Desire in the Arctic (9 page)

He tried hard not to smile. For being half-asleep, Ana was pretty quick. “Pretend you’re there. Go back to sleep and dream that you’re home.”

“Tell me about your home.”

“Are you actually going to question me in your sleep?”

He could feel her smile in the darkness. “Yes. Besides, now I feel wide awake.”

Great.
“My home is in Texas.”

“I know that from your resume. I meant where in Texas?”

“You wouldn’t have heard of it.”

“Do you live there now?”

“Yes. I haven’t figured everything out yet. Some of it depends on winning the money.”

“And some of it depends on . . .”

“You going to sleep.”

She barked out a laugh. “Really? Whether or not I go to sleep will help determine where you live?”

“No, I’m just hoping you go to sleep.”

She giggled and then quieted for a minute.

“What are you going to do with the money if we win?”

“You mean,
when
we win?”

“Yes, Mr. Confident.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I want to know everything about you.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Okay, how about an easier question. Why do they call you Redd?”

“Why do they call you nosey?” he retorted, but without any heat.

She let out another giggle. “I’ll get you to spill your guts soon. I’m gonna get to know all about you, secretive Mr. Redd.”

It was hard to be mad at her. He’d been wrong about her persistence, though. She was
way
worse than the enemy.

Chapter 12

The next morning Ana woke up to find herself alone. The smell of something roasting was wafting through the air. Salivating, she quickly got up. She was almost out of the tent when she realized two horrible truths. First, she must look like a mess. No hairbrush, toothbrush or clean clothes. Second, they’d be taping all this so the whole world could see how horrible she looked when she woke up. She sighed and made her way out of the tent and into the strong sunshine.

“Good morning,” Redd called out from several yards away. “I moved the fire down here with the extra wood we had. We can’t cook too close to the camp if we don’t want the bears to destroy our stuff.”

Ana made her way over to him, camera in hand, once again bouncing over the springy, boggy terrain. It was a relief when she reached him on the hard gravel. And a bigger relief when she saw what he was doing.

“You caught a fish,” she exclaimed. “How on earth did you do it? And so fast?”

Redd let out a large grin. “I pulled some loose string from one of the parkas, knotting it with a few of these bird feathers to make a lure. After I did all that, I used one of the twigs you found last night and viola, a fishing pole. I can’t cast or reel with it, obviously, but if you get up early enough the fish are eager to bite.”

“How early did you get up?”

“Hard to tell since I couldn’t find my watch without waking you. With the sun up all the time it’s impossible for me to get a good read on the time of day. Let’s just say I’m pretty sure it was real early.” He nodded at the large silvery fish he roasted over the fire. It was speared on one of the sticks she had found. “This one is big enough for the both of us.”

“Do you know what kind it is?”

“I think it’s a whitefish. If so, we’re in for a treat.” Redd held the charred fish on a stick up to Ana’s camera. “Nothing tastes better than fresh-caught fish.”

“Having
any
kind of food means we’re in for a treat. I’m starving.” She stretched her body, enjoying the feeling until she suddenly tensed up again. “Won’t the bears smell the food?”

“They certainly could. I suggest we eat fast and let the remains wash away.”

“Good idea,” she agreed, eagerly digging in when he offered her a chunk of the flesh. “It’s a bit hot.”

“Better than eating sushi.”

“I like sushi. Although with no wasabi, it might not taste very good.”

“Do you go to a lot of sushi places in New York?” Redd asked.

“I’ve been a few times. But I’m more of a burger-and-beer kind of gal.”

“When we make it out of here, I’ll take you out to celebrate,” he promised. “I’ll spring for both of us out of my million dollar winnings.”

“What else are you going to spend your money on?” Ana asked, happy to find him more talkative today.

“I haven’t decided yet,” he replied with a harsh tone.

Ana put down her chunk of fish. “Are you mad at me?”

“No. I just don’t like answering personal questions.”

“I didn’t realize asking what you wanted to do with the winnings was personal.”

“Well, it is. Now you know.”

Ana took another bite out of the fish in silence. She’d have a heck of a time editing out his attitude problem when she got back to New York. If only she could edit their conversation while they were out here in the Yukon.
I don’t know what I said to get him mad at me. So much for his opening up.

Washing away the remains of their food in the river, Redd didn’t know who to be angry with. Himself, for upsetting her every time he tried to freeze her out, or her for making him want to freeze her out. Why the heck did she keep asking him such personal questions? Or any questions for that matter? They were supposed to be on a survival show, not a therapy show. What was next, a surprise visit from Dr. Phil?

He looked back toward the camp but didn’t see Ana. It was a good thing that after breakfast he had taken a few moments to show her how to use the rifle. He had given her plenty of warnings not to touch it unless she really needed to. Then he had loaded it and left it for her while he went down to the river to wash the fish remains away. Hopefully he hadn’t scared her too much with all his talk about gun recoil. And hopefully his showing her how to fire hadn’t given her such bravado she’d suffer from a foolhardy level of false confidence.

Even with the risks, teaching her was the right thing to do. Since she was dead-set on periodically wandering away from the campsite there was no other choice. If something happened to her, he would never forgive himself.

He let the last of the fish bones drift down the stream and headed back to their tent. When he got there, he found her sitting on the soft ground staring up at the sky. She had an odd look on her face.

“What is it?” he asked, deliberately trying to make his voice gentle.

“The sky is looking very pink, isn’t it?”

Redd looked at the horizon. Yes, the sky had a pinkish cast. “Are you worried about a storm?” he asked. He felt his face scrunch up as he recalled the smoke from the morning fire fanning out flat instead of rising up in a vertical column. It had been a sure sign of a storm coming and yet he’d missed it. How come? Was Ana now the astute wilderness expert and he the clueless tagalong? What parallel universe was he in?

“Worrying is what you do,” she said with a soft laugh. “But I thought I read in the survival book that a pink sky could mean a storm is coming in. Crazy, right? I mean, we are in early June.”

Redd felt his stomach tighten. “You know there are snowstorms out here this time of year. Things don’t really warm up until July. And even then a snowstorm isn’t entirely out of the question.”

“What are we going to do?” Ana asked quietly. “Try to find more wood? There wasn’t a whole lot more where I found this batch, but I could look.”

“No,” Redd said, squinting at the sky. “You won’t find any more. I’m amazed you even found what you did. I think we should pack things up and move into the tree belt. The pines will give us some protection from the wind if a storm kicks up. Before we go, we should gather more food. I’ll try to get some more fish. You try to get some berries.”

“Berries? There are berries out here?”

“Off to the side over there,” he said, pointing. “I saw some low-bush cranberries. Some of the berries might look very red since it’s early in the season. Pick the ones that look ripe enough to eat. Like their name says though, they grow low to the ground so look down to spot them.” He tossed a Ziploc bag at her. “Gather as many of them as you can and put them in here.”

Ana grabbed the bag from him and scurried off.

About two hours later, Redd had managed to catch four fish. He’d been able to achieve a great bounty in a short amount of time. How he’d pulled off such successful fishing with such primitive supplies was nothing short of dumb luck. How long his supplies would even hold out he didn’t know. The lure he had made was partially broken now and it was just a matter of time before it fell apart. He was glad he had secretly stuffed a flip-tab from one of the inn’s soda cans in his pocket to use as an even more primitive back-up. Fortunately the summer weather had apparently made the fish active and hungry. The limited supply of low-lying cranberries would not have fed the both of them for too long.

Redd wrinkled his nose as he cut the fish into several horizontal pieces. When he was done butchering, he stuffed the slices into the Ziploc bags. He stashed all of them in the bear-proof case. With luck, they’d have enough food to last them for a few days. There wouldn’t be any fishing in the tree line and that’s where they were headed to take shelter.

By the time Redd got back to the campsite he found Ana had packed up all of the camping equipment, videotaping herself doing it. They were now ready to go.

“See?” she said, face beaming. “I told you I could be useful out here.”

“Good job.” Redd found himself getting more and more impressed with Ana by the minute. “Are you sure you’re from New York? And not the Yukon?” he teased.

“Pretty darn sure.” She laughed. “I won’t be able to put any of this camping stuff back together, mind you. But taking it apart was easy enough.”

Her laugh was lighthearted. He liked the sound of it. It had been a long time since he’d heard carefree laughter from a woman. It was very attractive. Heck,
she
was very attractive. For someone who must be scared to death, Ana was making every effort to hide it and actually be helpful. Qualities he deeply admired. It reminded him of his days back in the military. A Marine had to be strong, even in the face of adversity, in order to survive. Ana would have been an asset to his unit.

Then again, seeing the happy look on her face, the sunlight glistening off her hair, he was viewing her presence as an asset all the way around. In fact, staying in the tent last night gave him more peace than he ever would have expected. Not easy to accomplish, especially since parts of him had been focused on staying awake . . .

Redd felt himself frowning. He didn’t like the direction his thoughts were taking. He needed to get back on track, and quick. “How’d it go with the berry picking?”

“That went well, too.” She held up two Ziploc bags and beamed even brighter.

“Excellent. We’ll need them.” He checked the fire pit again for any remaining embers, and then put on his backpack. “Ready to go?”

Ana reached for her backpack and he stopped to help.

“Thanks,” she said.

“No problem,” he answered gruffly, ignoring the little shot of pleasure zooming through him when he briefly touched her shoulder.
What is happening to me?

Redd’s mood was getting as dark as the sky. The tree line had taken hours to reach. The temperature had plummeted. The air around them seemed to have taken on weight, the feeling outright heavy on their skin. A brief wind periodically kicked up, the scent of pine filling his nose. The wooded area had brought a dead silence. The atmosphere seemed ominous.

Ana was apparently no longer happy, either. Albeit for different reasons. “I’m going crazy trying to hold up this stupid camcorder while doing all this hiking. Not to mention carrying this bookbag, I mean backpack, around. For equipment that’s supposed to be light, this is getting very heavy.”

“Then stop recording and put it in your backpack. It’ll feel lighter on your back.”

“Might as well. It’s not like we’re saying much. Or even saying anything at all,” she grumbled. “Endless hours of silent, shaky, hiking footage won’t help me.”

“I think this long trek is getting to you. You’re finally getting grumpy.”

“I am not.” Then she paused. “All right, maybe I am. A little.”

“A lot,” he corrected. “But it’s understandable. You’ve got a lot on your shoulders. Literally and figuratively.”

“You do, too,” she conceded. “You’re stuck dealing with me, and I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“You’re doing fine.”

She let out a sharp laugh. “Women hate the word
fine
. It means either
average
or
terrible
.”

He laughed. “Hailey told me that once.” As soon as he said those words, he froze. What would make him say such a stupid thing? To deliberately bring up a topic he had no desire and no intention of talking about.

“Who’s Hailey?”

Ah, the inevitable follow up question. Man, am I dumb.
“Nobody. Forget about it.”

“I’m not recording right now, so it’s okay to tell me. I won’t repeat anything you say off camera. I wouldn’t betray you that way.”

“I said, forget it.”

“Now who’s grumpy?” she chastised. The sky went a shade darker and she looked up to see more clouds gathering. Considering they were in the land of the midnight sun, things were getting pretty black. “What I need to forget about is the weather. Things are taking a turn for the worse.”

Much worse. It was already quite cold. Soon it would be snowing. Or worse.

“Put your backpack down and take the parkas out,” he ordered. “We won’t need to worry about getting sweaty from the extra layer because we’re not going to hike for much longer. We’ll stop soon to make camp.”

“Do you think these trees will be enough shelter from the storm?”

As if God heard her comment, a loud boom and crack shot out of the blackening sky. Lightning flashed and snow came down fast and heavy.