CHAPTER 29
Tim had been in soul-shredding spots before. He’d leapt off cliffs, for fun and for work. He’d made the occasional wrong decision that had left him seconds from potential death. None of those situations compared to the nightmare unfolding in the darkness before him.
High-pitched screams sounded, one after the other. A tortured, skin-crawling sound that had his heart in his throat as he lowered his unfired weapon to his hip.
Erin.
Another clatter, metal on concrete, and everything that could have gone wrong flashed like a whip across his nerves.
“Tim, are you okay?” Erin called over the persistent cries.
Thank God. Tim finally took a breath.
And tasted pepper.
“Shit, Erin.” Tim squeezed his eyes shut as he inched toward where the exit was. There was nothing to see in the pitch black anyway. “I’m fine. You got Ken contained?”
“I got his gun. John’s locked up. Police are on the way.” She sneezed violently.
Tim wrapped his fingers around the doorknob. “Watch your eyes, I’m opening the door.”
“Roger.”
Fresh air pushed the pepper scent away from him and farther into HQ. A narrow beam of light snuck in the door off the distant climbing tower beacon, like the curtain going up at the theater to dramatically reveal the current setting. Ken on his knees, his fists pressed hard to his eyes as he rocked and wailed. In the distance John had found something metal and was smashing it into the door again and again.
Walking toward him, Erin held Ken’s gun in her left hand, a can of bear spray in her right. Her forehead was hidden under a set of night vision goggles, the viewing scopes currently tilted toward the ceiling. The cocky smile gracing her lips was one hundred percent Erin.
If he hadn’t already been there, he would have fallen head over heels in love. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
She laughed, a bright sound that smashed away the last of the fear in his soul. The gun was carefully put aside before she threw herself into his arms and kissed him, cold fresh air whirling around them as Ken continued to serenade them with his crying.
The life-and-death adrenaline that had filled Tim’s veins for the last thirty minutes transformed into heat of another kind. He wrapped his arms around her and took what she freely offered.
When she pulled back, he stroked a finger over her cheek. “Smart-ass. Spider?”
“I wanted you to stop what you were doing, but thought it might confuse Ken a little more than simply shouting stop.”
He shuddered involuntarily again. “Darkness, a gun in my hand, and you bring up spiders. Damn it, woman . . .”
Blue-and-red lights flashed in his peripheral vision, interrupting her soothing, yet teasing apology. Their backup had arrived, running on silent mode.
“The police. I’ll go let them in,” Erin offered, holding out the goggles.
Tim glanced at Ken, but the man wasn’t even attempting to get off the floor. “I’ll turn the main power back on and meet you at the front door.”
By the time he’d set the panel back to rights, two full teams stood in the Lifeline gathering room, waiting for orders. Their main contact within the RCMP looked up as Tim stepped forward, Erin already explaining what had happened. Marcus stepped through the doors and joined them.
James nodded, motioning to his teams. “Get the man in the staff room first. Once he’s secured, move the man in the back, and take them to the station.”
“Yes, sir.”
With things under control, Tim headed in a new direction, his fingers linked with Erin’s. He wasn’t letting her go any time soon, but he was curious.
“Where are you going?” James asked.
“For a snack.” Tim squeezed her fingers lightly.
Erin raised a brow. “Come again?”
“The bag they wanted. We should make sure James gets it, right?”
“You knew where it was all along?”
“No.” Tim slipped into the staff kitchen, glancing around. “Not until Ken told me the bag held some water bottles and plastic bags filled with gel. Could have been first-aid supplies, but more likely if it was a grey-striped bag about the size of your clothes bag—”
Another burst of laughter broke free. “Our lunch sack? They wanted that?”
Marcus and James followed on their heels. “These are the guys you rescued off the mountain?” Marcus asked.
“And they came back for something we accidentally took, yes.” Tim pulled open drawers. “A backpack. They must have shoved whatever they were transporting that was important enough to kill for into the bag while Erin was refueling the chopper at the cabin airstrip.”
A far more somber Erin joined him in his search. “And then when we took off in the middle of the night, we took the bag with us.”
“Bad planning on their part,” James noted. “Is that it?”
Tim turned as Erin pulled the bag out of the side cupboard. “That’s it. Open it up.”
She laid it on the table and unzipped every compartment.
Nothing.
A frown creased her forehead as she looked across the table at him. “We dropped off the bag. Someone went through and emptied it, putting everything back where it belonged, including the bag, which means they should have found whatever was in here . . .”
“It makes no sense,” James pulled the bag closer, running his fingers through all the pockets, pressing on the seams. “It doesn’t seem likely that they’d have sewn anything right onto the bag.”
“They didn’t have time for that,” Erin agreed.
“Or written something?” Tim asked. “But what would be that valuable . . . ?”
He was looking into Erin’s eyes when the idea struck. She must have thought of something as well, as her eyes widening. “We guessed the flight originated from somewhere in the Northwest Territories?”
She was going the same direction he was. “Red said he was hired to transport a bag, nothing else.”
They both looked at the fridge. “You think?” Tim asked.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense.” Erin opened the door and peeked inside. “Jackpot.”
She pulled out two oversized water bottles.
Tim went for a drawer, bringing out the largest pot they had in the place and placing it on the table. “Open one.”
He stuck his hand into the pot, palm up, and waited as Erin poured the water over his fingers, the steady glug, glug of the bottle emptying the only sound.
Something hit his palm, and he swore softly.
“What’s that?” Marcus asked.
Erin tipped the final water out, splashing a little on the table as she put the empty bottle aside and leaned over to examine Tim’s hand. “The one thing easily carried out of the north worth killing someone over.”
Tim lifted his hand to display a glistening pile of rough-cut diamonds.