Face Off by Brenda Novak

Author:Brenda Novak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

16

Before Evelyn could see the cabin itself, she spotted smoke. At first she thought it was just the gray of the low-lying clouds resting on the horizon. The sun didn’t come up until nine, so it was just growing light, and they were getting a little snow. “What is “that?” she asked, pointing.

Phil didn’t have a chance to answer before they drove around the final bend in Nektoralik Road—when they could both see the burned-out cabin.

“No!” she cried. “It can’t be!”

Phil shot her a nervous glance. She could almost read his mind. I shouldn’t have brought her. He loved Amarok, too. The way his knuckles whitened as he gripped the steering wheel testified to his fear and panic. The whole community relied on the Alaska State Trooper. Amarok was one of their own, had been born and raised in Hilltop, and he did everything he could to take care of the citizens in his community—which was why he’d originally been opposed to Hanover House. He hadn’t wanted an institution that incarcerated so many dangerous men in the area.

“It’s Jasper.” Any question she’d had about his involvement was now gone. “He’s in Hilltop.”

“Lightning can start fires, too,” Phil said. But he didn’t sound committed to his answer. There’d been no lightning last night that she knew of—and what were the chances lightning would strike that particular cabin at this particular time? The one in which a woman had recently been kidnapped and probably murdered?

Evelyn pressed her fists into her eyes. She wouldn’t look anymore, couldn’t look. “He’s killed Amarok, just as I was afraid he would. Amarok’s gone.” The idea that she could ever leave the man she loved to go back to Boston seemed impossible in that moment. She felt as though Jasper had ripped her heart from her chest, that she could barely breathe for the gaping wound. She couldn’t go on—didn’t want to go on—without Amarok. Everything that’d had such meaning suddenly had no meaning at all.

“Evelyn, look!” Phil leaned over to pull her hands away from her face.

Tears were welling up. Only after she’d blinked several times did she see Amarok striding out of the woods, coming toward them with his rifle resting on one shoulder.

They parked next to his truck, and Evelyn nearly fell out into the snow, she was in such a hurry to reach him.

Phil came around the front, and Amarok handed off his rifle before pulling her into his arms and kissing her head. “It’s okay,” he murmured as she buried her face in his chest. “I’m right here.”

She struggled to choke back the tears, but her relief was so profound she couldn’t manage it. “Jasper’s back,” she said between gulps for breath. “I know he is.”

His hand stroked her head. “Yeah. I’d say he’s back. But that isn’t entirely a bad thing.”

That statement shocked her enough she was able to get hold of her emotions. “Are you kidding? He’ll kill you! He’ll kill both of us.”

“He tried to kill me last night. Fortunately, he’s not a very good shot.

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