by C. P. Smith
“Move it before he tears the fence down,” Frank shouted. So, I rolled to my knees, grabbed my pack, and the three of us hit the ground running towards the lights Trails End, leaving Cowboy in the dust.
Ten minutes later, soaked, muddy, and probably covered in bugs, we stumbled through the doors of Last Call. Every head turned, and the place went quiet. Too exhausted at this point to say a word, we limped to the bar, crawled up on a stool, and I hollered, “Ralph, bring a bottle of Tequila and three shot glasses . . . and a phone if you have one, we seemed to have gotten ours wet.” Then I laid my head on the bar to catch my breath.
“Holy, shit that was close,” Lucy, mumbled.
“Not a word about how close, you hear me?”
“He won’t hear it from me, I like my head just the way it is,” Frank whispered as Ralph placed a bottle, three glasses, and one cell phone in front of me.
I stared at the phone, then looked at Lucy and Frank. When I started to push it towards Frank, he threw his hands up in an unequivocal “No way in hell.” Right, I’m on my own I guess.
Ralph didn’t move away when I picked up the phone, in fact, the whole bar seemed to have moved closer to our group. Shrugging, I turned the phone on, dialed Max’s number, and then held my breath as I waited for him to answer.
“Tell me you found her,” he bit out and I melted a little at how worried he was.
“She found herself so you can call off the National Guard.”
“Jesus, Mia . . . where the fuck are you?”
“Currently, I’m at Last call having shots with Lucy and Frank.”
Dead silence.
“Max?”
“Give me a second,” he growled, so I gave him five, then ten.
“Are you mad?” I whispered when I made it to fifteen.
“Mad doesn’t cover what I’m feeling right now,” he mumbled back.
“If it makes you feel any better we were lost for a short time (tiny lie) but we found our way back on our own. Oh, and we found Nala and helped her out of a trapping pit.”
“There's a lot of things that would make me feel better, you in my bed bein’ one of them. That bein’ said, for the sake of our relationship I’m gonna hang up now before I say somethin’ that’ll piss you off and send you packin’ back to Seattle.”
“Shit, you are mad. I’m sorry, Max. I didn’t mean to get lost.”
“You never mean for shit to happen, it’s just you, my adorable pain in the ass,” he mumbled. “I need to call off half the state of Alaska then I’m gonna go home and take a shower. Hopefully, by the time I do all that, I won’t feel the need to wring your gorgeous neck.”
“You know the sooner you learn that I’m just me, and shit happens, the better off you’ll be,” I advised.
“Right, and the sooner you learn that I’m just me and won’t ever stop tryin’ to keep you safe the better off you’ll be.”
“So we agree we both need to ease up?”
“Nope, I agree you’ll never change and you agree that I won’t either.”
“Works for me,” I smiled.
“It doesn’t work for me,” he groused, “but I’ll come up with a way to rein you in eventually,” he threatened and then gave me dead air. (Note to self: Give Max a wide berth for a day or two.)
“Sounds like Thor doesn’t know how to handle being lassoed by Wonder Woman,” Frank chuckled.
“I’m hardly Wonder Woman,” I answered as I handed Ralph, his phone.
“Oh, I don’t know, the way you manage to get out of scraps that would kill most people makes me think you have a super power of some sort.”
“I think it’s more likely she has nine lives,” Lucy scoffed.
“Whatever it is that keeps me from falling victim to my bad luck, I’m not complaining,” I yawned.
Grabbing the bottle of Tequila, I filled each glass to the rim. Raising them, we toasted each other for surviving yet another encounter with Cowboy.
“Guys, how are we supposed to get home?” Lucy asked
“Do they have taxis in this town?” Frank inquired.
“I’ll call Maxine maybe she—”
Just then, the bar door slammed open and Shane walked in with two other men. When he caught sight of us, he headed our direction, smiling.
“Figures half the state would be out lookin’ for you three troublemakers and here you sit takin’ shots.” Leaning against the bar, Shane looked us over and his brows shot up as he asked, “You fall off the ridge again and take these two with you, Roberts?”
“NO! We had another . . . you know what, never mind, Max is mad enough. I don’t need him hearing about our escapades.”
Shane pulled a piece of grass from my hair and then felt the sleeve of my shirt.
“You’re soaking wet, are you tryin’ to catch a cold?”
“We don’t have a way home to change,” Lucy broke in.
“Some doctor you are, everyone knows you can’t catch a cold from being cold. Hypothermia yes, but not an actual virus,” I chided.
“I’m not a doctor I’m a vet.”
“Even a veterinarian knows how the body works.”
“Not a veterinarian a vet, as in served my country. I was a medic in the army and got the nickname doc while overseas.”
“Wait, how did you know what dose to use on the bears?”
“Google.”
“But you said you’d done it before.”
“I have, just not on an animal.”
“So you knew how to use our tranquillizer gun because you’re a vet?”
“First in my class in marksmanship,” Shane smiled.
Frank and Lucy both shrugged at his explanation, obviously not caring that he could have overdosed the bears. Ethically, I should care, but I was too tired to fight about it so I grabbed my glass and filled it again.
“When you three are done gettin’ wasted, let me know and I’ll drive you home, or is Max comin’ down the mountain to get you?”
Throwing back my drink, I let the alcohol warm me from the inside out before I answered.
“Max is taking a shower in an attempt to keep from strangling me right now, so I doubt he’s headed back down.”
“Excellent, you, me and Lucy make three,” Shane replied, rubbing his hands together and wiggling his brows.
“No, that would be you, them, and Frank makes for an awkward fourth wheel,” Frank reminded him.
“Not to mention, eww,” Lucy laughed.
Shane sighed in mock disappointment and then leaned fully back against the bar, both elbows resting on the scarred wood.
“I’ll have to pass too, lover boy. I have all I can handle with the mountain god. Besides, something tells me I’m not enough woman for you,” I laughed.
“Story of my life, too much time not enough women,” He answered dramatically.
“She’s out there,” I told him as I patted his shoulder, “or I should say they’re out there.”
Ralph was kind enough to feed us before calling it a night and then we loaded into Shane’s truck and headed for home. He dropped Lucy and Frank at Maxine’s first and then dropped me off outside my cabin on the lake.
After waving goodbye, I entered and turned on the light, that’s when a large hand covered my mouth. Screaming in earnest, since no one could hear, I tried to break free as a strong arm pulled me back against a hard chest. Adrenaline pumped through my veins as the taste of fear dried my mouth. Then I panicked and clawed at the hand that silenced my screams. In a last ditch effort, I brought my right arm up, slammed it hard into his gut, and then bit down on his palm. He growled “Fuckin’ bitch” when my sharp teeth tore through his thick flesh. Ripping his hand from my mouth, he raised his other hand and cracked my temple with the butt of a gun, sending me tumbling to the floor.
In my daze, I didn’t have time to brace as a boot connected soundly with my ribs. Sharp pain, the likes I’d never felt, shot up my ribs as stars burst brilliantly behind my eyes. Rolling to my back, gasping
great gulps of air, I turned my head and caught sight of my worst nightmare. Reaching out my hand, I choked out “Max,” as I stared at his blood-covered body. When he didn’t move, my breath stole from my lungs and then from the depths of hell I screamed “MAX,” right before stars exploded behind my eyes again. Stunned senseless from the blow to my temple, my head lolled to the side as darkness seeped in, clawing at my consciousness. Blinking twice, trying to keep my eyes focused on Max, I lost my fight and slipped defenseless into unwanted slumber.
Twenty-Two
A Reason to Kill
Darkness, velvet in color like a night with no moon or a life with no hope, pulled me under. Then the knowing came. I knew I was going to die, knew that Max was probably dead, and I knew whatever this bastard had planned for me would pale in comparison to a life without my Thor. If Max was dead, he might as well stick that gun between my eyes and pull the trigger. I’d tasted beauty these past few weeks, tasted what it meant to love someone, to find your match in every sense of the word. As opposite as night and day, we fit together like two puzzle pieces, one clumsy and headstrong and one strong, brave and perfect in every particular.
A sense of floating, as if I lay adrift on an air mattress lazing away on the waves of an unknown lake had me jerking awake. My vision, though fuzzy, finally made out the face of my attacker as he carried me across the cabin and dropped me on the bed. His face was sinister backlit by the glow from the fireplace. If I hadn’t believed in evil before, I surely did now. His eyes were dead; no emotion played behind them as he grabbed my arm and secured it to the headboard with a plastic cuff. I didn’t fight him as he did this, I was too busy staring at Max’s lifeless body, at the blood that pooled around his head.
“Is he dead,” my voice trembled.
“Yes, the King of Trails End lives no more.”
Mia’s crying, Max realized. His beautiful, to the brink of distraction, too sexy for his own good woman, was crying, and he couldn’t stop the rumbling in his head to find out why.
Max’s head felt like the time he’d fallen from a tree, cracking it on the way down. When he tried to force his eyes open, they fluttered but wouldn’t fully open. Then Mia’s scared voice broke through the fog that invaded his headspace, clearing out the cobwebs, and they sprang open.
“Don’t touch me,” Mia shouted as Max tried to focus on the scene in front of him.
Stetson, who was shirtless, was straddling Mia on the bed as she tried to fight him off with one arm tied to the headboard. Max suppressed the urge to roar at the bastard. He needed time to get his arms and legs moving so he could kill that son of a bitch for laying his hands on her.
“That’s it, fight me, Mia. I love a good struggle before I ram myself in deep. I knew when I laid eyes on you you’d be a hellcat in the sack.”
Max jerked his hands, forming fists he intended to use on the bastard’s skull upon hearing his threat.
“Why are you doing this?” Mia cried out as Max focused on moving his arms.
“Revenge is a dish best served in blood,” Stetson hissed. “For a year I’ve had to put up with this hick town all because of that fuckin’ whore and her fuckin lies. I was a great cop,” he roared in her face, “and I got shipped off to fuckin’ purgatory while hiding behind my father’s reputation like a coward. Then Zimmer comes to town and threatens me with exposure? Fuck that,” he bellowed. “I’m done hiding, I’m done bein’ told to keep my head down or my fuckin’ father will write me off. He created this monster,” Stetson growled as his fists hit his chest. “He created me and I’m gonna show him once and for all that the son doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“You killed Donald?” Mia gasped.
“Keep up, sunshine, I killed them all. Zimmer, Curly, Hunter over there, and now I’m gonna feast on your body as I choke the life out of you.”
“You’re insane,” Mia screamed as she balled her fist and stuck Stetson in the face, sending his head back from the blow.
Stetson recovered, his eyes flashing in anger as he raised his fist. Max tried to get up, wanted to stop him, but his limbs weren’t cooperating. Feeling impotent, he bit his lips until the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. He couldn’t stop the blow and wanted to howl when Stetson’s fist connected with Mia’s gorgeous face.
“I’ll kill you for that,” Max whispered.
His eyes slammed shut, his jaw locked tight in rage when Mia cried out in pain. He felt less than a man as he fought for control of his body. How the hell had this bastard gotten the jump on me? Max’s tormented thoughts swirled.
He remembered climbing in his truck thinking about Mia, how she drove him nuts, how even though she drove him nuts he knew she was the other half of his soul. He’d been raised to believe by his crazy mother that each man and woman has a perfect match that God splits one soul into two bodies. That those souls always find one another again and like mercury, when they are close, the need to merge, to be whole, is elementary. She said you knew immediately when you met them that you were in the presence of your other half. He hadn’t understood that, not until he’d looked deep into Mia’s crystal pools and felt the earth move under his feet. He knew Mia was his other half and his need to merge with her, to be close was as fundamental as breathing.
All that had been running through his head when he’d come to her cabin instead of his own. Then he’d pulled the clothes from his body and showered while he waited for her to return. When he’d exited the bathroom with a towel in hand, drying water from his hair, he remembered hearing a click and then nothing.
Little by little, his arms and legs began to respond and his senses became sharper as he kept his eyes on the bed. Stetson was still ranting about the perceived wrongs inflicted upon him, so Max took that opportunity to move to his knees. Mia couldn’t see him because Stetson blocked her view and it was just as well, she’d react to seeing him alive. He needed the element of surprise if he was going to save them both in his weakened state.
Looking for a weapon, he saw his jeans on the floor and reached out, pulling his phone from the pocket. He dialed 911 and then lay the phone down.
Mia cried out when Stetson tore her shirt open, and Max knew he was out of time. He wasn’t about to let this fuck put his hands on her one more time. So, as her legs began to kick, Max stood, wobbled, and then he lunged at Stetson as Mia screamed his name.
“You headin’ home for the evening?” Ralph asked Chester Tallchief as he finished off the rest of his beer.
“Yep, been a long day and now that I’m the new chief I gotta get up early and be at the station by eight.”
“Heard they canned Stetson, about time I say. The guy was nothin’ but a drain on our tax dollars if you ask me. Been almost three weeks since Curly died and he’s done nothin’ to catch the killer.”
“Maxine caught up with me after we knew Mia was safe and told me she and my mother had been “workin’” the case,” Chester chuckled. “Seems they found a piece of black and red flannel in the woods and think it belongs to the killer. Get this; they’ve been pretending to sell their sex toys door-to-door so they could check out everyone who wore a red and black shirt on the day Zimmer died.”
Both men threw their heads back and laughed as Shane walked back into the bar. Having dropped off the lost hikers, Shane had headed back into town hoping to find some company for the night. Unfortunately, for him, the only warm bodies he’d find this evening were grizzled old men or his old friend. As he walked up and clapped Chester’s back, he grabbed the stool next to his friend and sat down, raising his finger to indicate he wanted a beer.
“What’s so funny?” Shane inquired.
“I was just lettin’ Ralph know that Stetson is out and that I’m in. Now I gotta run down leads that Maxine and Mom came up with or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Christ, what did those two come up with?” Shane chuckled.
“Get this . . . Mia found a piece of black and red flannel in the woods near Zimmer’s body. And
for the past two weeks that band of misfits has been searchin’ the homes of all the men in Trails End.”
“They didn’t come to my door,” Shane replied.
“If you didn’t wear that shirt to the Founders Day celebration you were in the clear.”
“I was late comin’ down, missed all the fireworks,” Shane answered, “pity too. I would have loved to see Max take that bastard down a peg or two. I got to town just in time to see Zimmer makin’ . . . wait, did you say red and black flannel?”
“Yeah?”
“Fuck . . . I saw Zimmer and Stetson havin’ words, figured he was makin’ a complaint against Max.”
“So?”
“Stetson wasn’t in his uniform . . . he was in red and black flannel.”
“You’re sure?”
“You don’t suppose . . .”
“That my crazy mother and her crazy friend are right?”
“Would explain why he was hell bent on chargin’ Mia for the crime . . . It would ease everyone’s mind, get them off his back.”
“How’d he get the axe? Max thinks it’s one of his men since they had access,” Chester argued.
“Call Max, see if Stetson had access to them.”
Shrugging, Chester pulled out his cell and hit Max’s number. The call went to voice mail so he left a message. Turning back to Shane, he was about to call it an evening when his walkie-talkie crackled to life.
“Dispatch to Tallchief.”
Grabbing hold of the unit clipped to his belt, Chester answered.
“This is Tallchief, over.”
“Chief, we had a nine-one-one call come in from Max Hunter’s cell. No one is answering, but we can hear a disturbance and a woman screaming in the background.”
Shane, having just dropped Mia off, knew if Max was with a woman exactly where they were.