Midnight Sun (8 page)

The man nodded and shook her hand. “Since you’re a witness, I’ll need your address.”

She gave him her Gig Harbor, Washington, address and phone number. Then he turned to Rhys. “I understand you work for the Western Washington US Attorney’s Office?”

“Yes.” Rhys then gave a Seattle address.
 

Strange to think he lived just across Puget Sound from her. Claiming she was his girlfriend didn’t even sound far-fetched given where they lived.

“Okay, walk me through the break-in. Where you were, time, everything.”

“It was during the sunset—around three a.m.—I got a glimpse of him as he rounded the corner. I didn’t see anything distinguishable, but I’m fairly certain it was a man,” Sienna said.

“You were awake?”

Rhys gave a polite cough. “Yes. We were both awake, in the bedroom.”

Sienna felt her cheeks redden and had to remind herself the officer believed they were a couple. Not that it was any of his business either way.
 

The interview was mercifully short, culminating in an examination of the ground outside the window for footprints, finding nothing. Rhys draped an arm around her shoulders as he said good-bye to the officer, and they were alone again. “I’m taking you to breakfast,” he said. “Then we’ll check out the storage facility. We should probably go grocery shopping too. There’s hardly anything here.”

She grabbed her purse. “If there’s a store that sells clothing, I should grab a few items, if I’m going to be here for a few days.” Would she be here for a few days?
 

If it meant finding a way to avoid being arrested? Absolutely.

Itqaklut’s only diner was busy at ten a.m. on the first day of the Midnight Sun Festival. They were lucky to get a booth. The waitress, a young Iñupiat woman with glossy black hair and lovely, wide brown eyes, looked curiously at Rhys. Sienna felt a rise of possessiveness, the desire to let the woman know he was taken.

But of course, he wasn’t.

Even if the dream counted as far as sex was concerned, Sienna had established the rules when she’d declared it consequence free.

“You’re Chuck’s cousin, right?” the woman asked. Her question set Sienna’s jealousy to rest. She’d stared because she recognized him.

“Yes,” Rhys answered.

“How is he?”

“Better, but still not well. He’s on dialysis.”

The woman frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that. I like Chuck. Jana too. It was awful when she died.”

“I’ll let him know you asked about him.”

“Please do. Tell him everyone in town is pulling for him.”

Sienna was touched by the genuine concern in the woman’s tone. In a community the size of Itqaklut—slightly over three thousand, seventy percent of which were tribal members—Chuck was likely related to many of his neighbors. After the waitress left, she leaned over the table, closer to Rhys, and spoke just above a whisper. “It’s strange to think a fellow member of the Itqaklut Corporation—many of whom could be distant cousins—would have poisoned him.”

He shrugged. “It could be anyone.” He sat across from her in the small booth, and his gaze fixed on her mouth. He smiled and rubbed his thumb over the freckle on her bottom lip. He wasn’t the first man to do that. And given that this was a consequence free… whatever it was… he probably wouldn’t be the last.

“Have you ever…had something like this happen to you before?” She dropped her voice even lower, whispering now. “Ghosts or… visions?”

“Never. Chuck talked to me about ancestors and shamans when we were kids. He explained all his beliefs, but I was never really on board with it. You?”

“None personally, but there was this one time… Years ago, my mom’s friend’s son went missing. He disappeared in woods that people said were haunted. Supposedly there were strange lights, things like that. Some said the woods had taken him. Maybe you heard of it, if you lived in Washington at the time? He lived in a small town near Leavenworth—Jamesville. It happened nine or ten years ago.”

“Doesn’t sound familiar, but then, I was deployed in Iraq around then.”

His words were a reminder of how different their backgrounds were, she with her hippy parents and upbringing, while he’d been a soldier. She found it hard to believe he’d be interested in her if it weren’t for the mask. She shrugged off the doubt and continued, “I joined the search party for Jamie—the seven-year-old who’d gone missing—and walked those woods. I’d been dig bumming for a year with my sister and spent a lot of time in various forests around the Pacific Northwest, and I can say with authority, those woods were the same as any other. I figured everyone who said the woods were haunted was nuts. My mom was one of the believers, but you know artist types… Now, after what’s happened with the mask, it seems plausible. Maybe
I
just didn’t see it, feel it, whatever
it
was. I figure I need to reconsider my relationship with my mom.”

“Yeah. I’ve got apologies to make to Chuck too.”

 
She smiled. Maybe they weren’t so different after all.

He leaned forward and kissed her, a soft press of warm lips. Casual. Sweet. Intimate. He whispered in her ear, his mouth brushing against the lobe softly, like a lover. “There’s a man sitting at a table behind you. He hasn’t taken his eyes off you from the moment we walked in. I’m going to take his picture. Tell me if you recognize him.”

She nodded.

He nipped her neck, and she didn’t have to fake the frisson that passed through her. She liked Rhys. A lot.

Too bad he was just playing a role right now. What would it be like to have a man like him truly interested in her?

He leaned back against the booth. His eyes were warm, intent. He took her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. His eyes shifted from gazing at her face to over her shoulder. He pulled his cell out of his pocket and tapped the touchscreen with his thumb. “We promised your mom we’d send pictures of you in the land of the Midnight Sun,” he said. He held up the smartphone and snapped a picture, then handed her the cell. “You can post it on Facebook.”

She studied the image. “It’s not really my best side,” she said. The only part of her in the picture was her ear.

He laughed.

He’d zoomed in, and the image was sharp and clear. She’d never seen the man before. She shrugged.

Several minutes later, Rhys leaned forward and said, “He’s gone.”

A
fter breakfast, they strolled down Itqaklut’s main street, holding hands, trying to look like a carefree couple in town for the festival. The street was three blocks long, with Kotzebue Sound on one side and shops on the other. They were halfway down the block when Rhys pulled her into a doorway alcove and settled his hands on her hips, like a lover who couldn’t wait another minute to kiss her.

His lips hovered above hers, and her heart began to hammer. In spite of the dream, this would be their true first kiss.

His blue eyes held heat but something else too, and his lips barely moved as he whispered, “I think we’re being followed. I’m going to kiss you, but you should know it won’t be my best work, since I’ll be watching the street.”

She felt a slight stab of disappointment that this too wasn’t real, but confidence that came from somewhere unknown gave her the courage to say, “As long as you promise to make up for it later.”

“Give me the green light when we’re alone, and I’ll happily show you exactly what I can do.”

The invitation caused a giddy heat to rush straight to her center.

His mouth touched hers, but, true to his word, he held back from sliding his tongue between her lips as he gazed through slitted eyes out toward the road.

She figured it was her duty to make the kiss look good and pressed her hips against him as she ran her fingers through his hair. In a way, this was another freebie. It didn’t
mean
anything.

She felt his growing erection against her belly, and he let out a soft growl. “Evil woman. You know you’re torturing me, right?”

“Who, me?” She laughed softly.

All at once, he pressed her against the building and thrust his tongue in her mouth. Real this time, his kiss was a hot, pleasurable stroke that ignited her already smoldering body. She slid her tongue against his, purring with the pleasure of one need being met, at last. She gripped his shoulders as if she could pull him closer when she was already locked tight in his arms with the hard building at her back.
 

He lifted his head and pressed his forehead against hers. “Sorry.” His breath came out in uneven pants. “I didn’t mean to take it that far.”

She stroked his cheek. “It’s okay. I didn’t either. I guess you didn’t see anyone following us?”

“No. I saw him. I kissed you as soon as I realized who it was, so he wouldn’t think he’d been spotted.”

“Who was it?”

“I recognized him from the dream. The curator. Adam Helvig.”

Chapter Five

R
hys didn’t know what to make of the curator’s presence in Itqaklut any more than Sienna did, but the fact that the man had neither reported her theft nor approached her was yet another sign the mask was indeed the one that had been stolen from the Itqaklut tribe.

Which was good news for Sienna’s business. Sort of.

Helvig disappeared before Rhys got his raging libido under control, and there was no sign of him when they stepped out of the doorway. They continued strolling hand in hand, but the walk was anything but casual.

Sienna and the mask had to be related to Chuck’s poisoning. And, crazy as it sounded, he believed the mask had manipulated their meeting so they could compare notes. He wanted to be freaked out and in denial over this. As a kid, he hadn’t even believed in the tooth fairy. He didn’t wish on stars, and he never knocked on wood. He sure as hell hadn’t believed Chuck’s talk of ancestors and spirit guides when they were growing up.

There was nothing in his past that would make him susceptible to believing something this crazy, yet here he was, accepting the idea a long-dead Iñupiat shaman inhabited an ancient mask and had communicated with him through a dream.

Because it had happened to him.

Chuck was going to laugh his ass off when Rhys worked up the nerve to tell him.

They reached the small grocery store, which was next to the only clothing store in town. “I should grab a change of clothes while you get groceries,” Sienna said.

“You aren’t leaving my sight. Not while Helvig is skulking around.” He wore his pistol holstered at his back. After the break-in, he no longer doubted Chuck’s insistence that he not only bring the gun but that he carry it locked and loaded.

She frowned but said, “I suppose you’re right. I’ll be quick, then.” She was true to her word, grabbing the first two tourist T-shirts in her size, a pair of jeans, socks, and underwear. She grimaced at the receipt as they entered the grocery store. “I hope the airline reimburses me for this. I need to watch my budget, since I’m going to lose my business and all.”

“Given that Helvig followed you here but hasn’t reported the theft, I have a feeling you’ll be fine on the legal front. Although this is based on a hunch and should in no way be construed as legal advice.”

She laughed and shook her head. “I’ve never dated a lawyer.” She flushed and let out an embarrassed cough. “Not that I’m saying I’m dating one now.”