Love Inspired Suspense December 2013 Bundle: Christmas Cover-UpForce of NatureYuletide JeopardyWilderness Peril

by Lynette Eason

  “That’s something to consider if I can’t get cooperation around here.” Kemp scowled at the guard when he passed Rick and Shay and headed to the exit. “We’re running out of time, Savage. Gold-mining season is coming to a close. The weather is going to turn. Get some rest and we’ll put you to work later today or tomorrow.”

  Shay sucked in a breath to calm her haywire pulse. She could do this. For Rick. For them. Maybe everything would be all right. Maybe she would be safer with Kemp than with Rick, considering he was the man in charge. Sort of.

  When she stepped from behind Rick to show Kemp she’d agree, Rick pressed her behind him again, squeezing her hand. His was strong and warm, and she wished she could keep hold of it, but she tugged herself free and pushed past him.

  “It’s okay, Rick.” She moved to Kemp and turned around to look at Rick. She hated what she saw in his eyes—he thought that she didn’t believe he could protect her. That she didn’t trust him. Believe in him. It was the same look she’d seen earlier today after he’d treated the wounded man. He’d looked at her when she’d stepped back into the corner. “If this will keep the peace, then this is how it has to be for now.”

  Rick turned stone-faced and said nothing.

  With her eyes, she begged for him to understand. This was for the best. For now.

  The guard pressed the muzzle of his weapon against Rick’s ribs. “You want me to tie him up?”

  “Absolutely,” Kemp said. “Find him a cot and secure everything. Don’t trust him for a second.”

  “I won’t,” the guard said, and ushered Rick through the door.

  Before he exited, Rick gave her one last glance, regret and overwhelming concern flooding his eyes. It took her breath away even though she knew he’d show care and concern for anyone in this situation. She told herself that, and yet there was something else in his eyes. Didn’t he understand she didn’t want to leave him? It had taken everything in her to willingly step away from Rick and go to Kemp.

  Then the door shut, and Shay was left alone with the man behind all their troubles.

  “Now what?” she asked.

  “I’ll take you to your quarters and let you get some rest, too.” He raked a hand down his scruffy jowls and looked at her with tired red eyes. “When the time is right, I’ll need you to fix that plane.”

  “And then we’ll all just fly away together like one happy family, right?”

  “I like your spirit.” He grinned, but his eyes remained guarded, hiding the truth.

  He opened the door and Shay grabbed her coat and stepped through, taking note that he hadn’t exactly answered her question. But she didn’t need him to. She knew how this was going to end if she and Rick couldn’t get an advantage.

  She walked with Kemp across the dried mud hole called a gold-mining camp toward the main house, which he explained served as his personal quarters. He went on again about keeping her safe from the men in the camp who’d been here for weeks without companionship. Though he claimed he’d protect her, a chill that wasn’t from the Alaskan climate ran over her. She wrapped her arms around herself.

  As they walked, men paused from whatever they were working on to watch her. She hated that. Hated that they knew exactly where she was going. Where she would stay. Probably tied up and helpless like Rick. Hated they would know where to find her in the night.

  When she shuddered, Kemp slid a glance her way. “You ever been to Alaska before?”

  “No. This is a first.”

  “This isn’t cold. If you’re lucky, you won’t be here to experience the cold. I don’t plan to be here, either.”

  Kemp unlocked the door to his mining-camp home. Strange that he’d keep it locked when there was no one here but his fellow workers. That told her more about their situation and his relationship with these men. He’d said that he’d protect her, and she knew that Rick would do whatever he could to keep her safe, but she had an eerie feeling that when it came down to it, she was on her own. Her father had tried to prepare her to be self-sufficient, to protect herself.

  But would it be enough?

  *

  Rick woke up to a pounding headache. He wanted to find a new position on the cot but he’d been restrained and couldn’t. Anger and frustration boiled inside.

  Being held captive by a bunch of crazy men after gold went beyond ridiculous. That Aiden was still unaccounted for unsettled him, but even worse was being separated from Shay. Kemp claimed he’d protect her, but Rick didn’t trust Kemp with her, either.

  He wasn’t any better.

  An ache crawled over Rick’s heart when he remembered the moment Shay had stepped from him to Kemp. He understood why she’d decided to pacify their keeper, but underneath the logic, Rick was afraid her actions meant that Shay couldn’t really trust Rick. And under ordinary circumstances, he didn’t want her to. He didn’t deserve her, and she certainly didn’t deserve a man she couldn’t trust with her life.

  A man she couldn’t trust in her sleep, or rather in his sleep.

  But right now their circumstances were anything but ordinary, and he needed them to be on the same page.

  He was in the bunkhouse, where several of the men kept their belongings and cots. To get in as much work as possible before winter hit, they apparently worked around the clock and slept in shifts. There were sleeping forms in two of the cots around him—off-duty men grabbing their shut-eye.

  The cot squeaked as Rick tried to find a comfortable position. Impossible. The space heater kicked in with a low hum, blocking out the backhoe and generator noises and the soft snores of the other two in the room.

  Rick turned his thoughts to an escape plan.

  He’d need to work the mining camp as if it were a reconnaissance mission. Obtain information—everything he could gather about his enemy through visual and any other methods. Survey the geography.

  Something Kemp had said kept playing through his thoughts. We’re running out of time.

  The man clearly wanted the plane fixed in a hurry. That meant that Rick had maybe a day to figure things out, if that. Somehow he’d have to communicate his plans to Shay and pray she didn’t go to Kemp for his protection. Rick growled under his breath and tossed in the cot, only to have his arms nearly jerked from their sockets. He had to shove her face from his thoughts or he’d never get any rest.

  Sometime later pain shot through his side and Rick woke up. A foul-breathed grizzly of a man stood over him, jabbing him with his weapon. “Who can get any sleep around here with you?”

  He tried to sit up but couldn’t. “What do you mean?”

  “You were screaming. Yelling at people. All in your sleep.”

  Rick said nothing as the guy eyed him suspiciously. The others in the bunkhouse groaned, and most got up and dressed. Rick wanted to scrape his hand down his face but couldn’t. How long had he slept? Sunlight didn’t slip through cracks in the shades and the cots were filled with men.

  “Sorry,” Rick finally said, but a small smile slid onto his lips. If they were exhausted, that could only help him.

  “Do it again and I’ll silence you.” The younger of the men—the one who’d given him the medical kit—tugged on his knit cap, grabbed a weapon and left the bunkhouse along with the rest, except for grizzly man.

  “You might as well cut me loose,” Rick said. “I can’t sleep, either.”

  “I could care less if you sleep.”

  “Come on, man,” Rick said. “Let me sit in a chair with my hands tied—anything but this.”

  The guy scowled at Rick, but to Rick’s surprise, he flipped open his knife to cut Rick free. He was halfway done when a scream ripped through the night.

  A woman’s scream.

  The man paused, but he had already cut enough of the plastic ties for Rick to twist his way free of the rest. Rick bulldozed over him, pounding him in the head until he was unconscious. He tore the weapon from the man’s grasp, grabbed another man’s coat and knit cap and bounded for the door.

&n
bsp; Running through the camp armed like this might earn him a death sentence. Rick didn’t care.

  Shay. I have to get to Shay.

  As he raced across the way to the main house along with a couple of others, he knew this wasn’t at all the way he’d planned to make an escape. It wasn’t a plan at all.

  He just wanted to get to Shay.

  God, please let her be okay.

  Almost there.

  He pumped his arms, running faster than the others.

  He tried to rush through the door but it was locked. Rick pounded on the steel frame. “Let us in. Shay!”

  He’d definitely earned that death sentence from the guard he’d pulverized. He would likely be chained like a dog from now on. But he could deal with it once he saw that Shay was safe. He heard someone fumbling with the locks from the other side. So much for Kemp’s plan to protect Shay.

  Rick had a split second to make a decision. He handed his weapon off to the armed man next to him. “Here, take this.”

  The guy’s eyes widened in surprise but he had no time to react.

  Red faced, Kemp swung open the door, light from the room behind illuminating the blood on his hands.

  ELEVEN

  “Shay!” Rick shoved Kemp out of the way and stepped into the small sparsely furnished living room. “Where is she?” He ground out the words.

  “Rick?” Shay’s voice sounded shaky. If Kemp so much as touched her, Rick was going to make him pay.

  Ignoring the shouts behind him and the risk of being shot to death, he raced across the small space and down a short hallway. “Where are you?”

  “In here.” She appeared in a doorjamb, her face ashen and her hair askew. When she saw him, her mouth fell open and she rushed to him.

  Relief swept over him when he didn’t see any blood. But where had it come from?

  He held her close, feeling her body tremble. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  “Go find him!” From somewhere behind him, Kemp shouted orders at the men he held marginal control over.

  Find who? They were running out of time in more ways than one. He could sense Kemp’s fragile command slipping away.

  The way Shay shook against him, he thought she might be sobbing. Rick had never been good at comforting anyone, but he had to try. He lifted his hand, hesitating before brushing it down her back. “Shh. It’s going to be okay.”

  He heard Kemp’s breathing the moment he came up behind him. Rick turned his face to the side, sending a lethal glare Kemp’s way. “What happened?”

  Kemp appeared almost as shaken as Shay and shook his head. He went into the bathroom. Rick heard the water running. Probably washing the blood from his hands.

  Shay pulled away from Rick and stood on her toes to whisper in his ear. “Get me out of here.” Anguish choked her hushed words. “Get us out.”

  Rick tugged her close and squeezed his eyes shut. “Soon,” he whispered back.

  Shay stepped away and wiped her eyes.

  “Are you hurt?”

  She shook her head.

  Kemp stepped from the bathroom, wiped his hands on a towel and looked at Rick.

  “Someone want to tell me what happened?” It hit Rick that he was alone in this house with Kemp, who wasn’t holding a weapon. The guy had told his goons to go after someone. Someone who wasn’t Rick. He could overpower him here and now.

  But he still didn’t know where Aiden was or how to get out of the camp safely. Escape would have to wait for now.

  “A man came through the window,” Shay said. “Into the room where Kemp put me. I screamed and then Kemp came through the door and fought the man. Stabbed him.”

  “He got away,” Kemp said. “But he won’t get far.”

  “This is exactly what I was afraid of.” Rick left the confined space of the hallway and paced the living room.

  Kemp followed. “For a second I thought it was you, breaking her out. Trying to escape.”

  “So it was one of your men? Someone you’re ordering around?” Rick didn’t need to ask why the man came for Shay. These unscrupulous men had been here for weeks without female companionship, it would seem.

  “Yes.” Kemp made his way to the kitchen. Rick’s gun rested on the counter. Kemp quickly pressed his hand over it and chambered a round, sweat beading his brow. “At this rate, there won’t be anyone left to work the mine. Add to that, someone is going to ask why I tried to kill one of my own men while protecting you. I don’t know how much longer I can keep you alive. You need to fix the plane. I need to find the gold. Timing is going to be tricky.”

  He swiped the sweat away.

  Shay moved to stand next to Rick. He swept her into his arms and held her close as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She didn’t resist. Shay, the woman he’d considered strong and tough enough to walk the path she’d chosen, needed him right now. She was beyond vulnerable in this mining camp, and his own need to protect her was quickly growing into a driving force. If he it let it, it could drive him to make mistakes; it could drown out all reason. And in the end, that was no protection at all.

  For a fleeting moment he wished he could have something with her once they were home again. But he couldn’t spare the time to think about the future. The present needed all of his concentration.

  “You don’t need us. Let Shay fix the plane now and then let us go. Let my brother go before more people get hurt.”

  “I’ve lost two able bodies in a few hours. You’re going to work and you’d better hope you can prove you have value. What can you do?”

  Though he hated letting go, Rick released Shay. He strode to the counter and pressed his hands against it, reining in what he really wanted to do and say to this man. “You can’t seriously think those henchmen are going to let me work alongside them. In fact, I’m thinking you might see an uprising before the day’s out. They’re getting restless.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Kemp was getting restless, too.

  Losing control. He likely wouldn’t outlast, maybe wouldn’t even outlive, this situation of his own creation.

  “Why do they need you anyway?” Risk asked, pressing his point. “They can just take the gold for themselves once they find it.”

  Pouring on the doubt could destabilize the situation further. That would make things more dangerous, sure, but it could give them a chance to get away if the men were focused on other things.

  “I’m the only experienced miner here. They have a job to do and that’s to follow my orders. In the end, they might answer to someone else, but they’ve been instructed to obey each and every one of my orders. I could tell them to sit. Fetch. Roll over. And they’d obey like a good German shepherd. I could tell them to kill you or not. It’s my call. So you’d better shut your mouth before I shut it for you.”

  Good. Rick was getting to him. Kemp was bluffing now. He’d already admitted that he was losing his persuasive power over the men where Rick, Shay and Aiden were concerned. “The only thing we can do is get in the way. Just let us go.” Voicing his thoughts was a risk—if Kemp agreed that they’d only get in the way, then he might choose to eliminate them himself—but he didn’t think Kemp was ready to dispose of them yet.

  “Okay. Walk on out of here. See how far you get. I look forward to the show. You can’t get fifty yards without these men gunning you down. They’d track you down before you could get a safe distance. But you already know that. You already tried to get away, before you even knew you were being stalked.”

  Rick got a better sense of just how trapped Kemp was himself. That Kemp was admitting this to them wasn’t a good sign.

  Kemp looked at Shay now, his expression hard. “The only way out is the small four-seat passenger plane sitting on the airstrip. We could all fly that out—the four of us. But I have to find the gold first, or else I’ll be running forever. You fix the plane—” he turned to glare at Rick “—and you help me get to the gold, and you’ll get to walk away. That’s the only ch
ance you have of getting out of here alive.”

  He started fixing a pot of coffee. The man was unbelievable, his emotions as unpredictable as the circumstances.

  “Tell me where my brother is. Let me see him.” Rick was done with the games.

  Kemp frowned and gave a subtle nod. “Not until it’s time to leave.”

  If the man was using Aiden to keep Rick here, then maybe he doubted his own words about the plane being the only escape. Unfortunately, Rick was beginning to believe that his brother was already dead.

  How was he going to keep Shay alive?

  *

  Someone knocked on the door. Weapon in hand, Kemp left the coffeepot brewing to answer it.

  Shay remained by Rick’s side, hoping he couldn’t tell how shaky she still was. The man who’d gained access through the bedroom window with plans to assault her had held her down, breathing in her face and informing her to keep completely quiet or he’d slice her into pieces. This he said while pointing a knife at her throat.

  At first she wasn’t able to breathe, much less scream or even respond to him. What a complete failure she was—she was unable to move under the weight of fear and panic. Under the weight of the sturdy man.

  Then he was suddenly thrown from her as Kemp attacked with more strength, more rage, than she’d thought him capable of. When her assailant went for the gun he’d tucked in his waistband, Kemp stabbed him. All Shay saw was blood when Kemp had pulled the knife away.

  She’d screamed.

  Oddly enough, it almost seemed as if the guy fled through the window because of her scream rather than because of facing off with Kemp. What would happen to him now?

  When Kemp opened the door, Rick turned Shay to face him. He gently cupped her face with his palms.

  “Are you okay?” The tenderness in his touch, in his eyes, surprised her.

  She never wanted to need anyone, but hearing that simple question and seeing the concern in his expression, she knew she’d never needed anything more in her life than for him to stay by her side. And that left her stunned.

  How could she need him so much?

  It didn’t matter. She couldn’t let herself need him.