Sarah Varland - Alaskan Ambush

But that didn’t give them any motive to kill her.

Unless... She wondered...“Do you know all of the people involved in whatever kind of criminal group this is?”

“We don’t. We’re missing quite a few people.”

“I’m going to give you two names. Both of them area skiers I tried to rescue last week and both died. Different avalanches. Gabriel Hernandez and Jay Twindley.”

“You think they might be connected?” He’d taken a seat beside her but he sat up a little straighter now. Kate nodded.

“I don’t know how but...it’s the only explanation for how I could have gotten on anyone’s radar, at least that I can think of.” She felt her eyes narrow. “Gabriel. Look him up first because we know how the avalanche that killed Jay Twindley broke loose but the one Gabriel was caught in was remotely triggered and something about it felt...off to me.”

“That would be unusual, wouldn’t it? For an avalanche to be used as a way to intentionally kill someone?” Micah asked. She appreciated that he was able to follow her train of thought without long explanations, because she wasn’t good at those. Didn’t enjoy them.

“Extremely.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if it’s likely at all. But it’s all I’ve got. I don’t have anything of anyone’s. I know that much.” She looked over at Micah, met his eyes and found so much familiarity there, even after all these years, that she looked away. She hadn’t let a friend get as close to her as Micah since Drew.

And Drew had died. She hadn’t been able to save him.

Making friends had been harder since then.

She looked away from Micah’s eyes, from the gut-wrenching, heart-cleansing kind of honesty she was tempted to proclaim when she looked there. She wanted to tell him everything that had happened since he’d left, how it made her feel, all the things her siblings had asked that she hadn’t been able to articulate, things the counselor she’d seen exactly once had mentioned but she’d not been interested in discussing.

In her struggle to avoid Micah’s eyes, his arm caught her eye. They’d both forgotten about it, though she didn’t know how Micah had; it must be hurting intensely.

“Let me see what we can do for your arm, okay?”

Before he could answer she’d already pushed the blanket off herself and moved to a kneeling position. Her backpack had some basic first-aid supplies in it and she should be able to do a better job with it than what had been done so far—not a difficult proposition, since that added up to exactly nothing.

“Take your jacket off.” He did so without complaint and she rolled her eyes. “You have on a short-sleeved T-shirt.”

“I would think that would make what you’re doing right now easier.”

“Sure, yes, it does.” Kate tried not to laugh but failed. “But I can’t believe you’re not hypothermic. You’re from here—don’t you remember how to dress in the woods in the winter?”

“I wasn’t planning to be in the woods for this long.”

“No one ever is. Be more prepared next time.”

She felt his gaze without meeting it. She knew she’d sounded too serious, given away too much, betrayed the terror that still lurked inside at the idea of being unprepared.

“This is going to hurt a little.” She cleaned the wound the best she could, thankful that while it was worse than a graze, it was just on the edge of his arm. She didn’t have any experience doing first aid for gunshot-wound victims, but this seemed like it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. She handled it the best she could, then looked over at Micah. Hopefully he wasn’t planning to use this time to catch up, because she was exhausted, and while part of her wanted to know what he’d been up to for the last decade, she reminded herself that keeping him at arm’s length was the best idea. He was here temporarily, just until he closed this case and then he’d be back to Anchorage. And the life she was living was in Moose Haven.

“We should get some sleep. At least one of us.” Her shoulders sank with relief at his words. No small talk.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“You can’t sleep?”

Couldn’t? Or wouldn’t? In addition to the fact that someone shooting at her didn’t do wonders for her ability to wind down, she didn’t want to sleep in a room with Micah. The nightmares didn’t come every night. They were down to just a few times a month. But she didn’t want to risk tonight being the night she had one.

She shook her head. “Not yet anyway,” she said to soften her words.

“Okay, you take first shift. Wake me if you hear anything off.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re seriously going to sleep?”

“I’m going to catch a nap, yeah. This cabin is secure, you have a gun and you know how to use it and I have no need to play hero and stay awake when it’s not necessary. Wake me in an hour.”

“Okay.” Kate didn’t argue, just sat there and watched him as he closed his eyes. His shoulders fully relaxed seven minutes later, not that she’d been staring at those broad shoulders.

Micah Reed was back in Moose Haven. Someone had shot at her.

Both improbable situations chased each other around her mind, like the irritating black miniature poodles her neighbors had. Eagle bait, she called them when no one was listening. If only the issues facing her now were as innocuous as those annoying dogs.

Neither made sense, unless one of the avalanches she’d worked recently had been caused by humans. In that case, though, why target her? She’d been the first one to the scene, but not the only one. Moose Haven Police Department had come too and as far as she knew, none of them were being threatened. She’d double-check with Noah to make sure, but that explanation didn’t seem right to her at the moment.

Having thought through that subject, she moved back to Micah.

Yeah, she had nothing there either.

He was tall, handsome and all grown up, but still very much the same as he’d been from everything she’d seen in the last few hours. He didn’t take himself too seriously, but he was sure of himself. Enough so that it didn’t threaten his masculinity or his legitimacy as law enforcement to let Kate take the first shift while he napped.

She liked that kind of attitude in a man.

Or would, if she let herself spend any time thinking about men. About anything, really, besides work. Search and rescue had become her existence, the entirety of it. It was easy to justify. They needed her; it was her paying job; so many of the workers were volunteers... Blah, blah, blah. Her siblings usually addressed those issues when they tried to convince Kate to have a life outside it.

But that wasn’t the reason she was a workaholic. Only Kate knew the truth—that saving lives was all she deserved to give her time to doing now. She owed it to Drew, for not being able to save his. And she had to stay focused.

The hour dragged on, and the quiet, usually something Kate appreciated, only magnified the thoughts in her mind that she’d rather not be wrestling with right now. When sixty minutes had finally passed, she set a hand on Micah’s upper arm, feeling the firmness of his muscle beneath her hands. His eyes immediately opened.

“Your turn.” He grinned at her.

Kate shook her head.

“Come on, close your eyes. Humor me.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” she returned with a smile, but she closed her eyes, just to make him happy. And to make him stop talking...

Kate blinked her eyes open, jerked out of sleep and realized she’d nodded off. She stole a glance at Micah, who was looking around the cabin, seeming fully awake and watchful.

She trusted him to keep them safe, she realized as she blinked her eyes, more slowly this time, and let sleep claim her again.