Alaska Secrets

by Sarah Varland

  “Absolutely not.” Seth shook his head. “Like you said, if someone had meant to harm you yesterday when you took the wrong trail, they didn’t when they couldn’t tell the two of you apart. So probably they’re not willing to have any collateral damage.”

  Ellie nodded. It made sense. Still, she couldn’t help the gnawing anxiety of knowing she could be putting someone else in danger. But not investigating would be putting more people in harm’s way.

  “You’ll be okay,” he told her, and she hoped that he believed it, too.

  They ate breakfast with the rest of the support staff and the clients. No one mentioned last night’s incident, and Ellie noticed that the burnt shell of her tent was gone. Someone had moved snow over the area, and while a slight sticky burnt smell hung in the air, it was faint. No one who hadn’t been awake would notice it enough to ask what had happened.

  “Did you...clean up my things?” she asked Seth quietly, hoping that the way she’d phrased it was vague enough that if the clients overheard they wouldn’t know what she was specifically talking about.

  He shook his head, nodded toward Brandt.

  “You saw?”

  “Yeah.”

  She nodded. Naturally he wouldn’t want the tent there, as it would have scared the clients. Still, part of him was uncomfortable with the fact that he had removed the tent. She’d have liked to take it and examine it for any evidence they hadn’t seen the night before in the midst of all the chaos.

  Now they wouldn’t know. Unless they asked for the tent back.

  Seth was looking at her, and Ellie could almost feel him watching her internal debate. They’d talk about it later. It wasn’t as if Brandt could get rid of the tent out here in the wilderness, so chances were good they had a couple of days to figure out if they wanted to ask for it for evidence or not. It wasn’t worth asking for it now and arousing his suspicions. As far as he knew they were two dog mushers. There was no compelling reason for her to ask to have the tent back.

  Wade stood up and excused himself from breakfast to get his dogs ready, and Seth and Ellie both followed not long after. As they went to see about their separate teams, Seth squeezed her hand one more time, and Ellie reluctantly released her grip on his fingers and let her own hand drop to her side.

  “I’m not letting you out of my sight today. I’ll do my best to keep up with you. Just use your drag and slow down some if I drop out of sight. I won’t leave you on purpose,” he promised. “It’ll be okay.”

  Ellie nodded. She hoped it would be.

  Hooking up the dogs went well, and soon she and Darci were off mushing.

  Wade eventually mushed out of view, but when Ellie glanced over her shoulder, Seth was still there, following as he said he would be.

  Still, she didn’t relax, not today. Instead of just taking in the view, the way the trail had opened up in front of them in a clearing and the bright blue of the sky against the white snow on the mountains, she was looking in the distance at the trees and wondering what the woods could be hiding. And who could be hiding in them.

  The trail narrowed again. Ellie looked behind her. Seth was behind her, a little farther back, but close enough still. As she heard the buzzing of a snow machine, she tensed. She’d need to figure out where they could safely pass her. Though they were in a woodsier section of the trial right now, it opened up again soon, and it looked like the kind of area where several trails might connect at something like an informal crossroads.

  The buzzing whine of the engine grew louder. Ellie pressed her feet down on the brake. Slowed her speed some. Her heart fluttered in her chest, the stress overwhelming her. If only she could see where...

  There, ahead and to her right, was a snow machine—but coming straight toward her. As she’d thought, this was an area where multiple trails connected, but as Ellie looked around, she couldn’t see how he was going to safely get around her and her team. Slow down? Speed up?

  She took her feet off the drag and decided to speed up if they could. “Hike up,” she told the team, who responded with enthusiasm, but the snow machine kept coming.

  Ellie slammed her brake down, felt the tag sled behind her catch, which told her Darci had done the same.

  At first, she was afraid the machine was going to hit her team, and visions of injured dogs almost made her cry out, but the machine hit her sled instead and sent her flying off.

  As she hit the ground hard on her left side, Ellie tasted blood in her mouth. Had she bitten her lip? The buzzing was still close by. Leaving, or coming back to hit her again? Her side throbbed, but she had to ignore the pain. The danger hadn’t passed yet.

  She saw Seth’s dog team out of the corner of her eye, turned her head the other way to see that Darci still had their team stopped. That was a relief at least.

  Ellie’s temples slowly started to throb, as did her left leg, the one she had fallen on. Someone had hit her sled with a snow machine. Deliberately. Of course she’d seen nothing identifying on the driver, just a person bundled in layers of warm gear.

  “Ellie!” She heard running footsteps in the snow, kept blinking and trying to find the will to get up.

  “I think I’m okay.” She sat up, her head throbbing worse but not so badly that she couldn’t keep going. They’d get through this the same way they’d gotten through the incident last night. They were one step closer to figuring out who was behind all this, she reminded herself to try to make it better.

  A buzz of another snow machine in the distance made her start to shake, and her eyes widened.

  “Are they back?”

  Seth shook his head. “I called Brandt. They’re coming to check on us.”

  Ellie watched as three machines pulled up. None of them was obviously recognizable. They’d all come from the same place. Had one of them been used to run her down only minutes before? It had happened too fast, she hadn’t gotten any good visual identifiers of the snow machine or its driver. She’d been too busy trying to react appropriately and keep herself, Darci and the dogs safe. Brandt’s face was serious. “What happened?”

  Ellie felt vulnerable, for the second time in a short period of hours. She stood up, brushed the snow from her pants. And decided she was done pulling punches.

  “I think someone just tried to kill me with a snow machine.”

  * * *

  If Todd had been horrified when his wife had been late the night before, he was downright hysterical now, and Seth couldn’t blame him. He felt the same way, the same anguish, about Ellie being hurt.

  He’d watched the snow machine come toward her like it was in slow motion and had been stunned when it hadn’t veered off. He’d thought, at worst, it was a plan to intimidate her.

  And then the machine had hit, and she’d been thrown off. At least, it had collided with the sled. Seth didn’t know if that was an accidental miscalculation. It seemed like if someone wanted to kill her for sure, they’d hit her, instead of the sled.

  Unless, as they’d discussed, the person wanted to avoid collateral damage and didn’t want to risk injuring Darci.

  Someone who had a stake in the business and didn’t want to see it harmed because of this?

  Seth didn’t know.

  “Why would someone try to kill you?” Brandt finally asked. It seemed like he’d needed a minute to process Ellie’s words.

  Ellie looked at Seth. Seth shrugged. However much or little she wanted to tell them was up to her. At this point he thought he was done with the investigation. It was time to take her home, get her somewhere safe and, in the meantime, report to the troopers the things that had happened.

  He should text Hodges at the Anchorage Police Department and let him know he’d be calling him soon to update him. He’d forgotten his promise to keep his friend in the loop, or he’d have gotten a message out last night.

  “I didn’t get a chance to ask them
why. But they ran me down with a snow machine. Not unlike the ones the three of you are riding on,” Ellie said, face void of any emotion, shoulders squared. Rather than make her timid, this attack had made her ready to fight, and Seth wanted to kiss her for it. This was the Ellie she’d been before. Fiery and full of emotion.

  Brandt cleared his throat. “Let’s see. I think for this next stretch while we work this out, could we have the two of you ride on the snow machines? Just while we check out and address some safety concerns.” He addressed the words to both Todd and Darci, but Todd was the one to nod vigorously.

  “Halley, would you get them situated? Thank you. I’ll catch up.”

  In only a few minutes, Jared’s and Halley’s machines took off, each of them carrying a passenger that had been Seth’s and Ellie’s responsibility.

  She still looked ready for a fight, but not like she’d realized their undercover trip was over. Seth knew, he’d seen it in Brandt’s eyes as the other man considered a sort of quick cost/benefit analysis and risk assessment.

  “I think you need to report this to the police,” he told Ellie.

  “We discussed that we would after the trip,” she said, shoulders still back.

  “Your trip is over. I don’t know what you’ve gotten into or who is after you. But you are done here.”

  “Were all three of you together?” Ellie asked him. “Just now, did you see the other snow machines the entire trip?”

  “The entire trip. Now that’s enough, Miss Hamilton. The two of you have caused enough trouble on this trip and you’re fired.”

  Her shoulders fell. Seth expected her to argue, but she just nodded. Though he understood why Brandt made the decision, Seth still asked, “You’re going to fire us for her being in danger?” If only they’d had one more night around the fire to try to listen to conversations better, put more pieces together as far as what Brandt, Jared and Halley were like as people.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t have my clients put at risk.” His expression actually did seem to convey that he hated the decision he was being forced to make. But he seemed resolved about it. “This is the second incident, third if we consider the lost trail to have something to do with this. I don’t know who is after you, Ellie, but you need to get this settled.” He shook his head. “I regret that we can’t continue the trip as planned. You have what you need to get home?”

  They nodded.

  “Just untie the tag sleds and leave them here. I’ll handle those. You may keep the trackers until you get back if you’d like them for emergency purposes.”

  Ellie looked at him with questions in her eyes. Of course they wouldn’t want the trackers with them...if Brandt was behind the attacks on her.

  But since there was still a possibility Brandt could be behind this, they also didn’t want to alert him that anything was wrong with that idea by refusing right now.

  “Thank you,” Ellie said instead, and then looked at Seth. Her body ached from the attack and emotionally she was spent. They’d failed in their undercover investigation, might not be any closer to finding who had killed Liz and attacked them.

  But she couldn’t give up yet. Ellie took a deep breath, reached down deep for the fight she knew she still had left.

  They’d leave here with the trackers and then dump them somewhere so that whoever was threatening them couldn’t find them. Got it. He smiled and gave a slight nod so she’d know he got the message. He’d always been so good at knowing what she was thinking. That connection was still alive as ever.

  “I’m sorry to be losing you.” Brandt looked between them. “But I have to do what is best for my company and my clients.”

  “All right, you okay to mush back?” Seth turned to Ellie, seeing that Brandt had no intentions of leaving until he’d seen them head back in the direction from which they had come. No reason to waste time here, anyway. The sooner they got back and talked to the police departments, the better.

  She nodded. “I’m okay. You head out first, and I’ll follow.”

  The trail might not be as well marked on the way back so her decision was a wise one. He stopped when he’d gotten back on his sled runners, and before he pulled the snow hook out, he pulled his phone from his pocket and texted Hodges a quick update.

  Ellie in danger. Tent was set on fire, hit by snow machine while mushing. Turning back to Raven Pass now, will call sometime later.

  He had just put his hands on the handlebar when he received a reply. Location?

  Seth texted it out quickly. Eklutna Traverse. Not halfway. “Ready?” he asked the dogs and then pulled the snow hook. “All right.”

  And then took off again. He glanced back to see that Ellie was right behind him, was keeping much closer than he’d kept during their time earlier. Brandt was where they had left him, seemingly just watching them take off. Seth wondered how he was going to handle the rest of the trip, with only one musher to help three people have an adventure of a lifetime. Seth didn’t like letting people down, but it wasn’t possible to continue now. They’d been fired and left alone. Seth didn’t know if he felt safer now or if he was less safe.

  Whoever was behind all of this wasn’t watching their every move in person anymore, but with the trackers, it wouldn’t be difficult.

  He still wanted to dump those but had a spot in mind farther down the trail. The last thing he wanted to do was to get rid of them too soon and arouse anyone’s suspicions.

  Probably, he should have just let Brandt take them earlier. What did it matter now if the RPE CEO thought they were paranoid? Even if he wasn’t behind the attacks, he now knew they were happening. So nothing strange they did would have been without explanation.

  Seth kept mushing, feeling his head start to pound with the tension that stretched from his jawline all the way into his head.

  Nothing about this trip had gone the way he’d hoped. Except that he did feel like they were narrowing down a suspect list. No matter how much he tried to make Brandt fit, he did not think the CEO had been behind everything. Aaron being his nephew was too much of a coincidence to completely ignore, but just because Brandt was related to a criminal didn’t necessarily mean he was involved. There was still a chance Aaron was using the business in some way without his uncle’s permission, but Seth didn’t think Brandt was complicit.

  Peter was a logical choice, but maybe too much so. What kind of drug runner ran from his route, or whatever they called them, at the first sign of trouble? Wouldn’t that be drawing more attention to himself than just staying and finishing out the trip would have been?

  He turned back again to make sure Ellie was still behind him. Her face was lined with worry, and even from twenty or thirty feet away he could tell that she was still upset about the situation. Not only had she been hurt, but they’d lost the potential to find a lead this way. They hadn’t even had much time to investigate.

  Seth hated it, too. But the situation was what it was. They’d had an unlucky break.

  They could really use something in this case going their way about now. Seth wanted to forget all about attackers and murder and let himself relax in the knowledge that Ellie loved him, but he couldn’t. Not while there was still a threat against them. Against Ellie.

  The case was far from finished. And he needed to make sure they both stayed alive.

  SIXTEEN

  They’d only been mushing back toward Raven Pass for about an hour by the time it started to snow. “I need a break,” Ellie called ahead to Seth, who apparently heard her immediately. He put his feet on the drag, then the brake, and slowed his team, coming to a stop in a lovely section of woods.

  “Thanks. I had planned to feed them about now.” Ellie wanted to stick to her plan, because first of all, she liked plans, and second of all, it seemed right to do so when she’d been so proud of herself for putting together a strategy for how to take her runs and rests as one of
the guides this weekend.

  “Sure, fine with me,” Seth said, giving her a tired smile. He looked exhausted. She felt the same way inside, worn through. Beaten down. The snow machine had rattled her in a way the other attacks hadn’t, and if Ellie thought about it for too long, she feared she might crumble. That wasn’t an option, so instead she pushed the feelings away, tried to stay focused.

  “Listen...” She trailed off when he came closer to her. “When we get back...”

  “Yeah?” he asked, stepping closer to her. It didn’t matter how long she’d known him; being so close to him always made her catch her breath just a little, and she hoped it always would.

  If he gave her a chance, it would be always.

  “When we get back,” she started again, “I still want to be...” Now she felt her cheeks heat as she considered the fact that they hadn’t really defined what they were, and now wasn’t really the time or place. “I just mean that I don’t want to lose you again,” she finally offered as an explanation, shrugging her shoulders.

  “I’m not planning on you losing me.” His voice was lower than usual, rough with emotion. “For any reason. And I don’t want to lose you, either.”

  Ellie nodded and felt herself blush. “Okay. Well, I’m not going anywhere.”

  He wrapped her in a hug and squeezed, finally releasing her. “Ready to head home?”

  She nodded. Home. Why did she picture him when she thought of that word? Not Raven Pass, not her house. Seth was home. It felt as though she’d been away for years, avoiding the concept, avoiding him, but now she was back, and Ellie never wanted to leave.

  “Yeah. Let’s go home.”

  He pressed a kiss to her forehead and went back to his sled. Ellie climbed onto hers, and they started back down the trail.

  The snow was falling faster now. Thankfully snow usually meant warmer temperatures, so at least Ellie wasn’t as cold as she had been the day before. People tended to associate snow with cold, but once it fell down to single digit temperatures and below it rarely snowed. Today it must be in the twenties for powder to be falling like it was. Her hands, which had felt almost permanently curled to the sled’s handlebar the day before, were almost warm now.