I stood on the back of the snowmobile on the hill, overlooking nothing but trees and more trees. This place felt like the end of the world. The fact that I had to snowmobile two kilometers uphill just to make a phone call proved my point.
At least this time Viktor answered.
“How is Vancouver?” I asked him.
He sounded grim. “Things are bad.”
“Talk to me.”
“Vlad’s body showed up on shore.”
I paused. “How did he die?”
“Multiple stab wounds. That’s not all.”
“What?”
“The police apparently think they have enough evidence against you and they’ve issued an arrest warrant for you. They want to pin Vlad’s murder on you.”
I swore. Bunko’s reach in my town was getting longer every day. “What else?”
“Detective Klaassen is back.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She came looking for you, and she asked about Vlad. When I asked her where she had been, she told me she had taken a vacation.”
“That makes no sense.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what her story is. Bastelli and Carl have gone into hiding. All of Bastelli’s clubs have been temporarily closed.”
Criminals were like rats who scurried into their shadowy hiding places at the first sign of real trouble. “What else?”
“Amelia showed up back in Russia.”
I blinked, shocked. “They said she was missing.”
“Apparently the police don’t communicate well with immigration. She spent some time in the states before she returned home.”
I was done talking about Amelia. “Any intel on Bunko?”
“I can’t find him.”
I frowned. “You’re shitting me.”
“There is no one around, and nothing is moving. Everyone has gone into hiding. No one wants to talk. Everyone is scared. I’ve been staking out Bunko’s last known locations. His men are around, but he isn’t. I’ve followed all of them, looking for a secondary location, but so far, nothing.”
“There have been no sightings of Bunko,” I confirmed.
“It’s like he’s disappeared.”
“That’s not good.”
He was quiet on the other end. “I’ve covered my tracks. He may be looking for you, but he’s never going to find either of you.”
“I know.” I looked around the vast wilderness, wondering if we should leave. “Not sure he’d survive out here anyway. I really wanted to know where Bunko was before I moved Olivia.”
He cleared his throat. “There is one more wrinkle. There is a huge storm coming in. I don’t recommend you leaving until it passes.”
I looked around. The last thing I wanted was to spend more time out here. “You think?”
“Storm should last two days, no more. Call me when it passes. I may have more intel then.”
“Anything else I should know?”
“All my storm supplies are in the pantry. There’s a list. You should probably get ready.”
“Will do.”
“Anything else happening there?”
I looked at the vast forest around us. There was nothing happening out here. Nothing at all. The only person who seemed to be thriving was Olivia. “Our girl is teaching herself to make bread.”
“How is that going?”
I thought about the first three batches, which were hard as rocks. “Fourth loaf was decent.”
He laughed. “Good luck with the storm. Call me when it passes.”
I could feel the weather shift. There was a stirring in the air, like a faint warning. I drove the snowmobile hard back to the cabin and found Olivia standing on the porch with her arms wrapped around her body.
I moved up the porch towards her. “Storm is coming in.”
She shivered. “I can feel it.”
I moved inside to warm up, and she followed me. “I talked to Viktor.”
“What is going on?”
“He’s still in Vancouver.”
“What did he say?”
That he can’t find Bunko. “We can talk about it later.” I kissed her worried brow. “We should probably get organized here.”
She looked around the place. “What kinds of stuff do we need to do before a storm?”
Turns out there is a fuck of a lot of stuff to do before a storm.
A generator typically can’t run during a rain- or snowstorm, which meant we were going to be without electricity for a few days. No electricity meant no running water either. I filled huge bottles of water to store, and Olivia made two loaves of bread.
I stacked four days’ worth of wood on the porch, which seemed like overkill, while Olivia got the lanterns and flashlights sorted out. She showered, and then made dinner while I showered, and we ate silently together in front of the fireplace before washing the dishes.
She looked around. “We still have power.”
“So far.”
“What happens to the generator in the storm?”
I put some more logs on the fire. “If the winds are high enough, moisture gets in the generator and then the safety gets tripped, shutting everything down.”
She sat down beside me. “What did Viktor say?”
I didn’t want to worry her with this shit. I didn’t want to bring that world into this cabin, but it was only fair to tell her. I had tried to protect her by not telling her anything, and it almost cost us her life.
“Viktor is looking for Bunko. He said things are weird in Vancouver.”
She held very still. “Did he find him?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. No one seems to know where he is or what is going on.”
She stood up and looked out the front window. “Do you think he’ll come here?”
I followed her and put my arms around her waist. I rested my chin on the top of her head. This fear, this unknown, would plague her for the rest of her life. She’d always be looking over her shoulder, always afraid. This was exactly why I needed to deal with Bunko permanently. “Bunko isn’t going to find us out here, and he’s not going to come during a storm.”
“Snow is starting,” she said hollowly.
I wrapped my arms around her, which caused her to sigh.
I snuggled my face into her neck. “What was that sound for?”
“I already miss your hugs.”
I stilled and realized that I missed hers, too. Life was going to be excruciating, letting her go, like living without the sun. I had nothing good to go back to. She was the only light in my life. “Don’t think about it.”
“I’m trying not to.”
“Come to bed.”
I locked up the doors and banked the fire. When I climbed in beside her, I rolled towards her. She was curled up on her side, radiating sorrow.
I touched her cheek, and she reached for me. We made love in slow motion, trying to savor every moment. There was no race to the finish line. This was about goodbyes and last times. Was this the last time I would hear her sigh when I kissed right below her ribs? Was it the last time I would see her laugh? Was it the last time I would feel her legs around my waist?
It felt like sweet torture. So painful, like the lasts gasps of air when your entire life is sinking. The last few sparks of joy in your life before everything goes dark.
I woke up in the middle of the night to see her figure standing in the window, looking outside. Sasha stood beside her.
“What time is it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. The electricity is out, though.”
“Come back to bed.” I half sat up, watching her.
She tightened the sweater around her body. “Snow is really starting to blow.”
I got out of bed and wrapped my arms around her. Will I remember her incredible scent? “How are you doing?”
She leaned against my chest and put her arms over mine. “I feel like we are watching some ticking clock.”
“I know.” I nuzzled into her neck. I couldn’t imagine a lifetime of not being able to touch her.
“When everything is over, I need you to come find me.”
I thought about how I would deal with Bunko or die trying. “I’ll do my best.”
The more the storm raged, the more anxious Olivia got. She was like a caged animal, moving from window to window, staring out at the weather.
I watched her from the couch. “What’s going on there?”
She shrugged. “I have a bad feeling.”
She wasn’t the only one. I kept replaying Viktor’s conversation in my head. It bothered me that he couldn’t find Bunko. Viktor was amazingly resourceful. If he couldn’t find him, it might just mean Bunko wasn’t in Vancouver. Which made me wonder where in the hell Bunko was.
I stood up and walked over to Olivia. “What’s your bad feeling about? The storm?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“We’re safe out here.”
That night, we cooked over the open flame. And then we played cards by lantern-light at the coffee table. We went to bed early because it was easier to try and sleep than to listen to the wind howl outside.
I didn’t even wait for her to fall sleep before I snuggled her, but an hour later, I woke up alone in bed.
She was standing in the living room, staring out the big window into the dark, swirling snow.
“Olivia, what are you doing?”
She put her hand on the windowpane. “I feel dread.”
“Okay, gloomy, come to bed.” I kissed both her hands. “It’s freezing down here.”
But as I walked up the stairs, I found myself looking over my shoulder towards the window. I could feel it too. Perhaps it was just my own future I was dreading.
The storm raged, a screeching, angry force that wanted to destroy. Suddenly the four days’ worth of wood on the porch didn’t seem like such a dumb idea. Neither did the four-gallon jugs of water.
I carried more wood into the living room. “The only one who seems to be enjoying this weather is Sasha.”
Each time I opened the door to bring in more wood, he raced to the bottom of the steps and stuck his face out, enjoying how the wind felt on his coat.
Olivia was standing by her usual perch next to the window. “Sasha’s from Siberia.”
“Yeah, I guess he is.”
Each time I bundled up to get wood, I walked a perimeter around the property, looking for tracks, footsteps, signs of anything other than us here. But I found nothing.
When I got back inside, Olivia was waiting for me. “What were you looking for?”
“Tracks.”
“What kind of tracks?”
“Animals.” Or people. I didn’t add the last part; she was already freaked out. “But even the animals are tucked in their shelters, trying to ride this out.”
By the end of the second day, we weren’t even trying to entertain ourselves with cards. We both sat in front of the fire, not speaking, as we listened to the storm howl around us.
An hour after dark, I looked at her. “Want to go to bed?”
We cuddled in bed with Sasha at our feet. The sooner I could get us out of this godforsaken place, the better.
“Viktor’s crazy for wanting to live up here,” I grumbled.
She snuggled closer. “It’s not too bad.”
I shook my head, watching the snow angrily pelt the window.
I woke up to an empty bed. I sat up and found Olivia standing at the window again.
She turned and looked at me. “Can you hear that?”
I listened. “Hear what?”
She smiled. “Exactly. No more wind.”
It was eerily quiet. I listened but heard nothing. It was almost worse than the storm. “Tomorrow I will start the generator.”
She crawled back into bed. “We’ll have running water again.”
I kissed the top of her head. “Running hot water.”
But long after she went to sleep, I lay in the dark, listening. For the sound of snow crunching beneath feet? For the sound of a snowmobile? A helicopter? My ears strained into the silence.
Finally, at four in the morning, I got up. I got the fire going and decided to go start the generator. It would be nice for Olivia to have a hot shower and coffee when she woke up.
I took a flashlight outside and moved beneath the porch. Using Viktor’s detailed instructions, I worked to get the generator started. It was finicky, but after fifteen minutes of swearing, it began with a satisfying hum. I cleaned the kitchen, washed the dishes, made coffee, and put all the lanterns and flashlights back in their rightful spots in the pantry.
I heard a little scream of joy from upstairs and then a shout. “The shower is working!”
I made breakfast, and she came down, scrubbed pink.
I bent to kiss her mouth. “You smell fresh.”
“I can’t believe how much I am loving the smell of coffee right now.”
I ruffled her hair. “Come sit down. Breakfast is ready.”
She put her arms around my waist and rested her chin on my chest. “I know that we can have a life together, Andrusha. I believe we can.”
Something in my heart exploded. I needed to save her. Only then could I save myself. “You think so, do you?”
She moved away from me to grab some bacon off the table. My arms instantly felt the loss.
We sat at the table and began to eat. “So,” I said, “the storm is over.”
“Do we have to leave here today?”
“We will take the day to get the cabin ready and leave tomorrow morning.” It wouldn’t take a whole day to get ready, but I needed one more day with her. One more carefree day, when I could make her laugh, hold her, and imprint her on my memory.
She took a deep breath. “I’m going to miss being up here.”
I wouldn’t miss this place for a second, but I would miss her.
I stood up with my dishes.
She followed and took the dishes from my hands. “You did breakfast. I’ll do the dishes.”
I kissed her on the mouth, thinking that today I would steal all the kisses I could. “Okay, I’m going to shower.”
I headed upstairs. I was brushing my teeth when the lights went out.
“Andrusha, the power’s out.”
I pulled my shirt back over my head and jogged down the stairs. “Viktor said in his instructions that the generator sometimes kicks off a few times after a storm. I’m just going to restart it.”
I shoved my feet into my boots, not bothering with a jacket. The air was crisp and cool, but I only needed to dust off the generator to get it to start again.
I was bent over the generator when I sensed something coming towards me. Instinct made me lean to the left as an ax went through the generator top three inches from my face. I rolled and came back up on my feet, turning to watch a man yank the ax back out.
Holy fuck.
I looked around for any sort of weapon. “Bunko, I presume?” I asked as I slowly backed up.
The man smiled at me and tossed the ax across the lawn. Then he pulled out a six-inch serrated knife.
“Your new weapon of choice only makes me feel marginally better,” I said, moving in a dance as he took a swipe towards me with his knife.
“Sorry we had to meet under these circumstances,” he said, moving steadily towards me. “I think in another world, we’d be friends.”
He reminded me of a soldier. Someone who had spent his lifetime honing his killing instinct. I picked up a piece of wood, which I could use as defense against the blade. “How did you find us?”
“Found your license plate on closed-captioned street footage. A friend who works for BC Ferries ran a check and found a match going to Port Hardy. Some cash got the pilot talking pretty quick.”
Olivia is inside. I needed a weapon, a gun, anything. But all of those were inside.
“You don’t have to hurt her. She just wants to live a quiet life. Let her go.”
He lunged, and I spun around, narrowly avoiding getting stabbed.
“She’s a loose end. I don’t like loose ends.”
The guy sounded like me. “You want my business, you can have it. I will hand you the bank account and keys. I will give you everything I have if you let her go,” I bargained, as I looked at the ax in my peripheral. It was too far away. By the time I got there, he would be on top of me.
He grinned. “I never used to like killing, you know. It used to bother me. But one day, I just decided I didn’t care. Life got a lot easier when I stopped giving a fuck about other people. She’s your weakness.”
I hedged my movements towards the ax. It was my best shot. I worked to keep him talking. “What do you mean?”
“She’s your Achilles’ heel. I knew that at some point, her survival would make you stop thinking like a soldier and start thinking like a savior. My goal has always been to get to you.” He glanced towards the cabin. “Killing her will just be a bonus for me. I can’t decide. Should I make you watch her die, or make her watch you die?”
Failure was not an option. I needed to gain control over this situation.
He lunged again, and I stepped back and lost my balance over a fallen tree branch landing in deep snow. He moved like a predator, coming on top of me.
The fight got real. I hit, slammed, dragged, and kicked. I was bigger and stronger than Bunko, but he was quicker, and he had the knife. One of his hits to my head nearly knocked me out. I slammed his skull into the back of the ground, which must have stunned him, but we were both fighting to the death.
The fight got dirtier. And we grew tired. We were making mistakes, and as a result, both of us were taking a beating. One mistake would be fatal. One mistake could cost me everything.
