“Yes, I can.”
“You need me.”
“The only woman I need in my life is Raven.”
“She’s right, Aidan,” Raven said. “Leave me. Take her and the snowmobile, it will be faster. Find Fox and bring him home.” Her voice cracked on the word ‘home.’
No way in hell would he leave Raven here, out in the open, hurt like she was.
“I’ll head back to the cabin,” Raven said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Just go and get Fox.”
Aidan glanced around him. Genie had a calculating gleam in her eyes, while Raven’s were full of fear and pain.
The wolf howled behind him and suddenly he knew.
“No. She stays. We go.” He finished tying off the strings, pulling on them once to make sure they’d hold.
“What? No.” Genie struggled, twisted and turned, trying to free herself. “You can’t leave me here alone.”
“Yes, I can. Just like you left my son alone.” Aidan hoped she didn’t get free, because he planned for her to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
“Aidan, what are you doing?” Raven asked, watching wide-eyed as he finished with Genie and returned to her.
“I’m not leaving you.” He bent down and took her cold face within the heat of his hands, staring deep into her frightened eyes. “Trust me. Please.”
She studied him, wetted her lips. “Okay.”
He kissed her, quick and hard, his heart swelling with emotion he couldn’t name. “Thank you.”
He helped Raven to her feet, assisting her over to the snowmobile. It was hard enough mounting the machine with the snowshoes strapped to her feet, not to mention her head injury. Aidan sent a prayer to the heavens that they’d get their son back and both Fox and Raven would be safe. When Raven was situated, he got on the snowmobile.
“You’ll never find the brat without my help!” Genie screeched.
Raven shivered at Genie’s words as she wrapped her arms around Aidan’s waist. Aidan started the machine, trying to block out Genie’s threats.
He did know what he was doing, right?
You’re following a wild timber wolf hoping the animal is going to lead to you to your son, like Lassie. What do you think?
The wolf waited until he was close to the tree line and then leapt into the forest. Aidan followed at a slower rate as he ventured the snow machine into the trees, fresh tracks gridded the tight trail. This had to be the way Genie had gone. Aidan didn’t know how he knew it, but deep down on some cellular level he recognized the wolf as his spirit brother. Maybe his mother hadn’t been so wasted on booze when she’d told him the legends of the wolf and him being born under the sign. Maybe he’d been outside too long and the cold had stunted his brain function. Either way, he was going with his gut.
The wolf ran ahead of them, staying just within sight. When Aidan had to slow down the machine, as the trail narrowed, the wolf slowed, increasing its gait as the trail widened. They were climbing and Aidan suddenly realized where they were headed.
The bitch.
Raven gasped behind him. He felt more than heard her quick intake of air as she, too, comprehended where they were going.
The old mine shaft the Fairbanks Exploration Company had closed down back in the sixties.
The trees thinned and then cleared as the mountain rose like a monster above them. Rusting steel mining dinosaurs dotted the landscape and he slowed the machine to avoid hitting something hidden under the thick blanket of snow. The wolf stood, his sides heaving, on a small rise above the timber-framed mouth of the mine. It was still chain-linked off but that didn’t keep kids from coming up here in the summer, scaring each other with dares or finding places to make out. He and Raven should know. They’d used this place a few times for stolen moments themselves.
He slowed the machine to a stop and killed the engine.
Raven climbed off the back, unsteady on her feet. “Tell me, I get to go back and kill that bitch.”
“As soon as we get Fox to safety, you can do whatever you like to Genie in the Bottle. Why don’t you stay here, while I find Fox?”
“No.”
He knew by the clench of her jaw there was no arguing with her, regardless of the pain shining in her shadowed eyes.
They struggled up to the foreboding entrance of the mine. Footprints were cut deep in the snow since neither Genie nor Fox had worn snowshoes. Aidan yanked back the chain-link fencing, held it open for Raven, and crawled through behind her. “Fox!” he hollered into the deep, dark cavern, his voice echoing back at him.
No answer.
“Fox!” Raven screamed his name.
Still no answer.
“No.” Aidan grabbed for Raven, but missed as she barreled past him into the darkness. “Raven, stop.”