On a Snowy Night: The Christmas Basket\The Snow Bride (20 page)

An hour later, she glanced at her wrist. “I thought you said Beesley was an hour out. We've been in the air almost ninety minutes.”

“I know.”

She twisted around and looked over her shoulder. “Those lights we passed a while ago, could that be—” She
paused and glared at him accusingly. “That was Beesley, wasn't it?”

“It was.”

She gasped. “Where are you taking me?”

“Not to Beesley and not to Dalton Gray, if that's what you're wondering.”

“You're—you're kidnapping me!”

“In a manner of speaking, I guess you could say that.”

“I'll have you arrested!”

It was difficult to keep from laughing outright. “You could do that, too.”

“I will. I plan to prosecute you to the full extent of the law.”

“Good for you.”

“And to think you said
Dalton
was arrogant.”

She sat with her arms folded for the remainder of the flight. He landed in the tundra town of Snowbound and rolled to a stop on the gravel runway. The sense of home was immediate as he gazed out at the small hangar and the dark expanse beyond.

His ungrateful passenger sat there unmoving and unspeaking as he cut the engine. He studied her pursed lips and narrowed eyes—that disapproving look again—while he waited for the engine to wind down. As soon as it was safe, he unlatched the door and climbed out.

“You coming?” he asked.

“Reid!” His name came from somewhere in the night.

“Jim,” he called back, recognizing the voice of his brother-in-law and best friend.

“Welcome home.” Jim appeared under the single light outside the hangar door.

Leaving Jenna, Reid walked over to his friend and slapped him on the back.

His passenger was out of the plane and scrambling off the wing so fast he did a double-take. But then he'd suspected she would once she saw Jim's uniform.

“Officer! Officer!” she shouted, pointing to Reid. “Arrest this man. He's kidnapped me.”

“You kidnapped her?” Jim asked.

Reid nodded. He'd explain later. Jim would understand; he'd had more than one run-in with Dalton Gray himself.

“Jim works for the Parks Department,” Reid told her.

“Oh. Where am I?”

“Snowbound,” he answered without further explanation. He didn't mention how small it was or that the only woman in town was his sister. Lucy would tell Miss Priss everything she needed to know about Dalton Gray and then some. Once Jenna Campbell learned the truth, she'd thank him, just as he'd predicted earlier.

“Come on,” Reid said gruffly, “I haven't got all night.”

She made an angry sound, which Reid ignored.

He walked away and left her standing next to the plane.

He noticed with some amusement that it didn't take her long to grab her suitcase and hurry after him.

“I
demand to know where you're taking me,” Jenna panted, scurrying behind her kidnapper.

“Yeah, Reid, where are you taking her?” the other man asked.

They became involved in a lively discussion, most of which Jenna couldn't hear. What she did manage to discern depressed her. Apparently Reid had thought she could stay with Jim and his wife, Lucy. Lucy, if Jenna understood correctly, was also Reid's sister, but Lucy happened to be away at the moment. Oh, great!

Lugging her heavy suitcase, Jenna did her best to keep up with the two men. But hurrying after them in her pumps, concentrating on not tripping in the dirt, made listening nearly impossible. It was all she could do to keep Reid and his friend in sight.

They passed what some would consider the town's business district. Using the word
town
loosely, of course. There
was a store of some sort, a café and then a row of houses. That was it. The entire town consisted of ten buildings without even a car.

Jim went in one direction and Reid turned in the other, past the small houses, glowing with light, to a scattering of cabins a little way past them. The suburbs of Snowbound, she supposed. Jenna paused, not knowing what to do.

Reid glanced over his shoulder. “Well, come on,” he barked.

“Where are we going?” Jenna refused to move another step until she knew what his plans were.

“You'll be staying with me. I don't have any choice.”

“I will not!”

“Fine. Park yourself in the street. Frankly, I don't care. I've had a long day and I'm tired.”

He'd
had a long day?
He
was tired?

Jenna hesitated and looked back to where Reid's friend had gone. Surely someone in this forsaken town would be willing to help her. She was considering her options when Reid turned to face her.

He shrugged in a resigned manner. “Listen, I apologize about this. Bringing you here wasn't the most brilliant idea I've ever had. I intended to have you stay with Lucy, but apparently she's in Fairbanks.”

“I'll stay with another woman then.”

“You can't—there isn't one.”

“Lucy's the only woman in town?”

Reid nodded.

Surely he was joking. “In the
entire
town?”

He nodded again, marched back and took the suitcase out of her hand. “Come on. Everything will look better in the morning.”

“Look better for whom?” she cried. This situation was horrible. Inconceivable. Like something out of a bad movie—or a worse dream. Dalton must be frantic
worrying about her and she hadn't even contacted her mother yet. The only person in the entire world who knew where she'd gone was some cafeteria worker named Billy. This was what she got for listening to him. Apparently it was high praise that Reid Jamison didn't cheat at poker. She should've known better than to assume that made him reliable enough to keep his bargain with her.

“Isn't there anywhere else I can stay?” she pleaded. “Any other people?”

“There's Pete,” Reid muttered. “He runs the store. He's sixty, but I wouldn't feel good about putting you in his home.”

“Why not?”

Reid shook his head. “Just trust me on this one. He's a nice guy, but it's been a while since he spent any time with a woman and, well…you get the picture.”

Jenna did.

“I don't know what I was thinking, bringing you here,” Reid said as he opened the front door, which apparently wasn't locked. “I should have my head examined.” He turned on the lights.

“In my opinion, you weren't thinking at all.” Jenna followed him into what had to be the messiest quarters she'd ever seen in her life. Magazines and newspapers littered the furniture and floors. The kitchen was filled with dirty dishes. There appeared to be only one bedroom and through its wide-open door she could see an unmade bed and clothes strewn from one end to the other.

“I wasn't expecting company,” Reid said, obviously a bit chagrined. He put down her bag and his.

“So I gathered.”

“You can have the bed,” he said, gesturing toward the bedroom.

“Is there a lock?” Since there didn't appear to be one on the front door, she sincerely doubted it.

“Lock?” he repeated, then laughed sarcastically. “Don't worry. I have no intention of attacking you.”

“You've already kidnapped me, so I don't exactly trust you, Mr. Jamison.”

He flopped down on the sofa. “No, I don't suppose you do.”

Jenna carried her suitcase into the bedroom and immediately set about creating order. She started by picking up the dirty clothes.

“Do you have a washing machine?” she asked.

Reid had apparently fallen asleep. Her question startled him and he bolted upright. He blinked in her direction. “What?”

“A laundry room?”

“Sorry, the architect forgot that.”

“How do you wash your clothes then?”

“Lucy.” He said it as though she should've figured it out herself.

“Fine.” She dumped the pile in a corner of the living area and returned to the bedroom. Cringing, she peeled back the sheets. Lord only knew how long it'd been since they were last changed.

Back in the main room, she found him sitting upright and snoring. “Sheets,” she demanded loudly. “I need clean sheets.”

He opened his eyes, which widened as if he were seeing her for the first time. “I only have the one set.”

Jenna was afraid of that. “I refuse to sleep on those.” She pointed to the room behind her.

“Wait…” He struggled to his feet and walked over to a closet and brought out two sheets so new they were still in the package. “I nearly forgot. Lucy gave these to me last Christmas.”

She didn't want to ask if he'd been sleeping in the same sheets all year, figuring it was better not to know.

“Happy now?” he asked.

“Ecstatic.”

“Good. Can I go back to sleep?”

“By all means,” she said sarcastically. “I'd hate to see you grouchy through lack of sleep.”

Her comment earned her a hint of a smile.

“I believe every prisoner is entitled to one phone call and I'd like to make mine.”

“Fine, you can call whoever you want as long as it isn't Dalton Gray, but you'll have to wait until morning.”

“Why?”

“The only phone is over at Pete's.”

“Pete who owns the store?”

“Right.”

Oh, yes. Pete who hadn't seen a woman in years.

“
Now
will you go to bed?”

“Gladly.” She marched into the bedroom and closed the door. Then, to be on the safe side, she stuck a chair beneath the door handle. It took her ten minutes to make the bed. After she'd stripped off the sheets, she flipped the mattress. This was done with some difficulty, but she managed it on her own and felt a sense of triumph when she succeeded.

“What the hell is going on in there?” Reid shouted from the other side of the door.

“I'm making the bed.”

“Sounds like you're tearing down the walls.”

It probably had sounded like that because she'd knocked over the lamp on the nightstand and the mattress had hit the wall with a solid thud.

“Go to sleep,” she shouted back.

“I'm trying,” he replied tersely.

Jenna smoothed a blanket over the mattress to serve as a mattress pad and put on the crisp, fresh-from-the-package sheets. Without a chair on which to lay her clothes, she folded them over the footboard and changed into flannel pajamas.

Jenna didn't expect to sleep well, and was shocked to wake seven hours later. She hadn't stirred once the entire night. As she dressed, she decided to confront Reid and demand that he take her either to Beesley or Fairbanks. If he agreed, she wouldn't press charges against him. If not, she'd be using the one and only phone in Snowbound, Alaska, to call a lawyer.
That
should tell Reid Jamison she was serious. He didn't look like the kind of man who'd take well to life inside a prison.

With a plan of action, she removed the chair and jerked open the door, prepared to confront her kidnapper.

To her dismay she discovered he was nowhere to be found. Nor had he bothered to leave her a note telling her where he was going. The man had some nerve!

However…

It could be that luck was with her. Jenna cheerfully packed her suitcase and left the house. As soon as she stepped outside, she saw two vehicles, both trucks and both parked in front of the café. That seemed like a good place to start.

Jenna walked over to the building and frowned at the display of elk horns above the doorway. The café consisted of five tables and a counter where two older men with thick gray beards sat eating hotcakes.

They turned and stared at her as if she were an alien species. To them, she probably was.

“Good morning,” she said politely.

“You must be Jenna,” the closer of the two said. He offered her an uncertain smile. “Reid said you'd be stopping by sooner or later.”

“Sit down and make yourself at home,” the man behind the counter instructed.

“Reid didn't say what a beauty she was,” the first man whispered to the second in tones loud enough for her to hear.

“Jake Morgan here,” the man behind the counter said. “And these two varmints are Addison Bush and Palmer Gentry.”

Both men clambered to their feet and bowed at the waist. “Friends call me Addy,” the taller one said.

“Hello, Addy.”

“Most everyone just calls me Palmer.”

“Palmer.” She acknowledged him with a nod.

“Could I get you a cup of coffee?” Jake asked her.

“Please.” She sat two stools down from her newfound friends, who continued to stare at her.

“Reid's down at the pump station.”

She must have looked confused, because Jake added, “The pump station for the pipeline.”

“Oh.”

Jake brought her the coffee and she accepted it gratefully. “I'd like to hire someone to fly me to Beesley,” she said, smiling at the two men.

Her three admirers put their heads together and immediately started mumbling among themselves.

“We only got two planes here in Snowbound,” Addy explained. “Reid has one and Jim has the other.”

“Jim left this morning to pick up Lucy,” Palmer said.

“Yup. Lucy told him the only way she'd live up here was if Jim took her into Fairbanks every month so she'd be able to do woman things.” All three men seemed to consider those things, whatever they were, a deep and incomprehensible mystery.

“Jim and Lucy will be back tomorrow,” Addy told her.

So flying out with the other man was no longer an option. “Would it be possible to use the phone?” Jenna asked.

“The only phone here belongs to Pete,” Jake replied.

So it was true and not just another lie of Jamison's. “Then I'll talk to Pete,” she said, and took one last restorative sip of coffee before slipping off the stool.

“They got phones down at the pump station,” Palmer said. “But that's a mile or so from here.”

She thought of all the cell and car phones in L.A. that she took for granted. Her mother alone had six or seven phones: one in each car, a personal cell phone and four in the house. That number wasn't unusual among Jenna's friends, either.

All three men accompanied her to the grocery, which was a generous term for this place. Yes, there were shelves with grocery items—a few cans of this and a few cans of that. The shelves were sparsely stocked, to say the least. Under a glass countertop were several pieces of Alaskan art, scrimshaw and beaded jewelry, along with what appeared to be small chunks of gold.

A man who must be Pete walked out from behind a denim curtain and smiled broadly when he saw her.

“Well, hello, little lady. Let me personally welcome you to Snowbound.” He looked her up and down, apparently enjoying the view. Then he reached for her hand and brought it to his lips.

“Pete's something of a ladies' man,” Palmer explained from behind her.

“Manners and all,” Jake added, whispering close to her ear.

“I understand you have a phone,” Jenna said, ignoring the other three men. “I was wondering if I could use it. I have a phone card so I wouldn't be putting any long distances charges on your line.”

“I would consider it an honor to be of service.” He bent forward and kissed the back of her hand a second time. “But alas, the telephone is no longer in working order.”