by Penny Dee
“Look at what you’re doing to me, princess? I’m hard as a fucking rock for you all the fucking time.”
My hand slides over the bulge and I give him a gentle squeeze. “Hold onto that thought.”
He cocks a sexy eyebrow at me. “You keep doing that, and I won’t be able to help myself.”
I pull my hand away, reluctantly. “Drive, sex fiend.”
He shoots me a look of raw desire. “Oh, I plan on showing you just how much of a sex fiend I am when we get back.”
I shoot him a look of equal heat and desire. “I’ll hold you to that.”
He shakes his head and chuckles, and starts the engine.
It takes us twenty minutes through the misty mountain roads to get into town. Just like I had been two days ago, I’m taken aback by the charm of the quaint mountain village. Snow gathers on the rooftops, and people make their way through the misty morning in their warm coats and boots.
I lean over and kiss him before I climb out of the Jeep and walk over to the phone booth. My nerves twitch. I’m excited to talk to my father, to ease his worry, but at the same time I’m nervous about what he’ll say when I tell him I’m not coming home. That I need time and space.
And that the wedding is off.
The wedding is definitely off.
I dial his number and he picks up almost immediately.
“Daddy?”
“Lauren? Is that you?” I can hear the panic in his voice. “Where are you? Tell me. I can get help to you.”
“I’m safe, Daddy. Listen, Vince tried to have me kidnapped. He arranged for some men to take me. He was going to hold me for ransom. Once he got the money—”
“Listen to me, Lauren.” My father cuts me off. “The man you are with, his name is Calder Christofferson. He is a very, very dangerous man. It wasn’t Vince who was trying to kidnap you. It was Calder. When Vince’s men saw him enter the lodge, they tried to stop it from happening. Listen to me, you must get away from him. Trust me, Lauren. That man is a fugitive.”
“No, Daddy, you don’t understand—”
“Lauren!” My father’s voice has an edge to it. It’s the voice that commands me to listen to him. “We’ve already received the ransom demand. It’s for twenty-five million dollars.”
Alarm begins to unfurl in my stomach.
“But I wasn’t kidnapped—”
“Yes, you were, by Calder Christofferson.”
“No, I’m with Axel—”
“His name isn’t Axel, Lauren. It’s Calder Christofferson and he’s wanted for murder.”
What?
My throat tightens. “Murder?”
“Half an hour ago, my security team received CCTV footage from outside the post office in Mirror Lake.” My father’s voice drops so it’s low and controlled. “Listen, Lauren, the man you are with is a very dangerous man, do you understand me?”
Alarm changes to panic and it spreads to my chest until it completely overwhelms me.
“He initiated the kidnapping. And it’s not the first time he’s done this.” Daddy sounds panicked. “He murdered the last woman he kidnapped.”
Confusion spins around me.
“That’s not true,” I breathe.
My hands shake as I hold the phone to my ear and look across the parking lot to Axel sitting in the Jeep.
There is no way Axel is a murderer.
He’s never done this before.
What we have … it is real. Not some bullshit ransom demand.
My daddy is wrong. Axel isn’t responsible for any murder or ransom demand.
I’m a fugitive.
“Her name was Anastasia Crawford. Calder was hired to protect her, but ended up kidnapping her and holding her for ransom. The ransom drop went bad.”
“No.” It is barely a word. More of a sharp rush of air from my lips as my world starts to spin on its axis.
“She died, Lauren. He killed her. He was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes, but managed to escape.”
My throat goes bone dry.
Life in prison?
“He’s not the man you think he is. Where are you?”
My father’s words settle into my brain like fog.
I feel sick.
“I’m in a … phone … booth.”
“Where?”
Feeling dazed, I glance around me. “Outside the… bakery…”
“Is he near you?”
My eyes lock onto Axel’s.
She died. He killed her.
“He’s in the car.”
My father’s voice is stern. “Stay where you are. I’m sending security to come get you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
AXEL
Something’s not right.
As I watch from the Jeep, the thought ticks over and over in my brain.
At first her body language is relaxed, but suddenly her shoulders tighten and her spine straightens.
Something’s not right.
Alarm spirals through me when she steps out of the phone booth and stops. She looks at me, her face pained. Our eyes meet and my alarm ramps up.
When the Mirror Lake Lodge security car pulls up beside her only a few seconds later, I realize what has happened.
She rang them or had her father call them.
She is about to run away from me.
The realization is like a kick to my gut.
My initial reaction is to go to her. To ask her why.
Why did she want them to show up?
Why has she given up on us?
Was any of it real?
Confusion spins in my mind, and I watch with an ache in my chest as she climbs into the patrol car.
I should go over there and demand to know why.
Why is she running?
What happened to change her mind?
But when Hardy sees me and reaches for the gun in his holster, my razor-sharp instincts take over and I jam the Jeep into reverse and take off in a plume of dirty snow and gravel.
Roaring toward the secret trail leading out of town, I take the long way through the mountain until I am absolutely sure I haven’t been followed. The mountain is particularly misty today, and I am able to disappear into the low cloud cover easily. I skid to a stop outside the front of my cabin but don’t climb out. My mind is scrambling. My heart pounding. I try to make sense of it. Try to understand why she did it.
But I can’t.
My palms pound against the steering wheel and a roar rips out of me, pained and raw.
She left me.
I have no intention of running.
Her words spin in my head.
Again, I pound the steering wheel because I’m so blinded by pain, and have no idea what to do. My face is hot and wet, because as I scream, tears spill down my cheeks. I struggle to catch my breath and calm my heart, and it takes me a moment because my heart has just been ripped from my chest, and I never saw it coming. She blindsided me.
I’m not ready to say goodbye.
I thought she trusted me and it fucking hurts. We’ve done things. Things that involve trust.
Things that involved a future together.
There is so much I want, Axel. And all of it involves you.
I leave the Jeep and disappear into the cabin. As anger meets heartache, I grab one of the chairs and hurl it across the room.
She left.
The woman I am falling in love with…
… just fucking left me.
Chapter Twenty-Five
LAUREN
A security officer called Hardy takes me to what looks like an old bank building. Once inside, he wraps a towel around my shoulders like I’ve just been plucked from the Atlantic and puts a cup of coffee in front of me.
There are no questions.
No interrogation.
It’s confusing, but at least it gives me time to gather my thoughts and process what is happening around me in silence. I am safe, yet I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve made a huge mistake.
<
br /> I think back to the phone booth. My father’s words made me panic. And I was confused when I let him have security pick me up.
Now I close my eyes against the memory, remembering the look on Axel’s face when he realized what I had done.
He looked hurt.
Devastated.
Betrayed.
I don’t know the full story about what had happened between Axel and Anastasia Crawford, but I can’t believe he kidnapped her for a ransom and then killed her when it went wrong.
I know him.
He isn’t capable of that.
Yet, I had panicked.
I trusted my father more than anyone in the world. Hearing him say those things about Axel had confused me, and by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late and the damage was done.
“I’ve made a terrible mistake,” I whisper.
Hardy looks over and his brow lifts. “How so?”
“There has been a misunderstanding. I have to go.” I stand up and the blanket drops to the floor. “I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”
I go to leave but Hardy stops me, stepping between me and the door. “I can’t let you do that.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your fiancé is on his way. I can’t let you leave until he gets here.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
“Oh, I think I can.”
Our eyes lock. His are cold. Hard and mean. I’m about to argue with him when the door opens and Vince walks in.
The moment I lay eyes on him, my heart breaks. His arms around me are as cold as ice, and his touch does nothing to dull the pain I’m feeling in my chest as he holds me against his expensive suit. Despite the sugary syrup in his words and his over-the-top sympathy, I am completely disconnected from him.
I don’t love him.
Hell, I don’t even like him.
And I certainly don’t want to marry him.
I miss Axel.
Painfully.
Despite what they say about him, I feel an excruciating void being away from him. I wasn’t lying when I said I was falling for him. But I had been wrong. Because I’m not falling for him … I’m already in love with him.
And I ache to be back in the cabin with him, safe in his arms and lost in his body as he makes love to me.
Not here with a man I can barely stand the sight of, and people who can’t begin to appreciate what I’d found in that little cabin with a wild beast of a mountain man.
I’ve made a terrible mistake.
A new plan forms amidst the chaos inside my head. I’ll return to the lodge and pack my things. I will tie off loose ends—one of them being a five-foot-eight jerk in an Armani suit—then hire a car so I can drive back here and somehow find Axel’s cabin.
Then I’ll beg him for his forgiveness.
But I have broken his heart and he might not forgive me for walking away.
We leave town in Vince’s car and drive through the rainy streets back to the lodge. Staring out the window, I press myself against the polished leather of the door trying to create as much space between Vince and me.
Every part of me aches with longing. I want to turn back time and go back to the moment I destroyed everything.
I would hang up the phone when my father told me about Axel, and walk back to the love of my life waiting for me in the car. We would drive back to the sanctuary of our cabin, and no one would ever find us. Lauren Carmichael would be gone. Replaced by a happy, love-kissed mountain woman who lived her life freely among the pines and misty mountain slopes with a man who loved her and would give his life to protect her.
I turn away from the window to look at Vince.
Alarm tingles up my spine.
“Why didn’t the police pick him up?” I ask him, the thought only now occurring to me. “Why am I not being interviewed?”
Vince keeps his eyes on the road.
“He tried kidnapping you, Lauren. We execute our own justice. He’s not going to prison. He’s going to a grave.”
My alarm ignites into fear and it rips through me.
Axel.
“You can’t hurt him,” I say desperately.
But Vince’s eyes are as cold as ice as he looks at me with vile smugness.
“Too late, Lauren. He’s already dead.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
LAUREN
“You’re lying,” I say.
I’m terrified.
If Vince has done something to Axel, I will kill him.
“Why would I lie about something like that?” he asks, his eyes pinned to the road.
Because you lie about everything.
I glare at him. Hating him. “If you do something to him, I will go to the police.”
Vince narrows his eyes, but keeps them fixed on the road. “What’s done is done, Lauren. It’s better handled this way.”
“No, it’s not. It’s wrong. And if you have anyone hurt him, I’ll make sure you have to answer for it.”
His jaw ticks. “We’ll see.”
We drive in stony silence through the rainy streets back to the lodge.
I feel sick.
No.
I feel nothing.
I am numb.
I just go through the motions. Breathing. Heart beating. One foot in front of the other. Praying Vince is lying.
In the lodge’s impressive foyer, I look around. My father isn’t here, but I’m not surprised. He will still be working. No point hanging around Mirror Lake looking for his only child when he could make millions at work. He’ll fly in later once he’s sure I’m here.
My feet feel like stone as I walk up the sweeping staircase, remembering the night I was taken by the mountain man. Remembering his eyes. The hardness of his body. The warmth. The excitement as he took me into the darkness.
In my room, I see Vince has brought his belongings over from where he was staying with his groomsmen. They spill out of a suitcase on the floor, and his shaving kit is already in the bathroom.
Feeling shaky, I sit down on the end of the bed and watch as he walks across the room to the attached dressing room.
He removes his jacket and his wallet, and places them on a dresser. Followed by a gun.
My eyes dart from the weapon to him. “Why do you have a gun?”
“Someone kidnapped you, Lauren. I’m not risking another attempt.”
I don’t believe him.
It’s too much of an easy excuse.
My throat goes dry and an uneasiness creeps up my spine.
Vince keeps his back to me as he reaches for a hanger. I watch him, feeling so alien from him and from this moment. As I shift on the bed, my hand slides across the comforter and lands on something cold and sharp.
An earring.
I pick it up. It’s not mine.
It’s Shanna’s. I know it’s hers because it’s one half of the pair I bought her for her twenty-eighth birthday last June.
She’s been in here while I was gone. In this bed. With him. More than likely consoling him with her vagina.
I look at Vince and it’s so vibrantly clear. Axel was right. Vince is behind the plan to kidnap me and to hold me for ransom. I don’t know why. He’s rich. It’s not like he needs the money.
I struggle to swallow.
“Why?” I croak out.
He doesn’t even bother to look at me. “Why what?”
“Why did you do it?”
“What are you talking about?” he replies, barely paying attention as he hangs his jacket in the closet.
My fingers press hard into the edge of the bed. So hard my nails hurt.
“Why did you pay those men to kidnap me?”
He pauses and I see him weigh his response in his mind. To lie or not to lie.
Without a word, he puts his hands in his pockets and walks slowly toward me. His mask has slipped, and apparently, he has no intention of righting it.
The jig is up.
In fact, the bastard smiles.
“It’s not what you think.”
I let out the breath I was holding. “Then explain it to me. Tell me why three men dressed in black came here to kidnap me the night before our wedding?”
“I didn’t know that was going to happen.”
Again, I don’t believe him. He can see it on my face.
“I owe money, Lauren. I owe some very bad men money. It was them, they were the ones who organized the incident.”
I stand up, my anger snapping. “The incident? They came here to drag me out of my bed in the middle of the night and take me to God knows where, to do God knows what! That isn’t an incident, Vince. That’s fucking kidnapping!”
My blood is boiling.
But apparently, Vince has no intention of taking any responsibility.
“I didn’t know they were going to do that. But, baby, I owe them a lot of money.”
He says it like I should be more accepting of it.
“You’re wealthy. Why didn’t you pay them what you owed them?”
“Like I said, it was a lot of money.”
“And you have more than enough—"
He cuts me off. “I’m broke, Lauren.”
His words are like ice water on my skin.
He’s broke?
How is that even possible?
He’s rich.
Filthy rich.
I take a step back. “But you’re like some god on Wall Street. You make millions every single day.”
“I made a few bad decisions.”
“A few bad—” I try to shake the confusion out of my head. “None of this makes any sense.”
“I-I knew if I could just ride out the rough patch, I could get on top again.” He cups my shoulders. “I could recoup the money over time. Give you the life you deserve—the life we deserve. So I borrowed money. A lot of money.”
Looking into his cold, blue eyes I know there was never any bad guys seeking payment on a bad debt. He’s lying. He arranged everything. He hired three men to abduct me and to hold me until the ransom was paid. Then he would use the money to rebuild his wealth and reputation. It’s why he insisted on this location. The isolation. The small-town sheriff’s department. The massive search area. The lack of CCTV monitoring. The complete absence of anything familiar. It all fit in with his plan.