Death Cache

by Tiffinie Helmer

  “Didn’t the invite say food would be provided?” Lucky asked. “Aren’t you guys jumping to conclusions? Maybe our packs were rifled through because part of the competition is about us finding food in the caches.”

  “I think it’s damn suspicious that all our emergency supplies were taken,” Gage pointed out. “Including cell and satellite phones and Mac’s two-way radios.”

  “Why take the cell phones?” Tern asked. It wasn’t like they’d work up here anyway.

  “Those of you who brought weapons were left with them,” Lucky argued. “I think it’s leveled the playing field.”

  “I suggest we start a fire,” Mac said. “The temperature is going to drop fast, once the sun settles over those peaks. We’d better do an inventory of what we’ve been left with. Was anyone left with matches or a lighter?”

  “My matches were taken,” Nadia said in a small voice and a few of the men shook their heads.

  “I’ve got a lighter.” Robert reached into the front pocket of his jeans. “Gave up the smokes months ago, but can’t seem to give up carrying the lighter.” He looked at Tern as he informed the group of this little personal fact. Another of her issues about him had been the cigarettes.

  Gage broke the uncomfortable silence. “I’ll gather some firewood.” He headed for the trees, his hands flexing into fists as though he had a problem with Tern’s history with Robert. She’d been upfront with Gage when they’d been together. He knew about Robert, and the rest. She’d been an open book, and had shared everything with him, but realized now how much she didn’t know about Gage and his past relationships.

  “Good idea,” Mac said. “I suggest we all do the same.”

  Tern and Nadia hiked down to the lake to gather what they could find along the bank and Tern tried to shut the door on rehashing her failed relationship with Gage. She’d spent too much time questioning what she’d done wrong in the past months. For some reason, he hadn’t wanted anything to do with her. It was his issue, not hers. She just wished she could stop caring.

  They returned with enough dry wood to feed a fire throughout the night. Robert started a nice blaze with the dried spruce moss Gage had brought back with the wood he’d gathered. Soon a pleasant snap and crackle provided a comforting song to the breeze tickling the coin leaves of the birch trees.

  Tern took a seat, reaching her hands out to the flames. She’d put her jacket back on as the temperature had indeed dropped with the sun. While not setting this close to the Arctic Circle, it had dipped just below the high peaks of the mountains surrounding them. The breeze wafting off the glacier to the north plunged the temperature twenty degrees cooler. They were in for a cold night.

  One by one the players of the game took seats on the stumps. Nadia sat next to Tern, Lucky close on Nadia’s left. Robert on Tern’s right while Mac sat across and Gage remained standing, whittling a piece of diamond willow, as though needing to kept himself slightly separated from the party.

  “This is much better,” Nadia said, moving her feet closer to the heat of the fire. “But what are we going to do about food? I’m starved.”

  “Nadia, let me see the envelope the pilot gave you,” Mac asked.

  “Oh, right. I almost forgot about the game with all our stuff pilfered.” Nadia jumped up and rushed to their cabin, returning quickly, and handing the envelope to Mac.

  He opened it with a slice of his knife, bending the blade back into its case and slipping it into the scabbard on his belt. He shook out the folded pages and scanned them. “Well, it seems Lucky was right. We aren’t just to have a race against each other to find the geocaches, but finding them will aid in our survival.” He passed the pages around the group.

  “What?” Nadia jumped to her feet. “There isn’t any food?”

  “Doesn’t seem like it. We either catch what we eat or start searching for the geocaches and hope they have the supplies these pages promise.”

  “How the hell is this a competition?” Robert asked, a scowl on his face.

  “It’s a test of our survival skills,” Mac said, not looking unhappy about the prospect.

  “That isn’t what we signed up for,” Gage added, though he didn’t seem adverse to the challenge presented either. One of the things that had attracted Tern to Gage in the first place was his similarity to Mac in the way he thought through problems and took charge if need be.

  “We knew this was an extreme competition,” Mac said. “We all agreed by showing up to this little party.”

  “I’m here to prove I’m the best geocacher in the state,” Lucky said. “That’s what I signed up for.”

  “Is there any food at all?” Nadia asked.

  “By the looks of the rules, we aren’t going to eat until we locate a few geocaches,” Mac said. “It’s getting late. I suggest we spilt into pairs. There’ll be protection against the unfriendlies if we stay in numbers. Tern, you pair up with me—”

  “What?” Robert scoffed. “No way do the old man and the broad get to pair up.”

  “Broad? Really?” Tern asked. “Talk like that is going to get you hurt.”

  “I’d love you to try it, babe.” Robert cocked his brow at her in challenge, then turned back to Mac. “And who the fuck put you in charge?”

  “Age and wisdom, you little shit.” Mac stood over Robert, who at least had the survival instincts to back down. “Now—”

  “The little shit has a point,” Gage interrupted. “No offense, Mac, but you’re older and the women are weaker—”

  “Hey,” Tern said.

  Gage ignored her objection and continued, “We should keep the strength ratio as close to even as we can for protection.”

  “Draw names,” Lucky said. “Luck of the draw.”

  “I’ll get some paper and a pen.” Nadia once again rushed back to their cabin. She returned, wrote everyone’s name on a piece of paper and tore them into slips. “Gage, can I borrow your hat?”

  Gage took off his ball cap and handed it to her. Nadia put the names into the cap and one by one drew out a name.

  “Robert with Mac.” She tossed the names into the fire and glanced around waiting for objections; when no one said anything she drew again. “Lucky with, oh, me.” She smiled at Lucky, and then faced Tern. “I guess that leaves you and Gage.” She mouthed a sorry.

  Sorry didn’t begin to cover it.

  Tern couldn’t look at Gage, but felt his irritation from behind her where he’d waited for the return of his hat. Of all the people to be paired up with, Gage was her last choice. Everything had gone wrong since she’d entered the hangar this afternoon.

  “All right then,” Mac said. “Let’s divide up and see what we can find. Does everyone have a weapon? Good. Fire three shots with a full second between each shot if you get into trouble.” He motioned with the paper that had the geocache coordinates on them. “Leroy, you and Nadia head south over that hill. Tern, since you’re more mountain goat than human, you and Gage head north. By these coordinates, looks as though you might have some ice to navigate. Be careful. Robert and I will head west. I suggest we only give ourselves two hours. Find what you can in that time frame, then reconvene back here.” He looked at each of them in turn. “Got it?”

  “I need a minute.” Tern grabbed Nadia’s arm and dragged her toward their cabin. “What the hell was that all about?”

  “What?” Nadia wrenched her arm free.

  “Pairing me up with Gage? You know he’s the last man I want to spend time with.”

  “Sweetie, it was the luck of the draw.” Nadia ignored Tern’s scoff. “You need to find out what happened between the two of you anyway. And now you have some time alone. You should thank me.”

  “No way.” Tern folded her arms over her chest as if that would help protect her heart. “If he couldn’t tell me then, I don’t want to hear it now.”

  “Yes, you do. It’s been eating you up inside.” Nadia cocked a hip. “Ever think that maybe this is fate?”

  “Fate isn’t
this sick.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. It paired me with Lucky.” A smile she tried to hide gave her away.

  “As if that wasn’t who you wanted to be with anyway.”

  She shrugged. “He’s the most fun of the bunch. There’s an unfair ratio of men to women, and since they’ve all had a taste of you, it’s up to me to protect myself from being passed around,” she said, tongue in cheek.

  “You bitch.”

  Nadia laughed. “Come on, get over it, and let’s have some fun. Think of the havoc you can cause Gage. Get back at him for his mistreatment of you.”

  “Right.”

  “Hey, you wouldn’t mind if Lucky and I hooked up, would you?”

  “Uh…” Nadia and Lucky? He’d break her heart. “Be careful, Nadia. He isn’t the kind of man who sticks around.”

  “My favorite. Use ‘em and abuse ‘em.” Nadia gave a sly smile. “Time for the games to begin.”

  Tern hopped onto a smooth boulder, one of many that had been spat out by the glacier. The chill coming off the ice sank its teeth into her every time she stopped to catch her breath. As long as she kept moving the cold didn’t bite too deep.

  The glacier nestled in a valley of black spruce with craggy outcropping. The crystal clearness of the lake lay below, topped by a sky so azure it was almost white. Not even a jet stream marred the translucent sky. It felt as though if she focused just enough, she’d be able to catch a glimpse into heaven.

  The only thing to ruin this moment was the man trailing behind her. They’d only spoken a few words on the hike toward the glacier. Nothing that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Gage cocked the shotgun again.

  “How many times do you need to check that thing? It isn’t like the bullets are going to disappear.”

  “I don’t like this.”

  “You could have stayed in camp.”

  “That’s not what I meant. This whole set up. It doesn’t feel right. Having no contact with the outside world concerns me. What if someone gets hurt? A week can be a long time to wait for help to arrive.”

  “Afraid of a little adventure?” Though she shared his concerns, she couldn’t help taunting him.

  “I’m not afraid.”

  She turned and gave him a long look. He’d been afraid of her.

  “I’m not afraid of you either,” he said, reading her correctly.

  “Riiight.” Like he would have agreed to this ‘little adventure’ if he’d known she was going to be along. She dismissed him and started climbing again, her feet sliding to a hard stop when he grabbed her arm and swiveled her to face him.

  “I am not afraid of you,” he repeated.

  She studied him. His eyes flashed bright green with golden specks that resembled flames. She moved in closer and laid her hand on his chest. His heart hammered under her palm, and he swallowed.

  “You’re so afraid of me you can’t stand it,” she whispered, slinking closer, until their bodies touched from breasts to thighs. His eyes smoldered and his nostrils flared. “You want to do wicked things with me, but you’re scared to death of what I make you feel.” She let that sink in before she stepped back.

  “Don’t worry, Gage, you’re safe from me. A man dumps me like you did and there isn’t anything more I want from him.” She left, hoping his mouth gaped open as he salivated after her. She almost turned back to relish his expression, but knew she’d lose ground if she did. The geocache had to be around here somewhere. While the GPS coordinates got them close to the cache, it didn’t put them on top of one.

  They needed to find it before she did something else stupid.

  Stupid or not, she’d enjoyed messing with Gage, in a twisted sort of pleasure. Served the deadbeat right. Six months she’d waited for him. And nothing. She was disappointed in herself that she still gave a damn. She should have been able to turn off her feelings after the way he’d treated her. But she’d never been in love so deep before.

  Tern mentally shook herself and concentrated on finding the cache. The light bouncing off the glacier hurt her eyes. She reached into her front pocket, where she’d stored her sunglasses when they’d been in the darkness of the trees, and put them on. The shades cut the rays of the sun and allowed her to see the sharp corner of something square. As far as she knew, Mother Nature hadn’t gotten around to perfecting the square.

  She hiked up a few more feet and knelt down on the icy crust. The coldness melted into her cargo pants. Someone had chipped a small cavity in the ice and set a five gallon cooler into it. She dug around the edges and pulled the cooler free. Pivoting the handle, which acted as a lock, she opened the top.

  Moose steaks, smoked salmon, many different kinds of cheeses, and a few bottles of wine. Hot damn. Her mouth watered. Whoever was running this game was one smart cookie. Encasing the cooler in the ice of the glacier kept the food from spoiling and animals from sniffing it out. She liked the way he thought and couldn’t wait to sink her teeth into one of the steaks.

  “What did you find?” Gage’s tall shadow fell over her.

  “The mother lode.” She shared a real smile with him this time. When he returned it and held out a hand to help her up, her traitorous heart flipped-flopped. “You’re cooking tonight.”

  “It’d be my pleasure.” He pulled her to her feet and kept pulling until she was pressed up against him. “And you’re right. You scare the shit out of me.” His hand came up and framed her face, the other anchored behind her back keeping her close. “But I scare you too.”

  Before she could protest, his lips seared hers. Heat erupted between them and flushed her body with enough warmth to melt the glacier they stood precariously on.

  Oh God, she’d missed him. The way their bodies naturally curved together, the way her insides liquefied in readiness for him, and the way his body hardened to steel. She’d loved his body, the way it was roped with muscle, how his strength made her feel feminine and protected. She’d loved lavishing attention on his body for hours on those lazy days when they didn’t get out of bed. Her fingers itched to touch his skin again, feel his flesh hot under hers as he—

  “I’m not the only one who wants to do wicked things,” he murmured, his voice husky with arrogance. He nipped the skin below her ear, and licked the sting.

  Her fingers curled into his shirt for a moment, and then she pushed him away. He slipped on the ice and fell on his ass at her feet. She stood over him, part of her enjoying the view, the other part already missing the heat of his hands.

  “The wicked things I want to do involve sharp implements.” She brushed her hands over her clothes as though that would erase his touch and how he made her feel. “I found the cache. You can carry it back to camp.”

  Trying to look as if she wasn’t running away, Tern took her time and carefully watched her footing as she descended the ice. She could hear Gage cursing behind her as he struggled with the cooler and his slippery toehold on the glacier.

  Served him right for putting the moves on her, like he had to disprove her earlier statements. There was no way in hell she was afraid of him.

  A shiver caught her by surprise.

  CHAPTER THREE

  There was nothing that put people at ease like a full belly. Excitement about the game peppered the talk over the perfectly sizzled steaks Gage had cooked in the cast-iron skillet that had been found in one of the cabins, along with cooking utensils and plates. Mac and Robert had brought back olive oil, spices, steak sauce, ketchup, and mustard from their located cache.

  Nadia and Lucky had found a package of dried eggs, beans, rice, flour, canned butter, and evaporated milk along with a large tin of coffee. Tern used the knowledge she’d gained from her Athabascan grandmother to gather the young leaves of soldier’s herb, dandelion, fireweed, and lamb’s-quarter for a salad. A splash of white wine mixed with a few tablespoons of olive oil made a very tasty dressing for the greens.

  Yes, the group was feeling mighty full and content.

  Tern had done her best to ignore Gag
e. Hard to do with how hungry she was. She’d eaten every morsel on her plate and would have gone for seconds if there hadn’t been talk of steak and eggs for breakfast. If she were honest, what she really wanted was to go back for seconds on that kiss Gage had snuck in earlier.

  The hunger gnawing at her wouldn’t be satiated with food.

  To get her mind off Gage, she helped Mac secure the perishable food in the cooler and strung it up a tree outside of camp to keep animals from helping themselves. The fire banked, it was decided that they should head to bed and get an early start in the morning.

  Each of the caches they’d found had instructions for the next day’s challenge.

  Nadia pulled Tern aside and whispered that she’d be late coming to bed, and ran giggling behind Lucky Leroy Morgan, who was living up to his nickname. They chased each other into the cover of the trees.

  While Tern had said that it wouldn’t bother her if Nadia hooked up with Lucky, there was still a pang of something that was hard to identify.

  Mac shook his head at them and waved to the rest as he headed to the cabin he shared with Robert. Tern stood and stretched out the kinks in her back and shoulders, slowly lowering her arms as both Robert and Gage’s eyes were glued to her movements.

  “’Night,” she murmured and headed toward her cabin. But once inside, she didn’t want to stay. Whether it was the never ending daylight this close to the North Pole, or the freedom to roam—one pleasure she hadn’t given into in a long time—there was no way she was sleeping.

  The hike up the glacier hadn’t worn her out. If anything it had invigorated her. Some of that might be blamed on the time she’d spend with Gage, though torture wouldn’t get her to admit it.

  She waited until Robert and Gage were no longer sitting around the dying embers, and then grabbed her loaded pistol in its holster and slipped it to her belt, donned a jacket, and headed out.

  The temperature had dropped into the fifties, cold enough that the mosquitoes would be bunkered under leaves and not bothering her. She strolled toward the lake where a loon warbled, calling to its mate. She waited, listened, and then smiled as the mate answered.