Page 15 of Snowbound with the Santas

Despite my light tone and weak attempt at humor, it only seems to alarm the woman more, judging by how her eyebrows raise, so I immediately switch tactics.

“My name is Nick. Nick Moore. I’m a wellness retreat operator, and you’re balls deep in the Austrian mountains at my friend’s cabin. His name is Archer. Archer Davis. He’s the one you could probably hear chopping wood outside.”

The woman doesn’t move, and the aura of fear flowing from her only thickens with each passing second. No wonder. I’m acutely aware of how terrifying this must be for her to wake up in a cabin with strange men in the middle of nowhere. There’snothing I can say that will put her at ease. I can only show her we mean no harm.

“My friends and I were out on a hike last night when the storm swept in with no warning. We got a bit turned around and stumbled upon your crashed Jeep. Seeing the door open, we knew someone must have tried to wander through the snow, and it was a stroke of luck that we found you down the incline. You were unconscious and injured, and with the severity of the storm, we only had one choice. So we brought you back here where we knew we could take care of you and treat you. I admit, at first, we thought you were dead.”

It wouldn’t be the first time we’d stumbled upon a dead tourist in the mountains who'd ventured out by themselves and taken a wrong turn. The mountains are unforgiving.

Her hand brandishing the phone begins to waver and the sharpness of her gaze softens a fraction.

“You’ve been unconscious for two days. We had to remove your dress, I’m sorry, but I was as respectful as I could be.”

The woman gasps and her other hand clutches at the covers, drawing them close to her body.

“You said friends,” she says and her voice quavers. “Who else?”

“The only other person here is my other friend, Frankie Green. He’s the one who found your phone and purse in the Jeep. I hope the vehicle had no sentimental value to you because I’m pretty sure you won’t be seeing it again until the summer.”

“No,” she replies, her gaze falling away from mine. “It’s not even mine.”

My heart skips a sharp beat. “Was there someone else in the car?”

“No, no. It was just me. I was alone.”

A lone woman in the mountains wearing a dress like that? It’s painfully obvious that she was running from something sincethere’d been nothing about her that night to suggest she’d been drinking.

“Where am I?” she asks sharply, her glittering eyes snapping back to me. “Where’s the ski lodge?”

“You’re pretty far north in the mountains. I don’t know what caused you to drive this deep at that time of night during a snowstorm, but you left the ski lodge miles down the mountain. You’re in no man’s land now.”

Her face pales drastically, and I immediately curse myself for using such a phrase. My goal is tonotscare her and I’m doing a terrible job.

“I’m sorry. I simply mean that you left civilization behind. There’s nothing up here but wilderness.”

“Why didn’t you take me back to the lodge?”

That is a reasonable question. I slowly lower my hands.

“For one, I didn’t know the state of any internal injuries you might have sustained. And the lodge is miles down the mountain. The storm you got lost in has effectively cut us all off from everything. I’m sorry. I know how terrifying that must sound, but I assure you, we’re not going to hurt?—”

Suddenly, a crimson stain on the newly moved sheets catches my eye.

Blood.

Surging forward, I grab the foot of the covers and wrench them swiftly off the bed.

“Hey!” the woman yells. “What the fuck are you doing?”

The bandage on her right thigh is rapidly turning red as I stand there. She must have ripped open her stitches when she was moving around. Judging by the thumps I heard, she’s likely unsteady on her feet.

Ignoring her sharp bark of protest, I scoop the woman up into my arms. She’s just as light as she was that night, and shesettles easily into the bridal carry, even though she twists in my arms and drives her elbow into my shoulder.

“What the fuck!” she screeches. “Put me down! Put me down right now!”

“No,” I snap back as tightly as I dare. “Just hold on.”

I swiftly carry her out of the room and down the narrow hallway toward the kitchen. The moment we reach the large wooden table, I set her down on it and immediately catch her wrist when she makes a dash to escape.

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