Page 43 of Snowed In with Three Mountain Men

They guide me to sit down, and Chuck makes us all a coffee before they finally fill me in on what happened last night. The trap they set, the man they caught, the information they got out of him about what’s been going on…and, when he falters, I can tell there’s still something he’s keeping from me.

“What else did he say?” I press. “Something about me?”

The three of them exchange a glance again, and I feel a rush of frustration.

“I know you’re just trying to protect me,” I tell them, speaking slowly, doing my best to contain my irritation. “But…but I can’t be left out of this, guys. Please. I need to know. I deserve to know what’s happening with all of this…”

I can feel the tears starting to rise again, and I quickly swallow them back. I don’t want them to think I can’t handle this. I need them to know that it’s not just about the horror of knowing that James is still out there and looking for me. It’s about knowing, from the bottom of my heart, that I want us all to be on the same side, and I can’t stand the thought of being left out of my own life again.

Callum reaches his arm around my shoulders and pulls me close to him before he finally replies. “He said,” he begins, his voice low and careful, “that James wants to kill you.”

I close my eyes as the enormity of those words sink in. It doesn’t come as a surprise. Either he would want to kill me, or he would want to make my life so miserable that I would want to end it myself. After what I’ve done to him, it’s a miracle I’ve even made it this far for this long.

“Charli?”

Chuck’s voice pulls me out of my reverie. I blink back tears, and look between the guys once more. These three men—these three men who gave me sanctuary when I needed it most. I still can’t believe how lucky I was to find them, and I can’t imagine for a moment that I would have made it this far were it not for their help.

“You okay?”

I shake my head. There’s no point lying about it. Hearing those words, I’m terrified. My ex, this man with so much power and so much influence and so much brutal, violent obsession—he wants me dead. And I don’t know how much of a chance I have to keep myself alive in the face of it.

“No,” I admit. “I’m not. I…I knew he was going to want to take his revenge, but this…”

I draw in a deep, shaky breath. Dax reaches over and rests a hand on my knee; he hasn’t said much, but he doesn’t need to. I can tell from the blood smearing his knuckles that he’s already physically advocated for me, and that’s where his strength lies.

“This is a lot,” I confess. “But I’m not going to let him get what he wants. God knows I’ve done enough of that in the last few years of my life. I think I’ve earned the right to stand up against him, haven’t I?”

Chuck grins at me. The first real smile I’ve seen from any of them since they got back. He nods. “Yeah, I think you damn well have,” he agrees.

“But I need you guys on my side if I’m going to pull this off,” I warn them. “And that means no more sneaking around and trying to pull off these plans behind my back. Everything that you do, I know about. Same goes for me. Alright?”

“Alright,” the guys echo. I bite down on my lip as I look between them. I still can’t believe I’ve pulled them all into this. On some level, I wish I could face it alone, but I don’t stand a chance against the forces that James has working against me by myself.

As part of this quartet, though? I just might.

“I know James better than anyone else here,” I continue. “And I can use that to my advantage. He’s arrogant—I know he thinks he already has this under control. So we need to lure him into making a mistake…”

“Making what kind of mistake?” Dax asks, cautious.

I pause for a moment. I know they’re not going to like what I have to say next. But I wouldn’t be bringing it up unless I truly thought there was no other way to go about this.

“We need to lay a trap. With me as bait. And get him to spring it.”

“No,” Callum shoots back at once. “No. Not a chance in hell. No fucking way.”

“Yeah, if you think we’re just going to hand you over to him—” Dax begins, but I shake my head.

“That’s not what you’re going to do at all,” I assure them. “We’re going to make it look that way. Make him feel like he’s got the jump on us. We need to think like he thinks, let him believe he has us where he wants us. You can put a tracker on me, a walkie-talkie, anything—he won’t expect me to protect myself like that. But we need to lure him out, not his men, and the only way we’re going to make that happen is if he thinks he has me.”

My breath hitches over the last word. The thought of it, of letting him believe for an instant that he has any dominion over me—it’s enough to make a sick shiver run down my spine. Even in the few weeks that I’ve been away from him, the taste of freedom has been addictive, and having to hand that over, even for a moment, doesn’t sit right with me.

But we don’t have a choice. We can’t risk his men stalking these woods and picking us off until there’s nobody left. I need to play a big swing, and this is the biggest I can think of.

Even if the concern on the faces of the men around me tells me that they wish there was any other way to go about this.

“So,” Chuck replies, his voice taut. “How exactly do we set a trap and make sure you don’t get caught in it?”

I take a deep breath.

---