EDGE (35 page)

Cache hurt. Probably as bad as when he’d first arrived. His stomach hadn’t settled with dinner either. He’d grabbed a tree branch at the campsite and was using it as a cane. Sergei took the lead on the way back down the hill. Mel walked between the two men. She was quiet. Had been stone silent since they’d destroyed the altar.

“How long has he been here?” Cache asked, the pieces finally falling together.

“Who?”

“Don’t play games with me. Jedidiah’s son.”

She worried her bottom lip. “A month, probably more.”

Shit
. The son of a bitch must have headed here as soon as Tom let him know they’d located Mel. “Why haven’t you said anything?”

“My business.”

“Not when I had a part in it, though I wasn’t aware Tom had informed Dawson of your whereabouts.”

“Still my business.”

He grabbed her arm and brought her to a stop. “Damn it, Mel, I care about you. I’m not going to sit around while you fight whatever this guy is doing. Now, either we are calling in the police or you’re going to tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“I agree,” Sergei said, standing to the side, the sawn-off shotgun looking extremely comfortable in his grip. “Enough secrets.”

Mel yanked her arm free, and looked around as though she wanted to bolt. There was nowhere to go. Thick trees and shoulder-high bushes flanked the trail. Cache blocked the upper section and Sergei had the downward path.

She was good as caged.

“Give.”

“Fine.” She harrumphed. “Jed’s been watching me for a while.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s…uh…he’s been leaving me messages.” Cache raised his brows and she filled in the blanks. “Bible verses in the mirror of the bathroom. My cult name in the sand, food missing from the pantry. Crap like that.”

“The camp you thought was poachers.”

She jerked her head in agreement.

“We need to call the police.”

“And tell them what? I have a Peeping Tom? Besides, I’ve had my life cut open for the world to dissect. I’m not doing it again.”

Cache opened his mouth to argue then closed it. She’d never see his side of it, and she had a point. As of yet, no threat had been made. He saw fear in her eyes. Cold and terrorizing fear. “Why don’t you tell me what you
think
is going to happen?”

“How should I know?”

“You do, don’t you?” His stomach rolled. Her gaze fell to the ground.

Something nagged at him. What was he missing?

“The Ascension,” she murmured.

It took him a moment, and then it clicked. “The solstice.”

She nodded.

“What day is it?” Since he’d been on The Edge he’d lost track of the time. How long did they have?

“The twentieth.”

“Explain,” Sergei demanded, looked worried and confused at the same time.

“The longest day of the year. June twenty-first,” Cache explained. “The Ascension believed that this was the best day to ascend to heaven.” He turned back to Mel. Twenty years ago she’d been sacrificed on the summer solstice. “Were you going to tell anyone?”

“My business,” she said again, tightening her lips.

“Goddamn you. Your stubbornness is going to get you killed.”

“Not if I can help it.”

“As I see it, you aren’t doing anything to help yourself. You’re waiting around for him to come to you.”

“What the hell do you want me to do?” She threw her arms out. “Look around you. He could be anywhere. I have a lodge to run, with paying guests.”

“What about your guests? How do you plan to protect them?”

“He doesn’t want them. He wants me.” She pushed her way around Sergei and headed down the trail at a fast clip.

“Mel!” Cache couldn’t believe it when she actually stopped and turned.

“What?”

He hobbled down the trail toward her. “No taking off alone. From now on you are not to be alone under any circumstances.”

“You are not going to dictate to me.”

“The hell I’m not.” Suddenly his upset stomach got the better of him, and he bent over the bushes and vomited for the second time that day.

Sergei took one look at him, turned green and did the same.

“What’s the matter with you guys?” she demanded.

Cache slowly stood and wiped his mouth. Sergei held up a finger, telling her to give him a minute as he threw up again.

“I don’t know,” Cache said. He put his hand on top of his head as though to hold it in place. “I just suddenly feel really sick.”

“Me too.” Sergei stood, his hand on his stomach, his color still green.

“Oh God.” Her face drained of color. “We’ve got to get back to the others.”

Mel rapped hard on Nicole’s door, praying to whatever God who would listen while she waited. Nicole answered looking pale as death, and Mel’s suspicions sank like claws in her chest. “Where are the kids?”

“Loft.” Nicole dropped her hold on the door and shuffled to the couch where she dropped into a heap. A bucket sat on the floor, ready in case she was sick. By the looks of her she’d already been plenty sick.

“Quentin,” Mel hollered up the ladder.

Quentin stuck his head over. “Hey, Aunt Mel.”

“Where’s your sister?

He shrugged. “Don’t know. She headed down to the lodge to get some Tums or something for Mom, but hasn’t come back yet.”

“How long ago was that?”

“A while.” He looked at his mom and worried his bottom lip.

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine. As long as I don’t get too close to Mom.” He wrinkled his nose. “She stinks.”

“Why don’t you come down here and help me get your mom to the lodge where we can take care of her.”

“Okay.”

Cache and Sergei showed up about the time they had Nicole on her feet, helping her out of the cabin. Mel took one look at the men and knew they weren’t going to be a lot of help.

“What’s wrong with them?” Quentin asked.

“Same thing that’s wrong with your mom.”

They reached the lodge, and Cache held the door while Mel and Quentin got Nicole inside and onto the sofa of the living room. “Quentin, run and get a pan in case your mom needs it.”

He took off like a shot. Cache dropped into a chair, while Sergei ran for the deck and threw up over the rail. Mel finished tucking Nicole in with the blanket draped across the back of the couch and straightened just as Linnet came down the stairs.

They shared a look. “Food poisoning?” Mel asked.

“Looks like.” Linnet was green around the gills herself.

“How many?”

“All of them, except Emily and young Jonah. How’s your group?”

“I brought Quentin and Nicole down with me.” She indicated Nicole sick on the couch. “Quentin seems fine.”

“So do you.” Linnet sank into a chair, holding her head in her hands.

“Where’s Emily?”

“Upstairs. I grabbed her when she came in. She’s been a godsend with the Whitneys.” Linnet looked at Mel. “What
didn’t
you eat for dinner?”

Mel thought over the menu. Halibut, bread, rice, salad, with raspberry chocolate cake for dessert. She’d eaten everything but the vegetables. “The salad.”

Linnet nodded. “Thought so. Which is why the kids aren’t sick. Never seen a kid willingly eat their vegetables.”

Mel headed to the kitchen. She yanked the leftover salad out of the fridge. Linnet had followed but had to hold onto the counter in order to stay upright. “Sit down before you fall down.” Mel brought the salad to the table. Cache shuffled in, wilting next to Linnet.

Mel took the plastic wrap off the bowl, grabbed a fork, and carefully leafed through the greens. Lettuce, grated carrots, cucumbers, purple cabbage, chunks of tomatoes. “What are these bluish spice-like things?”

Linnet pulled the bowl closer to her, studying the purplish-blue bits. She grabbed the fork and lifted a bigger piece out of the bowl, then looked out the window to the meadow of tall spires of purple-blue flowers. “Damn it to hell, I think it’s dried pieces of lupine.”

“Nicole knows not to touch the stuff, doesn’t she?”

Linnet nodded. “Told her and the kids first day they were here to stay away from it and to wash their hands really well if they touched any part of the plant.”

“Explain what happens if you ingest this lupine,” Cache asked.

Mel gave him an anxious look. “Wild Arctic Lupine is poisonous. Every part of the plant is poisonous, leaves, stalk, flowers. All of it.”

“Poisonous?” He swallowed. “As in we could die, poisonous?”

“Depends on how much we ate,” Linnet said. “To say the least, we won’t be feeling very good for a while.”

“Hell, so much for being careful about eating healthy,” Cache grumbled.

“Let’s get some water in everyone in the hopes of diluting the poison.”

“What kind of symptoms are we talking about?” Cache asked.

“Hopefully, just slight dizziness, a headache, and an upset stomach.”

“What if we don’t get ‘hopefully’?”

“Vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, and hallucinations,” Linnet paused. “Coma and death in rare cases,” she finished. “I’ve got a question.” She narrowed a look at Mel. “Who put lupine in the salad?”

Mel decided it was time to come clean. The stakes were getting too high. “Probably the same person who painted a nine-point star on my sheets in blood.”

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
T
WO

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die.

~REVELATION 9:6

“When in the hell were you going to tell us about the star?” Cache leaned across the table, his eyes full of anger and fear.

“If and when you needed to know.”

“You have a death wish? You want this sick son of a bitch to get to you?”

“No. I don’t want others hurt because of me.”

“Well, we’re all in it now.”

Mel sucked in her breath. “I know.”

“You know why he did it, don’t you? Why he incapacitated all of us?”

“So he could get to me.” Distress that she was the cause of all this was almost enough to paralyze her.

“I think it’s time to bring in the law and get everyone off The Edge,” Linnet said. “The Whitneys are in real bad shape. Nicole doesn’t look very good either.”

“What about David?”

“David looks like Cache here.”

“Linnet, do you feel well enough to get liquid into everyone while I fire up the plane?” When Linnet agreed, Mel continued, “I’ll see if Sergei can get the boat ready.”

“I’ll come with.” Cache stood, wavered on his feet.

“Take deep breaths when you stand up. That might help.” Mel had no clue if it would or not. He took her advice and followed her through the great room to the deck where she’d last seen Sergei. He turned his head toward them as they exited the cabin.

“Boat,” Sergei said, reading her correctly.

“You up to it?”

“Anything to feel better.”

They headed down to the beach, waiting a moment for Cache as he was sick again, then Sergei took his turn. Mel wanted to throw up just watching them. They finally reached the running line and pulled in the plane and boat. Sergei boarded the boat, while Cache helped hold the plane.

As soon as Mel climbed into the plane she knew they were in a hell of a lot of trouble. Jed had already been there. The radio was missing.

She turned the key. Nothing. No cough, no whine, nothing.

Shit.

She climbed out and undid the hatch over the engine. Jed had taken a knife and sliced everything that could be sliced. Hoses, wires, all of it lay in ribbons.

She was grounded.

“What’s wrong?” Cache asked. Then he saw her face. “He got to the plane?”