Page 8 of Snowed In with Three Mountain Men

“You need to rest,” he orders me firmly. “You can’t go anywhere. You need to?—”

“You need to get your hands off me!” I exclaim, pulling away from him. I’m distinctly aware that I’m still in my wedding dress—I guess I should be glad they didn’t undress me, but it feels like I’m still ready to be dumped back at that altar the first chance they get. Like James is waiting to pick up where he left off, and there’s no chance I’ll be able to get out…

“We’re trying to help you, fucking hell!” Dax interjects, his voice laced with irritation.

“Then let me go,” I plead, turning to face him as I sit on the bed. “I’m not asking you to help me. Just let me out of here, I’ll leave, I’ll get back in my car and drive away and it’s like I was never here in the first place?—”

“You’re not going anywhere, not in that car,” Chuck tells me. “It’s fucked. You’re lucky you didn’t wind up with anything worse in the way of injuries?—”

“Then let me get out there and hitchhike!” I explode. “Please, you don’t understand, the longer I stay in one place, the easier it’s going to be for him to find me?—”

“Who? For who to find you?” Callum prompts me. And then I fall silent. Something about the way they’re all looking at me…it’s like they already know something. And it could just be my paranoia-addled mind, it could just be the stress of everything that’s happened, it could be my inability to accept that I might truly have escaped James once and for all…but I turn on them.

“Like you don’t know,” I spit back. “You’re working for him, aren’t you?”

“For who?” Dax fires back impatiently.

My eyes widen. “So youareworking for someone?”

“That’s not what he said,” Callum protests. “Dax, shut up, let me talk to her?—”

“No, if she thinks we’re working for someone, then we deserve to know who,” he snarls, taking a step toward me. There’s anger flashing in his eyes, and I recoil without thinking. Not that I should be letting these fuckers think they’ve gotten the better of me, not that I’m going to let them intimidate me. I’ve already made it so far away from James, I won’t go back now, no matter what he’s planned, no matter how he tries to stop me.

“I don’t need to tell you,” I snap. “You already know. Don’t you? He sent you after me. Bring me out here, and lock me up until he could get to me, that’s what he told you?—”

“None of us have any idea what you’re talking about,” Callum tells me, agitated.

“Then let me go,” I beg him, turning my attention back to him once more. “If you’re not working for him, let me out of this place, now, please. I need to go. I need to?—”

“You can’t go out there, not in this weather,” Chuck tells me, shaking his head.

“The snow?” I ask, furrowing my brow. “I know it’s pretty bad, but?—”

Chuck quiets me as he gets to his feet and yanks the curtains open. Outside, everything is white, coated in a heavy blanket of snow as far as the eye can see.

My heart sinks.Crap.Suddenly, I feel as though I’m a rabbit in a trap, desperately trying to shake free before the hunter who laid it finds me. I don’t know if I can trust these guys. I don’t know if they’re telling me the truth—is it really that bad out there, or is this just their way of spinning the story to convince me it’s not worth getting out on the road again? Is James on his way right now…?

Dark shadows form at the edges of my vision, and I gasp down a breath—I feel as though I’m going to pass out.

“Here, here, lie down again,” Callum mutters, and he guides me toward the bed, slipping a pillow behind me. I’m lying on top of the covers, in my wedding dress, surrounded by three triplets—one of them the last man I loved before I got with James. And I thought today couldn’t get any stranger…

“What are we going to do about her?” one of the men—Dax, I think—asks, as I squeeze my eyes shut and try to bring myself back down to earth.

“I don’t know,” Callum replies. And even though it’s been so long since the two of us last saw each other, I think I can recognize something in his voice—concern? Maybe. Either way, I’m not sure I buy it, but it’s not as though I have much of a choice. The longer I lie here, the more my body hurts, and I can tell that the impact of that crash is only just starting to make itself clear.

“Do you really think there’s someone after her?” Dax presses.

“I can’t see any other damn reason why someone would be on the road in this weather if they weren’t,” Chuck cuts in. I want to plant my hands over my ears, but I know it won’t make any difference. I’ll still be here, trapped, stuck, unable to get on the road again and put some more distance between James and me…

“Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here,” I cut in, voice blunt. I manage to open my eyes again, to find all of them staring at me like I’ve just dropped out of the international space station and into this cabin.

“Then tell us what you were doing on the road,” Dax demands, lifting his chin and narrowing his eyes at me pointedly.

I glare back at him. “I’m not just going to tell you everything.”

“Why the hell not?” he shoots back. “What are you trying to hide?”

My lips part with anger. Why does he justassumethat there’s something I should be ashamed of?

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