Carmen shrugged. “We don’t know enough to guess.”
He inclined his head in agreement. They fell into a companionable silence. Link gazed into the shadows around their campsite. This far North, there were shadows all the time because the sun never seemed to totally set and the earth never rotated far enough for it to be overhead.
Regardless of who had gone through their things, Link didn’t like the invasion of privacy. His attention fastened on the cooler and he thought about the glimpses he’d gotten of the kayak, which had seemed intent upon keeping out of sight upstream. The sneak-thief had run toward the sun, was his purpose in doing that to head back to the kayak or so others could only see his silhouette against the bright light?
Carmen rubbed her shoulders and flexed her neck. “Stiff?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah. I haven’t had such a tough workout in ages.”
“Want to swap partners tomorrow?”
“I’d like that a lot,” she admitted with a guilty glance at the tents.
“Phillip’s lack of skill is getting to you, huh?”
“No.” Her tone was defensive. “In fact, for a person that’s never been outside a city before, he’s doing very well.” She wet her lips as she faced him. “I’ve been hoping you’d get to know him, and tell me what you think.”
Link didn’t need to share a canoe with the guy to do that. Plain and simple, Phillip was a nerd. But if Carmen couldn’t see that herself, he wasn’t about to point it out. “What exactly do you expect me to learn?”
“I love him and I’m certain he loves me.” Carmen clamped her mouth shut, as if she’d said too much.
“Hasn’t he told you?”
She shook her head. “We talk about a shared future all the time, but he’s never actually proposed.”
“You told me you were engaged.” That was the only reason he’d made an attempt to find something likable about the guy.
“I think we are. I hope we are,” She bit her lower lip and looked ready to cry. “But then again, I can’t be certain.” Link poked the dying embers with a twig. “I want to know if you think I’m wasting my time.” Carmen’s tone was dejected. “I don’t want to wait forever for a kiss or a word of confirmation.”
She couldn’t seriously mean what she’d just said – surely, if she considered herself engaged, they’d at least kissed. “You don’t need to be married.” Her defensive expression, made him change the direction of his topic. “It’s not like it was for Mom, when being a wife and mother was the main goal for a woman. There’s nothing wrong with being single.”
“I know that,” Carmen snapped.
“Sure didn’t sound like it to me.”
“I want a home, a husband, and a family. I want them for me, not because of what society accepts or rejects. Yes, I’m a complete person without them, but for the last year or so, the desire for that kind of stability has grown. Can you understand?” She studied his face.
“Your biological clock is ticking.”
Carmen looked ready to strangle him. After a long pause, she sighed. “Maybe it is as simple as that. Regardless, those things are missing in my life.” She looked lost and forlorn.
He hugged her. “Carmen, I’d do anything for you. You know that.”
“I know.” They sat in companionable silence, each loath to leave the warmth.
Link looked around the campsite. There were definite similarities between Jacqueline’s stalker’s stealthy way of doing things and whoever had methodically dumped their food, but it was ridiculous to think someone had trailed her all the way from Arizona into the wilderness. Still, the plane that had landed shortly after they arrived had brought someone, and if that someone had been a stalker, who had not had time to pack necessities, like food…
Carmen rose to her feet. “I need to get some sleep. If we’re going to trade partners, does that mean you get Tempest and we get the cargo?”
“You really expect me to take her?”
“Her eyes still follow you everywhere and the looks she gives Jacqueline … ouch.” Carmen shook her head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to have them in the same canoe.”
“Yet they manage to sleep in the same tent.” He sighed. “Sorry. I do understand what you mean, but I don’t know what to do about it. Got any suggestions?”
“Hold fast. Eventually, she’ll outgrow her infatuation.”
And in the meantime, she’d make his life miserable. “We can still get a couple of hours sleep.” Link took a last look upstream, where shadows bisected by the glimmering band of frigid water could hide an army of determined stalkers.
12
Morning mist swirled over the water as Jacqueline, Tempest, and Carmen eased the rain shield off their tent. Then, while Carmen wrapped the thin nylon into a tight roll, Jacqueline removed the ribbing from the main tent shell.
“Today, I’ll take Phillip. You go with Carmen,” Link barked the unexpected mandate. Jacqueline pivoted, mouth agape. Though he was looking at Tempest, Link’s grim expression filled her with such a sense of rejection that her heart constricted.
Carmen stood up. Jacqueline expected her to protest the separation from her boyfriend, but Carmen cheerfully gave her brother a mock salute and clicked her heels together.
Tempest’s mouth twisted into a vicious smile, then she stuck out her tongue at Jacqueline.
Phillip, who was reading something on his ever-present iPad, appeared oblivious to the ramifications of Link’s order.
Jacqueline turned back to her work and blinked away tears as she tried to concentrate on packing the tent. As she rolled the fabric, she wondered why she had expected to be Link’s permanent partner.
She wished she didn’t care.
Was she as bad as Tempest?
No, she was not some lovesick teen looking for her first love.
Was she a desperate woman ready to leap into the next man’s arms with Adam only eight months dead?
Hardly.
Was she a wilting violet, heart aflutter as a sinister shadow terrorized her?
Only when she found plumeria blossoms or origami.
She did not need a man to fight her battles, she had fought them for herself so far, and she would continue to do so. Jacqueline gritted her teeth and yanked the last pole free. She tested its weight and feel. In a pinch, it would make an effective weapon.
While loading their gear, Tempest sidled up to her and sniffed loudly. “You stink. No wonder Uncle Link didn’t want you close to him.”
Jacqueline tried not to laugh. “I’m so sorry if I offend your refined sensibilities. Perhaps you should take the front.” Jacqueline held out Carmen’s paddle. Tempest’s mouth flattened. “You’ll be farther away from me, there.”
Fury replaced the triumphant smirk. “You expect me to give you a free ride? No way!”
Jacqueline looked Tempest up and down. The girl looked physically fit and was taller than she. “I’ve been paddling canoes since I was half your size. You’ve gotten a ‘free ride’ so far.”
“I hate you.”
“Get rid of your chimera.”
“Do what?”
“Chimera, fantasy. You think you love Link and for some mysterious reason, you want a villain, which will give you a tangible reason why he isn’t returning your affection. Carmen won’t do because she’s Link’s sister. Phillip?” Jacqueline shook her head. “That leaves me to be the great foe – the threat to your great romance. Guess what, kid; I’m not your competition. I do not want him or any other man. I want to find a way to resolve my problems by myself.”
Tempest glanced at Link, who was packing the cooking gear, and lowered her voice. “I don’t think I love him. I know I love him. I’ll marry him someday.”
“Send me an invitation, I’ll send you a gift.”
Tempest looked startled. “You really don’t want him?”
Jacqueline shook her head. “I want a peaceful life. I want a fulfilling job. I think I’d like a kitten. I’ve tried marria
ge. Single is better.” She wished her still-throbbing feeling of rejection wasn’t at such odds with what she knew was best for her.
Tempest blinked. “I know you’re lying to me. I watch you together. You like being together.”
“So? I enjoy being with Carmen and Phillip, too.”
“Then why’d you come if it wasn’t to grab Link?”
“I was set up by my grandmother… Do you know Mavis?” Tempest nodded. “Then you must know how controlling she can be and how hard it is to avoid getting sucked into her plans.”
“Mavis is trying to set you up with Link? Why?”
“Good question”. Jacqueline shrugged. “Perhaps my visit came at an inconvenient time and she had other plans she didn’t want to admit to.” But the thought of her grandmother trying to hide a blazing affair, or something seemed totally unlikely. “Perhaps she would like me to fall in love with Link, but it won’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“Would you like it if your grandmother set you up on a two week long blind date?”
Tempest’s nose wrinkled as if she smelled a hundred skunks. “Ugh.”
Jacqueline nodded. “Finally, you get my point.”
Tempest’s brow furrowed. “Then why’d you come?”
“It’s complicated.” Jacqueline gestured toward the encompassing mountains. “For one thing, I needed time to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life.”
“And for another your grandmother made you?”
“She can be domineering.”
“Uncle Link is scared to death of her.” The image of big, muscular Link Gavallan quailing in front of tiny Mavis Maureen Knowlton Cardew made Jacqueline laugh. “What’s so funny?” Tempest demanded. “It’s true.”
Jacqueline wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and looked at Tempest’s serious face. She took a deep breath. “Grandma adores both Link and Stone; it’s hard to imagine her taking anything out on them.” Tempest gave her a dubious look. “Think about it. You’ll see I’m right.”
“I’ll try.” Tempest walked away. The sound of her footfalls seemed identical to the intruder’s gait. Could Tempest have been their midnight marauder? Had she been in her sleeping bag when the stealthy sounds woke her? Jacqueline frowned, unable to recall. Believing Tempest had vandalized the supplies seemed more probable than believing her nemesis had followed her this far north.
Moments later, Carmen claimed the bow and Tempest secured the center of their canoe. Jacqueline pushed off. As she vaulted into the stern, she glanced upriver. For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw the hairy face that she’d seen at the Trading Post peering around a boulder. A chill of apprehension skittered down her back and she blinked. The face disappeared. She dipped her paddle into the water, and propelled the canoe downstream. Their canoe zipped past gravel bars and boulders, as she tried to tell herself that her imagination was getting away from her.
“Slow up,” Carmen said. “Give Phillip and Link a chance to catch up.”
Jacqueline looked upstream. Phillip was adjusting the small solar panel in the other canoe and Link was looking heavenward, but there was no hint of any other craft.
Carmen rubbed her right shoulder. “I feel eighty years older than I did last week.”
“Paddle some and you’ll work the kinks out,” Jacqueline suggested.
“I did not want to hear that.” Carmen’s chuckle was infectious. “Even if it is true.”
Jacqueline shaded her eyes. “Phillip is finally holding the paddle right.”
“Why didn’t you say something yesterday?” Carmen asked.
Jacqueline shrugged. “I’m here to have fun. Enjoy the scenery. Get away from things. Not to criticize.”
“In other words you were thinking about your stalker.” Tempest’s body wrenched, as if an electric current had gone through her.
“Link told you?”
Carmen nodded.
Tempest nearly upset them as she whirled to face the stern. “You’re being stalked?” Her voice squeaked.
Jacqueline nodded. “It’s aggravating as all get out.”
Tempest’s pupils looked dilated. “Aggravating?” She shuddered as if she’d fallen into the Sheenjek’s glacial waters. “Aggravating!” She screeched the word as they floated past a large boulder. “You call being stalked aggravating?” Quack-quack-quack-quack. A pair of ducks exploded into the air spraying droplets over the canoe. Tempest yelped and threw herself onto the floor. Jacqueline looked from the girl, hunched into a fetal position, to the escaping birds.
“Wonder who got scared worse?” Carmen giggled. “Us or the ducks.”
Tempest tentatively sat up, her mouth flat and her eyes blazing, as she glared back at Jacqueline. “You’re a raving lunatic,” Tempest’s voice rose until it was loud enough to hurt the ears, “if you think being stalked is ‘just a little aggravating’.”
“Real life stalking isn’t like the movies,” Jacqueline said. “This guy leaves me notes and sometimes flowers where I’m not expecting them, so they startle me. I don’t like the situation, but things could be worse.” Were worse, if her suspicions about the mystery kayak were accurate.
“Yeah, you could meet him face to face,” Tempest scoffed.
The child’s face turned white as the snowcaps. “Tempest,” Jacqueline began, “I know everything seems dramatic when you’re a teenager, but— ”
“Don’t patronize me,” Tempest snarled. “Ariel and I were stalked for over five years. Peter Baldwyn was a mercenary and he tried to kill us. He almost succeeded, too. Don’t you dare tell me about being stalked, I know all about it.”
The fierce words hung over their boat like an ominous cloud. Jacqueline cleared her throat. “How did you know he wanted to kill you?”
“He said so.” Tempest glared at her. “What’d ya’ think? That I’m making this up?” She lunged to her feet. Oblivious to the violently rocking canoe, Tempest clenched her fists. “I’m not.” She leaned closer. “Stone almost got killed, trying to save us. Ask Uncle Link.”
Gooseflesh erupted from Jacqueline’s scalp to her toes and she remembered how inconsolable her grandmother had been a couple of years earlier.
Tempest apparently realized how precarious standing in a canoe was and sat down, red spots of color blooming in her cheeks. She held onto the gunwales, her knuckles white as Carmen’s face. Jacqueline stared at Tempest’s fiery cheeks and thought of blood red ink. Was she ignoring a real threat? She’d seen the color dozens of times, but had never associated it with death. What if she was being naïve and murder was his purpose? Blood red ink. How many times had she thought of the shade red in those terms, yet ignored the connotations? Jacqueline wet her lips. “Tempest?” She cleared her throat. “Was your stalker ever caught?”
“No. But it’s ok now.”
That statement begged for more questions, but the closed expression on Tempest’s countenance told Jacqueline to save them. “Well, that gives me hope.” She adopted a cheerful tone. “Maybe in a couple more years, I’ll meet the fool and be able to say the same thing.”
Tempest shook her head. “Don’t ever wish to m-m-meet him f-f-face to f-face. Don’t ever w-w-wish that.”
A ball of fear constricted Jacqueline’s throat.
“Why not?” Carmen asked.
“B-because s-sometimes you get what you w-wish for, and p-people you love,” she swallowed, “d-die.” Oh, the memories in her expression. “And you get c-c-covered with their b-blood.” Tempest’s voice cracked. “It never w-washes off, no matter what you d-do.”
Mouth half open, Carmen stared at Jacqueline over Tempest’s rigid shoulder.
The silence lengthened until Link and Phillip pulled up parallel to them. Link raised a brow. “Having problems?”
“No,” all three said.
Two horizontal ridges appeared above Link’s eyebrows. His attention settled on Tempest. Finally, without uttering another sound, Tempest faced forward, her shoulders rigid.
&n
bsp; Once free of the girl’s mesmerizing gaze, Jacqueline heard the babble of running water and caught the scent of fish, but as the day wore on, silence prevailed. Held hostage by her thoughts, Jacqueline’s memory replayed Tempest’s outburst. With each repetition, tentacles of doubt grew about the security of her own situation, until Jacqueline peered into every shadow twice and her ears strained to decipher every sound.
That evening they camped on a mammoth gravel bar, which looked as if it had been dry for centuries. As she secured the canoe, Jacqueline felt physically and emotionally exhausted. Tempest gathered grasses and other bits of combustible material, then Link built a small bonfire near the lapping water. While the others toasted marshmallows and laughed over jokes, Jacqueline turned her back to the fire and stared into the night. She still felt the heat of the blaze, so she got up and walked along the pewter ribbon of water.
“Hey, Jacqueline,” Carmen hollered, “come toast a marshmallow.”
“No thanks.” The wind shifted and she smelled smoke. The stench always reminded her of the reek of burning flesh. Once she was far enough away, Jacqueline ducked into the shadow of a boulder, then sank to her knees, arms tight around her stomach. Eyes shut, she rocked back and forth. The others’ laughter drifted away and the memory of another night strengthened.
That night had been cool and cloud covered, too. Adam’s step was carefree as he approached the lab’s office door, while Jacqueline lurched toward the kitchen door, her crutch catching on a crack in the uneven sidewalk. She’d started falling and only regained her equilibrium after putting weight on her swollen ankle. To keep from crying out and distracting Adam, who was already angry at her for wasting so much of his precious time, she bit the insides of her cheeks. By the time the lab door had slowly drifted shut, she’d negotiated the rest of the walkway, with Adam none the wiser about how clumsy she’d been. An owl had hooted as she fitted her key into the lock.
As the tumblers fell into place, there was a loud muffled boom behind her. She swiveled so fast, she tripped herself with her crutches, her shoulder hit the doorframe so hard she cried out in pain. Then the lab’s windows exploded in fiery arcs. Jacqueline could never remember falling face forward and dislocating her nose on the porch floor, but she could never forget how her body trembled when she smelled burning flesh and knew it was Adam’s.
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