BEARed to You(22)

He stood and, opening a nearby armoire, pulled out a pair of pants. He held them up to his waist, obviously to check the fit. “What’re you apologizing for?” He sat on the couch and shoved one foot into a pant leg then did the same with the other. “You’re right. You are involved. And it’s my fault. Which is why I’m handling this whole thing. I won’t see you get sucked in any deeper.” He yanked up his pants and fastened the fly.

Men had such fragile egos. Why was it necessary for them to take on the world by themselves?

She swallowed a sigh. “As much as I trust you could do this without my help, I still can’t see turning my back and skipping off into the Alaskan sunset. I don’t see you being the kind of guy to go all Rambo and charge into Omega with guns blazing.”

“Frankly, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”

“Liar.”

“Cool. My buddy left his cell phone and a laptop. These could come in handy.” He pocketed the phone he’d found on top of the armoire, set the laptop on the table then sat next to her. His arms were crossed over his chest, a pose she found especially appealing because it made his biceps look huge. “I suppose you have a better plan?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Though I haven’t nailed down the finer details yet.”

“Let’s hear what you’ve got.”

“Okay. It’s really quite simple.” She hesitated but he encouraged her to go on with a nod. “We run.”

He stared at her for a minute but didn’t speak. She had to give it to him, he didn’t bust into raucous laughter. Nor did he flatly refuse to consider her suggestion. In fact, he seemed to be waiting for her to tell him more about The Brilliant Plan.

Too bad there wasn’t much more to tell.

“Like I said,” she continued, figuring she’d be forced to talk her way through the problem. “I haven’t settled all the details yet. But I’m thinking it makes more sense to just get away from all this instead of attacking a bunch of people with who knows what kind of weapons and power behind them.”

He seemed to consider what she said carefully. “You have a point.”

“You agree then? That we should leave?”

“I’m beginning to appreciate the fact that it might be a good plan, at least for now.”

“I was trying to figure out where to go.”

“I’m thinking heading for Canada would be best. I have a passport…though I’m not sure it’s exactly legal.”

“Oh boy.”

“It’s worth a try. If what my boss said is true and I don’t exist here in the United States, maybe I can find a way to gain citizenship in Canada under an assumed name. Without any legal records here in Alaska, I should be untraceable.”

“I have my passport. So, I guess we have our plan. We’ll head south. In my rental car. We’ll need to fill the tank. I’m guessing the northwestern part of Canada is pretty much like this. Lots of nature. Not a lot of Citgos. Wish I had rented something smaller that gets better gas mileage. Back home, there are gas stations on practically every corner.”

“We can head down to White Moose by way of Dawson City. It’ll be a long drive, at least ten hours, but at least it should be relatively safe at this time of year. And we can break it up a bit, maybe have dinner in Eagle Ridge.”

It wasn’t easy but she resisted the urge to grimace. Long car rides were not something she enjoyed. In fact, she hated them. Granted, the scenery would probably be breathtaking. And she wasn’t talking about the scenery outside.

But ten hours? Ugh.

Evidently, being a bear-man meant Tarik could read minds—or more likely, read her body language. As much as she tried to hide her lack of enthusiasm for the upcoming road trip, he knew she was not thrilled. He gripped her upper arms and stared long and hard in her eyes, like he was trying to hypnotize her. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I want to help you.”

“We can find another way to get you home, a bus—”

“You think that’s going to be better? It would probably take twice as long by bus. No, I’m fine. At least we’ll be able to make pit stops and perhaps take an occasional break to admire the mountains or flowers or whatever. I wish those stupid air traffic controllers would get back to work. I’d fly home tomorrow. It was a blessedly short flight from Detroit. But then again, what if those thugs know where I live? Oh…” her words trailed off as she realized for the first time how unlikely it was that she’d be able to simply go home and resume her life like nothing had happened. This Omega wasn’t some junior high bully picking on a convenient target. This was a company with a lot to lose and probably gobs of money and resources. Probably long arms and lots of eyes, like the U.S. government. “We haven’t thought this completely through yet, have we?”