Page 24 of Bearing North
She remembered most of the night, laughing and talking. She remembered wondering if she should drink more when their glasses were refilled the third or fourth time, and deciding…shecould. She was safe with Orson, and he wouldn’t let anything regrettable happen. She didn’t have to be the person on point, for once in her life. She was allowed to relax, and Orson wouldprotecther.
In all of her years working for a security company, Alex had never considered that she needed or wanted anyone to defend her. She was the one who provided defense, not the one who required it. But it had been so lovely, not needing to watch her own back for a while, able to unwind and have a good time for once.
What was this man doing to her?
“So…?”
Alex had almost forgotten she was still on the phone with Sandra.
“So, what?” she asked crossly.
“Two rooms?”
“Two rooms.”
“Just one bed?”
“Two rooms.”
“What happened in Tok?”
Alex flushed hot. “He slept in the truck.”For the first half of the night. Then he turned into a bear, I saw him shirtless, and we had wild, hot sex on the only-one-bed. Shecouldn’t tell Sandra that part. It shocked her to realize that she trusted Orson more than she trusted Sandra.
“Look, I think maybe we misjudged him,” Alex told Sandra. “He’s got some intriguing ideas about the business and no interest in micromanaging anything. He’s not an idiot, and he’s humble enough to admit what he doesn’t know. I think we might come out ahead here. It could be a really good partnership.”
Sandra was quiet. “And he thinks that everything isfinethe way it is?”
Sandra didn’t agree with Alex about all the choices she’d made along the way. She hadn’t been in favor of hiring convicts or paying for gym time. Was she secretly hoping that Orson would overturn some of Alex’s decisions? Had she been trying to get Alex to act the idiot purposefully, thinking that Orson wouldwantto get rid of her?
Alex shook her head to dispel the idea. Sandra was herfriend. She had no reason to suspect her of sabotage. That was just the hangover making her brain misfire in odd directions.
“He respects my authority,” Alex said, sure of that at least. Hismate. Whatever that meant in the business world. “He wants to keep me on, and he wants Snafu—Grizzly Protection Services—to succeed.”He wants to marry me.Her head throbbed.
“A lot of guys say that,” Sandra warned. “But they only actually want the one thing…”
Orson had gotten that one thing, and he could have had more of that one thing, but he’d been a complete gentleman last night when she was out of her senses. How was it possible that she was thinking that this was the guy she might marry? “I gotta go, Sandra. We’ll be out of cell phone range for most of the rest of the trip. Take care of the office, and I’ll catch up again when I can.”
“Sure, honey.” Sandra hung up, and Alex went to check the fluids, ensure all the tires on the truck and the spares were fully inflated, and verify that they had the emergency equipment they might need on the Haul Road.
Alex didn’t think she’d mind that much if Sandra had only booked them one room in Coldfoot.
21
ORSON
If the road was bugging him, Orson could only imagine how it was jarring Alex’s head. “Is there a reason that they don’t make the roadflat? Why the roller coaster?”
“It’s called permafrost,” Alex said shortly. “They build it flat, but the frost thaws differentially and heaves the road up in these waves on top of it.”
“That was probably a hassle constructing the pipeline, too,” Orson said thoughtfully. They could see glimpses of the pipeline periodically through the scrubby trees. The traffic thinned almost at once, and the road went from bad to worse, the pavement ending completely.
Orson had traveled plenty of gravel roads before, but this was a major highway on the maps. He’d had higher expectations.
Alex filled him in on the pipeline construction history and, from her words, he began to cobble together a picture of the enormous project and the sheer scope of the work and maintenance.
They met several huge semis along the way, and Alex warned him that the larger vehicles had the right of way at all times. The big rigs sometimes slowed courteously, but gravel still bounced off the windshield when they passed. The truck had started out with several chips in the glass, but Orson guessed they would end up in Deadhorse with many more.
It wasn’t long until he realized why they hadtwospare tires. They didn’t blow one themselves on the rough grade, but it was clear that it was a hazard of the road by the number of shredded tires in the ditches. Alex pulled off to help a van with a single mom trying to corral her wound-up kids and change a tire at the same time.
