Alaskan Hideout

Something about it didn’t sit right.

A cell phone rang in the front of the car and both brothers turned to look at it.

Noah gave him a look of warning. “There’s no protocol that says you should answer that.” He’d read the look on Tyler’s face well. Back in his life, not even in it technically, for ten minutes, and Emma was already making him do things that weren’t like him. She’d loosened him up in college, taught him that having friends was sometimes more important than studying for an exam, and in turn he’d taught her the value of lists, planning, stability.

He moved to the car and answered the call on the unlocked phone before Noah could try to stop him. Because technically there was no protocol that said he shouldn’t.

It was an unknown number. His curiosity piqued. “Hello?”

Whoever was on the other end hung up.

“Who was it?” Noah asked.

“No idea.”

His questions for Emma, about Emma, were only growing and Tyler’s mind was consumed with her presence, even though she wasn’t physically there but a few miles away at the Moose Haven Hospital. This was what this woman did to him, made it impossible for him to think, made him feel too much.

What’s going on, God? Why is she here? And do You really think I can handle this?

It was that last question Tyler would really like an answer to. Because he wasn’t sure he was up to whatever this challenge was. When it came to Emma, with how thoroughly she’d broken his heart, he’d wound up the loser.

TWO

Emma had the worst headache she’d ever had in her life, she was in a strange town and someone appeared to want her dead.

And to top it all off, she was within miles of Tyler Dawson, which meant she was going to have to face him soon...and she still had no idea what she was going to say.

Everything about her current situation terrified her.

Emma sat up in the hospital bed. Luke. Where was Luke? She looked around, frantic. Surely the police who’d come to the scene would recognize that hers hadn’t been an ordinary accident, right? And they’d keep her son...their son...safe?

She ran back over the details in her mind. The car following too close. The crunch of metal on metal as her car had rolled in the sunlight and then only darkness. She didn’t remember anything else.

Emma pressed the call button for the nurse. First order of business, she had to get out of here and go take care of her son. And figure out if the wreck was some kind of weird coincidence or...

A vision of a person with a gun stalking toward her, wanting her dead, solidified in her mind. No, this hadn’t been coincidence and there was no point in pretending it could have been. Emma had witnessed a murder, had had the audacity to correct the assumption that it had been suicide, something the bad guys had probably set up on purpose. And now, in their eyes, she had to die.

The only problem was that she had too much to live for. Luke. Her desire to be the best at what she did in her job, even if she was clearly searching for a new one. The drive to convince Tyler to forgive her and maybe, just maybe, let them be friends?

Emma wasn’t stupid. She knew he’d never take her back, never forgive the betrayal of keeping their son from him. Every day she’d not told him had driven the nail deeper into the coffin of their relationship and now it was too late.

Too much water under the bridge.

The door of her room creaked open and Emma’s shoulders relaxed. If the doctors hadn’t planned to discharge her yet, she’d make sure the nurse understood how important it was that she be released.

But it wasn’t a nurse. It was Tyler. Looking better than she’d remembered even. Tall, broad-shouldered, with dark hair...and piercing green eyes she’d never been able to intentionally look away from.

Except now. Emma looked down at the hospital bedding. Braced herself.

The room was still. He said nothing. So she looked back up. Swallowed hard.

“Tyler.” Emma said his name slowly, hating the injustice in the fact that she was seeing him again for the first time in almost a decade wearing a blue hospital gown, with at least one cut on her face, hair matted with blood.

Not the impression she’d have preferred to make, but then again, there were lots of things about her life that weren’t how she would have preferred them. “I know you must hate me,” she continued, “But is Luke okay?”

He gave the slightest of nods and then speared her with his gaze.

“How. Could. You.”

Emma looked into his eyes, realizing now that she’d always done that when she’d wanted to know what he was thinking. She had always thought she could see more in people’s gazes than others could, like she could see inside them. Someone had told her that before...

Oh, Tyler.

Her cheeks heated, embarrassment, regret and a maelstrom of other emotions all swirling inside her.

“I’m sorry.” It seemed a good place to start.

“I appreciate that.” His voice was measured and even. This was the Tyler she’d met at the start of college, the Tyler who’d not make a step without considering the implications to his five-year plan, the one who’d known where he was headed and had been so solid in his convictions.

Except that one night...

“I am, Tyler. For...for all of it.” She swallowed hard, still feeling responsible for the time their innocent relationship had derailed. “Not for Luke’s existence, though. I won’t be sorry for that.” She heard her tone harden as she remembered what she’d given up for him. Her parents hadn’t spoken to her since right after she’d given birth when they’d tried to convince her that just because she’d “insisted” on having Luke, didn’t mean she had to keep him. They’d brought up adoption and while she’d thought adoption was a wonderful thing, it hadn’t been what she’d wanted.

At all.

“Obviously.”

Emma exhaled. At least Tyler seemed to understand that Luke’s life was a gift. She watched emotions chase across his face and sat there facing him, not knowing what to do. What to say.

“Why are you here? And why is someone trying to kill you?”

Emma let out of a breath.

The door swung open again, both their attentions going that way.

A man in uniform walked in.

“This is my brother, Police Chief Noah Dawson. He’ll do what he can to help you, but you’ll have to give him some answers.”

Emma nodded.

“And I’d like some of those, too.”

Again her cheeks burned. “I’ll give them to you, the ones I have.” She pressed the nurse call button. “I’m assuming they were planning to discharge me soon. I’ll tell them it needs to be now.”

Noah looked between them, shook his head. “Let’s get out of the hospital to somewhere we can talk comfortably. I’ve got my car out front. Emma, Tyler, why don’t the two of you climb in and we’ll drive to the station? Do you have...regular clothes, Emma?”

She shook her head. “I’m not sure. I think they might have been stained from the wreck.” Her hand went to the spot on her forehead. The wound wasn’t too large but head wounds bled a lot.

“I’ll have my sister Kate bring you something. She’s about your size.”

Emma nodded, thankful. Even if the clothes swallowed her, as garments often did—she was only five-two—anything was better than a hospital gown.

The nurse walked in just then, with the good news that the doctor had agreed to her discharge. When her papers were done, Emma tied a second hospital gown around the back of herself so she could at least walk without being exposed in any way even if she did look ridiculous.

She glanced in Tyler’s direction as they walked toward the car, careful to stay sandwiched between the two men yet feeling the tension radiating off both of them. She’d been lying to herself. She’d told herself Tyler would never forgive her, but somewhere deep inside, hope had flickered.

Its flames were completely extinguished now.

He’d never forgive her.

* * *

Tyler’s jaw was clamped so tight he was getting a headache. He glanced at his watch. Just past four in the afternoon and he felt like he’d lived three lifetimes since he’d gotten called out to help with the wreck just after lunch.

Emma Bass was in town.

She had a son.

He had a son.

She hadn’t told him.

His mind kept spinning in circles over those indisputable facts, with enough questions mixed in to make him feel physically ill. It was like he’d run too many miles without stopping for food or water and was full-body exhausted. But in his mind the biggest question was what he had done so wrong.

Besides the obvious. He’d handled their relationship well the entire time they were in college, balanced his emotions with his faith, his convictions. His sense of right and wrong. The one time he hadn’t...

Noah had grilled him on the drive to the hospital, more stunned than Tyler about him having a son, if such a thing was possible. Noah was the oldest, Tyler next, but somehow Tyler had always felt like his siblings looked up to him. He was the stable one, the one to always be counted on. He had to be defined by something, do something noteworthy even if it was just being the dependable sibling, with Noah saving the world from crime, Kate making a name for herself as one of the best trackers in Alaska, and Summer running on mountains, at the top of the world without flinching.

Tyler? Tyler was just dependable. It was what he was good at.

Until now.

He felt the weight of Noah’s disappointment, had wanted to defend himself, but knew there was no use. Summer’s reaction was the one he was bracing himself for. Tyler had known she’d beat herself up over her own past but he hadn’t shared a word of his. Hopefully his little sister would understand it just hadn’t been the right time to share his story.

Emma Bass was in town.

His mind looped back as he looked over at the woman next to him in the back of the police cruiser. The cut on her forehead, her pale skin, the hospital attire... All of it reminded him that no matter what questions he had about their past, someone was after Emma and, for some reason, she’d felt it best to come to Alaska. Knowing she was in danger made it difficult for him to breathe, the physical impact unexpected but intense enough that Tyler knew he needed to find a way to compartmentalize his feelings until she was ready to talk, to separate himself emotionally so he could help Noah in whatever capacity he was needed.

He knew the Moose Haven PD was small-town, though the department now had its biggest complement in years with four officers now that Clay had joined the force. Still, they didn’t have an excess of manpower and Tyler couldn’t see Noah putting someone on Emma full-time since they hadn’t been able to do that when a serial killer was after his sister few months ago.

An idea settled in his mind. Tyler wasn’t an officer, but he’d been to the police academy in Sitka, had just finished the training recently. Noah had wanted more reserve officers just in case. Even though he didn’t have a lot of experience, Tyler could technically do the job.

If it came down to it, Tyler would do what he had to do to keep Emma safe.

Not because he still felt anything for her. But because it was the right thing to do.

Noah turned left when he should have turned right.

“I thought you were taking us to the station?” Tyler asked from behind the Plexiglas.

Noah shook his head. “I changed my mind. Emma needs to be somewhere comfortable, right?” He looked back at her and Tyler saw a small smile on Emma’s face at the consideration. “She’d probably like to see for herself that her son is okay, too.”

“He’s at the lodge, not at the police station?”

Was that alarm in her voice? Tyler had talked about his family all the time in college and even if Emma had never had the chance to meet them, she should know that they were good people. Dependable.

Of course, she should have known the same thing about him.

Noah spoke up. “He’s safe there with my sisters. They’re two of the toughest people I know and I left them there with Clay Hitchcock, one of my best officers.”

Emma’s face relaxed a little. “I know Clay. From college.”

“That’s right, I’d forgotten that,” Noah said. No one responded and the rest of the drive passed in silence as they drove out of town, away from the bay and into the deep woods of the northern edge of town.

A short time later the cruiser pulled up in front of Moose Haven Lodge and Tyler glanced up at it, trying to see his family lodge through Emma’s eyes.

Their relationship, already on rocky soil after their life-altering mistake, had fallen apart when he’d scrapped his plans to open his own lodge on a beach somewhere and had agreed to take over this one for his parents so they could retire. She’d refused to leave Texas for Alaska, said the name of his home state like it was the literal end of the earth, unsettled and uninhabitable. He hoped the gorgeous log-sided lodge in front of her made her feel...something.

Regret? Tyler didn’t know...that wasn’t right to wish on anyone. But he did somehow hope she saw how wrong she’d been about his ability to provide a nice life for them.

Apparently for the baby they’d had on the way.

Noah parked the car and Emma got out. Tyler followed.

“Wow.” She turned to him as she took the first couple steps to the wide front porch. “This is nothing like I pictured.”

“I didn’t figure it would be.”

She met his eyes and, for half a second, it was as if the last eight years hadn’t happened, as though nothing had even gone wrong. He stood still for a minute—not caring that his brother was watching—temporarily pushing away the hurt in Emma’s rejection, the anger that she’d kept the fact that he was a dad from him.

And then it all came rushing back all at once. He turned away. But not before he saw her smile fade as she jumped and flinched almost as though he’d hit her, something he’d never do, had never even thought of doing.

He didn’t like how much Emma made him feel. She’d always done that, magnified his life, made it more vivid, brighter, fuller.

Right up until she’d left.

Tyler walked past her, up to the lodge. He looked back only long enough to confirm that Noah was with her. “Will she be okay with you for a minute?” He lowered his voice unconsciously as he swallowed back everything he felt.

Noah nodded.

Tyler hurried inside. He just needed a few minutes.

A dad. He was a dad.

With a woman he’d loved like he’d never loved anyone else. A woman he could never have.

THREE

“Luke!”

She’d no sooner stepped into the lobby of Moose Haven Lodge when her son came flying into her arms. Gathering him close, Emma squeezed him hard and thanked God for keeping him safe when she’d been forced off the road and into the ravine. She suspected that was one of the things Noah was going to want to talk about, and Emma was ready to tell him the story, though she could use a few minutes to decompress.

Things between her and Tyler had never been easy. Even as best friends before they’d officially started dating there’d been a sizzling current of electricity between them. It made sense that their breakup would be more like a devastating explosion of fireworks. Even this long afterward.

She kept her arms around Luke, thankful that at least Tyler hadn’t said anything negative about her son, thankful he’d been safe.

“Emma, if you want to come with me, I’ll get you some clothes.”

A woman Emma hadn’t seen before was standing nearby, along with another woman and a man. The woman who’d spoken to her was small, dark haired, and with a look on her face like nothing got past her. She had to be Kate. The taller woman, the one with the blond hair and soft waves, she recognized as Tyler’s sister, Summer, who was a mountain runner. Emma’d never have known the sport existed if it wasn’t for Tyler, but she’d followed it a bit online over the years, desperate enough for a glimpse into Tyler’s world. Keeping up to date with his sister had helped her to fill that void in some small way. Summer had been out of competition for years—Emma suspected there was a story there—but lately rumors were flying that she might be getting back into it. The man next to her was with the Moose Haven PD and she recognized him from college. Clay Hitchcock.

“Yes, please, I’d love to change.”

Kate motioned for her to follow her up the stairs and Emma did so, relieved to be away from Tyler. Had she remembered how tall he was, the broadness of his shoulders?

Memory flashed in her mind. Yes. She’d remembered, somewhere inside. She’d just chosen to forget.

It had been better for both of them that way.

“Is Luke okay with Summer and Clay, do you think?”

“More than okay,” Kate assured her as she led her into a room at the top of the stairs. “Summer and Clay are basically the unbeatable team. You should hear sometime what happened to Summer a few months ago. Although I guess it’s not the kind of story you want to hear when someone is after you. Sorry.” She offered an apologetic smile.

Emma smiled back.

These were the people she’d accused Tyler of valuing more than her? First of all, the accusation had been empty, borne of some desire to hurt him and a desperation to see if he’d choose her, if he’d cared enough to make things permanent. Tyler had always held his emotions in check and while she’d known in college that he’d loved her, it had been hard to tell how much.

Maybe she’d panicked when she’d seen the two lines on the pregnancy test stick. She hadn’t had a doubt that once he’d found out, Tyler would marry her immediately...

But Emma hadn’t wanted that, hadn’t wanted to be chosen only because it was the “right” thing to do or because of the baby she’d carried. She’d spent her life in her parent’s high-society circles, being chosen because she was popular, known the right people, could network the right way.

For once, she’d wanted to be chosen because she was Emma. Just for her.

Tyler had loved her for her. She’d thought so, at least. And yet it hadn’t been enough. Not that it mattered now. Nothing did except keeping Luke and herself safe.

Kate handed Emma the spare clothes and she smiled gratefully. “Thanks, I can’t wait to be out of these.”

“Kinda rough seeing your ex for the first time in a hospital gown, huh?” Kate’s half grin softened the words. Emma guessed the woman was probably just a straight shooter who didn’t sugar coat much. She seemed to remember Tyler telling her that Alaskans were often like that.

“Beyond rough. At least it wasn’t the worst part of today.”

“I guess not. You’re in good hands, though. Our family protects its own.”

“I’m not...”

Kate just stared at her. “Isn’t Luke Tyler’s son?”

Emma nodded.

“Then even if Tyler never speaks to you again, that makes me Luke’s aunt. And that makes you family. In a weird way, maybe, but we’re not going to let anything happen to you, Emma.”

Tears stung the corners of her eyes. When was the last time someone had stood up for her like that? Welcomed her so unquestioningly? Emma didn’t know.

“I’ll be right outside the door. You so much as squeak and I’m coming back in, okay?” Kate stepped out.

Emma took the clothes and changed, grateful to have something to wear and also making a mental note to ask Noah what had happened to her car so she could retrieve their belongings. Though, for now, she was incredibly grateful to Kate for the black hiking pants and green Moose Haven Lodge sweatshirt. Emma stole a glance at herself in the mirror before letting Kate back inside and winced. The sweatshirt set off her blue eyes nicely, and her hair wasn’t so bad, but nothing could mask the cut on her forehead.

Not that it mattered. There was no one here she needed to try to impress...was there?

She opened the door and Kate smiled. “You look nice. They’re waiting for you downstairs. Noah really wants to know what you’re mixed up in that has someone after you.”

“Ever heard of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?” Emma asked as she headed down the stairs.

She found Noah and Tyler both sitting in the family room. No sign of the others she’d seen on her way in, Luke included. “Where’s my son?”

Was it her imagination or did Tyler flinch at the “my” part of that? Fine, their son, but it didn’t seem natural to say that when she’d said it the other way for so long.

“Clay and Summer took him upstairs to the TV room to watch Finding Nemo.”

Emma’s shoulders relaxed a little as she nodded. She looked at the two men, sitting in chairs, and took a spot on the sofa. “Where do you want me to start?”

“With whatever happened that made this guy come after you.”

“That started after work one night when I went back to confront my boss about some inconsistencies in paperwork I’d stumbled upon. I assume it has something to do with that.”

“You did financial stuff?” Noah asked.

She shook her head. “Marketing. It was truly an accident I ever saw it, but once I had, I couldn’t ignore it. It looked too much like money laundering or something.”

“Did you ask your boss about it?”

She shook her head. “That’s when I saw him get shot.”

Noah’s eyes widened. “You witnessed it?”

Emma stole a glance at Tyler. His face was steady, solid, unreadable. Just like it had been when she’d met him. They’d both changed over the years they’d been together, but she guessed time had changed them even more.

“Murderers don’t often like to leave witnesses alive.”

Emma laughed nervously, desperate to cover her vulnerability. “I’d rather change that this time. I’m all Luke has. I mean, I was all he had until now but... I’m his mom. And he still needs me.”

Noah nodded. “We’re not going to let them get to you, Emma. You made the right choice coming here. We’ve got your back.”

There he was, making her tear up again like Kate had. What was it with this family and their mile-wide protective streak? Not that she was complaining.

She wasn’t alone anymore. Not completely.

Emma glanced Tyler’s direction again. How did he feel about all this? She wished she knew, but didn’t expect him to divulge what he was feeling. He just wasn’t like that.

“Tell me more about that night,” Noah said. “And everything after it.”

Emma did so, including the fact that the newspapers had initially reported it as a suicide, how she’d called Officer Smith, how Mike had been killed. And how she’d come here.

Noah listened carefully, nodding in the right spots. “I’m going to need to think about this. For today you’ll stay here.” He looked at Kate. “Maybe you guys could go join them watching that movie?”

Kate stood and motioned for Emma to follow. She did, but slower, her legs finally feeling the weight of the day.

Noah’s and Tyler’s voices carried up the stairs as they talked.

Too curious not to, Emma paused.

“...constant protection...” Noah’s voice.

“...spare enough officers...” Tyler.

“No... But you...”

“Are you serious, Noah? Me protect her?”

Emma swallowed hard, hurrying the rest of the way up the stairs without looking back. It was bad enough she needed protection. And while she still felt she’d done the right thing in coming here, it hurt to hear those words from Tyler. She’d wondered how he felt about all this. Well, now she knew.

He wanted nothing to do with her.

* * *

Night fell faster this time of year and it took Tyler off guard tonight more than it usually did. The spruce trees had darkened to their fall color, which had always seemed to him to be a darker green than the one they had in the summer, and everything around the lodge was blackness, or close to it.