose to his feet and gave her a reassuring smile. “No gas leak.”

She slumped against the seat. “That’s a relief. My imagination has been going wild. I think a bear came by!”

“Oh yeah?” Hadn’t he just been picturing that very thing?

“Yes, but he just sniffed at the truck and moved on. I told him it wasn’t the best moment for a personal conversation, that I was in the middle of an emergency.”

Hadn’t he pictured that too? Lila trying to make friends with a damn bear?

“I’m kidding,” she said with a crooked smile that nearly gutted him. “Now do you think you can get the door unblocked?”

It wasn’t easy—he had to get a tire iron from his truck to pry the branch away from the truck. But after heaving and sweating for a good ten minutes, he was able to free the door enough so she could push it open. Then he had to mess with the seat belt, which had jammed during impact. That meant leaning over her, feeling her soft breath on his neck, aching to take her into his arms.

He blocked out that urge, moving with deliberate gentleness because he didn’t know if she was injured. There was that blood on her jaw. He kept seeing it in his mind’s eye, and every time it sent fear jolting through him. A small injury could signify something bigger. He wouldn’t know until he got her free.

“What happened?” he asked her as he worked. If she had a concussion, she needed to stay conscious.

“I lost control of the steering wheel. I think there was black ice on the road but I didn’t see it. I was distracted. There’s a drawing Paulina made. The drawing! Is it there? Where is it?”

“Shhh. Let’s get you out of here and then we’ll get your things.” He wriggled the seat belt attachment back and forth, cursing himself for not getting that fixed earlier.

“I have to find my phone too. I tried to reach it to see if I had service, but I don’t know where it is and the dome light didn’t work.”

“There’s a dome light? Who knew?” he asked wryly. “That’s what headlamps are for.”

“Or phone flashlights, which aren’t much use when it comes to finding your phone.” She laughed, a breathless, fluttery sound that told him she was more shaken than she wanted to admit. “I’m so sorry about your truck, Bear. I’ll pay to fix it.”

“No, you won’t,” he growled. “Forget the truck.” He didn’t give a crap about his truck. He just wanted to get her out of here, make sure she wasn’t hurt, get her home…he felt something brush against the top of his head, and knew it was her lips.

“I knew you’d find me,” she said softly. “Do you know I wasn’t even scared, all alone in the woods like this? That’s because I knew you’d come.”

He grunted. Of course he’d come.

Finally he managed to unjam the seatbelt and lift it away from her body. She rubbed her chest where it had held her pinned to the seat. Shit…broken ribs? Bruises?

Gingerly, he snaked one arm around her back and the other under her knees and lifted her from the seat. She looped her arms around his neck and snuggled against him as he picked his way across the forest floor to his Toyota. He’d left the headlights on and engine running so the cab would stay warm.

Lila moaned as he deposited her on the passenger seat. “It’s so cozy in here. I guess I was pretty cold. I didn’t even realize it.”

Was she in shock? He took a coat from his box of emergency supplies in the backseat and covered her with it. “I’ll be right back with your things.”

“What about your poor truck?”

“I’ll deal with it tomorrow. A night in the woods won’t bother it.”

As he pulled away from her, she grabbed his shoulder. “Thank you, Bear,” she whispered. “I don’t know what I would have?—”

“Everything’s okay. You’re fine. I’m going to take you home?—”

“No,” she interrupted.

“What?”

“I don’t want to go home. I want to go to your place.” In the light of the dashboard, her violet eyes pleaded with him. He’d much rather have her close by so he could keep an eye on her anyway.

“Should I call Ani?”

“No. I’m fine. You have EMT training, you can check me out. I just want to be with you.” She was shivering even with the heater blasting.

He closed the door and hurried to collect her bag and her phone, which had slid under the rubber floor mat. He also grabbed the piece of sketch paper she’d mentioned. As he played the beam of his headlamp over it, his first impression was that he’d seen that face before. But he couldn’t pin it down, and the next time he looked at it, the likeness rang no bells at all.

Lila had dozed off by the time he got back to the truck, but she woke up as soon as he got in. “You got the drawing?”

“Yup.” He handed everything to her and put the truck in gear. “Who is that?”

“Do you know him?” she asked sharply.

“At first I thought so, but no.”

Disappointed, she yawned. “It’s a crazy story.” As they drove, she gave him a quick rundown of everything Paulina had told her. “I forgot to ask her where exactly she saw him. The location might tell us something.”

He set a hand on her knee. “How about you rest that imagination of yours until tomorrow? We can’t solve anything tonight.”

“Of course we can.”

“Oh yeah?”

“There’s the question of how you knew to come look for me. How you knew I was in trouble.” She interlaced her fingers with his, causing his heart to jump and other body parts to respond just as forcefully.

“You were late coming back.”

“Not that late.” She flashed her phone at him. “It’s only nine o’clock. I could have been having dinner with Paulina. But you knew something wasn’t right, didn’t you?”

He shrugged a shoulder, since it was undeniable that he had known. “So?”

“So maybe I’m not the only one with intuition.”

“Or maybe I knew because it’s you. Because…” Because he had feelings for her. Because if anything happened to her, he wouldn’t be okay. Because… “Can’t let anything happen to my employees,” he finished weakly.