by Susan Stoker
“When I got called back to Juneau for the reading of your dad’s will, she’d just met a new guy. I can read the signs. She’s completely gone on him already, and if he decided to move to the Alaskan bush tomorrow, she’d go without a second thought. I’m sure she’s worried about me—if she knows I’m missing—but she’ll probably assume the authorities are doing what they can to find me, so it wouldn’t be worth it for her to get all worked up about it.”
“All worked up about it?” Bubba asked incredulously.
“I know, that sounds bad. I mean, it is bad. But I had to beg her to stay in Juneau until I finished high school. She eventually relented, but I knew she was dying inside. She wanted to get back to Anchorage and try to find ‘the love of her life.’ She hadn’t found him in Juneau, and I think she realized she never would. She loves me in her own way, but I’m definitely not the most important person in her life. Once, I stayed at a friend’s house for three days before she called me, wondering where I was.”
Bubba hated that for Zoey. She deserved to be loved without reservation, especially by her own mother.
“I think that’s why I got so close to your dad,” Zoey said quietly. “I never missed not having a father, but I did miss that parental love. I got that from Colin. He was my friend as well as my surrogate dad. I’m going to miss him a lot.”
Bubba squeezed her, not knowing what to say.
He felt her lean even more heavily against him, and Bubba realized for the first time that she’d completely relaxed. She’d slept in his arms, but when awake, she’d always been somewhat stiff, keeping a part of herself separate from him. As if protecting herself.
He had a feeling she finally understood and believed him when he said that Rocco and the others would eventually find them. “I’m so sorry about your mom, but I’m glad my pop was there for you. And my friends will find us. It might take a week,” he told her. “Or a month, but they’ll do it, I have no doubt.”
“I hope I can light that fucking fire before they do,” she said after a while.
Bubba shook his head and merely chuckled. “Close your eyes,” he told her. “Try to get some sleep. In the morning, we need to take off our boots and let our feet air out for a while.”
“Why not now?” she asked.
“I don’t want to risk the temperature dropping overnight. It’ll make our internal temperatures fall faster without any shoes or socks on.”
She sighed. “Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. But I have to say, I’m not looking forward to taking my socks off at all. My poor toes are already shivering in my boots.”
“Would it help if I promised to give you a foot massage?”
Surprisingly, she shook her head. “No. Ew, gross. Mark, feet are disgusting. I’ve never had a pedicure, and I never will. I’m too ticklish, for one thing, but for another, I can’t stand the thought of someone touching my feet.”
He shook his head. Zoey never said what he thought she would. “Fine. No massage, but how about if I promise not to let your toes get too cold in the process?”
She tilted her head back and narrowed her eyes at him. “How?”
“My armpits?” It came out more of a question than an answer.
In response, she grinned. “My God, I’d never thought I’d say this, but I have a feeling sticking my freezing toes in your armpits will be as close to heaven as I can get out here.”
Bubba smiled back. “Sleep, Zoey. Tomorrow will be just another day of our wilderness adventure. We should enjoy it while it lasts.”
She shook her head and settled back against him. “You’re weird, Mark.”
“Yup. Zoey?”
“You know I’ll sleep better if you stop talking to me, right?” she quipped.
“Just one more thing.”
“Okay. What is it?”
“I’m glad it was you in that plane with me. I can’t say that I’ve missed you since I graduated from high school, but that’s only because I didn’t know what I was missing. Now that I’ve gotten to know you, I’m even more sorry that I never came home to visit Pop. I thought you were pretty cool years ago, and I regret not trying to get to know you better back then.”
He thought she wasn’t going to respond when she didn’t say anything for several minutes. Finally, she said softly, “Do you think we’ll ever see each other again after we get out of here? I mean, is this a situational thing?”
Thinking about her walking out of his life and never seeing her again made Bubba frown. “We’re going to see each other,” he said firmly. “The situation allowed us to get to know each other again, and I’m not stupid enough to let you disappear from my life now.” When she didn’t reply right away, he added lamely, “That is…if you want.”
“I’ve known you for years,” she said. “Your dad talked about you all the time. So much that I truly felt as if we were friends. I definitely want to see you again.”
“Good. Now sleep. We’ve got a big day of mushroom foraging, armpit wrestling, and fire-making tomorrow.”
Zoey pulled her feet up and curled into a ball against his chest. She was still sitting, but curled up like she was, he was supporting all her weight. It wouldn’t be comfortable for him to sleep that way, sitting up, holding her against him, but he’d hold her this way as long as he could before lying them down for the night.
As Zoey’s breaths evened out and she slept, Bubba felt more relaxed than he had in days.
They weren’t out of danger, not even close, but somehow he felt more at peace with their situation. Zoey wasn’t going to mentally tap out, and he’d do whatever it took to keep them both healthy and safe until they were found.
Chapter Nine
Rocco and the rest of the SEAL team sat around the table at the Alaska State Troopers’ headquarters in Anchorage to discuss how the search had been going so far. There were representatives from the state troopers, the Village Public Safety Officer Program, Alaska State Park Rangers, the Coast Guard, the NTSB, and both Juneau and Anchorage police departments.
It felt as if they’d searched every inch of land between Anchorage and the capital city in the last two days…with no luck.
Bubba had been missing almost a week. A week. There was still no sign of a downed plane, and even after spreading the word across the state and all local airports, no one had reported hearing a mayday or having any airplanes make an unscheduled landing.
It was frustrating as hell, but Rocco wasn’t ready to give up.
“What do we do now?” Malcom Wright asked.
It was a little eerie having Bubba’s twin sitting in the room. But other than looking exactly like Bubba, Rocco would never mistake the men for each other. For one, Bubba carried himself with a confidence Malcom didn’t have. And Malcom was conceited at best, irritating as hell at worst. Bubba was physically bigger and stronger than his brother, as well.
Malcom had insisted on being involved in the search and doing whatever he could to find Bubba, which wasn’t something Rocco could deny him.
“We expand the search parameters,” Rex said firmly.
Rocco nodded to one of the state troopers he’d talked with before the meeting, giving him the go-ahead to discuss the plan.
“Exactly,” the trooper said. “We’ve been in touch with the VPSOs in all the outlying villages, and no one has reported anything unusual. No strangers in town, no one saw or heard a plane go down. It’s our belief that since we haven’t found anything on the flight path from Anchorage to Juneau, that the plane didn’t go that way. Of course, it’s possible that we’ve just missed it, but none of us are willing to ignore the possibility that the pilot deliberately flew in the wrong direction and intentionally crashed the plane in a remote area.”
“Oh, come on.” Malcom frowned. “Do you really think that’s what happened? What would be her motive? That’s just crazy.”
A detective from the Juneau police department leaned forward and said, “Is it? Colin Wright was half owner of a multimillion dollar company. I
haven’t seen his will, but I’m assuming that those assets would be split between his two sons. People have been killed for far less money, Mr. Wright.”
Bubba’s twin paled and sat back in his seat, subdued.
“Right,” Rocco said, wanting to move on so they could get back to finding Bubba. He wasn’t sure he trusted Malcom, but now wasn’t the time or place to interrogate him about his possible involvement in his brother’s disappearance. “So, the troopers and even the Coast Guard have agreed to fly search-and-rescue missions, as they’ve been doing for the last two days, but this time we’ll split up. Some will fly west, some will go north, and others due east. We’ll be looking for any sign of Bubba or that plane. Smoke rising, trees bent over or burned, craters in the earth. Anything. It’s going to be long, hard work. We can’t let our attention lapse for even a second.” He paused, then scanned the room, meeting every single person’s gaze for a moment.
“Bubba’s out there. Somewhere. Our only goal right now is to find him. We’ll deal with the will, and Colin’s business issues, and everything else once we find him. Right now, we have nothing but our hunches to go on about what happened. And as much as I want to know the whys and have my million-and-one questions answered, the most important thing is Bubba. And of course, Zoey and the pilot, who were on that plane with him.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Good. We’ll split up and figure out who’s going where after we’re done here.”
“I’d like to go as well,” Malcom insisted.
Rocco immediately shook his head. “No. We need you here. You’re our go-between with the lawyer and Sean, Colin’s business partner.”
Malcom frowned again, and Rocco tensed. The last thing he wanted was to get into a pissing contest with Bubba’s brother. The man wasn’t trained like the SEALs and the law enforcement teams were. They didn’t need a civilian getting in the way. He may have lived in Alaska all his life, but it was obvious by looking at him—in the three-piece suit he was wearing at the moment—he wasn’t prepared to get on a helicopter or plane and spend hours looking at nothing but trees and water, searching for his brother.
“Fine. But I know people. I’d like to organize my own search party as well. They might not be SEALs, but I’ve got friends who know a hell of a lot about Alaska’s roughest terrains. They might be able to help. And I want to be notified the second anyone learns anything,” Malcom said.
Rocco nodded. “Great. We can use all the help we can get. Bubba might be your brother by blood, but he’s our brother by circumstance. We aren’t giving up until we find him.” Rocco couldn’t read the look that briefly flashed on Malcom’s face, but one second it was there, and the next he was nodding.
“Good. I’ll call Sean and Kenneth and update them. The lawyer won’t be happy he has to postpone the reading of my dad’s will again, but I’ll make sure he knows there’s no choice.”
“And Sean will be all right with running the business?” Gumby asked.
Malcom nodded once. “Of course, why wouldn’t he? The factory is covered by the project manager, and anything else that comes up, Sean and I can deal with, just like we’ve been doing for the last decade. Go find my brother,” he said brusquely. “The sooner we find him, the sooner things can get back to normal.”
And with that, Malcom scooted back his chair. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some phone calls to make.” Then he nodded at the room in general and headed for the door.
The second he was gone, Ace shook his head. “If he didn’t look exactly like Bubba, I wouldn’t believe they were related.”
Rocco agreed, but didn’t have the time or patience to discuss Bubba’s slightly asshole-ish brother right now. He looked at the senior Alaska State Trooper who was with them, then at the representative for the Coast Guard. “Let’s go over the search grid one more time, then we’ll figure out who will go where.”
Both men nodded and leaned over to look at the maps in front of them.
Rocco wanted to forget the planning and just get into a helicopter and take off, but he knew they needed a plan. He just hoped like hell the extra time it was taking wasn’t going to be the difference in Bubba’s life or death. If he was hurt and needed medical care, every minute that went by could be precious.
“Hang on, brother,” he murmured, before turning his attention back to the others.
Malcom Wright wasn’t a happy man. Being away from Juneau for this long wasn’t what he’d envisioned when he’d gone to Anchorage because of Mark’s disappearance.
He’d already had to arrange their father’s memorial by himself and deal with just about everyone who lived in Juneau. He’d planned it for two days after his brother’s arrival, and by the time he realized Mark was missing, it was too late to cancel. Everyone in town had been there. All the employees from the factory, all the shop owners, hell, even some of the homeless in the area had shown up, wanting to pay their respects to Colin. Malcom had preferred to go on with the service without his brother, but he couldn’t exactly cancel on the entire town.
He knew some had disagreed, namely Sean, but Malcom stuck to his guns. His entire life, everything had been about Mark. Even though the man had left Juneau and never looked back, everyone still knew he was a SEAL, thanks to Colin.
Just this once, the attention deserved to be on their dad.
Malcom didn’t like feeling jealous of his twin, but ever since they were little it seemed as if Mark had been the more successful son. Grades, athletics, girls…whatever it was, Mark excelled.
And of course, Pop had no problem comparing Malcom to his overachieving brother.
Why can’t you be more like Mark?
Mark got an A, why didn’t you?
You’re not going to the dance? Maybe Mark can help you find a date.
I got an email from Mark today, he just got back from a mission and saved the lives of two dozen people. That’s so amazing!
It went on and on. His pop never stopped talking about Mark, even though he hadn’t bothered to come back and visit even once since leaving after graduating from high school.
Malcom did his best to keep his feelings off his face—so no one would discover exactly how much he hated his twin.
No one could ever understand. They’d say he was supposed to love his brother more than anyone else in the world. Insist they must have some sort of twin connection.
Reality couldn’t be further from the truth. As far as Malcom was concerned, Mark’s disappearance wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Heading outside, he pulled out his phone and dialed a number he’d long since memorized.
“Hello?”
“It’s me,” Malcom said.
“Any word?” the voice on the other end of the line asked.
“Not yet. There hasn’t been any sign of the plane or my brother. The assholes today had the nerve to ask if the business would be okay. As if I couldn’t keep things running like I’ve been doing for years. It’s fucking annoying.”
“What about the reading of the will?”
“Postponed until they find something out about Mark.”
“Shit! I can’t believe those assholes we hired to sabotage the plane screwed up so badly.”
“Have you been able to find them?” Malcom asked.
“No. They’re in the wind. Believe me, if I could, they’d regret taking my money and not holding up their end of the bargain.”
“We should’ve just had them killed in a drive-by or something,” Malcom muttered.
“Oh, that wouldn’t have been suspicious or anything,” came the sarcastic response. “The bottom line is that we have to find them before anyone else. You’ll never get the money if they’re missing. I’ll find someone to search for them, and when they find them, if they’re still alive, they’ll be taken out before anyone knows they survived. Mark’s portion of what Colin left to him will go to you.”
“Those teammates of his are pretty damn determined. They aren’t going to give u
p until they find him, alive or dead.”
“Well, we’ll just have to make sure he’s dead then, won’t we?” the Boss said.
“We should’ve done things differently,” Malcom said.
“Well, we didn’t! What’s done is done, and we have to see it through,” the Boss snapped acidly.
“Whatever. Just make sure you’re ready for the reading of Colin’s will after the search ends. I want to get this done and move on with my fucking life already.”
“I will. Keep your head down. Don’t do or say anything that will tip anyone off.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot? I’m not about to risk losing all that money at this point.”
“Okay. I gotta go. Keep me updated.”
“I will. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Malcom clicked off the phone and pressed his lips together tightly. Nothing was going according to plan. His brother’s charter should’ve crashed right after it left Anchorage. Malcom would’ve played up the grieving son and brother, and everyone would’ve felt sorry for him. He would’ve gotten half of Heritage Plastics awarded to him and been set for life.
Now he had to worry about the damn pilot opening her mouth and telling someone what she’d done.
They’d meant to kill her too, making up the insane plot for her to leave Mark in the Alaskan wilderness. Which made no sense—if his body was never found, it could be decades before he was officially declared dead—but Eva was too stupid to realize that, and she’d taken the bait ridiculously easily.
So now Malcom had to hope the Boss could hire someone skilled enough to head out to where Mark and that bitch, Zoey, had been stranded, find them, and kill them in a way that seemed fitting in the wilderness.