Page 106 of Grave Matter

“It was my idea,” I tell her. “I would like to go home.”

Her eyes narrow at me while she smiles sourly. “I see. Of course you would, especially after last night. I suppose I do owe you an apology. I didn’t mean to drug you; you just left me no choice. You were becoming violent, Syd. Now I guess the apology is in your court.”

Fuck that.

“Just put her on the next plane,” Kincaid demands. “And make sure I have a seat next to her.”

“Et tu, Brutus?” she asks, picking up a pen and tapping it rapidly against the desk as she looks between the both of us. She sighs and stops tapping. “Well, I’m not surprised. So is this your formal resignation, Wes?”

“He’s coming back,” I tell her. “He’s just going to help me get settled.”

She snorts. “Oh, sweet summer child. No he’s not. If he gets on that plane with you, he’s quitting. He’ll only come back for hisboat. Still, quite the risk in assuming the boat will still be here. So many storms come through…”

He stiffens. “I’ll be back to collectMithrandir. That’s it.”

I turn to him in awe. “What? No. You can’t quit. This is your job, your life.”

“Maybe you’re his life now, Sydney,” Everly says in a mocking voice. “Isn’t that precious, a love story happening before our very eyes.” She flashes a wry smile at me. “I’m sorry, am I ruining things? Is he coming on too strong for you? Itisa lot, isn’t it? Has he already told you that he loves you, that he would lay his heart on the blade and die for you? Hell, he’s already quitting his fucking fantastic job and running away with you somewhere, and you don’t even know one fucking thing about him, do you?”

“Everly,” Kincaid growls at her. “First plane out of here. And if you don’t make the arrangements, I will.”

She laughs. “Fuck, you’re a serious one this morning. Whatever, Wes. Stay, go, I don’t care. It will be your loss in the end. You’ll both lose, you know that, don’t you?” She looks off and waves her hands at us. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll be back. You always come back. Anyway, you’ll be joining Dr. Wu on that same flight. Must be the season for idle threats of resignation.”

“Not an idle threat,” Kincaid grumbles. “I don’t make idle threats.”

He then squeezes my hand and pulls me toward the door.

I look back at Everly to see her laughing again and shaking her head, like she doesn’t believe him at all.

“We will get out of here, won’t we?” I ask him as he leads me down the hall to his office.

“I’m calling the seaplane companies right now. If I have to charter it personally to get you and Dr. Wu out of here as soon as possible, I will.”

He unlocks his door, and we go inside, where he picks up the phone.

“Lines are down already,” he rumbles, throwing the phone down on the receiver. “Fuck. Well, satellite internet should still work.”

He goes to his computer and types away while shooting furtive glances my way as I sit down across from him.

“What? You think I’m going to knock you out with a paperweight and check my email?” I tease.

He grins and slips on his glasses. “It occurred to me.”

I sit back and watch as he types, studying his handsome face. There’s a scar above his eyebrow, but I don’t know where he got it from. His hair is so thick and dark but with a reddish sheen to it, and I wonder if he got that color from his mother or his father. And where were they born? Where was he born?

Everly was right. He’s giving everything up for me, and I know nothing about him.

But do I have to? I’ve had boyfriends before where I did know everything, and all it did was result in me being either bored or brokenhearted. Maybe this time, under these circumstances, I can just learn everything along the way.

Far away from here.

“Well, because we’re not on any regular seaplane route, you can’t just book a charter flight online,” he says with a sigh, typing quickly. “But I just sent a request to Harbour Air, and now I’m going to try some of the private fishing charters. Guarantee that as long as I pay their price, they’ll come here and get us.”

“We could take one of the Zodiacs,” I suggest. “Maybe go to Port Alice. You mentioned Winter Harbor has a road that connects to Port Hardy. That’s a legit town.”

He shakes his head. “The storm might pass, but the swells will be big for a few days. We’re exposed the moment we leave the inlet. There’s a reason why Captain Cook called the peninsula the cape of storms.”

“Then we take the ATVs,” I tell him.

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