Pressing her shoulder tighter against the door frame, Jasmine kept her gaze on the shimmering green and purple lights that painted the sky in an unnervingly beautiful, motion-filled work of art.
Inwardly, her stomach seemed to shrink. What was she thinking, asking Trooper Will Stryker such a thing? They weren’t friends. They were on brand-new speaking terms after the fiasco of the day. Yet, sitting here, dependent on each other’s company to pass the time, she genuinely wanted to know who this man was. She’d confessed her secret—at least in part—and part of her wanted to level the playing field, to restore balance by hearing his as well.
But Will was silent. Tension radiated from him as he pressed his hands against the floor and leaned into the night to see past the plane’s door, which opened over their heads like a porch roof. Even in the darkness lit only by the aurora and the stars, it was clear his jaw was clenched. His eyes were fixed on the sky, but Jasmine had to wonder if he saw the ethereal beauty.
There was nothing to do but sit in awkward silence. Her prying had wrecked a peaceful moment they’d both sorely needed. For the first time since she’d looked at her engine, she’d forgotten the plane had likely been tampered with. Had forgotten her life in Alaska might be cut short. Had forgotten—
“Minnesota and Alaska are both cold.” Will’s words stalled her thoughts. It seemed the words came from deep inside him, pulled to the surface slowly and laboriously. “When I was twelve, my mom was involved in an accident at work. She got hooked on Oxy. It happened fast. Really fast. Me being a kid, I didn’t notice. Maybe if I had...” He shrugged. “Maybe it would have been different.”
“You were twelve. No kid is going to see those kinds of signs or, if they do, know what to do about them.”
“Maybe. I mean, looking back now that I’m thirty, it all makes sense. But I wish I’d seen it then.”
The urge to reach for him nearly swamped Jasmine. The teacher in her wanted to comfort that twelve-year-old and to tell him it would all be okay. But this was no middle schooler. This was a man wrestling with a past he was still trying to make sense of. There was little she could—or should—do about that.
Except listen.
“Naturally, she burned her bridges with all of the doctors and the pharmacies, so she went the illegal route. At some point, she got in over her head with her dealer, so she started selling for him. I’m not clear on the timeline, but when I was about fifteen or sixteen, she almost seemed less tense for a while.” He shook his head and leaned back, stretching his arms and shoulders before he sat forward again. “It was a weird combo of less stressed but more anxious. Maybe because she had a steady supply of drugs but knew what she was doing was wrong. I’m sure watching her back for the police every day wore on her. And worrying what would happen to me probably did, too. Eventually, she tried to turn on her dealer. She went to the cops and offered to turn him over.” Will shook his head and looked Jasmine in the eye. “She was trying to get clean and to make everything right.”
His voice was the same level it had always been, but a raw anguish made the edges jagged. She probably would have missed it in any other situation, but the silence of the night magnified the sound of his pain. She couldn’t help but reach out to him.
Her hand found his and held on, trying to give him some comfort, praying for his pain to be healed by the only One who could.
Will started to pull away, but then he curled his fingers around hers and looked into the night again. “It was two months after I left for college. She waited until I was out of the house to make her move against the guy. Figured it was safer for me, I guess. Later, when I became a cop and could get into the records, I found out exactly what happened, but I didn’t know for years.” His grip tightened. “The detectives wired her and sent her in to pick up a stash to sell, but Mom was always a terrible liar.” He laughed, sharp and bitter. “They figured her out, and murdered her. You can kill an average man with pure fentanyl equal to four grains of salt, but they shot her up with enough to kill thirty men twice her size. The dealers were angry she turned on them, and they made an example out of her.”
Emotion almost closed Jasmine’s throat, but she held it in. He needed her to carry his pain, not to express it in a way that would force him to comfort her.
“They caught a couple of the lower-level guys in the operation, but their leader evaded arrest. He died about five years ago in a power grab. He was drowned in his bathtub.”
Jasmine’s eyes drifted closed. The man whose murder she’d witnessed had been killed because he crossed a drug cartel. Will’s story intersected with hers in a way that lacerated her system. They were mirrors reflecting two sides of evil. “That’s why you came to Alaska.” It made sense. They’d both had a drive for justice, and it had changed the course of both of their lives.
“No. That’s why I became a cop.” He pulled his hand from hers and stretched his arms out in front of him, fingers laced together. Then he pressed his back against the door frame, one leg dangling into space and the other bent, his knee barely brushing her thigh.
She tried to ignore the contact. After holding his hand, his touch evoked more emotion than it should. She cleared her throat to sweep it away. “So...Alaska?”
He laughed, but it didn’t sound as though it was born out of humor. More out of bitterness. “Alaska was because of a woman.”
“Ah.” Jasmine mimicked his posture. Their knees touched in the narrow space. Maybe this would make the mood lighter. “You followed her here?”
“I ran from her here.” He tipped his head back and rested it against the plane. “You really want to hear my life story?”
“Neither of us is sleeping. And it’s preferable to wondering who sabotaged my plane. Or if it was really sabotaged at all.” Because maybe she was so paranoid that she was imagining things. But too many things had happened at once and that cut was too perfect for it all to be accidental.
“I get your point.” This time, when he chuckled, it sounded like he was genuinely amused. “So my past gets sacrificed for your present comfort?”
“Something like that.”
“Okay, but you’re going to owe me more stories about Jasmine Jefferson. I want embarrassing stuff. Like how you tripped in front of your high school crush. Something ridiculously lighthearted.”
“Your definition of lighthearted is kind of mean.” Jasmine smiled anyway. She understood what he was going for. Distraction, the same as she was. “And my real name is...” No. It was too much to tell him now. “Let’s just say she would be the one with the embarrassing high school stories.” Because Yasmine wasn’t Jasmine Jefferson. She was a different person who no longer existed, even though she still lived in Jasmine.
The thought always brought a shudder. How could someone be dead and yet still live?
Seeming to sense her discomfort, Will pressed his knee against hers briefly and changed the subject. “I really did come to Alaska because of the K-9 unit, but I was looking for a way out of Minnesota. It does something to a guy when he finds out that his girlfriend, the one he was certain he was going to marry, is only using him for protection.”
“Protection?” Because she was afraid of the world and thought being married to a cop would keep her safe?
“She was a midlevel dealer. Heroin. Beth never used the stuff herself so I never saw the signs. She thought having me in her pocket would protect her if she ever got caught.”
“Will, no. That’s awful.” The words poured out in a gasp. That explained his readiness to believe Jasmine was guilty before he even met her.
“When she finally got arrested, she found out real fast that I wouldn’t turn my back on the badge for her.” His voice grew tight and somber. “It’s embarrassing, really. I can’t believe I told you.”
She couldn’t believe it either. It was such a painful, personal story. His life was full of so much that she couldn’t even fathom. There had to be something she could say, something she could give him, to ease some of the hurt. “I’m sorry about what your girlfriend did. You’re too good of a person to have been treated that way, and I hope someday you realize that.”
Will froze and, when he spoke, his voice was ice. “I hope I never forget what she did.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m never getting betrayed like that again. I’m fine the way I am. Keeps me focused on the job.”
The blunt words rolled in her stomach like rough turbulence. Trooper Will Stryker was a man with high walls, ones no one but God could ever break down. She’d be praying that—
A low growl rolled between them, and Scout stood, staring into the night.
Will’s gaze followed the border collie’s, and he watched the darkness intently.
“What’s wrong?” Jasmine’s radar started to ping. They’d seen something. Something neither of them liked.
But he merely shook his head. “Nothing. Probably an animal. I’m going to go take a look around just to be sure.” He looked at Scout and pointed to Jasmine. “Stay. Guard.”
Without waiting for an answer from Jasmine, he jumped down from the plane. “Close the door. Get some sleep. I’ll be back in a little while.”
She wanted to argue, to ask where he was going, but something in his tone told her she’d better do as he said. That same gut feeling also said he wasn’t telling her the whole truth.
Closing the door, Jasmine crept back to her sleeping bag and sat with her back against the wall.
A few feet away, Scout sat with his back to her, watching the door.
She wrapped her arms around her knees, closed her eyes and prayed.
As soon as Jasmine secured the door, Will drew his pistol, confident Scout would alert him should anyone try to get into the plane. Jasmine was in good hands with the best partner in the world.
Sure, he hadn’t told her the whole truth, but there was no need to frighten her unnecessarily when she was already on edge. Likely whatever Scout had scented and alerted to was a bear or a moose, but he couldn’t take that chance. The possibility that her plane had been tampered with meant someone might have set the entire thing up to leave them vulnerable to attack on the open frontier.
And it was likely because of him. He’d boarded her plane at Nemeti and was with her at Landsher. It was a high probability the bad guys knew he was looking for them and would do whatever it took to shut him down. He should have seen this coming.
But he’d been so certain Jasmine was guilty that he hadn’t thought past taking her into custody. He dragged his hand down his face. His teammate Helena Maddox was right. It was possible his overly suspicious nature had landed him, his partner and Jasmine in deep trouble.
Will wiped a bead of sweat off his temple, hating himself for it. He’d been a police officer for years and had had his share of time on the Alaskan frontier but tonight, even with the northern lights dancing overhead, this felt a whole lot like his time in Afghanistan. The mountain before him, unseen assailants around him... Some memories were best left in the past.
He scanned the side of the mountain then surveyed the flat land from the plane to the horizon as the lights in the sky shifted the shadows on the ground. While beautiful, the depth of the lights on the frontier, where the world was deathly silent, lent an unearthly feeling to the darkness, as though he watched from inside a twisted nightmare.
Nothing moved. If Scout hadn’t alerted, Will would think he’d dreamed the whole thing.
Holstering his sidearm, he scrubbed his face with both hands. No doubt he was exhausted, but sleep wasn’t coming anytime soon. Might as well patrol the area. Maybe if he convinced himself all was well, his mind would shut down and let him rest.
Keeping his hand on the grip of his holstered sidearm, he made a slow circuit around the plane, then eyed the flat frontier once again. There was still no motion.
Which, come to think of it, was kind of strange. Shouldn’t there be night creatures roaming around? Maybe their presence and the hulk of the plane was keeping them at bay, but still...it seemed odd.
It also made the hair on the back of his neck stand at attention. At least overseas or when he was in the field with his team, there were other sets of eyes and more people to see what he couldn’t. Right now, it was only him. And he was very capable of missing something.
Feeling as though a thousand eyes watched him, Will walked toward the slope of the mountain away from the plane, wishing he’d grabbed his flashlight, but he clearly wasn’t thinking straight. Jasmine had gotten to him earlier. Had him talking about things he never talked about. It had to have been the aurora and the moment. He was done with relationships. He sure wasn’t feeling things for a woman who, just over twelve hours ago, had been his prime suspect.
And he needed to get his head back into the game, before he missed something that got one or both of them hurt.
A soft rustle to his right barely registered before a shadow plowed into him. Will’s back crashed into the ground, knocking the air from his lungs. He struggled to catch his breath. Tried to see past the darkness pounding in his eyes. Fought against the weight of a creature he couldn’t identify.
Until hands wrapped around his neck.
This was no creature. It was a human. And whoever it was had Will down for the count.
Muscle memory and training rushed through him. Rather than try to dislodge the vise around his neck, Will brought his hands up between his assailant’s arms and went for the head. Pressing his palms against the side of his attacker’s head, he pressed his thumbs straight into where the eyeballs should be.
An unintelligible growl and a string of muttered curses burnt the air around him. The pressure around his neck eased.
That split second taste of freedom was all he needed. Will gripped his assailant’s right arm, then shoved the man’s leg back with his elbow, trapping his ankle in his bent knee. Shifting his grip, he grabbed the man’s shirt near the shoulder and shoved his right foot against the ground, going into a roll that pitched the man off him.
With a grunt, the attacker rolled away and hopped to his feet, already on the run. The guy was like a ninja—wiry, nimble and fast.
Will scrambled up as well, reaching for his sidearm. He’d take this perp into custody and somehow keep him restrained until backup could get here. He took off in pursuit, but didn’t get far before he stumbled to a stop. The guy was outpacing him, and he didn’t dare get too far from the plane. This could all be a ruse to lure him away from Jasmine or into a trap. Alone, he couldn’t do anything more than let this man get away.
Biting back a frustrated shout, Will ran back to the plane. If nothing else, he could call for backup on the sat phone, although rounding up a helicopter and getting it here at this time of night when no one was injured would likely be a long shot.
In the distance, almost too faint to hear, the sound of an engine roared to life and quickly faded. Likely a four-wheeler.
Either way, the guy was gone.
And all Will had was proof that someone was out to kill him.