Page 2 of Collision of Winters (Hillcroft Group #4)

Kayden Winters

“ T his is called kidnapping,” I gritted out. “I’m being held hostage.”

Chris chuckled. “A hostage who can leave whenever he wants. Cool it with the drama, Kayden.”

Leave whenever I wanted? Was he fucking serious?

As if the flight to Nome hadn’t been enough, how about the second flight in a bush plane to a place that didn’t actually have a name?

And now a merry road trip in an off-road vehicle straight out onto the frozen tundra.

How in the actual fuck was I gonna leave ?

I clenched my jaw and stared out the window.

My brothers were overreacting. I hadn’t “lost it” for shit. I wasn’t “out of control.”

So I’d gotten into a few fights, and I’d spent a measly three months in jail because the judge had it out for me.

I couldn’t believe this was happening.

I felt like such an idiot too, for thinking Chris and Wade had wanted to hang out with me. I’d heard of their cabin in Alaska so many times. They came up here to fish, unwind, hunt, and nurse combat trauma.

Then we’d landed in the middle of nowhere, and Chris had informed me that I was here to get my shit together.

Fuck him. Fuck both of them. I couldn’t even call Dad for help. There was no service up here.

What did they think was gonna happen? I’d do some manual labor and magically lose all my anger?

Maybe I could convince Wade to take me home—or at least back to civilization. He wasn’t necessarily nicer than Chris, but we had a bond of sorts. And way more in common.

I’d been angry when the Winters family had taken me in years ago, too, and Wade had been there for me when he hadn’t been busy burning himself out.

An hour or so later, we arrived at a small forest in an area dotted with massive boulders, and I could see a cabin nestled in the tree line.

“Welcome home, kid.” Chris killed the engine and jumped out.

This wasn’t happening.

I jumped out too, and I was immediately assaulted by cold winds that reeked of the ocean.

It was dead out here.

Of all the places to have a cabin, they’d chosen the barren tundra of western Alaska?

How did you even come across a place like this? Granted, around the cabin, with its forest and cliffs and boulders, life almost looked cozy. There was a stream, a shed, a fenced-in dog yard, a carport, some patches of grass…but the rest? Nothing. Shrubs and rocks and no-man’s-land.

In the carport stood two four-wheelers, two snowmobiles, and a Jeep like the one I’d arrived in.

“Don’t worry, you won’t find any keys.” Chris smirked at me.

I gave him a flat stare and shouldered my duffel. “But I can leave whenever I want, right?”

He grinned. “Sure. Ocean’s about two klicks that way.” He pointed west. “You’ll find our dock there. Two boats. But I can’t promise there’s much fuel.”

Go fuck yourself.

Just then, someone emerged from the cabin some hundred feet away, and it was obviously Wade.

He stood on the porch with a cup of what I presumed was coffee.

Could I convince him?

I hadn’t seen him since before I was arrested, and I knew he’d been disappointed.

Chris was more… Well, he had two sides to him.

He was either a grumpy fucker who acted like he was being charged by the word.

And then the other side—a hell-raising loudmouth.

When he yelled at me, all was well. I was the same way.

I could be loud and whatever. But Wade was stone-faced and unyielding. A rock that couldn’t be moved.

Then again, he was also fair and easier to talk to, so it was a toss-up.

Four dogs, all Huskies, barked when Chris and I crossed the stream.

“I built this.” Chris knocked on the rail of the bridge that was wide enough to drive a vehicle across. “Took me a whole summer.”

“I already knew you were slow.”

He let out a laugh—and didn’t take the bait.

They never did. They were both significantly older than me and had more experience. Wade had recently turned forty-four, and Chris was…forty for another few months, I was fairly sure.

I was turning twenty-six next week, and boy, was I looking forward to a wild party with tons of presents and guests.

Or, a likelier scenario, Wade woke me up with a pat on the head and a yawned, “Congrats.”

Fucking hell, it was cold. I was half surprised the ground wasn’t covered in more snow.

Chris jogged up the steps to the porch and greeted Wade with their usual forehead-to-forehead touch. Meanwhile, I wanted to murder them both.

“I’m surprised you didn’t need my help once you landed in Anchorage,” Wade noted. Tall as ever, that one. Tall and almost stocky. Solid. A little too easy on the eyes…

Chris chuckled. “Kayden was under the impression it was going to be a guys’ trip, so I let him believe that until we landed near the O’Connor retreat.”

Anger and embarrassment clouded my senses, and I stomped up the steps to get this shit over with. Chris was leaving immediately, and I wanted him gone.

“Yeah, my bad for thinking you finally wanted to spend some time with me,” I stated. “Won’t happen again.”

Chris’s forehead creased with confusion. “Kid, you’re the one who moved halfway across the country. If we’d known what was going on, we would’ve intervened before you got your ass thrown in jail.”

Wade didn’t say anything.

Whatever. They had no clue.

“Just tell me how long I’m gonna be here for,” I replied irritably.

Wade cleared his throat and threw the last of his coffee out on the grass. “That’s up to you.”

I rolled my eyes. That wasn’t an answer.

“If that were true, I wouldn’t be here right now,” I said.

They didn’t respond.

Not only did Chris leave within an hour of dropping me off, but Wade headed out too. Something about fishnets. He took off with a four-wheeler and gave me the same promise Chris had. I wasn’t going to find any keys to the vehicles, and they couldn’t be hot-wired.

Maybe I could find matches and burn the whole fucking place down…

I threw my duffel on the bed in the bedroom, anticipating a bitch fight with Wade already. It was a nice cabin; I could admit that, but it was on the small side. Classic log cabin, one story, with a kitchen and combined living room area, one bedroom, and one bathroom.

He could sleep on the couch.

I brought my toiletry kit to the bathroom, only to come to a full stop.

That wasn’t a fucking toilet. Not a normal one, anyway. I lifted the lid and huffed. It was one of those composting toilets, wasn’t it? Fucking great. Wade could forget about me emptying the tank. It was a miracle it didn’t already reek in here.

Annoyed, I took a quick tour of the cabin, and I wasn’t getting any happier. No power, no heat, no running water. A water tank sat on the floor under the kitchen counter, which needed to be refilled manually, and all the heat and light came from the fireplaces and battery-operated lanterns.

Wait. There was no shower.

How was I gonna wash up in the morning?

Oh God, what kind of hellhole was this?

No TV, of course. No music.

I was gonna die here.

One day in Alaska, and I was ready to sell the state to Canada.

The porch was frigid, but the winds didn’t reach the area. That was something. The cabin was sturdy as fuck, and the ceiling extended across the whole porch.

They’d built this place. As if they didn’t have enough skills.

I’d never make it out in the field. My “honorary” brothers and my dad all had their impressive pasts in the military, in one way or another. Me, on the other hand? I hadn’t even made it through boot camp.

I wasn’t like them. I’d be useless in a war, and I couldn’t build anything.

My dream job had been in logistics, preferably in the Army, but since I’d failed basic training, I’d floundered. I’d become a jack-of-all-boring-trades instead. Waste management, maintenance, delivery services, retail, security guard at a fuckin’ mall…

I swallowed hard and peered around for any glimpse of Wade, but no such luck.

I was so mortified.

And they wondered why I’d moved? How fun was it to show up to dinners and be the only one who couldn’t hold a job?

When I turned toward the door, I idly wondered what was under that tarp. One side of the porch was occupied by a table and four chairs, and then there was the other side. It was too large to be a grill.

I lifted the tarp, and my eyebrows, and uncovered a fucking bathtub. Was Wade serious? I pulled the cover away completely and stared at it. It was a big bathtub with one of those wood burners attached to the side.

This was how Wade got clean? By heating up water for hours and taking a bath outside?

Yup, I was gonna die here.

It was almost dark by the time I heard an engine running outside.

I’d gotten as comfortable as I could on the big couch, with four blankets, and my phone was running out of juice. I had a power bank for one full charge, and then I’d have nothing.

I’d scrolled through photos and played games…

I’d deleted some apps too.

The joys of not having a signal.

The dogs greeted Wade by barking up a storm, and I heard him talking to them.

I’d actually missed him, but it felt like a bad time to admit that.

I’d always liked him. Sometimes a little too much. Or way too much.

It was harmless.

He was the one who’d made me accept I was gay. And I’d been so relieved whenever he’d broken up with a boyfriend. They hadn’t been good enough for Wade anyway.

Last but not least, we were both involved in kink. Not the same communities, of course. That would’ve been awkward. I didn’t know if he was even part of a community.

On second thought, I wasn’t either. Not anymore. Everyone I knew in Dallas had witnessed my arrest, and I hadn’t heard from them since.

Wade climbed the steps outside and soon entered the cabin, and he glanced around before his gaze landed on me.

“We have no food,” I said.

“We have plenty of food,” he replied. His feet remained on the doormat as he reached over and set a container of something on the kitchen counter.