Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

through the tundra.
    A sawed-off shotgun nestled against his shoulder.

C HAPTER T HIRTY
    “You okay?” Garrett demanded of Sonya, his weapon already palmed and pointed in the direction of the blast.
    “Y-yeah.” She was trying to catch her breath, and Garrett knew he’d probably knocked the wind out of her when he’d shoved her to the ground. He shifted to the side to give her more room to breathe. “Was that a gunshot?” she gasped out.
    “Yeah, your harmless neighbor is shooting at us.”
    “That can’t be right. There has to be another reason.” She sounded almost desperate as though she was trying to convince herself of something different than what her eyes had already seen.
    Sonya strained to rise, but Garrett threw his free arm over her and knocked her back to the tundra. “Stay down!”
    “This is crazy. Aidan can’t be shooting at us. There has to be another—”
    Another blast fractured the twilight.
    “That’s it.” Garrett clenched his teeth and tightened his finger on the trigger of his weapon. One shot and this whole mess would be over, and Aidan Harte would be out of the picture. He knew Aidan had something to do with the “accidents” that had plagued Sonya all season. “Harte! Drop the gun, and step away from it.”
    Harte lowered the shotgun from his shoulder but didn’t release it.
    “Everything’s—you’re—now.” Harte’s every other word got carried away on the wind and Garrett couldn’t make out what Harte said. All he knew was the man had yet to drop the sawed-off shotgun to the ground.
    “Drop the gun!” Garrett rose to a crouched position and held his own weapon on Harte. Harte’s face paled, and he dropped the shotgun like it had bit him.
    “What in tar nation is going on here?” Nikolai hollered, half-running around the side of the cabin, cradling his injured hand. He was followed by Margaret with her own sawed-off shotgun, at the ready.
    “Stay back, and let me handle this,” Garrett said, keeping his weapon trained on Harte.
    “This—big—understanding,” Harte hollered, though the wind continued to pick and choose which words it would allow to be carried. Then he began to point.
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Sonya said from behind Garrett.
    “I told you to stay down.” Couldn’t she follow the simplest of commands? He was trying to keep her alive, damn it.
    “Garrett, put your gun down,” she said.
    “Are you kidding me?”
    “I’m sure there’s a good explanation.” She touched his shoulder. “Let him explain before you go all cop on us.”
    He was a cop, damn it. Harte was lucky he wasn’t riddled full of holes right now. Garrett tightened his lips. “Fine, we’ll see what he has to say.” Then he’d take him down.

    “I tried to get your attention,” Aidan said again, having joined them from across the creek. They’d all entered the cabin and had taken seats around the table. Garrett and Sonya were on one side, Grams and Gramps sitting cozy across from them, while Aidan sat on Sonya’s left at the end of the table. “With the wind, I guess, you couldn’t hear me. That bear was within twenty feet of you—”
    “If there was a bear,” Garrett narrowed his brows. “I’d still like to take a look at the area, see if there are any signs.”
    “Be my guest,” Aidan said. “Though I doubt you’d be able to see anything in the dark.”
    “You couldn’t think of another way to get our attention, other than shooting at us?” Garrett continued to fire questions.
    “I wasn’t shooting at you. I was trying to scare off a bear before it stumbled into you.”
    “Isn’t it a bit convenient that a bear wandered close while you happened to be in the vicinity with a shotgun handy?”
    “I was out for a walk and everyone knows you don’t stroll around on the tundra at this time of night without protection.” Aidan turned to Sonya. “Which you know better, Sonya.”
    “I wasn’t thinking about bears—”
    “That was apparent,” he said sarcastically.
    Sonya dragged in a deep breath. Aidan must’ve seen Garrett kissing her. There could be no other reason for the poison in his brown eyes. They’d already gone over this. They were just friends now. He needed to stop playing the jealous boyfriend.
    “Okay, kids,” Gramps began. “No one was hurt, and the bear was scared off. Aidan, you want a piece of cake? Maggie May baked up a tasty German Chocolate cake today.”
    “Yeah.” He sighed, though he didn’t take