by Madison Faye
UNWRAPPING HIS MOUNTAIN PACKAGE
BLACKTHORN MOUNTAIN MEN, BOOK 7
MADISON FAYE
Contents
Unwrapping His Mountain Package
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
Mailing List
Also by Madison Faye
About the Author
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2018 Madison Faye
Cover: Coverlüv
Photography: James Critchley
Unwrapping His Mountain Package
Big truck, hard abs, filthy mouth, and dominant af.
The hardest new alpha on the mountain’s got a very huge package.
And this Christmas, it’s all for one lucky lady…
Outlaw. Soldier. Villain. Hero. Smuggler for the mob. I’m whatever the highest bidder needs me to be, and I don’t ask questions.
That is, until a freak avalanche sends me crashing over a cliff up on Blackthorn Mountain, and I find out what—or who—I’m really carrying.
She’s innocent and tempting—the blonde and beautiful little captive I didn’t even know I had. Legs for days, curves that beg for my rough hands, and a sassy spitfire attitude that gets my pulse roaring.
The mountain blizzard has us trapped. Just the two of us in an abandoned cabin, on Christmas Eve, with nothing but our body heat to keep warm. I know she’s off-limits. I know the mob boss who’s paying me wants to sell her to settle a debt. But once I’ve had a taste of Holly, there ain’t no way I’m letting that happen.
She came to me by accident. But I found her. I unwrapped her. I made her mine.
The storm wants to bury us. The mob wants to take her from me.
But she’s my Christmas miracle. She’s my pretty little present, and I’m going to unwrap every inch of her with my teeth.
She was never meant for me. But now, I’m keeping her all to myself.
Looking to heat the holidays up? Grab some cocoa, get cozy, and get ready for all sorts of warm, fuzzy, and hot af.
A totally obsessed alpha outlaw, a sassy stowaway, the mob…just a typical Christmas on Blackthorn Mountain. Hang on tight ;).
As with my all my books, this one is safe, with no cheating and a HEA guaranteed.
1
Dane
Muscles tensed, and my hands tightened on the wheel in a steely grip as my eyes narrowed on the blank white nothing in front of me. Wind howled around the huge four-wheel drive truck, snow and ice and hail and who the fuck knows what else whipping across the windshield.
It was like driving through a goddamn sno-cone maker, and I was right in the middle of it.
Real roads would have been easier. Hell, not going over the fucking mountain would have been, too. But then, you didn’t hire me for taking the easy route. Hell, you didn’t hire me for easy jobs; period.
I gunned the engine, my eyes peering through the haze of frozen white hell blanketing the road in front of me. The road was treacherous. The conditions sucked. To most sensible, rational people, this was suicide — a quick way to get my ass skidding over the side of a cliff. But I had a deadline to make. And like I said, they didn’t hire me to take it easy. They hired me because I got it done, no matter what.
And hey, I’d had worse. No one was shooting at me this time.
The truck shuddered as I cranked the engine RPMs higher. I was pushing this beast to within an inch of its life, but it could take it. The truck was custom built to take a pounding and keep on going. Lifted suspension, steel-reinforced frame, roll bars, and an extended backseat to the cab in case I needed to camp out somewhere a while. It was also bulletproof, but like I said, for this job, I didn’t think that was going to play a part.
A gust slammed into me from out of nowhere, I growled and yanked the wheel, pounding on the gas as I skidded right through the ice slick that almost knocked out my back tires. My eyes darted to the side of the treacherous mountain road, and the steep, rocky, snow-covered embankment down the side to the pine trees below.
I was sure this mountain — Blackthorn Mountain — was beautiful when it wasn’t trying to kill you. But right then, it was me against the mountain, and I was going to show this motherfucker who was boss.
I had a deadline, and I had cargo that needed delivering. And this one was extra important. This one was a special delivery, to a close friend and benefactor of Angelo Capello, head of the Capello Familia. I’d run transport and smuggling jobs for Angelo before, but this one was different. This one had him anxious, and for a hard-as-nails old-school mobster like Angelo, anxious wasn’t a look he was used to.
I had no idea what I was carrying. Didn’t want to, either. I never did. But just the same, this one felt off, and I knew it. This wasn’t the usual guns or drugs. Or if it was, it was a fuckload of guns or drugs. I only caught a glimpse of the huge crate Angelo’s boys loaded into the steel-reinforced covered back of my truck. The back was built like an armored truck, and the only key hung around my neck. But again, something felt different with this one.
Not just different. Off.
I shook my head, narrowing my eyes on the bleak, frozen road ahead, and I tightened my grip on the wheel. There was no room to be thinking of fuck-all except getting through and not falling to my death in the process. Whatever I was hauling, it was none of my business. In fact, I was paid well to assure it wasn’t.
The huge snow tires crunched over the icy snow, and the wedge on the front of the big truck plowed right through the drifts whipping across the road. I was nearing the peak. The tree line thinned, and it felt like I was on top of the fucking world, with the whole white sky roaring around me. I glanced at the dash clock and grinned.
Shit, I might even make it there earl—
It was like a bomb went off. Something hit, hard, and I roared as the truck skidded sideways across the road. Tires screeched and metal whined. My world shrunk to just me, the wheel, and the road. My muscles rippled, clenching as I yanked the wheel hard, but it was too late, and the truck was sliding too fast.
Oh fuck.
There was no guardrail this high up on the mountain road, so it was soundless as the truck skipped over the ice, over the ledge, and then just hit dead air. Time froze, and it was like I was dropping in slow motion, weightless as the truck fell.
And then, I hit, and everything sped right back up again.
The truck slammed down, tipping and rolling, and I roared, the cross-strap of my seatbelt yanking tight across my chest as the whole world went upside down. My head ricocheted off the side window, and I grunted, tasting copper and seeing black spots as the truck flipped once, twice, three more times, tumbling down the side of the whole fucking mountain before suddenly, it caught. Wood splintered and snapped around me as the tree line caught the tumbling truck, and suddenly, it all went still.
At first, the silence was deafening — just ringing in my ears as I blinked, trying to focus. My vision swam, and all I could hear as the ringing started to fade was this roaring sound. And it took me a second to realize it was my pulse, thundering in my ears.
I looked around, blinking. The truck was at a forty-five-degree angle to one side, half buried in snow and jammed against the side of three huge pine trees. My vision swam as I scanned the truck. I ducked to glance out the windshield to see how far I’d tumbled, but I groaned at the pain in my neck. Whiplash, from th
e fall.
I blinked, finding my breath, ignoring the soreness spreading through me as I scanned the dashboard. I looked down and saw my smashed cell phone by my feet, and I swore.
Shit.
The CB radio half crackled to life when I turned it on, but it shorted almost instantly, sizzling and sparking before dying. But then, even if it worked, I didn’t know why there would be a signal on top of a fucking mountain in the middle of nowhere anyways.
Double shit.
The engine was dead, but I had a generator and a space heater built into the thing, if it came down to staying put for a while. And I had food and water too. But not that much. And it wasn’t like anyone was going to be looking for me. Well, Angelo would when I didn’t deliver, and he’d most likely figure I’d run off with his cargo. But even he wouldn’t be looking up here.
My jaw tightened as I stared out through the windshield.
In short, I was fucked.
I was just about to start checking myself for injuries, when I heard it. I froze, eyes darting around outside the truck. The sound came again, and my eyes narrowed.
That wasn’t the wind.
It was screaming. Muffled, urgent, screaming. And it was close.
I yanked my jacket on, wincing at a dull pain in my shoulder and in the side of my head from hitting the window. I pulled the .45 from its hidden holster under my seat, shoving it into the waistband of my jeans as I prepared myself. The door opened after a shove, the icy wind hitting me like a fist, sucking my breath away as I grunted and jumped down from the truck.
The sound suddenly came again. As I turned back to my truck, horrible realization slowly dawned on me.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
I wasn’t carrying guns or drugs. I was transporting a person.
I swore, pushing my way through waist-high snow as fast as I could as I moved to the back of the truck. I yanked the key on its chain around my neck out from my jacket, undoing the lock, gripping the handles, and yanking the door open.
I don’t know what I expected, but I know one thing for damn sure.
…I didn’t expect her.
The girl was shivering. Half naked, wet, scared looking. And gorgeous.
Stunningly gorgeous. Long blonde, golden hair, with this pale snow-white skin that almost glowed in the winter world around us. And big, wide, hazel eyes looked at me with this cold fury. She was practically naked, wearing just a t-shirt and panties, and she shivered, her teeth chattering as they raked across her ruby-red lips.
What the fuck is this?
“Are— Where…” She blinked, trembling, her eyes darting over me, looking past me, glancing up at the crooked angle of the truck ceiling.
Fuck, she was beautiful. Beautiful in a way that took the wind out of me. Beautiful in a way that fucking slayed me, and tore at something inside of me. Beautiful in a way that sent a blaze of heat through me, shaking me to my damn core.
…Beautiful in a way that stunned my military-honed instincts just long enough to not realize it when she suddenly lunged at me, fists swinging, a scream on her ruby red lips.
Her knee caught me in the nuts, and I groaned, doubling over as she rushed past me, jumping into the waist-high snow. I grunted, whirling and shaking my head at the sight of this gorgeous, half naked, and half frozen mystery girl trying to run away from me through three and a half feet of snow.
…Like hell I wasn’t about to chase her.
2
Holly
I’d been cold for hours. My jaw was so tightly clenched to stop my teeth from chattering that it felt locked, and I was so frozen that I was numb.
But not numb enough to stop the pain when my whole world went upside down.
Literally.
I screamed when the vehicle I’d been in for hours suddenly smashed to the side, and then went weightless through the air before it started to roll, and then crash. I screamed at the initial impact, and then it just felt like I kept on screaming until everything came to a thudding stop.
The wooden crate that Angelo’s men had stuffed me in had splintered open during the crash. And when I went tumbling out across the cold, frozen, metal floor of what felt like the back of a pickup truck, the world had spun for a second. And then, I’d started screaming. Screaming and hammering at the frozen metal wall.
Because I was not going to die here, freezing in the back of a crashed truck in the middle of winter. Even if I was pretty sure that dying was better than whatever “Mr. Black” had in mind for me. Because that’s where I was headed. Or, that’s where I’d been headed, before now.
This whole thing had started with a poker game. Well, no. It’d started with me not knowing how to leave my abusive piece of shit boyfriend Tony. But, that’s how abusers work. They make it hard to leave. I guess I’d never really gotten that, even when I heard it from other women, until it was happening to me.
Besides smacking me around and sticking his limp dick in basically anything that moved besides me, Tony worked for Angelo Capello. Yeah, the Angelo Capello. Tony was hardly a heavy hitter in the crime family, but he did work for some really bad people. He also liked to gamble with them.
Now, most people are smart enough to understand how to interact with their boss. If you work in an office, and your boss treats everyone to drinks, you have one, smile, and say thanks. That’s it. But Tony never got that memo. So when he managed to get invited to the biggest poker game of the month and found himself at the table with the freaking head of the whole mafia family, he was an idiot.
Everyone else basically humored Angelo, and let him win. But Tony had to go for it. Tony decided his way to a higher position was to play hardball at the card table with the most dangerous crime boss in the country.
And in the end, Angelo had him so deep in a hole, there was no crawling out.
All the money Tony had in the world wasn’t enough. So he did what any abusive, shitty boyfriend who sees their girlfriend as a piece of property would do.
He offered me as payment.
I’d screamed when they’d come for me that night and yanked me right out of bed. But it was useless. Angelo owned the whole city, and his word was law. I’d almost vomited on the way to his headquarters, thinking the worst possible thoughts of what he had in mind for me. But as it turns out, Angelo didn’t want me for himself.
He had far worse plans.
I didn’t know who “Mr. Black” was, except that it was obviously a fake name. But when I saw the look on everyone’s faces when Angelo told me he was handing me over to him to “settle a debt”, my gut knotted.
…Anyone scary enough to make a room full of mafia captains pale, and anyone who the head of a mafia family owes something to sounded like the last person in the world I wanted to be “gifted to.”
But like I said, Angelo’s word was law.
Gagged and bound, they’d stuffed me into that fucking box and then dumped it somewhere dark and cold. The engine told me it was a truck of some kind, and hours of freezing half to death later, here I was.
I’d long stopped hoping for a miracle to stop me from being sold like cattle to this terrifying sounding mafia guy. But then here was my miracle. A car crash, or whatever had just happened. And I had to try. I screamed and hammered at the walls — after all, if there was a crash, there’d be people around, right? And if I just yelled and pounded long enough, someone would—
The door to the back of the truck suddenly wrenched open, and I whirled, ready to lunge to safety until suddenly, my eyes landed on him.
I blinked, my heart skipping, and for one frozen second, everything went still.
Holy shit, he was gorgeous.
It was his eyes I saw first — these piercing blue diamonds searing into me, sending this shiver through me as they drank me in. Dark lashes, a scruff over his chiseled jaw, and the hint of tattoos peeking out from around the hood of his huge snow jacket.
Good Lord.
Of all the people to come rescue me? Well, yea
h, I’d take the hot one with the sexy eyes any day. Except suddenly, I saw it. My eyes dropped down over the open front of his coat, over his muscled chest, and down to his waist.
…And onto the gun, shoved into his belt.
My pulse thudded, my eyes darting over him, my sore muscles coiling. Fuck. Clearly, it was one of Angelo’s guys. Probably the driver. I glanced past him, seeing swirling snow and blinding white light, and I took a shaky breath. If we’d been in a crash, there was going to be people rushing to help. And even if the driver was the first one to get to me, what was he going to do, tell people to ignore a girl in her underwear screaming about being kidnapped?
All I had to do is make it past him. Just make it past the hot, dangerous mob guy and start screaming for help, and I’d be out of this whole nightmare in a second.
His eyes burned into me, making me shiver with their intensity.
“Are— Where…” I blinked, trying to look as disoriented as possible as I looked wildly around the truck. I saw his shoulder relax, his guard down.
…Big mistake.
I screamed as I charged him swinging my fists. The man moved a step back, hands up and those eyes blazing into me before suddenly, I jerked my knee up as I came flying out of the back of the truck. The man grunted, doubling over as I caught him right in balls before I lunged past him…
...And into snow up to my fucking waist.
I gasped, shock and cold ripping my breath away and sending warning sirens blaring through my brain. My body trembled, clenching, trying to shut down at the sudden cold. And when I glanced around, my heart sank.
No, there was not going to be anyone running up to rescue me. Because we were in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Blinding white snow howled and whistled around me, and I cried out as the sharp swirls of icy sleet stung my bare skin. But when I glanced back and saw the man with the piercing blue eyes and the gun swear as he slowly got to his feet, I knew I couldn’t wait.
It was now or never.
I screamed, lunging with my arms and trying to swim my way through the waist-high snow. My breath came panting out in thick white clouds, my throat burning with cold and my body aching from the snow and the adrenaline.