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“Where’s Ellis?” she asked. Had he left Alaska? He wouldn’t return to California without at least saying goodbye… would he? She didn’t think so, but a tiny nagging voice in the back of her mind worried he might have done just that.
Nate opened his mouth, but she held up a hand, stopping him before he responded. If Ellis had left, she didn’t want to know yet. She didn’t want Nate to witness her heartbreak. Poor guy wouldn’t know what to do and it would just get awkward for everyone involved. “Never mind. It’s not important. I want to go home.”
The ride back to Faraway Kennel was mostly silent. Nate wasn’t much of a conversationist, which was fine by her. She didn’t want to talk. She’d done enough of that over the past few days as she was interviewed first by the state troopers, and then by a pair of suits from one of the government’s alphabet soup agencies. FBI. NSA. CIA. She couldn’t remember exactly. They had all blurred together after a while, but she was their new best friend since she killed their most wanted fugitive. Bones, a.k.a. Abbot Krane, was actually Conrad Walters, a former CIA operative who got a taste for killing and started freelancing ten years ago.
She didn’t mention that she hadn’t actually killed the man. Dr. Will pulled the trigger, but the agents wouldn’t have believed her even if she told the truth. Dr. Will’s own sons barely believed her, but shehadseen him. He saved her. In the shape she’d been in, there was no way she made it to the cabin and bandaged her wounds by herself. She’d thought for sure she was going to die alone on the ice at the hands of a killer.
But Dr. Will saved her.
And he was still out there somewhere.
In danger.
Conrad Walters’ services didn’t come cheap, so whoever was behind this had very deep pockets. The police recommended a protective detail until they figured out who hired Walters, but she hated seeing the state trooper car parked at the end of her driveway in addition to the one that had followed Nate’s truck from the hospital.
Would she ever be alone again?
The thought gave her pause because her instant gut reaction was a one-two punch of startling realization: No, she wouldn’t be alone again. And she didn’t want to be.
When Nate parked in front of her barn, she didn’t wait for him to open the door. She climbed out of the truck and, clutching her sore stomach, walked as fast as she could to the dog yard. What she saw there stopped her in her tracks.
The dogs were loose in the yard and in full play mode with Ellis in the center of it all. He threw balls and sticks for the adults, wrestled with the yearlings, and ran around with the clumsy, roly-poly National Park puppies nipping at his heels. And when a howl started, he threw back his head and joined in with the whole gang.
He hadn’t gone back to L.A.
He was right here with her dogs, waiting for her to come home.
He caught sight of her, mid-howl, and grinned. “Hey, guys!” he called to the dogs. “Look who’s back.” He scooped up a couple of the puppies and picked his way across the yard toward her. He plopped a puppy— sweet little Denali— into her arms and leaned over the fence to give her a kiss. “Welcome home.”
“You’re here,” she said, still dumbstruck, as the puppy also tried to kiss her.
His grin twisted into a confused smile. “Uh, yeah. Where else would I be? I told you I’d take care of these guys.”
“But… I-I thought when you stopped coming to the hospital…”
“Oh, Bree. Sweetheart, is that what you thought? That I stopped coming? I was there every single day. I just never made it until after you were already asleep. These guys are a lot of work.” He glanced over his shoulder at the dogs and huffed out a breath that clouded against the cold. Then he laughed. “I love it, though. I love it here with them. With you.”
She clutched Denali tight and laughed as the pup licked at the tears leaking from her eyes. “I thought you wanted to go back to California.”
“Well, I do miss the beach,” he said, a teasing note in his voice. He set his puppy down and plucked Denali from her arms, then jumped over the fence and pulled her against him. “No, I’m not going back. There’s nothing for me down there. I don’t think there ever was. I was just… hiding.”
She snuggled against him, enjoying his embrace. “I was hiding, too.”
“I know. Neither of us was too great at life alone, but together?” He squeezed her tighter and kissed the top of her head. “I think we’ll figure it out. We’re better together.”
“So you’re really not leaving?”
He shook his head and cupped her face in his hands, tilting her gaze up to meet his. “Why would I? Everything I want is standing right here in front of me. I love you, Bree.”
Had anyone ever said that to her before? She couldn’t remember and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The sound she made ended up a mixture of both. “I love you, too.”
She tugged on his coat, drawing him in for a kiss, but a pink, dog-shaped bullet shot between their legs and forced them each to take a step back. Peanut zoomed into the dog yard at a full tilt run.
“Aw, shit, Nate,” Ellis yelled over his shoulder at his brother. “You let her out?”
“Sorry,” Nate called from the front porch of the cabin. “She’s sneaky!”
Ellis grumbled and gave Bree another a quick kiss. “To be continued. I need to catch that demon dog before we end up with Chinese Crested/ husky puppies. She’s in her first heat and she’s in love with Norte.”
