Page 16 of One Last Chance

“Let’s not get crazy here. How about if I just finish the cupcake on my own?”

“Start with that.” Eve pulled her in close. “You’re my favorite student.”

Flynn laughed and let her out. She walked back to the counter and folded the cupcake back into the paper, put it in the box, and added it to the refrigerator.

Yeah, Kennedy should be here to celebrate.

She turned back to the television, picking up the remote to continue her workout. But the show’s ending caught her eye. A picture of a woman—probably the one they’d been searching for. And a shot of a reporter giving an update. Flynn flicked on the volume.

“According to local police and the sheriff’s office in Copper Mountain, this murder might be linked to the notorious Midnight Sun Killer, although officials are quick to point out that the killer might be a copycat of the serial murders over a decade ago. Still, women out hiking or driving along the Copper Highway are urged to take extra care—don’t stop for stalled vehicles, and always hike with a PLB and a friend.”

The show then switched to a voiceover of where the body was found and then shots of Oaken at a restaurant, eating with a group of men.

Yeah, see—a woman was dead, and the world carried on.

Or most of it did.

The rest stayed stuck, circling, wondering.

Hoping.

She turned off the TV and walked into her office, the report sparking inside her. Standing in the middle of the room, she stared at her wall, the one with the blown-up Alaska map, the timeline of the deaths, the reports from the Copper Mountain sheriff’s office, pictures of the area, and finally, the news clippings about other women who’d vanished over the years in the same area.

She sipped her protein shake, not sure if she tasted something rotten or not.

“There are things you can change and things you can’t, and knowing the difference is the key to a happy life.”

There would be no happy life until she found the truth.

She brought the shake into the kitchen, poured the rest out, rinsed out her cup, and left it on the counter to dry as she headed upstairs.

To pack for Alaska.

CHAPTER3

“For the love, please turn that off.” Axel closed the basement door, freshly showered, having worked off some of the weekend stress in Moose’s home gym this evening after he’d returned from Copper Mountain.

Clearly, Moose had arrived home in the last hour, after flying the chopper down to the Air One base in Anchorage, then driving his truck up to his home on the Knik River. Axel had left after stopping into the Last Frontier and grabbing one of his mother’s homemade cinnamon rolls.

The news of the rescue made the local gossip chain, and he’d been stopped by no less than Hank Billings, Charlie Yazzie, and Sully’s uncle Wilson, who acted like he might be a hero or something.

He’d pasted on a smile, glad-handed them, and then headed out the door before he ran into Shasta or some other media person. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking agreeing to Mike Grizz’s reality show. Clearly, hehadn’tbeen thinking, really.

Stupid, stupid—and even more stupid. . . Especially as he stood in his brother’s main room watching the rescue play out on the screen.

Moose sat on his leather sofa, his feet up on his massive oak coffee table, watching the show on the flatscreen that hung from the two-story stone fireplace. He drank a cup of hot cocoa and now glanced over at Axel.

“Why? This is the part where you practically dive in to save that girl—what was her name?”

“I don’t remember,” Axel said.Ashley. Blonde, scared, a possible kidnapping victim. “What I do remember is not being able to rescue the driver.”

He walked over to the refrigerator. Moose had inherited the house from a donor of Air One Rescue—one who owed his life to Moose. Then again, a lot of people owed their lives to Moose, including himself, probably. Who knew how many times he’d nearly been swept away in the Copper River, or driven himself into a ditch, only to have Moose come looking for him in the dead of night? Or even track him down during those dark days after he’d left Kodiak. Probably Moose ran a dry house because he didn’t want to tempt Axel back into his nightmares.

No need—he wasn’t that guy anymore. Even if the nightmares had never left. He just knew how to keep them tucked in better.

Now he retrieved some eggs and put them on the counter. Got a pot of water and filled it, set it on the stove. “There’s only six eggs left.”

Moose looked at him. “Is that not enough for you?” He shook his head.

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