One Hot Night

by Jennifer Bernard

  He breathed in the fresh dawn air, which tasted of evergreen mixed with ash, and eyed the ominous sky. He edged back into the cave, where Mia was already stuffing things into her backpack.

  “We should go,” she said as soon as he reached her. “Last protein bar.” She tossed it to him, then fastened her pack. “Overall, I’d really rather not starve out here.”

  “I hear that. Hand me that map.” He spread out the map and pored over it as they each nibbled on their half of the bar. Matching up the squiggles and lines with the terrain they’d covered took him a while, but finally he fixed on a likely path out of the woods.

  He showed her on the map. “See that creek? I think we’re about half a mile from it, and it leads right to a trailhead. From there, we might be able to catch a ride to the highway. The best part is that Three Forks is this way and Dearborn’s cabin is over here.” He pointed to two spots on the map, then traced the line of the creek. “It’s mostly downhill.”

  “How many miles? No, don’t tell me. Let’s just go. It’s not like we have a lot of choices here, right?”

  “Not unless someone comes along to rescue us. But we don’t need that. We can rescue ourselves. That’s our thing. Let’s keep on keeping on.” He raised his hand for a high-five. She smiled and their palms touched.

  He thought about her hand on his cock, stroking him to orgasm, and felt a rush of heat. Not now, idiot.

  Shoving all hot memories of last night aside, he led the way out of the cave. He checked the map one more time to orient himself. Creek, check. Ridgeline, check.

  As he matched up the landmarks to their current location, he noticed an overlook. It looked just like the last place he’d camped with Dad, when he was maybe seven or so. Dad had shown him how the closeness of the squiggly lines indicated the steepness of the slope.

  Yes, it was the same spot!

  He and his dad had fried canned Spam in an aluminum pan. He could still taste the charred fatty flavor of it, washed down by metallic water from his dad’s old Army canteen. His father had brought his flask along. The whisky made him talk more than usual, and he’d started telling stories.

  God, he’d forgotten all about that trip until now. What stories had Dad told? Only one came back to him. The story of how Dad had met his future wife, Janine. She was only fifteen at the time.

  “She was helping out on her dad’s boat, which meant she sat on the deck in her swimsuit and read books. She was a real bookworm, did you know that, son? I was going fishing with a buddy, last time before shipping out. I dove off his boat halfway out of the harbor and swam back to her. Asked if I could see her. Her dad chased me away, but she laughed and pointed at the little grocery store at the marina there. When we got back from fishing, I saw a note there for me. She wanted to meet the next day. So we did. We had an ice cream cone. I knew I wanted to be with her, but she was too young and I was just starting my military career. So I waited. Took a chance she might forget about me. But she didn’t.”

  Aiden had listened wide-eyed to the story, trying to imagine his always-distracted mother as a teenager.

  “Your mother…” Dad trailed off in thought, then took another swallow from his flask. “I love that woman. You’ll never know how much.”

  “Are you okay?” Mia nudged him in the side, and he jumped.

  “Yeah. I just realized that I camped once near here, with my father.” He hauled in a deep breath of the fresh morning air.

  I love that woman. You’ll never know how much.

  I do know, Dad. You sacrificed your life to protect her. That’s what Knights do. We protect.

  “That’s a funny coincidence.”

  “Yeah.” But maybe nothing was random, as Mia had said before.

  She was in the midst of putting on her backpack.

  “Why don’t you let me take the pack this time? You carried it all day yesterday.”

  This time, she handed it over without protest. At least she trusted him now. He slid the straps over his shoulders and fastened the buckles. He gave one last look around at the little clearing where so much had happened between last night and now.

  “What?” Mia looked around in alarm, probably assuming he’d seen the bear again.

  “It’s weird that it took a kidnapping to get me out here again.” He grinned and set off in the direction of the creek bed.

  She gave him an amused shake of her head as she followed. “That’s a very glass-half-full way of looking at things.”

  “I’m definitely a glass-half-full guy. I wouldn’t have met you, either. So that’s two things to be thankful for.”

  Her smile seemed halfhearted to him.

  They hiked in silence for a while, soaking in the magical sounds of morning in the wilderness—warblers greeting the sunrise and tiny forest creatures searching for breakfast. The storm clouds were moving fast overhead, revealing patches of blue sky.

  Why had it taken a kidnapping to get him into the woods again? He loved this wilderness, loved the towering pines and immense quiet. Truth was, maybe he hadn’t been ready to do something that would remind him of his father so much.

  As they closed in on the trailhead, a glint of silver overhead caught his eye. A helicopter. Rescue chopper? Coast Guard maybe? Or perhaps there was a wildfire in the area?

  Or maybe…

  “Mia, can you grab the binoculars?”

  “Sure.” He stopped so she could retrieve them from their pouch.

  The next time the chopper passed overhead, he focused the binoculars on it and pumped his fist. “It’s my brothers! That’s their helicopter.”

  Mia craned her neck to see. “Wow, it’s beautiful.”

  “It’s a Robinson R44 Raven, practically new. It’s probably either Tobias or Ben up there. I should have known they’d come looking for me.” Love for his brothers swelled his heart. He might have grown up without a father or a mother, but his brothers had always been there for him.

  He gave the glasses back to her. Her dark eyes shone with relief—and maybe something else—as she tucked them back into the pack. “We’re rescued.”

  “Just in time for breakfast, too. Us Knight brothers have good timing when it comes to food.”

  She laughed, but it seemed forced to him. “How does this work? I’ve never been rescued by a helicopter before.”

  “We still have to get his attention. And he has to find a place to land. I say we stick to the plan and head for the trailhead. He might be able to land in the parking lot there.”

  She nodded, her smile wobbling at the edges. “Let’s go, then.”

  She edged past him, but he snagged her arm before she could get anywhere. “Wait.”

  She yanked her arm away from him and launched herself down the trail. “We shouldn’t keep your brothers waiting. Come on.”

  “Mia!” He hurried after her. “I had an idea. About us.”

  Finally she stopped and turned to face him. Tears shimmered in her eyes. Holy shit, she was crying? “Are you okay?”

  “Yes!” She glared at him fiercely, even though a tear spilled over and trickled down her cheek. “I’m fine, why?”

  “Um…you’re crying.”

  “No, I’m not. Okay, yes I am, because my mom is sick and my ex-boyfriend sucks, and the highlight of the last couple of years has been hiding out in that stupid cave with you. How pathetic is that?”

  He reached for her, but she evaded his touch.

  “It’s not pathetic at all. And it wasn’t a stupid cave. And I don’t want to leave you either. That’s why—”

  She snorted through her tears. “This isn’t about you. This is about my crappy life. It has nothing to do with you.”

  Okay. That hurt. He drew in a breath, reminding himself that she had a lot of worries on her plate. “Well, just in case any of this is about me, I came up with a plan.”

  “What plan?”

  “I remembered a story my dad told me about when he met my mom, and she was only fifteen. So he waited and tracked he
r down after he left the Army. What if we made a date for, like, five years from now? In five years, if we haven’t forgotten about each other, and we’re still single and we’re still thinking about all this…” He swept his hand between the two of them. He had no idea if he was making sense here. Her prickly attitude was throwing him off. “Then we’ll, uh…meet.”

  “Meet where? When?” Her frown was loaded with skepticism.

  He hesitated. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. She didn’t look especially impressed by it. “Jupiter Point? Five years from today? Or I can come to you if you tell me how to find you.”

  Slowly, she shook her head, tugging her lower lip between her teeth. At least she wasn’t crying anymore. “I don’t know, Aiden. Maybe it’s better if we just walk away. Plans are completely pointless. Just look at every single thing I’ve experienced in my life. I didn’t plan for my mother to get sick. I didn’t plan to get involved with a jerk. And look at your life. You probably never planned for your dad to get killed. Or to get kidnapped. Plans are a waste of time.”

  His stomach twisted. He could sense her slipping through his fingers, vanishing like the mist in the trees. “I never planned to meet you, either. But I did, and I don’t want to pretend I didn’t.”

  “You don’t have to pretend that. I’ll never forget you either.”

  He stared at her, at her closed expression, her air of distance. “We’ll always have the cave, is that what you’re saying?”

  Finally, a smile broke through. “I guess so. We’ll always have that. And the bear.”

  The drone of an engine caught their attention as the Robinson buzzed past them. Aiden waved and jumped up and down, but his heart wasn’t in it. Rescue was good, of course. Never seeing Mia again…

  He swallowed hard. If that was how she wanted it, that was how it had to be. He wasn’t going to be an asshole like Darren, or worse, Dearborn. He had to respect her choice.

  “Will you at least take Will’s number? That’s all I ask. Just so I don’t worry.”

  She nodded and dug in her pocket for her cell phone. As soon as she turned it on, her glance flew to meet Aiden’s. “I have service. Want to call your brothers?”

  She passed him the phone, her fingers brushing against his. With a sad smile, she withdrew her hand.

  But even after he’d called Tobias, arranged a plan, met the helicopter at the agreed-upon landing spot and gotten airlifted out of the woods…even after Ben took Mia away in his truck, heading to the airport…still, hours, even days later, he still felt her touch on his fingertips.

  8

  Five years later

  * * *

  Jupiter Point was almost exactly how Mia had pictured it for the past five years. True, she’d cheated a few times and googled it, so her image of the town wasn’t entirely based on her imagination. She’d seen photos of the observatory perched on a hill overlooking the Pacific. She’d scrutinized the historic downtown, with its brickwork sidewalks and ironwork lampposts, its cheerful storefronts in various pastel shades of rose and sky-blue and apricot blush. Jupiter Point had quaint charm around every corner, and romantic couples everywhere you turned.

  She’d spent last night at the Goodnight Moon B&B. The scent of night-blooming jasmine had lulled her to sleep, along with the unexpected darkness.

  “We have restrictions on the lumen levels,” the young receptionist had explained when she’d checked in. “It’s for the observatory, to keep down the light pollution. Here’s a map that shows you all the landmarks and businesses. Notice how everything’s named after planets and stuff? That’s kind of our thing.”

  “Yeah, I see that.” She brought the map with her to the Venus and Mars Café and pored over it as she sipped on a latte and gorged on an outrageous caramel-coated sticky bun. The town slogan was right at the top, in fancy script—“Remember to Look Up at the Stars.” She chuckled at all the fun names—the Milky Way Ice Cream Parlor, the Sky View Gallery and Espresso, Outer Crust Pizza, Fifth Book from the Sun, Heavenly Hardbodies Gym, Pie in the Sky Bakery.

  Stargazer Beach.

  Stars in Your Eyes Events and Tours.

  Constellation Way.

  On and on. But no sign of Knight and Day Flight Tours. Had they gone out of business?

  For the first time, she wondered if her strict policy of no contact was smart. She’d never called Will Knight’s number, not once. After a year, when Darren had married someone else, she’d actually deleted Will’s number from her phone. It was too tempting. She couldn’t call Aiden. It wasn’t an option. And that meant she couldn’t break down and call Will, either.

  Or google the Knight family or Knight and Day Flight Tours or anything related to them.

  Someone had left a folded copy of the local newspaper on the next table over. She snagged it and studied the headlines of the Mercury News-Gazette.

  Tourism Forecast: Brace Yourself read one title. Observatory to Hire First Female Director, said the next.

  And there, below the fold, the name “Dearborn” caught her eye.

  She remembered that name just as clearly as everything else that had happened that night. She’d thought of it so many times during her mom’s last chemo treatments, her days in the hospice, her last moments of drifting in and out of consciousness. The memory of that wild day and night in the Sierras shimmered like the sun on the horizon. It gave her…hope, she supposed. Hope for something normal and joyful.

  Dearborn’s First Prison Interview, read the headline. She scanned the article, eagerly searching for references to the Knight Family.

  * * *

  Matthew Reginald Dearborn, who was convicted of the murder of Robert Knight five years ago, finally broke his silence in an interview with documentary filmmaker Sally Morgan. He describes a childhood of abuse and neglect, and an obsession with Janine Knight that began in high school, when she helped him with a school project. Prosecutors note that their case became easy after Mrs. Knight met with Dearborn after he’d been arrested for assault and kidnapping. He gave a full confession immediately afterward, and was later sentenced to life in prison.

  “I didn’t let him say anything when I met with him,” Janine Knight said when it was her turn to be interviewed by Morgan. “I told him he’d been ruining my life for too long, and it was my turn to talk. Then I laid out all the harm he’d done to our family. But I also told him that we’d come through it and were stronger than ever. I told him his only chance at redemption would be to tell everything to the DA. It was very empowering because I’d been afraid of him for so long.”

  It was the first time a member of the Knight family has spoken publicly about Dearborn’s conviction. For twelve years, the Robert Knight case was Jupiter Point’s only unsolved murder. Mayor Brady Becker, who was the police chief at the time of his arrest, spoke on behalf of the police department. “Knowing that Dearborn was a volunteer with our department is truly sickening. We’ve completely overhauled our reporting systems since then. In essence, Dearborn was an abuser. He stalked Mrs. Knight, murdered her husband, then committed other crimes to cover up the first ones. But it all started with crossing a line with a woman he was obsessed with. So I think we all have to raise our awareness of this issue, and the Jupiter Point Police Department is committed to doing exactly that. Our goal is for the women of Jupiter Point, and the women visiting Jupiter Point, to feel safe and respected on every level.”

  * * *

  Mia glanced out the window at the charming little downtown street, currently bathed in morning sunshine. A kid skateboarded past, backpack slung over his shoulders. Late for school? A young couple strolled hand in hand down the street, to-go coffee cups in hand. A town where women were safe and respected on every level? Sounded good to her, especially given her experience with Darren.

  A pretty young woman in pigtails came into view, pushing a stroller down the sidewalk. She waved at someone sitting on the terrace of the Venus and Mars and stopped to chat for a second. Mia watched her wistfully, w
ondering what it would be like to be raising a baby here in this adorable little town where everyone seemed friendly and women were supposedly “safe and respected.”

  Then she turned back to the Mercury News-Gazette. The weather page talked about unseasonably high temperatures and fire danger. The local wildfire “hotshot” crew had already been called to a fire up the coast.

  And then, finally, something about the Knight brothers!

  An ad for Knight and Day Flight Tours took up nearly a quarter of a page. “The Adventure of a Lifetime,” it said, over a picture of a prop plane flying over an island. An inset in the ad said “Knights and Ladies Auto Repair. 20% off your first brake job.”

  Nerves rattled her stomach, now that she was so close to finding at least some members of the Knight family. And really, she could probably use a brake job. She tore off the coupon and was about to get up from her table when someone sat down across from her.

  Looking up in surprise, she saw an unfamiliar man. A very, very good-looking one, maybe early thirties. His dark hair and stubbled jaw contrasted with the vibrant blue-green of his eyes. He wore an open-collar short-sleeved shirt in a kind of vintage cream fabric. He wore a smile meant to disarm—but that meant nothing to Mia, who still remembered how Darren had fooled her at first.

  “I’m just leaving, you can have this table,” she said, gathering her things.

  “Please don’t. I’m here to see you, Mia Grant.”

  “Excuse me?” She glanced around the café in search of someone who would help if she screamed. The dreadlocked barista was chatting with the stroller woman. The other customers were wrapped up in their laptops or sticky buns.

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” he said quickly. “My name is Kai Rockwell. I’m a wilderness guide and rescue paramedic, among other things.”

  She stared at him in complete confusion. “Wilderness guide?”