Desire in the Arctic (16 page)

Disgusted, Redd tried to distract himself by looking for tracks of an animal he could snare. With any luck, he could catch a snowshoe hare with leftover fishing line. Or perhaps a ptarmigan, the Arctic’s version of a chicken. He almost laughed thinking of the cliché “chicken soup is good for the soul.” If so, he’d need a bucket of the stuff.

Regardless, he’d make sure he and Ana ate. They’d be surviving this damned twelve-day odyssey if it was the last thing he did. Just because his life was messed up didn’t mean other people had to suffer the same fate. He’d win Teleworld’s money and donate it. And then he’d be sure to lock himself away in a dusty northeast corner of Texas. By himself.

Chapter 20

Ana opened the cabin’s doors, letting in the frozen air. The storm seemed to have kicked up again. The swirling snow made it hard to see even a few feet past the threshold. Afraid to let the cabin cool down too much, she reluctantly closed the door. Wherever Redd was, he’d been there for hours. With the weather turning ugly again, she was starting to wonder if something had happened to him.

She didn’t need Redd around to explain to her the possible dangers. They had already experienced exposure to the cold. And seen tracks of . . . What was the name of the animal again? The one the Marvel comic book character was named after.
Oh, right. A wolverine.
At least Redd had taken the gun. It made her feel a little better knowing he had a weapon.

All she had was a canister of pepper spray. She was almost as terrified to use it as the gun. Redd’s warning to be careful when spraying, or she’d wind up immobilizing herself, was one she took heed of. In fact, if Redd didn’t come back soon, she’d push the broken metal cot to the door and barricade herself away from bears. But the cot was probably not strong enough to do much good. Its metal was so rusted they had opted to not to use it to sleep or . . .

Ana cut off the sexual thoughts she had inadvertently conjured up. All morning, the thought of being in his arms filled her with longing. She had done her best to maintain her anger. Just enough to keep her distance from a guy who obviously thought, like all the others, she was dumb enough to believe his false assurance.

But Redd had also rescued her. And now he could be in trouble. It was her turn to help her survival partner out. She braced herself for going out in the wild to find him. She reached over to grab her parka, snowshoes and pepper spray. With any luck, she would find Redd quickly because she wouldn’t be coming back to the cabin until she did.

The freezing snow had finally stopped blowing, allowing Ana to see clearly as she searched for Redd. She had been out so long she no longer felt her fingertips or toes. Worse, though, was the sense of dread she would not find her way back to the cabin. She had left the fire burning in the stove to not only keep the cabin warm for their return, but for the smoke from the roof to serve as a beacon. Only she couldn’t see either the smoke or the way back. Had the fire died out? Had she simply gone too far away from the cabin? Or was she nearby, but dense tree branches prevented her from seeing it? If she hadn’t been wandering around in circles looking for him, maybe she could have taken a shot at following her own tracks. No matter what the reason, finding either the cabin or Redd was becoming doubtful. So was her ability to keep calm.

Suddenly, glorious hope soared through her. A patch of black hair caught her eye. She squinted. The hair was about knee high. Was Redd down and injured? It was a good thing she came after him. “Redd,” she called out, “I’m over here!” When he didn’t answer, she called again, “Redd, I’m coming for you!”

She hurried over to him as fast as possible in the wet snow. Only to find that the “him” was an “it.” A knee-high, dark-brown, clawed, weasel-looking creature. Though she had never seen this type of animal, she knew from Redd’s description what it was—a wolverine.

Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod. This can’t be happening. Redd! Where are you?

Blood drained from her face. A whole new kind of cold set in her heart. The animal curled its upper lip, baring its teeth. It let out a sound, one she’d never heard before. Whether it was a hiss, a growl, a pissed-off snuffle, she didn’t know. She wasn’t going to stick around to find out what exactly was on its mind. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

The beast put a clawed foot forward. It arched its back. Its beady black eyes focused on hers in a predatory way.

I should make noise. Be loud. Maybe it will scare away like a bear.
Its face looked a little like a bear, so maybe it would work. But bears didn’t have a long silvery strip crossing horizontally over their shoulders and rump.
Here goes nothing.
“Go away, you oversized skunk!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “Leave me alone!”

“Ana?” Redd’s ears picked up. True, they were most likely frostbitten, but he could swear he heard her shouting in the distance. He shook his head.
Nah. Couldn’t be.
He’d been out in the cold so long he was starting to hear things.

Or was he? Because, over the noise of the wind picking back up he could
swear
he heard her screaming something about a skunk. But of course that was crazy.

He grinned. If Ana had really left the cabin to tangle with a skunk, not having sex with her would be as easy as pie. Then the image of a naked Ana popped up before him, and he knew he was lying. He’d still want to make love to her even if he had to gouge out his own nose with the pocketknife.

Deep down, he knew it was more than mere physical attraction that drew him to her. The hours alone he’d had out in the woods had frozen his hands but cleared his mind. The reason why he’d been willing to stay out so long was to get her something to eat. Even angry and disappointed with her, he put her comfort above his. He wanted to make her happy. Even when she was acting like a nut. Or interrogating him to death. Or snapping at him for no reason at all. It made no difference what she did. Because he loved her.

Realization struck him like a bolt of lightning during a thundersnow.
I love her.
No, it’s more than that. I am
in
love with her.

A human, high pitched, blood-curdling scream shattered the frozen stillness in the air. Immediately, he grabbed the gun and ran through the snow as if he were a snowshoe hare himself. “Ana!”

Moments later he saw her in the distance, in front of an enormous wolverine. One that was arched up on its hindquarters, ready to spring.

Redd did his best to keep calm and employ his military training. He could try to shoot the beast, but if Ana moved she could get in the way. If he hit her, he would never forgive himself.

The wolverine crouched down on its back legs.
It’s now or never. Stop shaking, damn it!
He swallowed hard and lifted the gun. In horrible slow-motion, he saw the beast leap up. Redd took aim and fired the only bullet left.

Looking into the beady little eyes of the enormous, snarling wolverine, Ana froze. It moved its clawed feet a few fast steps forward before it crouched back on its hindquarters and sprang. In an instant, it grabbed hold of her arm with its teeth.

At first, Ana saw the blood, but did not feel the pain. It was as if she were watching the attack from up above, a disturbing out-of-body experience. But a second later, the pain set in. A burning, searing sensation shooting through her. Her thoughts swam in a tangled mass.

From somewhere in the distance, she could have sworn she heard Redd shouting something followed by a loud
boom
. And then she saw nothing. Because everything went black.

Ana had screamed so loud Redd wasn’t sure which one of them he hit. But the wolverine fell, writhing on the ground.
Got it! No, wait, it’s alive, and moving toward her again!

Then the animal stilled.
Enemy down.

But there was no time to pat himself on the back or even say a thankful prayer. Seconds later he was by Ana’s side. Blood covered her parka, red droplets dripping on the snow. Her body was still and cold.

Ana managed a few weak words, “You are my hero,” before blacking out.

With a hard wipe at a tear running down his face, he gingerly picked up her limp body and held her to his chest. He carried her as fast as he could until he reached the clearing by the cabin. Then he kicked open the door, placed her on the mattress, and reached into her backpack for the one thing he needed. An item more important than anything he had ever needed—or wanted—before.

Without stopping to second-guess himself, he walked outside. And fired the flare gun.
Sorry, Hailey. I wanted so much to have your name live on with the donation I would have made. But I can’t bear to have Ana die, too.

Chapter 21

Ana awoke in a state of confusion. Where the heck was she? She wasn’t in the cabin. This room looked high-tech. The walls were white and an open door led to an attached bathroom. A shiver of cold ran through her. She tried to fold her arms across her chest for warmth but realized there were bandages on one arm and an IV drip in the other.
What?
She couldn’t figure all this out. Her head felt leaden and her mouth wooly. She moved her tongue around. It felt like lead, too.

“Oh, you’re up,” Devon said.

She blinked in confusion.
Devon? Where did he come from?

“We’ve been wondering when you were going to join the land of the living,” he quipped.

“Huh? What?”

“You’ve been asleep for two days. The hospital staff was getting nervous. So was I.”

“What? Where am I?”

“Fairbanks. We had you airlifted from Gates of the Arctic. Good thing the storm let up so the plane could fly in. The crazy thing is, it’s now sixty degrees outside.”

A knock on the door interrupted him.

An elderly female nurse walked in, saw Ana awake, and smiled. “Glad to see you’re up, dear. We’ll send the doctor in shortly.” Turning to Devon, she added, “Visiting hours will be over in fifteen minutes.”

“Okay,” Devon replied, nonplussed. When the nurse was gone, he hissed to Ana in a stage whisper, “If only it were that easy to get rid of me.”

“Devon, where’s Redd?”

“He’s been here to check on you non-stop. We’ve been joking he must be injured, too, he’s been here so much. He’ll be sorry he missed seeing you wake up. He said he was going to grab something to eat and that he’d be back soon.”

“So he is okay, right?”

“Yeah, sure. You’re the one who got hurt. He triggered the flare gun when you got attacked by the wolverine.”

Her heart stopped. She hadn’t contemplated their losing. “He triggered the flare gun? We lost?”

“Well, yeah. Are you sure you want to go into all of this now? You just woke up and they’ve pumped you up with lots of drugs.” Devon gestured to the IV. “The doctors put some painkillers in there, along with some antibiotics. They didn’t want the bite to become infected.”

Ana looked down at her arm with alarm. Her heart beat rapidly. “Am I going to be okay?”

“The doctors said you’ll be fine. They said they stitched you up pretty good. It hasn’t been easy to get information out of them, since we’re not your family. But I have my ways.”

Ana let out a short laugh. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah. I went out on a date with one of your nurses. Carlos is a cutie.”

“Glad my getting hurt helped you out.” She grinned before sobering. “Tell me what’s going to happen with the show.”

The question made Devon lose his smile. “Mark’s real mad that Redd fired the flare. It was supposed to be more about creating drama than actually having the ability to call an end to the show.”

“Mark never said that to me—”

“Until yesterday, he hadn’t said anything to me about it, either.”

She felt like she was swallowing a lump of lead. “So what happens now?”

“I hear Mark’s going to . . . never mind. Don’t worry about any of this crap. Spend all your energy on getting better.”

“No, Devon. Finish the sentence. What were you going to say?”

Devon exhaled hard. “Mark told James he’s going to fire you.” Devon dropped his head down. “I’m sorry, Ana. Mark must be the worst person in the world to have pushed you into doing the show. And then fire you after getting injured.” Devon looked like he wanted to spit. “Teleworld is a terrible company. I can’t believe I have to work for them to pay my bills. I’d be better off quitting, even if it meant being homeless.”

“I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you,” she said. “Stay employed, but make sure you watch out for yourself.”

“Do you think there are any cameramen jobs out here in the
Great White North
? If so, I’m going to seriously consider staying in Fairbanks with Carlos.” He let out a wicked grin. “I’ve always wanted a sexy nurse to call my own.”

She laughed a moment before sobering. “I wish I could take care of Redd. Especially now, when he lost out on the prize money. He must be distraught.”

“You two got pretty close, didn’t you?”

She felt heat rush to her cheeks. “I might as well confess it, since I won’t be working at Teleworld much longer. Yes, we got close. I’m not sure Redd’s speaking to me though. We got into a fight right before my run-in with the wolverine.”

“He must have gotten over it because he’s come here to check up on you a
lot
.”

“I’m glad to know that,” she said. “But I am sorry he had to fire the flare because of me.”

Redd was almost by Ana’s hospital room when a young woman in a candy-striper outfit stopped him. “I’m sorry, but I’m supposed to tell everyone the hospital is now closed to visitors. We open again to the public at nine o’clock in the morning.”

“No problem,” Redd answered with a smile. “Mind if I use the bathroom before I leave?”

“Go right ahead,” she said before turning a corner and walking down the hall.

Redd grinned broadly. His Secret Ops mojo was still working. He soundlessly took another three steps to Ana’s door and was about to walk in when he heard her voice.

Ana’s awake!
He would have busted into her room and hugged her, if something hadn’t made him freeze. She was speaking in earnest to someone.
Maybe it’s the doctor. I should give her some privacy before I bust in like a love-sick fool . . .

“Devon,” Ana said in an anguished-sounding voice. “Do you know why Redd fired the flare gun? I wasn’t going to die if I didn’t go to the hospital. Right?”

Redd froze.

“I don’t know, Ana. Redd hasn’t talked too much about it.”

Redd strained his ears. It sounded like Ana was sobbing. It was torturous not to run to her. He wanted so badly to hold her head against his chest. Lock his arms around her waist. Gently rub away her tears.

“I can’t believe Mark fired me.” Ana’s voice was full of misery. “I wonder if I’ll be able to get another job. It won’t be easy. Everyone back home will continue to think I’m a dope.”

“No, Ana, I’m sure nobody will think that. What happened is not your fault. It wasn’t you who fired the flare . . .”

Redd’s legs felt shaky. His head felt like he’d been hit with a two-by-four. His stomach threatened to heave. And if he heard any more about his overwhelming failure, he knew he
would
heave.
Instead of saving Ana’s life, I destroyed it.
His temple throbbed in earnest.
I can’t bear to lose the women I love.

Redd turned around, left the building, and then hopped the very next flight back to Texas.