Ice Burn
Stone Cold Fear Book Three
K. M. Fawkes
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
K. M. Fawkes Mailing List
Also by K. M. Fawkes
Copyright 2021 by K. M. Fawkes
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.
All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1
Pete stared at the door that Hilda had just gone through, dragging Merle after her like he was some sack of potatoes that didn’t need to get up and walk on his own. Pete caught his lip in his teeth and felt his fingers twitching to reach for the cold, hard metal in the back of his waistband.
Be still, he told his fingers firmly. Be cool, be patient. This wasn’t the time for them to act without his approval.
If they twitched too heavily, they’d give away the only shot Pete and Marie had at getting the fuck out of this newest mess.
This was the time for Pete to slow down, think, and plan more quickly than he’d ever planned anything in his life.
He blew out a breath and forced his shoulders to come down, telling himself to relax. Just breathe. Just sit for a second. He’d never been good at patience, but right now he had to exercise at least a little bit of it. Because good plans came from thinking through all the options rather than just rushing forward the moment you had the freedom to do so.
And in that moment—right when he’d started to relax and let his brain get to work—Hilda poked her head back around the corner, eyes narrowed right at him.
“Don’t get any bright ideas,” she spat. “You do anything stupid and I’ll kill you without a second thought.”
“Yeah, I heard you when you said it before,” Pete ground out, his own eyes narrowed as well.
Hilda took her time staring at him before she disappeared again.
And this time, Pete didn’t start relaxing until he heard the lock click in the door. True, she had the key and could unlock it at any moment.
But not without cluing him in to the fact that she was coming.
“What a bitch,” Marie muttered, moving to stand next to him. “I can’t believe I actually liked that breakfast she cooked for us. Think she’s really gone this time?”
Pete watched the door, all his energy bent on listening, and when nothing else happened, nodded.
“She must be,” he said. “She’s got to get Merle to a medic.”
“And report to Thomas,” Jack added from the next cell down. “She’ll do that before she even thinks about Merle or his wound.”
Pete, who had forgotten for a moment that Jack was there, whirled in surprise—and then remembered that he and Marie weren’t in this hellhole by themselves.
No, they’d been locked in here with the guy who had twisted the key in the lock the first time they’d entered these cells. Jack, the man who’d been tasked with jailing them when Thomas and his minions—the people who ran the cultish town of Clearview—had discovered those damned journals that Marie had insisted on writing… and then bringing with them.
The journals that had said quite clearly that she was a journalist. And that Pete was in the military. Though not really, when you thought about it. Just the National Guard.
But that had, evidently, been the trigger that had pushed them into ”unwanted” territory, as far as Thomas Wilson was concerned. Because he’d taken no time at all in telling them that he now didn’t trust them—despite the fact that he’d been the one to rifle through their stuff—and that he thought they were either government plants or military freelancers.
Either way, he’d been sure they’d sought out the podunk little town of Clearview with trouble in mind. Like they’d come here on purpose and had evil plans for the place.
The truth, of course, had been something a whole lot different. They’d just wanted a night of shelter. Food. Maybe a hot shower. Definitely thicker clothing.
They’d never intended to stay. And they certainly weren’t government plants. Though that hadn’t stopped Thomas from telling Jack to lock them up in the local jail.
Luckily for them, a gang of bikers had chosen that minute to attack the town, evidently operating on an old grudge. And Jack had taken about ten minutes to screw up—again—and give Pete the opening he’d needed to get himself and Marie out of the cells.
And speaking of Jack…
Pete stalked up to the bars that separated their cells, his fingers reaching back toward the gun, but pausing at the last minute.
Jack was locked up in here with them. That didn’t mean he was a friend. Not yet. No reason to let him know that Pete had managed to grab an extra gun—and then hide it—when he and Marie had rushed through the armory earlier.
“She’ll go to Thomas first?” he asked.
Jack was from this town, and though that made him a quasi-cult member, it also meant that he knew exactly how things worked around here.
If Pete was going to execute another escape, the things Jack knew could sure come in handy.
Jack narrowed his eyes and looked Pete up and down. “Sure will. But don’t think I’m going to tell you anything more than that. I’ve already gotten in trouble for telling you too much.”
Well, that much was true. Pete had known Jack for about twenty-four hours and already knew that the guy ran his mouth too much.
He also knew that he had a soft spot for Marie. Soft enough that he’d risk everything to protect her against the man intent on raping her.
And Pete meant to take advantage of both of those things. But not yet.
Instead of answering, he turned to Marie. She was looking… furious, he saw with relief. She was so angry that her face was flushed with red, her mouth drawn in tight and her eyes flashing.
“What?” she snapped when she saw Pete looking at her.
When Pete didn’t answer, she huffed out an angry breath of air.
“Are you going to answer me, or what?” she asked. “Or are you just going to stand there staring at me like I’m some sort of museum display, here for your pleasure?”
She struck a pose at that, the back of her hand thrown dramatically across her forehead, and tipped her head back.
Pete, shocked at the sudden move, stifled a laugh. “Just surprised that you haven’t gone to town on the guy who tried to take you down, I guess.”
Marie sent a disgusted glance at the other occupant of the room, one cell over.
“I would, but he’s already dead. At least I got to kick him before she did that.”
She sent a side eye and a sly grin Pete�
�s way, and he marveled once again at how much tougher she was than he’d originally given her credit for. When they’d been locked up in Mueller Max together, running from convicts who wanted to either kill them or use them as bait—he still wasn’t sure which—he’d thought she was nothing more than a nosy journalist with terrible judgment.
Since then, he’d started to think otherwise. She was a terrific shot, to start with. And she had a better mind than many of the men he’d worked with in the National Guard.
“So how are we going to get out of this?” she suddenly asked, bringing the meeting abruptly to order. “Because I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel much like staying in this town any longer. And I definitely don’t want to hang out in this room with the dead guy.”
Pete looked over at the man—who had been a biker, and was now a hunk of meat missing most of its head—and shuddered. He was definitely, definitely tired of seeing splattered brains.
Join the National Guard, they’d said. It’ll be easy money, they’d said.
He was betting they’d never expected him to be sent to Alaska to deal with weird weather shit, and then to find himself stuck escorting a psychopath to jail—which then exploded around him courtesy of some more weird weather shit and the complete lack of tech and electricity ever since.
“You and me, both,” he said.
Then he turned his mind to her question, and the potential answers. His eyes shot to the window in the wall and noted the rapidly fading light out there.
“Going to get awfully cold out there with the sun going down,” he noted quietly.
Marie frowned and followed his gaze with her own. “And that’s not going to be our problem if we’re in here. So what’s your point?”
Pete made sure she could see his back when he lifted the tail of his shirt just enough to show the gun.
“My point,” he said quietly, “is that it’s going to be awfully cold out there. But it’s also a whole lot easier to escape a town that’s trying to keep you prisoner in the dark.”
Marie watched his hand at his waistband, her eyes going suddenly wide and dark at what she saw there. And when her gaze came back up to his, her mouth was already opening with what he was positive was going to be either the most brilliant idea ever…
Or something that was going to get them killed.
Chapter 2
He moved before she could say anything, slapping a hand over her mouth and pushing her back against the bars of the cage, his hand around her waist to keep her from hitting them too hard.
He was fully aware of the fact that it brought his body flush up against hers when she hit the bars. He was also aware of the very unexpected thrill it sent through his blood.
But neither of those things mattered. Not right now. All that mattered was that she not say anything to give away what he’d just showed her. Because he knew Marie well enough at this point—after what hadn’t been more than a week, now that he thought about it—to know that she spoke first and thought later.
And right now, that wasn’t good enough.
He hadn’t decided yet whether Jack was going to be a friend or a foe. True, the guy was in jail for the things he’d done, but he was also a cult member. He could actually be in trouble… or he could be a plant, sent here to see whether Pete and Marie said anything the rest of the townspeople could use against them.
Pete wasn’t in the mood to find out.
“Shh,” he hissed quietly. “No one else knows what you and I know, got it?”
He made his eyes wider and twitched them quickly over his shoulder, reminding her that they weren’t the only ones in the room. A moment later, her eyes followed his and narrowed at the other man in the room.
Then they turned back to Pete’s, all joking and suspicion gone, and she nodded.
His hand dropped off of her mouth, now that he knew she knew how important it was to stay quiet for once in her life.
“We’ve got some planning to do,” he told her quietly. “And I don’t want anyone else knowing what we’re thinking until we’re ready for them to know. Even better if they never get the chance to find out at all, you get me?”
“Roger that,” she said, her tone matching his, her demeanor all business now. “What do you have in mind?”
Pete’s eyes went to the window once more, taking in the state of the light out there as his brain ran through the possibilities, and he took a step back, putting some space between them again. Giving his brain the room it needed to think.
“Full dark is going to be the best time to bust out of here,” he started.
“Going to make it a whole lot harder to find our way, though,” Marie answered quickly. “Unless you also have a flashlight shoved down those pants of yours.”
Her mouth suddenly twitched at that, and Pete almost groaned.
“What?” he muttered.
She shrugged. “In any other situation, it would have made a good joke,” she said. “Is that a flashlight or are you just happy to see me?” Then the levity fell off her face. “But all joking aside, do you have a flashlight? Because without one…”
“Without one, it’s going to be pretty fucking hard to know where we’re going,” he agreed. “You’re right.”
Then Marie tipped her head, her forehead creasing. “Hard to know where we’re going… unless we have someone who knows the town front and back, right and left, in and out.”
Her gaze met his… and then shot over his shoulder.
To Jack. The guy who had locked them up in these cells the first time, because he was part of the town itself. And though he might not be part of the leadership—especially after he’d fucked up and let them back out of these cells—he did know the town.
God dammit. He hated when Marie thought of things like that before he did. But she was right.
“Can we trust him, though?” he responded. “I have my doubts.”
After all, he lived in Clearview. And that meant he was part of the cult. He was going to be in a world of trouble when Thomas got a hold of him, and Pete didn’t doubt that it could mean Jack’s life.
But was Jack strong enough to stand up to the man who’d been telling him what to do for who knew how long? Or would he go running right back to what he knew, regardless of how much it was going to punish him?
Marie’s mouth twisted in thought. “Do we really have a choice? We know we can’t stay here. We’ve got to blow this joint—and preferably before Thomas comes for us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to listen to another one of his lectures about disappointing him.”
“I’m more concerned about the guns he’ll bring with him, personally.” The guy had been coldly furious with them the first time, when he found out Pete was in the National Guard.
Now they’d been caught trying to steal from the town. Somehow, Pete guessed that would be even worse. He wasn’t going to count on them getting out of another confrontation alive. Thomas himself was too freaking paranoid.
His eyes flew back to the window. It was nearly dark out there, now. If they were going to do something, they needed to do it quickly, before Hilda got Merle across the street and into Thomas’ presence. Before she got orders to do away with their prisoners.
And if Jack had been right about her going to Thomas first, that meant they didn’t have much time left.
Of course, that didn’t answer the question of whether or not they could trust Jack to get them out of this mess.
“Right,” Marie said. “So basically, we know we have to get out, and we don’t have much time to do it. It’s getting darker by the second out there. And colder. So are we going to trust Jack or not? I say yes.”
“Of course you do,” Pete said, quasi-disgusted. “You trust everyone. Even those convicts in Mueller, who were obviously trying to kill us.”
She tipped her head and raised one eyebrow. “In case you’re forgetting, some of those convicts got us out of there. Or at least created a big enough distraction that we had a chance to esca
pe.”
Right, that much was true. Not that he was going to admit it.
“Besides,” she continued. “He tried to stop that guy who attacked me. And he brought us our coats and boots during the gunfight. I figure if he was a bad guy, he wouldn’t have done either of those things.”
Right, that was true, too.
“Doesn’t mean he’ll have our backs when it comes down to it, though,” he noted, turning so that he could see Jack—who was watching them intently, obviously realizing something was up. “Doesn’t mean he’ll cover us if Thomas tells him to do otherwise.”
He let his voice rise in tone a bit, just to see how Jack would react to hearing them talking about him.
“But you have to figure he knows that he’s in trouble,” Marie said, allowing her voice to rise as well. “He’s got to know that Thomas isn’t going to have his back.”
“I think you just like him because he has a crush on you,” Pete said quietly.
Marie elbowed him in the ribs for his trouble. “That just means he’ll take even better care of me, if it comes down to it,” she replied quietly.
He could hear the smile in her voice. And he hated the shot of jealousy it sent through him.
“Plus,” she continued, “he’s an insider. He knows the town. He can tell us how to get out of it. And he must know the area. Could come in handy.”
“It could, indeed,” he replied.
And with that, his mind was made up. Jack might not agree to it, of course, but…
He walked quickly to the other side of their cage, where Jack was standing up against the bars, and yanked the gun out of his waistband, resting the nose of it against Jack’s forehead.
Stone Cold Fear | Book 3 | Ice Burn Page 1