“Why?”
“We’re a little far away, trying to get through the park is a challenge but…”
“No, I meant why are you excited to meet me?” She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong, that maybe it was a trap. No one was excited to meet her. Ever. She was a burden and a distraction at best. The only person who’d ever smiled when she walked in the room was Finn, and Lauren hadn’t managed to keep him around, either. He said he’d come back. Maybe it was all a ruse.
“Why are we…” The woman trailed off and Lauren braced for a withering condemnation or an explanation of how they’d been burdened with the requirement to scoop her up and deliver her to the actual bounty hunters. Then Kira went on without sounding as annoyed as she probably was. “Because Finn is excited for us to meet you, and he wanted to make sure we found you. He likes you a lot, so we like you a lot because we like him a lot. It all works out.”
Did it, though? Lauren wasn’t so sure. But she’d learned not to express those kinds of doubts right to someone’s face. It was better to agree and then leave before they showed up. She’d have a head start, at least. Maybe Lauren could figure out where Finn went, and he could make the decisions so Lauren didn’t have to. “Okay.”
“Okay? You’re okay waiting for us at the cabin? We’ll be there as fast as we can.”
“Sure.” Lauren didn’t know what else to say. Her attention went to the door and the wind whistling outside. Finn was out there somewhere. Maybe he needed her help. She’d helped him before when he hurt his leg, and even though he got out of the trap on his own, he definitely wouldn’t have made it back to the cabin unless she dragged him. She’d done that right, at least. Even Finn admitted it.
A long pause was the first response, then some of the noise diminished and Kira’s voice came through much more clearly. “Hon, Finn wants you to stay put until we get there. Okay? There’s some other stuff out there that might be dangerous and we…”
“The drug guys,” she said. Lauren peered through one of the larger gaps between the logs that made up the walls, and found nothing but snow outside. “We ran into them already.”
“You did? Do you know where they are?”
“Finn had an argument with someone about them.” Lauren backed away from the cold and scanned the cabin for anything to take with her to find Finn, then to bug out. She obviously couldn’t stay at the cabin because very soon Kira and grumpy Simon and God only knew who else would steamroll in and then she wouldn’t have much of a say in anything. “First they tried to kill me and Finn stopped them and then…then he had to…get rid of a few of them, and we were back at the cabin for a while but it didn’t sound like everything went the way it was supposed to. Some guy called this morning and told Finn he had to do something, I think, because then Finn left and he said he would be back in an hour but it’s been more than an hour and…”
“So Finn went to look for the drug runners?” Kira exhaled in annoyance, and Lauren braced for a lecture on decision-making, but instead the woman added, “That absolute shithead. He knows better than that.”
Shithead? Lauren couldn’t imagine anyone calling Finn a shithead. He was almost the exact opposite. Obviously he could be stubborn and probably arrogant in some situations, but since he was really capable at everything so far, it wasn’t like it was undeserved. She frowned at the wall but spotted the shotgun propped up against the wall next to the mattress. Finn left it for her, which made her chest tighten with worry. He’d at least taken the rifle with him.
“Lauren,” Kira said. “We’ll be there in thirty minutes, maybe a little more. Just stay put. I’ll call when we’re a few minutes out so we don’t surprise you, okay? There are a bunch of not-great people out in the forest right now, even more than the drug runners, so it’s best for you to stay put.”
She’d heard that all her life. Just stay put, don’t do anything, don’t try to help because you’ll fuck it up more. How had that worked out for her so far? She had a bounty on her head, literally, and a very long stay in prison waiting when she got caught. She had no friends, no home, not even a high school diploma. Just trouble. Debts. Bad decisions.
And Finn. Maybe she had Finn, if he was still out there and he still wanted her.
Lauren wasn’t going to give him up without a fight. She’d watched everything else go away without much more than a whimper, but for Finn… She wouldn’t be able to live with herself, even if that life was in prison, if she didn’t at least try to find him, to help him. If he died out there because she was too chicken to leave the cabin, then she deserved to go to prison.
But Kira said, “Lauren, babe, I need you to tell me you’re still going to be there when we arrive. Okay? Please. Just promise me you’ll be there.”
“I’ll be here,” she said. It didn’t sound very convincing, though. Lauren forced herself to smile, even though she was alone in the cabin, because sometimes that helped convince people she meant what she said when she didn’t. “I promise. I’ll be here.”
“Finn will be very,verymad at us if anything happens to you,” Kira said. More shouting in the background sounded like Angry Simon calling Finn names and trying to convince someone else to go faster, but Kira snapped at them and the big scary men went silent. She sounded annoyed, but smoothed her tone over as she went on. “Thirty minutes, okay? Less than that if we can find… It’s fine. Just please stay where you’re at and I’ll come and get you.”
Lauren kept the smile fixed on her face, though it made her cheeks ache. “Sure. I’ll be here.”
Kira didn’t believe her. but she muttered something under her breath instead and the call ended. Lauren frowned at the phone and tried to figure out how to turn it off, so it didn’t ring again and give her away. That would have been terrible, if she managed to sneak up on some drug runners or whoever wanted to hurt Finn and then the phone got them all killed. She shook her head and absently rubbed her cheeks, then started to pack everything up so there wouldn’t be much mess when Kira and Simon and whoever was with them showed up. She didn’t want to get yelled at for that, at least, if for some reason Lauren was still there when they found out. Or maybe it would all be fine and Finn would be back and he wouldn’t let them yell at her.
Lauren shook her head and focused on getting everything together, then pulling on layers of clothes to stay warm. The snow slowed down but still fell, and the wind whistled through the cracks in the logs. The last thing she needed was frostbite and numb fingers leaving her less graceful than normal. She set her jaw and tried to focus.
Finn, I’m coming.
FINN
Finn knew generally where the drug runners would be, based on the wind and a few shots he’d heard earlier. Shotgun gave him a tipper and claimed it was where the fuckers were based, but Finn wasn’t about to trust just that. He stashed his clothes after hiking into the trees, and transformed into his bear side to do more scouting. He hated leaving Lauren at the cabin, but the faster he dealt with the drug running assholes and Shotgun’s bastards, the faster he could get her somewhere much safer, warmer, and ideally with much better food and a more comfortable bed, so they could stay naked for as long as possible. A hot shower would be nice, also for sharing.
He shook his head and shoved upright to lean on a tree and knock it over, the dead-fall balancing on the top of a steep slide. Finn kept moving through the trees, searching for places to create traps and snares he could drive unsuspecting humans into, and paused occasionally to inhale the air and listen for telltale signs of metal weapons or men. The snow slowed and left the air clear and cold and crisp, the sun watery and pale where it filtered through the trees. He’d expected an immediate ambush, yet nothing moved.
Finn worked his way back through the trees to the trail, uneasiness gripping his stomach as the time ticked away. Lauren was still safe in the cabin, at least, so it didn’t really matter how long he spent fucking around trying to find Shotgun and the drug runners. He just had to keep telling himself that. He shifted back to his human form and got dressed, cursing Shotgun under his breath. So much for the emergency that required Finn to go outthat minuteto find the bastards. The forest was so damn quiet it was like nothing else stirred in a few square miles.
He held his breath for a long moment to listen, then headed along the trail away from the cabin and away from town. He’d headed into the park down the slopes, toward where the drug runners came from when they ambushed Lauren, but maybe they’d found a different angle from where he’d originally hiked in. He made it almost a full mile down the trail before the first sign of trouble showed up.
A large meadow, the snow untouched, opened up along the south side of the trail with a vast white expanse framed by trees. He hesitated before proceeding down the trail next to it, not wanting to expose his dark silhouette against so much fucking white, and listened hard as the wind moved through the bare branches all around. He should have brought Nordic gear that blended in, instead of his typical darker clothes. Stupid.
