Mountain Angel (Northstar Angels, Book One)

by Suzie O'Connell

  “You still dating that Brandon guy?”

  She blushed. “Yeah,” she replied.

  “Why don’t you bring him along? I’d like to meet him. And, if he’s as good a cook as I’ve heard, I could probably use him.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. I’ll see if I can get him to go. He’s pretty anti-social.”

  I’m sure he is, Aelissm thought. “Well, hopefully he’ll come. If not, I’ll at least see you there, right?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be there.”

  “Good.”

  Aelissm left the restaurant and joined Pat in the cab of his truck. She leaned over and kissed him. “I think that went well.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  ADAM FELT HE’D NEARLY FULFILLED his oath to explore every back road in the Northstar Valley. He’d driven more miles than he could remember, filled his tank more times than he cared to recall and he was still no closer to knowing where Aelissm lived. He’d seen pictures of her cabin and some of the terrain around it, but every road he’d been on looked the same. Lots of ridges and valleys, all blanketed with lodgepole pine, quaking aspen, sagebrush, blue-purple lupine, and granite.

  Then Amber had returned from her parent’s house in Bozeman two days ago and put a stop to his frantic searching. Seeing her was akin to breathing again. The tension left him and he forgot the note Aelissm had left on his door and he was able to push her completely from his mind for a little while.

  He was about as close to discovering why he still felt compelled to catch her as he was to finding her cabin. He was still and probably always would be attracted to her and he knew her spirit would always haunt his heart, but the need to claim her for himself had faded into nothingness.

  It was probably a good thing Amber was coming over in a little bit. He wanted to forget Aelissm tonight and concentrate on the woman who’d managed to turn what had begun as a bleak hunt for something he might never attain into the best thing he could recall ever happening to him. He didn’t hate Devyn anymore and though he doubted he’d ever want to settle here, he could do it if Amber asked him to. Now, Bozeman or Missoula or Great Falls or Billings, those places he wouldn’t mind. He’d been through Missoula a few times since coming here, but the rest he knew only through what he heard. He just knew they were all more than ten times the size of Devyn and he could start over more easily there, where he wouldn’t be constantly reminded of Aelissm and Bryce and everything else that had happened since his death.

  He jumped off his bed at the knock on his door. Yanking the door open, he nearly threw his arms around Amber’s neck. Only his unwillingness to alert her to his thoughts kept his embrace more modest.

  “I missed you,” she whispered shyly. “I know I’ve seen you at work, but it’s not the same.”

  “I missed you, too, Amber.”

  She purred against his lips, then deepened the kiss. Blissfully, all thoughts of Aelissm vanished at her touch. Yearning came with it, too, though, disrupting what should have been a mindless descent into sensation. He hated having to hide from Amber. The secrets he kept from her had only begun to gnaw at him more ferociously during her absence, but if she knew why he was really in Devyn, she’d be gone in a heartbeat without giving him half a chance to explain. Which was worse, being eaten alive by a lie or losing the woman he loved because of it?

  “I have a problem,” he heard himself say. “I came to Devyn to resolve it, but since I met you, it doesn’t seem to be so important.”

  Amber sank back down off her toes. She studied him frowning.

  “But it’s still with me. I can’t get past this need to deal with it even though it feels like I shouldn’t need to now.”

  “Then you need to deal with it,” she replied, as if it were so simple.

  “I wish it were that easy,” he murmured.

  He didn’t let her answer. Moving her to his bed, he laid her down and kissed her until there was no room left in her mind for anything but the moment. He wished his own thoughts could be so quickly dispensed. Why couldn’t he just leave well enough alone, take Amber to Bozeman or wherever and forget what Aelissm had meant to him? Because the past wouldn’t leave him alone. It would haunt him and destroy the happiness he’d found with Amber. Until he had closure, he would always see Bryce’s face twisted with rage and Aelissm’s terror-widened eyes. The medical examiners and lawyers and district attorney and the judge might have said there was no way to know if Adam’s near-strangling of Bryce had truly caused the aneurysm to burst, but in his heart, Adam knew he’d killed his best friend. And he’d been stalking Aelissm since, hoping…. Hoping for what? That she’d forgive him? Thank him? Tell him that what he’d done was a terrible accident and that he wasn’t a murderer?

  “What’s wrong, honey?” Amber asked, looking up at him.

  “More bad memories.”

  “Well, quit thinking about them and think about me instead.” She playfully wriggled her hips. “C’mon, sweet thing. Show me how much you love me.”

  “I do love you,” he replied and sat back to strip off his worn blue t-shirt.

  “Ooo, someone’s been busy,” Amber said. She giggled as she reached a hand up to explore the harder lines of his torso.

  He had been busy with that, too. In the last year, he’d sort of let himself go and though he was still fairly lean, muscle had become soft with disuse. Amber had re-awakened his sense of self-pride. He wanted to get back into the shape he’d been in before everything had gone wrong. For her, not for Aelissm.

  With a growl of intent, he sought Amber’s mouth and the oblivion he would find in kissing her. At last, he managed to subdue his ponderings as their desire spiraled out of control. It was always like this with her. She was so wild and passionate that he had no hope of keeping his head, even if he wanted to. As they writhed in that exotic dance, Adam knew he wanted to keep her. For the rest of their lives. But that would come later. After.

  Sometime later, when they were sitting together on his bed watching the static-ridden local news on the little television he’d broken down and bought a few weeks ago, his fog of contentment was shattered. Amber bounced off the bed, remembering the envelope she’d brought. She tossed it at him.

  “What’s this?” he asked, looking at her as he opened it.

  “An invitation to the Northstar Potluck. Miss Davis—Aelissm—wants me to come so I can start getting to know the locals. She said you should come, too. Wouldn’t that be great? We could live up in Northstar together for the summer, work together….”

  Fear leeched through him, cold and nauseating. She knew about Amber. That dread grew as Amber told him about Aelissm and Pat’s visit to the restaurant quite a while ago now, looking for him. He knew the story they’d told her was a lie, but he couldn’t say anything to Amber about it. Maintaining a calm façade in the face of this upheaval was incredibly difficult. Aelissm had asked him how he liked being hunted and he could say with honesty that he really didn’t like it. But, contrary to her obvious intent with her little game, he wasn’t going to be scared off. He was now more determined to confront her and end this whole nasty charade.

  He thought of every excuse to get Amber out of his house he could and finally settled on food poisoning. It wasn’t something he’d eaten that had his stomach stirred up, but she didn’t need to know that.

  “I can stay with you,” she said.

  “I’d rather you didn’t catch this, in case it isn’t bad food.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow at work then?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Brandon?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’ll come to the potluck with me, won’t you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Please?”

  He looked at her pleading eyes and wanted to give in and tell her yes, he’d go, but he couldn’t. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Okay. I guess I’ll have to live with that for now.”

  He waited long enoug
h to be sure she was gone and wouldn’t catch him walking over to the bar. Peering outside, he decided to take his wind-breaker. The sky was heavy with an approaching thunderstorm and he shivered. The light was eerie and he wondered if it was a bad omen. With his shoulders hunched, he trudged up the alley to the bar, praying JP was there tonight. And wondering what price JP would put on his assistance.

  * * *

  Adam stared down at the instructions, wondering where in the hell he’d made a wrong turn. Again. Take a right on Elkhorn, a right on Clark Creek, then a left on Wellman Creek. There was no sign for Wellman Creek Road, but JP had told him it was the road to the left at the intersection that would take him up to the Sawtooth Lake Trailhead. He’d already gone up that way, his second mistake. The first had taken him through the little cluster of houses and cabins at the end of Elkhorn Road. The third wrong turn had taken him down a short road rougher than what he supposed was Wellman Creek. That road had ended where a creek had cut across the path. Judging by the multitude of tire tracks in the little turn-around, he guessed it was probably used by dirt bikes and four-wheelers. Now, he was sitting in a little turn-around at the end of yet another road. This one had taken him across the same creek he’d been stopped at before, up and around the ridge that formed the western wall of the steep valley. To the east, there was a small clear-cut. There was no sign of any cabins, but he remembered Aelissm saying something about her family cutting the logs for their cabins from her grandparents’ property. Maybe this was it. There weren’t any other clear-cuts up here.

  He pounded his fist on the steering wheel until his hand hurt, then took a deep breath and re-read all of the instructions. Right on Elkhorn, right on Clark Creek, left on Wellman Creek by the road to the Sawtooth trailhead. Then he saw it. Road forks three miles up Wellman Creek. Take right fork. Gate half-mile farther. May be locked. He’d taken the left fork. With a snarled curse, he turned the truck around. When he reached the fork, he turned up the hill. Half a mile later, as JP had told him, there was a gate.

  He got out and swore again when he found it locked. He was sure this was the gate JP had mentioned, so that meant Aelissm’s cabin, her grandparent’s cabin, her uncle’s and June’s were all beyond it. He was so close! He could continue on foot, but he didn’t know how much farther up the road to go and even though JP had told him Aeli’s was the third driveway—second on the right—Adam didn’t trust himself to find the right one. He’d already gotten lost four times and he didn’t want to chance getting caught up here. Sara wasn’t due in Devyn until just before the potluck and if he went ahead without her, he’d have a lot more to fear than the surprises Aelissm had left him. Besides, without Pat out of the way, what chance did he have of getting near enough to Aeli to talk to her? About as much chance as he would’ve had finding her cabin without JP’s help. And, technically, he still hadn’t found her cabin, though he doubted JP would consider that grounds to nullify their agreement. For his assistance, JP had asked only that Adam promise to keep his nose out of whatever the man was plotting and not mention a word of their conversations to June Montana, Aelissm Davis or anyone who might pass such information on to either of them. Adam was disturbed by the request, but he’d uphold his end of the bargain. Despite the fact that he hadn’t yet discovered Aeli’s cabin, even with JP’s directions.

  He settled for leaving her a note strapped to the gate. There was the possibility that someone else might get it first, her grandparents or June, but that didn’t matter. It would get to her one way or another.

  He sat down in his truck to write it, irritated anew by how badly his hand shook. Things weren’t going how he’d planned. Not at all. He was supposed to be the stalker, not her. Applying the title to himself made him shudder with disgust. What had she done to him to make him like this? Before he’d met her, before he’d killed Bryce for her, he never would have done anything like this. He’d worked—and fought—too hard to get where he’d been in life and he’d given it all up for her. She wasn’t worth it. Not like Amber. Amber loved him in return.

  * * *

  “Must’ve struck a nerve,” Pat remarked, studying the note. “We only gave Amber the invitation yesterday.”

  Aelissm’s face was white, despite what she’d said about not being afraid of Adam anymore. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.”

  His heart ached for her and he wished he could protect her from her own fear, but there was little he could do when he felt it himself. He’d become just as embroiled in this mess with Adam Winters as she was. The part of the note written directly to him was proof of that. I told you to stay away from her, Patrick. Now I have no choice. I’ll come to her potluck with Amber, but I’ll be bringing along a little surprise for you. You’ve been following me long enough to know I have my ways of digging up the kind of dirt you can’t wash off. We’ll be seeing you soon.

  Pat wondered what kind of “dirt” Winters thought he’d uncovered. He’d never been arrested and he’d kept clear of anything that remotely resembled a scandal. He despised any and all kinds of corruption––part of the reason Sara’s family had come to resent him. Shortly after he’d met her, her younger sister had tried to buy him off, hoping he wouldn’t turn her in for any of the multitude of drugs she used and sold, but he’d turned her down and been all the more determined to see Sara’s baby sister arrested. The sum their parents had offered still staggered him.

  He motioned for Aeli to get back in the truck and drive through the gate. As he swung it closed behind her, he paused to study the tire tracks in the dust. A light rain shower had come through earlier that day while he and Aelissm had been going over the books at the Bedspread. June, too, had left for work at the Ramshorn before the rain had come, so the fact that there were two sets of tracks—the one Aeli had made driving up here and another—told Pat that Winters had been up here within the last two hours. He knew the other set of tracks couldn’t be Marge and Roger because they stopped at the gate.

  “You’re brave enough to come up here, but not brave enough to go the rest of the way on foot.” Pat smirked. “So you still don’t know exactly where she lives.”

  He climbed in the passenger side of Aeli’s truck still smirking.

  “What’s so amusing?” she asked flatly. “Because I don’t see anything to be smiling about.”

  “Your plan is working, sweetheart,” he replied. “You’ve driven him to desperation and he’s tried—somewhat unsuccessfully—to find your cabin. He’s also accepted your invitation to the potluck.”

  “What else did he say?”

  “That he’s very upset with you and doesn’t think this is funny at all. He reiterated his vow to make this difficult, but that follows his claim that he needs to talk to you. And he said he has a surprise for me.” Pat frowned. “I have no idea what he means by that, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”

  “You’re being awfully smug about this whole thing, Pat.”

  “Better to be smug than afraid. At least I keep my head this way. Besides, he’s taken your bait, so why are you complaining?”

  “Because I still feel like this is completely out of my control.”

  He leaned across the seat and kissed her cheek. “That’s what I’m here for, sweetheart. Whatever happens, I won’t let him hurt you.”

  “But he wants to hurt you.”

  “I won’t let him do that, either.”

  They’d reached the cabin, so he pulled her across the seat to him and tucked his arms around her. She relaxed into him with the back of her head resting on his chest. Protecting her had become his place when Bill had first asked him to come here. Soothing her worries was a duty he’d taken upon himself.

  “This will all be over soon, beloved.”

  “Mmm. Beloved. I like that.”

  He smiled and rested his head against the window frame. “I do, too, but you were right about that. Until Adam is gone, I don’t think we’ll know what we have. And it’s all coming to a head now. He’s getting scared. And
I’d say he doesn’t seem as determined as he was when I first got here. His letters have changed. Do you think he really loves Amber?”

  Aeli nodded. “I know she loves him and she’s not dumb enough to fall for someone who didn’t return her feelings.”

  “I wonder if she isn’t affecting his motivation. Or destroying it. I’m not sure I can explain it, but I just get the feeling his heart’s not in this anymore.”

  “You get the feeling?”

  “It’s definitely a hunch I have. I’m not saying he doesn’t still want to catch up with you. But he hasn’t vowed his undying love for you in a long time. Something has changed.”

  “Maybe, but he’s still saying I’m his.”

  “Hmm. So he is. But it doesn’t have the same feel to it, does it? He’s no longer saying he paid for you with Bryce’s death, is he?”

  She shook her head.

  “Maybe it’s just my imagination, but he doesn’t seem as focused on what he wants with you.”

  She snorted. “Would you listen to us? Maybe this, maybe that. We still don’t know anything for certain.”

  “That’s par for the course until the case is closed. C’mon, lover, we need to get our dinner fixings inside before they go bad.”

  Aeli opened the cabin while Pat grabbed the few groceries they’d picked up from Ma Burns’ on their way up the mountain. His stomach growled and he laughed. He’d probably think better once he was fed.

  “So, are you and June baking pies for the potluck again?”

  “I thought we might. Why, do you have a problem with getting flour all over yourself?”

  “Not at all. It’s fun.”

  She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. He watched her get their dinner started, as amazed as always at her efficiency. If something as mundane as cooking a meal aroused such an incredible surge of affection for her, he wondered if he’d ever tire of living with her. He occasionally snatched ingredients as she cooked and she’d swat at his hand every time, giggling. How could something so everyday be so blissful? The graceful movements of her body as she glided around the kitchen absolutely captivated him.