Page 18 of Handcuffed to the Bear

“What else was I going to do? I sure wasn’t gonna find her sitting around in Seattle. I did go to the address I got from the electric company, but it was true, she wasn’t there. It was a family who had just rented the place. They seemed nice, I mean like a normal family, not like people who were being paid off or anything.

“And that’s when it hit me, I guess, that I wasn’t going to find her. I mean, I could keep doing what I was doing, going from lead to lead, playing detective. But I don’t think she was there at the end of it to find. Because Wendy wouldn’t just up and move to Colorado Springs for no reason without telling me. And her Facebook stopped being updated after those photos from the move.”

“And that’s when you started working for Lion’s Share.”

“Yes,” Casey said. “It was the only thing I could think to do. I mean, it’s not like my waitress job was some kind of great career opportunity. And the thing is, me and Wendy—we were all each other had in the world. She came out of the foster care system, and I was raised by my grandmother, who died the year I turned eighteen. We met working this stupid fast-food job that both of us hated—I’m sorry?—”

She paused to rub at her eyes. Jack hesitated, then put his uncuffed arm around her bare shoulders. Casey tensed.

“Is that the best friend whose cleavage you threw up in?”

This got a small, choked laugh out of her. She began to relax against him, just a little. “Yeah. It is. I’m surprised you remember me telling you that.”

“I’m a good listener,” Jack said. “Or so I’ve been told. So you started working for Lion’s Share to find out what happened to Wendy?”

Casey nodded. “I wasn’t going to abandon her. So I put in an application to the company. All I could get was a job in the mailroom, because I really wasn’t qualified for anything else, but I threw everything I had at that stupid job. I took night classes in typing and computers and accounting, and I covered other people’s holiday shifts, and I worked my ass off making myself the best, most useful employee they’d ever had. Every time something opened up higher in the company, I applied for it, and eventually I worked my way up.”

She gave a miserable little laugh.

“What’s really ironic is that I’ve never put that much dedication into anything before. I think that’s when I realized how much of my life I’ve spent just spinning my wheels, not really knowing what I wanted, and not ever getting anything because of it. The first time I gave a hundred and ten percent was to get a job I didn’t even want just so I could figure out if my new boss killed my best friend. I did that for two years. And, well ... I guess I found out, didn’t I?”

Jack looked down at the dark, tangled top of her head. “Why didn’t you tell me this before, though? Here I’ve been thinking you were a civilian caught up in something you knew nothing about. But you’ve been preparing for this for a long time, haven’t you?”

“No!” she said, scrubbing at her eyes. “That’s the problem! I thought I had. But now I know I never understood what I was getting myself into. I thought I could find out what happened to Wendy, collect evidence on Fallon, and go to the police. I thought I’d be a ... ahero.”

The last word was twisted with self-loathing.

“Casey, listen.” Jack raised their cuffed-together hands and touched her chin, lifting her face to meet her gaze with his dark forest eyes. “Youarea hero. You spent two years working as hard as you could to find out what happened to your friend and get justice for her. In the end, you moved too fast and got caught, but that happens to professionals too. Look at me. I’ve been doing this a whole lot longer than you have.”

Her lips quivered, then firmed in a little smile. “I guess that’s true.”

“I promise it’s true. You’re brave and strong, Casey. You can get through this.”

“Thanks,” she whispered. “Thanks for not giving up on me.”

Jack twitched his wrist, rattling the chain. “No choice,” he said, and offered her a slight smile, just a sideways quirk of his mouth. “We’re stuck with each other.”

* * *

She felt better after talking to Jack about it. Cleaner, like the air between them was washed fresh and there was nothing to hide anymore. She knew his secrets, and he knew hers.

Until now, she hadn’t realized what a haze she’d been in. She’d been drifting along in a frightened fog ever since waking up with handcuffs on her wrist, and now she felt a lot more grounded in her skin. She was scared, but she was also ready to fight.FuckRoger Fallon and his whole murderous pride. She might be outnumbered and hunted, but she wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

She and Jack worked their way downstream. In some ways, walking in the stream was easier than hiking through the forest—there were fewer obstacles and thornbushes to deal with. However, the rocks were slippery under her bare feet, and she had to step carefully to avoid cutting herself. Sometimes they paused and stood on first one leg, then the other, warming their cold feet against their bare thighs.

“Duck,” Jack said, pulling her down before her head brushed against an overhanging branch. “We need to avoid touching anything if we can. They’ll be able to pick up our scent from the vegetation, too.”

“How much will this really help?” she asked, carefully going lower than necessary to make sure no part of her came in contact with the tree. “They’ll still be able to find where we went into the water, won’t they?”

“Yes, but they won’t know where we came out. They’ll have to scour both sides of the stream, and it’ll slow them down.”

“Then you’re planning on getting out of the water?” Soon, she hoped. She was still too chilly; the cool water that had felt so nice at first was making her feet almost too numb to safely walk on.

“When I find the right place.”

“What’s the right place?” She leaned to the side to avoid another low-hanging branch.

“Someplace I can set traps,” Jack said. “It’s time to stop being the prey and go on the offensive.”

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