Chapter 8

 

RENEE HAD PRETTY much marshaled the troops by the time I got into the room. Her aura was calmer than I’d seen it since she picked me up, and I almost forgot my urgency as I took in the sight. She was one of those special people who shone in a crisis. That was when her true heroic nature seemed to come bursting out of her and there was no doubt that she was a natural born leader.

I cleared my throat as I realized that, sometime during my daydreaming, Renee had turned to look at me, along with the rest of the guys present.

“Did you manage to get supplies too?” Renee asked. Her smile lifted the corners of her lips and filled her aura. She was pretty impressed with my gaggle of volunteers and their offerings. 

I shook my head, hoping nobody would see me blush in response.

“What’s wrong?” Her grey eyes tracked over mine. Her aura rumbled like a towering storm cloud.

“Charlie,” I said, turning to McKinley. “He’s a deputy, right?”

McKinley nodded, his misery poured off him. “Poor guy was on the way home.” He looked at the rescue team. “Took the hit hard.”

“He’s alive,” I announced, earning myself some shocked looks in return. “I can find him but I need an ATV to carry him back, a medical person . . . to . . . er assist me and that St. Bernard.”

The five strapping brothers once again puffed out their chests.

“Evan has been training Duke since he was a pup,” one of them announced, pushing forward the smallest. “If anyone can find him, Duke and Evan can.”

I looked at Evan who was just a nose shorter than me and gripped his shoulder. “Welcome aboard.” I glanced around the room for show. “I think the doctor should stay in the field hospital. I’ll take Doc Llys here with me.”

“I’m Mark Jenson,” the man from the ski shop said. “I’ll take you down on the ATV.”

“Will it cause another avalanche?” I asked the rescue team.

“Could do,” one guy answered. “But there’s no way you’ll get down there that won’t.” He shrugged. “Even animals and skiers can set off a run.”

Reassuring. As if nearly being buried alive once wasn’t enough. Renee’s warning look made me stand up that much straighter. I was supposed to be a cold weather expert.

“Right,” I said, clearing my throat. “We ready?”

“How about the food and water provisions?” Renee asked. “The essential things for the cold.”

“That’s all sorted,” I lied. “Mark here is outfitting us, right?” He nodded and I tried not to show the relief that thudded through me. “And Martha and Earl will have food and water.”

“Don’t you think freeze dried would be better?” Renee asked again. “Easier to carry and the high energy supplements would help?”

Like heck did I know, so I nodded.

Renee must have seen the panic on my face as she turned to Mark Jenson. “Do you have them?”

“Yes,” he answered. “I am always stocked up for ski season.”

“Guess we’re lucky it ain’t then,” I said, earning myself another glare from Renee. Note to self. When I ain’t got the foggiest what is going on, I should shut up. “Just kidding,” I said with a smile, making most of the room laugh.

As we headed to the ski shop, Renee hung back with me. I didn’t need to be an empath to know that she was going to give me an earful.

“Did you pay any attention to Ursula . . . at all?” she muttered. Then she turned to me, her hands on her hips. “And why an ATV? Why not a snowmobile?”

“I kinda lost the thread after the three hours of safety stuff . . . I ain’t built for learning.”

Renee scowled at me. I was pretty sure that she would start poking me in the shoulder any second. “You are, you taught yourself to play the violin like Vanessa Mae.” She poked me in the ribs. “You just have no attention span for the things that don’t interest you.”

“Yeah, well. Being a superhero was never in my game plan.” I smiled at a couple of well-wishers as we headed down the street. “I never thought I’d get out of—”

Renee placed her finger over my lips. “Not here.”

I sighed. There are lots of things that I ain’t good at and lying, concealing the truth, whatever you want to call it is one of them. “Why can’t we just tell the sheriff what you are and then you can lead?”

Renee stopped us both and pulled me around by the shoulders. “Listen to me. Under no circumstances, and I mean none whatsoever, are you to utter a word to anyone.”

“But—”

“I mean it, Aeron.” Renee’s eyes blazed with intensity, making me want to look anywhere but at her. “There is nothing, bar national security, that warrants anyone knowing.”

“National security?” I asked. “As in—”

“Nothing you need to think about.” She sighed and motioned to the busy main street filled with folks hurrying back and forth as they pitched in to help. “Look, even if you told these people what we were, they wouldn’t understand.” She smiled as another couple of folks wished us well. “And even if they did . . .” She looked at the shop door as Mark Jenson stood waiting for us. “If they did know what it meant, they could get hurt or worse.”

“Bill and Kay knew back in Oppidum,” I argued, not willing to let this drop. Lives were on the line. “You told them yourself.”

“Yes,” Renee said in a long breath. “And that was for national security reasons.”

“You were saving my butt,” I said. “How is that anything to do with it?”

Renee bit her bottom lip. Again there was that barrier between her wanting to come clean with me and be truthful and her protocols. The CIG made me dizzy with them.

“Let me guess,” I muttered, starting to walk toward the shop. “You can’t tell me, it’s none of my business . . . blah, blah, blah.”

I didn’t give her a chance to come up with an excuse and headed into the shop with my temper simmering like a hot pot. I was meant to be part of the team, only the last six months had been filled with me being told that the military side could keep me in the dark whenever they felt like it. I, on the other hand, had to share everything whether I wanted to or not. I was getting pretty damn tired of it.

“Okay, fit me up,” I said to the girl behind the counter. “Act like I don’t know nothin’ and just get me what I’ll need.” I turned to the rest of the group. “Evan, where’s your buddy?”

Evan smiled. “Benny just went to get him.”

“Mark, where are the ATVs?”

Mark thumbed to the back of the shop as Renee slipped through the doorway. “Out back. Brian is checking them over to make sure they are ready.”

“Doctor Llys,” I said, acting like I didn’t want to yell at her. “I want you to organize the folks into teams.” I walked toward the back to fend off any objections. “I’m gonna get myself ready.”

Ten minutes later I was looking and feeling like I was ready to trek to the polar ice caps. Renee had somehow gotten suited up while I was fighting my way into my outfit. I guess that short people had it kinda easy.

I led the team out onto the street and took a look at the ATVs ready and waiting for us. I hadn’t answered her question as to why I chose them over snowmobiles. The answer was simple. Snowmobiles didn’t back up and, to me, they were way too dangerous. There was a reason why there was a higher percentage of deaths on those things than in automobile accidents. I frowned at my own thought process. Where the heck had I learned that? I could see Renee casting a wary glance my way and got my answer. Ursula Freaking-Franken-Frei that’s where.

“Doc Llys,” I said, ignoring the look. “You drive Evan, Duke, and me down.”

I didn’t wait for confirmation as I figured it would look better if I acted confident. I felt anything but, me and anything electrical are as compatible as ice and fire. Only difference with me is that things tend to explode.

Renee took charge without so much as a glare and soon the caterpillar tracks were making light work of the snow. Duke and Evan who sat in the trailer behind us looked like they were off on an excursion. I guessed that snow-based drama was pretty average for the locals.

“We need to make sure that they think Duke is tracking the deputy,” Renee called over her shoulder to me. I held on to her skinny waist and I tried not to fall as we rode over a hump of snow.

“You got to distract Evan long enough for me to talk to Duke,” I told her.

“Talk to the dog?”

“Yeah,” I answered, ignoring her shaking her head at me. “It’s the easiest way to get him onside.”

“Freaky, that’s what you are . . . Freaky,” I heard her mumble. It wasn’t the first time she’d said it and I doubted it’d be the last.

“Either way,” I said. “Dazzle the kid until I can chat up furry.”

Her laughter rumbled all the way through me like a blast of warmth. I don’t think I’d heard her let out such a roar of happiness since she’d picked me up.

“So you are still in there,” I said. “Good to know.”

I got a mouthful of snow a second later as we rounded a corner. “Bet you did that on purpose.”

Her silence was all the response I needed.