EDGE (42 page)

Here it came. Garrett wanted a statement about Jed. Cache would be here for the details. Jed’s death would make the papers. Another story with her name attached. The wire would pick it up and splash it everywhere.

Linnet ushered everyone out and left the three of them alone. Cache sat in the chair across from her while Garrett remained on his feet.

“Where’s Sergei?” Mel was the first to break the silence. It was her lodge. Injured or not, she’d better get informed over the whereabouts of her crew and guests. Not to mention, getting started on the many repairs Jed had left her with. David and Jonah were scheduled to fly out tomorrow. Along with the still hospitalized Whitneys.

“There’s a storm brewing for later in the day. I brought my boat. Sergei’s looking it over. We’ll be taking the Smiths with us when I leave. There’s a flight scheduled in the morning out of Homer for your guests. I’m giving you the use of my boat until you get yours up and running.” He held up his hand when she went to object. “We take care of our own out here. You know that, so don’t waste your breath arguing with me.”

“You’ll need your boat.”

Garrett shook his head. “I’m headed to Bristol Bay to help police the sockeye salmon season. I won’t be back until the end of July.”

“It’s too much, Garrett.”

“No, it’s not.” He gave her that look that said “subject closed.” “Now, I need to know what the hell happened here the last few days.” He sat in the chair next to Cache, taking a notebook and pen out of his breast pocket.

He wrote it all down, then asked for Cache’s version of events. When they were done, he slapped his notebook shut and regarded her as the friend he’d always been. “Why didn’t you tell me you felt watched when I was here?”

She shrugged. “I thought I was going crazy. I mean, what else explained Jedidiah Dawson returning from the grave. Jed looked so much like his father.” She finally asked the question that was nagging for an answer. “My past doesn’t seem a surprise to you.”

“I’m a trooper, Mel. I’ve always known who you were.”

All this time he’d known and he’d never said anything? If he had she would have broken off their relationship. Might even have packed up and left The Edge. She needed time to process this, but Garrett wouldn’t give it her.

“We recovered what was left of the body,” he continued like he hadn’t just tilted her world. “It’s at the coroner’s office. Once it’s released, it will be flown home.”

“Wh-where is home?” She shouldn’t ask, but couldn’t help herself. As much as she hated it, Jed was a part of her life. He’d been the only bright spot in her cult life for those long nine months they’d held her prisoner. The kid Jed had been was so far removed from the man who had tried to sacrifice her.

“He’d moved to Boise, had a job as an accountant. His mother is still a part of the small fraction of Ascension members who moved outside of Coeur d’Alene. I don’t believe any of them are a threat to you. They seemed to have moved on from Dawson’s fanatical beliefs.” Garrett leaned forward. “Mel, Jed was diagnosed, while in foster care, with schizophrenia in his late teens. He’d been stable as long as he stayed on his meds.”

“Tom’s visit was the catalyst?” Cache asked.

“Seems so.” Garrett nodded. “By all accounts, he left his medication in Idaho when he boarded a plane to Alaska.”

“Garrett,” Mel asked, “is there any way to keep my name out of your report?”

He sat back in his chair. “I’ll do my best to have Dawson’s death filed under a bear attack. I can’t make any promises.”

She looked at Cache. It really didn’t matter if her name was kept out of Garrett’s.

Not when Cache was an eyewitness for his own report.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
N
INE

Linnet saw the party off. Quentin and Jonah shook hands and gave each other a man hug. Nicole smiled as David kissed her cheek and asked her to think about visiting him in Washington. After talking it over with Mel, they’d offered David and his son a hefty discount on a return trip, which he’d gladly accepted. He carried the same offer to the Whitneys along with their belongings. Linnet waved them off as they set course for Homer and returned to the lodge.

With all the excitement of the last few days, she’d forgotten what today was. Today she was a free woman, and Jake-the-rake was officially declared dead.

As cold-hearted as it sounded, she wouldn’t be crying at his funeral—that is if she threw him one. He’d never treated her well, except for when he’d been trying to get into her pants. After he’d married her, the real Jake had shown his face, and it wasn’t near as purty as the one she’d believed she’d married.

Nope, no tears for the man who’d used his fists to control and intimidate her. She’d be celebrating his demise and thanking her lucky stars he’d carried a healthy life insurance policy.

Yep, life was going to be good.

Linnet made two mugs of hot chocolate and got out the last box of Girl Scout cookies she’d hidden in the pantry behind the canned green beans. Samoas, her favorite.

Nicole was resting after her bout with lupine. She would have liked to share her little celebration with the woman she’d grown so fond of. Nicole probably wouldn’t understand what today meant to Linnet like Mel would.

Linnet took the tray in to Mel, who sat on the couch looking a little lost. Her poor girl had suffered a few hellish weeks.

Mel’s eyes widened when Linnet placed the tray on the coffee table. “Samoas? Are we celebrating?”

“Yes, we are.” Linnet took a seat across from Mel.

“What are we celebrating?” Mel asked, as though there wasn’t a lot to celebrate at the moment.

“Freedom.”

Mel frown cleared as she remembered. “Is today the day?”

Linnet nodded. Her girl always caught on quick. “It’s a day for new beginnings.” Linnet raised her mug of hot chocolate. “For both of us.”

Mel picked up her mug. “I like that.” They clicked cups.

The door opened from the deck, and in walked a man clean cut and dressed to impress. At least by Alaskan standards. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. He wore a button down collared shirt the color of well-washed money tucked into fresh store-bought jeans, finished by a belt with carved animal detail on the buckle. A soft suede jacket hung on shoulders any woman would have loved to be sheltered by. Salt and pepper hair waved back from a clean shaven face weathered with wisdom and experience. Bright grass-green eyes sparkled with down and dirty salacious intent.

Where had he blown in from?

“Ramsey?” Mel asked in whispered wonder.

Linnet did a double-take that put her neck muscles into a serious kink.

That
could not
be Ramsey.

The man-who-could-not-be-Ramsey stuck a pose, his hands on the lapels of his jacket, his left hip jutted forward. He speared Linnet with a promising I’ll-make-all-your-fantasies-come-true gaze. “Did ya miss me?”

“Miss you?” Linnet asked. “I don’t even
know
you.” The bite of cookie she’d eaten before this wet dream had walked into the lodge lay like an anchor in her stomach.

“You know me, woman.” He advanced farther into the room as though hunting prey.

Linnet could smell him, and he smelled like her backwoods. Mercy this was madness. Might as well dangle a carrot in front of her nose.

“I’ve been waiting seven years for this day.” He hiked up a pant leg and actually knelt on one knee at her feet. “Let’s get hitched.”

Okay, this had to be a dream…or nightmare.

Linnet jumped to her feet. “Are you crazy? I’m not getting hitched again. Besides, I wouldn’t marry you.”

Ramsey slowly got to his feet. “Let’s see if this changes your mind.” He grabbed her by the arms and hauled her into his. Before she could utter a sound, his lips were plastered to hers.

Damn. She’d underestimated what his kiss could do to her. Her toes curled, her head fell back in surrender, and her body sighed as everything
woke up.
He smelled even better up close, and he tasted wicked.

Ramsey pulled back, but kept her at arm’s length. “You’re free from Jake, Linnie. Free to be my woman.”

Hot flowing passion cooled instantly into glacier silt. “I’m not getting married again. Ever. Six times was enough.”

Ramsey smiled a cunning smile that had Linnet’s back stiffening. “Baby,” he drawled. “I’m your lucky number seven.”

She pushed him away. Nice package or not,
Ramsey
was under all that polish and there was a devil in there somewhere. They had too much history together for her to be discombobulated by a cleaned up old fart. “I don’t know what you’ve been drinking, smoking, or popping, but you are out of your ever lovin’ mind.”

“Just for you, baby.” He leaned into her and lowered his voice. “I’ve been waitin’ a long time for you. I’ve years of yearnings with your name all over them. Those other men you’ve been with will vaporize from your memory after I get my hands on you. All you’ll be wantin’ is me.”

Linnet swallowed and felt heat infuse her face. Good God, she was ready for him right now. If Mel wasn’t watching their exchange, she’d have him on his back right here on the living room floor. The truth wasn’t pretty.

“Jake’s gone, and he ain’t ever coming back. On that, you’ve my word.” He backed up and gave her some space to breathe. “I’m not going anywhere, and on that, you also have my word.” He took her seat, picked up her hot chocolate, and helped himself to her Girl Scout cookies.

All while Linnet stood dumbstruck, unable to take her eyes off him.

Ramsey locked eyes with her and wiggled his brows. “Woman, I’ve got myself a bear of an appetite.”

Cache had hoped a breath of fresh air and a long walk along the beach would improve his mood. So far it wasn’t working.

He bent and picked up a wish rock and rubbed it between his fingers. There was no point in wasting another wish on Mel seeing reason. That was one stubborn woman he was in love with.

His feet crunched on the pebbled beach. No sign of anyone, four-legged or otherwise. For all intents and purposes, he could be the only one around for miles. It was quiet. The ocean calm. Water brushed the beach in a careless caress while birch leaves tickled each other with the sound of nature’s chimes. Crisp salt air mixed with heavy mountain foliage. He breathed deep and slowly let it out.

He belonged here. Alaska was what all his traveling had been about. Trying to find a little part of the world where he belonged. Now that he’d found it, he wasn’t leaving. Whether things worked out between him and Mel or not, Alaska was home.

Granted he hadn’t seen a winter. He wasn’t clueless, winters in Alaska weren’t a picnic, but that also held a wonder he wanted to experience. He wanted to see firsthand the Northern Lights dancing across an ebony sky. Make love with a fire burning in the fireplace as a snow storm blanketed the outdoors. He’d always been attracted to the extreme and Alaska promised him that. As did making a life with Mel. If she’d ever have him.

He didn’t like being at odds with her, and he hadn’t helped matters today by calling her stupid and demanding she do what he wanted.

Cache tucked away the wish rock in his pocket and turned back toward the lodge.

Wishing wasn’t going to get the job done.