“Wolves,” she whispered. “We’re being hunted by a pack of wolves.”
Gage nodded. “I think they’re the same ones that entered camp a few days ago.”
Had it only been a couple of days since wolves had scented Lucky’s blood and investigated?
“How long do you think they’ve been trailing us?” she asked, her head no longer pounding as bad but her throat had gone dry.
“Probably since I got shot,” Robert muttered. “If it’s not one fucking thing, it’s another.”
“Why are we staying here?” Nadia asked. Panic in her voice, she made to move.
Robert grabbed her arm. “Don’t move. We need to stay in a pack ourselves. A show of force. We keep moving, and they’ll take us one by one.”
“Robert’s right,” Gage said. “Move into a circle, backs to each other.” They quickly did, just as the first wolf showed himself.
Tern caught her breath.
He was gorgeous. Intelligent, cunning eyes met hers, and a zing of awareness permeated her soul. His black coat tipped with white was stunning. He was easily over a hundred and fifty pounds and exuded alpha in waves. Another wolf appeared from out of nowhere ten feet from him, then another, and another, until there was a pack of eight surrounding them.
They were outnumbered two to one.
“Shoot ‘em,” Robert said, raising his gun.
“No!” Tern hollered, slapping Robert’s rifle down until it pointed at the ground. “They aren’t hungry. Look at them.” The pack had thick glossy fur coats covering ropey muscles that were solid from a winter of full meals.
“What the hell do they want, then?” Robert said, his voice rising with alarm.
“I don’t know.”
“You want us to stand here all day until you figure it out?”
“Shut up, Robert,” Gage said. “She’s right. They aren’t starving. Maybe they’re curious.”
“Have you ever heard of wolves curious about anything? They’re predators. They attack.”
“I know of a wolf that was curious,” Tern said. “He even saved my nephew’s life. So shut the hell up.”
The wolves looked at them as though waiting for someone to make the first move.
“We’re obviously on their territory. Could they be escorting us out of it?” Gage asked.
“Sounds like the best explanation that I can think of,” Tern agreed.
“Can we quit talking about it and get out of here?” Nadia piped up. “This is really creeping me out.”
The alpha male cocked a brow and shared a look with the wolf to his right as though conversing. The right-handed wolf took a few backward steps and blended into the brush. Tern knew he was there, but there was no sign of him. It was like he disappeared. One by one the other wolves did the same. Out of sight but right there ready to pounce. The alpha stayed where he was. Watching. Tern itched to feel the thickness of his fur, her hand even reached out on its own violation before she pulled her fingers away and into a fist.
What was she thinking?
“Let’s follow their example,” Gage said. “Tern, I want you to lead, I’ll bring up the rear.”
Tern knew he was afraid that Robert would be trigger-happy and doom them all.
“I should lead,” Robert said. “Keep the women between us.”
“No. Tern has a way. Let her lead us out of this.”
“Not that native crap again.”
“Shut up, Robert,” Tern warned. “Or I’ll shoot you and feed you to the wolves myself.”
Nadia snickered. “Sorry,” she admitted. “Scared silly. Can we get out of here before I pee my pants?”
“All right, slowly everyone,” Gage said. “No sudden movements. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there. In fact, I’d put money down that we have more wolves watching us than the ones who showed themselves.”
Nadia whimpered, while Robert cursed. They broke formation, and Tern slowly began leading them out. The alpha flanked her a few steps ahead and perhaps ten feet to her left. It was unnerving, yet at the same time thrilling. Every now and then they would make eye contact, and she swore he was trying to communicate with his black stare. Were the wolves bored and using them as entertainment? God she hoped that was all it was. She didn’t want this magnificent animal to die from one of Robert’s twitchy bullets.
Suddenly the leader stopped, stood as still as marble. Tern froze too. Gage and the rest followed suit. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Robert raise his rifle. Then the wolf vaulted into the trees and disappeared.
“What the hell was that?” Robert asked.
“Something spooked him,” Tern said, the hair on her arms rose.
“Who spooks a pack of wolves?” Nadia asked, her voice shaky.
Gage kept an eye on Tern as he pushed the group to make some distance between them and whatever—or whoever—startled the wolves.
She didn’t look good. Her eyes were dazed and swollen, turning black, her honey-tinted skin pale. She plodded along, not making a sound, and that worried him even more.
Nadia concerned him too. It was quite the coincidence that the cut she’d sustained was in the same place as Tern’s childhood scar, slashing through the left eyebrow. Seeing them both side by side, as they sat on that log earlier, with the same hair color and now the same scar, was eerie.
Could Nadia have hit herself, causing a cut the same as Tern’s? Or had she been hit at all? If she’d wanted the same distinguishing mark, she’d have to literally cut herself with a knife. Why would she do that? He hadn’t noticed any sign of someone else. There were no footprints in the ground around where Tern had taken the hit, other than Nadia’s small boot prints.
But someone or something had scared off the wolves.
He didn’t know what to think anymore. He’d already brought up the possibility that Nadia could be the one behind this, but Tern had adamantly refused to entertain the idea.
He had a hard time himself wrapping his brain around the idea. Whoever set this geocache hunt in motion had to be strong, knowledgeable, conniving, and have no remorse. How else would the person kill Lucky, chop off his head, and carve words into his forehead? Gage figured it had to take some serious strength to sever through the bones of the spinal cord, not to mention, the muscles, tendons, and arteries that held the head onto the body. The murder was so grisly that it was hard to visualize a woman doing it. Mac was a little more plausible. But then again, words had been carved into his forehead too.
Those crimes didn’t fit with Tern getting hit. The others seemed more calculating, while Tern’s had more passion behind it. Could Nadia have hit Tern because she was mad at Robert calling out her name? Seemed to Gage, Robert would be the one to have his head bashed in. Not Tern. But then maybe Nadia was just as mad at Tern for being the one Robert would have preferred to be with?
Could they have more than one threat?
Hell. Wolves, weather, deranged killer, and now a jealous woman. Yeah, they were doomed if he didn’t hurry and figure a way to get them to safety.
They cleared the trees and came out over a rise that opened to the valley below them. The Yukon River coiled like a forgotten rope in the distance. Sweat dripped down his forehead and under his arms. The skin around the straps of his and Tern’s backpacks was being rubbed raw.
Finally seeing the river was like balm to his aches and pains. Soon, maybe tomorrow, they’d reach it. There had to be traffic floating downstream. It was summer, there was tourism, supplies being shipped to small native villages in the arctic, and subsistence fishing. All of it equaled help.
Once they entered the trees again, the Yukon would be lost from sight. For the moment, he just dragged in deep breaths of the sharp clean air and scanned the best route down.
“What’s that?” Robert asked, pointing to a large area of broken trees a few miles from them.
It looked as though a swath of trees had been mowed down like they were nothing more than toothpicks.
“It’s on the way,” Robert said.
Nadia started up again. “I wished we’d stayed at the cabins,” She’d been blissfully quiet since the wolf incident.
Tern didn’t say anything, which worried Gage even more. The woman needed medical attention. She had a concussion and he didn’t know how the hell she was staying on her feet, let alone hiking through the forest. Whatever strength she was drawing on, he was grateful for and even a little in awe of.
Gage cut a trail back into the tree canopy. It wasn’t as dense as the last one, and thankfully the mosquitoes weren’t as bloodthirsty. What he wouldn’t give for some DEET.
An hour or so later they broke through the line of shorn trees. Up ahead were the remnants of a downed airplane. Pieces of red and yellow metal littered the forest floor, causing the reflections they’d seen up on the hill.
Foreboding skittered along his forearms. He’d flown in that plane. They all had.
“Gage?” Tern asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” he answered.
“What?” Robert asked. “What are you two talking about? I hate it when people do that.”
“Do what?” Nadia asked, huffing as she caught up to them.
“Understand each other without talking. Bugs the crap out of me.”
“Robert, look around you,” Gage said. “Recognize anything?”
He glanced around and threw his hands up in the air. “What the hell am I going to recognize? Someone’s left a lot of junk around.”
“Think about it,” Gage said.
“Oh no,” Nadia whispered. “It’s the—” Words seemed to fail her and she turned away from them, covering her mouth with her hand.
“It’s what? What the hell are you guys seeing that I’m not?” Robert slapped a half-broken branch out of his way.
“The plane,” Gage said, talking slow and even. “The one that flew us here. It never made it back to Fairbanks.”
Color drained from Robert’s face and he shook his head. He swiveled around, his arms flying out from his sides, his mouth opening and closing. “Can’t be. It can’t be,” he repeated and started hiking through the bigger pieces of debris. He grabbed a large section that had three numbers of the plane’s call sign on it. He stared at it for a long time before throwing it away. “Where’s the cockpit?”
“There, I’d imagine.” Gage gestured to the long path the plane cut through the trees in its attempt to land. “Come on, guys. Nadia?”
Nadia nodded and brought up the rear as they traipsed through the wreckage. There wasn’t much of the plane left, but no sign of fire. So maybe the pilot was able to walk away. Gage had heard of miraculous stories about bush pilots crash landing in the worst places and yet still able to walk away. Or at least radio for help. Sometimes even duct tape the plane back together and fly it home.
Radio.
“Gage, the radio,” Tern said, echoing his thoughts. “We can call for help.”
He nodded, tapping down the hope that had bloomed at the thought. They reached another knoll of sorts, and twenty feet or so below them was the cockpit, resting on the pilot’s side, its nose dug into the earth. The wings were completely sheared from what was left of the body of the DeHavilland.
Gage put out his hand and stopped Tern from moving ahead. “Stay here.” He caught the stench of decay on the breeze and shrugged out of the backpacks. “Come on, Robert. Let’s take a look.”
“Man, I can’t take looking at another dead body.” Robert covered his nose and shook his head, his pale skin developing a hint of green. “Seriously. Can’t do it.”
Gage gave him a look that spoke volumes. He took a deep breath and headed toward the plane. Tern came with him.
“Tern, I want you to stay here.”
“I’ll be fine. I have to know.”
He tightened his lips but nodded. She followed him toward the cockpit. The passenger door was missing, as was all the sheet metal shirting the plane. Stuffing from the seat cushions littered the ground and the fabric blew in the slight breeze like curtains in an open window. Gage looked inside the cockpit, and dropped his head.
“Is he?”
“Yes. Don’t come any closer.” The smell triggered Gage’s gag reflexes, and it was all he could do not to vomit. He stepped away from the plane. “He’s been dead a while. Small animals have been feeding on him and there’s insect activity.” He turned back to the plane, reached into the cockpit, and fiddled with the radio. Shit. “The radio didn’t make it either.”
His heart sank. No radio meant no help any time soon. The hope they might be able to call for help died a quick death.
Breathing through his mouth, Gage rummaged through what was left of the cockpit, finding an unopened package of jerky and can of peanuts.
He rejoined Tern and held up the rations.
“Fitting for a pilot to have peanuts on board,” she said. A giggle escaped her and she looked horrified. “God, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”
“Shock. It’s been a hell of a few shocking days. Come on, let’s return and report.”
They rejoined Robert and Nadia. Robert sat against the trunk of a tree, knees up, hands falling between them. Nadia was against another tree but had her feet stretched out and crossed at the ankles.
“Well?” Nadia asked, sitting up straighter. “Is it Hugh?”
“Yes,” Gage said.
“Is he…?”
“Yes.”
“Shit,” Robert said, throwing a rock into the trees, it crashed through branches as it fell to the earth. “When do you think?”
“By the condition of the body, I think he crashed not long after dropping us off.”
“Shit,” Robert said again, looking off into the horizon.
“How?” Nadia asked.
“I don’t know,” Gage said. “The radio is busted.”
“Wait a minute,” Tern said, rubbing her forehead. “When Hugh didn’t report to Chena Marina and close out his flight plan, wouldn’t the authorities have sent out a search party?”
“I don’t know. Until we make it back to town, we won’t know the answers to those questions.”
“Well, we know the answer to one question,” Tern said. “There wasn’t going to be a plane coming back for us on Friday.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Gage returned to the plane, having partaken of his share of the jerky and nuts. It was a damn sight too coincidental that the pilot who had flown them in to this godforsaken area was dead too. Someone had thought everything out carefully and seemed damned determined not to leave any witnesses. Gage just needed to figure out if it was one of them or someone else.
He wrenched open the hood of the plane. He’d had to use a branch to pry it open like a can opener. He tossed the branch aside and gazed at the engine. Nothing jumped out at him, but then it was a torn-up mess. Crashing a plane through a forest did a number on the engine.
How would someone have sabotaged an airplane without anyone noticing, especially the pilot?
Since it wasn’t something he’d ever thought about, he was having a hard time figuring out how someone would go about it. Why take out the pilot? He was their only way off the mountain other than hiking out, which was a crapshoot. The wolves they’d run into earlier in the day were proof of that. If he’d been the one to set this up, he’d first have figured out how to get home. So, he’d either make sure nothing happened to the pilot, carry a radio to call for help, or have another pilot coming in after him. But wouldn’t that raise a few brows, when not only had all the people you traveled with ended up dead, but you had a separate pilot pick you up? Talk about wearing a sign for the authorities that screamed ‘killer’.
He s
crounged around inside the cockpit for anything that he might be able to use, doing his best to ignore the stench of Hugh’s decomposing body. When that proved useless, he returned to the engine, hoping it would speak to him.
Poor bastard.
“Hey,” Tern said from behind him.
He bumped his head on the hood with surprise. Rubbing his head, he scowled at her. “Shit. Make some noise when you come up behind someone, okay?”
“Sorry.”
“I’m a bit on edge.” He studied her. “Are you feeling better?”
She hid her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. “A bit. What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out how someone brought down a plane.”
She nodded. “You think the person who killed Mac and Lucky was taking care of loose ends.”
She was a smart cookie, he’d give her that. And a sexy cookie too. How did she look so damn attractive out here? Even sporting a couple of black eyes? Nadia wasn’t fairing nearly as well. But Tern seemed to have a glow about her. The sun had burnished her honey skin, and auburn highlights were more pronounced in the thick dark hair she’d braided and left to fall down her back. She didn’t have on an ounce of makeup and didn’t need any other than to help hide the bruising around her dark eyes. Nadia, on the other hand, was sporting blemishes. Her face was sunburned, her fine hair falling lanky on her shoulders. She’d have a tough time getting a brush through the wind-whipped mess.
“What?” Tern brushed her face.
“You look great.” He cleared his throat and returned his attention to the mess of engine parts.
“Do you know anything about engines?” she asked.
“Other than the basics, not much. Any idea how someone would have sabotaged an airplane while it was being unloaded?”
She bit her lips, thinking. “They wouldn’t have been able to get to the engine. We were all there, including the pilot.”
“Right. So something from inside the cockpit.” He didn’t want to crawl in there again and see Hugh, smell him. Days of decomp had been at work. He doubted he could have stood this close to the plane if the wind hadn’t been blowing some of the stench the other direction. They shouldn’t stay here long. Bigger predators were going to be attracted to the smell, like the wolves that had given them a pass earlier.
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