Page 5 of A Mountain Man Christmas

What’s more, she was pretty sure it had something to do with the man she was after.

From what she’d gathered so far, it was hard to finger Theophilus Hill as a magic user, even if he was a supernatural, but right now, Lyla was willing to believe anything. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the plane had suddenly shuddered just when she believed she’d caught him. If the prickly little voice in the back of her mind was correct, Hill was responsible for the plane crash. He’d realized she was still hot on his trail and somehow sabotaged the flight to evade her.

For a second, she wondered if she was simply grasping at straws, trying to come up with an explanation where there was none. But wasn’t it just like Theophilus to doom an entire plane full of innocent civilians in order to escape justice? The guy had literally murdered thirty golden agers in that retirement home. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time a criminal put innocent people in danger just to evade capture. Theophilus was simply more unhinged, more dangerous.

And she was willing to bet her last two protein bars that he was still alive somewhere on this mountain. Tracking him down remained a priority, second only to her own survival.

“All I want for Christmas,” she sang drily against the cold wind, “is to get the hell off this stupid mountain.”

And Theophilus Hill’s head on a platter.

Her teeth chattered suddenly. She supposed she looked a sight, covered in snow from her hair to her eyebrows and coat. Her thick clothing was barely enough to keep out the cold. She trudged on, gritting her teeth. When she found Theophilus, the bastard was going to wish he’d never bothered those geriatrics. Maybe she’d force him to lick the handcuffs right after she slapped them on his wrists and watch him try to unstick his tongue from the icy metal. A wide grin so warm it nearly quelled the cold tugged at her lips at the thought.

For now, she needed to find some shelter and start a fire.

Her stomach growled again, reminding her that she wasn’t going to survive much longer. Lyla gave herself a mental kick. She should’ve remained at the crash site long enough to gather any supplies she would need. In her defense, it hadn’t occurred to her then that she would be spending several days on this mountain. She’d been too focused on getting away from the plane before something else happened. Now, here she was, slowly wasting away as the days went by.

It was no surprise that her mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts. Thinking was a sort of escape from her reality if she was being truthful with herself. She’d been ruminating for the past couple of days. A part of her couldn’t help wondering if this was part of losing one’s mind. Shehadbeen out in the cold for days, not to mention she’d had nothing to fill her belly but some protein bars, nuts, and water from a stream farther up the mountain.

Pretty sure I already lost my damn mind several years ago,she quipped with a smirk.

She gripped the tree branch harder, fighting the urge to lean against a tree for a moment to catch her breath. The woods stretched only a bit farther. Beyond that, she had no idea what to expect. Besides the cold and her rumbling stomach, she hadn’t exactly come across anything deadly, but there was no telling what kind of dangerous creatures lurked on this massive mountain.

Whatever they were, she assured herself, they couldn’t possibly be worse than Hill.

In all her years as a bounty hunter, she’d never come across anyone so full of dangerous surprises. Going after Hill was like playing Russian roulette with an M1 carbine. But as much as she understood the danger of merely trailing the guy, she understood herself better. She wasn’t going to let Hill go. She’ddo everything in her power to catch him and turn him into the authorities. It was only a matter of time.

Time she barely had.

Get to safety first, she reminded herself.Then you can hunt him down.

For tonight, she would try to set up camp. Tomorrow, she’d find a way off this mountain.

“That’s the spirit, Lyla,” she muttered.

If there was one thing she’d always been great at, it was solving problems. Whether it meant tracking down supernatural scumbags or making sure she didn’t die of starvation and hypothermia, she had a penchant for fixing problems when they came up. When she thought of it that way, her current situation wasn’t so terrible after all. It was just another problem that needed to be solved.

She had just stepped out of the woods when a dark shape appeared in the corner of her vision. In the split second before she glanced in its direction, Lyla’s heart hammered against her chest. Was it an animal? It looked too large for one unless it was some sort of monster. It had to be a human.

Pausing in her tracks, she turned slightly to face the newcomer. It was a human, alright. Her eyes widened. Could it be someone else from the plane? Whoever they were, they were headed downhill. It was hard to make out much—the person had to be at least fifty feet away, their body covered in snow.

Her heart fluttering with a mixture of excitement and anxiety, Lyla broke into a sprint, ignoring the dull ache in her back.

“Hey!” she puffed, nearly tripping over her own feet. “Hey—wait!”

Either the other person couldn’t hear her, or they didn’t care to stop and glance in her direction. They continued running, and so did Lyla, her tree branch clutched in her hands like a lance.

She drew closer…and nearly froze in the snow as the running figure became clearer in her vision. It was a man; that much was obvious now. She couldn’t see his face, and he was still covered in snow, but there was no mistaking that dark hair, those massive arms, those broad shoulders…

Chapter Two

When in Doubt, Hit the Escaping Man With a Stick

Whump!

The rock seemed to come out of nowhere, jutting through the snow so that Tristan Harrison only saw it at the last minute. His entire body trembled with the impact, and he sailed several feet through the air before landing hard in the snow.

“Aargh,” he groaned, certain he’d broken something. He wasn’t sure what, but it didn’t matter right now, not with that frantic voice in the back of his mind screaming,Run!

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