“You’re a whore?” Raven asked, caught up in this crazy turn.
“Oh, please. Whore? I’m so much more than that. I’m a celebrated ‘entertainer’ for the Lonely Lady. I’ve been Earl’s consort for over twenty years. And Roland’s whenever he’s in town,” she added with a nonchalant shrug.
Aidan grabbed Genie by the arm and pulled her up and out of the snow. “I don’t give a shit who you are. Why did you take Fox?”
“I want the gold. Since Earl is dead—thank you for that by the way—I figure I’m the closest thing to his wife so the gold belongs to me.”
“This is twisted,” Raven said.
“You don’t know twisted, honey, until you’ve slept with a Harte.” She glanced between Raven and Aidan and laughed. “But then I guess you do, don’t you?”
Aidan gave Genie a hard shake. “Where’s Fox?”
“How the hell should I know? He left me here.” She gestured wide to the trees. “Ran off and left me to die.”
“You kidnapped him.” Raven advanced. “You killed his dog.”
“Had to. The mutt was after us, plus getting rid of the dog put your kid in line. Guess you spared the rod with that one, didn’t you?”
“You bitch.” Raven slapped her across the face and pointed the gun at Genie, her finger pressing the trigger.
“Raven,” Aidan said, his voice low, calming. “Fox first. You can take care of her later.”
Raven forced herself to relax her grip and lowered the gun a few inches. “Last chance. Where is my son?”
“I told you.” Genie’s tone was shrill, her hand holding her cheek. “He went off that way, into the trees.”
“Aidan, do we have anything to tie her up with?” Raven asked, advancing closer to Genie.
“Hey,” Genie complained.
“It’s either that, or I put a bullet in your head.”
Quick as a cat, Genie grabbed the gun from Raven and pointed it at her. “I don’t think so. Throw the rifle over there or this bitch gets it.”
“Shoot her, Aidan.”
But Aidan complied with Genie’s demand, dropping the rifle to the snow.
“You shut up.” Genie waved the gun at Raven. “I’m sick of your mouth. This whole plan has gone to shit because of you. I’ve been watching. I know what kind of woman you are. And they call me names.”
“You’re the one who hit me over the head,” Aidan said, as the puzzle pieces seemed to fit together. “You ransacked the cabin and my rental?”
“Looks as though Fox’s smart genes came from his daddy. Bingo. I’ve been trying to get you out of that shithole this whole time. But then she’d show up and either nurses you back or pisses you off into staying.”
“You set the fire to the woodpile.”
“Wasn’t that brilliant?” Genie chuckled. “Can’t live in a place with no heat. Not in Alaska. That should have given me plenty of time to search Earl’s place.”
“But Roland showed up,” Aidan said, obviously trying to get the anger and attention off of Raven and onto him.
“There he was bragging to me that any day now he was going to be flush and how Mexico looked real good this time of year. No mention of me going with him. And I had been satisfying his every fantasy. Even some he didn’t know he had.”
“Let me guess. You were adding drugs in with the sex?”
Genie scoffed. “Yep, you’re definitely the brains of the family. The bastard caught on to what I was doing.”
“Is that why you killed him?”
“It was easy. Killing a man like Roland should have been harder. For you it would have been, you did put a bullet in your own father. Roland was sure pissed about that.” A sick smile crossed her hard lips. “Men don’t think women have the balls to do what needs to be done. I shimmied up to him, playing all nice promising him all kinds of sexual favors if he’d let me partner up with him. The idiot actually laughed at me. You should have seen his face when I stuck him with my knife. He’ll never stick me again. Get it? Stick me again?” She giggled, and the sound of a little girl coming out of the hardened prostitute sent a chill up Raven’s spine.
“Yeah, I got it,” Aidan said. “So what’s your plan now?”
“Well, I gotta get rid of you two. Your brat should be done for soon, if he hasn’t frozen to death before now.”
A sound of distress escaped Raven, even though she’d tried not to bring attention to herself while Aidan kept Genie busy with her vent-fest. Now Genie focused more on her, the gun level with Raven’s heart.
“I figure, with the three of you gone, no one will have the slightest idea that a woman was behind all this. They should have the gold packed into your rental shortly, and then I’ll just drive off with it. Smart of me to get you men bending over for me for a change.”
“There’s something you haven’t counted on.”
“Oh, you mean the snowmobile getting stuck? Yeah, that was a bad turn. I got a bit hasty in my excitement and took that bend too fast. But then you came along and unstuck the damn thing for me.”
“No, I’m talking about that.”
“What?”
“You’ll never make it back to the cabin. The wolves will get to you first.” Aidan indicated the black wolf standing twenty feet off, his gums silently pulled back to reveal shiny, sharp teeth.
Genie screamed, panicked, swung the gun around and shot at the wolf. The wolf was off, with a leap, into the forest, unharmed. Aidan tackled Genie, but not before she got off another wild shot.
White hot pain seared for a second, stealing Raven’s breath, and then she felt nothing as the snow reached up to cradle her in its slumbering embrace.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Raven!” Aidan tore the gun out of Genie’s hand, cold-cocked the whore, and rushed over to Raven’s prone body. “Raven? Come on, baby, open your eyes for me.” He felt around her chest, struggled with the zipper of her parka, until he could part her coat and see for himself what kind of injury she had.
Nothing.
No blood, no wound. What the hell? Had she fainted? Raven wasn’t the kind of woman who fainted. “Raven?” He shook her, and she moaned.
Her eyes fluttered and then opened, only to quickly shut again. She reached up a gloved hand and pressed it to the side of her head. Blood coated the light-colored fur of her glove.
“Oh, God.” Aidan tore off his gloves and gently removed her hat, then brushed back her long dark hair—soaking up blood—away from the wound, praying under his breath. There, above her left ear, blood bubbled where the bullet had torn through her flesh. Blood poured from the wound, not letting him see how badly she’d been shot. He took snow and washed the area, holding her hair up and out of the way. It wasn’t long before Raven started to complain. The words were the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.
“Fuck, that hurts. I’m going to kill that bitch.” She winced, but didn’t move as he washed and packed the wound, the coldness of the snow slowing the bleeding and hopefully numbing the pain.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked, hoping that the injury hadn’t caused a concussion. He held up two fingers.
“Four. Now let me at her.” Raven struggled to sit up, weaving back and forth.
“Easy. Easy now.” Aidan frowned. “Let me make sure you’re all right.”
“We don’t have time for this. We need to know where Fox is.”
Aidan zipped her parka, watching as her eyes dilated when she blinked. He needed to get her to help, but first they needed to find Fox.
Aidan gently wrapped Raven’s scarf around her head, tearing the felted wool with his teeth to tie a knot, keeping it in place and then repositioned the hood of her parka. “Hopefully that will hold until we can get you to Eva. Are you doing okay?”
She went to nod and then thought better of it. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
He knew she was lying. Her skin was as pale as the snow she sat on.
Genie groaned. He turned to see her slowly sitting up, holdin
g her hand to her head where Aidan had knocked her out.
“Sit here for a minute.” Aidan got up and walked back to Genie.
“Hey,” she protested, and then snapped her mouth shut when she got a clear look at his murderous face.
He reached into his pocket and flicked open his knife, cutting the strings free from the hood of his parka. Grabbing Genie by the arms, he dragged her kicking and screaming to a crowd of trees.
“You can’t leave me here,” Genie cried, when Aidan pulled her toward a stand of spindly birch. “I’ll freeze to death.”
“One can hope.” Aidan yanked Genie’s hands around the trunk of a tree.
“Okay, you win. I’ll take you to where your brat is.” She glanced fearfully around, her wide-eyed gaze frozen on the black wolf who’d returned as sentry and stood along the tree line. “Just don’t leave me here.”
“I’m through playing your games. Where is my son?” Aidan demanded, his voice menacing, as he tied the nylon string around her hands.
“Untie me and I’ll take you to him.” Genie’s eyes drooped, pleaded. But Aidan was immune. This bitch had shot the woman he loved and kidnapped his son. She could rot out here for all he cared.
“Ouch. You don’t have to be barbaric,” Genie complained when he tightened the thin strings around her wrists, under her gloves. She glanced again at the wolf who had continued to stand like a totem within the cover of trees. “Seriously, you can’t leave me here.”
“Yes, I can.”
“You need me.”
“The only woman I need in my life is Raven.”
“She’s right, Aidan,” Raven said. “Leave me. Take her and the snowmobile, it will be faster. Find Fox and bring him home.” Her voice cracked on the word ‘home.’
No way in hell would he leave Raven here, out in the open, hurt like she was.
“I’ll head back to the cabin,” Raven said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Just go and get Fox.”
Aidan glanced around him. Genie had a calculating gleam in her eyes, while Raven’s were full of fear and pain.
The wolf howled behind him and suddenly he knew.
“No. She stays. We go.” He finished tying off the strings, pulling on them once to make sure they’d hold.
“What? No.” Genie struggled, twisted and turned, trying to free herself. “You can’t leave me here alone.”
“Yes, I can. Just like you left my son alone.” Aidan hoped she didn’t get free, because he planned for her to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
“Aidan, what are you doing?” Raven asked, watching wide-eyed as he finished with Genie and returned to her.
“I’m not leaving you.” He bent down and took her cold face within the heat of his hands, staring deep into her frightened eyes. “Trust me. Please.”
She studied him, wetted her lips. “Okay.”
He kissed her, quick and hard, his heart swelling with emotion he couldn’t name. “Thank you.”
He helped Raven to her feet, assisting her over to the snowmobile. It was hard enough mounting the machine with the snowshoes strapped to her feet, not to mention her head injury. Aidan sent a prayer to the heavens that they’d get their son back and both Fox and Raven would be safe. When Raven was situated, he got on the snowmobile.
“You’ll never find the brat without my help!” Genie screeched.
Raven shivered at Genie’s words as she wrapped her arms around Aidan’s waist. Aidan started the machine, trying to block out Genie’s threats.
He did know what he was doing, right?
You’re following a wild timber wolf hoping the animal is going to lead to you to your son, like Lassie. What do you think?
The wolf waited until he was close to the tree line and then leapt into the forest. Aidan followed at a slower rate as he ventured the snow machine into the trees, fresh tracks gridded the tight trail. This had to be the way Genie had gone. Aidan didn’t know how he knew it, but deep down on some cellular level he recognized the wolf as his spirit brother. Maybe his mother hadn’t been so wasted on booze when she’d told him the legends of the wolf and him being born under the sign. Maybe he’d been outside too long and the cold had stunted his brain function. Either way, he was going with his gut.
The wolf ran ahead of them, staying just within sight. When Aidan had to slow down the machine, as the trail narrowed, the wolf slowed, increasing its gait as the trail widened. They were climbing and Aidan suddenly realized where they were headed.
The bitch.
Raven gasped behind him. He felt more than heard her quick intake of air as she, too, comprehended where they were going.
The old mine shaft the Fairbanks Exploration Company had closed down back in the sixties.
The trees thinned and then cleared as the mountain rose like a monster above them. Rusting steel mining dinosaurs dotted the landscape and he slowed the machine to avoid hitting something hidden under the thick blanket of snow. The wolf stood, his sides heaving, on a small rise above the timber-framed mouth of the mine. It was still chain-linked off but that didn’t keep kids from coming up here in the summer, scaring each other with dares or finding places to make out. He and Raven should know. They’d used this place a few times for stolen moments themselves.
He slowed the machine to a stop and killed the engine.
Raven climbed off the back, unsteady on her feet. “Tell me, I get to go back and kill that bitch.”
“As soon as we get Fox to safety, you can do whatever you like to Genie in the Bottle. Why don’t you stay here, while I find Fox?”
“No.”
He knew by the clench of her jaw there was no arguing with her, regardless of the pain shining in her shadowed eyes.
They struggled up to the foreboding entrance of the mine. Footprints were cut deep in the snow since neither Genie nor Fox had worn snowshoes. Aidan yanked back the chain-link fencing, held it open for Raven, and crawled through behind her. “Fox!” he hollered into the deep, dark cavern, his voice echoing back at him.
No answer.
“Fox!” Raven screamed his name.
Still no answer.
“No.” Aidan grabbed for Raven, but missed as she barreled past him into the darkness. “Raven, stop.”
“Fox!” she continued to holler, ignoring Aidan’s warning.
He hurried behind her, reaching out into the sinister abyss until he felt the fabric of her parka. His fingers clenched around the material, dragging her to a stop. “Raven, slow down. Think. You’re going to get hurt or worse, if you don’t slow down.”
Her breathing was ragged. Her body twitched with the effort it took not to rush. He understood what she was feeling. He wanted to tear this fucking place apart stone by stone until they found Fox and then he wanted to torture the bitch who had put him here too.
He reached into his pocket, took out the mini flashlight on his key ring, and flicked it on. A black mouth of stone braced with ridges of rough-cut, rotting logs flashed in front of them. Even knowing what the scene would be didn’t help the clenching of his heart, knowing his son was somewhere in the labyrinth of tunnels, scared and cold. “Fox!”
“There.” Raven pointed to the left. “I thought I heard something.”
He grabbed her arm. “Hold onto me.” They trekked left, being careful of the loose mix of dead leaves, gravel, and rock that made up the debris littering the floor of the mine. “Fox!”
Then he heard it. A muffled sound. He hurried, keeping a firm hold on Raven. They turned a corner and Aidan’s flashlight shone on Fox, his hands and feet tied with rope, a gag around his mouth. He was lying on his side, huddled in a ball, his face tucked into his knees. Raven rushed to him, her cries bouncing off the stone walls.
Aidan felt for Fox’s pulse, releasing a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding when he found it steady, a bit fast, but strong. Raven released the gag over his mouth and pulled Fox into her arms, tears streaming down her face.
“Mom, Dad?” Fox asked,
his voice jagged with emotion, his body racked with shivers. “Are you really here?”
“Yes, yes, we’re here.” Raven tightened her arms around him, and buried her face in his neck. “You’re safe.”
“Mom,” Fox croaked. “C-can’t…breathe.”
Raven pulled back, laughter adding to her tears.
“How? How’d you f-find me?” Fox asked. “I-I didn’t think anyone w-would ever find me.”
Aidan cleared his throat in order to get words past the fear and love thickening his throat. “Let’s get you out of here, son, and then we’ll answer all your questions.” He handed the mini flashlight to Raven. “Hold this on the ropes so I can cut him loose.”
Raven took the flashlight with a shaky hand and held it for Aidan as he flicked open his pocketknife and sliced through the ropes binding their son’s hands and feet.
“Can you walk?” Aidan asked, helping Fox into a sitting position.
“D-don’t know. Can’t feel my toes.” Fox laid his head back on Raven’s shoulder as she steadied him from behind. “I’m r-really tired.”
Aidan and Raven shared a look.
“No going to sleep, son.” Aidan grabbed Fox’s face, looked into his eyes. Fear shot through him at the dazed, glassy-eyed reflection in his son’s pupils, the blue tint of his lips. Aidan glanced at Raven, and saw the same cloudy expression in her eyes. He needed to get them to the hospital. “Stay with me.” He spoke to them both, praying under his breath to any God who would listen.
He unzipped his coat and lifted Fox into his arms, cradling his son tightly to his chest, hoping his body heat would help quell Fox’s shivers. “Raven, can you walk out of here?”
“Is M-mom hurt?” Fox asked, voice shaky, worried.
“I’m fine.” She looked at Aidan and blinked, as though the action was as close as she could come to a nod. He couldn’t even imagine how she was holding it together.
“Grab my coat. I need to feel you behind me.”
She fisted her hand in his jacket and held the small flashlight on the carved rock ahead of them. Aidan led them out of the mine as fast as he dared. The dim light of the setting sun glimmering on the snow was a welcome relief as they exited.
SHIVER Page 28
