One week until Christmas. That’s all the time Jake had left to get ready, and he hadn’t even put up the damn tree yet. Poor Daniel. At least his son had grandparents who were extra festive to make up for it. His grandmother was making cookies with him now, probably wearing her twenty-year-old Rudolph sweater, while Jake finished up at the office.
He looked up at the clock. Almost seven. He was anxious to close and send Shana home, but he also wanted to give anyone who’d been snowbound a chance to make it in before the weekend. Just another half hour, and then he could lock the front door without feeling guilty.
But there was another reason he wanted to get home tonight. And it had nothing to do with Christmas, or the tree, or anything remotely close. He hadn’t seen Aimee for days; not since the night he’d seen her off a week ago. She’d told him not to worry. But regardless, he’d sat in the living room every night after putting Daniel to bed, watching the window of her little apartment, waiting for a light to go on or for some kind of movement. Anything that would indicate she’d come back. But nothing.
Now, he felt close to losing it. The mystery surrounding Aimee Styles haunted him, minute by minute. Since moving into the studio, she came and went like a shadow, silent and quick. He realized he didn’t know anything about her, not really. Only the newspaper clippings that he’d dug up from when she’d first gone missing gave him any kind of insight into this woman who had cast a spell over him, so completely that she was the first thing he thought of in the mornings and the last thing that went through his head at night.
Honestly, he thought that would’ve been the case even if they hadn’t had sex. But they had, and now she was all he could think about. Holding her again, kissing her again…
Jake rubbed his neck, thinking about the night of the storm. How it had felt to be that close to her. How it had felt to be inside her. She was the first woman he’d been with since Lizzie, and the experience had left him shaken. He’d loved his wife. More than life itself. But that night with Aimee had been something intensely different. And he hadn’t even gotten her naked, for Christ’s sake.
He wasn’t a kid anymore, but a grown man with some life experience under his belt. He knew that sex with her, as hot as it had been, wouldn’t be enough for long. In order for there to be any kind of hope of something working between them, she’d have to open up. Because the not knowing, the worrying, the obsessing…it was all making him fucking crazy.
“Jake?”
He looked up as Shana stuck her head in the door.
“Yeah?”
“I just got a call from Mo Callahan. Remember Mo, from the founder’s day picnic last year? He’s the one you called a horse’s ass because he got drunk and fell off the boat dock.”
“You’ll have to be more specific.”
“Stop. Anyway, he’s bringing his cousin in. He’s been bitten by some kind of animal and is bleeding like a stuck pig. I think they’re drunk. Just a heads-up.”
Jake pushed away from the desk. “Okay. Thanks, Shana.”
What the hell was going on with all the animals around there? He shuddered, like he always did whenever he thought of what roamed the forests of Wolfe Creek. He’d grown up there, had become an avid outdoorsman and hunter. He loved the woods. But after what happened to Lizzie, he’d had to work at not planting a bitter seed in Daniel’s heart about nature. Too late for himself—it was already planted. He just had to keep from watering it.
That was why he’d taken Daniel camping last summer. He’d forced himself, wanting to hold onto that mutual love of the outdoors that he’d had with Lizzie. Maybe someday he’d enjoy it like he used to. But now it was all he could do to walk to his mailbox without feeling sick to his stomach.
Outside the office a truck roared up to the curb. Someone cut its engine and slammed the door. He could hear two men coming up the sidewalk, hear their muffled voices, one swearing, the other mumbling something Jake couldn’t make out.
He met them in the entryway. Shana stepped back as Mo Callahan helped his limping cousin through the door.
“Son of a bitch, this hurts.”
“Just shut up, Brian.”
“Don’t tell me to shut up, you dumbass.”
“Fuck off.”
“Gentleman,” Jake said, taking Brian’s other arm.
He led them to the small exam room on the right and helped Brian up on the table. His pant leg was soaked in blood. He reeked of sweat and alcohol.
Fighting the urge to put his hand over his nose, Jake threw Shana a look and leaned down to pull the man’s boot off.
“Son of a fucker.”
“I know. I’m sorry,” Jake said.
The other man sucked in a breath and closed his eyes.
“It got him pretty bad, doc,” Mo said.
Jake pushed up Brian’s pant leg and saw teeth marks. Punctures, two of which went straight to the bone.
“Did you see it?” Jake asked.
“Don’t know. He was passed out,” Mo replied.
“We were passed out,” Brian interjected.
“You were passed out. I was taking a goddamn nap.”
“Bullshit.”
“Guys, guys.” Jake looked from one to the other. “You’re telling me neither one of you saw what did this?”
Mo shrugged. “It was dark. And the fucker was fast.”
“Yeah,” Brian said, wincing. “But I kicked it in the face. Wasn’t that fast.”
Jake turned and grabbed the gauze and antiseptic, while Shana got a shot of antibiotics ready.
“We’ll have to flush it,” Jake said.
“Great.”
“So, it woke you out of a dead sleep?” His mind kept trying to wrap itself around this. It didn’t add up. What kind of animal did that? Just attacked for the sake of attacking?
“Yeah. Was asleep by the fire one second, and the next, something had hold of my leg. Dark out there, but I can tell you one thing—it was big. A big son of a bitch. Big and black.”
“A bear maybe?”
Brian winced again as Jake began working on his leg.
“Maybe.”
Shana shot Jake a look. He knew what she was thinking. Lizzie.
Swallowing hard, he looked back at the other man. “We’re going to have to find this animal, Mr. Callahan. It needs to be quarantined for rabies.”
“Rabies?” Brian’s face went gray.
“I really don’t think that’s the case. But we need to be sure. I’ll have to call Fish and Game.”
“Will I have to get those fucking shots?”
Jake put a hand on Brian’s shoulder, trying to ignore his breath. His scent in general. “Let’s just take it one step at a time. You’re going to be fine, okay?”
Mo nodded, looking fairly gray himself. “Yeah, cuz. I’ve been meaning to shoot me a bear for a while now. Good excuse, right?”
Brian looked skeptical…and like he wanted to throw up.
“I think this is a case for Fish and Game,” Jake said. “The last thing we need is you boys out there blowing a hole in everything that moves.”
But even as he said it, he knew he’d have his own shotgun loaded and ready. Just in case.