by Helena Shaw
Dawn laughed with him. “Like a five-year-old?”
“You got me pegged,” Gavin said as he lightly bumped her with his good shoulder.
As they walked, Dawn realized she was having trouble remembering her distrust for the man who was at her side. Only a week ago, she’d hated him more than she hated her own stepfather, but now he seemed like an old, familiar friend. It was a weird shift, but not an unwelcome one.
“I don’t know,” Dawn said as she looked up at the gray clouds covering the sky. “I don’t think I can handle winter in the mountains.”
“I don’t believe that,” Gavin said as he stepped in front of her and stopped her. “Why, I bet you look damn cute with your cheeks all rosy and a pair of mittens on. Come on, you can’t deny it.”
“That might be true,” Dawn said. “But I’m still not sold. Besides, with another body found, I doubt it’s all that safe.”
“Wait, what?” Gavin said as he stopped her again. “Oh no, they didn’t, did they? Please tell me it’s not your friend.”
“I thought you would have heard,” Dawn said. “But no, thankfully, it doesn’t sound like it is.”
“I hate to say that’s a relief,” Gavin said with a heavy sigh. “But I can’t deny that it is.”
“I felt the same way,” Dawn said with a nod. “God, I just hope she ran off with her ex, but...”
“It’s getting harder?” Gavin finished for her.
“Yeah,” she mumbled.
God, he’s so sweet, Dawn thought as they started moving toward the bar again. How could I have thought something so horrible of him? Even the memory of the accusations seemed so long ago.
Another thought crept into her mind then: Why don’t you just make a move?
Though it wasn’t actually what she wanted, she was starting to wonder if it was a good idea. Gavin was sweet, and he seemed pretty set on staying in Goosemont, unlike Jase. Even better, it seemed the man had no clue that what was lurking in the woods wasn’t just some animal, but a monster. He was a sane choice, a safe choice...
But not the choice Dawn wanted to make. Even as he escorted her to work, joking and flirting all the way, she couldn’t bring herself to force that spark, that connection.
As wrong or impulsive as her choice was, every time she tried to picture herself with Gavin, the only man who came to mind was Jase.
Chapter Fourteen
Snow had been threatening to fall for the last two days, but as long as Dawn stayed inside Jim’s bar, she didn’t need to be too concerned over it. The old man always had the heat cranked, and as the scrapes on her arms healed, she could get away with rolling the sleeves of her plaid button-down shirt up to her elbows.
“Take a spill?” Gabe asked as Dawn came back to hand over an order.
“Uh, yeah,” she said. “Little bit of ice on my way home the other day. I guess I’m not as smooth as I thought I was.”
“None of us are,” Gabe said as he looked up from the flat-top. “I just about cracked my coccyx last winter from the damn ice that covers the roads. Still, I was here every day, grilling away.”
Dawn smiled at him. “I’m sure you were.” The image of Gabe slipping and falling like a child in a snowsuit was funny as hell, and it was nice to find herself laughing again.
“How’s it looking out there?” he asked as he looked over the pink order slip.
“The weather, or the customers?” Dawn asked.
“Both,” came his reply.
“Still looks like it’s about ready to snow,” Dawn said. “And it’s steady out there, but not busy. The guys seem pretty glum.”
“They’ve been here the better part of a week,” Gabe noted. “And from what I’ve heard, they haven’t seen much of anything, except a couple days ago when that one fool idiot got himself bit by whatever it is. They ain’t been the same since.”
“Yeah,” Dawn agreed. She had to wonder just how the man who’d been bit was doing, it was still two weeks before a full moon, but she hadn’t seen anyone bandaged up. Well, besides Jase.
“I’d better get back to it,” she sighed as she dragged her heels back out into the bar. While most of the tables were full, no one was having much of a good time at all. Sure, they were drinking, but they were drinking slowly and only picking at their food. No one was eating or chugging beers to drown their sorrows, and most groups were keeping close to themselves.
And still, there was no sign of Jase.
It had been nearly two days since she’d asked him to leave her house, and she hadn’t heard from him since. She’d thought about calling, but she didn’t know what to say. He wanted answers she wasn’t sure she was ready to provide, and besides, he had enough on his plate. Why add more to it, especially when there was nothing he could do about it?
Dawn made the rounds while Jim hid in his office. Stopping by each table, she asked if anyone needed a refill, another order of food, or anything at all, but the answer remained the same at each and every stop.
It was when she neared a table by the door that her feet slowed. Hushed conversation came from the table, and she recognized the men sitting there. They were the ones who were with the man whose gun she’d asked to see what felt like an eternity ago, the one who had said those obscene things that she chose to ignore. Except that guy was nowhere to be seen, and the other three looked like they’d seen a ghost.
“God, I just… poor Clyde,” one of the men, a large guy with a graying beard, said. Dawn moved to look like she was checking the parking lot through the window and tuned her ears to their conversation.
“What was he thinking, running off like that?” another asked.
“He’d been acting squirrelly since that damn thing bit him,” the first man said. “First he punched that nurse at the hospital, and then he took off into the woods.”
“What if it was rabies?” the third man said as he slurped his beer.
“Rabies doesn’t affect ya that quick,” the first man, their de facto leader, it seemed, informed them. “I think the old fool just finally snapped.”
“Maybe he was worried about rabies,” the third one tried again.
“Well, whatever it was, it got his ass shot by someone out there,” he said, and it took everything in Dawn not to react.
There was no denying that the shooter had to have been Jase. He’d made it perfectly clear about his intentions to shoot the man who’d been bitten. Now she just had to wonder if anyone else knew it was him.
“Those cops seemed to think it was us,” the second man said. “I’ve been hunting since I was a pup. There’s no way I could have made a mistake like that.”
“None of us did,” the first said, his voice turning to a growl. “But they’ll do their ballistics or whatever the hell they do and figure out who did. That said, the way Clyde was acting, it doesn’t shock me much.”
Dawn was intent to stand and listen for as long as should could. Any hint to confirm what she already knew was what she was waiting for, but instead, a voice got her attention.
“Hey, you,” the leader of the trio called in her direction. “I think me and my boys could use another round of beers.”
“Coming right up,” Dawn said as she pulled herself away from the window and walked back toward the bar.
As she poured, she couldn’t help but wonder about Jase. Was he willing to risk his own life in order to kill a creature like that? Even scarier, what if the man wasn’t going to actual turn into some kind of monster? What proof did he have? What if he had murdered an innocent man?
Part of her knew she should call Jase, even if it was just to make sure he was okay. He had been so banged up the last time she’d seen him, and though he had insisted he was fine, she still worried.
But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her own stupid pride got in her way, as did her fear. Why couldn’t he just let it go? she asked herself as she poured the beer into a pitcher.
He’d pushed and pushed until she thought she was about ready to break.
Instead of giving him an inch to go on, she’d thrown him out. She didn’t regret that, not really, and she didn’t know if she was quite ready to let him push her again. Somehow, she just knew he would.
She wasn’t ready, though. There was enough heat on the town, and with a hunter getting shot, she was starting to think that leaving before the snow started to fall was in her best interest.
With the pitcher of beer filled to the top, Dawn weaved her way through the tables of morose men and set it down on the trio’s table. She hoped to hear more of their conversation, to get some kind of proof it really was Jase that pulled the trigger, but they’d moved on to planning the funeral.
“We were the only family Clyde had,” the leader said. “It’s up to us to see he’s put to rest.”
Dawn thought about hanging back and listening a little more, but Gabe stuck his head out of the galley doors to the kitchen and waved her over with his food covered hand.
“What’s up?” she asked him once she got within earshot.
“Someone’s here to see you,” he told her, keeping his voice so low that she couldn’t help but be suspicious.
For only a second, a hope glimmered deep inside Dawn. Courtney? Maybe her friend had taken off for some stupid reason, and now that so much had happened, she was worried about being seen and everyone hating her for making them worry. Maybe she only popped in to make sure that they knew she was alive and well before she moved on.
Dawn had done the very same thing before.
Without speaking, she followed Gabe into the kitchen to the back door that they used for deliveries. Gabe held the door open while she stepped out into the cold afternoon air, but he didn’t step outside.
“Jase,” she said, failing to mask her disappointment. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see him, but she’d wanted to see Courtney, even if it was just to say goodbye.
“Still mad, I see,” he said. He wasn’t in his FBI disguise, but in the casual clothes that Dawn had grown to find so sexy. Faded jeans, hiking boots, and that same green jacket he never seemed to be without. He was dressed like every other man that was sitting in Jim’s bar, but there was something decidedly different about him.
“No,” Dawn said as she shivered. The cold was cutting through her like tiny blades, and she wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to stay warm.
“Here,” Jase said as slid his jacket off and draped it over Dawn’s shoulders. “Sorry to have to meet you out here, and I’m sorry I didn’t call. I figured you were still pissed.”
“I wasn’t pissed,” Dawn said, though she wasn’t sure how honest that statement was. “Okay, maybe I was. Maybe I still am. I don’t know.”
“I pushed you too hard,” Jase said. “I just wanted to help.”
“I know,” Dawn said over the howling wind. “It’s just too much, all at once, at least. It’s not something I’m used to talking about.”
“That’s fine,” Jase said as he looked her over. The stitches above his eye looked like they were healing well, but Dawn couldn’t really be sure if that was right. Either way, it was nice to see that he didn’t look as beat up as he had before.
“Is that why you came here?” she asked him. “To apologize?”
“Sort of,” Jase said. “That, and to at least try not to be an asshole and just disappear.”
“What?” Dawn said, unease flowing through her like a roiling river. “You’re leaving?”
“Not yet,” Jase said, shaking his head. “But I’ve got a lead and I need to follow it. I’m so close, Dawn. I’ll need to make myself scarce for a while, lull it into a sense of security. I can’t let myself be seen.”
“Oh,” Dawn said. “What if...?”
“It kills me, too?” Jase said with a smile that didn’t touch his eyes. “There won’t be a missing persons report on me. Someone might come poking around, another hunter, but that will probably be the end of it. Although, nothing’s got me yet.”
Jase seemed so nonchalant that it nauseated Dawn. He was chasing his own death, yet he was still going to go down that path, and she knew there was no stopping him.
“Jase,” she said, breaking his gaze.
“Yes?” he asked, still so achingly casual.
“Did you kill that hunter? The one who was bitten?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “Yeah, I did. There was no denying he was infected. I followed him for twenty-four hours, just to be sure. When a man is bitten, he doesn’t change right away, but he is different—reckless, aggressive, angry, and not himself. I had to put him down.”
Dawn thought she would be horrified at that confession when it came, but she couldn’t find it anywhere in herself. Her own acceptance of that fact surprised her more than his confession did, and she could only nod.
“Yeah,” she finally said. “It’s probably best that there’s only one werewolf in Goosemont, huh?”
“Sounds about right,” Jase said with a hollow laugh. “I hate to do this. Honestly, Dawn, I hate it,” he said, finally showing something beyond his easygoing and confident façade. “But I have to go.”
“I know,” she whispered, and it was the truth. As much as it hurt, something in Dawn knew that Jase had to do this. Not just for the town, not just to kill the beast, but for himself. “Be careful, okay?”
“I could say the same to you,” he said. “Don’t do anything stupid. Even if you don’t hear from me, don’t come after me. Don’t go looking for trouble. Don’t go to anyone’s house. Anyone, got that? Don’t trust anyone, and don’t walk alone at night.”
It was a lot of don’ts, but the only one Dawn wanted to hear was one that would have to come from her own lips. Don’t go, she wanted to say, but she knew she couldn’t. There was no stopping him. She knew that.
“Okay,” was all she could muster. “Yeah, okay. Is this... is this goodbye?” she made herself ask.
“I sure as hell hope not,” Jase said, and with that, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. His lips were hot coals against the ice of her cheeks, and his kisses wiped away all her fears. In that moment, there was no goodbye, no apologies, and no fear. Dawn wanted to stay locked in that kiss forever, but it wasn’t to be. As abruptly as Jase had taken her into his arms, he released her again.
“When I kill it,” he said, his green eyes burning, “you’ll be the first to know.”
Dawn could only nod. If she spoke, she knew she’d ask him to stay.
She stood silently as she watched him walk to the red and white truck parked at the end of the alley. He didn’t look back as he stepped into the vehicle, and for that, she was glad. Another look, and she would have been lost.
It wasn’t until the truck roared to life and pulled away that Dawn realized she was still wearing his familiar green jacket.
Chapter Fifteen
A light snow had fallen a few days earlier, and the last of its remains stuck stubbornly to the grass that edged the front of Jim’s bar. Temperatures constantly hovered at freezing, and the sky was deceptively clear, fooling people into a false sense of warmth only to shock them with bitter cold if they stepped outside without a parka.
It had been a week since Jase’s goodbye, or at least, what might become a goodbye. Dawn hadn’t heard from him. She hadn’t even heard rumors of him, and yet he was all she could think about as she leaned on the bar and watched the few remaining folks who had come to town to kill a bear that didn’t exist.
With the snows starting and Thanksgiving fast approaching, most of the hunters had given up and headed home. Only the most stubborn remained in Goosemont, the ones who were certain that they were days away from catching the big one, but even they were starting to thin.
The last couple of days, most of the gossip hadn’t been about possible sightings of the bear, about people getting hurt, or anything of the like. Most of the chatter she heard at the bar had more to do with folks starting to theorize that the bear had moved on or died on its own. Most of them had agreed that only a sick bear could be respons
ible for multiple attacks on humans, and maybe the animal had finally succumbed to whatever was eating at it.
It seemed logical, even though Dawn knew the truth. There hadn’t been a disappearance since Courtney went missing, and even then, there was no proof that she hadn’t just run off on her own. Part of Dawn still hoped that was the answer, and town gossip seemed to favor the idea, but in her heart, she knew the truth.
Things had been quiet, and Dawn was starting to wonder if Jase had succeeded in killing the beast that was truly responsible for the horrors that Goosemont had faced. Still, as her brow furrowed while she kept an eye on the few people eating and drinking, she hoped he hadn’t. If he had, that meant he hadn’t come back for her, and just the thought of it made her chest ache.
“Hey,” a voice came from behind her and Dawn nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Jim,” she gasped. “Don’t do that.”
“Sorry,” he said with a weak smile. In the last couple weeks, Jim seemed to have aged by years. His beard was grayer and it barely covered how hollow his cheeks had begun to look. He wasn’t eating properly, that was obvious, but he was stubborn, and Dawn knew there was no sense trying to insist he take better care of himself.
“It’s okay,” she said. “Guess I’m still jumpy.”
“Understandable,” he said as he looped his thumbs into his belt. “You were probably just fretting about Courtney, is all. It’s all I can think about, most days.”
“Yeah,” Dawn lied. She knew she should be worried about her friend, but in her heart, she had accepted Courtney’s death, even though nothing had been found of her. She’d mourned, in her own way, but she couldn’t help but feel guilty as Jim said her name.
“I just…” Jim sighed, his eyes red. “I hope the poor girl is okay, if she is still out there. I just...”
“Jim,” Dawn stopped him as she gently patted his arm. “It’s okay. I know. I know.”
They were weak words of comfort at best, but it was enough for the big man. It seemed to be enough for both of them to stand in silence together. Words weren’t always necessary, and Dawn was happy to stay by his side as long as he needed her to. He’d done so much for her that she owed him that much, at least.