Wrong Alibi by Christina Dodd

Author:Christina Dodd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2020-10-22T12:06:41+00:00

13

PETIE WALKED INTO HAWLEY’S office to find the giant man staring at his computer screen with a discontented expression.

Automatically she said, “What’s wrong?” Because she fixed everything for Hawley, whatever it was. But not this time, she reminded herself, and before he could speak, she said, “Hawley, I’m leaving.”

Without looking up from his screen, he asked, “Leaving what?”

“The camp. I’m leaving the camp.”

Without moving his head, he shifted his gaze to her. “What?” He looked as he always did, immaculate in his suit and tie, but his voice was like fingernails on a blackboard, glass across skin. She hadn’t heard him use such a tone since...since she didn’t remember when.

No, wait. Since that spring he returned, after her second winter. It was as if he hadn’t expected her to survive. When he returned from that winter in the South Pacific and saw her alive and his resort unharmed by the bitter winter, there had been a shift in his attitude. He changed from an indifferent employer into the boss who cared for and protected his employees.

But he didn’t look caring now. He exuded a chill like that first cold of an Alaska winter.

Yes, she supposed she should have thought this through. He’d come to expect her to be here, day and night, winter and summer. “I understand you’re shocked that I would want to leave the camp. I’ve been here ten years, and in all those years, I’ve never left. I’m a fixture.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Leaving.”

“Why?”

This was Hawley. She could tell him the truth. “The man who murdered two people and set me up is back in Rockin.”

“Why should you care? You’ve been here ten years. You have no connection to that situation.”

“He’s—” she wanted to say dating, but she couldn’t choke out that word “—become close to my mother.”

“I repeat, what the hell are you talking about?”

She didn’t think she could be shocked. But she was. After ten years of silence, of keeping her history to herself, she had opened herself up to Hawley—and he didn’t care? For years, he had been the one person she considered a friend. Not that he’d ever bothered to check up on her in the winter or lift the burdens from her in the summer, but somehow, she had always imagined if she told him about her past, he would react sympathetically.

Okay. Her little dream of Hawley’s friendship had been crushed. She’d faced worse betrayals. She should have handled Hawley, taken into account his vast laziness. “It’s no big deal. You’re here. You know how to do everything. But you won’t have to. Taylor is competent, the staff is the best we’ve ever had.”

“You’re not going.”

“You’re being weird. Do you think you can keep me against my will?”

“Yes.”

Incredulous. She was incredulous. “How?”

“What are you going to do, walk to this place, wherever it is?” He was sarcastic.

“Rockin. It’s on the east end of Denali on Highway 3.”

He gestured like, There you are.

“No, I can’t walk there. But I can walk to the airport.

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