Alaskan Mountain Murder

If she’d stayed, would she have changed career paths and become a nurse despite her initial plans? Life didn’t turn out like you planned; she’d learned that long ago. But seeing the interesting combination of personalities as they all gathered around the table made her wonder what it would be like to work with a team like this.

If she stayed, would they make a place for her?

Cassie slammed that mental door immediately. She was not staying. In fact, she should have been leaving in the next few days, but the police had advised her not to leave the state until they figured out who was after her. Going back to Florida would complicate their case and make it difficult for her to stay safe, even more than it would be here. Not to mention the fact that she wouldn’t dream of leaving until she found out what had happened to her aunt.

Just because she wasn’t able to leave Raven Pass behind her yet, didn’t mean it wasn’t inevitable though. She needed to remember she was an outsider here, that she had work and a life waiting for her thousands of miles away. While she was going to be around these good people, so that Jake could keep her safe, maybe she shouldn’t offer to help too much or get too close, learn anything that would make her wish for their camaraderie. Something she just couldn’t have. She had Will, that was enough. She needed to be thankful for what she had and let go of the what-ifs. There was no sense in dwelling there.

“Cassie, come join us.” Piper motioned her over to the pizza, still smiling. “We’re going to talk about the search for your aunt and how our game plan for tomorrow is going to change from what it was.”

Cassie looked over at the table where Adriana had already unfolded a map and was pointing at something.

“Can you show me where you’ve already searched?” She’d known this area once, had grown up close to her aunt. Maybe she’d be able to help pinpoint where she could have gone.

She owed it to her aunt to try.

“Sure, come on over.”

So Cassie took a deep breath, braced herself the best she could, offered a small smile and joined the group.

And hoped it wasn’t going to lead to connections, to friendships that would make leaving them break her heart.

Cassie hadn’t slept this badly since she’d left Jake, but every night noise, every sound in the dim Alaska night, seemed to come through the windows and to her ears. Beside her, Will slept soundly. At least that was something. She turned over again, closed her eyes and tried to relax.

No success.

Maybe it wasn’t the sounds outside that were keeping her awake at all, but the questions she had. For Jake. For herself. They hadn’t been able to talk at all after the rescue team left. It had been too late at night, so they’d both agreed to talk again tomorrow. So that unpleasant conversation was put off for now, but the uncertainty lingered.

Why was Jake working with a rescue team instead of in medicine? He’d explained some, but not nearly all of his reasoning yesterday, she felt. Could she ask him for more details or was that prying? She was unsure of the etiquette when addressing one’s former fiancé.

But those weren’t the questions that kept her awake, though they were the ones that tugged at her heart, made her wish she could go back in time, and…what? Change something?

The questions keeping her awake were more urgent. Why would someone have abducted her aunt? If that was what had happened, which looked fairly likely given the break-in at her house. Cassie didn’t believe in coincidences.

She finally gave up the idea of sleep just past three in the morning and headed down the stairs, back to the main part of the house. She’d seen Jake put leftover pizza into the fridge. Maybe trying to eat a little more would help her sleep.

Down the steps she crept, not wanting to wake Jake.

She heard noise as soon as she made it to the living room and there he was, standing from a chair where he’d apparently been sitting by the fire.

“I’m sorry. I tried to be quiet.” She offered the words to ease the awkward feeling she had every time they were alone. Though clearly if he was down here, she hadn’t woken him up and he’d been awake already.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I thought I’d get a snack.”

“There’s leftover pizza in the fridge,” he offered.

Cassie nodded. “That was my plan.” She walked to the other room, looking back over her shoulder at him. He’d sat back down again. Was it too soon to clear the air and try to talk about why she’d left?

Not that she planned to explain why. She didn’t understand herself well enough to attempt that. But she could at least apologize…

She took a deep breath, tried to work up her nerve. Maybe she’d talk now, before she got her snack. “Hey, Jake?”

“Shh.” He cut her off, but from the look on his face, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to hear what she had to say. It was because he’d heard something and he was on alert—his shoulders were tensed. He had been sitting with his back against the back of the chair but now he was leaning forward.

“What?” Cassie whispered, but Jake was already up, moving to one of the front windows. Instinctively she stepped back against the wall, into a darkened corner.

He walked from the first window to the second.

This time she heard the noise too, but it sounded like it was coming from the back of the house, not the front where Jake was.

“Jake,” she whispered as loud as she dared, motioning with her head behind her.

“Get upstairs. Hide.”

His tone left no room for argument as he moved toward the back door and Cassie hurried to the stairs, keeping her back against the wall. He hadn’t needed to tell her to go up there. Her son, their son, was in that room and nothing would stop Cassie from doing her best to protect him.

As she rushed up the stairs, she tried to pinpoint where she’d heard the noise but all was quiet.

She opened the door of the large closet in the bedroom, pulled Will from the bed and settled him in the corner of it. He slept harder than anyone she knew, something for which she was extremely thankful right now. Then she pulled the door shut behind her.

Please don’t let him find me. Another prayer. She didn’t have time to analyze why praying seemed so natural here. She felt less alone somehow, which was interesting since she wasn’t even sure what she believed about God.

Cassie tried to be as quiet as possible, but it seemed like every time she shifted it was the loudest sound she’d ever heard. She tried not to move so much, made an effort to even slow her breathing down enough that it wouldn’t make so much noise either.

She heard a door open, the creaking loud like one of the main heavy doors downstairs to the outside. Relief flooded her and she almost called out to let Jake know where she was. Hadn’t he gone outside? So it would make sense if he had that he’d come back in once he’d checked things out and determined everything was okay.

At the last second though, she stopped herself. It could just as easily be whoever was after her. She knew that. So instead she didn’t move, didn’t make a sound.

Whoever had come inside didn’t speak either. Did that mean the chances were more likely that it wasn’t Jake? She swallowed hard and hoped her logic was faulty, but somehow she didn’t think it was.

There were footsteps, then a creaking noise, followed by another creaking noise. The stairs? Was he coming up to her room? Her heartbeat, already going faster than she was comfortable with, pounding in her throat in a way that made swallowing difficult, sped up even more. Cassie swallowed hard. Waited.

There was silence for a period of time, and she tried to guess how many minutes had passed, in case it mattered later. Two? Three? He hadn’t been upstairs long by the time she heard creaking again that seemed to indicate he was going back down the stairs. But he’d been up there longer than was necessary just to look inside her room and see that she wasn’t in it. Had he been taking the time to search for her? Or was he setting up some kind of trap in the room where she was supposed to be safe?

Her current line of thinking made Cassie shudder. She wasn’t much of a risk taker these days. The amount of risk now being asked of her… It was a lot to take in. More than she wanted to handle.

The stairs creaked again. Wait, was he coming back up? The footsteps grew louder and came closer. Cassie felt her heartbeat skip.

Another door opened.

“Hey!” That was Jake yelling now.

The footsteps moved faster, back down the stairs? Cassie heard the pace quicken like whoever had come inside first was running. Then the front door opened. She heard more running and imagined Jake chasing him, which was her best guess as to what was going on right now. Fear for his life enveloped her. What if he was killed keeping her safe? She wouldn’t be able to live with that knowledge.

Easing forward out of her crouched position, she reached for the door and pushed it open again, then stood, looking for something on the shelf to use as a weapon. All she saw were cans of vegetables in doomsday-prepper sizes. It wasn’t unusual for Alaskans to keep emergency food and water stored in closets, in case of earthquakes or other natural disasters that could cut Alaska off from the road system or the port. She grabbed a Costco-sized can of green beans from the shelf. It wasn’t much as far as weaponry was concerned, but it was better than the nothing she currently had.

The bedroom was empty, still dark. Did she dare leave Will? She decided the answer to that was no, but crept closer toward the door, where she could lean out of it and see down the stairs and into the living room. From her vantage point, she saw that the door was open.

For the first time, Cassie remembered her phone was in her pocket and called 911 to report that they’d had an intruder. She wasn’t able to give more details, but they said they’d come right over.

She started to move back into the bedroom, then movement caught her eye. She raised the green beans.

“What are you doing?” Jake stood in the doorway. He was out of breath, but it didn’t quell the emotions in his voice. He cared about keeping her safe. Sure, she’d known he was a good guy and always, always did the right thing. But something in his tone just now made her wonder if…

No, he couldn’t still care about her beyond how he’d feel about anyone in danger. She shouldn’t even let her mind go there.

“Didn’t I tell you to hide?” he continued.

She cleared her throat. “I heard noises.” It was a lame excuse when she said it aloud. “Did you see him?”

Jake shook his head. “I went outside to check and didn’t see anything, but when I came inside I thought I heard something. I yelled and then heard him run down the stairs. He must have come in when I stepped outside, like he was watching me for a chance to come in.” He shook his head again. “Beyond stupid of me. I should have stayed inside. Anyway, I stood for half a second longer than I should have, trying to decide if I should come up and check on the two of you or chase him. By the time I decided catching him was top priority, I couldn’t catch up.” Jake’s features were colored with emotion. “He had a car waiting just down the road and he had too much of a head start.”

“What kind of car?” Cassie asked, not that she knew what anyone around town was driving these days, so the answer really wouldn’t tell her anything.

“A black SUV—a Toyota, I think. It was too dark to be sure.”

Just as she’d thought, the information was meaningless to her since she didn’t know anyone’s cars anymore.

The last thing she wanted to be was a damsel in distress who needed help, but tonight she was at a loss and she didn’t like the feeling. “I called the police,” she offered as her one contribution.

“The police may want to talk to you again.” Jake shook his head. “I’m not sure. Maybe they’ll just be able to see if he left any evidence.”

She felt self-conscious enough around Jake in her pajamas, though they were a long-sleeved shirt and pants that one of the women on Jake’s team had left for her. Her suitcase of belongings she’d brought to Alaska was still in her car, abandoned when she was being tailed. Cassie had to remember to get the car tomorrow. Will would need a change of clothes also, although for tonight he’d been delighted at the idea of sleeping in his blue jeans.

“I think I’ll change.” She didn’t have a bathrobe or anything like that, so switching back into jeans seemed like her best option.

“I’ll wait in the hall.” Jake folded his arms and leaned back against the wall across from her bedroom door before she could argue. Having him close made her feel stronger, although she wasn’t sure she wanted to admit it. When he was here, she felt as though she were on solid ground, could make more confident decisions. Even though she’d been reminded of her mortality multiple times today, being near Jake made her feel she could stop and think while she decided how to work this problem.

She liked this feeling too much. Always had. It wasn’t safe to depend on a person that way, was it? To know you were better because of them, to be used to having that person in your day…

Because she’d learned the day her mom disappeared that people weren’t always dependable, they left.

It was entirely possible, if she tried to emotionally dissect the past, that it had been part of the problem with Jake—the fact that there weren’t problems. He was her better half, the one man she wanted to be by her side forever. She’d always been able to count on him, and that scared her. Shouldn’t she have learned from her mother’s abandonment not to count on anyone?

Had she invented the problems she’d worried about to give her an excuse to leave? The fact that they’d both wanted to be doctors, that she’d wanted to make her own way in the world. Was it really just as simple as her having a fear of being left, of getting hurt again?

Cassie sighed deeply, letting her shoulders fall. Analyzing it wouldn’t do a bit of good. Nothing she could do would allow her to go back and change the past. Puzzling out their history together just confused her when she needed a clear head now more than ever.

So she pulled her clothes back on, resolved that she was going to do the best she could to help solve this case and get back out of Jake’s life. As much as she’d messed it up the first time around, she owed him that much.

Now to figure out how she could help when she hadn’t the slightest clue how to search for missing persons or how to hunt down attackers.

The rest of the night passed without incident. Jake knew, because he sat outside Cassie and Will’s door as the dusky summer shadows darkened and then lightened again almost in the blink of an eye. He sat there, wondering if she was sleeping, trying to sort out how they were going to handle this situation.

Her attackers meant business, Jake didn’t doubt that at all. He stood and stretched, moving toward the stairs to make some coffee, now that it was fully light and a time of day where people were up and attackers would be less likely to strike. Whoever was after her was fairly coordinated, had a plan. Their execution had failed, for which Jake was thankful, but the hard truth was that he’d been unprepared last night. He wouldn’t let that happen again.

Movement behind him as he reached for the coffee carafe to fill it with water startled him and he whipped his head around, arms coming up in a defensive stance.

“Easy there, killer.” Cassie’s face almost cracked a smile. She looked tired, dark circles growing under her eyes. That answered that question. He was almost certain she hadn’t slept at all.

“Not funny, given last night.”

Her face sobered. “You’re right. I wanted to talk to you about that.”

“Last night?” He held his breath, waiting to hear if she wanted to talk about the people after her or their son. He needed to discuss Will, but he didn’t know if he was ready to face the hurt that conversation would bring. In an odd way, it was easier to talk about the people who were out to get her, or her missing aunt.

Jake busied his hands making the coffee, finding it hard to see her standing there, all vulnerable and beautiful and so close to him he had to catch his breath.

“I want to help.”

He breathed out. He’d been prepped for it. Cassie wasn’t a woman to sit on the sidelines.

“It’s going to be dangerous, you know,” he started, noting the way her eyebrows went up in immediate reaction to his words. He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, I’m making sure you understand.”

“Is there anything about my life right now that doesn’t strike you as dangerous?”

Something had changed in her since last night. Her fire, one of the things he’d loved about her way back when, had returned with an extra spark. Yesterday she’d seemed defeated. Tired. Today she was ready to fight, and it seemed to bode well.

He was confident in his team, but having her along would help them too. She knew her aunt, knew the areas she was likely to frequent, could tell them about how she would have thought and made decisions if she was on her own or hiking somewhere against her will. With the new information they’d learned about the disappearance likely being intentional and relating to foul play, they’d change how they searched, shift their parameters. Raven Pass Search and Rescue was good at what they did. They’d find Cassie’s aunt. Jake wasn’t naive enough to be sure she’d be alive when they got there though, something he wasn’t sure if Cassie had considered.

“What?” Her facial expression wavered, and he wished he knew her as well as he used to. If he did, he might be able to tell what she was thinking. She was being so brave, handling what yesterday had thrown at her with spunk and grace.

Without thinking, he brushed back a piece of hair from her face. Her eyes widened and she blinked in that way only a woman can, not seeming to know how attractive and innocent she looked.

“Jake…” Her voice trailed off as the impact of years of missing her and of the danger in her life suddenly threatened to overwhelm him, and he stepped closer to her. She lifted her chin, only millimeters, but enough that it almost read like an invitation.

He bent closer, his eyes on her lips.

Stopped.

Their eyes met, and if hers had been unreadable before, he felt like now was the opposite. Her eyes were like clear pools, full of open honesty. He suspected the same could be said of his.

The truth he saw in her eyes, knew was reflected in his own, was this: neither of them was over each other.

But that didn’t make rekindling something a good idea. It was still a terrible one. He’d learned his lesson the first time she’d broken his heart, thank you.

He pulled away, turned to the coffee maker and pushed a button to start the brew cycle, then turned around to face her. “Your aunt may not be alive when we find her.”

“I know that. Why tell me something fairly obvious?”

“I wanted to make sure you’d considered that before you offered to help.” Jake shoved a hand through his hair, shaking his head. And break whatever craziness had come over them that had almost had them kissing in his kitchen a day after he saw her again for the first time in seven years.

“Listen, Jake, I think things through now, okay? I have to.”

“Then yes, we’d like your help.” He tried to sound as professional as he could, though admittedly he’d probably lost any measure of professional distance earlier when he’d had to fight the urge to kiss her.

But it hadn’t just been him, had it? He’d seen it in her eyes too, in the tilt of her chin.

Still didn’t make it a good idea. He should have learned from having her hurt him the first time.

He tried again. “Truly, Cassie. It would help a lot to have you there.”

The defensiveness in her posture seemed to ease some. Her shoulders untensed. “Thank you.”

He nodded.

“I’m going to go get ready. I’m guessing we’ll leave soon, right? I don’t want to sit around drinking coffee while my aunt is out there, in who knows what kind of shape.”

“I’ve got travel mugs for the coffee. We can go as soon as you’re ready.”

She hurried up the stairs and Jake went to his own room to shower and change, praying as he did that God would be with their search today. Not only for them to find Cassie’s aunt, but for God to keep them safe.

Physically.

And their hearts.

For a minute this morning, Cassie had thought he was going to kiss her.

Then just as quickly as the moment had begun, it was over and Jake was even more reserved than he’d been the day before. Cassie had avoided being alone with him for the rest of the morning, relieved beyond words when Will woke up, and even more relieved when it was time to go meet Jake’s team for the day’s work.

They’d pulled into her aunt’s driveway and Cassie fought regret at the years she’d spent away from home. What if she didn’t see her aunt again? She could never go back and give them more time together, and the thought overwhelmed her.

“We’ll do the best we can, okay?” Jake squeezed her hand, let go as quickly as he’d grabbed it.

But it was something, a show of kindness in a day that Cassie could already feel was going to be difficult, and she appreciated that.

She hadn’t explained much to Will, who was going with them. Jake had talked to a friend at the police department who agreed that it was safest for him to be with his mom, but that location didn’t matter right now. They seemed to be in some degree of danger, no matter where they were, as the intrusion in the house last night had proven. Will knew Cassie’s aunt was missing, but she’d been vague about today’s events, mostly framing it as a hike they were going on.

He was interested, knowing she’d lived here before. Why hadn’t she realized how curious he was about her past?

It further reinforced the need to tell him more of his own history. Like who his father was. She’d spoken of Jake to Will. She hadn’t wanted her son to think he didn’t have a dad, or wonder too much. So she’d told him stories—the good ones—and about what a good man his father was. Because it was true. Her leaving had never had anything to do with Jake’s character. At least not his flaws.

No, Jake had always been perfect. Maybe sometimes too perfect for someone like her to feel like she measured up.

“You’re sure you know where you’re going up here? It’s been a long time,” Jake said.

“I’ll manage fine.” She moved away from him, turned her attention to making sure Will was ready, that his shoes were tied tight enough and that she herself was able to maintain some level of composure. Jake’s questions echoed her own. Was she sure that she would be able to help? Cassie didn’t even have an answer for herself. But she knew these trails, she knew her aunt, and she had to try.

Most of Jake’s team arrived in an old red Jeep. Piper, who was driving, parked it and she, Ellie and Caleb piled out. They were missing one. Adriana, Cassie thought.

“Where’s Adriana?” Jake asked, confirming that Cassie had indeed remembered the absent member’s name correctly.

“She rode with the police. They are meeting us here because they want to come too.”

“They’re letting her dog ride in the police car?”

Piper shook her head, and then Cassie noticed a leash and a dog jumped out. Some kind of Lab mix, maybe. “Babe rode with us.”

“Babe?” Cassie raised her eyebrows, unable to reconcile the serious woman she’d met with a dog named Babe.