Chapter 18
Hannah
Another peal of laughter floats around the side of the house. I close my eyes.
Well. This is happening. Hiding behind the house isn’t exactly a long-term strategy.
I step off the deck and make my way around the side of the lodge.
A pickup truck sits in the driveway with its tailgate down. A huge, dark-haired man is unloading two large suitcases while a much smaller woman digs through a canvas tote beside the open passenger door.
“I know I packed them,” she says.
“You’ve been saying that for five minutes.”
“Because I know I did.”
She emerges triumphantly with a paper bag. “Found them.”
Gunnar glances over. “Thank the heavens.”
“You thought I’d leave handmade olive oil behind?”
“You bought three bottles.”
“Four.”
“Alex...”
She grins.
I round the corner, and they both look over.
I have absolutely no idea what to say.
“Well...” Torin’s voice carries across the driveway, and relief floods through me as he comes around the front of the lodge. “Looks like you made it home.”
Gunnar’s face breaks into a grin. “Tor.”
Then he takes in Torin’s battered face.
“Jesus. What happened to you?”
“Tell you later.”
Gunnar pulls him into a fierce embrace, and Torin hugs him back just as hard.
“Good to see you, brother.”
Alexandria comes over smiling. “We missed you.”
She hugs Torin as soon as Gunnar lets him go.
“Missed you too.”
“You weren’t meant to be home yet.”
“We got impatient.”
“Alex got impatient,” Gunnar says.
“I’ll take the blame.”
Watching them, I get the strange feeling I’m intruding. They’re so completely at ease with one another.
Then Gunnar turns his attention to me.
“Tor... You gonna introduce us?”
Torin turns. “This is Hannah. Hannah, my little brother, Gunnar.”
Gunnar gives me an easy smile. “Nice to meet you.”
“And this is Alexandria.”
She steps forward and offers her hand. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
I stare at it for half a second before remembering what people normally do when introduced to someone. “Hannah.”
“We’ve heard absolutely nothing about you,” she says brightly.
“That’s because I only met her three days ago.”
Alexandria laughs. “Well, that explains that.”
She looks between us, clearly curious, but doesn’t ask.
Instead, she reaches for one of the bags in the truck. “Come on. Let’s get all this inside.”
Gunnar picks up one suitcase, and Torin reaches for the other.
“Leave it,” Gunnar says.
“I’m fine.”
“You look like hell.”
“I’m fine.”
“Sure you are.”
Torin reaches for the suitcase anyway, but Gunnar gets there first.
“Pain in the ass.”
“Missed you too.”
Alexandria is already heading towards the porch with her bag. “Are you two coming?”
Gunnar hefts the suitcase and follows her.
Inside, Alexandria carries her bag straight into the kitchen while Gunnar disappears down the hallway with the suitcase.
A moment later, Orson appears. His whole face lights up. “You’re back!”
He strides straight past me and throws his arms around Gunnar.
Gunnar laughs and hugs him back. “Missed me?”
“No.” Orson releases him. “Maybe a bit.”
Then he pulls Alexandria into a hug.
“How was Greece?” he asks.
“Hot,” Alexandria says. “Beautiful. Full of tourists.”
“Almost got arrested,” Gunnar adds.
“I did not.”
“You argued with a police officer.”
“I corrected a police officer.”
Gunnar smiles. “See?”
They head into the kitchen still debating it, and I follow.
Gunnar opens a cupboard. “You ate all my jerky?”
Orson looks offended. “I left you some.”
“One strip.”
“Exactly.”
Gunnar shakes his head, but he’s smiling.
Alexandria opens the refrigerator. “You boys eaten any vegetables since I’ve been gone?”
“Had potatoes,” Orson says.
“Potatoes don’t count.”
“Not meat, are they?”
“They’re not anything when they’re deep-fried.”
Torin switches on the coffee machine. Gunnar reaches for the mugs while Alexandria fills the kettle.
I linger near the doorway, watching them fall back into their old routine.
“Is it a one or a two-sugar day?” Torin asks.
“Oh, two, definitely.”
I move closer as he measures two sugars into a mug, adds milk and slides it across the counter to me.
“Thanks.”
“Welcome.”
Alexandria turns to me. “So. You met three days ago.”
“Yeah.”
“And now you’re staying here.”
“It’s kind of a long story.”
“The best ones usually are,” Gunnar says.
“Don’t make her feel interrogated,” Alexandria tells him.
“I asked nothing.”
“You were about to.”
“I was listening.”
“With your interrogation face.”
“I don’t have an interrogation face.”
All three brothers look at him.
Despite myself, I smile.
“I crashed my truck up in the mountains,” I say.
“You crashed?” Alexandria asks.
“There was a bear in the road.”
“That was me,” Orson says.
Gunnar looks appalled. “You crashed because of Orson?”
“A gigantic bear ran into the road in the middle of the night. I panicked.”
“I was running,” Orson says, as though that helps.
“Across the road?”
“In front of my truck.”
Orson considers this. “Probably could’ve timed that better.”
Alexandria tries not to laugh.
“Then Tor rescued you?” Gunnar asks.
“He took me to a cabin nearby.”
“And somehow,” Alexandria says, clearly enjoying this, “you ended up here.”
“Things got complicated,” Torin says.
That kills the laughter.
“What kind of complicated?” Alexandria asks.
I take a drink of coffee.
“My father was trying to force me to mate someone. So, I ran.”
Alexandria stares at me. “Your father?”
“Yeah.”
“Does he know where you are?”
“No. But he’s looking for me.”
“And the man?”
“It’s Cade,” Orson says.
I turn to him. “…Thanks.”
“It’s true.”
Gunnar frowns. “Who’s Cade?”
“Branson’s son,” Torin says.
Gunnar goes still. “Branson’s son?”
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“I was careful,” Torin says.
Gunnar’s expression changes. “Tell me.”
Torin rubs the back of his neck. “I drove over first thing yesterday morning. Figured I’d have a word with him.”
“I wanted to hear what he had to say for himself. Didn’t exactly go to plan.”
“What happened?” Gunnar asks.
“He recognized me right away. Started mouthing off. Told me Hannah belonged to him.”
My stomach tightens.
“Then he challenged me.”
“As a man?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“He lost.”
“Then?”
“Then he shifted.”
Gunnar’s expression changes. “And?”
“We fought.”
“And you killed him.”
“Yeah.”
A brief silence.
“Anyone see you?”
“No. I left my phone here, parked well outside their territory and went in through the woods. Cade was alone. I got him to chase me deeper into the forest.”
“What did you do with the body?”
“Dropped him down a ravine.”
Gunnar lets out a breath. “Where?”
“Far from their territory.”
“Anyone likely to find him?”
“Eventually.”
“And if they do?”
“They’ll know he lost a fight.”
“Doesn’t mean they won’t start asking who with.”
“I know.”
“Branson’s going to tear the mountain apart looking for him.”
“Probably.”
“And if he finds anything that leads back here—”
“He won’t.”
Gunnar considers that, then nods.
I wait for someone to tell Torin he was out of his mind. To ask whether killing Cade was really necessary.
Nobody does.
They’re not pretending it didn’t happen. They’re not celebrating it either. They’ve simply accepted it, as though Cade crossed a line, and this was what happened afterward.
Alexandria reaches for the coffee pot. “Anyone want another?”
Gunnar holds out his mug. Orson does the same.
I stare at them.
They’re having more coffee.
Torin killed someone yesterday, they’ve spent five minutes discussing where he dumped the body, and now they’re having more coffee.
Alexandria looks at me. “Hannah?”
“Sorry?”
“Coffee?”
“Oh. No, thanks.”
She fills Gunnar’s mug.
I look at Torin.
The bruising around his eye is darker in the daylight. There’s a cut across his cheekbone, and I know what the rest of him looks like beneath his T-shirt.
“You could’ve been killed.”
Torin looks up.
“You went out there alone.”
“I knew what I was doing.”
“That doesn’t mean you knew you’d come back.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “No.”
My stomach tightens.
“Because of me.”
“Because of Cade.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No.” His voice is quiet. “That was my choice, Hannah.”
I open my mouth, but Orson is already asking Gunnar something about Greece, and the conversation starts up around us again.
I can’t.
Torin is sitting there, battered but alive, while everyone else has already moved on.
Alexandria catches me staring at him. She gives me a sympathetic smile and rolls her eyes. “Bears.” She lays her hand over mine. “You’ll get used to it.”
Will I?
The conversation carries on, but all I can think is, if anything had gone differently yesterday, Torin wouldn’t be sitting across from me.
His chair would be empty.
The thought frightens me more than I can say.