Page 12 of On the Mountain

“Jesus,” I said, noticing the bruises and scrapes on his hands, but he ignored me.

So…was this all we were doing? Standing here? I took a step, a yelp escaping me as pain shot through my ankle. He groaned, then stood there looking at me like I was an idiot. Did he want to help me?

I tried to put my arm around him, but Crow’s hand shot out, clutching my wrist, stopping me. My good leg nearly gave out, and I sucked in a sharp breath, fear expanding inside me.

“I don’t think I can walk. I’m sorry. I’m not sure how to do this without touching you.”

He shook his head, and for a moment, I thought he was going to walk away and leave me there, but then he swiftly lifted me into his arms, like I was a bride.

“You can’t carry me,” I told him, but Crow ignored me and started walking. He had two bags, a gun, and me as he stomped through the woods, heading back to my car, I assumed. “I walked miles.” Which was a reminder that I’d fucked up and this had been the stupidest thing I could have done. Hell, the fence had ended, and I still couldn’t find his house. “And what about your hands?” They were injured, yet he was going to haul me around?

Like I knew he would, Crow ignored me and kept going. It felt like we were heading a different direction than I’d come from, but it was also dark and I couldn’t see a damn thing. I had no idea how he could, which made my chest get tighter and tighter.

He was taking me somewhere to kill me, or to leave me, and there was nothing I could do about it. And while I was nervous about that, I wasn’t as scared as I knew I should be.

CHAPTER SIX

Crow

I liked the way he smelled—like sweat, sugar, and maybe a little bit of fear. Part of my brain knew him fearing me shouldn’t turn me on, but I figured there was always something about me that wasn’t normal. Maybe I was born with it, or maybe it had been planted inside me by Chosen, and that had been the only thing he’d watered so it continued to grow.

“Maybe you can put me down and just help me walk instead?”

My hands were throbbing, but I was good at ignoring pain. Chosen had trained me well in that regard. I was lucky I hadn’t done more damage than I had.

When I didn’t respond, he added, “Are you going to kill me?”

I continued to ignore him, working my way through the quickly darkening woods. There was a lot to fear on my mountain, and yes, I was one of those things, but right now, I had no plans of killing him. He’d brought me food and defended me at the store. While I didn’t need him or anyone else to take care of me, I couldn’t remember the last time someone had done something nice for me.

“It might look like I’ll go down easily, but I’m a lot tougher than I appear. I’ve been taking care of myself for most of my life, and you won’t be the first man I’ve fought off.”

That nearly made me stumble, thinking about someone hurting him, dimming those already sad eyes and making him suffer.

“Ouch. You’re hurting me,” he said, making me automatically loosen my grip.

Shit. Something was wrong with me. Thinking about someone putting their hands on him had made me tighten my own in anger.

“My name is Cyrus. I work at the hardware store, which you know. You saw me there. Sorry. I ramble when I’m nervous.”

I quickened my pace. Being out here at night wasn’t safe for him, and it would be harder for me to keep him safe in the dark.

“I’m new to Tranquility…you probably know that too. I was raised by my mom. Her name was Cypress. Isn’t that a gorgeous name? She was great. The best person I’ve ever known.”

Shut up, shut up, shut up.

“She was also an addict. Losing her killed me. You would think that would stop me from turning to drugs myself, but it didn’t. I just…couldn’t function in a world without her. It didn’t help that my ex-boyfriend—”

A growl escaped my lips despite how hard I tried to hold it down. I knew what he was doing—he was trying to make me feel a connection to him so I didn’t kill him, but what the little lamb didn’t know was that I had no plans to hurt him.

“Great. You’re a homophobe? Leave it to me to get kidnapped by a homophobic mountain man who doesn’t speak. I feel like Little Red Riding Hood. What was I thinking, trying to bring you food? That was you stalking me the whole time, wasn’t it?”

Tell him. Tell him you’re not homophobic and you’re not going to kill him.

But the truth was, I would if I had to.

I hefted him higher in my arms, which were beginning to burn.

“I’m not really scared. That’s not normal. I don’t know if I believe you want to kill me or not, but either way, I’m not really afraid. I only said all that because that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

---