Dorado Read online

  Dorado

  Kate Genet

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dorado

  There are horrors beyond life's edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while man's evil prying calls them just within our range.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR | Kate Genet is a New Zealand writer of supernatural suspense, apocalyptic, and crime fiction. Find out more at kategenet.com

  ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

  Remnant | (book 2 coming soon)

  Sparrow Girl | Psychopathia | Simulacra | Dorado

  Close To Home | (Coming Soon 2016)

  Copyright © 2015 by Kate Genet.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Chamberlain Press

  Dunedin, NZ

  www.kategenet.com

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Book Layout & Design ©2013 - BookDesignTemplates.com

  Cover Design: Elderlemon Designs

  Ordering Information:

  Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the “Special Sales Department” at the address above.

  Dorado/ Kate Genet.—1st ed.

  ISBN 9781516317424

  There are horrors beyond life's edge that we do not suspect, and once in a while man's evil prying calls them just within our range.

  ―H.P. LOVECRAFT – THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP

  1.

  ‘Shh, do you hear that?’ Gage stood still, his head cocked towards the green canopy, eyes wide, staring first at her, then at the kids. He blinked a few times and cupped a hand around his ear. Teddy felt the blood rise towards her face, her heart jump, beat faster, a bird caught behind the cage of her ribs.

  ‘What is it?’ Bree squeaked, lip trembling. Teddy wanted to echo her question.

  Gage leaned further, straining to hear. ‘It’s big, whatever it is,’ he said.

  Teddy swung around, peered between the trees. There were so many of them – the trees – why, anything could be hiding behind them, crouching in the undergrowth. Why had she ever agreed to come out on this stupid hike?

  ‘It’s coming closer – can’t any of you hear it creeping through the forest? It’s licking its lips, sharpening its teeth.’ His voice rose on the breeze. ‘Any moment now, it’s going to POUNCE!’

  Bree and Karel, the twins, both jumped and squealed, and Teddy felt her own breath catch in her throat. She expelled it with a wheeze.

  ‘Jeeze, Dad,’ Jordan said. ‘You are so fucking uncool.’

  Gage straightened. ‘Jordan. Language.’

  The fourteen-year-old rolled her eyes and hunched down lower into her jacket. Teddy looked from her to her dad, then took in the twins. They were white-faced, staring at their father. Teddy pressed a hand to her own chest, feeling her heart slow in there. For a moment, she’d been scared. Genuinely scared. She swallowed.

  What was she scared of? Gage had already told her there was nothing to be afraid of in the forest. Not here, in this country. Why, they didn’t have anything much but birds and insects here. How strange was that? No bears, cougars, no snakes, nothing that could do them any harm. When he’d suggested the trip, she’d shaken her head no. He’d laughed when she’d told him she wasn’t really the outdoors type. It’ll be fun, he’d said, then sidled closer to her on the couch and slid a smooth hand under the hem of her skirt and up her thigh. She’d felt the familiar prickling of desire. Be a good opportunity to bond with the kids, he said, sliding his hand higher, almost touching the hot flesh in her panties. Almost. We can go out to the family’s old gold claim. Pan for the good stuff, strike it rich. His finger edged closer, pressed against her lips. She sucked in a breath, made a mewling sound, lifted her hips.

  He’d stroked her lightly and slid off the couch to crouch in front of her, grinning as he pushed her skirt up around her thighs and slipped her panties off, pressing his hands to her knees to spread them. The air was cool against her hot flesh, and she swallowed convulsively when he put his tongue on her. It’ll be fun, he said, and she nodded, ready to agree to anything.

  The new hiking boots pinched a bit. She shifted in them, looked at Gage. He smirked at her, waggled his eyebrows, then stalked over to the twins and used a hand each to ruffle their hair.

  ‘Just having you on,’ he said. ‘Nothing to be afraid of, okay, guys?’

  Bree looked up at her father, her serious face sporting a frown. ‘You’re a booger, Dad,’ she said.

  His grin widened. ‘Yup,’ he said. ‘A real booger. That’s what I am, all right. A slimy, green booger fresh from your brother’s nose.’

  Karel giggled and his sister glanced at him, then poked out her tongue before turning back to her father. ‘You oughtn’t to scare us, Daddy.’

  Immediately, Gage rearranged his face until the lines were hard and serious. Bending down, he looked his younger daughter in the face. ‘No more leg-pulling?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘Okay,’ he said, mock-contrite. ‘No more leg-pulling.’ He patted her on the head again, and stood, looked over at his elder daughter. ‘And you – watch your language. I don’t want to have to tell you again.’

  Another roll of the eyes, and Jordan turned away, stared out at the trees. Trees were all there was to stare at.

  ‘Right,’ Gage said, his voice jocular again. ‘Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?’

  Teddy was turned around. If she squinted, she thought she saw something of a track. But on a sigh, she decided it was mostly imagination.

  ‘Which way do we go?’ she asked. What she really wanted to know was when were they – and where were they – going to stop for the day? Surreptitiously, she pulled her phone from her jacket pocket and checked the time. Almost 1pm. ‘Maybe we should stop for lunch?’

  Gage was hunched over the GPS, lips pursed. ‘We should run into the river in about half an hour,’ he said. ‘Let’s stop and have our picnic there.’ He smi
led at her, then at the kids. ‘Right, gang? Half an hour, then lunch, what do you reckon?’

  Karel answered with his usual exuberance. ‘I reckon I’m hungry!’

  Gage tucked his thumbs under the straps of his pack. He was carrying one of the tents, and Teddy had the other, tied to her back, which was aching already. ‘Let’s boogie woogie, then,’ he said. He looked at Karel. ‘Lead the way, little man.’

  The eight-year-old blinked up at his father. ‘I dunno the way.’

  Gage pointed between the trees and grinned. ‘That looks good enough to me.’

  Teddy sucked in a lungful of air that smelled of dirt and leaves and hitched her own pack higher on her back. She fell into line behind the kids. Jordan glanced back at her, and she gave the girl a reflexive smile, but she just got a hard stare in return, then Jordan turned her back, and all Teddy had to look at was the pack on her soon-to-be stepdaughter’s back, and everywhere else, nothing but trees and ferns and more trees.

  Even the trees didn’t look right. She didn’t recognise any of them, and wished for a moment that she’d brought along a book so that she could put names to them. She would have felt better if the trees had names, even if they were all in Maori or something, and she wouldn’t know how to pronounce them, or even how to read them. Tucking her head down, she looked at her feet instead, ignoring the trees with their leaves that didn’t look like leaves, and thought she’d never felt such a stranger in a strange land as she did today.

  2

  Gage leapt up onto a protruding boulder and surveyed the river, before turning to his family and grinning triumphantly.

  ‘The lunching spot has been reached!’ he told them.

  There was a lot of sudden shrugging out of backpacks, and Jordan sank down to sit on hers, pulling out her mobile phone. He pressed his lips together a moment, then prised them apart into a smile.

  ‘Won’t get any service here, I think, Jordan,’ he said, and swept his arms around at the scenery. ‘We are deep in the wonders of nature here, as you can see.’ The view captured him, and he gazed around – at the river, sparkling in the sun, all mad rushing and tumbling over rocks, and then the trees, tall and strong – how long had they stood here where they’d grown from tiny seeds? Years? Hundreds of years, maybe, some of them. He didn’t know much about trees, but they stretched as far as he could see. Just trees and river and sky. It was actually pretty cool. He searched around for a good word. Magnificent. Yeah, that sounded good enough.

  Teddy came and stood beside him, and he grinned down at her. ‘Isn’t it marvellous?’ he asked. ‘Not a single other person in sight. Not a single building. Nothing but Mother Nature.’ He was surprised at how he felt. He’d never considered himself at all the imaginative sort, yet here he was waxing all romantic over nature, for crying out loud. He snorted and gave into the pressure in his chest. ‘Woo-hooo!’ he yelled, flinging his voice out over the stretch of forest, causing a startle of birds. He laughed and hopped down from the rock.

  Teddy reached out and snagged his arm. His grin died as he took in her drawn face.

  ‘Are you sure this is safe?’ she asked.

  Not this again. She needed to lighten up a bit. All the girls did, come to think of it. Jordan was pushing buttons on her phone with a desperate look on her face, and Bree, always serious, was gazing around them with a frown on her face. That kid was going to have frown lines etched between her brows before she even reached double digits. Even the stupid yellow dog was sitting on its haunches, looking suspicious. It was a dog, for fuck’s sake. It should be having a ball – there was crap everywhere to smell.

  Teddy made a soft noise in her throat and Gage looked back at her. ‘I told you already, there’s nothing to worry about.’ He shook his head. ‘Don’t know why you girls have to worry so damned much. It’s an adventure we’re having. Lighten up!’

  She nibbled on her lip, and normally he liked that, it always felt kinda sexy to him, but right now he knew it was because she was worried, and he was sick and tired of her being worried. He put an arm around her shoulder and drew her closer.

  ‘Listen,’ he whispered, fingers tight on her flesh. ‘Everything’s going to be all right. We’re going to have a great time, you hear?’

  Her hair tickled his neck when she gave a tentative nod. He squeezed her shoulders. ‘That’s my girl.’ His arm dropped. ‘How about some lunch, now we’ve worked up an appetite? What do you reckon, guys? Teddy’s made us a splendid lunch.’

  He assumed she had, anyway. She’d been in charge of the food; he’d taken care of the gear. He’d been more than a bit dismayed at the sheer amount of gear they needed for just a simple trip, but there it was, he guessed. Tents, sleeping bags, bug spray – lots of that stuff – then food and water. Even travelling light, it added up, and most of it was riding on his back. He’d stuck a bit in Teddy’s pack – brand-new, by the way, just like the one Jordan was carrying, and the twins’. The trip had cost him a pretty penny, come to think of it.

  But it was going to be worth it. He was sure of it. Rubbing his hands together, he looked expectantly at his new wife-to-be.

  ‘I, um, packed everyone’s lunch bags,’ she said, then spoke a bit louder. ‘They should be in the top of your packs; remember, I gave them to you before we left?’

  ‘I didn’t get one,’ Gage said. ‘I don’t remember you giving me one.’

  She smiled at him, and he relaxed a fraction. There was no worry in that smile. ‘I thought I’d carry yours, since your pack was so full.’

  ‘Could have carried mine too then,’ Jordan grumbled. ‘My pack weighs a ton.’

  ‘Is that metric or imperial?’ Gage asked, looking at his oldest daughter. She frowned back at him from her perch on a rock. Her lunch bag was on her knees.

  ‘What?’ she asked.

  He shook his head. ‘No grumbling,’ he said, then clapped his hands. ‘New rule, people. No grumbling. We’re all here to enjoy ourselves, have a real adventure.’

  Jordan looked like she was going to grumble again, of course, but he eyeballed her, and she pressed her lips together. Good girl. They were going to have a great time.

  Teddy was looking around for somewhere to sit. Shrugging out of his jacket, he spread it on the grass and smiled at her. ‘It’s warm here out from under the trees.’

  She nodded and sat, dipping a hand into their lunch bag, and pulling out crusty bread rolls filled with meat and lettuce. He took his eagerly and unwrapped the plastic, bit into it. Say what you like about Teddy, but she was handy with food. He almost patted his belly, thinking about how his waistline had expanded since they’d gotten engaged and moved in together. The gym was taking up a lot more of his time these days.

  Or it would be, if work wasn’t. But he wasn’t going to think about the business. He was here to solve his problems, not to dwell on them.

  A hand on his sleeve. ‘Are you all right, Gage?’

  He blinked at his fiancée, then forced a smile onto his lips. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’

  Her answering smile faltered and she shook her head. ‘You just looked very serious for a moment. I wish you’d tell me what’s wrong.’

  What? What was she talking about? ‘Nothing’s wrong,’ he said. ‘What makes you think something’s wrong?’

  She gave a little shake of her head. ‘It’s just that...you’ve been working long hours lately.’ She reached up and stroked his forehead, cheek. ‘And you’ve been looking so careworn.’

  Careworn? Was that even a real word? Snatching at her hand, he pressed it to his lips and planted a kiss on her fingers. She was a sweet soul. Very young, but sweet as they come. Just what he needed.

  ‘Everything’s fine,’ he said.

  ‘Even things at the office?’ she asked, forgetting that the kids were right there, listening probably.

  ‘Busy,’ he said. ‘Things at the office are busy. That’s all.’

  She looked at him for a moment longer, then her blue eyes dr
opped to her lap and the half-eaten roll there. He squeezed her fingers, then returned them and picked up his own lunch. All this walking had made him hungry. And they still had a long way to go. Two days it was going to take, to get to Dorado. He wished the twins could walk faster. He wished they could all sprout wings and fly there like birds.

  Reaching out, he touched his backpack, feeling the hard edge of the gold pans in there. They were going to get lucky; he could feel it in his bones. He guessed he had a bit of adventuring spirit in him after all. The claim belonged to his wife’s – ex-wife’s – family. Her granddad had struck it rich, named his claim Dorado, after the famed city paved with gold, and Gage knew, just knew, there was still gold to be found there, and he was going to find it, and all his problems would be over.

  3

  ‘Why do I have to sleep with them?’ Jordan demanded, screwing her face up. ‘They snore.’

  ‘Do not!’ Karel yelled at her. She poked her tongue out.

  ‘Do too.’

  Teddy looked helplessly around. But Gage had gone off into the trees with the little hand shovel and the roll of toilet paper. She supposed she’d have to follow his lead soon enough, and the thought made her clench her muscles and wish they were at home.

  At least the tents had gone up fairly easily. If only she could stop the bickering now. Exhaustion washed over her.

  ‘Kids,’ she said. ‘Jordan.’ The girl looked at her, eyes dark in the shadows from the trees.

  ‘What?’ the girl spat. ‘I suppose you’re going to try telling me what to do? It’s a waste of time – you’re not my mother.’

  Teddy sucked in a deep breath and held it for the count of three. ‘I’m not trying to be your mother, Jordan. I’m trying to relax, and that’s what you need to be doing as well. We’ve another day’s hiking ahead of us tomorrow.’

  The teenager pouted. ‘Tramping.’

  Nonplussed, Teddy shook her head. ‘What?’

  ‘We call it tramping, not hiking. You can’t even get the language right.’

  Teddy didn’t know what to say. What was she supposed to say to this girl who was determined to hate her? She tried to laugh. ‘There’s so much different here,’ she said. ‘It’s going to take me a long time to learn everything.’