Black Bear Rising: A BWWM Paranormal Romance (Black Bear Saga Book 1) (35 page)

In the opposite corner to the beds was a small rickety table for two and three wooden chairs stacked on top of each other. An old shelf was nailed to the wall and a few dusty cans of green beans, their yellow label brown at the edges, sat in neat rows. Einar went out to the truck and brought in supplies and stacked them in the corner by the table. Lana took the heavy blankets off the bed and took them outside to shake the dust off.
 

Einar pulled a chair to the front window and wiped down the streaked glass with a rag. He unpacked his rifle and a pair of binoculars and set them beside the chair. Lana had been lost in the simple pleasure of setting up the cabin to make it inhabitable for them but when she saw Einar place the rifle by the window the reality of the situation came whooshing back in. Why am I fooling myself playing house when there is someone who's only task is to make sure I’m dead. The shoulder stock of the rifle gleamed obscenely its presence ruining what would have been a tranquil and happy scene. Lana hated the rifles existence in the cabin and cursed all she had done to get herself to this place. She wished she had never stepped into the gallery that night and met Gus. She imagined how different her life would have been if she had never met him and never got the chance to lead her down this sordid path. A deep ache was felt in her heart, if things hadn't turned out this way and as bleak as it all seemed, she would have never meet Einar. It was only a week ago when she first met him and now she couldn’t imagine him not being by her side. They were both the carrier of each others secrets, things they had held close to their hearts and allowed no one else to see their true selves. I must be strong she told herself and tried to ignore the loaded rifle sitting on the floor.

Einar rooted around a wooden chest bound with metal strips and pulled out a faded map. He spread it out on the table and called Lana over. “This is us here, you cross the glacier at this spot and then when you get across follow this trail here. That path will eventually wind its way out to safety,” he said moving his finger across the map. “This area here, we used to call it the boulder garden. It’s very easy to get lost in, but with the map you will be fine. Nobody will be able to track you through it. Where you come out on the other side it’s a straight line across to this farm. I know you don’t want to involve the cops. If things go this far and someone manages to get past me you need to get to the farm and get the family that lives there to call the cops. I know them they are good people.”

“I hope it doesn't come to that,” Lana said tracing her finger over the route Einar had shown her. She folded the map up and left it with her crampons and ice axe by the door.

Einar set up the wood burning stove and they had a simple meal of fish and vegetables. Lana couldn't help herself from yawning multiple times as they ate. The constant stress and worry of her situation was draining her and she needed to sleep.

“Do you mind if I go to bed early,” she asked Einar as they cleaned up after the meal.

“You get your rest. I’m going to stay up and keep watch. I can grab a couple of hours of shut eye in the morning when you’re up,” Einar said.

Lana went outside carrying a shallow tin basin and put it under the spout of the hand pump. After a few arm straining attempts to get it going, water began to sputter out and fill the container. Lana half filled it with water and set it down. She walked to the boulder the car was parked beside and leant against it. The sun was low in the sky and would soon pass behind the mountains trailing a cold shadow across the cabin and the canyon below. A pale outline of the moon was visible in the distance and the sky had turned a dark blue. Small silvery moths fluttered and twirled in a warm updraft coming from the canyon and a brown finch disrupted the beautiful floating dance as it flew through the gathering snatching moths from the warm air. The plaintive call of a pair of arctic terns rose and fell as they soared across the canyon. If Lana strained her ears she could her the faint hum of cars on the coast road and the low thrum of the waves crashing on the shore.

Lana could imagine spending summers here with Einar away from the noise and rush of everyday life. Leaning against the boulder and looking at her surroundings she felt like she was removed from time, existing in a place that was apart and separate from the venal needs of society. She thought that she could be really happy living a simpler life, a more honest and authentic life with Einar, better than any in the constant churn of New York. I could be happy here, truly happy she thought to herself. The glacier cracked and groaned as it moved and settled like a great beast that sat all knowing and all seeing.
 

Lana returned to the cabin and they washed up the dishes together, both silent in their separate worlds of mounting pressure. Einar pulled his chair in front of the window and lay the rifle across his knees. He sat staring out the window like an unmovable statue as Lana got into bed. Lana fell into a restless sleep filled with creatures made of snow and rock with sharp bloody teeth chasing her and Einar lying dead at the bottom of the canyon. Her dreams circled back, folded over on themselves, and repeated, trapping her in a repeating hall of mirrors as her worst fears caught up to her.

“How long do I have?” Brad asked Sara. They had slept for a few hours curled together in bed and Brad knew it was now time to finish his job.

“The battery should last a day or two more, three tops if it's not on the move constantly” she said sitting on the bed looking at him pace back and forth across the cabin.

Two days is all I have to find them before they are in the wind he thought to himself. As he had fled the clinic he had seen a battered pickup truck parked out front. It hadn't been there when he’d first parked across the street and hung back checking out the place. He had looked at his phone and the gps icon blinked in the corner of the screen. In the back of the bed of the truck were some scraps of wood and a heavy painters canvas covering them. He had jammed the phone under a stack of wood and fled.

“Can you track it,” he asked.

“If you know the number I should be able to find it through the phones gps app,” Sara said.

Brad walked back and forth across the small cabin rubbing his chin. He hadn't shaved in days and he was starting to look unkempt. “Fuck. I have no clue what the number is. I could barely use the thing. A contact got it for me new when I landed. Is there any,” he stopped suddenly and said, “hang on,” and left the cabin.

He returned a couple of minutes later holding the box for the phone. He had thrown it onto the back seat when he opened it. “Will this help?” he said taking out the information leaflets that came with it.

“Even better,” Sara said. She hesitated and said, “If I do this for you, you will put in a good word to Gus for me. Tell him I helped you.”

“If it works I’ll talk to Gus,” he said.

Sara opened the booklet and typed something into her phone. Brad sat on the bed beside her and watched as a spinning globe icon moved back and forth across the screen. “It’s searching,” she said. The duck shaped outline of Iceland filled the screen and then began to zoom in toward the south coast. “It’s working,” she said. The screen zoomed in and then stopped with a red dot blinking in the centre. Sara moved her fingers across the screen and the image zoomed out. “That’s us here,” she said pointing at the map, “heres the town of Vik and the red flashing dot is your phone. It looks likes it twenty or thirty kilometres outside of Vik.”

“Is it moving?” Brad asked.

Sara zoomed the image so that the flashing red dot was centred. It was flashing at the end of a winding road that lead off the main coast road. “Nope looks likes its stopped,” she said.

“Any way of showing how much battery the phone has left?” Brad asked knowing he was asking for the impossible.

“Sorry all it gives me is the phones position,” she said putting her hand on his leg and stroking upwards. “Can you make the call to Gus?”

Brad pulled away from her and stood up. “Once I finish this job I’ll make the call. Until then hang tight.” He went outside and checked the glovebox of his rental car. Inside was a wrinkled and folded map of Iceland. He took it out and smoothed it open on the hood of the car. The gps location of his phone looked to be around an hours drive from his current location. It’s time he thought to himself and he felt the old familiar throb in his skull. He knew that he had no other choice but to kill them both. Twelve hours after that he could be back home as if it never happened. He knew that no matter how far he got away from where their bodies were buried in some remote location he would still hear them whispering from beneath the soil as he tossed and turned in bed. Their voices would be joined by the deathly whispers from all the other unmarked graves he had dug and filled. He took out his notebook of debts and ran his finger over the crumpled pages, this time it gave him no reassurance.

Brad looked around before he popped the trunk open and took the rifle out from the bag. He raised it up and held it flush against his shoulder. He looked through the scope and followed the flight of a raven across the open field in front of him. He readjusted the scope and glassed the road off in the distance. An old man wearing a floppy straw hat was walking along the road. The distortion in the scope gave his head a slightly bulbous proportion. Cheap scope Brad thought to himself, I should have caught that. You’re getting sloppy the prodding doubts in the back of his mind declared. He followed the old man as he walked along the side of the road, Brad pivoted at the hips as he followed his target. He pulled the trigger, its action smooth and oiled. The man walked on enjoying the sunny morning. He took out some shells and loaded the rifle and placed it back in the bag, he threw a blanket over the bag and closed the trunk.

Sara looked at him when he entered the cabin. He suspected she had been watching his every move through the window. “We leave now,” he said, “grab your stuff.”

“I’m of no use to you out there,” she stammered,” what if Lana sees me?”

“That wont matter either way. I need you to man the gps. Lets go. No discussion,” he said standing in the doorway with his thumbs hooked into his belt.

Once in the car and back on the main road Brad said, “Can you calculate driving time to their location on the map?” Brad said.

“Give me a second,” Sara said as she typed a command into the phone. “Two hours away,” she said.

The roads were clear at this time of the morning but Brad kept well under the speed limit. He had seen some local law enforcement parked on the edge of town, watching the passage of tourist rental cars and camper vans stream by. Brad didn’t need a tangle with the local law if it could be helped.

They travelled in silence and around an hour away from the location of the gps signal Sara looked up from the phone and said, “Their on the move. They have hit the main road and they are heading,” she paused for a second and Brad hoped he would catch an easy break, “they are heading away from us. Along the main coast road.” Brad cursed and increased his speed.
 

“Whats up ahead?” Brad asked.

Sara looked at the map, scrolling it and zooming in and said, “They are an hour away from what looks like a small village and then after that its maybe a few hours to the next town.”

“Any turns off the main road before the next village?” he asked.

She squinted at the map and zoomed out to get a better view. “There’s several roads that lead off from where they are now and the village.” She counted them out loud and said, “There’s ten or so roads they could take off the main road. Some seem to lead to dead ends, probably to farmhouses. A few go up into the mountains and others connect up to a road leading through the centre of the country.”

“Fuck,” Brad said slamming his fist onto the steering wheel. The centre of the country was a vast wasteland of arid dessert and the only roads through it were dirt. To take those roads you needed a vehicle with four wheel drive as many rivers had to be crossed. The land was harsh and inhospitable and as the pamphlet that came with his rental car informed Brad, the car he currently had was not suitable for a journey into the highlands. If they took those roads he’d have lost them, the time it would take Brad to travel around the country the long way would give them ample time to either flee the country or disappear completely.
 

Sara’s finger tapped on the screen several times and the colour washed out of her face. Brad glanced at her and said, “Whats wrong?”

She hesitated for a second and then said, “I’ve lost the gps signal. The battery must have died.” She shrunk back in her seat as if expecting a blow from his fist.

He slammed his hand on the steering wheel and punched the horn which frightened a flock of birds resting in a field by the side of the road. They flew up into the air in unison, squawking as they banked and flew towards the sea. “Fuck,” Brad said through gritted teeth. He could feel the gashes in his back begin to throb with a burning intensity. He took the road map out of the glove box and handed it to Sara. “Mark the spot where we lost the signal.” He hit the accelerator and sped up, all thoughts of abiding by the law gone. He needed to get them in his sights before they turned off the main road and he lost them for good.

Two hours of hard driving later and they got to the small village called Kirkjubæjarklaustur. It was smaller then Vik and nothing more than a collection of houses nestled around a wooden church, a gas station and a general store. He drove out of the town and looked at the road ahead snaking off into the distance. Cars glittered like beads of glass as they moved along the road. He stopped the car at the side of the road and grabbed the map. “You stay here,” he said and got out. He folded the map out and looked at his options. He could continue south and follow the coast road as it circled the country and hope to catch up with them. His only other choice was to back track and check the ten or so secondary roads that lead off the coast road. Three of those roads lead into the highlands and if they took any of them it meant Brad had lost them and possibly for good. If he got lucky they took one of the other roads and might be holed up in a farmhouse at the end of it. He didn't like his odds with either option, fuck it he thought, her companion is a local boy maybe they wont travel too far from home. He marked each of the roads with an X and got back in the car.