I glanced to both sides. What kind ofGet Out-meets-Hallmark movie was this?
“Thank you for that reassurance, but I’d like to see her with my own eyes. You know, just to confirm she’s not being held hostage in some weirdDeliverancemountain cult or something.”
His lips twitched. Slightly. But then his face snapped back into its default setting of icy indifference with a side ofI don’t have time for this.
“She’s fine,” he repeated, his voice devoid of any emotion. “She’s found love, and she’s… busy.”
“Busy?” My eyes narrowed. “Too busy to answer a single call or text from her sister? This is literally the longest we’ve ever gone without talking since the day she was born."
The Mountie blinked. Once. In a way that made me suspect some automatic bodily function timer had gone off. "So, you've decided to go against her wishes and disrupt her life because you miss your previous relationship dynamic?"
“Yes!” I blurted… then cringed when I heard how that sounded out loud. "I mean, no. Not exactly. I’m not here to ruin her love story or whatever this out-of-the-blue decision is supposed to be. I just…” My voice cracked under the weight of the worry I’d been carrying around for weeks. “I just need to know she’s okay.”
“She’s okay,” the Mountie replied, his tone clipped and mechanical. “You can return to Vancouver.”
“Seriously? That’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell me?” I never cried. Not even when my ex announced, two weeks after my last miscarriage, that he’d found someone else—someone who could, and I quote, “actually give me the children I deserve.”
But at that moment, tears of frustration welled in my eyes as I pleaded, “Can you please just act like a human and tell me where I can find my sister? Let me make sure she’s actually okay and not being held here against her will.Please.”
Desperate, I reached for one of the possibly plastic hands resting on the counter.
“Don’t touch me!” The Mountie recoiled–I mean, actually backed up several steps. Like I was a cobra about to strike.
“I’m sorry!” I pulled my hands back and held them up in the air. “That’s on me. I should never have tried to touch you without consent. I was just trying to get through to you. Make you hear me.”
“I hear you.” His jaw tightened, and he looked away. “Now, hear me. Your sister is fine.”
“Unbelievable! Do you seriously expect me to...” I started to ask. But then I trailed off, noticing a detail I hadn't before.
What appeared to be a very human sheen of sweat had broken out across the Mountie's forehead.
“Is something wrong?” I asked. I squinted at him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He stiffened, his fingers flexing at his sides. “No. There’s nothing wrong. And I’ve already told you everything I know about this non-case.”
“Non-case? Really?" I glared at him. "Because not only are you being real flipping dismissive right now, you’re acting like the world’s most suspicious animatronic Mountie.”
He frowned back at me, his cold stare softening. Just a little. For a moment, I thought he might actually crack. But instead, he abruptly came around the high counter and grabbed me by the arm.
"What are you doing?" Apparently,hehad absolutely no problem touchingmewithout consent.
“The station is closed, and this conversation is over,” he told me, his tone final. “Go home.”
“But—”
Before I could finish, he shoved me through one of the station’s doors, and the cold mountain air hit me like a slap to the face.
Arghh! I spun back around. Forget trying to be nice. I was about ready to go Ugly American on this guy and get myself arrested for assaulting a member of law enforcement.
But before I could even get my fingers around the door handle, the unmistakable clunk of a lock closing sounded.
The Mountie scowled at me from the other side of the left door’s window. Then flipped a sign that saidClosedin Canadian-red cursive.
I didn’t cry. And I no longer cursed—it wasn’t a great look on a midwife. But several choice words banged against my teeth as I watched the Mountie disappear out of sight.
He probably expected me to run back to Vancouver like a good little dismissed dog.
But forget that noise! As the sun dipped lower behind the peaks of the Great Claw Mountains, I turned to face the town beyond the detachment station. The streets were eerily empty, the buildings dark and shuttered, like the entire place was hibernating.
