He shoveled in a few more bites and then resumed. “I didn’t see any sign of someone else, but then Lucky had trampled the area, contaminating any tracks left by anyone besides the two of them. The section was so wooded there’s no way to tell if she was pushed or her pack was snagged.”
Tern didn’t like the suspicions radiating off him. “What are you thinking?”
He glanced at everyone. “There’s either someone among us setting us up, or out there waiting and watching for an opportunity.”
“Opportunity for what?” Tern asked, even though she was afraid she knew.
“That’s what we’d better figure out.”
Mac finished eating and then he and Gage took off for the geocache Tern and Gage hadn’t found earlier. Hopefully, there would be more clues in it to point to what was going on.
Nadia stumbled out of their cabin with Lucky’s help. Tern rushed over while Robert kept watch, propped against his cabin with his rifle lying crosswise on his lap.
“How are you feeling?” Tern asked, her gaze roving over Nadia. Her face was pale, the swelling around the cut already turning black and blue.
“Remember that car wreck I was in two years ago?” Nadia grumbled. Tern nodded. “A lot like that.”
Tern supported one arm, and with Lucky on Nadia’s other side, they helped her over to the snapping campfire.
“Do we have any drugs?”
“I made you some tea,” Tern said. “It should help with the aches and pains.” Tern poured the willow tea in a cup and cautiously handed it to Nadia. “It’s hot, so be careful.”
Nadia sipped and grimaced. “Ugh. This is gross.”
“Yes, but it will help your headache.”
“I think I’d rather deal with the headache.”
“Is there anything else I can get you?” Lucky asked, hovering at her side.
“Unless you have chocolate, I don’t want to see you right now,” Nadia said.
Lucky dropped his head. “I’m really sorry, Nadia.” He shuffled off toward his cabin.
“You were a little hard on him,” Tern said, watching Lucky scuff his way across the camp. “This wasn’t his fault.”
“He should never have left me out there. I don’t want to talk about him. I heard fighting earlier. What happened between you and Gage?”
“Heard that, did you?”
“I don’t know what was real and what I dreamt.” She took another sip, her face contorting from the bitterness, but she swallowed. “Clear it up for me.”
Tern brought her up to speed with the blame game earlier, then leaned in after searching the camp for anyone listening, and told Nadia what had happened between her and Gage on their geocaching trek.
“Holy shit.” Nadia sat stunned. “I bet you wished you could trade me places.”
Tern regarded Nadia’s bump on the head. “Doubt you’d want to be in my shoes though.”
“I don’t know. The sex sounded really hot.”
Tern didn’t want to remember, but was afraid she’d never forget.
Mac and Gage entered camp. Anger and apprehension drifted off them in waves. Mac called the group together.
“Give me a minute to talk to Tern first,” Gage began.
Mac shook his head. “Need to see everyone’s reaction to the news.” He stared at Tern. “Especially hers.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Tern.” Gage grabbed her hand. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”
“No one is going anywhere,” Mac said. “Robert, get Leroy out here. Gage, take a seat. Nadia, glad to see you up and about.”
“What’s going on?” Nadia looked at Tern.
Tern shook her head, but she had a bad feeling. She should have listened to that feeling when it had slithered over her skin at the hangar in Fairbanks. Her grandmother, Coho, had always advised to heed the warnings of her ancestral spirits. She pulled on Gage’s grip. He tightened his hold as though trying to telegraph something before releasing her.
Robert and Lucky joined the group. Everyone had taken a stump except Mac. He leaned his .30-06 butt down on the ground against a log, reached into his breast pocket and pulled out newspaper articles.
“We found news clippings on everyone except Tern.” He observed Tern. “I think it’s safe to say we are all here because of you.”
A chill snaked up her spine. “News clippings? Why?”
“We’d better hurry and figure out why.” Mac clenched his jaw and glanced down at the newspapers. “Before we start, just know that we all have secrets. None of us are saints.”
“What the fuck is in those?” Robert rose to his feet.
“Our deepest and darkest.”
“I’m not staying here for this.” Robert backed up a few steps.
“Really, Robert, where are you going to go?” Lucky asked.
Robert looked frantically around and cursed again. “Burn ‘em.” He pointed to what Mac held in his hand. “Right now, toss them in the fire.”
“Gage and I already know what’s in these,” Mac said. “The rest of you need to be aware of what we’re up against.”
“Bullshit,” Robert huffed. “This is a sick game.”
“One that almost got me killed this afternoon,” Nadia said. “I don’t want to hear what’s in those any more than you do. But whoever’s pulling the strings does.”
“So, we’re going to blindly obey the son of a bitch?” Lucky asked, joining with Robert.
“You have a better idea?” Nadia asked.
“Yeah,” Lucky said. “We can pack up and walk out of here.” He glanced around the group.
“I’m in agreement,” Robert said. “Burn the newspapers and let’s leave. None of us signed up for this.”
“I’m not in any condition to hike out of here,” Nadia said, raising her hand to her head. “I vote for the big reveal and playing out the game until the plane shows back up.”
“That’s five days away,” Gage quietly reminded everyone.
“How long will it take to hike out?” Nadia asked. “Get real. We might as well put a bullet in our heads right now.”
“Okay, none of that kind of talk,” Tern said.
“Nadia’s right,” Mac said. “We’re a good fifty to a hundred miles from any village. If there’s someone out there lying in wait, we’re better equipped to stay here and defend ourselves. If one of us is the culprit, best to stay and keep an eye on everyone.”
“What about that trash?” Robert gestured to the news clippings. “I still vote we destroy them and refuse to play.”
“What are you afraid of, Robert?” Nadia asked.
“None of your goddamn business.” He tightened his lips.
“Actually, it is her business.” Mac regarded the group. “For whatever reason, we’re all here, which means we need to know what’s in these news articles. Whoever set this ‘competition’ up went through a lot of time investigating us. We need to know what he knows. It’s the only way to get to the bottom of this.” Mac drew in a deep breath. “I’ll go first.” He held Tern’s gaze for a moment before glancing at the others. “Remember, every story has two sides.”
When he began it was like he was lost in some dark place, reliving a nightmarish past. He passed the copy of the article around. “My wife was killed because of me. After I left the Rangers, I worked intelligence for the government. Shannon was kidnapped and used as leverage to try and get me to turn traitor against my country.” His voice failed him, and he took a minute. “You’ll notice the newspapers painted a different picture of her death. Make your own judgments.”
Gage passed Tern the article.
The headline read: Decorated US Army Ranger’s Wife Tortured and Killed.
The article went into depth on how Mac refused to give into the kidnappers’ demands, and his wife was murdered. Rather than concentrate on the supreme sacrifice that Mac had made for his country, the journalist had focused on the inhumanity of the man who would forfeit the life of his wife. It painted Mac and t
he military in a harsh, callous light.
Tern didn’t read any further, and handed it to Nadia. Why hadn’t he confided in her? This explained so much of why he refused to commit to her. She stood and walked over to him, her hand resting on his forearm. “This is the why?”
He nodded and lightly cupped her cheek. “I couldn’t put another person I loved in harm’s way.”
“You could have told me. I would have understood.”
“You would have talked me into marrying you.”
She gave him a sad smile. “Probably.”
“Which is why I couldn’t risk it.” He cupped her face and kissed her cheek. “Better have a seat, love. There are more punches to come.”
She returned to her seat, catching Gage’s narrowed stare.
“Anyone want to volunteer to go next?” Mac asked. There was a lot of squirming, except for Gage who sat like a stone, hands clasped loosely between his knees, while he stared into the flames.
“Make no mistake, we’ll be diving deep into these.” Mac waved the evidence in his hand. “For whatever reason, they have something to do with why we are all here.”
“I’ll go,” Nadia said. “If it’s what I think it is, Tern is already aware of it.” She held out her hand and took the article from Mac. A quick glance had her rolling her lips as though fighting back tears. She lowered her head and began to speak in words barely above a whisper. “I was babysitting. Sometime during the evening my sister fell between her mattress and the frame of her bunk bed. I never heard her as she was strangled.” Nadia swallowed and cleared her throat. “She died. I was fourteen. She was only three.”
Tern put a comforting arm around her. Nadia leaned heavily against her as though the telling had taken whatever spunk she had left.
“This is ridiculous, Mac,” Tern said. “What is any of this going to accomplish?”
“Until we can figure something else out, it will relax the person who brought us together into thinking we’re complying,” Mac said. “Besides, I prefer knowing what the guy has on all of us. Knowledge is power.”
“This is a bunch of shit,” Robert said, tossing a stick into the fire. “There is nothing that has been revealed that helps us figure out anything. What does your wife’s death have to do with this? Nadia’s little sister? It’s all fucking bullshit.”
“It speaks to character,” Mac said. “We’re made up of our experiences. They are the fires that forge who we are. What are you made of, Robert? Or should we call you Wyatt?” Mac stood impassable, his thick muscled arms crossed over his chest, the stern, tightness of his face speaking louder than words. The warrior was in charge, and Robert must have recognized that there was no way out of this particular game.
Robert’s skin blanched. “Fine. Let me see that.” He took the offered printed page, glanced at it. His shoulders dropping. “I was seventeen. It was fifteen years ago. Road conditions were bad, ice fog was thick. I never saw the other car.”
“What happened?” Tern asked when he paused long enough to make her think he wasn’t going to finish.
“We’d been drinking, okay. We were fucking teenagers. I was driving. I was the only one who survived. The others were killed.”
“How many others?” Nadia asked.
“I did the time, okay. Plead guilty to vehicular homicide.”
“Finish it, Robert,” Mac said.
“Three, okay. My girlfriend, my best friend, and his date. It was prom. We’d decided to double.”
“Any reason for anyone to still want justice?” Mac asked. “Family members of the ones killed?”
“It happened in Minnesota. As soon as I got out of juvie, I changed my name and headed north. As far as I know, nobody has a clue I’m here.”
“Someone does,” Mac said. “Pass the picture around.”
Reluctantly, Robert did.
The picture accompanying the articled showed a hunk of twisted metal wrapped around a tree with the headline, Drunken Teen Slays Friends. Tern’s stomach sickened as she passed the newspaper clipping back to Robert. He stared at the paper before crumpling it in his hand. “Who the fuck is doing this?” His voice broke. He stood and stomped a few steps away, giving the group his back.
Silence settled over the camp until Lucky spoke, his tone subdued, “I killed my best friend too.”
Robert slowly swiveled around and stared at Lucky as he continued. “We were climbing the north face of Monte Blanc. Wicked granite walls.” He paused, breathing deep as though gaining courage to continue. “The rigging broke. I’d checked all the gear the night before. Everything seemed fine. But…it didn’t matter in the end. Hansen was dead.”
“This is ridiculous,” Tern said. “These incidents are all tragic accidents.”
“Maybe if I had double, triple checked the gear, I could have saved him. It was my responsibility. It was my gear. I’d talked him into the climb. He wasn’t as experienced as I was. He trusted me, and it got him killed.”
“That’s enough.” Tern jumped to her feet. “Accidents happen.”
“Mine was no accident,” Gage said, a finality in his voice.
Tern slowly sank back onto the stump, her heart thudding in her chest. She didn’t want to hear this. Didn’t want to know what Gage had hidden from her. This whole game, the big reveal, had been building to what Gage had kept from her.
“I killed my brother-in-law,” he said. “And if I could, I’d kill him again.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Want to know where I went six months ago?” Gage asked, almost daring Tern to ask. “Jail, on murder charges.”
Silence cut the group. It was like someone had pushed the mute button on the remote. Even the chickadees, high up in the birch branches, ceased their chirping. Either that or Tern’s hearing refused to take in the conviction of his words.
He couldn’t have killed someone.
The man she’d loved wasn’t a murderer. Besides, if he had killed this brother-in-law, he’d be in prison, not free and here with them now. There had to be more to the story. It was a struggle, but Tern found her voice. “Tell us.”
Gage arrowed in on her, the fire in his eyes making her uncomfortable. She wanted to look away but couldn’t.
He started to speak, fast, as though regurgitating what happened. “My brother-in-law beat the shit out of my sister. Apparently, he’d been doing it for years, but no one informed me until she was hospitalized. They didn’t know if she was going to live through it. Mitch had beaten her within an inch of her life. Broken ribs, collapsed lung, left her blind in one eye, and caused her to miscarry her pregnancy of five months. Jury’s still out on whether she’ll be able to have any more kids. She refused to press charges, said she’d fallen down the stairs. Something had to be done. So I flew back home to New Mexico and confronted Mitch, told him to leave. He wasn’t going to be within a hundred feet of my sister ever again. We got into it. He pulled a knife and I killed him.”
Tern’s heart clenched at the pain and powerless rage in Gage’s voice. “Why didn’t you call me?” she asked.
“I couldn’t call you from jail. Tern, I never wanted you to know what I had done.”
Silence once again smothered like a blanket over the group. What did she say to that? She wanted more information, like how was he released? Was there a trial still pending? Would she lose him again, this time for life as he served out a murder sentence?
“Okay, time to move on.”
Wait? She wasn’t ready to move on. She couldn’t process everything that Gage had said.
Mac continued, “We know what this psycho is using against us. Does anyone have anything else to add?” Everyone looked at each other but didn’t say anything. “From what I can tell this whole thing has been orchestrated around Tern. So, Tern, what’s your verdict?”
“None of this means anything,” she said. “None of it changes how I feel. I still care for everyone the same.” Why hadn’t Gage trusted in her?
Gage lifted his head, his eyes f
ocused on her.
“I knew about Nadia’s past and I’m not naive enough to assume that all of you are perfect. I don’t understand what was to gain by this exercise.”
“Probably trying to pit us against each other,” Robert said, calmer now. “We just found out that we’re stuck with a bunch of people capable of murder.” He nodded at Gage.
“Given the right motivation, everyone is capable of killing someone,” Gage said.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a breather,” Nadia said. Tern silently agreed.
“I could use a drink,” Lucky said attempting to joke until he caught the look in Robert’s eyes. “Sorry, bad taste.”
“I suggest we figure a way to get out of here,” Robert said. “I’m not going to be used like a pawn in some psychotic fuck’s game.”
“This was supposed to be fun,” Lucky said. “I’m not enjoying myself at all. Anyone else?”
There were a few grunts of agreement.
“We need to hike out of here tomorrow morning, first light,” Lucky said. “The Yukon River is below us. There is bound to be traffic this time of year. Fishing, tourists, supplies headed up river. We hike down, walk along the bank until we run into someone. Chances are we might get some cell service.”
“Except our cell phones were taken, remember?” Nadia reminded. “I think we should stay put. The plane is going to be here in a few days—”
“We can’t be sure of that,” Lucky said.
“Who’s to say if we leave, we won’t run into more problems?” Nadia pointed out.
“We’re sitting ducks here,” he returned.
“With water and food—”
“We’re almost out of food,” Lucky said.
“Enough,” Mac interrupted. “Let’s put it to a vote. All in favor of hiking out of here come morning raise their hand.”
One by one everyone’s hand rose except Nadia’s.
Death Cache Page 6
