Page 16

KHALIL

L eaning over with one hand braced on a tree, I try to tune out the sound of Seth retching a few feet away. It doesn’t work, and I end up emptying my guts for the second time this morning before I see Thorin stumbling back to camp from wherever he’d gone to expel the effects of Aurelia’s cooking.

“I think that bitch poisoned us,” Thorin says under his breath so that only the three of us hear.

Seth wipes his mouth and starts weakly singing the hook of “Poison” by Bell Biv DeVoe.

Fucker.

We’re currently in a camp surrounded by military personnel, local deputies, and civilian volunteers from three neighboring towns. Right after Aurelia lost consciousness the night we found her, Sheriff Kelly radioed to inform us about the plane crash and that we’d be leading the search for the popstar princess and her entourage. Other than Aurelia, her head bodyguard, Tyler Westbrook, was the only one we’d found alive.

And so close to our cabin, too.

After that, it was easy to piece together how we came upon our infuriating captive.

Tyler and Aurelia must have wandered too far searching for the emergency transmitter and had gotten separated in the avalanche. The same one that had lured us from our cabin that morning. Aurelia had probably tried to find her bodyguard and found us instead. She’d taken shelter in our cabin and waited for us to come home and rescue her.

So hopeful.

So na?ve.

So ours.

What hasn’t been easy is keeping the search away from our cabin and later explaining why we insist on the long trek back to our side of the Cold Peaks every night. But with each passing day, Aurelia’s chances of survival dwindle, along with everyone’s morale.

Not much longer now.

Ironically, anyone with the authority to question why we’ve kept the search off our mountain has been too busy fielding questions from the press and assuring the public that we’re leaving no stone unturned to know the actual details of the search.

Another week and it will be called off with a promise to keep looking if any new evidence surfaces.

“You boys okay?” Sheriff Kelly asks from a safe distance. The lawman’s weathered cheeks are red from the cold, while his thick salt and pepper mustache is flaked with freshly fallen snow. “That don’t look too good. Maybe you boys should head home. We can handle the search today.”

“No can do, Sheriff. Our window of finding this girl alive is closing fast,” I say, spinning the same web of bullshit we’ve been weaving since we first got the call. “This chick seems like she meant a lot to people. Hate to let them down.”

“It’s just a little food poisoning,” Thorin adds. “We’ll be fine.”

“Food poisoning?” the sheriff exclaims with amusement. “You boys ain’t been making good use of those books my wife sent you?”

“Of course.” I force a smile. “I think we just ate some bad meat. We’re good to go. Let’s find this princess so we can all stop freezing our asses off.”

Sheriff Kelly eyes us closely and then takes his hat, made of muskrat fur and beaver pelt, off. His face is pinched, and he looks more than just a little frustrated as he shoves his fingers through his thinning hair. “I appreciate the dedication,” he whispers as he steps closer, “but can I speak freely with you three?”

“Sure.” Seth shrugs, but his eyes are glazed and distant as he daydreams about Aurelia for the umpteenth time today.

I know because it’s been the same for me.

I’ve never been so eager to get back to the cabin and hole up inside. Usually, I’m clawing at the walls to get out.

“It’s already been a week, and a fancy, city girl like that…” The sheriff blows out a breath and shakes his head. “The best we can hope for is a body to give her family. It will give them closure, permission to grieve and move on.”

It’s all I can do to keep my grave expression and not smile.

And then Thorin surprises the shit out of us all when he says, “If I can be honest, I think you’re underestimating her.”

“How so?” The confused pinch in Sheriff Kelly’s brow is genuine.

“Yeah, how so?” I echo with more than a little bite in my tone than necessary.

Thorin is seconds away from blowing our cover, and all because he chooses now to get defensive over a girl he wanted to feed to the wolves less than a week ago. It’s impossible for his timing to be any worse.

“I was there for the briefing, and it was thorough.”

Thorin’s right. It was.

The detailed glimpse into Aurelia’s life had been a real eye-opener. Let’s just say I’d slept with one eye open while lying next to her last night.

“A girl like that doesn’t seem ordinary to me, Sheriff. We may not understand her life, but I think you’d be surprised how far inside themselves people will dig when their back is against the wall.” No one except us and Aurelia knows just how hard she fought to survive, and I know Thorin is thinking about it now. “From the looks of it, Aurelia’s overcome a lot worse than a little cold weather.”

The frustration in the sheriff’s eyes suddenly clears, and then he straightens as Thorin’s words sink in. “Yeah, son, I think you’re right.” Clapping Thorin’s shoulders, I school my expression to an optimistic one when he looks at us all with renewed vigor. “Let’s just hope for the best then, yeah?” Kelly shoves his hat back on his balding head and stomps off with a purpose.

The moment his back is turned, I drop the expression and keep my gaze forward as I watch him go.

“Way to go, Thor. I’m sure your dick was in the right place, but you just gave that old bastard hope and extended this pointless search by two days.”

The three of us watch as Kelly rallies the troops and shouts orders to the shivering deputies, lingering around with tired and despondent looks on their faces.

Thorin, seeing for himself what his sudden infatuation with Aurelia fucking George has done, exhales and drops his head. “Fuck.”

Seth starts singing again.

It’s late when we finally make it home.

No one speaks as we trudge inside the quiet cabin. We’re too on edge, wondering if we should be suiting up for a repeat of last night. I’m honestly so exhausted pretending to look for Aurelia that I don’t know if I can spare the energy to fight with her again.

If she chooses violence again, I’m tapping out. She wins this round.

Thorin walks to his bedroom, where we found her last time, and peeks inside. There’s a mixture of relief and worry when he finds it empty.

We finish searching the entire upper floor before I realize the cabin is warm.

The last time we left Aurelia alone, she let the fire go out, and we came home to dying embers and a frigid cabin. The fire in the living room is still burning, albeit a little wildly, for the middle of the night.

I reposition the logs inside the stove so there’s less airflow before heading to the kitchen. Seth is doing the same to the larger stove we use for cooking while Thorin is eyeing the three covered plates on the counter as if they’ll explode.

His gaze rises to meet mine, and I almost laugh at the panic in them as he says, “I’m not eating that.”

“We have to.” I chuckle as I walk over to take a closer look. “Kind of sends a mixed message if we don’t, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t care,” Thorin says. He’s shaking his head and backing away. “I’ll die .”

I roll my eyes at him and then lean over the counter to study the food because it can’t be that bad.

It’s worse.

It looks like…shit.

The food looks like shit. And smells like death.

“How the hell is she getting worse ?”

I’d left Aurelia the cookbooks before heading out this morning. I can see a couple of them open on the counter, so I don’t have to question if she’d at least made an effort.

“Who the hell cares?” Thorin grumbles. “I’m not eating it.”

“Don’t be a baby. You—”

“Hey, fellas.”

Our gazes shift to the opening, where Aurelia is standing with a suspiciously bright smile on her face. The front of her dress is soaked through, but I don’t get a chance to ask what the hell she’s been up to because she says, “You’re home.” There’s a stumbling pause as she searches for something else to say to us. “How was your day?”

It’s forced and awkward.

“Fine,” Thorin snaps. The grouchy son of a bitch is glaring at her now like those things he said at the camp never happened.

The skin under Aurelia’s eyes looks a little lighter, giving her a sickly pallor. Considering our struggle to keep anything down earlier, it’s obvious Aurelia had gotten sick, too. She hadn’t eaten as much as the three of us, yet she looked worse off.

“Feeling all right?”

Aurelia makes eye contact with me, and I can see the indecision in her eyes before she looks away. “Yup! I hope you’re hungry. I made dinner.”

I rub the back of my neck. “Yeah. Um…”

Noticing my hesitation, the weird smile on her face falls. “What’s the matter?”

“Aurelia, what is this?” I gesture to the food.

“Your dinner.”

“Right, but what is it?”

“Beans.”

“Beans and what?”

“Mice.”

“Excuse me?”

“Mice.” The practiced smile is back, and it’s creepy as fuck. “I found some caught in your traps and thought, why not, you know? It was kind of tricky because they smell god-awful, and I’m pretty sure they’re diseased and don’t taste very well. Plus, there was no recipe for mice stew in those books you left for me. Thank you for that, by the way. Real helpful. Anyway, I managed. Bon appétit, boys.”

Before any of us can think of what to say to her, Aurelia turns and flounces off back to wherever she came from.

This girl is fucking crazier than I thought.

“Do you think mice are a rich person’s delicacy where she comes from?” Seth asks once she’s gone. “Like caviar? Oh, shit. I think I see an eyeball.” Seth points it out, and sure enough, there’s a fucking mouse eye staring back at us.

I gag while Thorin swears and grabs the plates. He tosses them in the trash along with our “dinner.”

But he doesn’t stop there.

Thorin yanks the bag out of the bin and storms out the side door to toss it in the barrel, where we burn whatever we can’t compost or recycle. I can see him pour lighter fluid over it before grabbing the matches. The flames roar to life and chase away the night until I can see his hard profile clearly through the window. The ticking muscles in his jaw tell me he’s thinking about his next move and resisting it even harder.

Whatever he decides, Seth and I have his back. Well, I do. Seth is still a wildcard.

When Thorin finally steps back inside, we lock gazes. “I think it’s safe to say we gave our guest every chance to get with the program, don’t you?”

“Yeah…” My smile is slow to come, but it grows from anticipation of the night ahead. “I’d say so. She’s basically calling us out at this point. Seth?”

“Can I go first?” He jumps right to the point.

“No. You’re the reason she tried to feed us rodents for dinner.”

“That’s debatable,” Seth says petulantly.

“It’s really not,” I return as we leave the kitchen.

Aurelia’s clearly still pissed about last night. Seth took away the only hope she had because he was desensitized to human emotion.

We find Aurelia downstairs in the laundry room.

Thorin and Seth hang back while I block her only exit. Aurelia’s humming and bouncing to some tune only she can hear while hanging Thorin’s flannel that she’d been wearing on the clothesline. I know I don’t make a sound, but she must feel me watching her because the song in her head ends abruptly, and she turns around.

I’m standing in the doorway, leaning a shoulder against the jamb as I watch her. “How’s it going?”

“Fantastic!” Her voice is light and airy and fucking weird as shit. I already know she’s messing with us, but it feels like a performance she’s done before. She’s too good at it. I almost believe she likes taking care of us.

“I see you finally decided to do the laundry.”

“It’s good exercise.” Aurelia grips the washing stick with both hands and makes circling motions while moving her hips. “Chugga-chugga! Chugga-chugga! Chugga-chugga! Chugga-chugga! Chugga-chugga! And whoosh!” She spins around once with her hands in the air.

Unfortunately, I get the Stepford Wives reference, so I know she’s being sarcastic.

“Then I’m almost sorry for ruining your fun.”

“Don’t be sorry.” She shrugs and bends to grab what looks like a pair of Seth’s boxers from the metal bin. My eyes automatically travel to her round ass. “Just go away.”

The hem of that obscenely pornographic peasant dress rises up her thigh just shy of showing us the bottom curve of her ass. Thorin and Seth hover silently behind me, but she doesn’t see them because she’s too busy trying to piss me off.

It’s not going to work. I’m too hungry for her.

“Or I can stay and watch you bend over like that a few more times.”

“How was dinner?” she shoots back. Straightening, Aurelia wrings out the excess water and then hangs the wet boxers on the line.

“You’re quick. I’ll give you that, but I can’t promise we’ll be the same.”

She freezes, a hint of dread in her voice when she speaks. “What are you talking about?”

“You defied us again, Aurelia.”

Scoffing, she grabs one of my shirts from the bin and wrings it out. “And let me guess. You’re here to punish me?”

“No.”

“No?”

“Cooking isn’t your talent. We decided to hear you and let you off the hook.”

“Oh, good. I was beginning to worry about that.”

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

She still doesn’t look at us as she clips my shirt on the line to dry. “What are you talking about?”

“That’s why you fought so hard when Thorin tried to feed you last night. You gave us food poisoning on purpose.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Cut the shit, Aurelia. No one is that bad at cooking unless it’s calculated.”

“I told you I didn’t know how!”

Straightening to my full height, I cross my arms. “And the mice?”

Having no excuse for that, Aurelia shrugs petulantly. “No, wait,” she pleads when I step inside the laundry room. She’s backing away to give herself time, but we can’t be reasoned with. Neither can she, apparently. “I…okay, I’m sorry I tried to feed you mice. That was mean. Truce?”

My only response is to bend at the knees and lift her over my shoulder. She starts kicking and screaming the moment I turn to leave the laundry room with her tow. Thorin leads the way as we climb the stairs, but Seth’s already disappeared. He’s not on board with this plan but tough shit.

Aurelia’s panic only grows when we reach the first floor, and I start toward the front door. Thorin beats me there since I’m fighting to keep a hold on her worrisome ass. He opens it, and the cold air gusts in. It’s pitch-black out, making the sounds of the wild even more terrifying to those who haven’t learned how to draw comfort from it.

It’s on the threshold that I set Aurelia down.

She immediately starts shivering as she stares back at the two of us, watching her from the warmth of our cabin. It’s not until Seth appears and hands her the boots, scarf, and heavy coat she came with that she realizes we’re not fucking around this time. He probably thinks we won’t notice the hat, goggles, and gloves he slipped her, too, but I do.

It doesn’t matter anyway. The extra protection will only prolong her inevitable death—one slip, one wrong turn, one chance encounter with any of the predators that live on this mountain, and she’s done for.

“Guys, please.” Aurelia looks over her shoulder—to the fate that awaits her. Her shoulders slump because she thinks she doesn’t stand a chance.

The memories of what it took to get here are too fresh. Nearly crippling, I bet.

Whatever fight got her this far is long gone. Aurelia’s forgetting just how strong she is. Who she is. Maybe the reason she’s stuck taking our shit is because she never really knew. Why the fuck does that bother me when it’s what we wanted?

“I’m sorry, okay?” She swallows. “I’ll be good.”

My dick twitches hearing that. I’ll be hard if she keeps talking like that, so I force myself to forge ahead and not get caught up in empty promises.

“We told you, Goldilocks. Staying means earning your keep. You haven’t been holding up your end of the deal.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

I’m still not convinced, and neither are Thorin and Seth. “Are you going to try harder?”

For a moment, she’s frozen, the breath stolen from her, when a particularly harsh wind blows in. “Yes! Yes! God, yes!” She shivers violently. “Can I come inside now?”

“You’ll try hard starting now ,” Thorin tells her.

Aurelia nods quickly. “Okay.”

“Do you want to show us, Sunshine?”

“Sure. Um…” She has the good sense of looking nervous. “How?”