I groaned, opening my eyes to the light. I took in the cedar slats of a ceiling and the hard daylight coming through the window. Viktor was sitting and reading in a big chair in the corner.
I pushed myself up. “Where’s Olivia?”
“Outside with Sasha.”
I looked around the room, completely disoriented. All the furniture was hand-carved wood. This was no Vancouver motel. “Where are we?”
“About halfway up the west coast of BC.”
I blinked at him. I wasn’t supposed to be here. “That wasn’t the plan, Viktor.”
“I know.”
I struggled to orient myself. “You were supposed to take her off the grid for a month before finding a place for her to be safe. I’m supposed to be with my men.”
“You showed up at the motel half-dead. Then you passed out. What was I supposed to do?”
“Leave me there. Call one of the men.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “Olivia would have flat out refused and I’m not into kidnapping women.”
Frustration rolled through me. “I need to be in Vancouver. I can’t leave our guys there, fighting Bunko alone.”
“You weren’t any good to them in the state you were in. They know where you are and that you’re safe. Bjorn has taken over until you’re back on your feet.”
I did not run away from fights. “I need to get back there.”
He stood up. “Let’s get you cleaned up, and then we can talk.”
I was shocked that his cabin had a rustic shower.
“How?” I looked at him when he turned on the water.
“Geothermal pipes.”
The shower felt like a life force, helping me feel real again. When I got out of the shower, Viktor was gone, but a stack of clean clothes was on the vanity. I got dressed and found him downstairs in the kitchen.
He motioned towards the couch. “I’m just making you something to eat.”
I sank heavily on the couch beside the crackling fire. My entire body felt weak. “What time is it?”
“Four o’clock.”
“How did we get here?”
“We drove to Port Hardy then took a ferry to Bella Bella. We flew in the rest of the way. We are about an hour’s snowmobile ride from Port Belmont.”
“So we are in the middle of nowhere.”
He poured some soup into a bowl and carried it to me. “Try this.”
It tasted like I had never had a bowl of soup before. “How’s Olivia doing through all of this?”
He reached forward to put a log on the fire. “Considering I dragged her into the northern Canadian bush with an unconscious man and a dog, she’s doing well. She’s been a trooper. Do you remember showing up at the motel?”
I could barely remember anything. “No.”
“Do you remember Olivia shooting Vlad?”
I spoke slowly. “I remember that part.”
“I took her to a motel for three days while you created a window for us to leave, something that would distract all the eyes that were looking for us. But you showed up, and then you passed out cold. My choices were to stay there with you and Olivia or get you both out of there. I figured we were safer up here.”
I knew he was speaking the truth. It bothered me that I was missing days from my memory. “Any news on Bunko?”
He shrugged. “Fucker has probably taken over Vancouver by now.”
My plan had been to get Olivia to a safe place and then hunt Bunko down. If I didn’t, Olivia would spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder.
“We need a new plan.”
Viktor crossed his arms. “Get better, and we’ll make a plan. I’m not dragging your sorry ass around again.”
“I need to get Olivia set up in a new life, far away from Vancouver.”
“Then what?”
“Once I get her sorted out, I’ll head back to Vancouver.” Viktor and I shared a look.
“You gonna take care of Bunko?”
“Or die trying.”
He nodded. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“She’ll never be free until he’s gone.”
“Agreed.” His voice was hard.
There was the sound of a door opening and then the patter of dog nails on the floor.
“You’re up.” Olivia rushed towards me, peeling off a winter coat. She crawled on her knees onto the couch, looking me over, lifting her hand but not touching, as if she were afraid I would break.
I yanked her to me and put my mouth on hers. “Your lips are cold.”
She smiled, shy to kiss in front of Viktor. “There’s four feet of snow outside.”
“How does Sasha like the snow?”
“He likes frolicking in it.”
Viktor stood up. “I’m going to start dinner. You two catch up.”
I studied Olivia. She looked remarkably healthy considering what she had just gone through. “Tell me you’re okay.”
Her smile was adorable. “I’m okay.”
“What happened while I was out?”
She put her hand on my thigh. “Viktor got us here in one piece. He’s been playing doctor.”
I wrapped my good arm around her and pulled her into my lap. “What’s this place like?”
She smiled and put the palm of her hand on my face. “I love it here. We are in the middle of nowhere. Viktor has snowmobiles. There’s nothing but trees. And bears. Viktor said we need to keep Sasha close.”
“You feel safe here?”
She laid her cheek on my chest and sighed when I wrapped my arms around her. “I do now.”
I kissed the top of her head.
A week later, I was feeling stronger. My shoulder had the occasional twinge, but my appetite was back and so was my endurance. I hated it up here. I hated the isolation and how we were cut off from the world. I worried about my men and how they were faring without me. It wasn’t right that I was here, like a vacationer on some wilderness getaway, when my men were on the front lines dealing with Bunko and his crew.
To burn off some of my frustrations, I put on gloves and went out to the backyard to chop some wood. The air was crisp and fresh, and the snow was so bright it was almost blinding.
Olivia followed me and stood on the deck with her jacket on, blowing on a cup of steaming tea. Sasha came outside and sniffed the snow. Those two looked like they were born to live out here. Olivia had completely relaxed. I had no idea how. The remoteness of this place was driving me a bit crazy.
“What are you doing?” I picked up the ax.
She shrugged and sipped her tea, watching me swing the ax and split wood. “Just taking in the scenery. Where is Viktor?”
“He took the snowmobile out to check his traps.”
She paused. “I never thought I’d ever say I liked eating rabbit, but that stew last night…”
I looked around the yard. Viktor had done an amazing job of creating a self-sufficient home in the middle of nowhere. He ran a generator for power and had geothermal for the furnace and hot water. He had traplines, huge stores of supplies, and an icehouse for whatever he trapped. The guy was ready for end-of-the-world shit.
“Pretty isolated out here, hey?” I bent down and picked up the split wood, tossing it on the pile. The need for chopped wood here was constant.
She looked around. “It’s beautiful.”
I lifted my head to listen. Nothing but the sound of the wind in the trees. “You think someone would get lonely out here by themselves.”
“I don’t think Viktor was planning on being out here by himself.”
I paused and looked up at her. “Why would you say that?”
She shrugged. “He has a guest room. If you want to isolate yourself, typically you don’t build a guest room.”
I thought about that. “Good point.”
“Does Viktor ever talk about having a girlfriend?”
“As long as I have known him, he’s never mentioned anyone to me.” But that didn’t mean anything. Before Olivia, a string of women had paraded through my life, and I never introduced any of them to anyone. “But he’s pretty tight-lipped about that shit.”
“Do you think he left someone behind in Vancouver?”
It hadn’t even dawned on me that he had. I had just assumed that he was like me: he refused to get attached. “Not sure.”
That night, Viktor and I cleaned up the dishes while Olivia played with Sasha.
“Thanks for chopping wood,” he said, hanging up the tea towel.
“If you need me to help with your trapline, let me know.” I didn’t have a lot of experience checking traps, but I was willing to do my part.
He shrugged. “I like doing it. Want a drink?”
“Sure.”
He poured us drinks while I added logs to the fire. I sat back on the couch, and Viktor handed me a glass before settling down on the chair across from me. On the rug, Olivia lay beside Sasha.
I sighed. Every night was the same. We sat in front of the fire, waiting. Waiting for my body to heal. Waiting for our next move. Waiting for something to happen. I studied Olivia’s form. She had her head on Sasha’s belly and was stroking his fur. She hadn’t once asked me when we were leaving here, what the plan was, or when she would be brought back to civilization.
“Viktor, do you have a girlfriend?”
My eyes met his at her question. She twisted around to look at him when he didn’t answer.
“Nope.”
“No one special you left back in Vancouver?”
“No.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “How old are you?”
“Thirty.”
I sipped my drink, interested to see how he handled her little inquisition. He drained his glass and stood up to get another drink. So, something was there.
She crawled onto the couch and leaned against me. “I like it here.”
I kissed one of her hands. She was the only bright spot here. “How come?”
“I feel safe.”
“You really shouldn’t bug Viktor like that.”
“I wanted to know what his story is,” she whispered.
He sat back down and took a long sip of his drink. We sat in companionable silence until I felt her drift off into sleep against my chest.
I spoke to him in Russian. “She’s asleep.”
“She’s been doing well here. She’s handling this better than most women would.”
“She didn’t mean anything by her questions.”
He swirled his drink. “I left someone behind.”
I froze in shock. “In Vancouver?”
“No, when I came to Canada.”
I nodded. Viktor was a tough one to read. I never knew how much to ask. “What happened?”
He gave me a brief smile. “My best friend and I… We fell for the same woman.”
I blinked in surprise. “That’s crowded.”
He sighed. “It wasn’t at first. Then I became the third wheel.”
I paused, processing what he was telling me. “You… uh… shared everything, the three of you?”
He shrugged. “It worked for a while.”
That was not what I had expected him to say. “What happened?”
“Jealousy flared. He and I fought. Last I heard, she was married to some accountant in Moscow. He’s still serving.”
“Is that why you got honorably discharged?”
“We had a brawl on base. It got ugly.”
I nodded. Any fight with Viktor got ugly fast.
He drained his glass. “That part of my life is over with.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“Women are complicated. Don’t need them, don’t want them.”
That had always been my mantra. Then I had met Olivia.
We sat, listening to the fire crackle. I pulled Olivia’s sleeping form closer to my chest. “I’m getting stronger.”
“I noticed that. Each day the woodpile gets bigger.”
“I need to make some plans to get her out of here.”
“Where are you going to take her?”
I had no idea. I hadn’t gotten that far because her world would never be truly safe as long as Bunko was alive. “Someplace safe.”
He cleared his throat. “I should head back to Vancouver and check in with the men.”
“I should be the one going.” I looked over at him.
He shook his head. “You’re a wanted man in that town. And you know once you go back there, you won’t get back up here again. Then she will have to get settled on her own.”
I felt enormously torn between my responsibilities. I needed to get Olivia safe. But I also needed to help my men. “I don’t know.”
He leaned forward. “She doesn’t want me up here. She wants you here. Let me go back. I can sort stuff out, get the lay of the land, and report back to you. Give me a week to figure out what is going on, and then you can move her, get her settled and join me in Vancouver.”
The plan sucked, but it was the best one we had. “Thank you.”
He nodded at Olivia. “Keep her safe.”
