Whiteout (Aurora Sky (23 page)

“Here. This is it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. We'll find out.”

Dante turned onto the road and followed the tracks in the snow. It would have normally felt rough, but compared to the trail we'd blazed earlier
,
this particular stretch of gravel was a cakewalk.

Three guesses as to what we
'd find at the end.

Yep, a small log cabin.

Smoke rose from
a
stovepipe
and light seeped out along the edges of the curtains.

“This is it,” Dante said. “And it looks like they're both home.” He parked behind two vehicles.

Tommy lifted his head, panting
softly. Dirt roads usually meant it was time to get out and settle in for the night. The pit in my stomach tightened.

Dante glanced over his seat. “Sorry, buddy. You're going to have to sit this one out a little longer than last time. Wait here a minute.”

I
stepped down from the passenger's side
, reaching for the pizzas once standing on solid ground. As soon as Dante
came around and
slammed the door behind me, the front door of the cabin opened and a young man, roughly Dante's age, stepped out with a shotgu
n aimed at us.

 

 

 13

Misdirection

 

Instinctively, I began raising the boxes of pizzas like a shield. As if marinara, mozzarella, and bread would do any good stopping bullets.

Dante lifted a hand in the air. “Hey, Buck. It's me, Dante.”

“Dante?” B
uck squinted and lowered his rifle. “Dude, you gave me a start.”

Dante walked toward him. “You're the one holding the shotgun, dude.”

“Don't mind me. Can't be too careful.”

“I hear you,” Dante said.

Buck squinted toward me. “Who have you got there with you
?”

“Buck, meet Aurora. Aurora, Buck. Mind if we invite ourselves in for dinner? We were in the area and brought pizza.”

“Pizza? Come on in.”

“Mind if my dog comes in
?” Dante asked.

“No problem. We love dogs. I'll let Nicole know we have company.” Buck
returned to the cabin.

Guess Dante really did trust this vamp. He'd given him our real names.

Dante pivoted back to the car and let Tommy out. Once the retriever jumped down, he trotted over to a nearby tree and lifted his leg.

I waited for Dante to catch
up to me before continuing to the cabin.

“Did you hear that?” Dante asked. “They love dogs.”

“Yeah, great. He also pointed a shotgun at us.”

Dante
shrugged one shoulder
. “Well, we did show up out of the blue.”

Sure, excellent reason to point a loaded gun a
t visitors.

“Come on, Tommy,” Dante called, leading the way up to the log cabin.

He wiped his feet on a mat outside the cabin, and I did the same. He tapped lightly on the door before opening it. Once I'd entered the cabin, I stepped aside. Tommy came in b
ehind me, followed by Dante.

A brunette sauntered toward the door. Despite the jeans and flannel shi
rt she had on, she was gorgeous:
tall
, slender, yet curvy, with thick, long hair.
Her eyes lit up when Dante walked in.

“Hi, Dante! I almost didn't believe
Buck when he said you were out front. What a wonderful surprise.”

“It's good to see you too, Nicole.”

Her smile dropped when she saw me. “What happened to Noel? Are you not together anymore?”

I looked at Dante and raised an eyebrow. Another tidbit I'd for
gotten. Dante and Noel had pretended they were dating when they'd come up to Fairbanks on
a
stakeout.

“Noel and I are still friends,” Dante answered. “This is Aurora.”

“Hi. Also a friend,” I said before Nicole could get any ideas in her head about Dante a
nd me being an item.

“Hi
,
” she said with an easy smile. “And who's this?” she asked, crouching in front of Tommy.

Dante grinned. “This is Tommy Moe. Tommy, say hi to Nicole.”

Tommy barked.

“He talks! Good boy,” she said, stroking Tommy's head. “Tommy Moe,”
she repeated thoughtfully. “Like the Olympic gold medalist who used to ski at Alyeska
?”

Dante's chest lifted. “The very one!”
He
looked over at me with a quick smile.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The woman knew who Tommy was named after and made flannel look sexy.

Nicole stood up and held her arms out. “Here, let me give you a hand, Aurora. You just made my entire weekend. I swear if I eat one more salmon fillet
,
I'm going to grow gills.” She shot me a cheeky grin as she grabbed all three pizza boxes.

And just like
that I was suddenly convinced we could become
good
friends.

Nicole set the boxes on a handmade wood
en
coffee table in the living room. “Sorry about the informal seating. Our table only seats two. I think it's cozier by the fire anyway.”

“
This
is perfect
,
”
I said,
ready to agree with whatever Nicole thought was best.

Buck returned with two beer bottles and a roll of paper towels. He handed a beer to Dante.

“How about you, Aurora?” Buck asked. “
Alaskan
Amber?”

“No
,
thanks.”

“Water?”

I shook my head. “I'm
fine, thanks.”

How about blood? Jeez, I guess Dante was right about this guy. Beer and water. Nothing sketchy happening in this neck of the woods.

“Aurora,” Nicole said. “If you don't mind me asking, are you human or vampire?”

“Vampire,” I answered, runnin
g my fingers over my hair to ensure it still hid the side of my neck.

Nicole raised one slender eyebrow. “Oh really? I haven't met many female vampires.”

“Tell me about it,” I said.

I
swore
male vampires outnumbered the female variety ten to one. Lady vamp
s were probably better at flying under the radar—probably less violent too.

Dante gulped down his first swig of beer then pointed the bottle at Nicole. “What about you, Nicole? How are tricks?”

Nicole frowned, and she and Buck exchanged looks.

Dante lower
ed his bottle. “What's the matter?”

Nicole bit gently on her lower lip then released it. The gesture was oddly alluring. It made me think of biting and blood. It was so unfair that Dante could be content with beer while I suffered through blood cravings al
one.

Buck moved over to Nicole and put his arm around her. “Nicole doesn't work tastings anymore.”

“What happened?” Dante asked, sounding perplexed.

Although I'd filled him in on last season's episodes of my life, it didn't change the fact that Dante had b
een locked inside a basement when the agency shut down the tastings permanently.

Hearing about it and being there were two entirely different things.

“Nicole used to be a wine girl at Diederick's tastings,” Dante said to me
,
as though I was the one who ne
eded clueing in.

“Oh?” I said, taking a closer look at Nicole.

I didn't recognize her from the night our undercover kill team went up to the hillside. At least she'd made it out alive. But I couldn't
help feeling disappointed. Nicole hadn't struck me as th
e type who would lend
her bo
dy out to vampires.
That night at Diederick's left a bad taste in my mouth.

Nicole must have seen the look of
judgment
on my face.

“We were saving up to leave town,” she explained. “Our dream is to purchase land and become homes
teaders.”

My eyes darted around the sparsely furnished cabin. “This isn't remote enough for you?”

She smiled and shook her head. “Fairbanks has grown too much for our taste.”

I gawked at Nicole. She looked like she should be posing for
Sports Illustrated
's
swimsuit issue, not crawling on her hands and knees planting cabbage
s
.

More power to her though.

Me?
I still dreamed of that villa Fane once mentioned in Tuscany.

“What happened?” Dante pressed.

Nicole's shoulders dropped. “I was working a tasting in Anch
orage a month ago and lost consciousness. When I woke up there were two guys with a gun and a man in a suit standing at the edge of the bed.”

My body tensed.

“The man in the suit did all the talking. He said he was part of a government agency that
monitored illegal vampire activity and that he was shutting down tastings. He told me that unless I wanted to be brought up on charges, I'd answer all his questions.”

“What kind of questions?” Dante asked.

“He wanted to know the location and dates of every
tasting I'd ever worked. He wanted names or descriptions of every vampire I ever encountered.” Nicole swallowed. “He said he knew I was dating a vampire, and that if I didn't cooperate, he'd send his agents after Buck. I told him everything I knew and I p
romised not to tell anyone about the existence of vampires.” She balled her hands into fists. “He said I was on his radar permanently and that if I uttered a word about vampires to anyone, he'd go after Buck.”

My head turned. “On his radar
...
like he's mon
itoring you?” I asked. I looked at Dante. And here we thought it would be safer to seek help from a vampire. This wasn't sounding so good anymore.

“Don't worry,” Nicole said. “He doesn't consider me
a
threat enough to monitor closely. I'm in his system or
whatever, but he made it clear Buck and I wouldn't be the only ones who suffered if either of us ever stepped out of line. He knows where my mom and sister live too.”

“What an asshole,” I said, knowing exactly who “he” was.

Melcher strikes again.

Nicole sm
iled slightly. “With a capital A. I got out of there as soon as he released me, but I could see they were interrogating all the girls who worked that gig.”