Surviving the Wilderness, page 16
An intricate wrought-iron bench stood a few feet by the waterfront. She walked over to it and sat. He paused at the side of the bench, debated sitting beside her, and then decided to continue to stand.
“Where do we go from here?” she asked.
“Well, Vic and I are leaving right away to take Addison back to the cabin,” he said. “The resort has arranged a rental car for us. Vic is getting Addison and Butterscotch into the car now. They’re just waiting for me to join them, and then we’re going to go. Should only take us about three hours. I think it’s important that life returns to normal for Addison as soon as possible, and that after everything she went through today, she wake up in her own bed tomorrow. My brother and I need to sit down together and figure out what we’re going to do about the whole situation.”
“So, where does that leave us?” she asked.
Jeff stepped back and stared into the face of the most beautiful, amazing and incredible woman he’d ever laid eyes on. Worry filled her eyes but a brave smile crossed her face. And his heart sank with the knowledge of the words he was going to have to say.
He swallowed hard and forced the words he didn’t want to say past his lips.
Please understand, I don’t want to do this. But I have to. It’s the only way.
“There is no us in this anymore,” he said.
Jeff watched as feelings flickered through her eyes like a kaleidoscope of emotions. But when she spoke, her words were remarkably direct.
Her arms crossed. “What exactly are you saying?”
She wasn’t about to make this easy on him, was she? Didn’t she understand that pushing her away was the only way to keep them all safe?
“I talked to Vic about this whole situation and the threats against our lives,” he said. “My whole focus has to be on what’s best for Addison and I can’t afford any distractions. So, I don’t think we should be in each other’s lives after tonight. We’re better, and safer, apart.”
She blew out a long breath like she was weighing her words before speaking them. Then her head shook.
“I don’t believe you,” she said and stood. “Because if this was really about what’s good for me, you’d be asking my opinion instead of making decisions for me. Plus, you know we’re stronger together, and pushing me out of your life is not going to help or to make you or Addison safer. So, if you’re going to kick me out of your life, then the least you owe me is an honest answer. I deserve that.”
He’d braced himself for sadness. He’d expected her to be disappointed and confused—maybe she’d even cry a bit—and he’d do his best to comfort her. He hadn’t been expecting whatever this was. It was almost anger.
“This.” He waved his hand in the air between them as if tracing invisible lines. “Whatever this thing, this connection, is between us, it’s a liability. Big Poppa used Kelsey and Benny to get to me and Addison, probably just because they lived near me geographically. We still have no idea who Big Poppa is. I’ve still got a target on my back and being around me puts your life at jeopardy—”
Fire flashed in her eyes. “And you don’t think I’m willing to risk that?”
“Maybe you are—” his voice rose “—but I’m not! As long as you are in my life, we’re both in danger. For some reason, he used you and your wilderness adventure company as a vehicle to snatch my daughter away from me, and I still don’t know why. He used what I can only assume was a doctored audio of your voice to lure me to the mill to make me think that Kelsey was you so that she could kill me. Who’s to stop him from trying to use you to hurt me again? Or from using me to hurt you?” Then his voice dropped so low it was almost a whisper. “I care about you so much, Quinn. You make me vulnerable. Can’t you see that?”
She pressed her lips together and nodded slowly. But more like she was parsing her thoughts than agreeing with him.
“So, you’re willing to let your fear or some faceless criminal dictate what you’re going to do with your life,” she said. “I’m sorry for you. Because if that’s really what you think—and you’re not saying all this for some other reason I don’t understand—then you’re not the man I thought you were and I don’t want this in my life either.”
She turned to go, without even saying goodbye, her verbal sucker punch leaving him winded.
“Wait!” Jeff took two paces after her. She turned back and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper. “I want you to have this.”
She unfolded it slowly.
“It’s a check,” she said.
“For twenty thousand dollars,” he said. “Made out to your company.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” She stared at the paper. Her voice was flat.
“You told me you’d been struggling financially and might lose your wilderness tour business,” he said, “and I felt at least partially responsible for that—”
At that, her gaze snapped up to his face. “Because we were being honest and open with each other about our lives. Not because I wanted your pity!”
“It’s an investment,” he said. “In you, because I believe in you. It’s from a joint investment account I have with Vic and, thankfully, he had some checks in his wallet. The routing and account information is right there. Just deposit back what you can, whenever you can, however long it takes.”
“No.” She ripped the check in two. “I’m not taking your money. And if you knew me as well as I thought you did, you’d know I want to rise or fall on my own merits. If my company dies, I want to be the one to find a way to fix it. Not just let somebody bail me out.”
She kept tearing the check into smaller and smaller pieces.
“I’m not about to let you take the coward’s way out either,” she said. “Or make yourself feel better about hurting me because you’ll know your money is out there helping me live my dreams. If you want to be in my life, Jeff, be in my life. Caring about someone is always a risk, even when there isn’t some killer on the loose. My father risked his life to marry my mother and raise us girls. He put everything on the line to love my sisters and me. Your brothers and sisters in uniform overseas and in the Canadian Rangers put their lives on the line for each other, their country and strangers every day. So, step up, risk hurting me, and risk being hurt. Or don’t. Your choice. But I can’t keep letting myself be emotionally drawn deeper and deeper toward someone who’s not willing to do the same for me.”
“Quinn.” His hands reached out into the space between them. His heart ached to make her understand. She had to know how he felt about her. She had to know he hated this every bit as much as she did. But it was the only way.
Then, before he could say another word, she turned and strode across the lawn toward the lodge, leaving nothing but the remains of his check scattered like confetti at his feet, and either the real or imagined very faint sound of something metallic whirring in the darkness.
THIRTEEN
Hot tears stung her eyes. She wiped them away as she strode back to the lodge, before any of her campers could see them. Behind her, she could hear Jeff calling her name. She didn’t look back. So much for worrying that he’d break her heart. He’d turned and run before he’d even let them get that close.
She reached the door and paused, closed her eyes tightly, took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Why had Jeff acted that way? Had he been watching his words in case Big Poppa was listening? Maybe he had. Maybe Jeff had done what he’d done out of a genuine desire to help her and save her? But even if he had, even if his heart had been completely in the right place, she needed the kind of man who’d stand beside her no matter what hit them, not the kind who thought he was helping her by pushing her away.
Lord, I’m afraid my heart might never stop feeling for him the way I do about Jeff. I’ve asked You so many times to take these feelings away from me. But even if You don’t, and I’m going to have to learn to walk through this pain, help me to be wise. And please keep Jeff and Addison safe.
She opened her eyes then opened the door and walked into the ballroom. An awkward silence greeted her. Gone was the relaxed, relieved and cheerful atmosphere that had filled the room when she’d left it. Now people had their eyes locked on their computers or huddled in twos and threes in front of screens exchanging hushed whispers as if they were watching some tragedy unfold.
Rose crossed the floor toward her and pulled her aside. Her sister’s face was pale.
“What’s going on?” Quinn asked.
“Somebody posted a heavily edited video of Jeff and Kelsey’s confrontation online,” Rose said, keeping her voice low. “It makes it look like Kelsey told Jeff that she knew he was involved in the deaths of his unit overseas and then he murdered her.”
“What?” Quinn gasped. Her mind reeled. “Did Kelsey die?”
“Not that I know of,” Rose said. “The paramedics who airlifted her said that she was in stable condition and expected to survive her injuries. But this has nothing to do with the truth. This is about making Jeff out to be a killer.”
Quinn turned, ran to the door, pushed it open and rushed out into the night. Jeff was gone. She turned back and Rose was waiting for her in the doorway.
“I don’t think Big Poppa is trying to kill him,” Quinn said. “He’s trying to destroy Jeff’s life and take everything from him. He could’ve had Jeff murdered and taken Addison, but instead left him alive to experience the pain of what he’d lost. I don’t even think he expected Kelsey to kill Jeff. He was setting him up to look like a killer.”
She was pretty sure that Jeff didn’t know anything about the video and, depending when he and Vic eventually went online, it might be hours and hours before they found out about it. Hours that the video would sit online unchallenged and Big Poppa could use it to whip up more people to help him in his quest to dismantle Jeff’s life.
Benny’s angry words back in the cabin echoed in her mind.
Thirty thousand dollars for the little girl alive... Ten thousand if she’s dead.
This had never been about giving Addison a new home. Yes, Big Poppa had wanted to have her and might’ve convinced himself he’d be a better dad than Jeff would ever be. But even more than that, he’d wanted to hurt Jeff. No, more than that he wanted to utterly destroy him. In any way he could. And now that he’d lost his grip on the little girl, just how far would he go? She and Jeff might not have a future together, but that wasn’t going to stop her from doing whatever she could to protect his daughter and save his life, especially as he might have no idea this video even existed.
“Quinn, are you okay?” Kirk called from the doorway. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Yes,” she said. “Please run, find the parking lot and see if you can still catch Jeff. Apparently he’s borrowed a vehicle and hopefully he hasn’t left yet. If you see him, please tell him I need to see him right away.”
“Will do.” Kirk turned and jogged off into the night.
She turned to Rose. “That’s a good start, but we’re going to need more help than that. Did you happen to bring your laptop with you on this trip?”
Rose shook her head. “Sorry, just my phone.”
“I just have my tablet,” Quinn said. And that was somewhere in her luggage, which she hadn’t even been reunited with yet, as it was probably in her room, wherever that was. “Thankfully, I know exactly who I can ask for that.”
She rushed back into the ballroom and found Marcel sitting at a corner table, his eyes locked on the screen. He closed the screen when he saw her coming, but not before she caught a glimpse of the video of Jeff and Kelsey he was watching.
“I’m sorry,” Marcel said and blushed. “I’ll turn it off.”
“No, don’t,” Quinn said. “I need you to keep it playing and come with me. We need your help.”
He nodded and followed her out of the ballroom and back into the hallway, along with Rose. The lobby was empty now. Vacant offices lined one of the walls, with large frosted windows looking out into the main area. She led them into one of them and closed the door.
The desk was so new it still had cardboard and bubble wrap protecting the legs. Wooden chairs were stacked in one corner. She grabbed the top one, placed it in front of the desk and waved Marcel into it.
“I need you to save everything you can get your hands on about that video, who posted it and how it was created, before someone deletes it,” she said. “Then I need you to open a secure video chat channel.” She glanced at her sister. “Can you send Leia a message and ask her if there’s a way we can get in touch with her fiancé?”
Rose typed a message and a whoosh sounded followed by a ping.
“He’s still hanging out at the farmhouse,” she said. She gave Marcel the number and he set up the video call. It rang.
“Thank you for trusting me,” Marcel whispered.
“No problem.” Quinn smiled and silently prayed her instincts about him were right.
A second later, a window opened on the screen and she looked to see her dark-haired sister Leia and her fiancé, Jay, sitting at the dining room table in the Dukes family farmhouse, giant mugs of what looked like coffee in front of them.
“So, no one is sleeping tonight,” Quinn said after she and Rose had said their hellos and given a quick update on what they’d missed since they’d last spoken.
“Oh, the whole gang is here,” Leia said. She picked up the laptop and turned it around so that they could see about a dozen people scattered around the living room. Then she turned it back to her face. “Nobody was about to go home until we knew you’d made it to the hotel safe.”
“And by then we were all too tired to drive,” quipped a man with scraggly blond hair. “Hence the coffee.”
“Do you know how to reach that tech contact who works on cases with police and knows how to find pretty much anything online?” Quinn asked.
“Yo!” The coffee man raised his hand. “I’m Seth. What do you need?”
She let out a long breath and thanked God.
Seth pulled a laptop from somewhere off screen and came to join Leia at the table.
“My friend Marcel is going to send through everything he can pull on a video link,” Quinn said. “We need to know everything we can about who filmed, edited and posted it, and make sure it’s relayed to police.”
He nodded.
Leia’s fiancé gestured to a short woman with long blond hair and a tight, round pregnancy belly that looked at least eight months on. “Jess here is a detective with the Ontario Provincial Police specializing in special victim cases. She’s already been coordinating with the lead detective on the case.”
Joy filled Quinn’s heart, as unexpectedly the memory of being kidnapped by Benny filled her mind. She’d felt so completely and utterly alone when she’d been tied to the tree. She’d had no idea she had this team of people behind her.
Conversations had already started to flow between the various people on both sides of the screen. The room filled with the sound of keyboards clacking. Quinn grabbed a hotel notebook and pen from the desk and did her best to draw the drone she’d seen from memory.
“Also, can someone track this?” she asked.
“Will do,” Leia said.
“Can you get someone to email through a list of all of the people on your camping trip?” Jess the detective called from the corner of the screen. “Focus on anyone who was out of Rose’s sight at any point today and could’ve made a secret call if they had a satellite phone. My detective contact said the investigators were having trouble tracking everyone for cross referencing.”
“Will do,” Quinn said. A knock sounded on the door. She looked up to see Kirk’s flushed face looking in the partially frosted window. Had he found Jeff? She glanced at Rose. “I’ve got to talk to Kirk. Can you take over point on that?”
Rose smiled. “Absolutely.”
Quinn waved at the people on the screen and then stepped out into the hallway. Kirk was alone. “I’m guessing you didn’t find Jeff?”
“Oh, no, I sure did,” Kirk said. “Sorry it took so long but I searched the wrong parking lot at first. His baby girl is asleep. He doesn’t want to wake her up and he doesn’t want to leave her. So I told him I’d go get you.”
“Thanks,” she said.
She followed him down the hallway in the opposite direction of the lobby.
“I’m so glad that you and Jeff are back working together again,” Kirk said.
He pushed out a fire door into the night. The parking lot loomed large and empty in front of them. He led her past the smattering of vehicles by the front entrance that she assumed belonged to Sunny’s staff, and toward a large car, its lights on, parked on the far side of the lot.
“I still remember going on that trip you guys ran together two years ago,” Kirk added. “You and Jeff had such great chemistry back then. You could tell you two were a great fit. That’s why I looked you up when you both left, and you started your own company”
Yeah, she remembered that Kirk had asked her back then if she knew where Jeff was or if they were planning any trips together. In fact, he was the only camper she’d met at their previous tour company who’d ever asked where Jeff was or how he was doing.
Then she realized that, although Kirk liked to talk up being a grandfather, she’d never once seen a picture of the kid.
She glanced back. The lodge was much farther away than the vehicle ahead now, but something told her that Jeff might not be in that car and there was a whole lot of empty space stretched out around her. She reached into her pocket and felt for her knife.
“You know, I’ve never met your granddaughter,” she said. “Kate was it?”
“Catherine,” Kirk said and frowned. “Named after my mother. Not like—”
“Those awful modern names they come up with nowadays.” Quinn finished the thought for him. He stopped walking and turned to look at her. “Yes, you’ve said that before.”
