Page 2 of Cold as Hell

She shivers and shakes her head sharply. Her brain is zipping all over the place, and she needs to…

What did she need to do again?

Her aching bladder reminds her, but when she looks at the forest, something else nudges at the back of her mind.

She heard something. That’s why she stumbled.

She peers around.

No one’s out here, and even if there were, it’d just be someone heading home from the Roc.

Why isn’t she seeing people heading home from the Roc? She’d left at closing, and there’d still been others behind her.

She checks her watch.

Pasttwelve-thirty? How is that possible? The bar closed at midnight.

Her watch must be wrong. Even if it’s not, hearing someone out at one isn’t a cause for alarm in Haven’s Rock. They’d just be heading to or from a lover’s bed, the lucky—

Wait. That’s why she’d had a second drink. She’d been flying high because one of the new residents, Tish, has been making what seems like a concerted effort to “bump into” Kendra as often as possible. Kendra thought she might catch the right vibes, but also feared that after nearly a year of celibacy, she was seeing what she wanted to see.

Damn it, her brain is like a terrier tonight, chasing everything that runs across its path. Forget this nonsense. By now, there has to be an empty stall in the bathroom.

Kendra takes a step toward the residence, and the next thing she knows, she’s flat on her back with no idea how she got there. She pushes to her feet.

Something is definitely wrong. Two drinks do not cause blackouts.

Is she having an allergic reaction?

In college, her first thought would be that someone slipped something into her drink. But this isn’t college, and she didn’t just walk out of a bar full of strangers. There are seventy people in Haven’s Rock. Dose a woman here, and you’ll get caught.

Hell, it’s not even a remote worksite filled with guys who might think that’s a perfectly fine way to get laid, especially if the woman you’re eyeing “claims” she’s not into men. Kendra had narrowly avoided that once on a remote job, saved by a guy who’d caught the offender tipping something into her drink. It’s one reason Kendra had joined Yolanda’s construction team—it was seventy-five percent female. Which, to be honest, made her happy in more ways than one.

Kendra smiles… and then she remembers what originally prompted that memory and the smile evaporates.

Wasshe dosed in the Roc?

No, she was just arguing that she couldn’t have been.

Stop thinking. Start moving. Get her ass inside and lock her damn door—

Crunch.

Kendra wheels just as something slams into her back, and her first and only thought isThis is it.Someone hit her from behind, and now, instead of spinning and slugging them, she’ll slip and fall. Or she’ll just black out. Because someone put something into her drink, and that is not fair.

It’s not fucking fair.

At least give her a chance to fight. She isn’t very good at it, and she isn’t big or strong enough to power through, but at least give her a literal fighting chance.

She doesn’t slip, though. Or black out. She even manages to half spin before another blow comes. This one knocks her face-first into the snow. She manages to get one hand down in the slush, ready to push up, when her attacker grabs her feet andyanks so hard that she face-plants in the snow again. She tries to flip over, but she’s being dragged.

Someone is dragging her into the forest.

Scream!

She opens her mouth, but time jumps again, and now she’s in the forest and there’s a hand over her mouth.

Bite! Kick! Scream!