Chapter Sixteen
Briar grabbed an icepack and rushed to Lynx as Garrett helped him to the couch. "You sure you're okay?"
They'd broken into two groups after Lynx had been checked over by the EMTs while Briar had tried to calm a very excited O.D. She deposited him in his enclosed pool area with a bucket of oysters, and O.D. was now occupied diving for food and breaking it out of its shell.
"I will be." Lynx grimaced and held onto his ribs. He'd refused to be taken to the hospital against their recommendation. "Been busted up worse than this."
"You should have gone to the hospital," Garrett said. The trooper had been introduced to her as Garrett Hunt. He had a James Bond look to him. Rough and ready, not handsome, more interesting. Lynx had further explained that he was somewhat of a relation. She still didn't really understand it.
"Good thing you made me wear the vest," Lynx said. "I owe you one, man."
"No way was I answering to Eva if something happened to you."
"Yeah, she's not going to be too happy to hear about this, but at least I'll be alive to take all she's going to dish out." He looked like he relished the encounter.
"Your ribs could be broken," Garrett said. "That's a long drive back to Fairbanks. You need x-rays."
"He's right." Briar backed up Garrett. "I'm really sorry you were hurt on my account. I guess I'm not the best at lying, huh?" Lynx must've seen right through her this morning.
"Not to the people who know you." Lynx squeezed her hand and indicated West standing across the room. "Are you really okay? Not hurt?"
"I'm fine. Great. He didn't hurt me." Just the opposite. West must've felt her stare on him because he stopped speaking to Shyla and her husband Judd Iverson. Their eyes met from across the way. She wished they could be alone, but it would probably be a really long time before that happened.
Hugh Wiseman and a semi-conscious Hagan had been arrested and taken into custody by Trooper Stohl and the other officers on scene.
West would be next.
He had to be remanded and face the court for escaping, which she didn't understand as it was like a self-defense escape attempt.
Why couldn't they just let him go?
Shyla had tried to explain that he was still considered a murderer until he was officially cleared of the charges.
Judd stood. "It's time."
"Can I have a minute alone with Briar?" West asked.
"Does she want a minute?"
"Yes, she does," Briar answered.
"You realize I can't let you out of my sight," Judd said. "In fact, you should be cuffed right now."
"Judd." Shyla rested a hand on his arm. "Let them have a minute."
West reached for Briar and moved them to the corner of the open room. "Listen, you'll probably be asked to testify. Just...just tell them the truth."
"No, don't tell the truth," Shyla said. "Sorry, can't help but overhear. My interests are in protecting my client." She paused and then asked, her tone slightly worried, "What exactly is the truth?"
"Well," West started. He released Briar's hand, and she instantly missed the contact. "I kind of kidnapped her and held her against her will."
"Wait—" Briar said but was interrupted by Garrett.
"Is that what happened?" he asked, advancing forward.
Suddenly both Judd and Garrett were standing next to them.
"Yes, n-no," she stumbled, flustered with so many big men around her. Who would have thought she'd have men towering over her making her feel so small and in need of their protection. "Just...would you all back the hell up? I can't breathe." No one moved.
"Guys, give her some room," Shyla said. "In fact, let's all have a seat around the table. Would that be better, Briar?"
"Yes, can I have a drink too?" Why the hell was she asking them? It was her house.
"Something to drink sounds great," Lynx spoke up from the couch. He lumbered to his feet, keeping the icepack secured to his ribs and pulled out a chair at the table.
They all sat as Briar reached for the scotch her dad kept in the top cupboard. "I don't care that it's technically still morning." She grabbed glasses for everyone. "You want something else, there's water in the sink."
"Thank you, God," Lynx said. "Pour me a double."
"No, you don't." Garrett took Lynx's glass. "That isn't a good idea. You're going to the hospital for x-rays when we're finished."
"What are you, my mother?"
"Your wife scares the hell out of me and she's friends with my wife, and Sonya puts the fear of God into me. And as I've met your mother, I know she'd approve. So no drinking."
"Well, I am," Briar said, pouring herself a healthy four fingers. She had no parent and no spouse. Just her. And she'd do whatever the hell she wanted.
"Briar," West said, in a concerned tone.
"You’re being arrested, so you don't have anything to say here." She set the bottle down for anyone else to partake if they wanted and downed a fire-breathing sip. Woo! She'd never developed a taste for scotch while her dad was alive, but by damn, she would now. She sunk into a seat and cradled the glass between her hands. "All right, ask me your questions."
"Do you want to press charges?" Judd started.
"Did he touch you?" Lynx asked. "I'll kill him myself if he hurt you."
"She already told you he didn't hurt her," Garrett said.
"There's hurt and then there is hurt. Which was it?"
"Stop! One question at a time. Actually, no forget it. I have a statement to make, and you can do with that whatever the hell you want." She turned back to Garrett and Judd who were looking an awful lot like the dangerously smart troopers they were. "We slept together, and I loved every minute of it. After he tied me up. Oh shit, that isn't what I meant. You guys have me all flustered."
Shyla leaned forward, a smile playing on her lips. "Let me see if I understand what you're trying to say. He surprised you, you struggled, he tied you up, but he didn't hurt you."
Briar nodded. "Then he untied me." She glared at the troopers. "He helped me feed the animals, and we...talked and—and...this isn't a Stockholm syndrome thing so get that out of your heads." She gestured to West. "Look at him. Wouldn't you sleep with him?"
"Oh, hell." Judd scrubbed his face. "Not where you want to go as my wife spent almost a year in his custody when she was in witness protection."
Garrett laughed. "Sonya will be mad she missed this."
"Then you are one loved man, Judd Iverson," Briar said. "Because I don't know how any woman wouldn't want to sleep with him."
West covered her hand with his. "You are one beautiful woman, Briar. Inside and out."
She drank him in, heartsick that she was losing him again, but then he had never really been hers to keep. Much like the animals she took in—only hers for a little while until they were healed and ready to return to the wild. Except the 'wild' West would be returned to would be prison.
"I think I'm satisfied that charges don't need to be filed," Shyla said. "Though it would be a good idea to go over your testimony a few times before you're called to testify. Is that all right with you, Briar?"
"Yes, fine."
"Now, can I have a real moment alone with her?" West asked.
"Go ahead," Lynx said, his tone dreamy.
Garrett and Judd looked at him.
"What? Come on, it's romantic, look at them." He blanched. "Ah, crap, I'm sounding like a chick, aren't I?"
The men nodded.
"Okay, Garrett, let's get me x-rayed."
"We'll wait outside for you," Shyla said, taking Judd's arm. "Briar, it was a real pleasure meeting you. I look forward to knowing you better."
Briar gratefully watched everyone get up from her table and leave her small cabin. She turned back to West.
His gray eyes were stormy like the skies before a soft rain. He held her dad's knife out to her. "I don't need this now."
"Keep it anyway. I want you to have it."
He turned it over in his hand
and then held it out to her again. "They'll take it from me. So how about you keep it safe for me? If—that is until I'm released."
She nodded and took the knife back.
"Briar, I know I said that people don't fall in love in one night, but I think they can fall in like. And I like you, Briar Levine. A lot."
Her heart swelled within her chest. "I like you a lot, too, West McAllister."
He smiled. "I won't ask you to wait for me. No—" he covered her lips with his finger "—let me finish. It wouldn't be fair as I don't know how long this will take. It could be a while and a lot can still happen. But I'd like to ask—when I'm released—and if you're free, would you go out to dinner with me?"
"Yes. It's a date." She reached for him at the same time as he hauled her into his arms.
He groaned and tightened his hold on her, kissing her hard and deep, imprinting on her even though he said he didn't want her waiting for him. His kiss clearly said he wished she would.
Slowly West released her. He traced the sides of her face as though committing it to memory and then turned and left without looking back.
Briar sank into her chair, her knees giving out.
How did one's life change so fast in the course of twenty-four hours? And how was she going to go on without him?
Chapter Seventeen
He wasn't coming back.
It had been a year. The fireweed was in full bloom again, the magenta and pink petals bright and pretty in the late summer evening. A sign of strength and beauty blooming in severe situations.
It had been a night just like this one when West had taken her hostage. Briar had relived that night more times than she could count. There wasn't a thing she'd change about it. Well, maybe to keep Lynx from getting shot. After Garrett had taken him for x-rays, showing two broken ribs, Lynx had been left in her care until Eva arrived to collect him.
Wistful, Briar finished her chores and headed back down the path in no hurry to face the empty cabin and the lonely dinner planned for one.
She had to let West go.
Holding onto the hope that he'd return someday for her after they'd only spent so little time together was, well, hopeless. She hadn't heard a word from him. The last time she'd seen him was when she'd been called in to testify at his arraignment. It hadn't taken long for him to be pardoned for the murder of Wade Yakov and given time served for the escape. If it wasn't for Shyla letting her know that he was safe, Briar wouldn't know anything.
The US Marshals had taken him as a key witness and squirreled him away in some undisclosed location. On a supply run to Anchorage a few months ago, Briar had met Shyla for lunch, and she'd admitted that she didn't know if West was even in the state. And even if she did know, she couldn't tell Briar.
It was time to move on.
Briar ambled farther down the path. No longer was she content to be lonely, she wanted someone to share her life with besides the animals in her care. She wanted children and had wished more than once that she'd gotten pregnant that night, to have something to hold and cherish that was part of the man who'd impacted her life so much.
She had to quit thinking of him. Thinking that she saw him everywhere out of the corner of her eye.
Like now.
But then she wasn't seeing him out of the corner of her eye this time, but standing on her porch.
Her heart skipped and then started to pound. As if he felt her behind him, he turned around. Slowly he walked toward her, striding down the steps, and meeting her on the path.
"Hey," he said, coming to stand in front of her.
"Hey," she breathed.
"I should've figured you were taking care of the animals."
She nodded, not knowing what to say. He looked good—great—as if a huge weight no longer burdened him.
"Is it over then?" she asked. Was he a free man?
"Yes, it's over. Somebody inside the US Marshals turned state's evidence, giving up all the names and dates. Everything they needed. He's a bigger fish than I am so they let me go. I'll be called to testify against Hugh and his network when the time comes, but I don't need to be under protection anymore."
He paused and slowly looked her up and down. She wished she had put on makeup or something, had her hair restrained tighter so the curls didn't fly around her face in the slight breeze coming off Resurrection Bay.
"You're beautiful, Briar. I've thought of you every day since I left. I hope that you're free...for dinner or something."
"I waited for you," she blurted out.
A liquid-silver fire ignited in his eyes. "I told you not to wait for me."
"You'll come to learn that I never do what I'm told."
His eyes sparkled with delight, and he smiled.
The sight caught her breath and stole her heart. He yanked her into his arms, his mouth capturing hers, and everything inside her went molten.
This.
This is what she'd always wanted, what she'd waited the last twelve months for. She hadn't imagined how good he tasted, how precious she felt in his arms, or how right he felt in hers.
West tore his mouth from hers, holding her tight against him. "God, I've missed you."
"I know we haven't had that dinner you talked about, but would you think less of me if we slept together before we dated?" She smoothed her hands over his chest, wanting his clothes off and his skin bare. "I understand if you want to wait until we know each other better."
West groaned and took her mouth again in a hard, branding kiss. "I'm through waiting."
He swung her up in his arms as if she weighed nothing. She squealed, and her laughter bubbled over with joy.
He carried her up the steps and into the cabin where they proceeded to learn everything there was to know about each other in exhaustive detail.
Now they had all the time in the world to explore each other. To fall in love. To embrace and fortify a love that started with one night but would last forever.
THE END
ICEBREAKER
Tiffinie Helmer
Chapter One
Somehow he had to break the ice.
Logan Slade sat parked in his truck—the engine running since it was currently twenty-five below zero—freezing his ass off while he worked up the nerve to enter the Icebreaker Bar.
It had been eight years since Logan had left Trixie Frost pretty much at the altar. Actually just after the altar, which was way worse. Their promises to each other hadn't lasted long when their relationship had been tested within hours after the I do's.
Wonder if she was still mad?
Probably.
He'd never met a more stubborn woman in all his travels and he'd traveled the globe. He'd fought in wars, seen the worst of humanity, survived in the most hostile places the world had to offer, and yet his hands shook at the prospect of seeing his wife. Pathetic. He could be sunning his sorry ass on a beach somewhere drinking tequila and flirting with bikini-clad women instead of freezing it off in North Pole, Alaska.
Logan turned the key, killing the engine, and the cold immediately seeped in. Stepping out of the truck, he took a deep breath of frigid air that stung his nostrils and made his lungs condense in retaliation. He absorbed the sharp slap and forced his feet to crunch over the ice-covered parking lot toward the entrance.
The place looked good, much better than when he'd left. Trixie had produced a miracle from the eyesore the bar had been.
Sapphire Christmas lights were strung around the A-line roof of the Tudor-style building painted in hues of icy blues and bright white trim. Lights brightened the windows where a sign glowed in red, "Open until Christmas." A winter mural of polar bears, arctic foxes, and reindeer playing in a winter wonderland paraded around the outside of the building, lending it a cheerful, holiday feel the town was famous for. The place was welcoming and cutesy and probably brought in tourists by the truckload who braved the frigid temps to see Santa Claus in his natural habitat.
Before, the bar had just been a dive the town had
made jokes about. Painted one color—a mustard-brown if he remembered correctly—and without the Tudor influence. He'd almost driven right by it earlier, not recognizing it even though his mother had told him Trixie had made some improvements that were in keeping with the town's Santa Claus village theme.
More improvements had been made to the buildings adjacent to the bar. Icing's Bakery and Café, Frost's Books, Frozen's Ice Cream, and his own mother's new venture, Polar Fleece and Fabric butted up against the Icebreaker Bar where before there had been nothing but a tree-choked lot kids had hung out at and gotten stoned. The block was now festive with a feeling of anticipation that he bet the customers ate up. Hell, he wanted a picture taken in front of the building next to the large polar bear statue himself.
But a picture proving he'd been here wasn't good enough. He had to get inside and talk with Trixie before she found out he was back.
Logan grabbed the large caribou antler that made up the door handle and swung it open. A blast of heat hit him, shocking his body into a full sweat. Unzipping his parka, and knocking back his hood, he stood inside the entrance and swept the room.
As much as the outside had changed, the inside was another world. The old brass bar that had been salvaged from an early nineteenth-century saloon had been replaced with a sleek glass contemporary piece that looked like it had been carved from ice. It was lit from within with soft blue lights. Tall clear barstools flanked the front while a mirrored-wall behind the bar reflected vibrant liquor-loaded glass shelves. It was icy and modern, shimmery and interesting in a hip, new age sort of way. He wasn't sure yet what to think of it, the change was so drastic.
Trixie must have completely gutted the place. It reminded him of an article he'd read of a place in Iceland constructed entirely out of ice. If it wasn't for the warmth of the place, he'd have sworn he'd stepped inside a glacier.
A stage was set up on the opposing side of the room that looked like a floating sheet of ice and had a karaoke machine off to the left.
Oh no, she hadn't caved, had she?
Wild Women of Alaska Collection Page 24