CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Valdez
“Why would people be after you?” Ellie hunched down in the seat, trying to curl up in a ball.
I wasn’t comfortable lying to her. She was a Hayes, even if she hadn’t been born in Alaska. I didn’t need to deal with her freaking out. I didn’t know who had fired that arrow.
“Gold fever does strange things to people. And I'm a pretty easy target.”
“How would you be an easy target? That bar went silent when you walked through that door last night. You put them all on edge. Why would someone target you?”
Glad my reputation with the town was still intact.
“All of those people would love to see me run out of town. Anything they can do to try to make us leave, they will. Always have. Your ancestors and mine have always been each other's biggest allies. It's going to be a different place in Cordova now that it's hunting season and your aunt's gone.”
She tugged at the belt as she adjusted her position to glare at me. “Is that your way of asking me to stay?”
“That's not what I mean.”
“You’re not arguing against it.”
She was right. I wasn’t. She reminded me a lot of Minnie. Quick wit, and called me out when I needed it. “No, but isn't your house being sold?”
“Yeah. Company called Gold Frost Holdings is buying it. I wish I'd come up sooner.”
Apparently, she hadn't read the name on the door when she'd arrived or left the office that morning. She should have put two and two together.
“Having second thoughts?”
“Something like that. But not because of you, mister.”
“Wouldn’t expect you to.”
“Oh.”
That single word was as quiet as new snow. I gripped the wheel of the truck as I backed up. The last thing I needed right now was to get the truck stuck. She didn't say a word as she sat there looking out the window. Shy certainly hadn't been part of her vocabulary up to that point.
I navigated the road that led out of Ordeneige, my concern was focused on whoever had shot those arrows. I should have stopped and locked the gate, but it was pointless. Whomever had made it in would probably destroy it on the way back out if I did that.
I hadn’t lied to her when I said I saw fur. There had been fluffy silver-gray bunches of fur. There had also been large bluish scales, a campfire, and some shredded bedding. I’d pocketed a few of the scales and some of the fur. Maybe Kenai had an idea about what it was from. It wasn’t my forte to identify creatures from what they left behind. Drop my little brother from a prop plane in the middle of nowhere, and you’d see him in a few weeks. He was in his element. Koda or I, we’d be in trouble.
At least one individual had hidden themselves when I had started walking toward their camp. The crunch of snow came from outside my line of sight as they moved in tandem with my actions. When I’d bent to collect the fur and scales, an arrow found a new home in the tree next to me. Running from a fight wasn’t in my nature, but Ellie was back at the truck, unguarded and unprepared. I couldn’t do that. Even I had standards.
She’d been rocking in the truck when I’d made it back. I should have asked what happened, but she’d directed the conversation elsewhere. There she sat, huddled in a ball as I drove. It put me on edge, knowing she may need help that far from town.
From the corner of my eye, I caught her twisting the rings on her hand as we made progress down the road in the never-ending white mess. I recognized one of the rings she wore; it had been Minnie’s favorite. I tried not to smile. I didn’t want her to think I was enjoying her being balled up in the corner, but it was nice to see it being worn again.
“Your Aunt Minnie ever tell you how she got that ring?” I managed as the glare from the sun blinded me.
“She told me on the phone once—something about a guy that was interested in her took her on a date gold panning and he did really bad.”
I glanced over as she relaxed more in the seat. “Did she ever tell you who the guy was?”
Her eyebrows furrowed as she turned to look at me, placing her hands in her lap. “There is no way it was you.”
That gave me a good laugh. “No. Minnie had that ring long before I was born. Story goes that it was actually my grandfather who was trying to win Minnie’s heart. That did not go so well, obviously. Some of my earliest memories are of Minnie giving my grandfather a hard time.”
“What can I say? My family has sassy women. Grammy was quite feisty herself.”
Ellie sighed as she made herself more comfortable and not quite a ball. I felt the tension in my shoulders ease, giving way to the reminders of my drinking binge. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. She started to hum as we bounced down the road, and braided that flame red hair.
“How much do you really know of my family?” she asked as she finished the braid. “Do you know all those people in the pictures on the stairs?”
“I do. Half are your family, half are my family. What do you want to know?” I could talk about the past for hours. I’d spent many nights listening to Minnie’s stories and my grandfather’s stories.
“Do you remember my cousin Brian’s father, Johnathan?”
“Very little. Brian and I were quite young when his father drowned.” There wasn’t much I could tell her. Minnie never spoke of it.
A familiar landmark reminded me of when Brian and I were teenagers. It beckoned for me to make a detour. I should have headed back to town, but my dull throbbing hangover said otherwise. It had been our usual excursion after drinking.
“No one in the family knows who Johnathan’s father was. Do you know?”
I blew out a heavy sigh as the back of the truck fishtailed through the turn. “No one knows officially. It was rumored to be a few different men, including my grandfather and my oldest uncle—which just made the entire situation weird between my grandfather and Uncle Ray.”
I smiled at her throaty laugh.
“That really would have. Minnie the cougar. It would fit her. She had her secrets, for sure.”
It truly was a weird situation. No one knew for sure, and Minnie had adamantly refused to reveal who her son’s father had been. When I found his birth certificate among her things, it was even listed as unknown.
I brought the truck around another corner and parked at the edge of the trees.
“Um, Dez. This isn’t the house. What are we doing?”
“We’re stopping. I need to stretch my legs.”
She huffed at me. “You are the one that decided to run us all over half the state.”
My lips curled in a half smile. “Trust me, Ellie. This hasn’t even been a tiny fraction of the state.”
“You’re impossible. I’m staying in the truck.”
“Suit yourself.” I killed the engine, and hopped out of the truck. She had a warmer coat now. I wasn’t worried she’d freeze in the few minutes I’d be gone.
I ventured far enough in to the tree line to see the old hangout spot from my teenage years was still there. Glad my memory wasn’t failing me. My judgment, however, that was another issue all together.
I shrugged out of my jacket as I walked the fifty, or so, feet back to the truck. It was cold, but not the worst I’d ever felt. I was thankful the storm had held off. The sky still threatened more snow.
I tapped on her window. “Come on. Let's go.”
“What? Why do you have no coat on? No. Nope. This is the woods. You really are going to kill me,” she said through the glass.
I opened the door, tucking my coat over my arm as I crossed them over my chest. “I could have left you for the poacher.”
She sat up a little taller in the seat, realizing she should have locked the door. “You are a –”
Her words died on her tongue as she shook her head at me, hair falling in her eyes.
“Do you trust me?”
I tossed my coat across to the driver’s side of the bench seat. I missed and ended up covering her with it as she tried to scoot away.
Ellie shot me a sideways glance as she crawled out from under my coat. I unclipped the gun holster from my belt. I slid it and the empty knife sheath under her seat. “See? Out of reach. Trust me more now?”
“Minnie trusted you.”
“Yeah, she did.”
I took a breath of the cold air and rubbed my bare arms. I’d been left with only my t-shirt that morning. I hadn’t been able to find another flannel shirt in the office. I was about to do one of the stupidest things I’d done in years, last night’s drinking bender excluded. Ellie was eye level as she sat on the seat of my truck. I grabbed her knees and turned her so she was facing me.
“Do you?” I asked again.
She crossed her arms across her chest, and crossed her knees. A slow smirk spread across her lips as she looked me over from head to toe. “You going to keep taking off clothing till I say yes?”
I winked and reached for my belt, undoing it and yanking it free as she started to wiggle her foot. I tossed it in to the cab of the truck, before pulling my t-shirt over my head. When I leaned down to undo the laces of my boots, she slid off the seat and in to the snow beside me, hand resting on my shoulder to try to stop me.
“You're going to freeze. I didn't think you’d take me seriously! Stop. Seriously. I trust you. Probably shouldn't, but I do.”
“Good. Off with the coat and the boots.”
She crossed her arms again and grumbled. “You can't be serious?”
“Completely. Coat and boots off, and follow me.”
“In the snow, barefoot?”
“Yep.”
I turned, walking back toward the tree line in my bare feet and jeans. The walk back to the tree line made me question my sanity. I heard the door of the truck slammed shut as I reached the tree line.
Ellie quick-stepping through the snow while barefoot made me grin. I shouldn't have been making the tiny girl walk through the snow.
“How are you not freezing?” she asked as she hopped up to me. “I’m freezing.”
I shrugged.
“What are we doing?”
“Give me your hand.”
She closed the step between us, extending her hand. I pulled her against my chest, a tiny gasp escaping her lips.
“At least you're not drunk this time.” Her eyes didn't leave my lips as she spoke. I wrapped my arm around her waist, lifting her up and carrying her a few steps.
“Maybe not. But hold your breath.”
“What?”
Before she could say another word, I wrapped my arms tight around her and jumped into the hot springs .
We plunged beneath the warm water as I held her to my chest. It enveloped us like the summer sun as we sank in the water’s welcoming grasp. It felt good. It felt like home. It felt like a hot night beneath the covers with another holding you close. I felt a little more like the me I'd left behind when my mother died.
Ellie pushed away from me. I let her go. I watched as she moved toward the glistening sun on the water’s surface. I wasn’t ready to slide back in to that world, but I was not the swimmer I once was; my lungs burned and begged for me to surface.
She was still spitting and sputtering when I broke the surface of the water, her red hair slicked to her head as steam rolled off her skin in a halo. I splashed water in her direction. “Not a bad leap of faith, huh?”
Brows furrowed in anger, she sent a wave of water in my direction. “You could have told me!”
“You would have jumped on your own?”
There was that adorable pout of hers again.
“Won't admit it?”
“I still say you were trying to kill me.” She sent another stream of water toward me, a throaty laugh with it. “What is this place?”
“Hot springs. Your cousin and I used to come here a lot as teenagers. Thought it might be fun to show you something he enjoyed.”
“You act like Brian is dead or something. He’s alive still, you know.”
I knew. But we hadn't been on speaking terms since he left the state. “Yeah, but he wants nothing to do with his hometown anymore. He hasn’t been here in at least a decade. Minnie should have left him the house.”
I knew what was on the other side of her heavy sigh. Brian had left Cordova in a rush, and not on good terms. He hadn't even bothered to call his grandmother in the last five years.
“Speaking of the house, mister, thought you were supposed to help me?” She doggy paddled over to me, a smirk on her face.
“First, you insist I'm going to kill you. Now you want me to help you. This isn’t helping you?” I teased, reaching a hand out as I treaded water in front of her.
She grabbed my hand and pulled herself forward until all I could see was her face and the sprinkling of freckles that ran across her cheeks and nose. The gray flecks in her nearly turquoise eyes glittered like stars as she searched my face.
“Not particularly,” she whispered as she looped an arm around my neck for support, her heart beating faster as she touched me. Her lips quirked in the most adorable smile as the scent of her strawberry lip gloss drifted up to me.
“Are you complaining?” My words were darker than I expected as I couldn't stop staring at her lips as she caught the bottom one between her teeth. I was a bit jealous I wasn't the one gently nibbling at it. My jeans had become a bit too restrictive, and it wasn't from being in the hot springs.
“No.”
“Good.”
I slipped my hand along her cheek, her warm skin flushing more at the touch. I wished I hadn't been so drunk last night as I brushed my lips against hers. Her fingers were in my hair, nails raking along my scalp as she kissed me back. Below the surface of the water, she wrapped her legs around my waist. I tried not to groan into her mouth as she ground against me.
“You're a tease,” she whispered against my mouth, trying to catch her breath when I broke the kiss.
I licked my lips, tasting strawberry. “You're not much better.”
Her squeak of shock made me chuckle. “That's it, mister!”
I laughed harder as she attempted to dunk me below the surface. Her second try, I let her push me under, but I grabbed her and towed her down with me.
I froze when we surfaced. On the other side of the hot springs, I saw a few more of those blue iridescent scales, edged in what looked to be dried blood on the snow bank. “I think it's about time we head back to the house. I did promise to help you.”
“Good. I’m starving. You wouldn't happen to be decent at cooking, would you? I burn everything.”