Outcast (SEAL Team: Disavowed Book 2) (5 page)

“I’m assuming you couldn’t see in the whiteout?”

“True, but still . . .” He hardened his jaw. “I’ve landed us in a helluva jam.”

“Stop. If it weren’t for you, we probably wouldn’t even be alive. I still can’t believe that for all these years, a monster has been lurking inside Leo. How could he have killed so many people? And for what? There’s no treasure. The whole idea is silly. Which makes what he did all the more senseless.” Needing comfort, she fished out the locket she’d worn since her father gave it to her on her twelfth birthday. Just rubbing the family tree etching brought her strength. As did touching the amethyst birthstone at the tree’s roots. “And where are my father and Dane? Did Leo hurt them, too?”

“Wish I knew.” He sat beside her, and she rested her head against his shoulder. Even through bulky winter gear, her body sang to be near him. At the moment, the song was tragic but welcome all the same. “Back to our options, I’m no MacGyver when it comes to engine repairs, but now that the wind’s died down enough for me to see my hand in front of my face, I’ll do my damnedest to get this thing back on a flat angle and running. We’d have warmth and plenty of gear—maybe even enough fuel. But the real kicker is all of this . . .” He gestured out the window toward a sea of endless white punctuated by imposing Mount Erebus. “If we have such great visibility, so does Leo. I hope he was lying about his sub and having even more manpower. If he wasn’t, that means he could already be looking for us, and in this red cat, we’ll be an easy target to find. I’d say we could at least monitor his movements with our
friends’
radio, but it’s dead.”

“So what do we do? Set out on foot? Try making it back to our station for snowmobiles?”

“That’s an option. But what if Crazy Leo did fabricate the whole sub thing and he’s really just hanging out in his lab, waiting for his next victims?”

She sighed.

“On the flip side,” Jasper said, “I have a hard time buying the fact that Leo doesn’t have some basis for launching his treasure hunt. There’s thousands of dollars in gear and weapons in this vehicle alone. There’s no telling what else he may have. A guy doesn’t stock up like this on a lark, you know? Think, Eden. Has your dad or this Dane guy you’ve been talking about ever even hinted at there being more going on down here than standard research?”

Rubbing her temples, she said, “Honestly, all of their work is so complex. When they talk about it, I glaze over. I know Dad’s trying to cure cancer, and he’s had promising leads, but—”

“Didn’t your mom die of ovarian cancer?”

Eden nodded.

“So up until her death, he was driven by a desire to save her?”

“I guess so.”

“This is a longshot, but could this treasure be a pharmaceutical thing? There’s huge money in drugs. What if your dad and Dane discovered a formula or new bio-organism that’s a scientific game changer and Leo wants it?”

“They were partners. They worked together for years. My father isn’t a selfish man. Every dime he’s ever made either went to my mother’s medical bills, my education, or the station and his studies.” Because Eden couldn’t bear for her father to sink still more money and hopes into her losing cause, she hadn’t even told him about her prognosis. What was the point? She’d had a front row seat to her mother’s physical and emotional breakdown, and the harder she’d fought, the worse the physical toll had been. Eden wanted no part of that. When it was her time, she’d accept it gracefully. Until then, she needed to regain her composure and help ensure Jasper reached safety. Her life was already gone, but she’d fight for his and her father’s. “When the first of the students were shot, I wanted to find my father and Dane, but you can’t imagine the chaos. All I could do was hide, but like I told you, one of Leo’s men easily found me. It was . . .” Cold enveloped her from the inside out. She used to love this place. The isolation. The pure, unspoiled beauty. Now, she’d give anything to be far away from here, in a place where if she tipped her face to the sun, warm rays would soak in like a healing balm. Like Jasper’s softest caress. “Aside from watching my mother die, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done—hiding like a coward beneath a table. I should have fought back.”

“Give yourself credit for staying alive.” He kissed the crown of her head. “You pretty sure your dad and Dane made it out alive?”

“Yes.”
I hope
. “Unless Leo caught them later and . . .” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

“Could they have gone to McMurdo for help?”

“I suppose? But if they had, wouldn’t help have already arrived? I was alone with Leo a few days before you arrived. Doug plays online chess with my dad. He would have mentioned him being at McMurdo. But now, he’s probably dead, too.” She shivered. “What are we going to do?”

“Since it’s cold as balls in here—” he formed a smoke ring with his foggy breath “—I vote we’re proactive. I’ll try getting the engine started. You make a proper inventory of our food. In this cold, we ideally need about six thousand calories per day. Give me a guesstimate of how many days we’ve got at say six, four, or two thousand a day. We might find civilization in hours. If not, we need to be prepared.”

“Agreed.”

He opened the cat’s rear door and leaped out.

The even deeper cold hit her face like a slap.

“Jasper!” she called.

“Yeah?” He squinted against the sun, then took sunglasses from a pocket on his coat and slipped them on.

“Are we going to be okay?”

“Absolutely. All you need to worry about is getting back to civilization. Because once we’re in a toasty coffee house, I fully intend to make you explain what you were thinking when you dumped a great catch like me.” His toothy grin and wink started a flutter low in her belly.

In light of their circumstances, she had no business thinking about anything other than getting help to find her father, but Jasper had always had a way about him that brightened the darkest corner.

She fought to find a smile, but nodded instead. Yes, she needed to tell him exactly what she’d been thinking when she’d broken her own heart by breaking up with him, but this was neither the time nor place.

With him outside, she did as he asked, counting an assortment of freeze-dried meals, MREs, and four cases of protein bars that held a hundred forty-four bars each. While it was a relief to know running short on food wouldn’t be their most pressing issue, that fact did little to hold fear at bay. He’d asked her to run specific calorie computations, but in the cold there was no way she could hold her focus long enough to run the figures in her head.

She found more sunglasses on the dash, then stared out the window at the stark view that usually brought solace.

Now, the desolation raised her pulse. They were in a bad spot, but if anyone could get them out, it would be Jasper.

From outside the vehicle came a few clangs, then curses.

She’d cleaned their breakfast pan as best she could with snow, and was contemplating boiling water for the cocoa packets she’d found when Jasper yanked open the front door to try the engine.

Fingers crossed, she held her breath while awaiting the results.

The engine turned three times, but didn’t start.

He cursed under his breath, then headed back outside.

What if the fix was too complex to manage in the field? It happened all the time. Usually, operators radioed for help and it proved no big deal. In their case, everything was a big deal.

She hopped out of the cab to join him. “Anything I can do?”

“No, thanks. Get back inside, so you’re at least out of the wind.” Though it was nowhere near the speed that had induced yesterday’s whiteout conditions, it was still brisk.

“Jasper, please. I want to help.”

“Then get inside, so I don’t have to worry about you and the engine.”

While his brusque demeanor didn’t exactly fill her with warm fuzzies, she’d been around enough guys at the station to understand that for most, working on engines wasn’t anyone’s favorite chore.

Trying not to take his anger personally, she climbed back into the vehicle to start the camp stove. Jasper loved cocoa. He’d probably never admit it to the tough-guy former SEALs he worked with, but he especially enjoyed mini-marshmallows on top. Grinning at the naughty memory of what they’d once done with the tasty morsels, her cheeks overheated.

She lurched in surprise when the driver’s-side door opened and Jasper gave the ignition another try.

Ruh, ruh, ruh
.

More cursing.

“I’m making hot chocolate,” she said. “Want some?”

“No. What I want is for this stupid-ass engine to start. I’ve checked the hydraulic lines and plugs—everything looks good.”

“I don’t mean to get in your man-business, but I was out with a team a few years back, and we got stuck in a blizzard. The cat crapped out on us, and to make a long, cold story short—I remember this, because while shivering, a friend and I were joking about craving warm carbs like cookies and brownies, when—”

“I’m freezing. Could you please get to the punchline?”

“Stop being snippy. I’m trying to help.”

“I know, babe. Sorry. But the longer we sit here, the more time Leo has to find us. Or, we could just turn into human popsicles. Neither scenario holds much appeal.”

“Okay, well, my friend and I were joking about carbs, but our driver checked the carburetor and found a ring of frost around some thingamajig. Started with a V. Ventricle? Venus? Sorry—can’t remember.”

“Venturi?”

“Maybe? I really don’t know. My friend was on engagement-ring watch, so we’d turned the ring of frost into dreaming of diamond rings.”

“Right.” He sharply exhaled before heading back outside, slamming the door behind him.

She’d never seen his cranky side and didn’t especially like it.

But then this was also their first life-threatening experience.

How would he take the news that she was essentially a dead woman walking? Oddly enough, she’d made her peace with it. It was easier. There was no sense dwelling on what was to come. And she sure wouldn’t spend whatever time she had left hugging a commode. Her poor mother had been sick to the extreme. A bag of bones, clinging to life for her little girl and husband. By the end, Eden had been glad to see her go, because she could no longer bear witnessing the constant pain in her eyes.

Eden used the backs of her gloves to blot tears from her eyes before they froze, then swallowed the knot in throat. The here and now was all that mattered, so she returned to the pleasantly mundane task of lighting the propane camp stove, then retrieving snow to thaw and boil.

By the time she’d made two mugs of hot chocolate, Jasper was once again tugging open the door, then easing behind the wheel.

She crossed her fingers.

Ruh, ruh. Ruh, ruh
.

He slapped the palm of his gloved hand against the wheel, then tried one last time.
Ruh, ruh, rrrruh
. . .”

Eden dared exhale when the engine finally caught, then settled into a comforting chug.

“
Yes
. . .” Jasper grinned over his shoulder, turned on the heater, then directed all vents in her direction. “You’re amazing.” He blew her a kiss. “I never would have thought to check the carb, but sure enough, whether it was caused by the blowing snow or the impact when I hit the rocks, there was a ring of ice. Once I got it cleared—voila.”

“Glad I could finally help.” She was beginning to feel her assigned tasks were busy work. After climbing over the gear, she handed him his reward. “Drink up. You’re probably freezing.”

He drank, then closed his eyes and groaned. “You’re an angel. Thanks.” He took a few more sips. “How are we on food?”

“I didn’t do the actual math, but there’s plenty. If our gas holds out, more than enough to get us to McMurdo. But then you probably already knew that.”

“Maybe.” He winked. “I had to do something to get your mind off of the very real possibility of freezing to death.”

The heater had kicked into high gear. She could have purred in relief.

“Let’s get the stove and any loose supplies secured, then head out.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” She gave him a saucy salute.

Before coaxing the massive machine down from its awkward angle, he grinned and shook his head. “I always loved that about you.”

“What?”

“How you make bad situations good. Remember that time we spent an hour shopping for our Cinco de Mayo feast, only to get to the checkout to discover—”

“Neither of us had our wallets.” She’d finished his sentence. Of course she remembered. Every moment they’d ever shared. Good or bad, she cherished all of their time together.

“After getting back to your place, didn’t we order Chinese?”

“Yeah, and you dropped sweet and sour sauce all over the carpet. There’s still a stain.”

“Sorry.” With the cat on flat ground and chugging toward safety, he leaned close enough to kiss her cheek. “Once we get out of this mess, I’ll replace it.”

“Thanks, but not necessary.” She cast him a sad, slow-fading smile.