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I giggle. ‘You might need a moment to recover first.’
‘Nonsense,’ he growls. ‘I’m getting hard again just thinking about it.’
‘You really are something else, Finn Wilder,’ I say, taking him by the hand.
‘You really are something elsetoo, Addison Wilder,’ says Finn, leading me out of the watchtower.
We talk down the steps into the cool early evening air, and although I’m soaking wet anddyingto find my way onto Finn’s bed, I want to make sure I know what I’m going to back at the cabin.
‘Those men. The criminals. They’re not still there, are they?’
‘Long gone,’ replies Finn, as we make our way down the hill. ‘Sheriff Potts came and took them away. Still passed out — completely comatose. They’ll be out for hours with a bear’s dosage running in their bloodstreams. Sheriff told me he’d looked into it, and they’d escaped from the penitentiary. Be on their way back down there as we speak.’
‘Thank golly for that,’ I say. ‘Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.’
‘It won’t. Not after this whole charade. They’ll be put in max and barely even get enough privacy to take a piss ever again.’
I nod, relieved, but my mind is already elsewhere. ‘And… Chris?’ I’m not sure I even want to know.
‘I gave Chris a cold flannel for his jaw and we had a chat while I waited for Sheriff Potts to arrive. Eric wasn’t happy that I was letting him stay — kept growling at him the whole time — but I needed to talk to him. Told him he had a choice. He could either agree to get help, or I’d hand him over to the sheriff just like the two tattooed boys. He’s promised to get help, just like I did. I’ve given him the name of some organizations he can go to for the liquor, the gambling, the drugs. The rest is up to him. I don’t like the guy, but I think he deserves a second chance.’
‘I’m not so sure,’ I reply. ‘But that’s good of you.’ I squeeze Finn’s hand. ‘You weren’t in a good place when you came back from overseas, were you?’
Finn shakes his head. ‘Nope. The truth is, I was suffering from what’s known as PTSD. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Your father was the one to diagnose me. I was too ashamed to talk to you about it before, but your dad, Gerald, really helped get my head straight after everything that happened in Afghanistan. I’m a lot better now. Almost cured, I’d say, except for the occasional freak-out when I head anywhere too bright or too loud.’
‘I can’t even imagine it. It must have been so hard for you. You can tell me about what it was like out there, some day, if you want to, but no rush.’
‘Thanks. I’d like to tell you everything. I think Icantell you everything, too. A fragile Little princess you certainly ain’t. You can take it. I know you can.’ He stops just before we meet the cabin. ‘You’re better than a princess,’ he says, putting his arms around me.
‘I think I’d rather be a rebel than a princess. A naughty Little girl with dirty knees.’
Finn chuckles. ‘Sounds about right,’ he says. Then, he looks suddenly serious. ‘Some day soon, I’ll tell you all about Tyson. He was my best friend. I’ve been carrying this big burden of guilt around for a long time because of what happened with him. The short story is that there was a bomb, but it was a decoy, and me defusing it causedhimto get blown to smithereens.’
‘Oh my god.’ I hold onto him tight. ‘I’m so sorry you had to go through that.’
‘Believe it or not, it’s one of the reasons I married you. The guilt about killing my own best friend. I needed to put things right. End a life, save a life. I wanted to marry you in case it saved your life.’
‘One Life, One Chance,’ I mutter, under my breath.
‘Exactly,’ he says. ‘That’s why I got that tattoo. That’s why I couldn’t tell you when you asked about it before.’
‘But you really didn’t need to marry me to make amends for Tyson,’ I say. ‘What happened to Tyson, it wasn’t your fault. Not at all.’
‘I know that now. I’ve known it all along. But it wasn’t until very recently that I accepted it.’ We go around to the front of the cabin and he points at the spot where the two guys were lying a few hours ago. ‘That trick I pulled out here, saying there was a bear trap, and then shooting them with the tranq dart. That was for Tyson. This time, I used a decoy for the better.’
‘You sure did,’ I say. ‘It’s no exaggeration to say that this whole forest has probably been saved because of you.’
Finn looks down at me with his big, blue eyes, and says, ‘There are going to be some changes around here now. I’ve decided to start clearing the woods of traps, making it safe to wander off the trails again. I spoke to the sheriff about it, and he says it's about time they started upping their protection in that area. Enforcing the law more vigorously. Georgie has agreed that she’d like to hand the land over to the National Parks, too, but on the proviso that I’m allowed to stay here as the designated fire-watcher. And there’s to be no deforestation or new development in the area. Certainly no mining.’
‘That’s wonderful,’ I say.
‘And — one more thing. Georgie dropped by, just after the sheriff left. I called her while I was waiting for him and told her what had happened. I told her how much you meant to me, too.’
‘You did?’
‘She brought something over for me as a gift.’
Finn begins to do something I’ve never seen him do before. Not when there was a gun pointed in his face, not ever. He trembles. And then he gets down on one knee.
