Tundra Threat

by Sarah Varland

  He said it as if it was the easiest thing in the world. She felt her defenses rise again, but this time she didn’t have the fight left to verbally defend herself. Instead, she took a deep breath. “I think we’d better talk about something else.”

  Several heartbeats of silence passed. “You know what?” Will began.

  Something in his tone sent shivers of anticipation through McKenna. “What?”

  “I’ve missed you these past few years. And while I would have picked different circumstances, I’m glad to be here with you, spending time with you like this again.”

  She felt her face warm. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” He glanced down at his watch. “We’ve still got a few hours until morning. Sure you don’t want to get some sleep?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Okay, so what should we talk about next?”

  “This reminds me of sitting with you on the rocks by Resurrection Bay. Looking up at the stars, talking about anything...” She’d always had a crush on him, but that summer she’d lost her heart to him entirely, and she was relatively certain he’d never even known.

  “That was one of my favorite summers. One of the best times of my life, really.” He smiled at her but she didn’t smile back.

  “Hey.” He touched her hand lightly. “What’s wrong?”

  “After all the time we spent together that summer, I thought you’d write me that following year,” McKenna admitted softly.

  Will sighed. “You were...you were amazing. And it felt like you knew me, really knew me like no one ever had.”

  She listened to the crackling of the fire, waiting for his next words, bracing herself for the sting of rejection they’d certainly carry with them.

  “But you were also...”

  She finished for him. “Luke’s little sister.”

  He nodded, smiling a sad smile tinged with regret. “Yeah.”

  Several more minutes went by. McKenna alternated between watching the fire burn in front of her and looking out across the vastness of the tundra, gathering up the courage for her next words. “If—” She stopped.

  “If what?” His voice deepened.

  “I hadn’t been his little sister...” She looked up to meet Will’s eyes, watched the fire’s reflection dance in their depths.

  A crack somewhere behind them broke the silence of the night.

  * * *

  Will jerked away from McKenna, not sure why he’d been leaning closer to her in the first place. “It came from that way.”

  She nodded. “I think you’re right.”

  Will glanced in that direction, then back at McKenna. The tundra ground wasn’t overly dry, but the idea of leaving an unattended fire, even for a short time, made him nervous.

  “I’ll stay by the fire,” McKenna offered, seeming to read his mind. Will nodded his thanks and moved away from their makeshift camp toward where he’d heard the noise, gun unholstered and ready in case he met with trouble. He kept every sense on high alert as he surveyed the area as best he could in the darkness. Everything seemed quiet now. Overly hushed in the wake of the noise they’d heard that had broken up...whatever it had broken up.

  He crept quietly over the tundra grass, determined to make sure there was no danger lurking before he went back to McKenna.

  McKenna. She had always been special to him. But Will had always prided himself on his ability to look at their friendship logically, and realize it wouldn’t do either of them any good to pursue a relationship deeper than what they already had.

  Although that plane crash today—the thought that had plagued him when he couldn’t find her, the idea that she might not have been okay—did crazy things to his mind.

  He crept through the darkness for another few minutes, shining his flashlight at anything that might merit a second look. Nothing. Of course, Will knew if an animal had caused the noise, it had likely disappeared and hidden itself somewhere by now.

  Will turned around, back toward their camp. As he approached the glow of the fire, he turned to where McKenna had been sitting. “I guess it was just an animal—” he began.

  McKenna wasn’t there.

  “McKenna?” He kept his voice steady, level, even, as he tried to will his heartbeat to do the same. She’d probably just walked off for a minute. Maybe she’d gone to sleep. With swift footsteps, he checked the entire area around their campsite.

  He didn’t see her anywhere.

  “McKenna!” he called louder, turning three hundred and sixty degrees as he squinted into the darkness, tried to make out any sign of her. There were hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness in all directions. Searching for her when he didn’t have an inkling of where to start was a bad idea, but standing there and doing nothing while she was missing had his stomach twisting in knots.

  His muscles tightened and his heart started to pound as he stood and listened to the night sounds. Years of living in the wilderness had taught him that it wasn’t always effective to go after something right away. Sometimes you had to be patient, give it time. Listen.

  A rustle to his right was all it took for him to run in that direction.

  And run straight into McKenna.

  “Will!” she yelled, sounding more irritated than terrified as she gripped his shoulders with both hands, struggling not to lose her footing.

  Alive. She was alive. Feelings he couldn’t identify threatened to overwhelm him, so Will did the only thing that made logical sense in that emotionally charged moment.

  He pulled McKenna toward him and claimed her lips in a kiss.

  * * *

  McKenna’s heart raced as she lifted her lips to meet his. She returned his kiss with what felt like all the dreams she’d been storing up for years. It was perfect...until at the same moment, both of them seemed to realize what they were doing and pulled away from each other.

  McKenna’s eyes locked with Will’s. They stood that way for at least a minute. Staring. Their eyes asking questions of each other that neither seemed able to answer.

  Will was the one to finally break the silence. He cleared his throat. “There’s no one out there. I think we heard some kind of animal, but there were no obvious tracks, so it must have been small.”

  His warm voice made her feel as if she was wrapped up in her favorite blanket, a mug of hot coffee in hand. She wanted to snuggle back up next to him and pick up where they’d left off. But from the distance he was carefully maintaining between them, that option apparently wasn’t on the table.

  “You really should probably turn in now.” Will nudged her shoulder in a brotherly way. “There’s no sense in both of us keeping watch all night. We can take turns.”

  She swallowed hard. She knew she hadn’t imagined the sparks between them, that just minutes ago had been as real as the ones that danced in the fire. But maybe Will had only been overwhelmed by the fact that she was okay. He’d seemed nervous when he couldn’t find her, which McKenna supposed made sense. She’d just needed to slip away to relieve herself, but could see why her not being at the fire when he returned would have made Will panic.

  That explained his half of the kiss anyway. And what of the passion with which she’d kissed him back? Surely a childhood crush couldn’t still feel like that. Will was probably embarrassed, wondering what she’d been thinking, responding the way she had. “I guess you’re right,” McKenna finally agreed, waiting for him to say something, anything, that indicated he understood the gravity of what had passed between them.

  “Get some good sleep, McKenna.” His face was serious, full of horribly brotherly concern. “I have a feeling this is just going to get worse before it gets better. There’s a blanket in my emergency kit. Feel free to use that.” He turned to the fire to stoke it. It roared back to life under his attention.

&nbs
p; “Okay.” McKenna nodded, though he couldn’t see her now with his back to her, accepting his dismissal. So he was going to act as if the kiss had never happened? Fine. She could play along with that. It was for the best, anyway.

  She reached for the blanket he’d mentioned and laid it down on the ground. She also found a Bible in the emergency kit. It wasn’t something she would have thought to put in a kit like this one, but it was like Will to think of it. She smiled. It said something about the genuineness of his faith that this book would be something he would want around when there was trouble.

  McKenna laid down on the blanket and stared up at the dark sky. She closed her eyes. Then opened them. Sleep wouldn’t come. She reached for the Bible and opened it up to the book of Psalms, reading over the first few chapters, not sure what she was looking for.

  A verse in chapter three jumped out at her. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.

  “You’re the One who sustains me, aren’t You, God?” she whispered into the still air. The idea of releasing her worries to God and trusting Him to protect her was appealing and freeing.

  What about trusting God with her future?

  McKenna shifted, wrestling in her mind with the words and not coming up with an answer. “Help me trust You, God,” she whispered.

  The quiet sounds of the night calmed her, helped her relax into the blanket. She would have said sleep would be impossible after the day they’d had, but she felt exhaustion and peace washing over her.

  She fell asleep watching the northern lights.

  THIRTEEN

  McKenna could tell when she blinked her eyes open that the light outside was too bright for it to be her turn for a shift. As she’d suspected he would, Will had taken both shifts, staying awake all night so she could rest.

  She stretched her arms and sat up, gathering and folding the wool blanket she’d put between herself and the tundra grass while she slept. Despite the uneven ground, it was the best night of sleep she’d had in recent memory.

  “Good morning.” Will’s smile warmed her all the way through. “Did you sleep well?”

  “Wonderfully, thank you.”

  “Good.” He handed her a blue metal camp mug full of dark brown liquid.

  Her eyebrows rose. “Is this...?”

  “Coffee?” He laughed. “Yes. Dug it and the stuff to make it over the campfire out of my emergency kit.”

  “Those are my kind of emergency preparations right there,” she said before taking a long sip of the dark brew. She closed her eyes and sighed. “That is delicious.”

  “Coffee over a fire is the best kind.”

  “You think of everything, did you know that?” She took another sip.

  “Listen, McKenna. About last night...”

  “Yeah?”

  He set his coffee mug down and met her eyes. It was part of what she loved about him, she realized. His ability to look straight in her eyes and never back down, no matter how stubborn she got. Her mom had told her when she was a teenager that she was going to have to find a strong man to be in a relationship with, that she’d walk all over someone who was mild mannered.

  Will Harrison was strong.

  And at the moment thoroughly capable of breaking her heart. She swallowed hard and forced her gaze to hold steady. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. I, uh, I don’t know if I need to apologize to you for kissing you...”

  Her heart sank straight to her toes.

  “Or apologize for taking so long to do it.”

  McKenna opened her mouth to reply, but the whir of a small-plane engine overhead drew their attention to the sky.

  “Some time for a rescue.”

  Will raised his eyebrows and grinned at her and McKenna felt herself blushing at the words she’d had no intention of saying out loud.

  “Look at that. Loosening up a little, after all, aren’t you?”

  She shoved him.

  They watched as Rick’s plane landed and he climbed out. “I got worried when you didn’t show at the office,” he explained to Will. “You’re always good about calling when you’re not coming in and you didn’t this time.” He looked at the wreckage. “Now I know why.”

  Rick turned back to them. “Is everything okay?” he asked with concern. “I saw you push this guy.” He looked at McKenna and motioned toward Will. “Is he bothering you? What happened anyway? Why were you guys out here? I’m guessing it’s not a hunting trip...?”

  McKenna wasn’t sure if he meant to imply anything or not, but his endless questions and possible insinuations made her bristle. “The plane crashed,” she said instead, not wanting to answer any questions but curious as to whether his reaction to their crash would tell her anything about his validity as a suspect.

  “That I guessed on my own.” He gestured to the wreckage and then turned to Will. “Mechanical failure or pilot error?”

  While she wanted to see his reaction, she didn’t necessarily want the plane’s sabotage to be common knowledge. She tensed as she waited for Will to answer.

  “Mechanical failure, it looks like.”

  Rick nodded. “Glad it wasn’t your fault. And that you two are okay. How about a ride back to Barrow?”

  Will looked to her. She felt her confidence in her abilities as a trooper grow at the fact that he’d waited to see what she wanted to do. He was letting her handle it.

  McKenna debated their options. They needed to leave, and she didn’t think either of them should leave without the other. On the other hand, if they had any hope of getting a crime scene team to help them figure out what happened, it would be better to leave someone at the plane to ensure nothing was tampered with.

  But what if she or Will stayed and something happened to them?

  “A ride back would be good.” The likelihood that someone could obliterate a crime scene this large was minimal. She’d call Captain Wilkins, see if he could get in touch with someone in Anchorage and get a team up here as soon as possible.

  “Let’s go, then. You’re lucky I was in the area.”

  “Scouting out places to take clients?” Will asked.

  Rick nodded as he readied the plane for takeoff. McKenna felt herself stiffen at the idea of flying again, after falling out of the sky in a worthless piece of metal that had once been a plane. It was good that they had to get back to town so she could conquer this new fear immediately. Otherwise, given the choice, she’d probably never fly again.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s too close to the coast for most of the game we hunt,” Will noted. “Caribou tend to stay farther south.”

  Rick nodded again. “Yeah, that’s what I noticed, too.”

  McKenna frowned. Hadn’t Rick been a hunting guide in this area for longer than Will? Shouldn’t he already know this wasn’t a prime hunting spot for his clients?

  Only polar bears really made this part of the land their home. And as McKenna had seen for herself the day before, there were fewer of them populating the area than ever. Someone was killing them, endangering not only their species but the balance of the wilderness food chain.

  She might not be the best at solving puzzles and things like double murders, but now that this case was clearly wildlife related, she knew she’d get whoever was behind it eventually.

  Could the killer be Rick? And if so, had he come out to save them...or to take them out for good?

  * * *

  “She’s ready when you guys are,” Rick called over the noise of the airplane.

  Will glanced down at his SAT phone, deciding that since they were going to be home within hours it was safe to use. He’d better fulfill his promise to McKenna and let her call Captain Wilkins as soon as possible.

  Giving Rick the “one minute” sign, he held the phone towa
rd her. “Did you want to call Wilkins?”

  She nodded, reaching for the phone and then stopping. “I don’t have his number.” Her face paled. “I can’t believe I don’t have his number!”

  “Hey—” he laid a hand on her arm “—don’t panic. I’ve got another idea.”

  McKenna’s face was still colorless as Will dialed a number on the phone that he knew by heart.

  “Hello?”

  “Luke, it’s Will.”

  “Hey! I didn’t recognize the number. Wait, is this your SAT number?” Knowing that Will would only use the SAT phone in an emergency, Luke’s voice immediately transitioned from friend to law enforcement officer.

  For a second, Will questioned his decision to ask Luke to contact McKenna’s boss for them. He was, first and foremost, her big brother. Hearing about the crash would awaken all his protective instincts.

  Which is what the alarmed look on McKenna’s face said, too, as she shook her head.

  “Yeah. My plane crashed yesterday. No injuries, thankfully. But I need you to do me a favor.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “McKenna’s with me. Can you call her boss, Captain Wilkins? He needs to know that this happened so he can send out a crime scene team. I think someone might have tampered with the plane. We’re east of Barrow, not too far from the coast. I have coordinates for you.”

  “Let me get a pen. Okay, go ahead.”

  Will recited the numbers.

  “Got it. I’ll call him. You think using a SAT phone is going to enable anyone to find you who shouldn’t?”

  “Already thought of it. That’s why we waited it out yesterday, to see if someone from town would find us before we’d need to use the phone. We were found this morning.”

  “So you’re leaving now.” Luke sounded relieved, and then his tone changed again. “You spent all night with my sister?”

  “While she slept and I watched the fire. You know me better than that.”

  “Okay. Call me when you get to Barrow. Who found you?”

  “My boss.”

  “Have McKenna call me when she’s home.”