by Mary Alford
She squared her shoulders and didn’t back down. “I’m still coming with you.”
He stepped closer. Their eyes held. He could read all of her doubts. She didn’t understand this change in him. He drew her closer. He’d give anything for this to be over. But would he find a happy ending with her?
Aaron drew in an unsteady breath, he cupped her chin and kissed her with all the love growing in his heart.
He just caught her shaky sob before she kissed him back and his heart soared. He wanted to shut out the danger that was stalking them and stay in this exact moment forever. But it was not to be for now. He ended the embrace, but still didn’t move. They stared at each other, their breathing mirrored. All of her vulnerabilities were there for him to see.
He let her go. “Here, take my extra flashlight in case we get separated. Try to stay close to me and keep your eyes open. It’s dark out and the storm will deafen any sound. If someone comes after us, we may not hear them until they’re right on top of us.”
“I will,” she promised and touched her fingers against his lips and smiled.
With his heart full of emotion, Aaron opened the door and they struggled against the biting wind.
He could barely see more than a foot in front of him, but he headed in the direction of the ridge they’d come down, all the while praying the call would go through and they would find some answers.
Talking was impossible. The wind howled around the trees and slammed into them like a lethal weapon.
To keep the uncertainties at bay, Aaron occupied his thoughts with the missing box. If Davis had taken it what had he hoped to gain by it?
With nothing but a dead end, he focused on the photos and tried to wrap his head around the fact that Michael had known both Sam and Alhasan.
Aaron was exhausted and thinking clearly was nearly impossible. He focused on putting one foot in front of the other until he reached the top of the ridge.
“Please, Lord, we need help here. Let the call go through,” he said aloud.
Liz stood next to him and he wrapped her in his arms for added warmth.
It took three tries before he found a signal. He dialed Jessie’s number. There was so much static on the line that he barely heard the ring.
“Hello?” Jessie answered through a whirlwind of static.
“Jessie, its Aaron. I don’t have much service so I’ll be brief. I’m going to try to send you some pictures. I need you to tell me if you know any of the people in them.”
She said something indistinguishable.
“I’m going to hang up now and text the pictures to you. Call me back when you have them.” He disconnected the call without hearing her answer and quickly loaded the pictures in a text. It took forever for the pictures to load and just as long for the message to go through.
While they waited, Aaron tried to call Jase, but the connection was so bad that he wasn’t sure the call had even connected.
“Jase, can you hear me?” he shouted into the phone over the roaring wind. Jase’s response broke up. He heard only a couple of indistinguishable words before the call was lost.
“I can’t make out anything.” Aaron tried the number again and it sounded like it connected but he couldn’t hear a response. He shook his head. “I think they may be airborne. There’s a lot of background noise on his end and this storm isn’t helping. I’m going to try texting the coordinates for the cabin to him. Perhaps the text will go through easier than a call.”
He quickly typed in the information and waited for a response.
Aaron never was so happy to read, On our way.
He showed the text to Liz. “They’re on their way.”
He glanced around at the burgeoning all-out whiteout facing them. Given the darkness, he was worried they might not be able to make it back to the cabin.
His thoughts fractured. Garbling pieces of information. Confusing facts. Hypothermia was close. His feet were growing numb. He had to get them out of this weather soon. Where was Jessie? Why hadn’t she called back? What if she couldn’t get through?
“Jessie should have received the photos by now. What’s taking so long?” Liz voiced his concerns aloud while casting an anxious glance around the area. If someone were watching them, they’d seen where they were. If they were trying to kill them, they’d be sitting ducks.
Aaron pulled the photos up one at a time. The background of the one with Sam and Michael drew his attention to it. They stood close to a cabin. Was it his imagination or was it the same they’d just been in? There was only a portion of the structure showing and it was taken at a different time of the year, but the mountain in the background sure looked like Black Bear Mountain.
His phone rang and he answered the call quickly and held it so that it was sheltered against the wind and Liz could still hear.
“It’s me,” Jessie said. “I have the photos.” Something was terribly wrong. There was no mistaking the fear in Jessie’s tone.
* * *
Liz’s gazed locked with Aaron.
“What is it?” Aaron asked urgently. “Do you recognize any of the photos?”
Liz knew he hated rushing the woman, but they didn’t have a lot of service and it could end at any moment.
“The first one is of Michael and Sam Hendricks. Sam lived in Black Bear for a while.”
Hendricks? They knew Sam as Lansford. Liz couldn’t believe it. He’d changed his name at some point, which would explain why they hadn’t been able to find out much about his past.
How had he managed to fake the CIA’s background check? He’d had to have created an elaborate fake identity for himself. Which seemed to indicate he’d planned such an endeavor for a long time.
Incredible. At least they had a name to go by, which might lead to locating of the weapons.
“Sam left here a few years before Michael moved back to Montana.”
“When was this?” Aaron asked.
“Shortly after we graduated from high school. Sam was a year older than Michael and myself.”
“What about the second photo of Michael with the two men?” Liz rushed on. As much as she needed more information on Sam, she wanted to know how Michael knew Alhasan.
“You mean the one of Michael with the Safar brothers?” Jessie asked innocently enough.
The Safar brothers. The man in the photo with Michael was Alhasan’s brother.
It was hard to control her excitement. They were finally getting some answers. “Yes. Who are they and how did Michael know them?”
“Their names are Alhasan and Kalel Safar. I never met them myself, but Michael told me about them once. He said they lived in Anchorage but fished the area. Michael earned extra money whenever he could by acting as a fishing guide. He was really quite good at it.”
Liz recalled Alhasan had given a fake last name as well. They were uncovering more webs of lies. This whole case stunk of them.
So Michael knew Alhasan and his brother. Kalel Safar had to be the one in charge of the men chasing them and the intended owner of the weapons.
“What about Sam? Do you know if he knew the brothers?” Aaron asked. It was too big of a coincidence otherwise. The pieces were finally falling into place.
“Yes. Sam went fishing with them several times. He said the four of them were friends. My understanding was they hung out together sometimes.”
Liz’s first instinct was to ask more questions about Sam, but they needed to know about the remaining two photos. “What about the other photos?” she asked.
“I don’t know who the marine is, but the other photo may be of Michael’s brother.”
Aaron’s gaze locked on hers. Davis was Michael’s brother.
The phone lost service and Jessie was gone.
“No,” Liz said in annoyance. A few secon
ds later the phone rang.
“Sorry. As I said, I never met Michael’s brother before. He’d left home by the time I moved to Black Bear. Michael told me once that they weren’t very close.” There was so much static on the call it was impossible to hear for a moment.
“After we graduated from high school, Michael’s father passed away,” Jessie was saying. “He took his body back to Montana for burial and I never saw him again until a few years back when he came here to fish. He and his family once rented the cabin back when they first came to Black Bear. Six months ago when Michael came back, he paid cash for it.”
In spite of all the information Jessie had provided, they still didn’t know who was responsible for Michael’s and Sam’s deaths and Liz was no closer to clearing her name than when they’d first arrived.
Jessie paused for a second. “Does Michael’s death have anything to do with something Sam might have gotten him involved in?”
The question struck Liz as odd.
“Why would you say that?” she asked.
“Because Sam was always causing problems in high school. He got expelled several times, and then during the summer of his senior year, he just left the area completely and I never saw him again. I asked Michael about him, but he said he didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Can you think of anything else that might help us find Michael’s killer?” Aaron asked but the phone cracked and then went dead.
Aaron checked the service. “It’s gone.” He tried the sat phone, but it wasn’t any better.
“We can’t stay out here in this cold any longer. We need to get back to the cabin while we can,” Liz said.
Slowly they headed down the ridge, but the driving wind and snow made it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of them even with using the flashlights.
“I can’t even see the cabin,” Liz said over the noise of the storm. “Are we heading the right way?”
Aaron stopped to catch his breath. “I think so, but it’s hard to tell. It should be just a little ways up ahead.”
She wasn’t sure how much farther she could go. Just drawing air burned her chest. If they lost their way in the storm, they’d be dead soon.
“Over there.” Aaron pointed his flashlight at the dark mass amongst ahead of them.
As they drew closer, Liz saw something alarming. Fresh tracks that had been made since they left the cabin.
Aaron drew his weapon and she did the same. She understood. They could be walking into an ambush.
He motioned for her to go to the back of the cabin and she nodded and headed that way.
Liz edged along the side of the cabin until she could see into the window at the back. From the light of the lanterns they’d left burning, there was no movement within. She slowly eased to the door, opened it, and slipped inside. Seconds later, Aaron did the same with the front entrance. They stared at each other across the room. She shook her head.
He motioned to the single bedroom and she understood. He’d search there. She followed close behind and tapped his shoulder and pointed to the bathroom ahead.
Aaron slowly opened the bedroom door and she slipped past him into the bathroom. The tiny room was empty.
She hurried back to the bedroom as Aaron emerged. “There’s no one here,” he said in a chilly tone she couldn’t associate with Aaron.
She ignored her misgivings for the moment. “We need to get warm. My feet are soaked.”
Aaron went over to a cast-iron woodstove in the corner of the living room. Someone had piled some wood next to it. “This won’t last for long,” he said as he stacked wood into the stove without looking at her.
“There’s more around back,” she said. “Someone prepared for the winter.”
Aaron flinched at the comment. She didn’t understand this sudden change in him.
“You think Michael planned to come up before the accident happened?” he asked.
“Maybe. The only question is why did he want to put the cabin in my name?”
Aaron still didn’t look at her. “I don’t know.”
The fire finally caught and he pulled up a couple of chairs close to it. “Take off your boots and socks and let’s warm our feet. We don’t want to lose a toe due to frostbite.”
As the storm continued to batter the cabin, Liz thought about everything that Jessie had told them.
“Why do you think Michael pretended not to know Sam?”
Aaron shook his head, staring into the fire. “There’s only one reason I can think of.”
She knew exactly what he was talking about. She just hated thinking her friend and partner had been working for the Fox all this time.
“I still can’t believe he knew Alhasan. Where’s the brother? He has to be the one chasing the weapons.”
“Probably. Where’s Michael’s note?” he asked unexpectedly in a sharp tone.
She didn’t understand why he needed to see it, but she pulled it out and gave it to him.
“Now that I’ve thought about it some more there’s something odd about this note,” he told her and she didn’t understand what he meant.
She watched him read through the note once more.
“Like what?” she asked while trying to understand the change in him.
The chill in his eyes when he looked at her scared her. “The handwriting. I’ve seen lots of memos and comments written by Michael. This doesn’t look like his handwriting, Liz. I’m not so sure he was the one who wrote it.”
FIFTEEN
He believed her...in his heart, but his common sense was screaming there were too many things off in her story.
“What are you saying?” The hurt in her eyes was hard to take. She’d seen the misgivings he couldn’t cover.
“I mean I’m not so sure Michael wrote the note you have. You knew Michael better than any of us? Didn’t you notice the difference in the handwriting?”
“Aaron, you’re scaring me,” she said in a strained voice. “I’ve told you everything I know. I’m not involved in Michael’s death and I certainly didn’t have anything to do with the missing weapons.”
He wanted to believe her. He handed her the piece of paper. “I found this near the bed,” he said quietly. “I guess it was tucked under the mattress and fell out when I moved the bed that last time. When I went back just now, it had fallen on the floor. The lantern’s light caught it.”
She took it from him. Her hands shook as she read aloud the letter that was clearly written by Michael.
“‘I’m so sorry I got you involved in this, Liz. I wish I could change things. Turn back time to before this all started, but I can’t. Just know that you are like family to me and I never wanted you to become part of this.’”
She looked back at him and he could see the tears in her eyes. The note indicated that Michael had been involved in Sam’s crimes for quite some time. The cabin itself was probably paid for with blood money.
Frustrated, Liz said, “I understand how this looks, but I’m telling you I’m not involved in any of this, Aaron. Everything about what has happened is just as much of a surprise to me as it is to you,” she managed.
Aaron swallowed. “I want to believe you, but you see how this looks. Liz, the handwriting is different from the other note Michael left you.”
She shook her head. “I see that and I can’t explain it. I understand what you’re saying. The handwriting in the note he left me does look different. More hurried. Maybe he wrote it in a rush... I don’t know.” She looked him in the eyes. “Aaron, I’m just asking you to trust the person you know I am. I’m not part of this, Aaron,” she pleaded. “And I can’t explain the difference in the handwriting, only that I believe he must have written it in a hurry.”
His heart didn’t want to believe she could betray him or her
country.
With his emotions raw, he leaned over and touched his head against hers. “We keep this new note out of the investigation for now. No one sees it,” he said quietly.
She smiled a little, yet part of him still had doubts. Beth’s destructive influence in his life had left its mark. With everything inside him, he shoved the doubts aside. He was going against every part of his training now, because he wanted to believe her.
She touched his face with her hand and he looked deep into her tear-filled eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered in a shaky breath. His heart was aching to comfort her, so despite his misgivings about her involvement, Aaron leaned forward and kissed her.
She kissed him back and he had to believe she had feelings for him as well. He’d give anything for this to all be over and they’d be free to talk about those feelings.
In the past, she’d told how devastating Eric’s death had been for her. Was she finally ready to love again?
Please, God, yes.
Liz ended the kiss and stared with wonderment into his eyes. He could read all the questions, the uncertainties in hers and he smiled tenderly. He wanted to reassure her what he felt had nothing to do with the circumstances they faced.
She got to her feet and moved a little away. “I—I think Jessie packed a couple of extra pairs of socks in the backpack,” she said unsteadily, then she dug in and pulled out a pair for each of them.
“Liz...” He followed her. They had no idea of the danger facing them or if they’d even make it out alive. He wanted to tell her how he felt.
He turned her to face him. “You’re wrong,” he said and she stared up at him. He prayed that was hope in her eyes. “What’s happening between us isn’t just because of the danger we’re facing. I care about you, Liz.” She closed her eyes briefly and when she would have pulled away he said, “No, listen to me. We may not walk out of here alive, so I want you to know...” He hesitated for a second then laid it all on the line. “How I feel. I...love you.”