Chapter 6 #2
Mary stood slightly behind the man, but facing Nick.
“Ed, this is Nick, my...boyfriend.” She gave Nick a pointed stare.
When Ed shot a narrow-eyed glance down at her, she smiled up at him.
“Ed and I dated back in high school, didn’t we Ed?
But that was ages ago.” Mary sidled up to Nick and tucked her arm in his.
“You aren’t going to get jealous, are you?
” She batted her eyes at Nick and squeezed his arm hard.
His body hardened in response to Mary pressing against him. “Maybe.” Nick studied Ed. The man looked none too pleased to meet him and Nick felt likewise, a sensation he wasn’t familiar with on a first meeting with a complete stranger.
“Chris said you were back in town.” Ed’s gaze moved from Mary to run the length of Nick. “But I thought you were alone.”
“Nope. I brought Nick.” She smiled at Ed. “I promised Nick I’d take him on a snowmobile ride around the area. I don’t suppose you have a couple we could rent, do you?”
Ed wiped his hands on a greasy rag. “I don’t rent snowmobiles. I fix them.”
“Then do you have a couple we could borrow?” Mary looked up at Ed. “Please?”
Nick could have laughed at Ed the way Mary’s blue-eyed gaze melted his anger so easily. Then again, Nick was ready to give her just about anything if she’d look at him with that much pleading in her eyes. Damned female.
Ed looked from Mary to Nick and back to Mary before answering, “Oh, all right. You can take mine. It’s a two-seater that I’ve refurbished. It’ll do.” Ed led the way into the shop. “Did you hear the explosion a while ago? I heard from Millie at the convenience store that Reuben Tyler’s place blew.”
Mary ducked her head. “Yeah. He’s on his way to the hospital in Fairbanks.”
“Probably a busted gas line.” Ed collected a set of keys from a hook on the wall in the office inside.
Piles of paper littered the desk, and dark handprints coated the walls and doorframes.
“Been thinking about converting to electric heat, myself. What with the price of propane and all. Might be worth checkin’ into.
Gas can be dangerous.” Ed walked through the shop to the back door.
“When do you need it back?” Mary asked.
“No hurry. I ain’t goin’ for no joyride in this weather.
” He motioned toward the thick clouds dumping snowflakes like so much confetti at a Thanksgiving Day parade in the city.
He slogged through the dirty snow in back of the shop and brushed the loose white powder from a vinyl snowmobile seat.
“You know how to run one of these?” Ed pushed the key in the ignition, his gaze raking Nick as if questioning his manhood.
“Yeah.” To prove it, Nick climbed on the seat, flicked the key and pressed the start switch. The engine chugged and died. On his second attempt, the engine roared to life.
“Hmph. Just don’t stop in a snowdrift.” Ed turned his attention to Mary and spoke in a lower tone. “What say you ditch this guy and go out with me, Mary? We can pick up where we left off in high school.”
Nick caught the gist of what Ed was saying, and despite himself he strained to hear Mary’s answer.
“Ed, I appreciate the loan of the snowmobile, but I can’t go out with you. I’m with Nick now.”
Nick caught Mary’s smile and returned it as if he couldn’t hear a word they were saying.
Ed glared at Nick. “That could change.”
Mary touched the other man’s arm and smiled gently. “I like you, Ed, but I’m not interested in dating you.”
Nick grinned and waved. “Thanks, Ed. The engine sounds good. Mary and I will have it back to you before dark.” He raised his brows. “You ready, darlin’?” he said in his best southern drawl.
Her cheeks bloomed with color. “Yes, I am.” She climbed on the back of the machine and wrapped her arms around his waist. “See you later, Ed.”
When Nick took off, the surge of the machine forced Mary to squeeze her arms tighter around his waist. A gloved hand covered hers for a brief, reassuring moment.
Mary directed him west, heading out of town toward the Tanana River, parts of which were frozen over by a month of freezing temperatures.
The machine raced down streets until the roads turned to paths through the trees.
How long had it been since Mary had been out to Moose Lodge?
Would she be able to get them there safely?
As the trails wound through valleys and over hills, across frozen creeks and farther out into the wilds, Mary wondered if she was headed in the right direction. Her most recent memory of Moose Lodge was from a fishing trip with her father during the summer seven years ago.
Snow blurred the terrain, limiting visibility to less than ten feet in front of them. Nick slowed the machine to keep from ramming into a tree or boulder submerged beneath the fluffy white blanket.
Perched on the back, her arms clutched around a stranger, Mary questioned her sanity.
What was she thinking heading out into the wilderness at the mercy of a man she’d known less than twenty-four hours?
Was she so concerned about her father she’d failed to consider her own safety?
Her arms tightened and Nick’s hand covered hers as if reassuring her that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
That little bit of reassurance went a long way.
If Nick was going to hurt her, he’d had plenty of opportunities before now to do so.
Deep down, Mary believed that he was there to help.
Which left her on the backseat of a snowmobile, her legs wrapped around a man she’d seen nearly naked only last night.
The image of him in nothing but a towel surfaced and the juncture of her thighs ached, rubbing against his backside.
Though her hands and feet were freezing, a fire deep inside warmed her body. Just what I need. To fall for another transient. A man who has no intention of sticking around, another man I know nothing about.
Mary shook her head. No way. Hadn’t she had her heart broken already? Wasn’t once enough?
Still the solid feel of Nick in front of her, the breadth of his shoulders shielding her from the worst of the snow pelting her face and eyes, was downright sexy. Her cheeks flushed with heat about the time Nick slowed at a fork in the road.
“What do you want to do?” he yelled.
Wrong question. She wanted to take him to bed and explore what she hadn’t seen beneath the towel the night before. “Wh-what?”
“Which way?”
“Oh.” Her face burned hotter.
Nick swiveled in the seat to stare at her. “Are you all right?”
No. She wasn’t all right, she was falling in lust with him and she couldn’t stop herself, like being swept over the edge of a cliff.
Damn, she was going to crash and burn all over again.
“Yes, yes, of course.” She nodded to the left.
“Take the left fork.” And please quit staring at me with those brown-black eyes that could melt my resolve to stay clear of men like you.
After what felt like an eternity, probably only a second or two, Nick returned his attention to the trail and sped forward along the route she’d indicated.
Mary lifted her face to the wind, the icy air chilling the fire in her cheeks. Did the man have this effect on all women? Or just this one? Mary wasn’t sure what answer she preferred.
Nick hit the brakes and the snowmobile skidded sideways on the crusty snow beneath the fresh layer, before coming to a halt. If she hadn’t been holding on so tightly, she’d have ended up flying into a tree. With a quick flick of his wrist, Nick turned the key, cutting the engine.
“What the heck?” Mary swiveled around to stare at the trail ahead. Barely masked under the thin layer of new-fallen snow were tracks left by another snowmobile.
“Shh!” Nick leaped from the machine, grabbed Mary’s arm and yanked her off.
He tugged her through three feet of snow and shoved her into a drift behind a large spruce tree.
She fell face-first into the snow. The more she struggled, the deeper she went.
After several clumsy seconds, Mary struggled her way out of the drift and brushed off the snow clinging to her eyelashes.
She fought her first inclination to shove Nick for slinging her around like a rag doll.
Nick crouched beside the tree, his hands holding a pistol, aimed at the trail in front of him.
Forget shoving him. Mary’s heart slammed against her rib cage. The man had brought his gun. Why hadn’t she noticed it? Wouldn’t she have felt it beneath his jacket? Was he going to shoot her father? She took a steadying breath and asked in what she hoped was a calm voice, “What’s wrong?”
“Fresh tracks beneath the new snow.” He nodded toward the trail. The tracks appeared to lead in from another direction, converging several yards ahead of them. “How much farther to the lodge?”
Mary studied the trail, the creek running alongside and through the trees.
“Should be just around that hill ahead.” Despite her best effort, her voice shook.
“You aren’t going to hurt my father, are you?
Tell me again you’re not one of the bad guys.
” Her words faded away when Nick turned toward her, a frown making him look even fiercer, more deadly with the gun in his hand.
“Now wouldn’t be the time to ask.”
Mary inhaled sharply, all the blood rushing from her head.
Nick shook his head. “Calm down. I told you, I’m here to help your father. Now, will you shut up and let me do my job?”
She let go of the breath she held and sagged with relief. “Why didn’t you tell me you brought your gun?”
“It didn’t come up.” His attention focused on the woods around and ahead of them. After a long moment, he stood. “Stay here.”
Hugging the side of the hill and staying in the dark shadows of the trees, Nick moved forward like a thief on the prowl, his footsteps muffled by thick snow.
Mary huddled next to the spruce for all of a minute before concern for Nick and her father drove her out of hiding to follow in Nick’s footprints. Only for her it was more wading through the heavy snow than stepping.
What if something had happened to her father? What if whoever had set off the explosion at Reuben’s had a similar fate awaiting Nick or her father at the lodge?
Nick rounded the edge of the hill and disappeared, leaving Mary alone in the near dark, the cold seeping through her jacket like the hand of death.
She shivered and stumbled, breaking her fall by grabbing a low-hanging tree branch.
Snow shook off and plopped onto her head.
She brushed it from her face and stared ahead.
Losing sight of Nick made the wilderness seem even more vast, unyielding and treacherous. Every snap of a twig, every rustle of dried leaves made her jump until she found herself running, slogging through the snow to catch up with the man and his gun.
Nestled in a stand of trees, a faint trickle of smoke rising from the stone chimney, stood a ramshackle one-room shack her father had affectionately named Moose Lodge.
Could her father be there? Where had Nick gone? Mary ran forward, desperate to find her father and stop the craziness. Abandoning the side of the hill for the path, she ran toward the cabin.
Before she had gone ten feet, something hit her from the side, then picked her up and tossed her into another huge snowbank. She fell on her back, the wind knocked from her, opening her eyes just as a large object landed on top of her.