“There,” I yelled.
Cole was already running straight for it. We reached the abandoned hunting shack, and Bella was barking like crazy. Angela had to be inside, but we couldn’t hear anything.
“Angela!” I screamed but got no reply.
Cole tried to push open the door. “It’s barricaded by something.”
Harley and Dax both tried as well, with no success. Even though they threw their bodies into the door, it wouldn’t budge. The door was solid oak. I frantically looked around for something to break the door down with. I saw nothing, at first, terror of what I would find blinding me. Cole was running around the building.
“Angela!”
“There’s a window,” he yelled, looking for something to stand on. The window was above our heads.
Someone barricaded that door, though…from the inside.
We heard a crash as something shattered. Cole found a log, but it was too big for him to roll over to the window.
“Help me with this,” he yelled.
Just as we ran over to help Cole push the log, Harley yelled something. At first, I couldn’t hear him.
“I smell smoke! The shack is on fire!” he yelled.
Shit, I thought as I took a deep breath. I got a whiff of the smoke, too.
“We need to get inside now!” I screamed. “Angela! Angela!”
Angela
I closed my eyes and began to drift off. Faintly, I thought I heard barking. A dog! I thought. Bella…
Just as I was about to pass out from lack of air, John heard the dog, too. The sound surprised him enough to loosen his grip on my throat. I sucked in as much air as I could before he put his hands around my neck again and squeezed.
“It’s just a stupid dog,” he scowled.
Then, we heard voices. Men were yelling. “Angela!”
Brad! I thought, relieved. I saw the look on John’s face when he heard the men.
“Shit!” he yelled, letting go of my neck.
I slumped against the wall, breathing in the dusty air in gulps. John stated pacing again, trying to decide what to do. The struggle had loosened the tape around my wrists, and I continued to move them back and forth, further loosening it. When he wasn’t looking at me, I tried to rip it with my teeth, but I couldn’t work much since he kept glancing at me.
He turned to me, madness in his eyes. “There’s no way I’m going to let them take you away from me. I’ll kill us both before they open that door!”
He ran to the lantern and picked it up. He looked at it for a minute, thinking. Then he lifted his eyes to mine, a demented grin on his face.
“John, no!” I yelled. I began tearing at the tape on my wrists, nearly severing it as I watched him. “No!” I screamed again, using all my strength to loosen my hands.
He jerked his arm back as if he was throwing a baseball and smashed the lantern against the shack’s door. The fluid inside exploded over the door and began to drip down it. Flames instantly ignited, catching the door on fire.
I screamed as thick smoke began to fill the small space. I could hear Brad and his brothers right outside. Bella was barking like mad, and Brad said my name several times.
I looked around and screamed for Brad. “Brad! Brad! Help me!”
I needed something to use to break the small window I’d spotted above my head. John was pacing as if the room wasn’t filling with smoke. I tried not to panic and focused my eyes in the dim light. I remembered seeing that bow rake in the corner leaning against the wall.
I can get to it, I told myself, watching John closely. I waited until John turned his back to me to pace toward the door. I rolled to the metal rake. I made it to the window just as John turned around.
“No!” he yelled, coming toward me.
I held onto the wooden handle and thrust the metal prongs into the glass of the window. I’d never been so relieved in my life when I heard the glass shatter. I couldn’t get out of the window, but the broken glass let in the much-needed fresh air. Unfortunately, the oxygen also fed the fire. I needed to get out fast if I was going to survive.
I began working on the tape around my ankles. I couldn’t hop out, that was for sure. I took a deep breath and turned, just as John was almost on me. I grabbed the rake and held it out. The edge of the rake scraped John’s chest. He bounced back, surprised, feeling his chest with his hand. He looked down at the blood on his hand.
“You bitch!” He glared at me.
I held out the rake and yelled, “Don’t come near me, you crazy freak, or I’ll stab you!”
He laughed at me. Then he looked up at the window and said, “Nobody can fit in or out of that window. You’re going to die in here with me.” He laughed manically, a long, crazy, drawn-out laugh.
I held out the rake. I stayed right under the window, trying to breathe in the fresh air. There was nothing I could stand on to reach the window, and my legs were still taped together.
I was going to die with him. I started to cry.
My chances of getting away were over as the thick, black smoke started to overtake me.
Brad
I have to get to Angela, I thought, trying not to panic.
The smell of smoke got stronger, and flames leaped from the shack’s wooden door. Harley was trying to beat at the flames with his jacket. I watched in dismay as his jacket ignited, and he tossed it to the ground.
The flames traveled to the shack’s walls on either side of the door. There wasn’t much time left.
“The door will get weaker as the fire destroys it,” Dax yelled. He grabbed a thick branch from a nearby dead tree and tried to ram it into the door without success.
“Door isn’t budging!” Dax yelled.
“No, Harley! You’ll catch on fire!” I yelled at him, rushing to stop him.
Harley shoved me aside and body slammed the door, ignoring the flames.
I heard glass break. Cole was still struggling with rolling the log under the window. Bella was barking frantically at Cole as if to tell him to hurry up. My mind had wandered to the damaged front door, thinking Harley and Dax would break it down.
Shit, I thought and ran to help Cole finish rolling the log under the window.
We got it positioned under the window, and we both jumped up on the log and peered inside. Smoke filled the tiny room, and I couldn’t see Angela, only John standing in the center of the room.
He had blood on his chest. I immediately panicked, thinking it was Angela’s blood. John saw us peering in the window and laughed. It was the craziest laugh I’d ever heard.
“Angela!” I screamed. called out.
Then I heard it. Her small voice from below the window. “Brad!”
I could tell she was weak and in serious trouble.
“I can’t breathe…the smoke—”
“Hold on, Angela,” I yelled to her. “I’m coming.”
I looked at the window. There was no way any of us could fit through it, but the wood frame around the glass was rotted. I began pulling at it, yanking with all my strength.
Cole caught on and helped me. We pulled out the remaining shards of glass and ripped at the rotten wood. With the thick frame removed, it opened the space up considerably.
“Lift me so I can reach my arms inside,” I told Cole.
Cole bent his knee for me. I stepped on his thigh, and he hoisted me up by my ass so I could reach through the window with my arms. I could only get one arm through the window to reach in the furthest.
“Angela, grab my hand! Please, come stand under the window,” I begged her.
“I can’t reach your hand,” she replied, wheezing. “My legs are tied. I can’t get up. I’m right below you. Reach down more, and I’ll grab you.”
I couldn’t see her but heard her. “Push me in further,” I ordered Cole.
With my shoulder pushing through the opening as far as it would go, my head crammed up against the wood, I reached down as far as I could. To my relief, I felt Angela’s hand. She clenched min
e tightly, holding on for dear life. I was able to hoist her up. I had to reposition myself so that I could grab her with both hands.
“Pull me back a little,” I yelled to Cole.
He did, and I was able to reach my other arm into the window, enough to grab onto Angel’s forearm and pull her up to the window.
“Lower me,” I told Cole.
He slowly lowered me, and I pulled Angela through the window headfirst, but her shoulders got stuck.
She gasped for fresh air. Just as I was trying to wedge her shoulders from the window, John grabbed her ankles. I felt her struggle against his grip.
Angela looked me in the eyes. I saw her fear. “Don’t let go of me!”
She bucked and fought, but with her legs taped together, her actions were more like a fish out of water. There was no way in hell I would let go of her. I wanted to beat the shit out of the guy holding onto her legs.
“Kick hard!” I yelled at her. “Kick at him!”
Angela closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and kicked with all her might. John must have fallen because she began to wiggle out of the window toward me.
“Pull me out!” she screamed. “Before he grabs me again!” Tears were falling down her cheeks, and I’d never felt so much rage in my life.
I held onto her arms and worked her shoulders through the opening, then the rest of her body slipped through. As I lifted her out of the window, Cole jumped down and grabbed her, placing her feet on the ground, where she almost instantly fell over. We caught her, and Cole pulled out his knife to get the bindings off her legs while I held her up.
Bella licked Angela’s hand. “Thank you, Bella,” she sobbed, patting her head.
Angela looked at me and wobbled again, even though her legs were free. Before she fell, I took her in my arms.
“I thought I’d lost you,” I said, sobbing into her hair. I was relieved. And I was angry.
Tears falling down her cheeks, she was too week to sob anymore. She just leaned her head against my shoulder. “I’m okay,” she whispered. “I thought I was going to die.”
Hearing her say these words made me cry harder. I held Angela tight to my chest.
Cole reached his hand into the window. “Grab on!”
I picked up Angela and carried her away from the burning shack. I could care less if John died in that fire. When we were away from the smoke, I placed Angela on her feet.
“Can you stand?”
“Yes,” she said, staring at me.
I grabbed her and looked her over good. I saw the bruises forming on her neck and felt the wrath of fury take over me.
If he gets out of that shack, he’s going to have me to deal with, I thought angrily.
“Are you hurt anywhere else? Are you bleeding?” I asked, feeling her body over her clothes, my hands coming back to caress her neck.
“No, I’m okay,” she confirmed. “Just my neck.”
Tears stained her cheeks, and she leaned up and kissed me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and looked into my eyes. “Thank you for coming. You saved me.”
“I’ll come for you. Always.”
She smiled at me.
“I love you,” I told her.
“I love you, too,” she answered, gazing deeply into my eyes.
Angela
We watched as Cole tried to reach in and save John.
“Save him if you can,” I told him. He might be a horrible human being, but he didn’t deserve to die in an inferno.
Dax hoisted Cole up just like Cole had done to Brad to drag me out of the window. Cole positioned himself against the window and reached inside. I heard him yell for John to grab his hand.
“John, come over to the window and grab my hand. I can pull you out!” he yelled into the opening. After a moment, he screamed, “John! John, get up! John!”
Nothing happened, and after another moment, Cole slipped out of the window and jumped down to the ground. He lowered his head, put his hand on his forehead, and shook it. Thick, grey smoke barreled out of the space Cole had just occupied. His face was covered in soot when he looked at us. He walked over to us with a grim look on his face, like he’d seen a ghost.
“He wouldn’t come. He just stood there. Then the smoke overtook him, and he fell to the ground. I guess he passed out. I called for him, but he couldn’t hear me anymore.” He frowned and shook his head gloomily. “He’s gone.”
I inhaled deeply and began to sob. The man almost killed me, but no one deserved what was happening to him. Cole reached out and touched my arm as if he understood what I was feeling.
“Thanks, Cole, for trying,” I choked out.
Cole shook his head and turned to pat Bella on the head. “Good girl, Bella,” he told his loyal companion. Bella wagged her tail and licked his hand.
Brad remained silent.
Maybe it is for the best that John perished in the flames. I shuddered at the thought, and Brad wrapped his arms around me again.
Dax and Harley stood close by, both looking incredibly worried about my wellbeing.
“Are you alright, Angela?” Dax asked me.
“You breathed in too much smoke,” Harley observed. “Are you lightheaded? Breathing in too much smoke can lead to circulatory problems and even a heart attack.”
“Thank you all for saving me. I’d be dead if it weren’t for you,” I said, looking at each of the brothers. “I think that I’m okay. I tried to hold my breath as much as I could.”
“We need to call 911 immediately,” Brad announced, pulling out his cell phone. “Cole, you inhaled too much smoke, too. Both of you need to be checked out. I’m not taking any chances.”
“And the cops need to come up here,” Dax added. “A crime has been committed.”
“Right.” Brad tried dialing. “Shit, I have no service here.” He held his phone up, looking for service. “We need to get closer to the resort so I can get a signal. They’ll need to send a medivac chopper up here.”
A loud noise drew our attention as the shack crumbled into the flames. I stared at what could have been my tomb as it imploded in on itself. Horrified, I imagined John in there and nearly started crying again.
“We need to make sure this fire doesn’t spread,” Brad said. “Let’s throw some snow on it before we leave.”
The brothers agreed, and each of them began kicking and throwing snow on the flames. It worked a little as the snow sizzled into the heat. But the wood was so old, and the fire burned so hotly that the wood was crackling in the flames, adding to the fuel.
“You and Cole take Angela back to the resort,” Dax told Brad. “Harley and I will stay here until the fire burns out. With all these old trees around, I don’t want to take any chances of a forest fire developing. That’s the last thing we need.”
“It’s wet enough out here. I don’t think the fire will spread.”
“You can never tell,” Harley agreed with Dax. “We’ll stay. We’ll catch up to you back at the resort,” he assured Brad and Cole.
Truthfully, I was relieved to get out of there. I thanked Dax and Harley again, and Brad, Cole, Bella, and I headed back to the path.
* * *
The walk back to the path was slow. The snow was deep, and I was very weak. At one point, Brad picked me up and carried me. Once we reached the path, I told him I could walk.
“No, I’ll carry you. It’s not too much further to the resort,” Brad insisted.
“Okay.” I didn’t have the strength to argue with him, and it felt good to be in his arms. The slow motion of his gait lulled me into a near stupor. I wanted more than anything to sleep.
The resort came into view as we cleared the trees. I could faintly see Mary Beth standing on the porch, watching for us. When she saw us, she rushed down the steps to meet us.
“Oh my God, what happened. I saw the smoke!” she questioned us frantically. “Are you okay?” she asked, looking at me. Then she looked behind us to the path, “Where’s Harley and Dax?”
“Mom,
everyone’s okay,” Cole assured her. “Really, you can relax. We are all okay.”
Mary Beth stared Cole’s soot-covered face. “What happened to you? Were you in a fire?”
“No, but Angela was. Brad got her out just in time,” Cole informed her.
“What?” Mary Beth asked, wide-eyed, looking from me to Brad.
“We got her out just in time. All of us. And if it wasn't for Bella, we might never have found her in time,” Brad stated. He looked down at Bella, who was looking up at us, tongue out, wagging her tail. “I owe you a bone, huh, girl?” Brad grinned at her.
“Yeah, you do,” Cole grinned back.
“What happened?” she asked me.
“I’ll tell you all about it,” I told her. “Brad, thanks for carrying me, but I’m okay now.” He reluctantly put me down.
“Come with me, Angela,” Mary Beth said, reaching her hand out to take mine. “We need to get you cleaned up while you tell me what happened.”
“Okay,” I agreed, accepting her hand. Mary Beth led me up the steps to take me inside. I looked back at Brad. He was watching me, worried. “Call 911 now,” I reminded him. “I’m okay to go with Mary Beth.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll be in as soon as I see Harley and Dax come back. Are you sure you feel okay?”
“Yes,” I reassured him.
“Okay.” Then something hit him, “Mom, where are the boys? Why did you guys come down from the lodge?”
“The boys are fine. Right inside,” Mary Beth said, motioning to the building. “One of the skiers came into the lodge and said she saw a lot of thick smoke. That something was on fire in the woods. When I went outside to see, I knew it had to do with you guys. I couldn’t just sit there, so I called Chris to come up and take over the bar. I told him to keep an eye on the lifts over the monitors.”
She turned away from her sons and led me to the employee bathroom off the kitchen. With a wet towel, she wiped my face and neck.
“Clean up,” she ordered me. “I’ll grab you an extra dress I keep in the pantry. Sorry, it’ll be too big for you, but you need to get out of these sooty clothes. And I’ll get an ice pack from the first aid kit for the bruises on your neck. That must be painful.”
Take a Mountain Man Home for Christmas: A Mountain Man Romance Christmas Collection Page 15