Lisa didn’t say much as she followed Henry through the woods, up a winding path. Soon, the plane and the shoreline disappeared. Swallowed by the forest. When Jack said his cabin was hidden, he really meant it.
Forests always bothered her. The shadows, the way the canopy would block out the sun. She had been terrified of them for as long as she could remember. Still, they would be safe here, or so she hoped. And she was a big girl now. She could handle this. She just had to suck it up.
It occurred to her there was really no escape from Jack. Somehow the safe house was a thousand times better than a dark, impenetrable forest.
“Don’t slow down, Morgan. It’s not time for lollygagging,” Jack said from behind her.
“I’m not lollygagging. What’re you, like seven, using that word?”
“What word?” he asked, huffing because he carried a large box of supplies. There were still more provisions in the plane. Jack had informed her when the plane landed on the lake that he was going to lock her away in his cabin, and then Henry and he would go back to fetch the rest of the supplies.
She rolled her eyes, but she didn’t argue.
“Lollygagging.”
“Move your ass then, Morgan. You’re going too god-damned slow; loitering out in the open.”
And he was right. Jack was not the one with a mark on his head, he could take all the time in the world. She had to get under cover.
Whoever was after her probably didn’t even know of his existence. Anyone who had seen him was dead.
Lisa shuddered as that through crossed her mind.
In her entire Naval career she hadn’t actually killed anyone, until today. She’d been trained to do it, attended scenarios set up to test her mettle, but scenarios and reality were two different things.
She was used to working behind the scenes, in a lab or medical setting. She’d done a short tour on a medical ship, but that was it. She didn’t see combat.
The only reason she’d agreed to this was because of Dane. She was the one with the most experience with biochemical agents, and if it meant putting her life on the line to bring an end to Chem Agent 1157 then it was worth it.
She didn’t expect to live through this.
Now so many tumultuous emotions were running through her, as she realized the lives that had been lost, including one she’d snuffed out herself.
They were trying to kill me though.
Still, she was having a hard time coming to terms with it. They were human beings.
The breeze rustled through the boughs of the trees, causing a shudder to race down her spine.
Focus.
They rounded a bend and the cabin appeared. It was a simple, rustic log cabin in a very small clearing. She just hoped there was an indoor toilet, but she seriously doubted it, since they were in the middle of nowhere.
It reminded her of some old trapper’s cabin.
Jack moved past her, unlocked the cabin and opened the door. He dropped his supplies and pulled out his gun, before slipping inside to do his check. It didn’t take long before he appeared again, waving them in.
Lisa went inside. It was one room, and she was relieved to see indoor facilities, but the rest of the cabin was open concept. One bed in view of the kitchen and a wood stove in the centre of the room. It was small. There would be no place to escape from Jack. No place to hide. No barrier to put between them, except the bathroom wall.
Her pulse began to race.
“Stay here,” Jack ordered. “We’ll bring up the rest of the supplies.”
“Do you think we’ll be safe here?” she asked.
“There are always tourists that fly in, but the airport they use to get in is southeast of here. It’s the only municipal airport. Jack is pretty concealed here. This is actually my family’s land,” Henry said. “We were grandfathered in and actually are protected by Denali National Park behind us. You’re safe here, Lisa.”
Lisa smiled at Henry. “Thank you for your help.”
“No problem.” Henry left the cabin, but Jack lingered, a strange look on his face.
“Is something wrong, Jack?” she asked, uneasy being alone with him again.
He shook his head and then handed her his gun. “Shoot anyone that’s not me or Henry who comes in.”
She nodded and took the gun. Jack left, shutting the door to the cabin. And she was left alone in the silence. There were only a couple of windows, but they were still tightly shuttered. So she sat down on a wooden chair by the kitchen table and waited, but only for a moment. She set the gun down and then began to go through the boxes of supplies that had already been brought up, digging specifically for medical supplies, because Jack was in pain whether he wanted to admit it or not. His wound needed attention.
She found the supplies and set them on the table. It kept her mind off being so isolated here with Jack for who knew how long.
The door opened and Jack peeked his head in, frowning when he saw she’d left the gun on the table.
“Why is my gun not pointed at me?” he demanded.
“Oh please. You said so yourself we’re isolated.”
Jack glared at her. “It doesn’t matter. I gave you an order.”
She was going to say more when Henry brought in the last of the supplies. “Well, Jack, that should do it. If you’re still up here in a month I’ll bring you more supplies, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Jack agreed, still glaring at her.
“I’ll come up next week, but I’ll come up from the west, through the park. I have a trap line I have to check anyhow,” Henry said, ignoring the tension that had settled in the room. “So seven days and through the trap line, yeah?”
“I’m going to set some snares soon; be on the lookout for them,” Jack said, finally turning to look at Henry.
Henry nodded. “Used to your snare lines. I’ll be on the lookout.”
“I’ll see you in a week. Thanks for this.” They shook hands and then hugged briefly.
“No problem.” Henry turned to her. “Good luck, Lisa. See you in a week.”
“Thanks again, Henry,” she said.
Henry nodded and Jack walked him out to make sure that he wasn’t accosted, then stood in silence in the doorway. Soon the brief night would fall and Lisa was fighting the weariness that was overcoming her. They’d been on the run since midnight and hadn’t a moment to rest.
“Aren’t you going to escort him back to the plane?” she asked. “Aren’t you worried someone will jump him farther down the trail?”
“Henry is a former green beret and native to Alaska. If anyone tried, they wouldn’t stand a chance.”
A few moments later they heard the sound of the float plane starting down the lake. When the puttering turned into the sound of it lifting off, Jack shut the door but didn’t say anything to her. Just stood with his back to her, facing the door, as if he was unsure of what to do next now that they weren’t being chased. Now that they were alone in the wilderness and they could relax for a moment.
“Why don’t you let me take a look at your wound. I know that it’s paining you,” she said, breaking the silence.
“I have snares to set,” he grumbled.
“Crane, you will sit your ass down!” she snapped, and that’s when he turned and looked at her with surprise. But he didn’t argue, as he came over to the table and sat down.
“Take your shirt off,” she said in a quieter voice, but still with authority.
Jack did, but he hesitated first. She could tell he was uncomfortable about it, but it wasn’t because of the laceration. It was the scar. The scar that didn’t bother her one bit. It had taken her off guard, when she saw the extent of the damage, because it killed her to know what pain and suffering he went through. That was it.
The scar was only skin deep. She loved the man who was under all that flesh and bone.
It was so unlike him to be self-conscious.
She undid the bandage and then inspected the laceration. It was small, but deep. It would need a couple of stitches. The scar tissue from his chemical burns probably helped stop the shrapnel from doing worse damage.
“You have running water, or do I have to get some at the lake and boil it?” she asked, teasing him, as he shot her a withering look. “How about electricity?”
“It’s well water. It’s good,” he said gruffly. “And I have a generator that will provide electricity.”
Lisa went into the kitchen and filled up a bowl of water and found a cloth. “It would be better if it was hot.”
“I’ll turn the generator on when you’re done. The cold water is fine.”
“Hardly antiseptic,” she muttered.
“It’s fine.”
He still wasn’t looking at her when she returned.
“I’m going to wash it and then stitch it up,” she said. “It’s going to hurt like a bitch.”
“Pain doesn’t bother me. There’s not much feeling on that side anyway,” he said, matter-of-factly.
Lisa pulled up a chair and then started to clean out the lac on the left side of his abdomen, right under his rib cage. He hissed when she cleaned it out.
“There’s some feeling still,” she muttered.
“Not much,” he said through gritted teeth.
“You’re lucky to have survived the effects of Chem Agent 1157.”
His ice-blue eyes narrowed as he glanced at her. “You think I’m lucky?”
“You’re here,” she snapped. She wanted to say, and Dane isn’t. So many people weren’t. To date, Jack was the only one who had survived the effects of Chem Agent 1157. No one else had survived it. She froze the site of the laceration so she could do some debridement on the wound.
His expression softened. “Right.”
“I’m going to start suturing now,” she warned him before she took the needle driver and threaded the needle.
Jack didn’t say anything. He just nodded once and held steady.
“You’re calmer than a lot of men who have to get sutures,” she remarked, as she closed his wound.
“I’ve sutured myself before,” he replied softly.
“In the field?” she asked.
He nodded. “And out here. I may live in the Nome census area, but I’m still far from the city. I had a run in with a small bear.”
“A bear?”
“My right leg. The bear was young, its mother probably just kicked it out of her den. Mother bears only rear their cubs until they’re about two, then they have to fend for themselves.”
“Did you kill the bear?” she asked.
Jack shot her an inscrutable look, but then said, “No, I gave it a good scare and told the Nome game warden about it. They would take care of it.”
“I’m glad you didn’t shoot it.”
“It’s eat or be eaten up in the Arctic Circle,” Jack said. “I don’t always get to a grocery store. I’ve learned to become self sustaining.”
“I understand that,” she said. “So what do you hunt?”
“I fish a lot. I’ve made friends with native Alaskans and they share their food or we trade. So in the winter I have eaten muktuk, but not much. It can play havoc on your stomach if you’re not used to it.” He was smiling at her and she couldn’t help but melt a bit. She hadn’t seen him smile in so long. It was nice, and her blood heated thinking about all those time they shared a smile and a laugh because that moment had led to an incredible night of sex. Every moment with him seemed to.
The chemistry they had was electric.
God, she missed him.
Lisa cleared her throat, “There, the worst part is over. Now to bandage it and you’re free to set your snares.”
“Would you like to come and see the snare line?” he asked, his blue eyes piercing her to her very soul.
“Sure, but I thought you wanted me locked away?”
“I do, but you need to know where the snares are so you don’t go blundering about and kill yourself.”
She wrapped the gauze around his torso. “Your snares kill?”
He gave her another withering look. “Yes. Eat or be eaten, Lisa. It’s survival. Whatever has to be done has to be done.”
“Right,” she said, nodding. “There, you’re all done.”
“Thanks.” Jack stood up and pulled on his shirt. “Let’s go set the line and then you can rest. You look dead on your feet.”
“Look who’s talking,” she teased, cleaning up the medical waste so it wasn’t scattered all over the table.
“I got rest at the safe house. I’m good, but you need to sleep, Lisa. Hopefully it won’t take Henry long to contact Grey Holden and then Grey can contact your commander.”
“Hopefully not.” She washed her hands. “Okay, show me the snare line so I don’t kill myself in one of your traps.”
Not that she would go wandering in the woods on her own. She could just stay in the cabin, but she was restless and would rather not be alone.
Jack nodded and picked up his gun. Lisa followed him out of the cabin. She was exhausted. And he was right, she probably looked terrible. The adrenaline that had fuelled her to this point was running out.
She needed her rest if she was going to keep her wits about her. And just being in Jack’s presence, she was going to need to keep her wits about her. He’d broken her heart, left her when she needed him the most. Left her when her brother died. Jack was the only person she’d had left in the world and he’d deserted her.
There was no way she could put her heart back on the line like that again, because her heart was still broken a decade later.
***
Jack glanced back once and saw Lisa following in his footsteps through the brush. He wasn’t worried that terrorists were out here lurking in these woods. There were still snares set up, so he would’ve known by now if they had company. He seriously doubted anyone had survived that safe house blast, but the fact the safe house had been compromised made him wonder again how they’d found out that information.
There had to be a mole in the command chain. Her brother had thought that before their last mission, but Jack brushed him off. Now he wished he’d listened to Dane more closely. And he wracked his brain, trying to remember who Dane had been talking about, but couldn’t.
Lisa might also have had a tracking device on her. It was another way they could’ve found her so easily. Which was why Henry had Lisa scanned when she entered his small airport, to make sure there wasn’t one, but there was no tracker implanted on her. Which was good. Considering she was now just down to a T-shirt, pants, shoes and socks, there could have been one in her bra. And the fact that he knew she was going without a bra annoyed him.
Focus.
He shouldn’t be thinking things like that. Lisa was off limits.
Why?
Lisa wasn’t horrified by his scars as much as he was, and Jack had been impressed time and time again by her stamina. She was strong, damn strong, which is why he had been so attracted to her in the first place.
And why he was still attracted to her now, and that was a dangerous thing.
Why?
“Protect her for me, Jack. Protect her.”
Jack shook Dane’s voice from his head and scrubbed his hand over his face. “Want to learn how to set a snare?”
He didn’t know why he was asking whether she’d want to or not. He could easily set his traps for intruders or meat. Taking the time to show her how to set a snare would delay the whole process but, then again, it would also delay having to go back to the cabin and be locked inside with her.
“Yeah, I would like to try.”
“Good.” He knelt down and pulled out his knife. “This is an old snare, but you can see it’s not set. We’re going to set it for a squirrel.”
“Just show me what to do.”
“Okay.” Jack showed her how wrap the paracord he had brought around the sticks to make a noose the width of a squirrel.
At first Lisa struggled, but soon she got the hang of it and, by the third one, he felt quite confident allowing her to continue with the small game snares, while he ventured farther into the woods to set larger snares. Ones that would take down an unsuspecting human.
As he set his first snare, he stilled as the forest went silent. The only sound was his pulse thundering in his ears.
A bitter scent tantalized his senses.
His heartbeat kicked up a notch, because he knew that sickly sweet stench of death.
Chem Agent 1157 had a certain scent, one he would never forget, and, at this moment, he was overcome by it.
The sounds of his platoon dying as they tried to get their gas masks on. Before they even knew what Chem Agent 1157 was. The agony of their cries made his hand shake.
“Get your masks on!” Jack pulled down his mask. “Retreat.”
Dane pulled down his mask at the last moment and they backed out of the sewer.
“They’re dying!” Dane screamed.
“Keep moving, Lieutenant.”
“I have to try and save them.”
“Dane!”
Then he realized that Lisa was out here. The scent was just a memory. He was here, not in the sewers. Not under attack. And there was nothing rotting around him. There was no Chem Agent 1157 in the woods. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling of uncertainty, the feeling they were being watched. He had to get Lisa out of here. Had to get her to safety.
Jack abandoned his work and moved as quickly as he could to her last known location.
“Hey, I was wondering…what happened?” she asked, her body tensing up. “Jack?”
“We have to get inside.” Beads of sweat began to pool on his brow. “Now.”
“Okay,” she said.
He took her hand, squeezing it tightly, not wanting to let her go. Not until he got her to safety. Not until he was sure they were safe from Chem Agent 1157.
This isn’t real. This isn’t real.
“Jack, are you okay?” he heard Lisa murmur through the hazy, foggy memories assaulting him.
“The gas masks make no difference. It burns. Why didn’t I die?”
“You didn’t inhale it. It burns the skin, but upon inhalation it burns the lungs out completely, causing a slow, painful death.” A new, unfamiliar commander said. The new commander made Jack uneasy. He seemed pale, was standing behind the doctor, averting his eyes so as not to look at him. Jack didn’t blame him, though, as some of the bandages were off to air the wounds and Jack couldn’t bear to look at them either.
“Dane had his gas mask on though,” Jack said.
“Lieutenant Morgan didn’t get his gas mask on in time. He inhaled the chemical agent and it burned his lungs. You were the only one who didn’t inhale it. You’re lucky to be alive.”
A cool cloth touched his forehead and, as he came out of those memories, he could see Lisa’s beautiful green eyes staring into his. She was holding a cloth on his head.
“What’s going on?” he asked, confused about how they got back to the cabin and how they weren’t dead from the chemical agent.
“You brought me back here to the cabin and then collapsed,” Lisa said gently.
“Collapsed?” he asked groggily.
“You have a fever. You probably have an infection from your wound.” Her voice was gentle and soothing. “Just lie back and rest. I need to get this fever down.”
“Willow bark,” Jack gritted out, as he let her lead him to his bed. When he began to shiver he was glad for the blanket she wrapped him in. “Make a tea. In the cupboard.”
Lisa nodded. “Okay, but just rest. I’m here.”
Jack nodded and closed his eyes, but sleep was no escape from his nightmares.