Frozen Alaska

by Katherine Rhodes

  “So,” Garrett said. “Our options are what?”

  “Wait, wait,” I said. “How did he get here? He has to have been here for a few days if not weeks before this. He had to make contact in the bank.”

  “How could he get here?” Jess asked. “We flew in. Is there another way?”

  “Container ship,” Garrett answered. “From Anchorage to here. There’s a ship that runs once a week to Skagway and here. There are a bunch of ships that run cargo, especially this time of year. It wouldn’t be hard to get on one. Getting back out with two girls would be tough, though.”

  “I don’t think he has any intention of leaving with them,” Jess said. “He’s either going to let them go, unlikely, or kill them. More likely.”

  That idea sat in my stomach like a rock. Patrick looked ready to let his wolf out and go storm the castle, and Jess was pale after laying it out just like that.

  “All right, we need to canvas. Patrick, Jason, you stick together, and Jess and I will start in the grocery store lot. Meet in the middle.”

  As Patrick and I were about to head down the strip mall, Garrett’s phone rang. Swiping it open, he gave a hello. With our hearing, there was no need to put it on speaker.

  “Garrett, it’s Fergus.”

  “This isn’t the time—”

  “No, this isn’t about the cabin, Beta.”

  Using his formal title in the conversation clued everyone in.

  Garrett cleared his throat. “Go on.”

  “You’re missing two women from the cabin, aren’t you? Patrick and Jason’s women, specifically.”

  “Yes.” Garrett stared at us.

  “Wendell saw them. He’s here with me, and I’m going to let him tell you what he saw.”

  The phone passed from person to person. “Beta. I didn’t know who to talk to and figured my own alpha would be best. I saw the women in the car this morning. They were in the back with no driver and I thought that was weird for the part of the city they were in. I pulled ahead and parked. A minute later, a human emerged from the alleyway, zipping his fly. He climbed in and pulled away from the curb. I followed for just about half a mile, until he got to the turn off for the mountain. I couldn’t follow him further without suspicion.”

  “And you’re sure it’s them?”

  “Yes. I’d know them anywhere. I’d circled that cabin a thousand times.”

  “So they’re in the south end of the city,” I said. “But we can’t pick up their scents. There’s too much—”

  “He pissed in the alley.”

  We all froze, except Jess whose face filled with disgust.

  Patrick leaned in. “He pissed?”

  “In the alley,” Wendell replied. “He was utterly fetid. Pickled. He smelled like cheap tequila and skunked beer. And I was three full cars behind him. It was just about two hours ago, so I’d bet if you got to that intersection, you’d still be able to follow him.”

  “Down by Thane?”

  “Yes, by Sheep Creek.”

  “Good, put Fergus back on.” The phone switched hands again and Fergus was back with a ‘hello.’ “That’s twice, Ferg. Does he need one more?”

  “He’s been actually living back on the compound for about a week, and I’ve had no trouble with him at all. This also goes a long way toward helping him regain status.”

  “Good. We’re heading down to Thane right now, and if you can tell the other packs to keep their eyes open, I’d appreciate that.”

  “Will do,” Fergus said, and cut the connection.

  I was already heading back to my truck, and Patrick was striding right along with me. Jess and Garrett headed for their truck, and we pulled into traffic behind them.

  We were in the bedroom, while Chuck was in the front room. He was on a sat phone, talking to people and drinking beer. I could hear some of the conversation and it was clear he was setting up the bank transfers from my account to some overseas account.

  The man might be a murderer, but he was smart.

  “So,” Addi said, shifting to look at me. “We’ve known each other five years now. Care to explain your money? When your shitbag uncle out there clearly has none.”

  It was only fair she knew, since he was threatening to kill us for it.

  “Dad won the lottery.”

  “What?” Addi’s mouth fell open.

  “When we were thirteen. We were the poorest poor people you ever wanted to know. We lived in a slum in Baltimore. Mom worked two jobs and Dad three. His single and only indulgence was a lottery ticket each time the lottery went off. He’d been doing that since before we were born. He hit the Powerball. Four hundred and ninety-five million dollars, single winner.”

  “Holy shit, Delia.”

  “Mitch and I didn’t even know. Dad had opted for confidentiality, and they never revealed his name. We were kept in the dark for about six months, and then two weeks before the end of eighth grade, Mom and Dad said we were moving once school was out, so say our goodbyes and pack only a few clothes and any of our things we wanted to keep, like books or video games.

  “It was the day after school let out, and Dad left at eight in the morning. Mom and I emptied the fridge and cupboards. Mitch took out the trash while Mom took the canned goods to the local pantry. Mitch and I piled our suitcases and the few boxes we were taking by the door.

  “Dad pulled up in a brand new Land Cruiser, and told us to put everything in there. A few minutes later a man pulled up, and he and Dad had conversation about the house, and at the end of it, dad handed over his keys with a promise that Mom would mail hers. The man stuck a ‘for sale’ sign in the tiny front lawn, with the words ‘fully furnished’ underneath.

  “We piled into the SUV, and we drove away. For good. We were never going back. We drove from noon to five that day, and stopped at the first hotel I had ever stayed in. It was a Hilton just over the New York border by the Tappan Zee. And that night, over pizza in our massive suite, Mom and Dad explained how friggin’ wealthy were now were.

  “My brother and I have trust funds we were able to access at twenty-two. We were given ‘fun money’ before that, and both of us decided to start investing it. We had no interest in partying or drugs—we’d seen all that in Baltimore.

  “Our parents moved us to a town called Danvers in Massachusetts. We were there two years when Uncle Chuck showed up and said that me and my brother were going to go with him to Florida for a few weeks.”

  Addi quirked an eyebrow. “He kidnapped you.”

  “Without us even realizing it. We really thought that it was a legit surprise from our parents. So we went. And we were down there for about three weeks, doing the whole amusement park circuit. When Chuck wanted to do it all again, Mitch and I decided we were bored, and it was time to go home. We walked to the bank, took out the money, and bought two plane tickets home.”

  Addi laughed. “You just walked away from your kidnapper, without ever knowing he was your kidnapper.”

  I nodded, laughing with her. “When we got off the plane, there was a swat team and our parents would not let us go. At all. They were smothering us. We had literally no idea what was going on.”

  Collapsing in a fit of giggles, it felt good to finally tell the story. No one in Baltimore had heard what happened to the Hoengaard family. We just disappeared. And after the world’s strangest kidnapping, we were no longer the Hoengaards. We became LaPlage, and my father had moved all of the holdings into a corporation, so we weren’t personally connected.

  “So, you’re really insanely rich?” Addi asked as we settle from the giggle fit.

  “Yeah. I am. And because we grew up so poor, we’re overly cautious and overly generous.” I cleared my throat. “You four are the first real friends I’ve ever had. We didn’t fit in at all in Baltimore, we didn’t fit in up in Boston. So, I opted not to tell anyone about the money.”

  A rue smile grew on her face. “I get it.”

  I paused, and changed directions on the conversation. “H
ave you told Patrick?”

  She shook her head. “No. Jess helped me with that one.”

  “Good. Everything working?”

  The rue smile turned into a devilish grin. “Oh, yeah.” She paused. “But I think it’s more him than anything else. We’re just…”

  “Perfect together.”

  “Yes.” She looked me up and down. “You and Jason?”

  “Oh, yeah.” I didn’t need to tell her Jason was holding something back from me.

  “So. To the matter at hand. How the hell do we get out of here?” Addi glanced out the door, even though we really couldn’t see Chuck out there. Her voice was quieter. “Could he drink himself to sleep?”

  I shook my head. “He’s a shrewd bastard. He drinks, but he won’t drink that much. He got more devious after Mitch and I just walked away.” Chewing my lip, I debated telling her the rest. “He had already murdered his wife and daughter by then, but we didn’t know it. He got caught up here six years later, after someone inquired about his new wife and son.”

  All the information had come out after my parents realized I was just as likely to adventure my way around the world as Mitchell was. The fact that he had killed Aunt Lydia and Rachel, and then casually kidnapped us all added to how sociopathic he was.

  “So, what do we do?”

  “He doesn’t drink himself to sleep, but if I remember correctly, he does sleep like the dead. He left our purses in the trunk, right?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “If we can get his keys, we can get to the trunk and cut the ropes.”

  Addi perked up. “We can take the car.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Do you remember what my uncle was driving? I wouldn’t want to take that. We’re better off going into the forest.”

  “Into the forest?” That was her nervous voice.

  “Yes. The forest.” I leaned in. “Remember who we’re dating.”

  Her mouth made an ‘O’ and then she smirked. We just had to wait until my uncle fell asleep, an hope he didn’t wake up when we pulled the keys out of his pocket.

  And that he hadn’t made all the arrangements for the money exchange yet.

  14

  The sound of a pickup coming up the firebreak wasn’t a good sound—the pickup was clearly not cared for by the sound of the engine.

  Addi yawned. “God, does he ever sleep? It’s almost full dark out there.”

  I was more alert than I had been earlier. “He’s not drinking the beer. He’s pacing. There’s something going on. I don’t like this.”

  “He has to fall asleep, doesn’t he?”

  “Of course, but I think he’s waiting for something.”

  There was a flash of headlights through the window in the room.

  “Or someone?” Addi asked.

  “Or someone. That’s not good.” I could feel my anxiety shoot up about ten notches. We had to get out of here. It wasn’t even the money that was the problem. It was that something wrong was about to happen.

  I managed to get over to the window and glance out. The piece of shit that Chuck had brought us here in was sitting there, and a moment later, an abused pickup pulled in next to it.

  At least the pickup was believable.

  Two men climbed out—one I instantly recognized as one of the officers at the bank. The other I didn’t know.

  The bank man had a manila envelope, he probably had all the paperwork for me to transfer the funds to Chuck. I briefly wondered how Chuck was going to convince my parents to give up their money.

  Dad had invested really well. It was a lot more than just the lottery winnings. There was a lot to transfer, but I would have bet on Chuck having no idea that there was more than the lottery.

  That was one way to save some of the money.

  Stomping up the porch, we could hear them slam the door open and let themselves in. Chuck’s pacing stopped.

  “’Bout fucking time.”

  “I was getting paperwork from Beijing, asshole. She’s got this money everywhere. It’s hidden everywhere. Trying to get the brother and the parents is going to take me weeks, if not months. So shut the fuck up.”

  “Do you have them?” That was the third man.

  “Do you think I would go through all this if I didn’t?” I heard the paperwork being passed from the bank teller to Chuck. “They’re in the back room.”

  My stomach dropped out.

  We had just been traded for sex.

  My uncle had just traded his niece and her friend for sex. I whipped my head around to look at Addi, who had the same terrified look I was sure was on my face.

  “Oh…God.”

  This couldn’t happen. I didn’t even really care if they grabbed me and used me, but Addi—I couldn’t let them lay a finger on her. She’d never make it. She’d die, or worse, kill herself.

  The two men sauntered into the room and stood staring at us for a moment. I moved to stand in front of Addi to keep her out of their view, but it was too late even before they had walked in.

  The banker knew what he wanted.

  “Hello, ladies,” the other said.

  I didn’t move. “Leave.”

  They looked at each other, and started laughing. “No, no I don’t think so. That pretty little piece of ass behind you is mine,” the banker said, and shoved me out of the way.

  I kicked him in the knee as I hit the ground.

  The other man grabbed me and yanked me to the end of the bed. He pulled me to my feet and shoved the ropes around the post at the end, catching then on one of the decorative hooks.

  The banker grabbed Addi and before he knew it, he was sporting a bloody nose from her headbutt. The other guy backhanded her as fast as he could get to her.

  “No, bitch. You’re gonna take this.”

  He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her, entirely too hard.

  I struggled against the ropes, yanking the whole bed, hoping to throw the men off, distract them. Addi started kicking the man in front of her, hard. She landed a shot right to his junk, and he cringed, starting to double over,

  Addi leaned back and kicked him in the face this time. He did not like that, and neither did the banker holding her.

  The banker grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. “You need some gentling before we break you.”

  The other man pulled out a gun, and cocked it.

  “No!” I screamed. “No, no!”

  The man with the gun turned and smiled at me, and pulled the trigger, sending a slug right into and through Addi’s thigh. She started shrieking, and there was instantly too much blood.

  He’d clipped her femoral artery.

  She was going to bleed out and die.

  The big, ill-maintained pickup careened up the hill, past where were hiding in the woods. Watching with a passing interest, I perked up when the massive machine slowed down.

  It pulled a hard right, and disappeared into the woods.

  “Uh…” Patrick said, pointing to where it disappeared.

  “Yeah. I’ll bet that’s a new track someone carved through the trees.” Garrett nodded.

  Chuck hadn’t been hard to pick up. Wendell hadn’t lied at all. The man was disgusting—he stank of fetid piss and bad alcohol. That was at complete odds with what the police dispatch had said about him.

  Armed, dangerous. Expert survival skills. Do not approach without backup.

  What was their definition of ‘expert survival skills’ if someone who could be smelled by an everyday human twenty paces upwind was an expert?

  “What do you think that guy was after?” Patrick asked.

  Garrett nodded after the truck. “Well, Chuck has to know someone here who works in that bank, because that’s the only way he could have found out they were going to be there today.”

  “So, what are we doing hiding here?” I asked. “This guy has every intention of killing both of them once papers are signed.”

  Garrett nodded. “Patrick, Jason, we’re going to
shift and make our way up to his camp on his scent. Jess, we need you to follow in the truck so we can get the hell out of here as fast as possible.”

  Jess looked like she wanted to object, but she didn’t have her wolf yet. It would be a while before she did, despite her mating with Garrett. Finally, she nodded.

  “Give me your clothes. No more busting out of jeans, please.”

  We all stripped down to our skin and Jess took all the clothes and shoes to the truck. As soon as I was out of the clothes, I shifted. I didn’t need Jess accidentally viewing my junk, and Garrett losing his shit that his mate looked at another naked man. Patrick did the same, and left just Garrett standing in human form.

  He wasn’t a fool either. We all knew about our own possessiveness.

  “We can’t miss him, so we’ll run a head of you. Take the truck, and follow, but not too close. I know it’s almost dark out here, but don’t turn on the headlights.”

  Jess grinned. “Don’t need them anymore.”

  Giving her a quick kiss on the forehead, Garrett dropped into his wolf, and took the lead. Jess was slow and careful behind us.

  We’d taken a few hours to figure out how we were going to get Delia and Addi out of Chuck’s clutches, and from what we learned from Mitch and the police, he was determined. His style was more ‘bull in a China shop’ than anything else.

  Mitch had put a friend in Florida on the case, wanting to know more. That friend had explained that Chuck had gotten off for the murder of his wife and daughter in Florida because of a procedural screw up.

  We didn’t need to go through police procedure.

  Chuck’s trail was well over eight hours old at this point, but his piss-and-alcohol fragrance hung on the air. I was both glad and disgusted that there was no breeze to blow his stench away.

  I could also smell the brand-new exhaust from the other truck that had just barreled through the new cut in the trees. It paralleled Chuck’s stink.

  In it, I could scent two other men and gun oil.

  That was not good.

  The forest flew by as the three of us ran through the brush. By then Garrett had picked up his pace, I knew that he had smelled the gun oil.