“That’s awesome,” Bryce replied, running ahead of the group. Reid and several other kids ran ahead with him as the adults walked toward the meadow path.
When the group reached the path, I was pleasantly surprised how clear it was; Brad and Cole had done a fantastic job. It wasn’t perfect, as the snow crunched under our boots, but it was walkable.
The group was giddy, and everyone was excited to be outdoors. The snow glistened in the pine trees and was incredibly beautiful. We saw several squirrels cross the path, and when we entered the meadow, we saw a small herd of deer. The deer saw us and watched us approach for a moment before bounding off into the trees.
The kids were all excited and ran to the middle of the meadow to start rolling snowballs.
“Angela, come help us!” Reid and Bryce cried.
“Okay!”
We rolled several huge snowballs and then a smaller one for the head. It took all three of us to lift the second snowball onto the first. After we stabilized it, we heaved the head up to its rightful position.
“Carrots and buttons?” Mary Beth called out. She’d brought carrots for noses and buttons for eyes.
The boys ran to grab them, and we created a face for our snowman, a carrot nose and two button eyes. The boys and I stared at him, tilting our heads until Bryce announced, “We should call him Jack.”
“Jack, it is,” I said, nodding. “What about his arms?”
“Snowmen don’t have arms,” Bryce giggled.
“Frosty does,” Reid reminded him.
“Ooh, yea! How about some branches?” he asked, running to the woods to grab two dead branches. He returned with the branches, and he and Reid pushed one into Jack’s side.
“There, now Jack is finished!” Bryce cried in delight.
We’d brought the camera and took turns posing and snapping pictures.
“We should develop these negatives tomorrow,” Reid said excitedly.
“Sure, boys. I can’t wait to see what these pictures look like. Bet they’re beautiful!” I told them, excited as well.
We looked around, and somehow, we’d built our snowman quicker than everyone else. Some people were struggling to lift the big balls.
“Why don’t you guys help everyone?” I suggested. My cloth gloves were soaking wet, and my hands were stinging.
I need to go shopping and buy better outdoor clothes if I’m going to be living here, I reminded myself.
“What are you going to do?” Reid asked me.
“I’m going to walk back to the resort and change out my gloves. My hands are ice cubes,” I told them. “I’ll hurry right back. I promise.”
“Okay, but hurry!” Bryce said.
“I will,” I said, hurrying to the path that led back to the resort. I yelled to Mary Beth that I’d be right back. She nodded her head in reply.
I walked down the path, which winded along the mountainside. One side led to an eventual drop-off, the valley, and the river below, and the other side led into the deep forest. I was thinking about how lovely the snow-covered river looked when I heard a branch snap behind me. I looked back, expecting to see one of the twins following me, but no one was there.
Probably an animal.
I kept walking. My fingers were numb, and I couldn’t wait to warm them by the fire for a moment. Again, I heard a snapping sound, louder, but again, when I turned to look, nobody was there. I began to feel paranoid walking the path alone. I remembered that Brad had said Cole hunted bear. Was a bear following me?
Don’t panic, I told myself, though my heartbeat sped up. Stay calm.
The path curved around a large, natural boulder, and when I rounded it, I heard a movement. I froze, not knowing what to expect.
Someone grabbed me. I started to scream, but a hand quickly covered my mouth, muffling my scream. The person held me tightly against them, and all I could see were green coat sleeves and a grey glove covering my mouth.
I was forcefully lifted off my feet and carried into the trees. I struggled and tried to kick my assailant, but he held onto me firmly, one hand around my midsection, the other around my mouth, holding my head back against his chest.
I tried to bite the hand covering my mouth, but that just made him hold my head tighter. I tasted blood when my lips were pressed hard into my teeth. I heaved my body from side to side, and for a second, his grip loosened. I threw myself toward the ground, but as soon as my feet touched the snow, I was swept back off them again.
The man held on to me tightly as he carried me, but I guess I got heavy because he simply dragged me over the snow. He kept one hand over my head and mouth so I couldn’t scream, and the other was tight around my arms and chest.
I kept kicking, and finally, he stopped and grunted to me to stop fighting him or I would pay for it. His voice was deep but disguised, and I couldn’t place it. I kept struggling, and he grabbed my head harder by my mouth and got his other arm around my throat, putting me in a headlock. He pulled me by my neck through the trees.
I couldn’t get a good enough grip on the snow with my boots to try and stand up. In fact, the snow made it easier for the man to pull me. I was trying to see where he was taking me. He dragged me for several minutes, and I fought the whole time. I hoped he would eventually tire, but he kept on trudging through the snow.
Finally, we reached a small wooden building. The man kicked the door open and dragged me inside. I noticed shelves with cleaning supplies on them, a propane glass lantern, and a box of shotgun bullets. There were some tools, and I saw a rusty old bow rake leaning against the wall. I could tell this place hadn’t been used for a long time by all the dust and cobwebs.
The man pushed me face down onto the ground. He quickly straddled me and pinned my arms under his knees. Facing my feet, he held down my legs, and I couldn’t move. He had duct tape in his pocket and quickly taped my ankles together. Then he taped around my thighs.
Finally, he stood and rolled me over. I tried to lash out with my hands, but he was fast and grabbed my arms and pinned them to my sides. He straddled my midsection, holding my arms down tight with his legs.
He was facing me, so I tried to sit up and fight him, but he pushed me back down by my chest. In the darkness of the shack, I couldn’t see his face. I screamed and screamed, and he didn’t do anything to stop me, which frightened me. If he didn’t care, that meant he thought no one would be able to hear me.
He was too strong and was lightning fast. He grabbed my wrists and wrapped the tape around them before I could struggle enough to free my hands from his grasp. Then he put a long piece of tape over my mouth, ending my cries for help. He lifted me to a sitting position and dragged me against the wall. He slumped my tied-up body against the wall so that my back was leaning against it, and my feet were positioned in front of me.
He grabbed a lantern from the shelf, lit the wick, and the room lit up. I saw John’s face for the first time. I mumbled through the tape, and the sound pissed John off. He stomped over to me and grabbed me by the neck. He lifted me slightly and shook me.
“Shut up, bitch,” he growled at me. “You deserve everything that’s going to happen to you.”
He threw me back, and I hit my head on the wall hard. A tear ran down my cheek. I was terrified.
What was he planning on doing to me?
Brad
I was at the resort on the porch, waiting for the snowman building group to come back. I saw the group emerge from the forest, heading down the path toward the resort. I saw the boys and Mom, but Angela was not with them.
As soon as the group reached the front of the resort, they said their goodbyes and started to disperse. Everyone wanted to change into dry clothes to warm up.
“Hi, Dad,” Bryce called, waving.
“You boys have fun?”
“It was so much fun! Angela helped us build the biggest snowman of all!” Reid answered.
“Speaking of Angela, where is she?” I asked them.
“She came to change her gl
oves and never came back. She should be here somewhere.”
“Maybe she went up to Gram’s house,” Bryce suggested.
“I was just up at our house changing my wet pants. I didn’t notice any footprints leading to Gram’s house, so I didn’t think anyone was up there,” I said, more to myself than to the boys.
The boys just looked at me wide-eyed, not knowing what to say. I didn’t want to worry them, so I told them to go inside and get warm by the fire.
“Put your boots by the door. Don’t walk on the carpets, please,” I reminded them.
I waited for Mom to finish saying farewell to the guests from the group and come up the steps to the porch.
“Where’s Angela?” I asked her, trying not to sound too worried even though I was starting to freak out.
“She left about an hour ago to change her gloves, the boys said,” Mom told me. “I haven’t seen her.”
“She never came back?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No. I assumed she decided to stay here and get warm. It was pretty cold out there.”
“She’s not here,” I told my mom. “I’m getting worried about her.”
My mom’s brows furrowed as she looked around, almost as if she expected to see her. “You don’t think something happened to her on the walk back?” she asked me, her voice filled with concern. “I didn’t hear anything. We would have heard a scream from the meadow. The path isn’t that long. There was nothing out of the ordinary,” she said, thinking.
“I don’t know,” I said, thinking of what I should do.
“Why don’t we look for her? I’m sure she’s here somewhere,” Mom suggested. “I’ll look around the resort. You go up to the house and check for her there.”
“Okay. If you find her, have her call my cell phone so I stop freaking out.” My little joke fell flat as she scurried away, her head swiveling as she hurried into the resort.
I got into the jeep and drove quickly up to the main house. It was empty. Just in case, I checked my house. Nothing. I drove down the driveway to the end of it, passing Cole’s, Dax’s, and Harley’s houses. There was no sign of her, and she wouldn’t be inside any of their houses.
I turned the jeep around and drove back down to the resort. My cell phone never rang. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I got back to the resort and ran up the steps. Mom was standing at the main desk, just hanging up the phone.
She could tell by my face that I hadn’t found her. “She’s not here,” she informed me helplessly. “I just called Dax up at the lodge, just in case Angela wandered up there, and he hasn’t seen her either. I was just about to call Cole.”
“Okay, call him. Tell him to meet me here,” I asked her.
“Okay,” she agreed, dialing his cell phone.
My dread grew. I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Harley’s number. He answered right away. “Harley, can you come down here when you have a minute? Angela’s missing.”
Mom hung up the resort phone and said, “I’ll go up to the lodge and take care of things. All you guys should be out looking for Angela together. Maybe she got lost in the woods on the way back to the resort?”
“Okay, take the boys up with you, please, and keep an eye on them. Don’t let them go outside. There are plenty of guests up there, so everything should be fine. Call me if you need me,” I warned her.
Mom agreed, and I told Harley she was coming up to take over and for him to bring Dax with him. I went outside to wait for my brothers who showed up quickly and jumped out of their trucks.
“What’s going on?”
I filled them in and told them I thought something bad had happened to Angela. “I don’t know where she would be. I just have a really bad feeling about this.”
“Let’s go check where she was last seen along the meadow path,” Cole suggested, thinking a little more rationally that I was.
“Okay, let’s go,” I agreed.
Cole let Bella out of the pickup. “Do you have something of Angela’s?” he asked me. “I taught Bella how to track for hunting.”
I hurried to the jeep. She’d put her tennis shoes in there in case she needed them the other day when we were bartending. I remembered, smiling slightly at the memory, that she’d been wearing super high heels, and I told her she might want to bring more comfortable shoes, just in case. She ended up tossing them in the jeep and forgetting about them.
I grabbed one of Angela’s tennis shoes. Cole took it and let Bella sniff it. “Find her,” he told his German Shepherd.
We quickly walked to the meadow path, Bella leading the way. As we walked, Bella sniffed the ground. Once on the path, we saw lots of footprints from the guests walking to and from the meadow.
“All these prints are probably throwing off the scent,” Cole commented, frowning.
At the meadow, the snowmen silently watched us. Creepy, I thought, trying to see into the trees around the meadow.
“Let’s go back down the path. Both Mom and the boys said they saw her leave by the path. So, we know she was last seen on it.”
This time, we walked slowly and looked for anything out of the ordinary. Cole let Bella smell the tennis shoe again, and she sniffed the snow, searching for the scent. We reached the big boulder, and Dax hollered that he saw something just as Bella whimpered and ran into the woods behind the boulder.
We followed her and saw faint tracks leading into the forest. One pair of boots had trudged through here. And they were dragging something. My heart sank.
“This doesn’t mean anything,” Cole said when he saw my face.
“I hope not. Let’s go,” I said.
We hurried after Bella, following the footsteps. The problem was that the snow was still falling out of the trees, and it had started to flurry again, covering some of the tracks. Thankfully, Bella’s nose knew right where to go.
Following Bella through the fading tracks, I prayed that Angela was safe.
Angela
Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe if I stay calm, he’ll take off my gag, I thought.
I made small, unthreatening murmuring sounds with my mouth and tried to get John to look me in the eyes. At first, he ignored me and went over to the door. He slammed it closed and grabbed a two-by-four sitting against the wall. He pushed the board into some slats nailed into either side of the door. The board barricaded the door, not allowing anyone to get inside.
I kept making small sounds, and finally, he looked at me, scowling. “What do you want?” he growled.
I mumbled. This agitated him more, and he ripped the tape from my mouth. Tears welled up in my eyes as I cried out.
He pointed his finger in my face, his expression monstrous. “If you scream, I’ll knock you out. Then gag you again so you can’t do it when you come to.”
Trembling, I promised, “I won’t scream. But can we talk?”
“What do you want, Angie? I told you you’re going to get what you deserve,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Why, John? Why are you so mad at me?” I asked him in the nicest voice I could muster.
“Why?” he yelled. “You ran off. You hid from me! And that man you’ve been hanging around, fucking? Do I need to go on!”
“I work at the resort,” I tried to reason with him. “That’s all. They asked me to stay and help out during the snowstorm.”
“Save it, Angie. I saw you with him. He was at your house at all hours of the night. Don’t tell me you were working,” he said in a nasty voice. “No, you were fucking.”
John’s eyes narrowed as he talked about Brad being at my house. He was filled with rage and jealousy. I was afraid he was going to kill me.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked him, my voice a whimper I couldn’t help.
“I’m taking you with me. Away from this place. As soon as I can get us back to the car,” he informed me. “But if you fight me or make it hard for me, you’ll be sorry.”
I could only hope that Brad had noticed I wa
s missing and was looking for me.
John picked up on my thoughts. He grabbed me by my jacket collar and pulled me up to a standing position. He thrust his face into mine and said angrily, shaking me, “Nobody is coming for you. This shack hasn’t been used for years.”
He stared into my eyes, and I saw pure evil. I tried to stay calm but feared he would kill me. He shook me hard, causing my teeth to clack together, and I thought he might hit me. He struggled with his emotions for a few seconds before dropping me onto the floor. I maneuvered until I was sitting up again.
He turned from me and paced back and forth as if deciding what to do next. As he paced, he got madder and madder. I could hear him breathing hard. Then, all of a sudden, John hustled over to me and grabbed me again. I flinched when he reached for me.
John lifted me and asked, “Why, Angie? Why did you leave me for him?” He didn’t wait for an answer. His face was bright red. He was huffing and puffing. “If I can’t have you, no one can. Don’t you know that?”
I gasped as put his hands around my throat. He pushed his body against mine and shoved me against the wall. I could feel his stale breath on my face. He wrapped his hands around my neck and slowly began to squeeze.
“John, no, I’ll come back with you,” I wheezed.
John grinned and tightened his hold. I couldn’t breathe at all as his hands dug into my throat, cutting off my airway.
Brad
This is going too slow, I thought, irritated.
“Cole, we have to hurry,” I yelled to him.
Cole was practically running behind Bella with me, Dax, and Harley following in close pursuit. “I am hurrying,” he assured me. “Can’t go any faster than Bella’s nose.”
The tracks weaved in and out of trees, and without Bella, we would be going a lot slower, trying to follow them ourselves. Plus, they were getting harder to see.
Just as I thought I saw something through the trees, Bella let out a shrill bark. She burst into a run, and we struggled to keep up with her.
Take a Mountain Man Home for Christmas: A Mountain Man Romance Christmas Collection Page 14