Page 37

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Still shaking from the horrifying experience of throwing a knife at another human being, Lila ran ahead of Bear and Grant so she could warn Molly. In their very sketchy plan, Molly was supposed to be the getaway driver in case there was a need for such a thing. She was on standby, out of sight, keys in the ignition.

“Oh my God, what happened?” Molly started the truck as soon as she caught sight of Lila’s face.

“I threw a knife at Grant and hit him in the arm. We have to take him to a doctor, which I guess would be Ani. I don’t know, he might need surgery. I don’t think it’s deep, but…”

“You threw a knife at him?”

“He had a shotgun aimed right at Bear! What was I supposed to do?” Lila shuddered as the memory kept washing over her. “Bear says he’ll be okay.” She kept clinging to that calm reassurance. “I was actually aiming for the gun.”

“You need more practice,” growled Grant as he reached the truck, carefully supported by Bear.

Lila shuddered. “I think I might avoid knives from now on.”

“Hey, you had to protect your man. I get it.” Grant swayed and nearly collapsed onto the ground, but Bear caught him.

“I think he’s going into shock,” Bear explained. “The good news, the pain is lessening. Bad news, he might fall asleep. Can’t let that happen.” He helped Grant into the passenger seat and gently fastened the seat belt around him. “Molly, as soon as you have cell service, call Sam. We need emergency transport to the Blackbear hospital. Keep that knife where it is. Call Ani too, she can help.”

Molly nodded, then shot Grant an uneasy look. “Hang on a hot second. This isn’t the bad guy, is it? I don’t want to be alone in a truck with a bad guy and a knife.”

“I’m not the bad guy,” Grant said through gritted teeth. “I’m an investigative journalist. I was working on a story about the biggest fucking coverup in Alaska history. And if these guys don’t get going, the truth will be buried forever.”

“Okay, okay, but you might want to work on the overdramatic delivery. That’s why people side-eye the media.” Molly shifted into lecture mode. “Just the facts, please, hold the hype.”

“Oh my god. That’s what you’re worried about while I bleed out in your truck?”

“Huh. You just proved my point. I don’t see much blood at all.”

“Lila, I have some towels in my Toyota, can you grab them?” Bear asked her in a low voice.

She ran to do so. The pit in her stomach kept growing. Not only had she flung a knife at someone, but Bear hadn’t fully met her eyes this whole time. Sure, he’d been focused on taking care of Grant, but her intuition told her he wasn’t happy with what she’d done.

When she brought the towels back—they were in his box of emergency gear—Bear carefully nested them against Grant’s side and on the armrest. “Better?” Grant nodded. His eyes were starting to drift closed. “No sleeping,” Bear said sternly. “You might jostle the knife and send it deeper.”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t sleep.” Molly gestured at Bear to close the door, which he did gingerly. “I have a lot to say about the state of journalism. I can keep going on that topic for a while.” And off they went.

Lila’s heart fluttered a mile a minute as she stood in the snow next to Bear, watching the truck’s taillights disappear down the corridor of spruce trees. Their branches were still heavy with snow, arching over the road.

She spun to face Bear at the same moment he turned her way. “I’m sorry,” she blurted, while he said, “I had it under control.”

“I just…I couldn’t bear to see you in danger.” She felt tears coming, but willed them to stay away. “I just reacted.”

His face was grim. “Too risky.” His voice went flat and hard. “What if he files assault charges?”

She hadn’t even thought of that. “But he had a gun on you!”

“On me, not you. If harm comes to you because you were trying to protect me…” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. This time his voice broke. “That can’t happen.”

“Bear, I did it because I love you. Why can’t you see that? Can you imagine if I had to watch you get shot right in front of me?” With a soft sob, she turned away from him. A moment later, she felt strong arms come around her.

He pulled her into the trees along the side of the road, then pushed her behind him to shield her with his body.

“Shhh,” he said in a whisper. “Be very quiet.”

In silence, they watched as two men zoomed down the road on snowmobiles. They wore ski goggles and Gore-Tex snowsuits, along with rifles strapped to their backs. They didn’t stop at the parking pad but kept onwards, jumping across the snow dunes and the boardwalk, until they reached the front door of the Community. There, they jumped off their rigs and stormed into the building.

“Come on.” Bear tugged Lila from behind the trees. They ran toward his truck. He opened the door and shepherded her inside. “Keep your head down.”

They spun into a turnaround that sent snow spraying through the air, and zoomed down the road.

“You can get up now,” he said after they’d gone half a mile or so. “I don’t think they heard us. Probably making a bunch of noise tearing up the Community.”

Wincing, she lifted her head. He reached over to massage the kink out of her neck. Strong hands, gentle touch. Had she really messed everything up with Bear? “Are we going to Snow River now?”

“I’d like to go out there, but you don’t have to. I can drop you in town. Pick up reinforcements. Gunnar would be nice to have along. Gil if I can find him.”

She was already shaking her head. “It might be too late. Those men on the snowmobiles, don’t you think they’re headed to Snow River next?”

“They might have already been there. I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t find everything they were looking for. Maybe they thought Grant had it.”

“Can we drive all the way to the cabins? Is there a road?”

“Not all the way, no. But we can ski the last few miles. I happen to have our skis in the back of the truck. Never took them out after the last time.”

She looked over at him, finally able to smile for the first time since that knife had left her hand. “You know how much I love to ski.”

“Yes, you say it’s like flying across the snow. I think about that every time I ski now.” He gave her a tender smile that made that tight band around her heart loosen a little more.

“Then that decides it,” she said firmly. “Let’s go to Snow River. It might be our only chance. But let’s definitely avoid anyone with a firearm.”

“Agreed. If we see anyone, we turn around and leave.”

The truck bounced across the icy ruts, making her grab the seat for stability. “What did Grant say about Rita? He kept talking after I ran to the truck, didn’t he?”

“He said they were both looking into the Snow River Murders. She’d found some notes in Jim Sutcliff’s desk that she wanted to follow up on. She thought the accident that killed him was deliberate. And you were right, Allison Casey was a distant relative. Grant was working on a tip about sex trafficking targeting indigenous girls in Alaska. They just happened to cross paths.”

“And what about the dress and the red syrup and all that stuff?”

Bear drummed his thumbs against the steering wheel. “He didn’t seem to know about any of that. I believed him. He said he didn’t hurt Rita. I believed that too. And I don’t think he’s Nancy Butcher’s child. He came here for a story, and I think that’s about the sum total of it.”

“So there’s someone else making mischief.”

“Looks like.” He kept his gaze on the road ahead, doing his best to avoid potholes and slick spots. “I would knife someone for you too,” he said abruptly, making her start.

“Oh. That’s…nice.” Was that a romantic or a bloody thing to say? She couldn’t quite decide. “But I don’t recommend it. It feels horrible. Do you really think I could go to jail?”

“You’re not going to jail,” he said firmly. Then he shot her a sly smile. “But you might have to stay in Firelight Ridge so the law doesn’t catch up to you. Just another outlaw hiding out in the wilderness.”

Her heart eased even more, light flooding through her, and she found herself smiling. Things almost felt normal again with Bear.

Almost, but not quite. She’d told him she loved him, and he’d said nothing of the sort. “I’d knife someone for you too,” didn’t have quite the same ring as “I love you.”

She felt it again, that primal need to do something, to stop that man from hurting Bear, to fling herself into the action. And it made her think about the women who’d lived here far from the eyes of the outside world. Women out here, even if they had husbands, had to know how to survive on their own. That was why those four iconoclastic women had formed such a tight bond.

The evidence that Grant had talked about…was it related to whatever Nancy had seen, and that Allison had wanted to put on the mail plane? Possibly Nancy’s journal? What had happened to it after the shooting?

Gwen.

“Bear,” she said, so abruptly he jumped. “I think I know how Gwen was involved.”

“How?”

“She took the evidence. Remember how the FBI report said that Gwen tried to render aid to Allison? Whatever Allison had on her, probably Nancy’s journal, Gwen must have taken it to make sure the shooter didn’t get his hands on it.”

“She was found a couple miles from the Snow River cabins.” Bear frowned at the road ahead. “Why would she go out there?”

Lila shook her head. “She wouldn’t, not on her own. He must have caught her and taken her out there.”

Bear thumped his fist on the steering wheel. “But she escaped. Damn, those women were tough. She must have thought her only chance was to run.”

“Poor Gwen.” Lila could picture her collapsing into the snow, so exhausted she couldn’t go a single step further. “So then where is the journal? Did Donald Jenner end up with it? If he did, why are these people still looking for it?”

“Maybe Gwen hid it before he could find it.”

Bear turned the truck down a logging road that hadn’t been plowed. The thick growth of trees here had protected the road enough so the snow was manageable for his truck. “If we’re right, whatever was in that journal was important enough to justify the murder of two women and two bystanders. Three, including Joe Baker.”

“And Rita Casey,” she reminded him. “Which basically means, what the hell are we doing right now? Is this too dangerous?”

“I’ve been working on a plan. As long as we get there first and I can establish a line of sight, we should be okay. You can stay in the woods, out of the line of fire. You can be a lookout too. That owl hoot you do so well, that’ll be our warning.”

Her stomach lurched as they hit a pocket of snow. She didn’t want to be separated from Bear. “I think we need to stay together,” she said slowly.

He looked at her sharply. “Is that an intuition or a preference?”

“It’s both. But the intuition is real.” In fact, it was getting stronger. “We need to stay together,” she repeated firmly. “But I think we’ll be okay.”

That part, honestly, she was less certain about. Her stomach was still so full of butterflies that it was hard to tell for sure. She closed her eyes and dove inside herself, to that quiet pool where she could always find peace.

Today, snow was falling gently on the surface of that imaginary pool. Serenity held her in its spell; she felt cradled by it, like a child.

She opened her eyes and saw Bear give her a curious glance. “Let’s keep going. But we stay together.”

“We stay together,” he agreed. And if she hadn’t already lost her heart to him, she would have in that moment.