Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
I t was tough terrain, but damn beautiful.
Jenna picked her way down the hillside. The panoramic vista stole her breath away. Right now, everything was lush green, but she knew in winter the view would be completely different. Covered in snow, more forbidding, but still gorgeous.
She’d been sending out regular prayers that they wouldn’t run into any bears. That was the last thing they needed, especially when their quarry was just as dangerous.
Park was right beside her, but he didn’t look tired or like he needed a break. He was incredibly fit. She already knew he had stamina. She smiled, thinking of the previous night.
Then her smile faded.
She was sliding headlong toward… She wasn’t exactly sure what, but she had serious feelings developing for this man.
She bit her lip. She was probably signing up for heartbreak. She realized clearly now that Vic had never gotten close to her heart.
Parker…
He could own it.
Except he didn’t want it.
He’d made it clear that relationships were not on his radar. He just wanted to avoid people and live in his cabin.
He wanted to avoid life.
She lifted her chin. No . For his sake, she wasn’t going to let him do that.
Her boot skidded on some loose rocks. She gasped and caught herself.
Park glanced back. “Okay?”
“I’m good.” She straightened. “I should warn you, I’m not really that into camping.”
“Fresh air. Views. Nature. What’s not to like?”
“Bugs. Sleeping on the ground. No bathroom.”
He smiled at her. “City girl.”
At that moment, a familiar sound caught her ear. She cocked her head.
“There’s a river nearby,” he said.
They continued down into the valley. A wide river snaked through the narrow gorge. In places, it splashed over rocks—wild and rugged.
The temperature was cooler here and the shadows deeper. She heard a noise and they both spun, pulling out their weapons.
The caribou froze, staring back at them. It looked like something out of a Christmas movie, with its thin antlers and fluffy tail.
“Wow.”
At Jenna’s low murmur, the deer ran off, disappearing into the trees.
“The caribou are migrating this time of year,” Park said.
When she turned back, he was crouched, scowling at the ground.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve lost Olson’s trail.”
“What?” She looked around. “He stopped being careful a long time ago. There has to be something.”
“He came to the river here.” Park stopped at the river’s edge.
Jenna glanced around him and saw a clear boot print. “Did he swim across?”
“I’m not sure. Let’s cross the river and take a look on the other side.”
They walked upstream to where a large tree had fallen across the river, making a natural bridge. Water rushed underneath it.
With her arms out, Jenna carefully balanced and crossed the log. She knew the water would be cold, and didn’t fancy a dip.
Park followed behind her, and soon, he was moving up and down the riverbank, searching for any sign of Olson.
She heard him curse, his frustration clear.
“Hey, let’s take a break.” She touched his arm.
“We’ll lose the good light soon.” His mouth flattened and he scanned the trees. “We can’t let him get away. I won’t let him.”
“Hey.” She spun Park around.
His face was tight and his body tense. She went up on her toes and kissed him. His mouth opened for her, and the kiss deepened. He slid an arm around her waist and hauled her up against his body.
“You distracted me on purpose,” he said.
“You needed it.” She stroked his jaw. “Sometimes, we get too lost in the hunt, in the job, in the details. You can lose sight of the bigger picture. Sometimes you need to step back and just take a breath.”
“Or kiss a beautiful woman.” He tucked a strand of her hair that had escaped her braid behind her ear.
“Well, can’t say I’ve kissed a woman before. Not the way I kiss you.” She liked that he thought she was beautiful. She was used to being the smart one, or the tough one.
“Let’s take another look now,” she suggested.
They followed along the riverbank. Park stopped to study something, and Jenna kept walking.
Then a scent hit her.
Something was dead.
“Park.”
He joined her, frowning. “I smell it. I’m guessing a dead animal, maybe.”
They followed a bend in the river. The stench increased, and she pressed a hand to her nose.
Then Park grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. She followed his gaze, and her stomach did a sickening turn.
There were three animals. They were staked out in the dirt and they’d all been skinned.
“A caribou, a fox, and something else small,” Park said. “A marmot, maybe.”
“He didn’t eat the meat,” she said.
“No.” Park’s face was grim. “Olson did this for fun.” He walked over to a fallen log, and she spotted the animals’ skins draped over it.
God, Olson was seriously disturbed. He was a psychopath who’d been trained to be the best killer he could be.
“He camped here,” Park said.
She glanced over and saw him walking toward the trees.
“Then he went this way.” Park motioned ahead.
“So, we keep following him.”
“We can’t now. We’re going to lose the light soon.” He turned back to her. “We need to find a spot to make camp.”
She pulled a face. “I’m not camping here.”
“No, not here. I’ll bury the animals, then we’ll go up the hill. I want to find a more secure location. I have some portable security cameras that I’ll set up. No one will sneak up on us.”
“All right. Let’s get these poor animals buried, and make camp.”
Park got the small tent set up. It wasn’t very big. It would be a cozy fit for the both of them.
Darkness was falling fast, as was the temperature. He circled around the camp, searching for anything that set his radar off.
Nothing.
He pulled out the portable cameras and set them in some tree branches around their camp site. He pulled out his phone and checked the connection to the cameras.
No one was sneaking up on them in the night.
He walked back toward the tent. Jenna was sitting on a log and had a jacket on now. She was opening their food.
“We can’t make a fire, but we can use the small propane heater from my backpack,” he said.
“Dinner is not going to be up to Velma’s standards.”
Park sat beside her. “It’ll still be better than what I ate most days in the military.”
Jenna heated up the food, and passed him a bowl filled with pasta.
He took a mouthful. “Definitely better.”
She ate some of her own dinner. She looked lost in thought.
“You all right?” he asked.
She sighed. “So much death. For what? My marshals were good men, with families. Now, they’re gone. The Hoskins were innocent. What is so broken in Kyle Olson for him to want to do this?”
“Killing gives him a thrill, some sort of sick pleasure. Maybe he can’t feel anything else.” Park paused. “I was good at killing. When I left Ghost Ops… I wondered if I was broken.”
“You’re nothing like Kyle Olson, Park.”
“For so long, what I did felt right, I had a purpose. I felt I was helping in a way that only I could. I was fighting so others didn’t have to. Then after my torture, when I woke up in the hospital…” He touched the scars on his neck. “After that, everything felt wrong. I was alive, and other good men and women weren’t. I had nightmares and didn’t want anyone to touch me. I was numb and I wanted to stay that way.”
“It’s not your fault. What you went through, losing your friends. The blame is on the insurgents who killed them.” She reached over and touched his neck, her fingers gentle on his scars. “The men who hurt you.”
“The guilt. It’s so huge sometimes. Those guys were so young, so innocent, in a way. They joined the Army to pay for college, to belong, to have an adventure. It ended in blood.”
She took his hand and squeezed.
“You were right. Coming to Alaska…I was running. Vander warned me.” Park turned her hand over, entwining their fingers. “Watching you struggle with the guilt over your marshals, grieving for the Hoskins, I guess it made me realize that what I felt was normal. That eventually, I’ll work through the guilt and everything else. I couldn’t change what happened to my fellow soldiers, couldn’t change what happened to me.”
“You need to remember them, Park, but you also need to remember that life goes on.” Her thumb brushed over his wrist. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
His chest felt tight. It still hurt to talk about it, but the words welled up inside him.
“Leo was a real character. Always making jokes. Roger was quiet and huge. He had to duck every time he entered a room. And Mitch was the serious, studious one. He liked to game. Kristy was tough as nails and kept the others in line. You’d have liked her.”
“Sounds like my kind of person.”
“I was only supposed to be attached to their regiment for a few weeks. They called me the boogeyman.” He went silent, staring into the darkness. “They accepted me, even though I’m not the most talkative person.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
He tugged on the end of her braid. “We went looking for a Taliban leader. He was high up the food chain, and we got word that he was hiding in a certain village. I was scouting the outskirts, while the others went in.” He swallowed. He could almost feel the hot Afghan sun on his skin again. “It should have been a simple mission. Instead, I found a boy hiding in a field. His family was hiding close by, as well. I gave him some chocolate, and he told me that bad men had come to the village, and planted a bomb for the Americans.” The air shuddered out of him. “I ran. They were walking into a trap. I couldn’t raise them on the comms, and I knew the Taliban were jamming our signal.”
Her hand tightened on his. “You ran back into a bomb zone.”
“I had to try and save them.”
She squeezed his hand. “Of course you did.”
“I was getting close to the center of the village. It was eerily quiet. I saw the others on the other side the square, about to breach a building. I yelled. They looked up… And the bomb went off.”
“I’m so sorry, Park.”
“I came to with my ears ringing. I was hurt and couldn’t move.” He’d been hit by hot shrapnel and the pain had been bad. “There were just…body parts around me.”
“Park.” She pushed into his arms. “You have to remember them as they were. Not like that.”
“I try.” He held her tight. “Then the Taliban came. They were gloating about the kills, then they took me prisoner.”
“I’m sorry.”
“They kept me in a cell for twenty-two days.”
She leaned into him.
He breathed in her scent to stay grounded. To stay in the present and not the past. “Twenty-two days of hell. I figured no one was coming. That I’d die there.”
“But you survived.”
“I almost didn’t. They beat me daily.”
She met his gaze. “Tell me.”
“No. It…” These were the dark demons he’d been hiding from everyone. He hadn’t told a soul.
“I’m strong enough to help you shoulder this. Let it out, Park. Don’t let it haunt you.”
A shudder ran through him. “They kept the lights on. I couldn’t sleep. Sometimes, they hung me upside down when they beat the shit out of me. They cut me, burned me with acid. They’d put a plastic bag over my head and take me to the brink of death.”
She didn’t say a word, just held him tight. He focused on her warm body against his.
“I’d given up. I thought I’d die there. They wanted intel and I wouldn’t give it to them. I was in agony, my wounds were infected…then my Ghost Ops team came.”
He only had flashes of his rescue. He’d been too far out of it by then.
“Vander had rattled cages Stateside and got permission for my team to track me down.”
“I’m guessing a man like Vander Norcross never leaves a man behind,” she said.
“No, he doesn’t. I woke up in a hospital in Germany and…I was broken. A nurse touched my arm, and I lost it. I knew I couldn’t go back.”
“You’re not broken, Park. You know they didn’t break you.” She cupped his cheek. “They left their scars, sure, but I’ve seen your grit and determination. You’re alive and breathing, and I’m guessing they aren’t.”
“No, my team took them out. But Leo and the others didn’t come home.”
She nodded. “I understand. I saw my marshals in the morgue in Fairbanks. But I try to remember them before. Calt was always making terrible dad jokes. Lopez loved football, tacos, and his grandkids.” She smiled. “He’d always added that he’d never share exactly what order he’d rank them in.”
Park cupped her face and kissed her. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For listening. For understanding. For not asking a million questions.”
“You just need time, Park. That’s all. I guess Alaska’s giving you that.”
No, he was starting to think what he’d needed was Jenna Sheridan.
And that thought scared the hell out of him.