“Is that nice young man your boyfriend?”
Then again, maybe it wouldn’t be bad to have a reason for people to assume they sought out time to be together. Brandt had already figured as much, and their blushing faces had likely done little to change his assumption.
Ellie just smiled, not confirming or denying.
“Oh, that’s so sweet! Love and dog mushing.” The woman smiled. “That’s why we’re on this trip. We were looking for something to do for our anniversary, and I said to Todd, what could be more romantic?”
“I hope you have a fantastic time,” Ellie told her genuinely. “Let’s introduce you to the dogs, shall we?” As Ellie started prepping the droplines, guilt started settling over her. She hadn’t considered the fact that their undercover investigation could endanger people, that the three innocent clients could become casualties of their need for justice. Not to mention whichever of the guides or workers on this trip could be innocent...
“Are you okay?”
Ellie hadn’t realized she’d stopped walking until Darci asked her that. She shook her head, cleared her throat. Attempted a smile. “Fine, I’m fine.” Her gaze went to Seth, who had come outside and was standing on the other side of the dog truck, but within view.
“You miss your honey, huh?” Darci grinned conspiratorially. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you still get plenty of time to see him this weekend.”
This time Ellie’s smile was more genuine. She appreciated having an ally, even if Darci didn’t know exactly how much she was helping. And there was still her oppressive level of guilt to contend with.
But for right now, the best cure for the load of it she’d been carrying for years was just to solve this, finish it. And then move on.
Whatever that meant.
“This is Cipher.” Ellie started with her favorite, a gorgeous girl whose coat was varying shades of brown. “And this is Spruce...” She continued through the list, introducing all twelve dogs that Seth was letting her use. Goofy. Willow. Marvel. Hawk. Bagel. Viking. Puzzle. Donut. Bacon. Captain.
She’d laughed at the names when he’d first told her, but he’d explained to her how sled-dog naming worked, that mushers usually did the whole litter at once, and they had to get creative. So then there were dogs like Bacon, who had once been part of a litter with names of breakfast foods.
Still, Darci chuckled when she heard the names, too. “I love them.”
“Let’s start hooking up.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie could see that everyone else was in a flurry of activity, too. Seth was hooking up his dogs, as was Wade, and the Raven Pass Expeditions staff was bringing out the tag sleds. Even with as little as she knew about mushing, she could tell that those sleds were expensive and well made. This was a company that prided themselves on the quality of its trips, for sure.
Would Brandt endanger the company he’d built by running drugs? Not unless smuggling was far more profitable; nothing in the way the business ran seemed to say front for drug running. If it was, why spend so much money on gear? And on personnel? The amount they were paying her and Seth just for a weekend would add a nice chunk to her savings account, which was good since she’d had to take a short leave of absence from her job on the SAR team in order to be part of this investigation.
Nothing appeared to add up, but wasn’t life confusing sometimes? The facts seemed to argue with her and with each other, twisting into a convoluted mess.
Ellie felt uneasy. She almost felt like she needed to forget everything she knew so far and keep an open mind. See how she felt.
But that went against so much of the training she’d had. She’d been taught to gather evidence, prepare a solid case. In this particular situation, there hadn’t been a lot of evidence to gather. The main crime had been committed three years ago. The perpetrators hadn’t gotten away with it for lack of police investigating. They’d tried to discover who’d been responsible for Liz’s death. That made Ellie think she did need to trust her gut here, be open to what they could find without a rock-solid strategy. But she was used to her strengths. Her training. And without that?
What did she have except a possibly hopeless desire for justice and her deep and overwhelming fear that she and Seth would be next?
THIRTEEN
Hooking up had taken longer than usual, Seth thought to himself, having to tell Todd about everything he was doing. The man wasn’t incapable or anything, but he wasn’t quite as quick a learner as Ellie had been, so it had been more of an effort to teach him. Now they were all out on the trail, and Seth was able to relax. At least, it was the part of the run where he usually felt like he could breathe for a minute.
Today that wasn’t true. He appreciated how RPE had set up the whole excursion, down to the fact that their offices connected easily to the trail, and had appreciated their concern for safety. Attached to his sled handlebar was a high-tech tracker, similar to ones he’d used in races, but that also had a button on it that could supposedly alert local law enforcement with their location so they could bring help.
They’d thought of everything to keep their customers safe.
But did that mean they weren’t part of a drug-running scheme? Or just that they were good at multitasking?
If it was up to Seth, if all that happened recently was just the attack on him, he’d give up this entire plan and just live with the threat for the rest of his life. He didn’t want his sister’s killer to walk free, but he also didn’t want to sacrifice Ellie’s life in order to bring a criminal to justice, and the farther from civilization they got with a group of people he couldn’t trust, the more he was concerned that to continue was to do just that.
But it wasn’t his choice anymore. He’d let her get involved—had asked her to, because he knew he needed her help—and now it was too late to put a stop to any of this.
But that didn’t make him feel less worried about the situation.
“How are you doing back there?” he called over his shoulder to his tag-sledder when they were on a straightaway that let him take his attention off the trail for a minute.
“Great!” the man yelled back. Todd seemed like a nice enough guy. His wife, Ellie’s passenger, also seemed delighted.
When he thought of Ellie, he looked back up the trail. Wade had volunteered to be the first dog team for this part, and his bucket-list passenger had a competitive streak and liked the idea of being in the front. Seth had suggested Ellie go next, preferring the idea of her being in between two other mushers and away from the support crew, who rode behind them on snow machines. The crew was made up of Brandt, Halley, Peter and Jared, The Sandwich Shop–guy-turned-chef for this expedition.
When Seth had researched to find out how much clients paid for something like this and he’d seen the amount, his eyes had almost fallen out of his head, but now he understood. They had four support staff and three mushers. Seven people working full-time to provide an adventure to three clients.
Yeah, he saw now why they charged so much.
It seemed like they made a good living. So why would they feel the need to run drugs? Pure greed?
Seth turned his attention back to the dogs. There wasn’t a lot he could find out while they were running down the trail. Better to just try to enjoy the ride for now and make sure he paid close attention at dinner tonight. The times when they weren’t mushing would probably yield the most information for the investigation.
An hour or so later they came to an open area, a treeless part of a pass essentially, and he saw that Wade and Ellie were already stopped up ahead. He pulled his team alongside Wade. “Press on your brake as you say whoa,” he instructed Todd as he did the same. Like the others, they were arranged so that the musher’s sled was directly hooked to the team. The client’s sled was attached by a rope behind that sled so they got the feeling of dog mushing without being in full control of the team.
“Everything all right?” Seth asked Wade.
“Usually we stop here to give the dogs a snack. I realized they didn’t go over stopping points with us this time, probably too chaotic today, so I figured we should go ahead and halt.”
Seth nodded. Made sense to him. He instructed Todd on how to feed the dogs and then helped him, even as he kept half an eye on Ellie.
She was doing this like an old pro, and it made him smile to see how well she was able to look and act the part of a musher.
The dogs finished eating, and Seth was about to ask Wade if he thought they should wait for the support crew when he heard a buzzing behind them, like angry bees. That was always what the obnoxious noise of a snow machine made him think of when it shattered the quiet that was so easily enjoyed on the back of a dog sled.
“Sorry about that,” Brandt said once all the machines had pulled in. “Peter had a family emergency and had to go back. It’ll just be us.” He motioned to Halley and Jared, each on their own machines and pulling a sled behind them loaded down with gear, but Jared seemed to have the most. Seth could see something sticking out of his sled that looked like the makings of a fancy kitchen. He half wondered if he had a kitchen sink in that sled.
“I hope Peter is okay.” Ellie sounded concerned, and Seth wished he knew it was just because she was a kind person and worried about whatever emergency the other man was having, or if Ellie was scared about something else.
Not being able to talk to her anytime he wanted was something he wasn’t used to yet, and honestly didn’t want to get used to. He’d never expected to have her back in his life, and here she was and now he didn’t want that to change.
Ever.
“He’ll be all right. We will just have less staff on this trip, which means more food for you guys.” He flashed a smile at the clients, always working, always trying to shape good outdoor experiences, as one of the brochures Seth had flipped through had said. “We have quite the plans for food this weekend, right, Jared?”
“Not to flatter myself, but it’s going to be amazing.” He spoke with the passion of a foodie, Seth noted. He only hoped the guy’s plans for good grub involved actual food. He wasn’t into fancy.
“Let’s keep going,” Brandt said to Wade, the de facto mushing leader.
“All right.” His dogs took off at the command. Ellie followed and then Seth.
They mushed as the day turned to dark, and Seth clicked his headlamp on, hoping Ellie had done the same. He’d made sure she’d packed it in her sled bag, in a place where it was easily accessible, but still, he worried not being close enough to see her.
This distance between them wasn’t working. At the moment they were all too spread out. His passenger was heavier than hers, and if she wasn’t riding the drag mat some, slowing her team’s speed down, she was going to stay too far ahead of them. He’d talk to her tonight, ask her to hold back a little so they stayed more in a group. That was better for a trip like this, anyway. And they all had SAT phones in case of emergencies.
After another hour or so, he saw lights in the distance, and as he approached he could see that an entire camp had already been set up. The support team was there already, so they must have taken a short cut trail to meet them. It was impressive seeing lights already strung on several trees like they were at some kind of fancy resort, and the smell of whatever Jared was cooking was good enough to make his stomach growl immediately.
“How was your trip?” Halley asked Seth as he pulled in.
“Good.” He nodded at her, then looked away to set his snow hook.
“No problems?”
“No. Should we have had some?”
“It looks like your...” Halley trailed off, widening her eyes in an unspoken question.She almost seemed to be waiting for him to clarify their relationship. “Your girlfriend had some trouble finding the trail. So we weren’t sure if you’d take the wrong way or not.”
“No one called,” he said as he slipped the SAT phone out of his pocket and checked it. “Nope.”
“How long was she lost?” he asked. Halley’s expression fell a little. So yeah, he might not have been imagining the slight interest in her eyes. Better that she know now that he wasn’t available, though. Even if Ellie wasn’t going to let him back into her life, he wasn’t emotionally open to exploring another relationship right now.
“We just talked to her on the phone, and she’s almost here,” Halley said.
“Who was lost?” Todd’s voice behind him held an edge of anxiety, and for the first time Seth remembered that it was his wife riding on Ellie’s tag sled. And this was a very swanky, very expensive trip. He wouldn’t have this job if he wasn’t careful to play by the rules, and that included not making clients panic.
Fortunately, Halley was used to dealing with incidents like this, or seemed to be. She moved smoothly to where Todd was climbing off the tag sled. “Your wife’s guide took a wrong turn, but they are fine. They called a minute ago and are almost here. About a mile out.”
Todd started to pace. “I shouldn’t have said yes to this crazy plan. Darci’s always wanting more adventure, and I should have put my foot down...”
“Todd, they’re both fine.” Seth worked to keep his tone even despite the pounding in his chest. His heart was thudding double-maybe triple-time. He wasn’t buying the took a wrong turn until he had a chance to talk to Ellie and confirm. It wasn’t okay that they’d disappeared. And it wasn’t okay that the mushers hadn’t all been given detailed directions. Even though there were trail markers every so often for them to follow, it was easy for those to fall. Or for an inexperienced musher like Ellie to miss one if the snow had drifted over it. At the very least they should have had trail maps, but they hadn’t been given those, either. He’d talk to Brandt before they went out in the morning and make sure all of them had what they needed tomorrow. But right now, in order to keep this job and keep their cover, he needed to stay relaxed.
“I just don’t—”
“Want to help me with the dogs? We need to unhook the line that connects them to the tugline, but leave the neckline on.”
“Okay. Sure. We’ll do that and then they should be back, right? How long does a mile take?”
When you were waiting for someone you loved? Hours. Years.
“It should only take them a short time. Even if the dogs are tired, ten minutes would be a slow mile for them.”
Todd nodded, and his face seemed to relax. Halley walked back to the support staff, seeming to be content with how he was handling the situation.
They got to work undoing one of the clips, and as he’d expected, by the time they were almost done there was a swoosh of runners, and there was Ellie.
She was okay, he saw from a quick assessment. Everything looked fine, dogs were fine, no evidence of the sled being broken. She was standing tall on the runners, but her jaw was tight. She looked...
Angry?
“I’ve got to go see my wife.” Todd flashed him an apologetic look as he hurried away.
He didn’t mind; it went faster when it was just him working, anyway. He worked his way through the dogs, rubbing them to check for muscle soreness. They all seemed happy.
Finally he started to walk toward Ellie, who was still standing on the sled. Her passenger had abandoned her and was sitting by the fire with her husband. The support staff was handing them food and probably planning to smooth over this incident to make sure the couple was still happy and having a good trip.
All Seth wanted to know was if Ellie was okay.
And what had really happened out there in the woods. Seth had tried to fool himself into thinking that he could protect her, even when they were mushing separately, but this proved that had been wishful thinking. Had someone sabotaged her? Caused her to lose the trail on purpose? The thought made his chest hurt, but he reminded himself that she was
here, she was okay. He hadn’t lost her.
Yet.
* * *
Ellie was still shaking too hard to be able to do anything with her dogs that required fine motor skills. Whether she trembled from fear or anger she wasn’t sure, but one emotion was threatening to overwhelm her.
Maybe both of them.
They’d been following Wade closely, as Ellie wasn’t completely confident in her trail-finding abilities. Brandt was right that the trail was visible in most places, but in some the wind had blown the snow in such a way that it was hard to distinguish the trail from open field. She should have insisted on a map, but after Brandt had brushed Seth off, she hadn’t wanted to push. And everything had gone fine for a while. She and Darci had been having a good run. Ellie had felt better on her own, without Seth, than she’d anticipated, as far as her skills with the dogs, but maybe she’d gotten too cocky.
Or maybe she’d been too focused on the job and hadn’t remembered to be suspicious enough. They were here, doing this, because they were in danger. She’d let her guard down.
She’d taken a wrong turn after Wade had disappeared from sight because the false trail had been looking more recently taken than the new trail. She’d had her headlamp on, and while she didn’t see Wade ahead, she knew he must not be too far because her team seemed to be maintaining a good pace.
The trail kept narrowing the farther they went. Ellie started to realize something wasn’t right.
And that was when she’d started to feel watched. Chills had run up her arms, her spine. She’d have yelled for help but who would have heard? Instead she felt almost paralyzed, fear pressing in on her.
“Is everything all right?” Darci had asked when Ellie put her feet on the drag mat to slow them down, then took both feet off and encouraged the dogs verbally go to faster, while she kept checking in the woods.
Alaska Secrets Page 14
