Legend of the White Wolf (19 page)

   "Sounds like a plan to me." Cameron gave her a handful of doggy treats, then headed to his team while Faith offered her portion to Charles's team.

   Faith assumed Cameron had figured out her real reason to visit the outer building. Just the slight glint of recognition, the tilted up chin, his eyes lighting just a bit, and then the devilish smile. Yeah, he was all for it.

   After giving Charles's dogs their treats, Faith stalked across the snow to join Cameron as he gave the last dog on his team a hug and back rub. She shook her head. "You're just one of the pack."

   "The alpha leader."

   She grabbed his arm and hurried with him to the barnlike building. "Did I tell you I like alpha males, and I love the way you handle the dogs, firmly but kindly?"

   "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were ready for another kiss."

   And more, if the circumstances were more suitable. She smiled as they entered the outbuilding, but as soon as he closed the door, she headed for a stack of crates underneath a window that was about eight feet off the ground. "Looks like just some camping supplies," she said, lifting the lid of one wooden boxes. "Probably for their hunting excursions."

   Cameron was checking out a box across the room, situated next to a couple of snowmobiles with the name,
Back Country Tours
painted on the side with a white wolf logo.

   "Tents here." Cameron poked around some more as Faith pulled out a sleeping bag.

   A little crinkling noise from inside the bag caught her attention, and she unzipped it to find out what it was. A candy wrapper. But deeper down in the bag, a receipt.

   "Finding anything?" Cameron asked, surrounded by a growing mound of tenting gear.

   "You sure know how to make a mess." She smiled when he did. She opened the receipt. The handwritten note listed food and other items from the grocery at the trailhead. "Nothing that would help. This receipt is dated yesterday for food supplies. But it only has the last numbers of a credit card, so no telling whose it could be." Something shiny caught her eye, and she reached in to pull out a can of pepper spray. "This could come in handy."

   "Good as a deterrent for some wild animals if the wind's blowing in the right direction. Why don't you hang onto it? Nothing in this mess." Cameron began gathering up the tents and shoving them back into the box. But something hard in one of them stopped him. He pulled out the tent again and fished out a credit card from an inside pocket. "Trevor Hodges. Bet he doesn't even know it's missing."

   "What are the last four digits on the card?"

   "Four, nine, nine, two."

   "Not the same as this receipt." She was about to drop the receipt in the bag and zip it back up, when something leathery caught her eye. She reached in and pulled it out. A gun holster. "David Davis," she read engraved on the inside.

   Cameron dropped the tent he was about to shove in the box and stalked over to join Faith.

   "David's," Cameron said, and the way his voice hitched a little, Faith knew this wasn't real good news. "He'd never leave his gun or holster behind. I don't like this."

   The door lock made a clicking sound. Cameron raced to the door and twisted the knob. It didn't budge. "Shit."

   Outside the building, Charles suddenly hollered, "Hike!"

   "Son of a bitch!" Cameron rushed across the building to join Faith as she scrambled to climb on top of the crate to look out the window, but it was too short to reach.

   "Was it Charles who locked us in?" she asked. She got back down and assisted Cameron in sliding another crate over, then helped him lift it on top of the other.

   "Looks that way." Cameron sounded pissed.

   He gave her a little boost up on top of the stacked crates. Using her gloved hand, she wiped away the dust on the window and peered through the still dirty glass. All she could see was the lake from this angle, not the dog sleds or the lodge. "Nothing." She hated to ask, but wanted to know what they were up against. "Did you bring your gun?"

   Cameron patted his side, glad he'd been prepared. "Always." Except for when he went to the spa with Faith. But on an excursion like this, absolutely. No telling what they might have run into. Although he was thinking more of wildlife problems, like an attack wolf, not real human troubles.

   Trapped in a snare is the way Cameron felt and his blood heated with anger. Just like the time he and Gavin were locked in a storage building when they discovered illegal smuggling. Only that time, the building had no windows, just metal walls that were weak and rusted. After a few well-placed kicks, he and Gavin had managed to knock out part of a wall. But thankfully, the district was empty, not a soul around. Although before long, Cameron figured they'd have trouble waiting for them outside this building.

   Faith suddenly looked below. "Holy crap," she whis pered. "Two wolves are pacing beneath the window."

   
Hell.
Cameron searched the building for another weapon. Finding a shovel, he returned to the crates and handed it up to Faith, then climbed up to the top to join her. Slowly, he slid the window up, but the wolves looked in their direction, their ears perked, alert and ready.

   "We can climb down to the ledge below and from there it's an easy drop," Cameron said.

   "But the wolves—"

   "Use the pepper spray. You make a run for the sled. If I don't make it, you leave me, Faith. Do you understand? If my friends have come to harm because of Kintail and his people, we're sitting ducks here. You leave if you can and return to the cabins. Take the snowmobile and get to the trailhead. Once there, grab your rental vehicle and report this…" He reconsidered. "If you report it to Officers Adams and Whitson, they'll no doubt discount our claims, unless we find a body. Leave Millinocket and go to Bangor. Get outside help."

   She shook her head. "Got it all planned out, I see."

   "Yeah, well, you're a forensic scientist. I'm a former police officer. You're not trained for this kind of work." Although he had the most awful urge to take the wolves on wolf to wolf.

   She climbed down, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like she wasn't leaving him. But that
wasn't
an option if things didn't turn out well. She waited on the ledge, clinging to the side of the building, and shivered. He joined her.

   The wolves watched them. Anticipating their move. Ready.

   "I'll go first, swinging the shovel. You jump down right after me. Spray their faces and run for the sled."

   As soon as he jumped, one of the wolves lunged. Cameron swung the shovel and connected with the wolf's nose. It yelped and darted away.

   Faith jumped down next to Cameron, sprayed the other wolf in the face, grabbed Cameron's arm, and ran with him. The wolf sneezed and pawed at his nose and eyes. "Come on, hero of mine. I'm not leaving you behind. What if I need you again?"

   The sled dogs barked like crazy, wanting to run, too. Charles had taken off with the sled Cameron had used earlier. What the hell was he up to?

   As soon as Cameron got Faith to the sled and she was safely in the sled bag, he jumped on the runners. Throwing the shovel aside, he yelled, "Hike," and made a kissing sound to get the dogs to hurry.

   The one wolf was still pawing at his face, sneezing and coughing, and the other was limping toward them, but not making any real effort to chase after them.

   "Maybe Charles didn't do this to us. He couldn't have locked us in," Faith shouted over the dogs' excited barking.

   Cameron chastised himself for going along with her on this trip. He felt
he was the reason for her being i
n danger. "Maybe." But he wasn't convinced. Maybe Charles figured he'd better cut his losses and run since he was in business to a degree with Kintail. Although, Cameron couldn't believe Charles would leave his other sled team behind.

   They shot across the snow in a madcap race to catch up to Charles. But Cameron couldn't help worrying that Kintail's men would learn of their escape soon. Hell, he should have done something to mess up the snowmobiles in the shed so they couldn't use those at least.

   Riding snowmobiles, how long would it take for Kintail's people to catch up to them?

After an hour, Faith and Cameron still hadn't caught up with Charles, yet she saw his sled tracks clearly. The sun was fading and the dogs needed to rest. She was glad Cameron had so quickly mastered handling a dog sledding team, but she still couldn't believe Charles would have left them behind and not waited for them somewhere along the way.

   When Cameron finally pulled the team to a stop, Faith frowned at him. "We're not going any further? What if it snows in the middle of the night? Or the winds pick up even more and we lose his trail?"

   "I'll find it. Even though the dogs are naturally nocturnal, they need a rest."

   Cameron seemed so sure of himself, but she wasn't so positive. "I'm not certain we even have a tent."

   "Underneath that bag you're sitting in. I noticed it earlier when he pulled out his ax."

   "Why would he desert us like that? Leave the rest of his dogs, his sled? They're his livelihood." She crawled out of the bag and felt chilled to the bone. "Not to mention I'm sure he's really attached to them."

   "He likes wolves, too. They're… magical, powerful," Cameron said sarcastically. "But if you want to know the truth, I think he was attempting to draw the wolves away from us. Or, he figured we'd have a better chance if we left separately, the one not blocking the other's escape that way." Although he wasn't sure either scenario could be the truth.

   And who had locked them in the building then? Unless Lila had done so and hightailed it back to the lodge until Kintail and his men arrived, leaving the wolves to guard the place in the interim so Faith and Cameron couldn't escape.

   He began unloading the sled and found food for the dogs, while Faith pulled out the double-walled tent, red and orange, like a brightly colored pergola he'd seen at a Renaissance fair.

   "Hope there's something for us to eat also on this sled. I'm starving since we missed lunch and breakfast." She searched on the sled while Cameron erected the two layers of tents, then went about setting up a stove and pipe to vent the smoke.

   "Food! Salami, ham, cheese, cookies, bread, bottled water." She sighed. "Charles gave me a book to read on how to take care of a team on a race while we were traveling. Good thing I read it, too, because we're sure going to need the help." She glanced up at Cameron as he paused to watch her. "It's almost like he figured we'd need to know how to do this alone."

   "I'm sure he was just being prudent, making sure that if we got in a bind like this, at least one of us would know the ropes."

"Yeah, but I was with him, not you."

   Cameron didn't say anything, and Faith could tell by his darkened expression he'd had the same thought already. "So what do we do with the dogs while we lie down?" He carried his sleeping bag into the tent, while she dug around on the sled.

   When she found what she was looking for, she grabbed a handful of straw just as Cameron reemerged from the tent.

   "The book said to lay this down for the dogs, take off their tug lines, and booties and massage their feet and leg muscles."

   "I'll take care of the dogs. Why don't you carry the food into the tent, and I'll join you when I'm done? Maybe I'll even massage something of yours?" He raised a brow.

   She chuckled. "Too cold to remove anything." Although if it hadn't been, she'd sure take him up on it. "I'll help you with the dogs so we can get done with the chores faster." She handed him a tube of ointment. "For their feet."

   Then she grabbed up the cooker to heat up some snow, and once it melted, she mixed it with bits of chicken. She glanced at Cameron as he pulled off their booties while they licked his face.

   He massaged their feet as the ones waiting for his attention continued to bump him with enthusiasm. She smiled. He fit right in.

   He grinned at her. "See how much they appreciate me?"

   She laughed. "Yeah. Snuggling I can do. Licking your whiskery face, uhm, not tonight."

   "Guess that's why a dog is man's best friend." He rubbed one of the leader's legs, and glanced up at Faith with a wicked look on his face.

   "And diamonds are a girl's best friend."

   Cameron shook his head as he fed the dogs the kibble and melted snow. "Haven't even had a real date, and she's already talking wedding rings."

   "Who's talking weddings? I just like diamonds." She brought over the cooked food for the dogs. "Here, make some more brownie points with them, and I'll cook us something hot to eat. Might not be five-star restaurant worthy, or as good as the dogs' food, but it won't be cold."

   She cleaned out the cooking pot and melted the cheese over the ham and sausage, then served it up between two slices of bread. "Ready?"

   Cameron gave her a look like he was interested in more than just eating, but took a bite of his sandwich and nodded, his eyes smiling. "Good stuff. Where'd you learn to cook on campouts?"

   "Truthfully? I didn't. Just used what we had avail able. Except for day hikes, I've never camped out."

   "Could have fooled me."

   Yeah, she wasn't used to this. At least there were no bugs. But camping in snow and ice was for the polar bears, and even
they
had sense enough to hibernate. She'd prefer a nice warm hotel room, comfy bed, and room service. Her thoughts shifted to Charles. Although she didn't want to undermine Cameron's plans, she wondered if they should be following Charles, or just heading back to the cabins and doing what Cameron outlined if she had been on her own.