Death Cache (12 page)

“Listen, dude, don’t drag me into your rage.”

“Pansy,” Robert spat and then addressed Nadia. “Nadia?”

“I’ve no complaints.” She dismissed him by picking up her tea and drinking deep, though the grimace was visible as she choked the bitterness down.

Robert stared at Gage. “You’re just a mini Mac, aren’t you? Is that what Tern saw in you? A younger version of the old man.”

Tern sucked in her breath. Robert wasn’t pulling any punches tonight. The idiot was out for blood.

Gage tightened his jaw. His knuckles whitened around the fork clenched in his hand. The comment had obviously hit a nerve. In a way, Robert was right. Gage had a lot of the same qualities that Mac did. What had she been thinking hooking up with Robert in the first place? He was showing his true colors now, instead of what he’d wanted her to see when they’d been dating.

“Seems to me you have a burr up your ass.” Gage laid his plate on the ground beside his feet.

“What is this? A pissing contest?” Tern asked. “I’ve had enough of this. Robert, quit being a jerk. Gage, don’t take the bait.”

“You tell ‘em, girlfriend,” Lucky said, shutting up with a murderous stare from Robert.

“I find it interesting, Robert, that you were the one who left camp, alone, and happened to find a geocache that was filled with Tern’s favorite candy bar.” Mac folded his arms across his chest. “Better start explaining.”

Robert now resembled a mouse with his tail caught in the claws of a cat. “What? You think
I
set this up?”

“Did you?” Mac asked.

“Hell, no.” Robert glanced at Tern. “Tern, honey, I’d never do anything to hurt you. You gotta know that. I lov—”

“Just explain why you left camp,” Gage interrupted.

“When I entered the cabin, on my bunk was the GPS coordinates that we’d found in the previous geocache. I was bored. So I decided to check it out.”

“That’s convenient,” Mac said. “Why did you leave camp without letting anyone know where you were headed? This is Alaska, not Maryland.”

Robert huffed a deep breath. “Fine. I wanted to find that damn cache and destroy what was in it.”

“Why? Afraid of what else might be inside?”

“Yes, goddamn you.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Why must we know every fucking secret about each other?”

“What else are you hiding?” Gage asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Robert shot back.

“Yeah, I would. I’d like to know if the whiny jackass sitting in front of us is the one capable of organizing this farce?”

It was like a tennis match with Tern, Nadia, and Lucky looking from Gage and Mac to Robert as they volleyed accusations at each other.

Where was a referee when you needed one?

“Fuck off,” Robert said.

“Yeah, that kind of attitude doesn’t endear you to others,” Gage said. “Exactly how pissed off are you that Tern left you for me?”

“Do we have to go there?” Tern jumped into the fray.

“You bet we do,” Gage said, arrowing a volley at her that had her wanting to duck. “This is about you. Which means it’s about your relationships. The most current ones are me and him.”

“This is wrong,” Tern said.

“And a little fascinating,” Nadia added, wide-eyed. “What? It is. Too bad this isn’t a reality TV show. We’d make millions.”

“Nadia!”

“Sorry.” Nadia waved her hand. “Carry on with the drama.”

“All right, I’m tired of hammering this to death,” Robert said. “I went after the cache to see what damning information was in there, hoping to spare the rest of us. Leave it at that.”

“No,” Mac said. “I very much doubt you were worried about sparing any of us. What did you want to intercept?”

“Nothing.”

None of them bought it. There was more that Robert wanted to keep quiet. What could be worse than what had already been revealed?

“I don’t believe you,” Mac said. “Right now you are my number one unsub.”

“I didn’t fucking set this up!” Robert jumped to his feet. “What’s it going to take to get you to believe me?”

“Son, you have serious anger management issues,” Mac said. “That makes you a loose cannon. Better dial it back or we’ll never believe you.”

Robert visibly tried to do as Mac suggested, but it was a struggle. Tern knew he had issues, but she was never more happy than now that she’d listened to that little voice inside her which had told her to kick him to the curb. Wish she’d listen to it before she’d gotten on the floatplane.

“I had a drinking problem, all right?” Robert rubbed the back of his neck again. “After I got out of juv, I had another stint in the joint. I thought that was what was in the geocache. Instead it was full of Tern’s favorite candy bars. I thought she’d be thrilled to have me bring that back for her. That’s it.”

“No, it isn’t,” Gage said. “Why were you in prison?”

“What? Going to judge me on that when you just got released yourself?”

“Why, Robert?” Mac asked.

“Shit,” Robert muttered under his breath. “Statutory rape, okay. She told me she was twenty-one. Hell, I picked her up in a bar. How was I to know she was only sixteen? And that’s the fucking lot, okay?” He stomped to his cabin and slammed the door behind him.

“Well,” Nadia said. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I seriously need a freaking candy bar.”

“Tern,” Lucky said, “got a minute?”

“Uh, sure.” Tern hated that she took a moment to glance around the campsite before she agreed to leave with Lucky. Gage and Mac were in deep discussion over one of the GPS, most likely planning the best way to get them all out of here. Nadia had turned in early, still complaining that her head hurt, and Robert sulked inside his cabin.

“What’s up?”

“I’m worried about you.” He reached out a hand and rubbed it up and down her arm in a comforting, non-sexual caress.

The sincerity in his voice took her back for a moment. “I’m fine.”

“I know this is a lot to deal with, and knowing the person you are, I’m sure you’re beating yourself up inside.”

If he didn’t stop he’d have her in tears.

“You’re sweet, Lucky. Thanks for thinking of me. But the one I’m worried about is Nadia.”

“She’s stronger than she looks,” he said. “I have no doubt she’ll bounce back. But you’ll take all that has happened here and internalize it until it poisons you. Come on, mediate with me.”

“I really don’t feel like it.”

“Which is why you need to.” He took her hand. “Come on, let’s head down to the lake and plug into nature.”

What the hell. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do to pass the hours until they got to hike out of this place and return home.

“Sure.”

“That’s my girl.”

Hand in hand, they walked to the lake. Tern already felt better, as though Lucky was taking half her load of worries.

“You know, you really need to give Gage another crack at ya.”

“What?”

“I saw how you looked after your empty cache run.” Lucky wiggled his brows suggestively. “There’s a reason you never made it to your cache.”

“I don’t want to go there.”

“Do me a favor and just be open to what could be between the two of you. He might have acted like a dung beetle, but the man is so twisted up with you that he probably can’t digest his food.”

She scoffed. “Right.”

“Seriously, babe. Give him another run. He has some explaining to do, but open your heart. He’s a good man, just not a very smart one, regardless of his degrees.” He cocked a grin.

She didn’t know whether to thank him for his insight or tell him to butt out. Instead she said nothing and copied Lucky’s pose. He started her out with yoga that had her muscles screaming and then into a meditation that had her insides singing.

C
HAPTER
T
WELVE

A scream tore Tern from a deep sleep.

She bolted up in bed, glanced over at Nadia’s bunk and found it empty. Throwing back the sleeping bag, she ran barefoot for the door.

Nadia stood by the cold ashes of the fire pit, bathed in the crimson rays of the insomniac northern sun. Her hand over her mouth, as though ready to vomit.

Mac rushed out of his cabin, wearing sweats and a t-shirt, rifle at his shoulder ready to shoot something. Robert and Gage hurried to join them, Gage bare-chested and wearing tan cargo pants with the top button undone, and Robert in flannel pajamas dotted with moose.

“What’s going on here?” Robert asked.

“Nadia?” Tern inched toward her. Nadia reached out a shaking hand and stepped toward Tern, revealing what her body had been blocking.

Lucky’s severed head sat on the stump. His pasty face was frozen in shock, his black soulless eyes frozen open. His mouth caught in a silent death scream. “Play or Die” was carved into the flesh of his forehead.

Tern gasped, her hand coming up to cover her own mouth as tears flooded her eyes. She was not seeing this. She couldn’t comprehend what was before her.

A raven gave a death caw from its perch high up in a tree before catching flight. Tern shivered.

“I-I-I found him like t-that.” Nadia’s tortured words turned into a soul-wrenching moan. “Who would have done such a thing?”

Mac stepped over and laid a hand on Nadia’s shoulder, giving her a push toward Tern. “Take Nadia, and return to your cabin.”

“No.” Tern wasn’t going to be treated like the little woman to be protected from all that was unpleasant in the world. Though she badly wanted to run screaming from this place.

Not Lucky.

Not the sweet man who loved life. How could he be dead? Her eyes had to be playing tricks on her. But how could this be a trick if everyone saw what she was seeing?

Mac stared at her for a long moment. “I want you to take Nadia and stay back. Understand?”

Tern gave a jerky nod and took Nadia’s arm. They backed out of the way. Nadia’s muffled moans answered the silent screams of horror inside her head. They wrapped their arms around each other and tried to offer as much comfort as they could in the awful, gruesome reality.

“I need a camera.” Mac glanced at Robert and Gage. Gage was the first to respond. He silently headed to his cabin. Robert hadn’t moved. He seemed trapped, his eyes large and opened wide, fixated on what remained of Lucky. Gage returned and handed Mac the camera, who methodically took pictures of Lucky from every angle. “We need something to put…store his head in.”

“The cooler?” Gage suggested. “We can store it in the ice of the glacier and mark it with the GPS for the authorities.”

“Good idea.” Together they packed the head into the cooler. “Robert?” Mac turned toward Robert. “Robert!”

He jerked free from his trance. “Yeah, what?”

“Stay with the women.” Mac handed him a pistol from his waistband, thought better of it and walked over to Tern and offered the weapon to her. “Keep an eye out.”

Tern tightened her fingers around the butt of the gun and looked around the clearing. She gave a tight nod.

Gage entered the cabin for his GPS, and then returned to help Mac dispose of what was left of Lucky.

“Guess his luck finally ran out,” Robert said, watching the men head out of camp.

“Oh God, you…you bastard.” Nadia hauled off and slapped him.

That seemed to break the spell Robert had been under. His hand covered his reddening cheek. “Sorry, I deserved that.” He looked around the campsite. “Let’s…uh…return to one of the cabins. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to look at…that anymore.” He pointed to the stump stained in blood.

Stained with Lucky’s blood.

Unable to speak over the grief threatening to drown her, Tern led the way to her cabin. Nadia curled up on her bunk into the fetal position while Tern sat at the head of hers and wrapped her arms around her knees. The gun hung in her hand in case she needed to use it. Robert sank onto the foot of her sleeping bag.

“Who would have done something like that?” he asked under his breath.