by April Hunt
“I do, but there’s always the chance that I missed something.”
There was that second-guessing herself again. Roman didn’t know what happened to feed into her self-doubt, but he could honestly say he wasn’t sure he’d met anyone more capable of anything than her. Not that she’d believe him if he told her.
“There’s something we need to talk about before we get to Beaver Ridge.”
Isa pulled her brown eyes away from her computer. “I’m pretty sure we talked about everything we needed to talk about.”
Roman shook his head. “Not this. Tony said things are escalating there, right?”
“More people are showing symptoms, which we expected to happen.”
“Exactly, and as more people get sick, the fear factor rises. When people get scared, they do stupid shit.”
“Spoken like a man who’s seen that firsthand.”
“I have. It’s one of those things you can always count on happening.”
Isa studied him through narrowed eyes. “That’s a little pessimistic, don’t you think?
“Maybe, but it’s also reality. I’m bringing it up because we’ll be hit with a lot of possible worst-case scenarios once we’re wheels down—the patients, the community, and the possible assholes waiting in the wings.”
Isa subtly bit the bottom corner of her lip. “That’s a lot of worst-case scenarios.”
“Which means you should use a few flight hours to catch some Z’s…rest up for whichever scenario lies ahead.”
“Do me a favor, Roman.”
“Anything.” And he meant it.
“Never coach a little league team. Your pep talks leave a little something to be desired.” Her mouth twitched with the threat of a grin.
The sight of it conjured one of his own. “Noted.”
They sat in awkward silence until Roman forced himself to his feet. “Work. Then rest.”
She waved him off, ignoring him completely. By the time he made his way to where King sat sprawled in a chair, she’d already gotten lost in her computer.
King rested a hat over his face to make it look like he was sleeping, but Roman knew better. He kicked his boot with his own so he could take the seat across from him.
King chuckled. “That was fucking excruciating to watch. Did you completely lose your mojo with the opposite sex or what? It was worse than a teenage boy angling for his first hook-up.”
“And if I were angling for another hook-up that could be a problem.”
“Another?” King waggled his eyebrows. “Hot damn, you sly bastard. Banging the smart chick. You always were a ballsy son of a bitch.”
On his way to prop his ankle on his knee, Roman swung his leg wide and nailed King in the shin.
He howled, laughing. “Fuck, man. You put steel tips on those boots?”
“Talk about Isabel like that again, and I’ll kick you in the ass so you can find out.”
Yeah, they’d fucked. Fast and hard. And he practically ached to be able to do it again, but he didn’t want her just to get his rocks off, or even because it had been the best sex he’d ever had—which it was.
It had been great sex that didn’t make him second-guess shit. He’d let himself enjoy being with her and didn’t think about the usual crap that followed him around like the shadow from a bad horror movie.
Hell, he’d snuggled and gotten so comfortable he’d slept for nearly eight solid hours. That shit hadn’t happened ever…even before Burundi.
“You know your lab friends are only one of a handful of issues we could run into in this little town, right?” King stated. “Isolated borders. Possible quarantine if this virus thing gets out of hand. Fear—”
“Makes people go stupid. I just had this conversation with Isabel.”
“You’ll be okay with hauling her over your shoulder and dragging her ass out of there if we have to? Because she doesn’t strike me as the type to just call it quits and walk away when there’s people’s lives on the line.”
Roman had asked himself that same question, and he’d like to think he’d cart her away in a heartbeat. Hell, prior to walking into Tru Tech that first time, that’s just what he would’ve done. Now he wasn’t so sure.
After hearing her talk to her grandfather the other night, he knew how important it was for her not to fail the people of Beaver Ridge. If that meant keeping her in Alaska for as long as possible, he’d do whatever he had to do to make it happen.
* * *
The small puddle-jumper they got on in Anchorage shook with turbulence, jostling both the cargo in the back and the occupants up front. Isa’s shoulder bumped into Roman’s, and she sent him an apologetic smile, albeit a strained one. On the other side of her, Jaz groaned.
“Looking a little green there, Curva,” Ryder quipped from the seat next to the pilot. He jiggled a bag of onion rings. “You sure you don’t want something to put in your stomach?”
Jaz’s unease had been the target for teasing for the last hour, and the only reason the Marine hadn’t throttled him was because her hands were too busy white-knuckling the seat beneath her. “Get those damn things away from me, or you’ll look black and blue.”
King, sprawled out in the last row of seats, chuckled. “Don’t know what your problem is. It’s just a little plane ride.”
“This isn’t a plane. It’s a folded-up piece of notebook paper. No offense, Roger,” Jaz said to their local pilot just as they were hit with another big bump, this one emitting a faint groan of steel.
“None taken.” Roger waved off Jaz’s sentiment. “But you won’t find a sturdier paper airplane this side of the mountain. I make sure this baby is tuned up and ready to go at all times. You picked good when you chose to use Sky’s Ahoy.”
Isa leaned forward in her seat, her arm brushing against Roman’s. “Do you fly to Beaver Ridge often?”
“Depends on what you call often. There’s a handful of us that make routine supply runs out here. Almost nothing from town isn’t flown in. I would say one of us is making a trek out this way at least once a week, sometimes twice. This past week we’ve already made three trips with a fourth scheduled in two days. A hell of a lot of medication, by the looks of it.”
Tony had already told her about the supplies he’d demanded from the GHO—IV kits and bagged fluids as well as meds like ibuprofen and acetaminophen to control the fevers that went with FC-5 infection. More than likely, they’d need to be replenished multiple times over before everything was said and done.
“Looks like we’re just about there.” Roger nodded toward the edge of the skyline and picked up his radio in preparation of their final approach.
As the plane crested the nearest mountaintop, Isa looked out the window. A vivid orange and pink sunset backdropped the snow-capped peaks. One rolling mountain staggered into another in an almost endless view of Alaskan wilderness, and right in the middle of it, nestled between a mountain base and a large crystalline lake, was Beaver Ridge.
Boats lined a small dock, and buildings, with varying shades of gray and brown roofs, looked like small, ant-sized structures.
Ryder peered out the window and whistled. “Doesn’t that look cozy?”
“Nothing we didn’t prepare for.” Roman handed Isa her pack. His fingers brushed hers, sending a warm electrical zap up her arm that had nothing on the zing of his stare. “You’re always to stay within two feet of either me, Jaz, or Ryder. No exceptions.”
Behind them, King scoffed. “What am I? Chopped liver?”
Roman ignored his friend. “Me. Jaz. Or Ryder.”
“That’ll be difficult to do when I’m treating patients or working in the lab.” Isa lifted her brow and dared him to argue.
“Doc—”
“It’s not negotiable, Roman. None of you are trained to handle patients, and donning personal protective gear in this kind of setting isn’t something you can wing. When each and every step isn’t followed to the letter, accidents happen. Are you willing to risk the well-being of an
yone here? Because I’m not.”
It was a low blow, but she needed it to make her point, and judging by Roman’s scowl, she’d achieved her goal.
By the time Roger landed, Isa was more than ready to get off the plane and get to work. Only so much planning could be done without seeing the town—and Tony—for herself, which meant everything else would have to be adapted on the fly.
A triage area. A clinic for the ill. A system for minimizing exposure risk to those who were still healthy. None of it could be determined until they knew for sure what they were dealing with, and as much as Isa hoped it wasn’t FC-5, she also prayed it wasn’t something new and equally as scary.
“Get me the hell out of here.” Jaz stumbled over their legs to be the first one to deplane. By the time the rest of them followed, her color had returned to normal and she looked up and down the lake’s rocky shoreline and into the mountains. “Wow. It’s…gorgeous. Kinda hard to believe something as terrible as that virus is here.”
“In my experiences so far, the places often hit by the worst things are often the most beautiful,” Isa admitted. And the most ill-prepared to deal with it.
From what she understood from Tony, Beaver Ridge had what equaled an urgent care run by one doctor and nurse. No way would they be able to handle something like this alone.
In the distance, two golf carts zoomed down the shoreline, weaving around large rocks and washed-ashore branches.
“Everyone look alive.” Roman stepped in front of her in an instant, his hand flying to the gun tucked under his shirt as the carts stopped on the other end of the dock. “Stay behind me, Doc.”
Isabel recognized the hideous tan hunting jacket of the first driver, and quickly grabbed Roman’s arm. “Easy, cowboy. It’s Tony.”
Her old mentor climbed off the first cart, his shock of white hair sticking out from his knit cap, and oversized parka adding a few additional inches to his slender frame. As Jaz and Isa approached, he tugged his sunglasses off his face and offered her a weary smile through his well-kempt beard.
“And I didn’t think it possible you could get any more beautiful.” Tony opened his arm and pulled her into a tight hug.
“I wish I could say the same to you.” Isa noted the dark circles framing his blue eyes, and frowned. “Have you slept at all since you got here?”
“A little here and there.”
“How many times have you told me that you need to take care of yourself in order to take care of others?”
“I knew the day would come where you’d eventually use my lessons against me.” Tony squeezed her again before finally releasing his hold. “I’m sorry about this, Isa. If I thought anyone else could handle it I would’ve—”
She touched his arm. “No. You were right to call me. Even if this isn’t FC-5, it’s dangerous enough it needs to be addressed. How long until the GHO gets here?”
“Truthfully? Your guess is as good as mine. As is their MO, they’re dragging their feet to see what happens in the next few days.” Tony’s gaze strayed to Jaz and the now approaching Roman, King, and Ryder. “I’ll be damned. You really did bring an entourage.”
Isa made introductions, and it wasn’t long before they piled their gear, supplies, and themselves into the two golf carts. Roman rode shotgun next to Tony with Jaz and Isa in the rear and Ryder and King in the second vehicle with the bulk of their stuff.
“As you can see, everything here is on a smaller scale.” Tony navigated the micro roads of Beaver Ridge, giving an occasional friendly wave to curious onlookers walking the quaint streets. “Tight quarters. Close relationships. Everyone knows everyone else, and if someone sneezes, the person a few houses down can tell them bless you.”
“This place is a virtual breeding ground for cross contamination,” Isa replied, knowing he wasn’t just giving them a rundown of Beaver Ridge life.
“Exactly.” Tony slid her a quick look as he turned off the main street. “And it hasn’t been easy getting these people to understand why they simply can’t go about life as normal. Hell, until about an hour ago, the mayor still had them all prepping for the tourist season—which evidently makes this small idyllic Alaskan town come to life.”
“Tourists?” Isa’s thoughts immediately went to the nightmare that posed. “The last thing we need are visitors coming in and out of town and taking whatever this is home with them to the rest of their family and neighbors.”
“I’m in complete agreement, which is why I beached myself on the mayor’s front stoop at the crack of dawn and refused to budge until he agreed to push it back a week.”
Jaz asked, “A week? Do you think this can be contained that fast?”
“No, I don’t,” Tony answered, grim-faced. “But as it turns out, the mayor is up for reelection, and he’s afraid to upset the masses. Beaver Ridge residents rely on the money tourism brings in to get them through the rest of the year. If Old Joe doesn’t take out hunting parties, or Kyle can’t give ski lessons to college coeds, they don’t eat a meal one day in June.”
“Better to skip the meal than skipping the rest of your life,” Jaz muttered.
Inciting panic wasn’t something Isa wanted to do. It wasn’t good for anyone and often created more problems than it solved, but no one ever died from instilling a healthy dose of urgency. “We’ll keep trying to get through to them. We don’t have much of a choice.”
People walked in and out of small shops, some alone, and others in groups of twos and threes. More than one person wore a surgical mask, much like some people do in high-smog cities, but unfortunately, masks wouldn’t do a damn thing against FC-5.
Even in the golf carts, they crossed town quickly, Tony driving them up a little farther up the mountain to where a small chain of cabins overlooked the town proper.
“Here’s your home away from home.” He stopped in front of largest one. A wraparound porch hugged the front, and big, arching windows reflected the last of the day’s light. “It being the off-season means there were a lot of cabins to choose from. I nabbed this one for you because I figured you’d want to be closer to the clinic, which is literally about a hundred yards away down that hill. Plus it could accommodate the five of you pretty decently.”
“This is great, Tony, thank you.”
As they piled out of the carts, Roman’s gaze fixed on the wooded area behind them. He’d been quiet all day, even for him, and had been since their not-quite-an-argument argument back at Steele Ops headquarters. Isa told herself it was silly to feel responsible for it, but she did.
Roman himself admitted that they wouldn’t—and couldn’t—happen. A relationship wasn’t on his radar, and one with someone like him definitely wasn’t on Isa’s. And yet ever since she told him that she needed distance, he’d been broodier than normal.
It was probably a coincidence…but the part of her that had regretted saying it the moment the words left her mouth really hoped it wasn’t.
“What’s wrong?” Isa broke the moratorium on their silence and scanned the tree line looking for whatever he did.
“Just don’t like how the cabin’s out in the open like this.”
“Isn’t this better than being completely engulfed in the woods? It means we can see anyone coming from a long way off.”
King grunted as he walked past them toward the cabin, a stack of boxes in his hands. “Also means they have a clear view of us, too. I’ll pull out the perimeter alarms and start setting them up.”
“Take Ryder with you.” Roman nodded. “Jaz, I want you on the cabin. Make sure nothing and no one can sneak up without us having one hell of an advance warning.”
Ryder hoisted an oversized bag onto his shoulder. “And what about the rest of the town? And the clinic?”
“We’ll have to save that for tomorrow, when we have more daylight, and then kick our asses into gear.”
Tony nervously glanced around as everyone immediately spread out to perform their designated tasks. “You really think the group that took the viru
s is here in Beaver Ridge?”
Roman didn’t bat an eye as he answered, “If FC-5 is here, then I think it’s probably a safe bet.”
“And speaking of the virus.” Isa turned to her mentor. “I’d like that tour of the clinic, and a look at any samples that you’ve taken from patients to date. If I get—”
“No,” Roman growled at the same time Tony said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“What? Why?” Isa bounced her ire between the two men in front of her. “The sooner I get started, the sooner—”
“No.” Roman stared her dead in the eye, and with the exception of the close quarters in the puddle-jumper, got the closest he’d been to her in hours. One deep breath and her chest would touch his.
It was all Isa could do to prevent herself from leaning closer, but then she focused on the fact that the man standing close wasn’t the one who’d fucked her senseless and then held her afterward. The man glaring down at her was a growling Special Forces soldier prepping to dish out orders.
“Do you mind telling me why no?” Isa dared him.
“Because you were up all night preparing for today and had nearly twelve hours of flight time without so much as a five-minute rest. Now you want to walk into what you call a medical hot zone after not having slept a wink in the last thirty-six hours? Somehow I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Isa ground her teeth. “Is that your expert opinion?”
Without looking away from Isa, Roman asked, “Tony, can you tell me if that sounds like a solid idea to you…in your expert opinion?”
“Definitely not.” Tony, the traitor, agreed with Roman. He lifted his shoulders in a shrug of apology when she shot him a look. “I’m sorry, Isa, but he’s right. The clinic will be there tomorrow. I’ll be able to hold down the fort with the volunteers, and I’ll come to get you first thing in the morning.”
Isa’s annoyance bounced back and forth between the two men.
Despite the thirty-some-year age gap, they each wore the same determined expression. They wouldn’t back down anytime soon, and she was just too damn exhausted to put up much more of a fight. “I don’t like this joining forces thing you have going on.”