Maybe Knox had got it wrong. This was the bodyguard.
His gaze slid to the man in front of him, the only one dressed all in black.
He was good looking, tall, and had his grey eyes locked on the petite female in front of him as he gripped the trees he passed to stop himself from falling down the slope to the ground far below.
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” His accent was Canadian, and there was a sharp bite to it that made Knox feel this man was used to barking orders and having people obey them.
If he had to guess, he would say this one was Karl.
Cameo’s ex-boyfriend-turned-drug-lord.
The one who had beaten her kid brother to a bloody pulp and had then come after her, believing she had the three hundred grand her brother had skimmed off the money that had passed through his hands on its way from the streets to his boss.
The female nodded and lifted her head as she turned it to look back over her shoulder at Karl.
Knox froze against a tree, sickness sweeping through him as he stared at her, his whole plan changing in an instant.
Skye.
He bit back the growl that rumbled up his throat and fought the urge to break cover and make a grab for her. He had to dig his emerging claws into the bark of the pine tree to anchor himself in place and stop him from obeying the powerful need to get her away from these men.
He stared at her, heat swift to bloom in his veins, roused not only by his rage and his fear but by the sight of her.
Gods, it had been two years since he had last looked at her beautiful face, but he remembered everything about her—from her stunning rich brown eyes flecked with gold to the silken waves of her chestnut hair, and that little scar that darted across her chin just below her soft lips.
He wasn’t sure what she had done to get herself dragged into this mess, but he was damned if he was going to let anything happen to her.
No matter what it took.
He was going to save her.
Chapter 2
Skye began to get a bad feeling in her gut as the truck she was in rolled up the snowy forestry track. The mousy-haired man at the wheel glanced at her from time to time, as if he could sense her rising nerves and how close she was to calling this whole thing off.
Behind her, three other men were crammed into the back seats of the blue pickup, none of them speaking. In fact, not one of them had uttered a word in the time she had known them. The only one who had spoken was the man beside her, and what he had said had been enough to not only spark her interest but secure her as a guide.
Something she was beginning to regret agreeing to.
Karl had caught her at a low point. He and his friends had been the first customers she had seen in almost a week thanks to the abysmal weather, and she had been overjoyed to finally have someone to serve, even if it had only been for drinks.
Her bar, The Spirit Moose, was floundering and badly in need of a cash injection after two very short summers in a row and annoyingly long winters. If things didn’t improve soon, she would have to admit defeat, and that was something Skye Callaghan just did not do.
When Karl had asked where he could find a guide because he needed to go up a valley to visit his friends, she had told him there wasn’t a guide in the area crazy enough to head up the valleys in the dead of winter. With the current weather conditions veering towards another storm and recent snowfall, the valleys would be deadly.
He hadn’t seemed bothered by the potential danger though and had asked how well she knew the area. It had been on the tip of her tongue to tell him to find another crazy person.
And then he had slapped a fat wedge of cash down on the bar top, all of them fifty-dollar bills.
She had stared at all that money and had seen the lifeline The Spirit Moose badly needed. It would be enough to keep her afloat at least until summer and would pay off some of her debts. Not only that, but Karl had sweetened the deal by saying that when they returned to town, whether they found their friends or not, there would be another similar amount of money waiting for her.
So she had taken the job.
Skye stared out of the cab of the truck at the valley, at thick white snow that covered the track and made it slow going to crawl along it without plummeting into the trees, and at the mountains that surrounded her.
Now that the haze of seeing all that money was lifting and she had gotten a good look at the four men and had realised where they were heading, she had come to a conclusion.
She should’ve asked a lot more questions.
That feeling grew as they finally reached the trailhead and pulled up next to another car. It wasn’t the only one parked in the clearing either. There were several more trucks and SUVs, and none of them looked as if they had been moved in days, possibly even weeks.
She had heard rumours that there were cabins up this valley and now she had her confirmation. Someone was living up here. Quite a few someones.
“Does one of these belong to your friends?” She eyed the row of vehicles.
“The red SUV.” Karl was quick to answer.
Skye wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or more worried as she looked at the car in question and found it covered in a layer of snow that had drifted up its side, telling her it had been there during the recent snowstorm but not as long as the others parked further along. They were completely obscured by the snow.
“I said we would come up for the holidays but the storm closed in and we couldn’t reach the cabin.” Karl offered a smile, one that did nothing to warm his grey eyes. He shrugged. “I’m a city guy. Not used to this method of finding a place. Our friend was supposed to meet us at the start of the track near the highway, but when we reached it, he wasn’t there.”
Which was plausible.
“The storm blew for a couple of days and dumped a lot of snow. Might be they couldn’t get back to their vehicle from the cabin. Do you know which one it is?” She could only think of one cabin up this valley, but there had to be more than that judging by how many cars were parked here.
Karl offered her the piece of paper he had shown her back at the bar. “I only have these to go on. Sorry.”
He didn’t stop her when she took the piece of paper and studied the coordinates scrawled on it.
“I know the way to a cabin. We can check there first. It’s close to these coordinates.” She reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out her GPS unit.
Karl seized her arm. “What’s that? Is that a phone?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s a GPS. I use it for hiking. I’ll put the coordinates in it and we can use it to find our way to them.”
He eyed it, a look crossing his face that said he was debating demanding she hand him the device. Part of her was tempted, but she thought about the money. He would probably demand she give him back what he had already paid her too and she could definitely kiss goodbye to the second half of the payment even if he let her keep the first.
“We won’t be able to just walk in a straight line to it, of course.” She smiled at him, affecting an easy air to cover her nerves and how desperate she was for the money. “The valley has a lot of ravines and areas where we’ll have to go around. I know this place well enough to guide you there along the shortest route, no detours or backtracking necessary.”
His grip on her eased. “Are there other routes out of this valley?”
She wanted to frown at that question but resisted. “Sure. There’s a valley that joins it up towards the glacier. A pass cuts east and you can hike to the next valley along from this one.”
He didn’t look happy about that as he released her.
Why?
Skye shrugged it off and put the coordinates into the GPS. It revealed a point not too far north from her current position, on the left side of the valley. Strange. She looked in that direction, past the parked cars. She couldn’t recall seeing a cabin up that way, but then she had only been to this valley a few times. It was possible someone
lived there. The vehicles were proof that people were staying in the valley in the dead of winter, and there were too many for only one cabin—the one she could think of.
That cabin was small. Too small for so many people.
She pocketed her GPS. “It’s a way up the valley, but I can get you there. It’s probably no more than a day or two’s hike. I’d say two given the conditions and how late it is now.”
Karl nodded and opened his door, allowing a blast of frigid air into the cab. “Let’s go.”
The men in the backseat all piled out of the vehicle and moved to the back of the truck. The biggest of the men, a real bruiser who needed to go on a diet, opened the tailgate and bent over to reach into the covered bed.
Skye grabbed her pack from the seat beside her and slipped from the truck, dropping to land on her feet in the snow. She zipped her black jacket up, covering her sweater, and pulled her gloves from the side of her green pack. She left the pack on her seat as she tugged them on and then grabbed it and slipped her arms into the straps.
She glanced at the men as she tightened the straps.
That bad feeling she had grew exponentially worse as Karl spoke in a low voice to the youngest man as he shouldered a red pack that clashed with his dazzling bright blue jacket. What were they talking about?
She eased the door of the truck closed, using it as an excuse to move closer to the men.
“I want everyone on high alert. They might have moved from those coordinates.” Karl flicked a look at the other two men.
Skye was starting to wish she had stuck to her guns about bringing her own car and hadn’t backed down when Karl had, in turn, insisted that she come with them because they had needed her to guide them back to the track and up it to the trailhead.
She really wished she had when the big man and the one who looked as if he wanted to be in the army, with his blue-and-white camo print jacket, pulled out two high-end black rifles followed by more guns.
They weren’t the hunting sort.
She had seen plenty of those in her time and had a lot of experience handling them herself.
No. These were military-grade weapons, the sort wielded by bad people in movies.
Skye had the feeling that Karl and his men weren’t here to pay a nice visit to friends after all.
She cursed herself for being so stupid as to think that four men wanting to go up a valley in the dead of winter wasn’t suspicious, cursed herself for not asking more questions, and really cursed herself for being seduced by a fat lot of cash.
When Karl glanced her way, she pretended to be busy with her pack straps, kept her eyes off him as she tried to come up with a plan. Running wasn’t an option. Her heart thundered at the thought of even attempting it, images of them gunning her down flashing across her mind to have panic prickling her spine.
She was the only one with the GPS coordinates. Karl hadn’t taken the piece of paper from her. Maybe she could lead them along a different route. If she headed for the river instead of deeper into the valley, she might be within range of the nearest cell tower. Her phone burned a hole in her pocket and she was tempted to touch it, but knew if she did that Karl would notice. He was watching her closely, as if he was waiting for her to react to the guns the men were now checking over.
Her plan was solid. No sudden moves. No revealing how scared she was. She would make up some bullshit about the easiest way to the place they wanted to reach being via the river and would take them in that direction.
Once there, she would find a way to slip away from them for a moment and would secretly call for help.
She glanced back at the men and smiled at Karl as his cold grey eyes narrowed on her.
Because she had the feeling she was going to need it.
Chapter 3
It hadn’t taken Knox long to figure out that Skye was in a whole mess of trouble. He stalked her through the woods, sticking to the shadows, keeping his distance so the men she was with didn’t spot him. His gaze remained glued to her as she navigated another steep incline, heading for the river.
She knew she was in danger.
That was the reason she was leading the men towards the frozen creek rather than deeper into the valley.
He struggled to tamp down the urge to break cover and go to her, had to fight to deny his bear instincts as he watched her, studying her as closely as Karl was as he walked behind her. When her booted feet slipped and she made a lunge for a sapling to stop herself from falling, Knox took a hard step forwards, his heart shooting into his throat as the need to go to her and help her blasted through him.
When Karl grabbed her wrist and saved her, pulled her up onto her feet and kept his damned hand on her, a different urge surged through him.
Knox growled low, the hunger to rush the man and punch him hard in the face warring with a need to shift and claw him. The sight of the man touching her had both sides of him wild with a need to defend her, to get her away from the bastard who still had his damned hand on her as he spoke to her.
He bared emerging fangs at the male, pictured a thousand ways he would kill him once he had dealt with his lackeys, and he wouldn’t be doing it for Lowe or Cameo.
He would be doing it for himself.
For Skye.
He couldn’t see her face, but he knew in his gut that she was scared as she gently twisted her wrist, easing free of Karl’s grip. She was quick to back off when the male released her, reached for the sapling she had tried to grab and turned away from him.
Knox growled again as he caught sight of her face and saw how pale she was against the hood of her black jacket. It wasn’t because she had almost fallen either. Her head turned slightly, gaze sliding towards her shoulder, as if she wanted to look back at the four males who followed her, and then she faced forwards again.
She bravely walked forwards, moving with even more caution now, stepping over roots that snaked across the narrow path that led down into another hollow. Knox lost sight of her as she moved below the level he was on. It was hard to force himself to wait until the last of the men disappeared from view too before he broke cover. He hurried through the trees, heading south from her, to a cliff that overlooked the frozen river. When he reached it, he glanced to his left, spotting Skye and the men a good one hundred feet away through the thick pines. He leaped and dropped to the ground thirty feet below him, landing in a crouch, his ears pricking as he listened to make sure no one had heard him before sprinting through the trees.
Knox stopped when he reached the river, plastered his back against the broad trunk of a lodgepole pine and listened hard. Silence. He reached out with his senses and growled when he placed Skye right at the edge of them. Further away than he had expected.
Still, it made it easier to cross the frozen, snowy surface of the river without rousing suspicion. He eased from behind the tree, his breath misting in the icy air as he studied the river. The snow was deep on it, obscuring the ice, meaning there was no way for him to know how thick it was. The river was deepest in this area, ran swiftly towards the falls just a few hundred feet to his right, closer to the town. Chances were the ice wasn’t thick enough to hold his weight, but he had to risk it.
If he got wet, well, he got wet.
He carefully nudged his foot through the snow, clearing it aside so he could see the ice beneath. It was solid at the rocky edge of the river. A good sign?
He glanced to his left, held his damned breath as he spotted Skye on the ice, her head bent as she shuffled forwards. Gods. If she went under… He didn’t want to think about it. Banished it from his mind. Skye was clever. Swift. She wouldn’t take an unnecessary risk. He knew that in his heart. If the ice looked too thin to bear her weight, she would turn back.
Although.
Knox glared at the four males who waited at the bank, watching her.
Maybe she did take unnecessary risks these days.
What had possessed her to come up into the valley with Karl and his men? She wasn’t working wit
h them, that was for sure, and he had the feeling she wasn’t happy about the situation she had found herself in—surrounded by heavily armed men.
Had they kidnapped her?
He unleashed a low snarl at that thought. If they had, they would die a more painful death than the one he already had planned for them. He growled again, fur sweeping over his skin beneath his black clothing, the urge to shift strong as he watched Skye. If they hurt her, even laid a damned hand on her again, he was going to get imaginative with their deaths.
Really imaginative.
No one hurt Skye.
His heart whispered that he had.
He sneered and tried to ignore it, but gods, it was true. He wanted to deny it, had spent two years pretending it didn’t bother him, but every damned day he had to live with the knowledge that he had hurt her. There was no doubt about it. The way he had left her, it could only have hurt her.
Some part of him had done it to protect her.
The rest had done it because he had been scared.
Now, as he watched her courageously crossing the icy river with four males armed to the teeth following her, he hated himself for being so weak. If he had been strong, had found the balls to face his fears, then maybe Skye wouldn’t be in this mess.
He might have been there at the bar to protect her, or she might have been living with him at the Ridge, far away from Karl and the danger they represented. Safe.
Knox cursed and pushed those thoughts away. There was no use wondering what might have been. He had to deal with what was happening now. He would get Skye safely away from Karl and his men, and then he would apologise a thousand times over, until she forgave him for being a monumental dick.
Maybe being her knight in shining armour and saving her would be enough to make her forgive him.
Saved by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 3) Page 2