Page 2 of My Three Mountain Men

“Okay!” I cried, unhooking my hands and throwing them up in mercy, her irrational behavior terrifying me now. “I-I think there’s some misunderstanding. I didn’t know that you had a contract with them. I only know what I’ve committed to—”

“Don’t give me that bullshit!” Aimee interjected. “You knew exactly what you were doing when you swooped in out of nowhere. You’re a leech, sucking off others’ fortunes! And now you’re sucking Ryan’s dick, too!”

I scoffed in spite of my mounting apprehension. That couldn’t have been further from the truth, and if Aimee knew anything about me, she wouldn’t have come flying at me with all kinds of stupid accusations like that.

“I’ve worked my ass off to get where I am,” I snapped, turning toward the door. “You’re not making any sense. And I don’t even know who Ryan is. You need to leave.”

“Right. It’s just a coincidence that he’s booked here the same weekend that you are then, just after he called it off with me,” she spat.

My jaw clenched, along with the rest of my body.

“You really need to leave,” I said stiffly, struggling to contain myself. My nerves were raw, and my hands shook. The immediate threat had me in fight-or-flight mode, and I honestly didn’t know which way my body was going to respond.

“I’m not leaving until you call FlyGirl and tell them to give me my contract back!”

Her crystalline eyes gleamed with a madness one simply couldn’t detect online—not that I’d ever looked that closely at Aimee’s face before. But up close, her porcelain skin almost seemed supernatural, the grit of her teeth malicious.

It’s not safe alone with her,my gut screamed at me, but that was ridiculous. I was at the Frostpeak Alpine Resort and Spa in Aspen, Colorado. Movie stars and celebrities came here. I’d seen four famous people during check-in. Nothing was going to happen to me.

Why, then, was I so concerned?

Primitive instincts, years of hyper-vigilance, a lifetime of fending for myself—all had honed senses that had served me well. I had to get this woman out of my room, posh hotel or not.

“That’s between you and FlyGirl,” I insisted, backing up, but there was nowhere left to go. My spine touched the wall.

“Wrong answer,” she fired back, grabbing my arm.

“What the—” I started to cry, wrenching myself free, my mouth parting, but before I could finish my sentence, I saw the needle in her hands, the tip plunging toward me.

“AIMEE!” I shrieked as the prick hit my neck, my head turning to avoid impact. The pinch broke the skin, and I began to scream, but Aimee’s hand fell over my face, her nails digging into my cheek as a strange, dizzy feeling overtook me.

“Ammee,” I mumbled, swatting at her. My movements grew sluggish and futile, knees buckling as the drugs took effect, and I slumped forward.

“This is what happens to dumb sluts,” Aimee muttered, releasing me as I strained to maintain consciousness. But whatever she had given me was far too potent, and my eyelids dropped, falling into an abyss of darkness, the likes of which I had never known before.

CHAPTER2

Simone

“You a virgin?” he asked, licking his lips. The smell of sweat and sickly, sweet burning filled the trailer. “You look like a virgin, but high school bitches these days will spread ‘em for anyone.”

Rain poured through the hole in the trailer's roof, the buckets on the floor already filled to capacity. He looked at me again. “I know you can talk, Simmy. I’ve heard you asking yer daddy to sober up lots of times.”

“I’m a virgin,” I whispered.

He grinned, revealing half a set of rotted, cracked teeth.

“Good. I mean, I think you’re a fucking liar, but I’m gonna pretend you are, anyway. It’ll make this more fun.”

He packed the pipe full and lit it, taking a hit off the stained glass. A thick, disgusting cough fell from his lips, his blue eyes glassing over more, scarlet lines zigzagging through the sclera. “Don’t just sit there like a bump on a log, Simmy. Come here.”

I shook my head, my heart in my throat, hands clenched into fists. I knew what was coming next. The rain drove down harder, but suddenly, it turned white, flaky.

It’s snowing in here,I thought, turning my head.

Pain radiated through my neck, a blast of frigid air snaking through my entire body, and I gasped aloud as my eyelids fluttered. The dream faded away, but I wasn’t entirely conscious, either. All around me, blankets of white covered everything as far as I could make out through the blur of my vision.

Was this a dream?

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