Death Cache Read Online Free Page A

the cast-iron skillet that had been found in one of the cabins, along with cooking utensils and plates. Mac and Robert had brought back olive oil, spices, steak sauce, ketchup, and mustard from their located cache.
    Nadia and Lucky had found a package of dried eggs, beans, rice, flour, canned butter, and evaporated milk along with a large tin of coffee. Tern used the knowledge she’d gained from her Athabascan grandmother to gather the young leaves of soldier’s herb, dandelion, fireweed, and lamb’s-quarter for a salad. A splash of white wine mixed with a few tablespoons of olive oil made a very tasty dressing for the greens.
    Yes, the group was feeling mighty full and content.
    Tern had done her best to ignore Gage. Hard to do with how hungry she was. She’d eaten every morsel on her plate and would have gone for seconds if there hadn’t been talk of steak and eggs for breakfast. If she were honest, what she really wanted was to go back for seconds on that kiss Gage had snuck in earlier.
    The hunger gnawing at her wouldn’t be satiated with food.
    To get her mind off Gage, she helped Mac secure the perishable food in the cooler and strung it up a tree outside of camp to keep animals from helping themselves. The fire banked, it was decided that they should head to bed and get an early start in the morning.
    Each of the caches they’d found had instructions for the next day’s challenge.
    Nadia pulled Tern aside and whispered that she’d be late coming to bed, and ran giggling behind Lucky Leroy Morgan, who was living up to his nickname. They chased each other into the cover of the trees.
    While Tern had said that it wouldn’t bother her if Nadia hooked up with Lucky, there was still a pang of something that was hard to identify.
    Mac shook his head at them and waved to the rest as he headed to the cabin he shared with Robert. Tern stood and stretched out the kinks in her back and shoulders, slowly lowering her arms as both Robert and Gage’s eyes were glued to her movements.
    “’Night,” she murmured and headed toward her cabin. But once inside, she didn’t want to stay. Whether it was the never ending daylight this close to the North Pole, or the freedom to roam—one pleasure she hadn’t given into in a long time—there was no way she was sleeping.
    The hike up the glacier hadn’t worn her out. If anything it had invigorated her. Some of that might be blamed on the time she’d spend with Gage, though torture wouldn’t get her to admit it.
    She waited until Robert and Gage were no longer sitting around the dying embers, and then grabbed her loaded pistol in its holster and slipped it to her belt, donned a jacket, and headed out.
    The temperature had dropped into the fifties, cold enough that the mosquitoes would be bunkered under leaves and not bothering her. She strolled toward the lake where a loon warbled, calling to its mate. She waited, listened, and then smiled as the mate answered.
    The night was still, the lake smooth, the sky as clear and crisp as it had been all day. She ambled along, picking a few forget-me-nots, which she wound in her hair as she wandered along the shore.
    This was her native soil. Her nomadic ancestors had migrated across this land for thousands of years, taking advantage of the caribou, the moose, and the mighty salmon, and giving back to the spirit gods in thanks for their bounty. She lay on the sand, leaned against a weather-worn log, stretched out her legs, and closed her eyes as she took in the sounds and smells of her homeland.
    The fast growth of plants and flowers during the long summer days gave a spicy sweetness to the air as winter had finally shed its heavy cloak. Something small rustled in the bushes, but it didn’t concern her. Probably a fox or porcupine. The loons called to each other again, followed by the cooing of a pair of chickadees high within the birch trees.
    A new smell joined the mix, faint on wood smoke, sharp on pine, and heavy on musk.
    Man