Sarah Varland - Alaskan Ambush

Kate didn’t seem surprised by the box.

“Did you put that there?”

She nodded. “I don’t know how many other people know this place is here, but I figured if anyone got into trouble they could use some supplies. Not everyone is as prepared as they should be out here.”

“Is that something your parents taught you? I don’t remember them spending too much time in the woods.”

Kate seemed to consider the question and finally nodded. “In some ways, yes. You know they loved it up here, but they didn’t venture into the woods often, so they didn’t teach us everything we would eventually need to know. I sort of just learned from experience.”

Her tone said there was a lot behind the word experience , but she didn’t owe him stories of her high school years and later. He’d been the one to leave town and no, he hadn’t had a choice about that, but in an age of internet and social media, it wouldn’t have been hard to keep in touch. He’d been the one to choose not to. He hadn’t wanted to watch her grow up into the woman he’d already been able to tell she was becoming when he left. While they’d only been friends, his feelings toward her had started shifting just before he left in a way that made him resist the idea of watching her fall in love with someone, get married, raise babies.

And know that it wasn’t him.

He swallowed hard, the truth about his past feelings for Kate something he hadn’t wanted to deal with then, and still didn’t want to deal with now. It was better if he kept her at a distance, though being back in her town and in such close proximity was making that a challenge.

Kate spoke up, saved him from his own mind. “Some of my experience has come through search-and-rescue work. That takes up most of my time.” It was like she’d read his mind and decided to answer at least one of the questions he hadn’t asked. Micah was grateful. She spoke up again. “Tell me a little more about who these men are and why they’re after me.”

“I wish I could do the second, but I have no idea. You’ve never met the Delaneys before? Either of the brothers?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Tell me everything about today, what happened before you were shot at.”

She met his eyes, seemed to be considering whether she was ready to talk.

Micah clenched his jaw. Did his best to wait. Someone was after her specifically, but he didn’t know why the Delaneys could possibly have something against her. From the investigating he’d done, it was clear they didn’t spend much time in Moose Haven, so they couldn’t have interacted with Kate, at least not often.

So why target her?

He’d thought earlier that his day couldn’t have gotten much worse, with the case in a tangled mess he didn’t know if he could untwist and his partner dead. But he couldn’t have imagined someone after Kate, a woman he cared about more than he should.

More than as his friend. More than as his other friend’s little sister.

But the day had gotten worse. Knowing Kate was in danger made it hard to breathe, but it sharpened his focus, made him want to do a better job on this case.

He had to because her safety depended on it. And he wouldn’t let her down.

Kate pulled a blanket tighter around herself and leaned against the cabin wall. She didn’t remember the last time she’d pushed herself that hard physically and it felt good. No wonder her sister ran around mountain trails for fun. Today was almost enough to convince Kate to take it up herself.

If only she’d been doing it for fun, and not to save her own life. She shuddered, tried to push the past twenty-four hours out of her mind, but she knew she shouldn’t bother. Micah needed to know what had happened, for the sake of his investigation, and she was the only one who could tell him.

Time to admit defeat and do it. Almost. “I’ll tell you as soon as I call Noah.”

She’d just reached her backpack when Micah stopped her, his hands coming down on hers. “Stop.”

“I need to tell him where I am.” She stared at him, trying to figure out why he wouldn’t let her... “Oh. Right.”

“Your satphone will give the Delaneys something to trace.”

In all her efforts to make sure they weren’t tracked, she hadn’t thought of electronic issues. Micah had mentioned it earlier but she’d forgotten.

Micah seemed to read the look on her face. “Is it on?”

Kate shook her head. She was thankful for that at least. She’d been in too big of a hurry when she packed her bag to power the phone on. Her siblings would have said God was taking care of her. Kate didn’t know. “No, it’s off.”

“We should be okay, then, but don’t use it.”

“My siblings will worry.”

“Better that they worry tonight and have you get back safely tomorrow than make them feel better now and tell the Delaneys our exact location.”

She nodded and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. Her hands had started to shake slightly. She gripped the blanket and took a deep breath, willing her body to calm down. “Everything about today was normal until lunchtime.”

“What happened then?”

“I’d been out this morning, at the lodge taking some pictures to include in the new brochure Tyler and Emma made up to advertise the lodge. I went home to get lunch and my house had been torn apart. Drawers open, mess everywhere and furniture cushions slashed, just like at the cabin here.”

It had been jarring, helping her brother and new sister-in-law, seeing their excitement over the shots she’d gotten, and then finding the destruction at her house.

“Someone trying to threaten you? Warn you away from something?” Micah asked.

She shrugged. “Could be, but it looked more like they were searching for something. Any idea what?”

She studied his face, but he gave nothing away with his expressions. Something he’d probably learned from being a cop, because when he was a kid Kate had been able to read practically every thought on his face. She’d never told him that, but apparently someone had pointed out his lack of poker face and he’d fixed it at some point in the last few years. It disappointed her, and then surprised her that it had.

“Did I tell you what the Delaneys are accused of doing?”

“Yes. You didn’t mention any violent crimes, though. Do they have a history of assault? Or murder?”

“Not until today.” This time she could read his face. His partner. She winced, almost feeling his pain for herself, shutting out the memories that threatened to overtake her. They were always there, waiting in the edges of her mind, no matter how high she climbed, how many rivers she white-watered down, how many ocean passages she kayaked.

But she’d probably never give up trying to outrun them.

“They do kill people that get in their way, though.” Kate said the words to ground them both, focus them both back on the present.

Micah nodded slowly.

“How did I get in the way?” She tried to wrap her mind around it, come up with some kind of working theory, but couldn’t settle on anything. She’d had a low-key week, besides more rescues than usual due to the avalanche conditions. Four backcountry skiers had needed to be rescued within the span of five days and two had died from injuries suffered in the avalanches they’d been caught in.

Every single loss hurt. Kate took every one personally, despite the fact that she told the new SAR recruits to never do that. Mountains and avalanches weren’t sentient, weren’t out to get anyone.

But when it came down to it?

It sometimes seemed that was the truth.

Micah hadn’t offered any new thoughts, yet, so Kate used the silence to go back over her week again, see what she could be missing. Had she acquired something they needed to search for? Had she talked to one of them unknowingly? The avalanche rescues did tend to attract crowds and one of the Delaneys could easily have been in one of them.