Uncharted by Adriana Anders
Chapter 39
The second they touched down in Schink’s Station, Leo was surrounded by people.
Elias fought the hands touching him, tried to shove them aside when they wouldn’t let him stay with her. He was too weak to fight them—and once he’d passed her off to the doctor, the Von guy stuck to him like a damn burr.
Which was good, if he truly was a grim reaper. Elias would rather he do his thing here than on Leo. Leo needed to make it out. He turned, swung his gaze in search of Bo, before remembering that she was still out there somewhere.
The pain of loss made him stumble. “Reaper,” he called as the man forced him onto some kind of gurney.
Krainik waited, expressionless.
“Don’t let her die.”
“Won’t.” Von put his hand on Elias’s shoulder. “And I’m headin’ back out for your dog.”
Elias gave a single nod, lay back on the gurney where they poked something into his vein, and passed out.
***
Amka didn’t usually like strangers in her town, but these guys were okay. She was the one who’d called them after all.
They’d come in with their own damn medical team, which she sure appreciated. An attractive, fiftysomething ER doc and her big, hairy sidekick, who claimed to be a nurse but seemed more caveman than anything.
What followed was twenty-four hours of comings and goings, blurred medical procedures—on her godson and Leo. New faces, old faces, and scenes of Schink’s Station like something from a war zone.
Amka smiled as she hauled her ass up onto the cabin porch. Given that she was responsible for the worst destruction of property here, she couldn’t be too pissed about it. Well, she could, but she could also enjoy the memory of smashing through the lodge’s window. That would be a highlight she’d look back on fondly for the rest of her life.
A guy stepped out of the shadows at the door to the cabin. Tall, reddish hair, kinda looked like that Outlander guy, though without the pretty accent, and held a rifle in his hands like he knew how to use it. “Help you?” the man asked in a voice that had been run through a meat grinder. This guy had come in just a few hours ago. One of three groups to descend upon Schink’s Station in the past few days.
She cocked her head. “What’s wrong with your throat?”
His eyes widened before narrowing again. “Uh, people don’t usually ask me that the first time we meet.”
“I’m old. I’m allowed to ask nosy questions.”
One side of his mouth kicked up. “You’re Old Amka.”
“And you are?”
He smiled full-on now and she almost had to step back at the movie-star wattage of the thing. “Dr. Ford Cooper.”
“Doctor? Why aren’t you in there with my godson, then?”
“Not that kind of doctor. I’m a glaciologist.”
“Huh.” Useless, then. She lifted her chin. “I wanna see him.”
“He’s asleep, but…”
“You keeping me out?”
The handsome man lifted his hands and stepped away from the door. “Nope.”
She put her hand on the doorknob and turned. “What are you doing out here, exactly, Dr. Ford Cooper?”
“Guarding the cabin, ma’am.”
“Worried about the guy who got away?”
He shrugged. “We prefer to err on the side of caution.”
She lifted a brow and opened the door, then turned back. “Never told me what’s wrong with your voice.”
“Took some shrapnel in Afghanistan.”
She shook her head and snuffled out a laugh. “Glaciologist my ass.” She shut the door, turned to look at Elias, and let the tiniest bit of regret seep into her heart.
She hadn’t done right by the boy. Hadn’t gotten him out in time. He looked like hell. A black eye, cuts on his face, his cheeks sunken. From what that creepy-ass Von had told her—and Jack, her second-favorite pilot after Leo Eddowes—he and Leo had survived just about every possible danger this place could throw at them. And come out on top.
She smiled.
“Just gonna stand there staring?”
Elias’s voice startled her.
“Shit, boy, don’t sneak up on me like that.”
“Sneak up?” He let out a pained-sounding laugh. “I’m stuck in bed. Pretty sure you were the one doing the sneaking, Amka.”
She glanced around the cabin, exactly like the one she’d gone in just over a week ago to convince Leo to go look for him.
Her feet hurt now when she shuffled over to the chair and sank into it. Funny how she’d barely felt the pain in battle mode, but now her arthritis was back with a vengeance.
“How is she?” Elias asked, and for some reason, she knew exactly who he meant.
“In pain. Doc thinks it’s a concussion. Too many hits to the head. She’s observing her.”
He nodded. “That’s what they told me too.”
Her eyes narrowed on his face. “You two…”
“What?”
“I don’t know. You do more than run for your lives?”
“Yeah, Amka.” He shut his eyes and sighed, deep and mournful. “We did a lot more than that.”
“Pam the hot doc seems to think Leo’ll pull through.” She struggled out of the chair. Thing was too damn soft. “Think Dolores is salvageable?”
Elias cringed.
“Went out in a blaze of glory, huh?” She couldn’t help a wave of pride at what her old plane had managed to do on her last flight.
“Yeah.” He got a far-off look in his eye. “Should have seen her.”
She cocked her head, wondering if he was thinking of the plane or the woman flying it. Little of both, she figured. For that one flight, they’d been one and the same.
She cleared the emotion from her throat. “So, remember the blond guy? One they called Deegan?”
He went stiff. “Yeah.”
“Found his body washed up a few miles downriver from your…altercation. Smashed up good. Three bullets in him.”
Elias paled and his face went blank, reminding her yet again that her godson hadn’t signed up for this bullshit. He’d always been one of the good guys, not the bad.
“That other man killed him. Not you.”
He opened his mouth and shut it again. “Any sign of him?”
“The spook? Vanished.” She bent forward. “You think he’s undercover MI6?”
“Hell if I know.” He stared off at something. “Maybe he was one of the good ones. He saved my life after all.”
She nodded in return and bent low. “You’re the good guy here, Elias. Always have been. Always will be.” Giving in to a rare urge to show physical affection, she kissed his cheek and whispered, “Proud of you, boy. Like your mom and dad always were. So damn proud.”
He replied, tight-lipped, “Thanks, Amka.”
“I love you, Elias.” She nodded once, holding back the wave of emotion that tried to seep out, and left without looking at him again.
Outside, she turned to Dr. Ford Cooper. “He’ll be going with you when this is done, I figure.”
The fake Outlander guy made an is that so face and waited.
“Finally got something to live for.”