Stranded with the Mountain Man

by Aislinn Kearns

  Elijah stopped and turned. “What do you mean?”

  She pulled up beside him. “I mean…how did he know I was on the plane? How did he find the plane? How did he find your cabin? You don’t have a phone, so you didn’t tell anyone I was with you.”

  He frowned down at her, thinking. “Right,” he said, then stared over her shoulder at the direction they’d come from. The direction Ray would be following them.

  “Maybe he put some kind of tracking device on me,” she muttered bitterly. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  Elijah smiled indulgently at her. “It’s not that. I’ve touched every inch of you. I know.” His gaze heated as if remembering doing exactly that, warming her from the inside out. If they weren’t halfway up a mountain in the snow, Gia would have thrown him down and had her way with him.

  One last time.

  Tears pricked her eyes and she turned away from him, following his gaze up the path. She hoped she was pregnant. That she’d have something to remember him by.

  Of course, she’d tell him if she was. But he hadn’t seemed interested in making their relationship work back at the cabin. Perhaps she could rent a house near town, and he could visit once a month on his supply runs. But could she bear to see him when she wasn’t with him? If he wanted a relationship with his child she supposed she’d have to lock away her heartbreak and accept it.

  He’d be a good father.

  She blinked away tears.

  If only he hadn’t been the one to find her. He’d still be living his contented, simple life in his cabin. If she could make the choice, she’d go back in time and fix it all for him, so he hadn’t lost everything. At least then he’d be happy, which is all she ever needed for him.

  Even if she wished he was happiest by her side.

  She sighed and stared into the trees. No movement, no Ray. Maybe he wasn’t even following them. For all she knew he’d helicoptered off the mountain and waited to ambush them in town.

  “Aaron,” Elijah breathed.

  “What?” Gia said, spinning around. She winced at the movement on her ankle, digging her staff into the snow to relieve the weight on it.

  “It must have been Aaron. He’s the only tracker good enough in the area to have found my cabin.”

  Gia frowned. “But he’s your friend. He wouldn’t lead a lunatic to your door, surely.”

  He stared at her. “Would he have known he was a lunatic?”

  Gia thought back to the way strangers reacted to Ray. No one had seen the dark depths she’d known were there. No one had been as scared of him as they should have been. He was a man good at presenting a charming surface to disguise the depravity beneath. “Maybe not,” she admitted.

  “Or, from what you said, Ray used violence to get what he wanted. Maybe he threatened Aaron.”

  She nodded. Also a possibility. “I didn’t see anyone else up at the cabin,” she mused.

  Elijah stared off in the direction the cabin was in. “No,” he agreed. “And he never would have stood by while Ray set it on fire.” His jaw was tight.

  “What are you saying?” Gia asked, but a chill ran down her spine, and not from cold.

  “If Aaron is the one who helped Ray find my cabin, then he’s probably dead.” His fists clenched at his sides.

  Gia stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. When he didn’t pull away, she sank deeper into the hug until he raised his hands and pressed her closer, burying his face into her beanie.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. This was her fault, all her fault.

  And she didn’t think Elijah could ever forgive her for it.

  Three hours later, Gia’s exhaustion made her stumble. Again. Walking with a limp was more tiring than walking on two strong ankles. Her feet dragged and tripped against the uneven ground beneath the snow. The snow itself didn’t help, the resistance pulling at her ankle, causing even more pain.

  She attempted to lift her feet out of the snow with every step, but it tired her faster.

  She didn’t want to call a halt, or tell Elijah how badly she was doing. They needed to keep moving, or Ray would catch up to them. He was probably already gaining on them, considering how slow they’d been going.

  They broke through the trees onto a plateau of crisp snow. A cliff dropped off twenty feet away, and beyond that was one of the most beautiful sights Gia had ever seen.

  Mountains spread in every direction. They soared above and dropped off below into a snowy, tree-filled canyon. The sun sat low on the horizon, ready to dip beneath the peaks. Its orange glow strengthened with every second.

  She stopped for a second to take in the view. It settled deep into her bones, and she knew now why Elijah loved this place more than anything.

  All her fears and worries fell away in the face of such grandeur. Elijah must have noticed she’d stopped walking, because he turned back to her. She smiled at him and returned her gaze beyond his shoulder. He came up beside her and followed her gaze.

  “It’s so beautiful,” she told him. “I can see why you love it.”

  “It’s home,” he said simply, then wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

  They allowed themselves to enjoy the view for a few minutes more, then reluctantly started forward again.

  Elijah led her to a thin ledge cut into the cliff face. It was barely wider than she was, and the drop to her left was at least one hundred feet. She took half a second to prepare herself. It was all the time she’d allow herself. If she thought too much about what was about to happen next, she’d chicken out.

  She took a deep breath, then stepped down.

  Her head spun at the drop to her left. She planted a hand onto the wall of rocks next to her and paused. She didn’t like heights. It’s one of the reasons she’d never like airplanes.

  But she couldn’t think of that now.

  She took another step, and another, gritting her teeth against the pain in her ankle. It was worsening, she knew. By walking on the sprain, she risked damaging herself permanently. But this was life or death, and she didn’t exactly have much choice.

  And then, at the worst possible moment, her ankle gave out with a sickening stab of pain. She fell forward on the narrow ledge, stumbling into the wall at her right and then overcorrecting and tipping backward.

  She fell onto her backpack, her head off the narrow ledge with the dizzying drop beneath her. She swallowed, breathing through the pain and terror to calm her racing heart.

  But the nightmare wasn’t over.

  The ledge beneath her crumbled under her weight, sending showers of rocks and dirt plummeting towards the earth. She tried to scramble forward and away but her backpack had raised her too far off the ground to get a solid grip. She had no purchase beneath her hands and nowhere to go with the rock face pressing in on her.

  Panic seized her.

  She was going to die.

  Black terror swam over her vision, blocking out everything but the worst sensations. Her pounding heart, her hands scrabbling uselessly at dirt, the echo of stones tumbling down the cliff face.

  And then she was yanked away from the edge and into a solid wall. No, not a wall. Elijah’s chest.

  She clung to him as he leaned back against the rock face, holding her as close as he could. His heart fluttered in panic beneath her ear and his breath bellowed from his lungs.

  “Shit,” he muttered. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

  Gia shivered uncontrollably, both from the cold and the adrenaline rushing from her system. She laughed through chattering teeth. “I’ll try not to.”

  But the terror hadn’t left her. There was every chance exactly that would happen again and her heart squeezed in panic. It was clear the landscape they were in was as deadly as Ray, if not more so. If they weren’t careful, this mountain would be their death before he even found them.

  “Can you continue?” Elijah asked.

  Gia hesitated for a long moment, pushing away the fear that clutched at her at
his suggestion, obliterating all rational thought. She nodded, even though she wasn’t convinced it was true.

  Elijah reluctantly released her, and Gia held onto the wall for balance. She’d lost her staff somewhere in the fall, but didn’t want to search for it in case she glanced over the edge and got dizzy again.

  Carefully, she put her injured foot on the ground. The second she added the slightest bit of weight, pain ricocheted through her and the ankle collapsed beneath her. Elijah was there instantly, holding her upright.

  Gia blinked back tears. “I don’t think I can walk on this leg,” she told him apologetically. A sob escaped her, and then another, from mingled pain and guilt and self-pity. They’d die out here because of her stupid ankle. Something so innocuous in the city could turn so deadly out here away from civilization.

  Elijah set his jaw. “You should have told me it was that bad.”

  “And what could you have done? Carried me down this slippery, uneven slope, so we’d overbalance and both of us would plummet to our deaths?”

  Tears spilled out now, freezing on her cheeks. She wiped them angrily away and glared at Elijah. She knew this wasn’t his fault—he’d been wonderful and done everything he could—but he was the only target for her fear and anger and shame.

  “I’ll find another way,” he said.

  “There is no other way. You can’t carry me over every kind of terrain.”

  He glared stubbornly. “There are other ways. They take longer, but if we work quickly we can be out of here before Ray catches up.”

  Gia blinked away her tears, his words shocking her into logic. “What?”

  “There’s a place near here where the drop is only forty feet or so. I can lower you down, then come down this way myself and meet up with you.” He hesitated, staring down into her eyes. “It’s not over. It won’t ever be over, okay? Trust me.”

  She nodded immediately. “I do. I do trust you.”

  “Good.” He nodded in satisfaction. Then, he bent to pick up her staff and handed it to her. “A few more steps and you’ll be safe at the top. I’ll hold you.”

  He wrapped an arm around her from behind. She moved slowly, carefully, using the staff and Elijah’s solid body for balance. It was slow and painstaking and terrifying, but they made it back to the top and Gia collapsed in a heap on the snow, overcome with relief.

  “I’m alive,” she said in amazement, staring out at the beautiful view beyond.

  Elijah grinned down at her. “Thank God. I swear I nearly had a heart attack when you were half off that ledge.”

  She nodded, grateful for his steadiness in the face of fear. She’d never been that close to death before, and would be more than satisfied never having to be ever again.

  Then, Elijah sobered. “We don’t have much time, because this will take a while. I want to be long gone before Ray catches up.”

  Gia sat up. “How can I help? Will you wrap the rope around me or…?” she trailed off at the awkward expression on his face. “What?”

  “I don’t have enough rope. What I use is for snares.”

  Gia’s jaw dropped. “So what are we going to do?”

  “This is why I said it would take time. I have to make more rope.”

  Oh, dear.

  Chapter 23

  Kill. Gia.

  Kill. Gia.

  Kill. Gia.

  Step after step he repeated the words until they no longer had meaning. He knew now he was sick. His feet had rotted and blistered in his wet boots. His mind could no longer concentrate on anything but the simplest of tasks. His leg was so painful he wouldn’t be surprised if it rotted off, too.

  He ran a fever. Not that he knew how to tell, but he definitely had one. He saw things that weren’t there, including his traitorous wife.

  This was all Gia’s fault. Even if he died out here, Ray refused to let her live. She’d taken too much from him, and he needed to see her punished.

  Dusk was falling, bathing the mountain range in a beautiful pink-orange glow. Not that Ray cared. All he wanted was to find his wife. He couldn’t rest, couldn’t sleep like his body begged him to do. If he stopped now he’d never get up again.

  He’d been in dangerous situations most of his life after inheriting his father’s criminal activities and turning them into an empire. But none of those had prepared him for death at Mother Nature’s hand. He’d rather face down a room of suits with semi-automatics than take one more step in this miserable, freezing snow. Men, at least, he was familiar with. He’d talked his way out of situations like that more times than he could count.

  But this mountain refused to be charmed or manipulated by him. And when he’d resorted to begging for his life, she’d replied with silence.

  That’s how he knew he was destined to die up here. Freezing, rotting, and before his time, he’d die far away from anything he knew.

  Except his bitch of a wife.

  He’d take comfort in her death. Enjoy it. The bear she was with would try to stop him, but Ray had one more bullet in the chamber for him.

  Kill the giant, his wife’s lover.

  Then, kill his wife.

  Ray no longer cared if he lived to tell the tale, and a man who no longer feared his own death was unstoppable.

  Gia appeared in the distance. Ray ignored her. Another illusion brought on by his fever. But she didn’t shimmer and fade as he got closer. Real?

  The mountain man wasn’t there. Fake?

  He stumbled to a stop and blinked, forcing his mind to work. She sat in the snow, hands working diligently at something. He took a few steps forward. She still didn’t disappear. She was real. Solid.

  And then, the man appeared. The one who had been between his wife’s thighs, and Ray knew he’d found what he hunted. He groped for his gun.

  The man looked up and spotted him.

  Everyone froze.

  Chapter 24

  Ray had found them.

  Gia swallowed in fear. She dropped the partially-made ropes she’d braided into the snow and struggled to her feet, keeping her gaze locked on Ray the entire time. She kept her face blank so he wouldn’t know she was injured and in pain, but couldn’t stop a wince.

  The sun sank low behind her, casting the swathe of snow in a brilliant coral light. It would be dark soon.

  Ray looked dreadful. His face was pale and blistered. A bruise formed around his right eye. His clothes were soaked through and torn in places, revealing cuts and scratches on his skin. They were untreated, his skin was blue with cold, but he hadn’t made any effort to sew up the gaps or protect himself.

  “What happened to you?” she blurted out. Her slick, urbane husband was gone. It had been a few weeks since she’d seen him, and in that time he’d changed into a completely different person. She barely even recognized him.

  He raised his gun, swaying, and held it in her direction. “You,” he spat. “You happened to me.”

  His arm shook, aim skewed. He didn’t appear to notice.

  Gia froze in fear. All the times Ray had terrorized her flashed before her. All the times she hadn’t fought back. And the one time she’d fled instead of confronting her fears.

  Elijah stepped between Gia and the bullet. She tried to push him out of the way, but he refused to move his solid bulk. She hopped to the side, and Elijah repositioned himself.

  “Don’t take a bullet for me,” she pleaded, holding on to the waistband of his pants to keep herself upright. He’d already lost so much because of her. She didn’t want him to lose his life, too.

  Ray fired.

  The report from the gun echoed through the trees.

  Gia squeezed her eyes shut, unable to see the man she loved getting a hole torn through him by a speeding bullet. Elijah sucked in a breath. The bullet thumped as it hit its target.

  But Elijah didn’t fall.

  Gia cracked her eyes open to see Elijah, whole and healthy before her. The bullet had landed harmlessly in a tree a few feet away. Ray stared down at h
is gun in confusion, still swaying slightly. Then, he shrugged and let the gun fall from his hand to lie in the snow.

  He unsheathed a knife from his hip. Gia gasped, Elijah still didn’t move.

  All Gia could think about was that knife slicing into Elijah’s beautiful skin, killing him. She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t stay frozen in place while Elijah died for her, wouldn’t run and allow him to die in her stead.

  “Ray,” she said, calling attention to herself. She limped to the side and snatched up her bag. “This is what you want, isn’t it?”

  His eyes snapped to her. Elijah hurried over to place himself in front of her, but she stumbled forward, holding him off.

  “If you get your money back will you leave us alone?” she pleaded.

  Ray grinned. “I’ll kill you, then take the money.”

  “Why? Why do you need me to die?” she pleaded, her heart pounding.

  “Because I’m up here on a fucking mountain. My feet are rotting. I haven’t slept in days. I had to wipe my ass with moss—more than once. And it’s all YOUR FUCKING FAULT,” he roared.

  With that, he charged forward, his knife pointing towards her. Gia dived out of the way, but her injured leg gave out with a sharp pain and she collapsed into the snow with a thud.

  Elijah grabbed Ray as he ran past, immediately putting him in a chokehold. But Ray still had the knife. He flailed and then stabbed behind him, embedding it deep into Elijah’s thigh.

  Elijah bellowed in pain and let go of Ray, stumbling back as blood spread across his pant leg. Gia’s heart dropped. That better not have hit an artery or she’d tear Ray apart with her bare hands and take pleasure in doing it.

  “That’s what you get for screwing my wife,” Ray yelled. His eyes were wide and far crazier than Gia had ever seen them.

  Elijah swung his fist, landing a solid blow to Ray’s stomach. “And that’s what you get for beating her,” he gritted out. Gia’s heart warmed at Elijah’s defense of her.

  She slowly pushed herself up onto her feet, not putting any weight on her injured leg. She picked up the bag, the only thing she could reach. It wasn’t particularly heavy, filled only with paper, but it was better than nothing.