After that, things had got really crazy, but at the same time, it had felt different. It hadn't frustrated her like Nick and her ankle had. Jack showing up had stirred something in her, and even after the insanity of fleeing into the woods and being tied to a chair by a man that she had known since she was a child, she still didn't feel as though it had ruined her vacation. Nick and her ankle had done that. Jack and everything that had followed had only served to make it interesting. She'd been craving excitement when she was at work, but this went beyond that. She couldn't quite bring herself to believe that this was all happening, even when she knew it was.
Her stepbrother's friend was suddenly a secret agent, the Donovan's cabin was being used to store arms, she'd been shot, and had been forced to break into and hide out in the only other cabin on the plateau, where she'd made love with the man who had saved her. Not only that but she got the feeling her stepbrother was involved in all this somehow. Jack was here on a mission and her gut told her that Nick had to have something to do with it.
"So how's Nick involved in all this?” She casually tossed the question out into the open and waited with bated breath for his response.
"Involved?” He gave her a confused look.
"Come on, Jack ... I know Nick and no offence, but you're not his type."
"For that I'm glad.” He sighed and kept his focus on the trees.
"I meant in the friend sense of the word. I'm not stupid—"
"I never said you were ... and, really, you aren't."
"Nick's a layabout and he's stupid. He's been caught by the police for petty crime before ... but something like this?” She looked incredulous as she thought about the magnitude of what Mr. Donovan was doing and the fact that her stepbrother was clearly involved in some way, on some level.
Jack didn't respond. He just looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"He can't be involved in arms dealing. Nick isn't clever enough—"
"That's exactly the problem,” he interjected, and frowned as he thought about Nick and the things that he'd done. The reason that he was here fuelled the fire inside him and he couldn't wait to get hold of Nick, couldn't wait to get some payback.
Kate frowned when she saw the hardness enter Jack's eyes and realised that there was more to this than he was letting on. Her stepbrother was involved and there had been a reason that Jack had either chosen or been assigned to befriend him.
Whatever reason it was, from where she was standing it looked as though Nick was going to get what he deserved. She didn't know how to react to the idea that the man she was walking with could possibly kill her stepbrother. She'd never been close to Nick, she hated him with a passion, but it didn't mean that she wanted him dead. She didn't know what he'd done to get into Jack's bad book, but judging by the look in his eyes, it had been something terrible.
Drawing her eyes away from him, they widened as she saw the clearing up ahead where her cabin used to be. She doubled her pace, letting go of Jack's hand as she limped as fast as she could towards it and then feeling horrified when she saw the charred remains of the place where she'd spent so many childhood vacations.
She could feel the tears filling her eyes as she moved around it, trying to make sense of the jumbled mess of smoking timbers and stone. Her throat tightened with her feelings while she stood motionless a few feet from where the front door had been, and stared at what was left.
Blinking to clear her vision as it began to swim, she ignored the tears as they cascaded down her cheeks and didn't take her eyes off the cabin as Jack came to stand near her.
"It's really gone,” she whispered the words and tried to force herself to believe them. “It's gone."
"I'm sorry.” Jack went to touch her on the shoulder and then stopped himself when she just shook her head and continued to stare blankly at the burnt remains.
"You'd said it had ... but ... I didn't believe you. I didn't want to believe you. All my clothes, all my things ... all those memories.” She furrowed her brows and more tears rose up and filled her eyes.
He remembered the beautiful smile she'd worn when he'd first met her and she'd been thinking about the happy times that she'd spent in the cabin. The place that had inspired that smile was gone. It had been taken away from her, and he couldn't blame her for being upset about it.
Kate started slightly as she felt Jack touch her arm and then closed her eyes as his arms wrapped around her, holding her gently so she had her back resting against his chest. She sighed as his cheek pressed against hers, his chin sitting on her right shoulder.
"I can't believe it's gone,” she repeated.
"We should go.” He let go of her and went to walk to his car but she caught hold of his arm.
"I want answers, Jack.” Her expression became stern as he looked over his shoulder at her. “I want to know why my cabin is nothing more than charcoal. I want to know what's going on. I want to know why I'm being shot at and hunted like an animal ... why you're here ... and how my stepbrother is involved. I want to know it all."
He looked down at her hand and then up into her eyes. He pressed the button on his key fob and his car unlocked.
"And you will ... on the way down to town, I'll tell you everything."
Chapter 19
Kate gripped onto the car door for dear life as they bumped and skidded their way down the snow-covered road to town. She swallowed the lump of nerves in her throat and wished that they had walked instead. She would rather the pain than the fear that she was currently experiencing.
Her brows furrowed as she looked at the side of the road and the long drop down into the valley. The trees wouldn't stop them if they went off the road. The Hummer would just smash through them and they'd roll all the way to the bottom of the valley. There was no way on earth that they'd survive. She gave Jack a fearful look as he swore under his breath and struggled to retain control of the vehicle.
He glanced over at her and shot her a smile before looking back at the road.
He was a good driver, she could see that, but it still didn't stop her from worrying. She gave him an uneasy smile as he looked at her again and then stared at his hand as he placed it on her knee.
"We'll make it.” Jack flashed her another smile and then returned his hand to the steering wheel. He could understand her worry. He wasn't the one near the edge of the road but he could imagine how terrifying that drop looked when the road was nothing but white snow.
He kept a firm hold of the wheel as the Hummer ran over another rock and jolted them, and tried to think of how he could take Kate's mind off the state of the road and how dangerous it was. He had promised that he'd explain to her what had happened and why he was here, and talking would keep her concentration on him and away from the side of the mountain.
"It all started last year ... when I said that I met your stepbrother last year, I was telling the truth. We did meet then and we did meet in a pub. Of course, it was all pre-planned on my part. He didn't have a clue though. None of them did. Not even Donovan.” He glanced at her and smiled as he saw that he had her full attention. She was sitting at an angle now, facing him as much as she could.
"They didn't?” Kate asked as her eyes traced his profile and he shook his head.
"Not a clue.” He smiled. “I guess it was because I was out of action for so long ... dropped off the radar as it were. Otherwise I'm sure Donovan would have known me from reputation."
"So why did you get involved? After everything you'd been through and what you said about them telling you to take time off."
"It was about this time last year that I was called in. This wasn't my mission. It had already been going for almost a year when I was brought in on it. It was ... is ... a personal matter."
"What happened?” She frowned as she looked at him, and watched his brows knit tightly and his jaw tense as he thought about it.
"Nick happened."
"Nick?” She looked incredulous. What had her stepbrother done to get Jack involved in
this case?
"The agent assigned to the mission was doing everything by the book. That was the problem. He went for the little fish, hoping it would draw out the big one. A shipment had come in, a little fish. He chose that time to act and it cost him his life.” Jack fell silent as he thought about it and how he had felt when he'd received the call in the middle of the night telling him that something had happened and he needed to report in.
"Nick wouldn't kill someone ... he's capable of everything else, of being stupid enough to follow someone's lead ... but killing? No...” Kate shook her head. Her stepbrother wasn't a killer. He was an idiot and she hated him, but he'd never shown the kind of tendencies that a person would need in order to be capable of something like that. She looked at Jack and realised that he didn't show these tendencies that she thought killers would have either.
As he looked at her, she could see in his eyes that what had happened was true. Nick had killed an agent and that meant Jack had been brought in on the case. There was so much hurt, so much pain in the eyes that were looking at her that she wanted to reach out to him and let him know that everything was all right, even when it clearly wasn't.
Jack had said that he saw this as a personal matter. Was it because Nick had killed an agent? Did that make it personal?
"Your stepbrother isn't as stupid as you think he is ... and he did kill Tom."
"Tom?” She frowned. Was that the name of the man Nick had killed? It seemed so much worse now that he had a name. Before, it hadn't seemed real. It hadn't been a person that Nick had killed. It had been nothing more than a part of a story, a character that she didn't know. Knowing his name made it hit home that her stepbrother was a murderer.
And that murderer was with her little sister.
"He was my friend...” Jack started but trailed off as he remembered all the times that Tom had lectured him about not playing by the rules and not following the book. He'd always told him that rules were meant to be broken and that he let his instincts guide him rather than a stupid book.
Years of experience had taught him that instincts were going to keep you alive a lot longer than a set of rules written on paper. You had to trust them because no two situations were the same. Playing by the book, living by the rules, it all led to one inevitable conclusion—you'd find yourself in a situation that went against the book and you wouldn't have enough faith in your instincts to go with them.
You'd try to stick to the book like a good little agent.
You'd end up dead.
There was no way on earth that he was going to let that happen to him. He didn't care how many times he was dragged up in front of his superiors. He was never going to play by the rules.
He sighed as Kate's soft fingers brushed against his cheek and looked over at her, finding her eyes full of sweet tenderness and affection.
"Is that why you're here?” she asked as she withdrew her hand.
"Partly. I was deemed the best replacement. Rules go out of the window and they call me in. We lose an agent, a friend, and everything changes. It's more vengeance than anything else for me. I want this mission over with. I want it done.” He sighed as he stared at the gradual slope of the road and carefully followed it around a bed. “A year of spending time with the man who killed my friend ... do you know how hard it was not to act on my instincts all the times we were alone?"
Kate shook her head. She couldn't imagine having to see someone who had killed a friend of hers. He'd had to work with her stepbrother while knowing what he'd done. He'd probably had countless opportunities to exact his revenge, but it would have lost him the mission. If she were in his shoes, she wouldn't have been able to stop herself from acting.
"I'm patient ... wait for the right moment, that's what I was taught back when I first started. You had to wait for precisely the right moment. You'd know in your gut when it was. When Nick said that he had business in the mountains, I knew it was time. There'd been a lot of activity, a lot of things all pointing to Donovan, and I knew he had a place in this area. I just hadn't realised how close it was to your place."
"I wish it wasn't. I grew up spending time with that man during my vacations and suddenly he's this different person. I keep wondering if he was like that all along. If he had been doing this kind of stuff for years..."
"Since before you were born,” he answered her question and then frowned. “Where was I?"
Kate smiled at him. “My place."
"Imagine my surprise when I finally made it to the cabin, expecting to find Nick, and instead finding you.” He smiled across at her and she blushed. “I didn't know what to make of you at first. You were sleeping so soundly that I couldn't bring myself to wake you. Instead, I just sat and watched you."
She felt warm inside as she realised that he had been watching over her from the start. It hadn't just been after he'd made love to her. It had been like it from the very beginning.
"I'd had my doubts about the mission ... about coming up here to finish it. The moment I saw you, all those doubts disappeared and I was glad that I'd accepted the mission and that I'd seen it through until the right moment. If I had acted on impulse ... if I'd taken Nick out of the equation before ... I never would have met you.” Jack kept his eyes fixed on the road as he felt her staring at him. He didn't know what he expected to gain by his confession. It had just been something that he'd needed to say, that he'd had to admit to himself.
"I'm glad you're patient.” Kate smiled internally as she thought about what he'd said and how different things could have been had he not waited. Would she have ever found what she'd been searching for? Would she have drifted through life never finding it?
Watching the valley bottom as it grew ever closer, she let a smile work its way onto her lips. Soon she'd see her sister again and her friends. It seemed like weeks since she'd seen them and she had been so worried. She looked over at Jack and wondered what would happen now. He had a mission to finish, and she knew that everything he'd told her was between them. She couldn't tell anyone the things that she knew about him or what was happening on the mountain.
"What happens when we find the others?” she asked, her curiosity evident in her voice as she looked at him.
"You mean what happens when I find Nick?” he corrected her and she nodded. “When I find Nick, we'll have a talk, friend to friend like. I'll slip in there that Donovan came by with some guys, see how he reacts, and then I'll go from there. Whatever happens, those weapons won't leave the mountain."
"Oh.” She didn't know what else to say. It was obvious that he intended to drop her off with her sister and her friends, and then go on with his mission. She ignored the tight feeling in her stomach as a tiny voice whispered that he was going to leave her for good, and pulled a frustrated face.
"Something wrong?” He frowned as he looked over at her.
"Nothing.” She smiled wide but it quickly faded from her face. “Jack?"
"Yes?"
"Nothing ... it doesn't matter.” She curled up as she stared out of the window at the white world. The road was levelling off now and it wouldn't be long until they were in town. She wanted to ask him so many questions but was so scared of what his answers would be. He had shown her so many times that he had feelings for her, but she still feared that they weren't the same as hers, that they wouldn't be as strong and as deep as what she was experiencing.
Jack got the feeling that it did matter. He didn't know what to say to her to reassure her that what had happened between them meant something, and that it wasn't going to be a one time thing. He wasn't going to turn his back on her. She'd given him so much of herself, had given him back a part of himself, and he wasn't about to let her go.
But he couldn't let the mission go either.
As soon as it was done, he could relax and be with her, but right now, he had to focus and do his job.
His first priority being getting her to her sister and then to a doctor so they could look at her arm. Then he'd go after Nick, and the
n Donovan and the shipment.
As they reached the bottom of the mountain and stopped at the junction with main road, he looked over at her. She was staring out of the window, clearly avoiding him. He lightly placed his hand on her knee and then moved it up to rest on her cheek.
Kate closed her eyes as his fingers swept gently across her cheek and through her hair. She sighed as she opened her eyes, and watched the traffic moving along the road. It seemed strange having to come back to the world. There were so many people. It felt as though everything up on the mountain had been an illusion, that it hadn't been real.
She quickly turned her head to look at Jack, telling herself that he was real and what she felt was real, too. She managed a smile as he gave her a tender look and softly cupped her cheek. As his eyes dropped to rest on her arm, she could read how concerned he was about the wound and she caught hold of his hand.
She looked at it for a moment, watching the way his fingers curled around hers and held them.
"We should go ... it's going to get dark soon.” She held his hand a moment longer and then let him have it back as he nodded.
Watching the traffic, Jack pulled the Hummer out into the flow and headed towards the town. He drove straight to the ranger station and pulled into a free space. Getting out of the car, he walked around and held the door open for Kate as she struggled to get down from the high vehicle. He took hold of her hand as he locked the car and led her into the station.
"Hey ... looking for Connie Hamilton.” He didn't wait for the ranger behind the desk to greet him.
"Connie?” The ranger frowned and then looked at Kate. “Kate ... thought you were—"
"Stuck on a mountain? Jack got me down.” Kate smiled at the man and secretly revelled in the jealous look that Jack gave her and then the man. “Where's Connie?"
"Staying at the lodge with your friends.” The man smiled wide at her. “We didn't tell her about the fire. Thought it was best to wait for all the evidence to come in and didn't want her thinking you were dead even though we'd found no sign of bodies in the cabin."
Cabin Fever Page 18