SHIVER (40 page)

“Sure thing, babe.” Aidan lifted the skis of the machine clear of the snow bank. “There that ought to do it.” He moved toward Genie in a non-threatening way. Quick as a snake he grabbed her by the arms and twisted them behind her back. “Now, Genie, why don’t you tells us what you did with Fox.”

She let out a scream as she struggled in Aidan’s iron grasp.

It took Raven a moment for the words and the actions to sink in.
This woman took her son?
“You bitch!” Raven flew at her, the rifle she held in her hands pointing between the woman’s eyes. “Where the hell is my son?”

“Raven, back off. She can’t tell us anything if she’s dead.”

Her finger itched to pull the trigger. “Where. Is. Fox?”

“How the hell should I know?” Her eyes went wide and Raven would have believed her if it wasn’t for the judgment in Aidan’s glare.

Raven leaned into Genie. “You’re going to be dead if you don’t start telling me what I want to know.”

“You two are
crazy
, you know that?” Her voice wobbled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do,” Aidan said. “You’ve been hanging around the lodge. This snowmobile is one of the lodge’s rentals. You probably know who all the players are by now. It’s no coincidence that you’re out here stuck in the snow at the same time we’re searching for our son. Our very clever son, who left us a trail of Jolly Ranchers which led us right to you.”

“That brat,” Genie spat out the side of her mouth. The mask of innocence fell from her face leaving a hard, bitter shell in its place. Raven couldn’t help herself, and sucker-punched Genie in the stomach with the butt of the rifle..

The woman doubled-over. “Ouch. Shit.”

Aidan gave Raven a pointed look, that said,
Cool it.
Like hell she would. She wanted this woman dead. It was all she could do not to hit her again, and again. Raven tore off Genie’s hat and tossed it in the snow. “Think about how my gun will feel slamming into your skull without that pelt of fur to cushion it.”

Genie paled, and then tightened her lips into an ugly sneer. Her lips were scarred with thin lines from too many years of puckering around the butt of a cigarette. “I have no idea where that brat ran off to. He left me here to die after he crashed my snowmobile.”

“Why don’t you tell us what happened?” Aidan asked.

“Let go of me first.”

“Fine.” Aidan suddenly released her. Genie fell into the snow on her ass. “Raven, she moves, shoot her. Start with her feet.”

Genie gulped.

“Start talking. Raven has an itchy finger.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Raven said in a deadly voice.

“Hand me my rifle, sweetheart.”

Raven passed the rifle to Aidan after freeing her pistol from her pocket and training it on Genie. “I’m waiting.”

“I had Roland right where I wanted him until that damn kid showed up.”

“What’s your connection to Roland?”

She gave a harsh cackle. “You should be asking me what my ‘connection’ is to your daddy.”

“All right, how did you know Earl?”

“I knew everything about Earl. All his secrets. Nothing loosened his tongue like a good fucking.”

“Who the hell are you?” Aidan asked.

She laughed and spread her hands wide on top of the snow. “I’m your Genie in the bottle, baby. I grant your every wish.”

“You’re a
whore
?” Raven asked, caught up in this crazy turn.

“Oh, please. Whore? I’m so much more than that. I’m a celebrated ‘entertainer’ for the Lonely Lady. I’ve been Earl’s consort for over twenty years. And Roland’s whenever he’s in town,” she added with a nonchalant shrug.

Aidan grabbed Genie by the arm and pulled her up and out of the snow. “I don’t give a shit who you are. Why did you take Fox?”

“I want the gold. Since Earl is dead—thank you for that by the way—I figure I’m the closest thing to his wife so the gold belongs to me.”

“This is twisted,” Raven said.

“You don’t know twisted, honey, until you’ve slept with a Harte.” She glanced between Raven and Aidan and laughed. “But then I guess you do, don’t you?”

Aidan gave Genie a hard shake. “Where’s Fox?”

“How the hell should I know? He left me here.” She gestured wide to the trees. “Ran off and left me to die.”

“
You
kidnapped him.” Raven advanced. “
You
killed his dog.”

“Had to. The mutt was after us, plus getting rid of the dog put your kid in line. Guess you spared the rod with that one, didn’t you?”

“You bitch.” Raven slapped her across the face and pointed the gun at Genie, her finger pressing the trigger.

“Raven,” Aidan said, his voice low, calming. “Fox first. You can take care of her later.”

Raven forced herself to relax her grip and lowered the gun a few inches. “Last chance. Where is my son?”

“I told you.” Genie’s tone was shrill, her hand holding her cheek. “He went off that way, into the trees.”

“Aidan, do we have anything to tie her up with?” Raven asked, advancing closer to Genie.

“Hey,” Genie complained.

“It’s either that, or I put a bullet in your head.”

Quick as a cat, Genie grabbed the gun from Raven and pointed it at her. “I don’t think so. Throw the rifle over there or this bitch gets it.”

“Shoot her, Aidan.”

But Aidan complied with Genie’s demand, dropping the rifle to the snow.

“
You
shut up.” Genie waved the gun at Raven. “I’m sick of your mouth. This whole plan has gone to shit because of you. I’ve been watching. I know what kind of woman you are. And they call
me
names.”

“You’re the one who hit me over the head,” Aidan said, as the puzzle pieces seemed to fit together. “You ransacked the cabin and my rental?”

“Looks as though Fox’s smart genes came from his daddy. Bingo. I’ve been trying to get you out of that shithole this whole time. But then she’d show up and either nurses you back or pisses you off into staying.”

“You set the fire to the woodpile.”

“Wasn’t that brilliant?” Genie chuckled. “Can’t live in a place with no heat. Not in Alaska. That should have given me plenty of time to search Earl’s place.”

“But Roland showed up,” Aidan said, obviously trying to get the anger and attention off of Raven and onto him.

“There he was bragging to me that any day now he was going to be flush and how Mexico looked real good this time of year. No mention of me going with him. And I had been satisfying his every fantasy. Even some he didn’t know he had.”

“Let me guess. You were adding drugs in with the sex?”

Genie scoffed. “Yep, you’re definitely the brains of the family. The bastard caught on to what I was doing.”

“Is that why you killed him?”

“It was easy. Killing a man like Roland should have been harder. For you it would have been, you did put a bullet in your own father. Roland was sure pissed about that.” A sick smile crossed her hard lips. “Men don’t think women have the balls to do what needs to be done. I shimmied up to him, playing all nice promising him all kinds of sexual favors if he’d let me partner up with him. The idiot actually laughed at me. You should have seen his face when I stuck him with my knife. He’ll never stick me again. Get it? Stick me again?” She giggled, and the sound of a little girl coming out of the hardened prostitute sent a chill up Raven’s spine.

“Yeah, I got it,” Aidan said. “So what’s your plan now?”

“Well, I gotta get rid of you two. Your brat should be done for soon, if he hasn’t frozen to death before now.”

A sound of distress escaped Raven, even though she’d tried not to bring attention to herself while Aidan kept Genie busy with her vent-fest. Now Genie focused more on her, the gun level with Raven’s heart.

“I figure, with the three of you gone, no one will have the slightest idea that a woman was behind all this. They should have the gold packed into your rental shortly, and then I’ll just drive off with it. Smart of me to get you men bending over for me for a change.”

“There’s something you haven’t counted on.”

“Oh, you mean the snowmobile getting stuck? Yeah, that was a bad turn. I got a bit hasty in my excitement and took that bend too fast. But then you came along and unstuck the damn thing for me.”

“No, I’m talking about that.”

“What?”

“You’ll never make it back to the cabin. The wolves will get to you first.” Aidan indicated the black wolf standing twenty feet off, his gums silently pulled back to reveal shiny, sharp teeth.

Genie screamed, panicked, swung the gun around and shot at the wolf. The wolf was off, with a leap, into the forest, unharmed. Aidan tackled Genie, but not before she got off another wild shot.

White hot pain seared for a second, stealing Raven’s breath, and then she felt nothing as the snow reached up to cradle her in its slumbering embrace.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
S
IX

“
Raven
!” Aidan tore the gun out of Genie’s hand, cold-cocked the whore, and rushed over to Raven’s prone body. “Raven? Come on, baby, open your eyes for me.” He felt around her chest, struggled with the zipper of her parka, until he could part her coat and see for himself what kind of injury she had.

Nothing.

No blood, no wound. What the hell? Had she fainted? Raven wasn’t the kind of woman who fainted. “Raven?” He shook her, and she moaned.

Her eyes fluttered and then opened, only to quickly shut again. She reached up a gloved hand and pressed it to the side of her head. Blood coated the light-colored fur of her glove.

“Oh, God.” Aidan tore off his gloves and gently removed her hat, then brushed back her long dark hair—soaking up blood—away from the wound, praying under his breath. There, above her left ear, blood bubbled where the bullet had torn through her flesh. Blood poured from the wound, not letting him see how badly she’d been shot. He took snow and washed the area, holding her hair up and out of the way. It wasn’t long before Raven started to complain. The words were the sweetest sound he’d ever heard.

“Fuck, that hurts. I’m going to kill that bitch.” She winced, but didn’t move as he washed and packed the wound, the coldness of the snow slowing the bleeding and hopefully numbing the pain.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked, hoping that the injury hadn’t caused a concussion. He held up two fingers.

“Four. Now let me at her.” Raven struggled to sit up, weaving back and forth.

“Easy. Easy now.” Aidan frowned. “Let me make sure you’re all right.”

“We don’t have time for this. We need to know where Fox is.”

Aidan zipped her parka, watching as her eyes dilated when she blinked. He needed to get her to help, but first they needed to find Fox.

Aidan gently wrapped Raven’s scarf around her head, tearing the felted wool with his teeth to tie a knot, keeping it in place and then repositioned the hood of her parka. “Hopefully that will hold until we can get you to Eva. Are you doing okay?”

She went to nod and then thought better of it. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

He knew she was lying. Her skin was as pale as the snow she sat on.

Genie groaned. He turned to see her slowly sitting up, holding her hand to her head where Aidan had knocked her out.

“Sit here for a minute.” Aidan got up and walked back to Genie.

“Hey,” she protested, and then snapped her mouth shut when she got a clear look at his murderous face.

He reached into his pocket and flicked open his knife, cutting the strings free from the hood of his parka. Grabbing Genie by the arms, he dragged her kicking and screaming to a crowd of trees.

“You can’t leave me here,” Genie cried, when Aidan pulled her toward a stand of spindly birch. “I’ll freeze to death.”

“One can hope.” Aidan yanked Genie’s hands around the trunk of a tree.

“Okay, you win. I’ll take you to where your brat is.” She glanced fearfully around, her wide-eyed gaze frozen on the black wolf who’d returned as sentry and stood along the tree line. “Just don’t leave me here.”

“I’m through playing your games. Where is my son?” Aidan demanded, his voice menacing, as he tied the nylon string around her hands.

“Untie me and I’ll take you to him.” Genie’s eyes drooped, pleaded. But Aidan was immune. This bitch had shot the woman he loved and kidnapped his son. She could rot out here for all he cared.

“Ouch. You don’t have to be barbaric,” Genie complained when he tightened the thin strings around her wrists, under her gloves. She glanced again at the wolf who had continued to stand like a totem within the cover of trees. “Seriously, you can’t leave me here.”

“Yes, I can.”

“You need me.”