Cover Me

chapter 10



Double-checking, Flynn shuffled through the survival gear packed in the cab of his truck. Even though he knew he hadn’t forgotten anything. But he needed something to occupy himself while Misty said good-bye to her family twenty feet away.

Freeze dried food. Check.

Matches in waterproof container. Check.

He’d never expected a second chance with Misty. He hefted her backpack into his truck cab along with his own while Misty hugged her brother, sister-in-law, and nephew outside their home—her parents’ old house.

Arctic mittens, snowbibs, shoes. Check.

Signal mirror and flares. Check.

His hands slowed on maintenance items for the truck as he peered through the windshield. He couldn’t count how many times he’d walked up those steps to her whitewashed home built into the side of a mountain.

During high school, he’d been as comfortable there as in his own house, until her brother had ordered him never to set foot on their property again. Her brother hadn’t spoken to him once in the four years since then, when he’d forcibly removed him from the porch with a punch that stayed imprinted so firmly on Flynn’s memory he resisted the urge to wince even now.

Tent. Check.

Sleeping bags. Check.

Phoenix wasn’t looking at him in any welcoming way now either, but he hadn’t booted him out of the driveway—yet. It was clear he didn’t want his sister to leave, but was beginning to realize the Foster family stubborn streak ran through every member.

Misty cuddled her nephew, the baby’s cheek to hers. The kid was so darn cute with that crazy mop of dark hair that almost looked like a wig on a child so young. Misty held him with such confidence and ease, adjusting his tiny earmuffs shaped like dog faces.

For once, Flynn allowed himself the painful luxury of just looking at her. Her hood was back, the wind lifting her wispy, soft hair.

She’d kept it short in high school, but these days wore it blunt-cut at her shoulders with bangs across her forehead. Simple and sexy. She wasn’t as flashy as Sunny, who wore bright colors and dyed streaks through her hair. Misty was… Misty. Quietly pretty and soft, with curves and a gentle smile that lit up the place more than any big show.

Her laugh carried on the morning breeze. Yeah, she sounded different these days, more and more so the longer that passed without her hearing her own voice. She’d lost so much and he didn’t know how to make it right.

Flynn’s dad told him some days just sucked and a guy simply had to get over it. Problem was, for him, every day sucked since he’d screwed up his life four years ago. He still didn’t know why he’d cheated on Misty. Hell, he’d loved her. He still loved her so much it hurt to look at her holding that baby and smiling at her family—never smiling at him anymore.

Used to be all he thought about was getting her naked and burying himself inside her. Now all he thought about was how damn bad he wanted to touch her hair. Even hold her hand.

Shit. He was a sap.

Flynn stuffed the gear into the space behind the front seat before backing out of the truck cab. He slammed the door on his truck and walked around the front, sidestepping the snowplow attachment that would make their trek down easier.

His already aching gut churned all over again. He’d lived his whole life in this place. Never stepped foot out and never wanted to. But here he was, driving Misty.

He skimmed his finger along the neck of his sweater. Agoraphobia threatened to choke him. From leaving home? Or from losing Misty? He refused to let his emotions yank him around and wreck his life again. He pushed through the freaked-out feeling and tuned into the family farewell.

Astrid scooped her son from Misty and hugged her with her free arm. “Be careful, sweetie. Be happy.” After a second hug, the former New York model brushed away tears, then clasped her baby boy’s wrist. “Wave bye-bye to Aunt Misty.”

Sweeping her toddler nephew’s hood back into place, Misty kissed his chubby cheek a final time. “Be a good boy for Mama and Daddy.” Her words fogged puffs into the cold air. “I promise to try to come back and visit after my surgery.”

Her jaw trembling with emotion, she clasped her locket, the one he knew held photos of her parents.

They’d been so disappointed when he and Misty broke up… and then the rumors started from June’s telling everyone all about their “night together”—more like a half hour.

Not that he blamed June. He had been every bit as much at fault. She’d been so upset over the gossip, she’d finally left town two years ago. As June had said, she felt like the woman in the book they’d read in high school, The Scarlet Letter. How could she bounce back from stealing the deaf girl’s guy?

He hadn’t liked the way she labeled Misty, but he understood her point.

Phoenix stepped away from his wife and closed in on Flynn, his face unreadable. Flynn braced his shoulders for whatever the guy had in store. He just hoped it didn’t involve a fight. He didn’t want to subject Misty to that, but he wasn’t taking another punch lying down.

Her brother jabbed his thumb toward the other side of the truck, gesturing for Flynn to join him by the weather vane topped with a metal bear.

Flynn kept his back to Misty so she wouldn’t be able to read his lips. “I don’t want a scene in front of Misty or your wife and kid.”

“I agree,” Phoenix said surprisingly, the mountain wind muting and tearing at his words. “If you really care for her, convince her she doesn’t have to go.” He leaned in. “Even with her hearing back, she’s not going to fit in out there. She’s been gone from regular society for too long.”

He could see the logic in Phoenix’s reasoning, but if he went that path, he would lose any chance with her. And he had to be honest with himself.

“I’m sorry, dude, but I can’t do that. This is what she wants. You know how it is when a woman has her mind set. If this were Astrid, could you tell her no?”

Phoenix closed his eyes and scrubbed his hand over his cold-chapped face. “I don’t even know why I’m still discussing it. I just wish she could have waited, at least until Sunny gets back, but my baby sister is the stubborn one in the family.”

He understood well how deep Misty could dig in her heels.

Checking over his shoulder quickly, her brother tucked his hand into his jacket and pulled out an envelope. “Here’s some cash for the road.”

“No, really, I can handle this.” He wasn’t wealthy, but he made a decent living. Or at least it seemed so here. “There’s plenty of snow in need of plowing, and my brother and I are the only game in town.”

“Take it. This is no time to let your pride get in the way. This is about Misty.” He thrust the envelope into Flynn’s hands. “Take care of my sister.”

Flynn closed his fingers over the money. Holy crap, the stack was thick. Even if it was all small bills, there had to be a lot of cash here. And it did bite his pride harder than the slice of winter’s worst storm.

But Phoenix was right. This wasn’t about them. It was about Misty.

“I won’t let her out of my sight,” Flynn vowed to her brother and to himself. Regardless of whether or not she let him back in her life, he would make sure she had the future she wanted.

“Good, good…” Phoenix nodded, staring at his sister with obvious emotion in his eyes.

And with reason. In all probability he would never see her again. Hell, there was a strong chance Flynn wouldn’t be able to return either, if he had to follow her too far out into the world. To date, no one had come back once they left. That was made clear by the village council. They asserted if they allowed free flow in and out, before long, uncommitted people would corrupt their way of life.

Flynn skimmed his finger inside the collar of his sweater again, struggling for breath, and praying he would be able to hold strong on his promise to see Misty safely down the mountain.

Failing her again wasn’t an option.

***



Snowflakes swirled in front of his windshield.

Wade gripped the steering wheel of his Chevy truck, cranked into four-wheel drive for the ice-caked road leading to the tiny port town. He’d spent the whole drive over trying to persuade Sunny to abandon this crazy-ass decision to go home immediately, but she dug her heels in deeper and deeper, refusing to discuss running off with him for a week of nonstop sex.

And her request that he go with her? She couldn’t be serious.

They’d been driving for hours from Anchorage to the small airport on the Alaska Peninsula where Sunny intended to catch a flight across Bristol Bay to the island. Alaska was all about the flying. Small planes made the state accessible year-round in a way that would otherwise be a helluva lot tougher over snowcapped terrain. At any other time he would have welcomed the notion of tackling the Alaskan outdoors with a woman who enjoyed the landscape as much as he did.

But not today, and they were almost to the airport. Almost out of time to persuade her to stay well away from home while the OSI and the police did their job.

Well, except for her injured dog.

When she’d visited Chewie and heard he had to stay on crate rest, she’d panicked. She’d quickly realized her dog couldn’t make the trip up the mountain. Even with most of the trek done by plane and snowmobile, there was still a substantial pass to be tackled on foot.

She’d actually discussed a sled option with the vet, but thank goodness the doctor had stressed the importance of keeping Chewie calm and still. Bottom line, the best thing for the dog was to stay in Anchorage, on crate rest. Since Chewie had seemed comfortable with the vet, she’d forged ahead.

Hell. He thumped the steering wheel, then ignored Sunny’s frown.

Even if he could persuade her to stay for a couple of weeks, it wasn’t as if they could launch some kind of relationship, with his deployment to Afghanistan looming. Even once he returned to the U.S., he faced a transfer to a new base.

He spun the steering wheel, cranking the truck into the parking lot outside the small brick building alongside a single landing strip. There was so much about this woman’s life he didn’t understand, yet he knew every inch of her body. Intimately. And he wanted more. More of her. More time with her. Even if that meant following her up the mountain?

Damn, but he was in a crappy mood. He grabbed for his Snickers bar tucked in one of the cup holders, tore off a bite, and chased it down with a swig of coffee, lukewarm and bold.

Sunny eyed his half-eaten candy bar with obvious disapproval as she finished off a bag of granola, her eyes darting intensely. For the first time he considered how everything must look in comparison to an off-the-grid community on an Aleutian island. Could that also have something to do with her decision to leave so abruptly?

If so, understanding her better could give him some insights to change her mind.

He draped his wrist over the wheel. “Culture shock, huh?”

“A little.” She crumpled the bag of half-eaten, store-bought granola she’d purchased with money from the wire transfer from her family. She wouldn’t even let him pick up the tab for her freaking lunch.

“Anything I can do?”

“It’s not like I’ve lived in an Amish community all my life.” She cocked an eyebrow, some of her old spitfire spark returning. “We have electricity, running water, cars. It’s like living in a small town, which sums up Alaska in a lot of ways. And I run a gym. I’m a successful businesswoman.”

“I didn’t mean to sound condescending.”

“Try uninformed,” she snapped.

“And you’re touchy.”

“I’ll grant you that one. It’s been a scary day. I’ve lost friends I didn’t even know were dead,” she said, avoiding his gaze. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a rubber band she’d bought when purchasing the granola. “And you might laugh, but I’m worried about my dog.”

“I’m not laughing.”

“Your friends, Liam McCabe and Hugh Franco, they’ll really check on him, just because you asked?”

“Just because I asked. You could say if Chewie’s with me, then that makes him officially one of our pack.”

“That’s nice, really nice.” Her eyes fell away, shifting to stare out the window. “They must think I’m a freak.”

He pulled the truck into a parking spot, jacked it into park.

“Since when do you give a damn what other people think?” His hand gravitated to the shiny blue streak through her hair, hesitated only an instant before stroking down the length slowly, very slowly, taking his time to touch her. He wouldn’t waste a second of what could be his last chance with her.

Her throat moved in a long swallow, her chest rising and falling faster. “Maybe I care what you think.”

She swayed closer to him, the first sign she’d given him that she felt the same connection from last night, the same regret that it would end so soon.

He reached toward her hair, carefully, waiting for her to object. She eyed him warily, but stayed quiet. The snow and slush and slow-motion world outside faded as the truck cab narrowed to just the two of them. He moved closer and slicked back her hair in his hands, the long silky strands gliding across his skin, reminding him of the way it brushed across his chest as she moved over him.

Holding her hair back with one hand, he extended his other palm for the rubber band. “I think you’re a fascinating, incredibly competent woman.”

“And hot, right?” She dropped the hair tie into his grip.

“That goes without saying.” He slid the purple band around her ponytail, and while the job wasn’t perfect, there was something definitely sexy about the low-slung hair gathered slightly to the side.

All the more sexy because every time he looked at it, he thought of his fingers in her hair, his right to touch her. The way she granted him that right without pulling back. It was something to hold on to in a day where frustration chewed through him over saying good-bye, over the secrets she still held.

Her lips parted.

He waited for her, taking her with his eyes while he waited for her to take him right back.

“Wade?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“Babe?”

“Sorry. Gorgeous babe?”

She rolled her eyes. “Have you ever had a moose burger?”

Not the pillow talk he was expecting, but then when had this woman ever done the expected? He gathered her ponytail in his hand. “Can’t say that I have.”

He lost himself in the slide of her hair between his fingers while waiting to see where she would go with this line of conversation.

“Moose burgers are amazing. They have less fat, with the gamey kick of deer, but the high-quality taste of a prime cut.” Her eyes held his, unflinching as they sat mere inches apart in his truck cab, connected by his hold on her hair. “There are no artificial growth hormones. It’s healthier all the way around.”

“Makes sense.”

She reached toward him slowly, deliberately, almost touching, then her hand shot past him to snag his candy bar and pitch it in the tiny trash bag. “You shouldn’t eat so much crap.”

Okay, he was having serious trouble following her train of thought. Had seeing the pictures of all those dead friends rattled her seemingly unshakable grip? “What does the fat content in my diet have to do with anything?”

“If you come home with me, you could have a moose burger at my place.”

Her question stunned him silent. She was really, no shit, inviting him to follow her to the inner sanctum of her sacred little community.

Suddenly her conversation made perfect sense, a simple offer in keeping with the more subdued tone of the day. Once that settled into his brain, he realized… Finally, she’d made a real step in admitting they had something going. He should be rejoicing.

Except hiking back up that mountain was the last thing she should be doing.

“Stay here, Sunny, just until your dog’s better, and then we can all three go together. I’ll take leave before my deployment.” Something he did not want to discuss right now and risk sending her running.

“I don’t just want to go home, I need to go home.”

He clasped her shoulders. “Tell me what’s going on. Why all the secrecy? I think we moved beyond superficial when I tossed your panties into the fireplace.”

She looked away quickly, staring out along the frozen bay and nibbling her bottom lip. “I’m freaking out over all my dead friends, okay?” She shook her head. “I can’t accept that this was a random act. Why did some get away? Are they dead out there too? And what about those families that haven’t been notified yet? The authorities aren’t interested in me taking them up there until they finish their investigation here, and quite frankly I’m not sure I want them there. Just inviting you is a huge deal for me. I don’t think you realize how big it is to bring a new person in, especially one who doesn’t intend to stay.”

Her arguments had meat to them. Almost too much. He covered her hand with his. “You know all of this only makes me want to tuck you away some place safe all the more. Let the authorities do their job.”

Slipping one finger out from under, she stroked the top of his hand, a simple touch, strangely personal. “I don’t mean to be insensitive. I’m just not used to…”

“Relationships?”

“Sharing, being open.” She twitched, a small flinch, but telling. “I have a sister…”

Her words trailed off and he waited, letting her take the lead. “Our family lives remotely. A lot of people in Alaska live off-the-grid because it’s just too far or too expensive to hook into a power plant. It’s easier, cheaper even, to make use of what’s here.”

“And that’s what your family has done.” He’d already deduced as much, but she was talking and he didn’t want to interrupt the flow.

“Hydropower from hot springs works year-round as long as you can keep the pipes from freezing. It’s effective—”

“Why are you worried about your sister?”

She bit her lip and the words dried up. Frustration sharpened, its gnawing teeth slicing clean through the last of his patience.

“To hell with it all.” He sagged back in his seat. “If you want to go, then fine. I promise to take good care of your dog. Have a nice life.”

“Wait.” She clasped his wrist.

Thank God. He swallowed back relief that she hadn’t called his bluff, because yeah, it was a bluff. One thing was certain. There wasn’t a chance in hell he could let this woman walk away alone. “I want to hear what you have to say, but I don’t have the luxury of a lot of time. I’m in the air force. I have to report in, let my superiors know if I go too far from base.”

Her hand turned cold under his. “You didn’t have to go with me today. I appreciate your help this far, but I don’t want to be the cause of your standing in front of a firing squad for going AWOL.”

Firing squad? Where had that extreme statement come from? Pieces of this woman’s life shuffled around in his brain with jagged edges that didn’t come close to fitting together. He was missing something. “Where did you say your sister lives?”

“I didn’t. We’re private.” She thrust her hands into her hair, her voice cracking. “Call us weird or freaks or whatever.”

“Whoa, tone it down a notch there.”

Her fists thumped the seats. “Okay, fine. My sister’s deaf. She wants to get a cochlear implant. It’s going to take some major maneuvering to make that happen for her, logistically and financially. But she wants it. I’m on board.” Her words tumbled on top of each other, steamrolling through his brain, almost too much information to assimilate after so long of her parceling out every crumb. “Misty’s planning to leave soon and I’m just worried about her alone out there if there’s still some killer on the loose targeting people who leave my town.”

“All the more reason we should just leave this to the authorities.”

And still, Sunny evaded his eyes. “Everything I said about my sister is true. I’m scared for her, leaving on her own. I want to talk to her, to make sure she has solid plans in place. To tell her good-bye.”

He studied her hazel eyes and for once he hated all the military training, because he could see she was still evading, still hiding a crucial piece of herself. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Believe me when I tell you, I’ll do anything to protect my family.” The honesty of her words was unmistakable this time.

He waited for more, for the rest.

Something shifted in her eyes, taking them from hazel to a dewy green. She cupped his face in her hands. “Our time together was amazing. Memorable. Special. I wish I had the luxury of staying longer, of basking in the afterglow. But I need to check on my sister.”

The turmoil behind her eyes built, swelling with the sheen of tears, the last thing he would have expected from her. Then she sealed her mouth to his, her lips cool even in the warmth of the truck cab.

Her fingernails dug into his face, not enough to hurt but enough to hold. Not that he intended to back away from her, now that he finally had her in his arms again. Her tongue met his, fully demanding and taking. The salty taste lingered, mixing with coffee and the wild abandon of Alaska that seemed to permeate her. He took risks and lived on the edge as a rule, yet still she knocked him off balance.

The need to have her, to be inside her again, seared through him so hard and hot and fast he wanted to throw the truck in gear and take her home with him. Did that make him a caveman? Hell if he knew, and right now, hell if he cared. He just burned to keep her with him, to protect her from whatever it was out there that had her so damn frantic. And he could have sworn she wanted to stay with him too.

But then she tore herself away, panting, gasping for air and grappling for the door. “The plane leaves in twenty minutes. I hope I don’t have to leave alone.”

Without a word, she thrust the door open and almost fell out of the truck cab, uncharacteristically clumsy. She yanked her stuffed-full backpack with her and kicked the door closed.

She charged across the parking lot into the mist of blowing snow as if she truly didn’t give a damn whether he joined her or not.

***



Sunny yanked her gloves on and scrubbed the tears from her eyes before they froze, clearing her view of the path to the tiny plane with a propeller on each low wing. A Cessna 303, her brother had told her in his email. As if that even mattered to her now, but she was desperately grasping at minute details to help fill up the gaping hole in her gut over walking away from Wade so abruptly. She’d really thought he would come with her.

Instead he’d only pushed for her to stick around on his terms.

She hefted her backpack into place, the weight somehow heavier than when she’d started out a few days ago. She couldn’t turn her back on Phoenix, her sister, everyone in her mountain village. She had to make sure, in person, that he understood how important it was that he leave Alaska. Leave the U.S. with his family and start over in Canada, and if he’d chosen that option long ago, life would be so much simpler now. Why was he so damn set on staying in Alaska? She had to make everyone understand how important it was not to naïvely think they could block out the rest of the world through limited contact.

Now that she’d stepped out, she realized how foolishly they’d limited themselves in communicating during a crisis.

At least she’d gotten the email from her brother about the wire transfer of the money and how he’d arranged this flight. She didn’t know how he’d worked that miracle and she didn’t care. She just hoped her own warning to him and the community made it through.

She needed to get a move on fast and quit letting the good-bye with Wade tear her up. She would see him when she came back to get Chewie. She would tell him… something. She didn’t know what yet, which of course only served to remind her of his words. Of how he knew she was holding back. He would know in the future too and she couldn’t see how to get past that.

Time. She just needed time to figure out a way to straddle these two worlds.

The pilot stood beside the plane, waiting with a clipboard in his hands. Wearing Nomex coveralls that added bulk to what appeared to be a wiry frame, he jotted notes. With the earflaps down on his snow hat, he didn’t hear her coming until she stopped almost in front of him. He looked up fast, aviator shades covering his eyes and a groomed beard shading his jaw.

“Are you Ms. Foster? Sunny Foster?”

“Yes, I’m here, just me though. My, uh, friend couldn’t join me after all.” Her throat closing with pain, with regret, she resisted the urge to look back at Wade. She juggled her backpack more firmly behind her so she could thrust out a hand. “Thank you for making this flight on such short notice.”

“My pleasure, ma’am. This is how I make my living.” He clasped her gloved hand in his. “My name’s Brett.”

***



His cell phone buzzed in his pocket.

Eyes locked on Sunny talking to the Cessna pilot, Wade ignored the call. He’d taken a week of leave to watch out for Sunny and he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. He would check the number and message as soon as the plane was airborne.

And he was inside it, planted right beside a certain infuriating woman.

Wade reached behind him for the backpack of survival and overnight gear he kept packed in the truck. Countless times he’d landed from one mission only to have the next waiting. And survival gear was a must in Alaska, where a broken-down car could be a matter of life and death.

The cell hummed again, any sound drowned out by the wind roaring down from the mountains to tear across the flat airport. Damn. It could be something about the deputy or those other bodies. He couldn’t afford to ignore it, especially when it could affect Sunny.

He tugged a glove off with his teeth and fished for his phone. “Sergeant Rocha.”

“Rocha, it’s McCabe,” the major said with clipped efficiency. “OSI just passed along some more information on your friend Ms. Foster and I thought you would be interested.”

Wade’s eye zipped back to the plane as Sunny passed over her backpack. He exited the truck and thumbed the automatic lock. “Your tone doesn’t sound great.”

Foreboding crept through him, but he needed every ounce of information he could scavenge, especially with Sunny still holding out on him.

“That’s because the news isn’t good,” McCabe answered unceremoniously. “She and her family had a reason for falling off-the-grid.”

Possibilities raced through his head—criminal ties topping the list. If she was on the run from the law, that was it. His time with her was over. Except she said she’d been in the community for fifteen years, just a teenager. Still… “Details?”

“She has a sister and a half brother. That brother—Phoenix Foster—joined the army straight out of high school.”

Brother in the army. Family slipping away, out of the mainstream. Into hiding. Ah hell, he could already guess at the deserter scenario about to unfold.

“He went AWOL the night before a deployment. He and his entire family haven’t been heard from since.”

Shock, then the bitter taste of bile hit him.

Her brother was a deserter. Her brother had abandoned his brothers in arms when they needed him in battle. Brothers and sisters in arms like his teammates… like his father…

Like his mother, who lived with nursing care round the clock because she couldn’t even dress herself anymore.

What a helluva time to learn the person Sunny had been protecting was the same sort of person who’d turned his back on everything Wade believed in, worked for, was willing to die for just as the pararescue motto declared.

That others may live.

And that very same brother had a lot more reasons for making sure no one left the mountain than the deputy ever had. That didn’t explain the deputy shooting at them, but then little about this had made sense from the beginning.

Charging across the lot, he shrugged his backpack more securely in place along with his resolve. “McCabe, can you do me a favor?”

“Sure. Anything. Ask and it’s yours.”

“Keep checking on Sunny’s dog. Make sure he’s okay. Sunny and I are going, uh, hiking. This could take longer than I expected—”

“No problem. That’s all I need to know. Besides, it’s not often that I get to hang out with a dog.”

Their jobs made having a pet virtually impossible.

“Thanks. I owe you.” He ended the call.

His resolve clicked into place faster than an icicle snapped under his boots as he charged toward the aircraft. He knew. Whether or not she was complicit in any of her brother’s dealings, he couldn’t just walk away. He was in for the long haul, following her to what many would label the ends of the earth, the place that God forgot. But he wasn’t going unarmed. He had a beacon in his boot. And inside his gear, he’d packed a military-level GPS tracker. She might hate him for it later, but her home wasn’t going to be a secret black hole any longer. He couldn’t risk it.

He couldn’t let her risk it.

Wade zipped his parka and tugged on his gloves, eyes homed in on the tiny airplane just visible through the haze.

With Sunny preparing to board.