True North (The Bears of Blackrock Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

tension in her muscles. She was feigning strength and grace, but she was terrified. If her suspicions were correct, this Theron character could be on their side – working for the officers that kept them captive there for two years.
    If he worked for them, there was no telling what he was capable of.
    “I said, I’m from Blackrock, Maine. I came up because I got in some trouble down there.”
    “What kind of trouble?” Sinead snapped. Great, just what they needed – ex-convict or some other unsavory character. Just the kind of guy who’d take a job like spying on prisoners.
    “I can’t really say. Just a -”
    Buniq sat at her desk in the corner, munching away at a stolen granola bar. Sinead didn’t have the focus to scold her for taking it, she had more important things on her plate.
    “Look, I don’t know what you want, but there’s nothing for you here.”
    The stranger stopped and stared at her. “Lady, I’m sure this paradise brings a whole slew of visitors -”
    She narrowed her brow. “Are you trying to be funny?”
    “- but I’m just here to find my family. I mean, for Christ’s sake, somebody just fucking shot at me.”
    “Watch your language!” Sinead stepped a little closer toward Buniq. The stranger was getting agitated, and the shift in his mood made the room feel smaller. Warmer, she noted, but smaller. “And you say somebody shot at you, but I have it on good authority that if Baird Davenport means to shoot at you, he doesn’t miss. Why are you here?!”
    He sighed. “Well, your hospitality is spoken of from here all the way down to Black Tickle. What the hell is your problem, lady?”
    Sinead stared at him. He leaned against the wall, dropped his backpack on the floor, and winced as he tried to lift his foot. Then he remained there, a barely patient look of exasperation on his face.
    He didn’t seem like the other officers that came onto the Extension – Officer Davenport, Reed, and Miller. They came with snide looks and rifles in their arms. They came when they thought too many people were gathering in one place. They came when someone spent too much time out by the perimeter. They came when they damn well pleased, and they made no attempts to come off as pleasant, or belonging.
    They were proud as punch to be bile spewing assholes.
    This man wasn’t spewing bile.
    He was beginning to look annoyed, though.
    “What did you say your name was, again?” Sinead asked, shooting a sideways glance back at Buniq.
    “Theron Talbot. Theron Sleeps on Stones Talbot, if you would like to know my full name.”
    Sinead almost softened at the name. She shook her head.
    That’s just what they’d want you to do, Shinny.
    Jesus, you sound like a paranoid lunatic, she thought.
    “And you came all the way up here to find family? All the way up here?”
    Theron’s brow narrowed. “I did. Given my family is Inuit, that shouldn’t come as such a surprise. Why did you come all the way up here?”
    Sinead stiffened, but before she could respond, the door to the meeting house burst open, and Darrell Holden marched into the small building with his cousins, Dave and Pauloosie.
    Buniq jerked in her desk chair, hiding her hands behind her back. She didn’t want her older brother, Darrell, to see that she’d been sneaking in the commodity boxes.
    “Well, what’s going on here?” Darrell said, shaking out his coat to brush off a few tiny flecks of snow.
    Theron turned toward the coming group, offering up a hand. Darrell took it and shook it, rigorously. A bit more rigorously than was necessary, Sinead noted.
    Theron’s jaw muscles rolled under the skin, and Sinead was sure he was in pain, but pretending otherwise.
    “I’m Theron. Theron Talbot -”
    “Sure you are. Well, the schoolhouse is no place for us. Come on outside, we’ll get you acquainted with the place. Kids should be here any minute, huh Shinny?”
    Sinead watched, wordless as Darrell and Pauloosie wrapped their arms around Theron’s