Grizzly Flying Home (6 page)

But Emily doubted that Scott would be back tonight. He would probably go home and lick his wounds, paralyzed under the weight of the embarrassment he felt at being beaten by another guy. He would stew for a day or two and then come back, angrier than ever and accusing Emily of being the root cause of everything that was wrong in his life.

Emily took a deep breath to try to calm her nerves, and let it out slowly. She had to leave. There was no other way around it. She hated to run, but she knew she couldn’t be here when Scott came back. A restraining order would mean nothing to him, and Emily didn’t have the guts to point a gun at anyone. Not that she even knew where to get a gun. Her only option was to disappear, and fast. She hadn’t wanted to stay in Red Valley permanently, anyway. She had moved here for Scott, and it was past time for her to move on.

Emily went to her closet and pulled out a large suitcase, then started filling it with clothes. She had two large suitcases. She would take whatever she could fit into these and a small duffel bag, and she would leave. She wasn’t sure where she would go, but she couldn’t sit here in this apartment anymore, waiting for Scott to show up in a rage. It was time for her to take control of her life again.

Emily quickly began sorting through her clothes, choosing only the ones that she loved the most. She started to get more and more excited as the moments passed. She was really doing this! She was really moving on with her life. She realized suddenly that this meant she could start her photography again. She could take pictures all day without worrying about someone questioning where she had been.

Emily frowned as she thought of how Scott had accused her of seeing another man. She wasn’t a cheater, and it hurt that he always accused her of being one. But now, as Emily realized she was a free woman again, she suddenly saw Chance’s face cross her mind. A strange feeling of sadness filled her. She would have loved to get to know Chance and his friends better. Being around Chance filled her with butterflies, and she would have liked to explore those feelings now that she was single. But staying in Red Valley was too risky. She was too close to Scott.

Emily frowned and closed the first suitcase. Then she smiled as an idea popped into her brain. Maybe she should go see Chance one more time. He had mentioned that Alaska was a good place for nature photography. She could move there and start over. She’d be far away from Scott, and be in the perfect location to reignite her passion for photography. Emily had no idea how to get started on an impromptu move to Alaska, but she was willing to bet that Chance could point her in the right direction.

With a newfound energy, Emily got back to packing. She would finish up here, and then she would go pay Chance Ayers a quick visit.

Chance dusted his hands off on his jeans and surveyed his room in the bunkhouse, which was nearly empty now. He’d spent all day sorting through his stuff, trying to decide what should stay here and what should go back to Alaska with him. He didn’t have much, but the task had still taken much longer than he would have hoped. It was done now, though. There were two large garbage bags of clothes and books and other items to donate, and one large suitcase of clothes and other things that he wanted to take home with him.

Chance could hardly believe that he was really doing this. He was really going back to Alaska. He had been so conflicted over the decision, but now that it was made, he could hardly contain his excitement. Ian had given him permission to leave whenever he was ready. Fire season was all but over, and Ian knew that Chance was eager to get home.

Chance grabbed the two bags of items to donate and carried them out to his truck. He might as well get these down to the Goodwill in Red Valley so that he didn’t have anything left to take care of. The Burning Claws Crew would be having a goodbye barbecue for him two days from now, and the day after that Chance would be on a flight back to Alaska. After his commercial flight landed in Alaska, Sawyer would pick him up in one of their private planes from the tour company. From there, Chance would be taken straight back to Frost Peak. Chance grinned as he thought about how soon he would be able to hug the necks of his Alaskan clan members. Even though he was sad to leave the smokejumpers, he was ready to be home. Alaska was calling to him.

Chance did have a few fleeting thoughts about Emily, but he pushed them away. He’d given up trying to convince himself that he wasn’t attracted to her, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Her life was here, and she had a boyfriend here. He was just going to have to file her away under the list of ones that got away and leave it at that. Easier said than done, but Chance didn’t have much of a choice.

Chance rolled his windows down as he turned his truck in the direction of Red Valley. He breathed in deeply, enjoying the warm autumn air and thinking about how much he was going to miss the milder climate here. The temperatures in Frost Peak would have already plummeted to below fifty degrees Fahrenheit by now. And by December, the highs would only be about twenty degrees Fahrenheit. Not a big deal for his Grizzly, but his human side much preferred the warmth of California.

Chance breathed in again, then reached for the dial on his radio to turn up the country song that was playing. Just before he changed the volume, though, his cell phone rang. Chance grabbed it and glanced at the caller I.D., frowning at the unfamiliar number. It was a local area code, but no one he knew.

“Hello?” Chance answered, rolling up his window to reduce the noise of the wind in the background.

“Hello, is this Chance Ayers?” a man’s voice asked.

“That’s me. Who is this?” Chance asked. The voice sounded strangely familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

“This is Steve. I’m the owner of the corner store in Red Valley where your friend Emily comes in sometimes. You asked me to call you if I thought she was in trouble.”

Chance felt his pulse increase as his heart dropped in his chest. “That’s right. Is she okay? Is something wrong?”

“She just came in, and she didn’t look too great. She had a big gash on the side of her face, and her arms had big bruises on them. So did her neck. It looks almost like someone had her in a chokehold. I don’t know. Something just didn’t look right. I think you should maybe check on her.”

Chance felt anger rising up from deep within his core, sending hot flames through his whole body. He knew what had happened to Emily. That scumbag excuse for a man that she called her boyfriend had hurt her again. If he got his hands on him, he was going to tear that asshole to pieces. “Do you know where she is?” Chance asked. “I haven’t known her very long, so I’m actually not sure what her address is or anything.”

“Yeah. She just came in to buy some snacks and beer, and she left her driver’s license behind. I’m not sure if the address on it is current, but I can give it to you.”

“Yes, please,” Chance said. “I want to go make sure she’s okay.”

Chance pulled over to the side of the road so he could write down the address the man repeated to him, and then he programmed it into his GPS. As soon as the directions on the screen populated, he started driving like a bat out of hell toward Red Valley. He felt his face burning red hot with anger, and his heart pounded violently in his chest.

He was furious. With Scott, for treating Emily the way he did. With Emily, for staying with a man who treated her that way. But, most of all, with himself, for ever letting Scott get away in the first place. Chance was a Grizzly, after all. Rules and laws be damned. He should have left Scott with a permanent inability to ever raise his hand and hit a woman again.

Ten minutes later, Chance pulled into an apartment complex and started looking for the building that would house the apartment number listed on the address he’d been given. When he found the building, his heart sank further. Two police cars were parked in front, their lights still flashing. Was he too late? Had Scott already harmed her enough to bring the attention of the cops?

Chance parked his car haphazardly in a parking spot, not caring that he was hopelessly crooked and over the line. He jumped out without even bothering to kill the engine or grab his keys, and he took the steps up to the third floor apartment two at a time. When he got there, two police officers were standing in the hallway talking to a grim-faced man whom Chance didn’t recognize. Behind them, the door to an apartment was smashed in and splintered. Chance felt his stomach turn.

“Where is she?” he asked, not bothering to introduce himself to the cops. “Is she okay? Where is she? What happened?”

The cops, startled, turned to look at Chance.

“You know Emily?” one of them asked.

“Yes, she’s a friend of mine. Where is she? Is she okay?”

“We actually don’t know where she is,” the other cop replied. “We responded to a call from this man, who is Emily’s neighbor, because Emily’s boyfriend was banging on her apartment door and trying to smash it in. Which, as you can see, he succeeded in doing. We actually caught him inside, destroying some of her furniture. He’s in custody now. But we don’t know where Emily is, and we’re worried about whether, uh, there was some foul play on Scott’s part before he came here.”

“You mean whether he hurt or killed her before he came here to destroy her apartment?” Chance asked, his voice tight. The cops may have danced around what they were trying to say, but Chance had never been the type to mince words. And right now, he didn’t have time to say things delicately. He needed to find out where Emily was and whether she was okay. He felt his bear within him, angry and roaring to be let out. The attraction he’d felt for Emily had morphed into a full-blown protective instinct, and it was taking an immense amount of self-control on Chance’s part for him to appear calm and collected.

“We, uh, we are quite worried about her,” the first officer said.

“You should be,” the neighbor said. “Her boyfriend is a violent asshole. I should have called you all about him much sooner. If anything happened to that girl I’m never going to forgive myself.”

Chance was about to start demanding more information from the cops, when his cell phone rang. He looked down at the caller I.D., surprised to see that it was Ian’s lifemate, Charlotte. He thought about letting the call go to voicemail, but something told him that this was important. Charlotte hated talking on the phone, so she wouldn’t be contacting him unless she had a good reason to.

“Hey, Charlotte, what’s up? I’m kind of in the middle of something right now,” Chance said, stepping a few feet away from the cops but continuing to eye the remains of Emily’s door.

“Well, whatever it is, I think you better wrap it up quickly and get back to the hangar,” Charlotte said. “Your friend Emily is here, and she’s pretty shaken up.”

“Emily’s with you?” Chance asked, his voice flooding with relief and his senses going onto high alert. “Is she okay? Is she hurt badly?”

The cops immediately turned their attention to Chance, peppering him with questions while he plugged his free ear and tried to hear what Charlotte was saying.

“She’s hurt, but not badly. I think she’s mostly emotionally shaken up. But she's saying something about how she can’t go back to her apartment and get her stuff because Scott will kill her. I’m not sure who Scott is, exactly. Seems like an ex-boyfriend or something?”

“He better be an ex, after all of this,” Chance said. “Can you put her on the line?”

A few moments later, Chance heard Emily’s voice come on the line, sounding frightened and far away. She was crying, and it was hard to understand what she was saying. He thought he caught something about her trying to move but she was scared Scott would come after her even up north. It was hard to say for sure.

“Listen, Emily. You’re going to be just fine. There are two policemen here at your apartment. They’ve already taken Scott in to the station, so he won’t be able to come after you. And you’re safe at the hangar. The guys there won’t let anyone near you. I’m on my way home, okay? I’m going to get there as quickly as I can, but in the meantime I think the police want to ask you a few questions to clear up what’s going on. I’m going to give my phone to them. Can you talk to them for a few minutes while I drive back?”

Emily sniffed out something that sounded like a “yes,” and Chance tossed his phone at one of the officers.

“Here,” he said. “She’s in a safe place. Ask her whatever questions you need to. I’m going to go see her.”

“What about your phone, man?” the first cop asked. “Don’t you want to wait and get it back from us?”

“I’ll come by the station and get it tomorrow or something,” Chance called over his shoulder, already running down the stairs. Then he surprised even himself with the words that came out of his mouth next. “The love of my life needs me. I don’t give a shit about a stupid phone.”

Emily hit end on the call and handed Charlotte’s cell phone back to her.

“Okay. Sorry for tying up your phone for so long,” she said as Charlotte took the phone. Emily’s hands were still shaking, which frustrated her. At least she’d finally managed to stop crying. She had always been so strong in the face of Scott’s anger, but this last round had been too much. She’d never seen him so angry.

She’d been flying high, excited by her newly hatched plan to move to Alaska and reboot her photography business there. She’d packed up everything she wanted, and started to throw everything she didn’t into boxes and bags to either donate or put in the trash. She wanted to get as much done as she could while she was still riding the initial wave of excitement about her plans. She’d planned to call Chance once she was too tired to keep working, in hopes that he would give her some good advice on the best place in Alaska to move to.

She’d cringed every time she caught her reflection in the mirror. Her arms and neck were badly bruised, and her face had a big gash on it. She tried to cover up the marks with makeup, so that she wouldn’t have to look at them anymore. But it had been nearly impossible to do. She’d shrugged it off, telling herself it was the last time Scott would be able to lay a hand on her. If all went as planned, she’d be thousands of miles away from him before the month ended.

Eventually, Emily grew hungry from all of the work she’d been doing, so she decided to run to her favorite corner store to pick up some beer and snacks. She felt a little nostalgic as she entered the store, realizing that soon she’d be living far away from this place. Her nostalgia had soon morphed into annoyance, however, when the clerk asked her what had happened to her face.

“Nothing,” she’d replied, feeling suddenly exposed and scared. She hadn’t thought about the fact that other people might be concerned by how beat up she looked. Shaken, she’d rushed out of the store so quickly that she’d left her driver’s license behind. She hadn’t wanted to run back and get it right away, though. She couldn’t face the clerk again, and figured she’d wait until there had been a shift change or something so she could talk to someone other than that nosy man.

But the awkward situation in the store had paled in comparison to the trouble she found when she arrived home. She’d climbed the stairs to her apartment quickly, eager to crack open a beer and a box of crackers. When she got to the third floor, however, she gasped in shock as she saw her front door splintered and hanging crookedly from its hinges. She heard the sound of Scott’s angry voice yelling from somewhere in her apartment, followed by the crashing sound of shattering glass as he threw something of hers onto the hard tile of the kitchen.

Emily had dropped her bag of food and turned to run. She hadn’t expected Scott to return again so soon. Usually, after he yelled at her and beat her up he’d disappear for a little while, giving her a breather. His violent tendencies must have been getting worse. With her heart pounding in her chest, Emily had run to her car and fired it up, speeding out of the parking lot and toward the only place she knew to go: Chance’s home at the bunkhouse.

When she’d made it to the hangar, Chance hadn’t been around. The first person she’d run into had been Charlotte, and Emily had spilled out the whole story between sobs, telling Charlotte how she wanted to move away and had been planning to ask Chance about where to go in Alaska. Charlotte seemed to only understand about half of what she said, but it didn’t matter. Just getting it all out made Emily feel better.

Charlotte had done her best to calm Emily down, and then had pulled out her phone to call Chance. Apparently, Chance had been at Emily’s apartment, talking to some policemen who were there thanks to Scott’s out of control rampage. Emily had no idea how Chance had known where she lived, or that Scott was breaking into her apartment. All she knew was that the sound of his voice coming on the line was the most beautiful thing she’d heard in a long time. Somehow, she knew when she heard him speaking to her that everything would be okay. Now, he was on his way back here to talk to her, and she could hardly wait to see his face. For a fleeting moment, she even considered abandoning her plans to move to Alaska just so that she could stay here with him. But she pushed away the thought. She had already made up her mind about what she was going to do. It was time for her to follow her own heart for once, and not chase after a guy. Besides, she had no proof that Chance cared about her as more than just a friend. It would be silly to stick around here for a man who might not even be interested in her.

“Don’t apologize,” Charlotte was saying, bringing Emily back to the present moment. “I’m just glad I could be here and help you. What did the cops say?”

“They’re holding Scott at the local jail. He’ll likely be charged with criminal assault, but they’ll need me to come down to the station and give them a formal statement. I’m safe for the moment, though, at least.”

Charlotte reached over and warmly squeezed Emily’s arms. “Don’t worry. As long as you’re here, you’re safe, even if Scott does get out of jail. The guys won’t let anything happen to you.”

“That’s what Chance said,” Emily said with a smile.

“Speaking of Chance, I just heard a truck pull up. I bet that was him,” Charlotte said. “Let’s go see.”

Emily followed Charlotte out of the hanger and into the parking lot, where Chance had indeed just pulled in. He brought his truck to a speedy, grinding halt and jumped out with the dust from his quick parking job still swirling around him. He ran toward Emily and quickly took her face in his hands, searching her eyes with concern.

“Are you okay? I was so worried about you. I swear to god Scott is lucky he’s behind bars because I’m so angry right now that I could tear his limbs off one by one.”

Emily felt a rush of warmth at Chance’s touch. She felt peace settling over her as he traced the gash on her face with one of his fingers. Just knowing that someone cared about her wellbeing made her feel so much better. She had felt so alone for so long, and now, suddenly, she had an entire crew of smokejumpers and their families looking out for her.

“I’m fine,” Emily said. “These gashes and bruises are from a day ago. I wasn’t home when Scott came over and broke into my apartment. I had gone to the corner store for food, and when I came back I realized he was there. I turned around and left before he saw me.”

“I’m glad you didn’t run into him today,” Chance said. “But these other bruises and cuts are bad. You can’t keep defending him and saying he isn’t violent, Emily. You have to admit that he is. I know you care about him, but you have to at least put some space between the two of you until he gets some help.”

“You can stay here, if you need a safe space,” Charlotte piped in. “Ian’s not big on adding more people to the bunkhouse, but he would never turn away a woman in danger. He’ll want you to be protected.”

Emily’s heart warmed again at the offers of help from her new friends. “I know you’re right, Chance,” she said. “I’m not making excuses for him anymore. I had actually already decided to leave him before he broke into my apartment. I spent the day yesterday working on my photography, and when I got home he blew up at me and attacked me for not telling him where I was or what I was doing. He accused me of cheating on him. I decided that I couldn’t take anymore, and I started packing a few big suitcases. Oddly enough, I was already planning on coming over here before Scott broke in. I wanted to ask you for tips on moving to Alaska.”

Chance’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding me. You’re moving to Alaska?”

Emily smiled, amused by Chance’s surprised reaction. “Yes. I decided to take your advice and give nature photography up there a shot. I’ve already lost most of my friends here in California, and I’d like to be as far away from Scott as possible. It sounds to me like Alaska is a good place to start over.”

“Chance is about to move to Alaska, too!” Charlotte blurted out in excitement.

Now it was Emily’s turn to look surprised. “You are?”

Chance grinned. “Yes. I’m moving back home. I’ve been packing up my stuff as well.”

Emily could feel her heart begin to pound with excitement. She had forced herself to push away the growing attraction she was feeling toward Chance, telling herself it didn’t make sense to fall for a man who would be living so far away. But now, she was newly single and realizing that Chance would still be living in the same state as her once she moved. She couldn’t hold back the excitement she felt, and, without thinking about what she was doing, she threw her arms around Chance’s neck. “This is the best news ever,” she exclaimed.

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she realized how ridiculous she was acting. She thought that there was some chemistry between Chance and her, but she wasn’t sure if he was interested in continuing to hang out with her once he got back to Alaska. He already had friends back home. He didn’t need new friends the way she did. She would be starting from scratch, but that didn’t mean she wanted to come across as a silly, desperate schoolgirl. She was already embarrassed enough by the fact that she had basically been forced to come to the hangar to escape her violent ex-boyfriend whom she had insisted for so long was not dangerous.

But as Emily tried to pull away from Chance, her cheeks red with shame, Chance’s arms stopped her. He had wrapped his arms around her and placed his hands on the small of her back, pulling her in closer.

“It is good news,” he said, his mouth so close to her ear that she could feel his hot breath tickling it. She shivered in delight, and then he let her go. She stepped back, her cheeks reddening even more when she realized that Charlotte had just witnessed their odd, awkward hug.

“Well, looks like you two have some logistics to discuss,” Charlotte said. “I’m going to get back to work on repairing my parachute, but I’ll be in the hangar if you need me.”

Then, with a wink, Charlotte turned on her heel and disappeared.

“I think she misread that,” Emily said quickly, trying to smooth over the awkwardness she felt at having just thrown herself at Chance. “I’m just excited that I’ll know someone in Alaska. A friend, I mean. It’ll be nice to have a friend.”

Chance opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then he quickly shut it again. He put his finger over Emily’s lips, sending a fresh wave of excited shivers down her spine. “Stop explaining,” he said. “Come on. Let’s head to the bunkhouse and start making some plans for you. I can give you a lot of recommendations on the best cities to live in, and the best spots for nature photography. I worked as a tour pilot there for more than a decade. I know all the secret places.”

Emily nodded, and followed Chance, forcing herself to stop talking. She couldn’t keep from bringing her fingers to her lips for a moment, though, as she fell into step behind Chance. The spot where he had just touched her was tingling and hot. She hadn’t realized until now what true passion felt like, but she was catching up quickly.