Page 11

Daniel

E ven with my earbuds blaring music in my ears, things seemed a little too calm.

We got here three hours ago. Where the fuck was everyone else? They couldn’t have been that far behind. A peek out my window revealed that the landscape was now blanketed in a thick layer of white. The green tops of the pines were only barely showing through in some places in the distance.

Something felt off about the entire situation.

I yanked my earbuds out and dropped them on the bed next to my phone. Still, the silence of the cabin greeted me. If it weren’t for the fact I knew Shawn was here, it would be borderline creepy.

“Shawn,” I yelled, as I yanked open the door. He jolted from his spot on the couch and turned to look at me. “What the hell is going on? Where is everyone?”

He gnawed at his bottom lip, and my eyes watched as the plump flesh passed between his teeth. Jesus fucking Christ. I had no business looking at him like that.

“What do you mean?”

The laugh that escaped me was on the verge of being hysterical. “I didn’t come up here to spend time with you. Where the fuck is everyone?”

When an answer didn’t come, my agitation grew. I needed to move. My hands carded through my hair as I paced the room, waiting for his response.

“They—they might not be coming?”

“What do you mean?”

Panic. Sheer terror and panic.

Shawn didn’t answer me. He just sank back into his spot on the couch. It was only then that I noticed the bottle of beer in his hands. Fuck, a beer sounded good right about now.

My feet carried me to the fridge, where I yanked the door open. The contents rattled with the force and I pulled a bottle out. Once the cap was off, I chugged half of it back, letting out one of the grossest belches I’d ever expelled.

“Did they leave too late? Jesus, Shawn. Tell me what the hell is going on.”

He only sank further into his seat. No, fuck that. I wasn’t about to let him get away without talking. This wasn’t a funny joke. Had he tricked me into coming up here?

“SHAWN!”

He jolted back up and spun to look at me again. His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. He lifted his beer bottle to his lips, and I tried not to focus on the way his lips wrapped around it as he took a drink.

When the bottle lowered again, and he swallowed, he finally answered. “They were supposed to come up tomorrow, but as of twenty minutes ago, the passes are closed.”

My stomach dropped to my feet, and the room spun. There was no way the beer was hitting me that quickly, but I set it on the counter, regardless. It was hard to steady myself as the ringing in my ears intensified.

Stuck.

That’s all I heard.

I was stuck in a cabin in the middle of the fucking woods with Shawn fucking Stevens, and there was no telling how long it would be until someone else could get here.

“ A re you going to hide out in there the entire time?”

I rolled over and faced the wall. After getting the news that I was trapped with my worst enemy, I’d dragged my ass back to the bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

“Leave me alone.”

He sighed in the doorway. “Don’t be like that. Try to look at the bright side? Maybe we can work on trying to get along, or it’s going to be a hell of a couple of days.”

I shot up in bed. “Days? Fucking days? Is that what they said? It’s going to take days to get out of here?”

Shawn’s eyes were wide as he held up his hands like he was trying to calm a wild animal. In his defense, he probably was. I felt feral and out of control. I hadn’t even wanted to come on this trip to begin with.

“I didn’t know this would happen.”

“Bullshit.”

“I swear to God.”

And I was out of the bed. Shawn backed into the hall as I advanced on him, finger pressed firmly into the center of his chest.

Gah, why was his chest so hard?

My palms flattened against his pecs as he hit the wall. It was impossible not to notice how good his muscles felt beneath my palms. Don’t flex your hands, please for the love of God…

“Are you feeling me up?” Shawn raised an eyebrow in question, and my hands dropped to my side. Heat raced down my cheeks, neck, and shoulders. What the hell was happening to me this evening? I wasn’t supposed to touch him—or like it.

“You’re obnoxious.”

He was also in the hall and out of the room. Without a second thought, I spun on my heel and slammed the bedroom door behind me.

Shawn was pounding on the door in a flash. My back pressed into the wood as I scrambled with the lock. I needed space, or I was bound to do something stupid. But what the hell was I going to do? I didn’t even like the guy, so why the hell had I reacted to touching him? It wasn’t like I hadn’t shoved him in the past.

Memory after memory slammed into me with every single touch. The little sparks and zings that would pass between us. Nope, there was no way I could entertain it. Not even for a minute.

A strange sense of unease washed over when the lock engaged. Was I really doing the right thing by keeping Shawn at arm’s length? Of course, I was. The last time I’d let an asshole like him into my life, he stole from my family. He squandered my trust and trampled all over my feelings. Now I had to deal with sporadic phone calls from the Gray’s Harbor County Jail.

Shawn would remain off-limits.

“Would you talk to me?” His voice was muffled through the door, but I didn’t budge. My breaths came in short bursts, like I’d just run a marathon. Was I having a panic attack over this?

I was across the room and collapsing on the bed. What I needed was space. Space from Shawn and whatever was happening anytime he got too close. It was part of why I hadn’t wanted him to talk to me on the way up here. I didn’t want to get to know him. I didn’t want to like him.

The knocking started again, so I shoved my pillow over my head. It didn’t do shit to muffle the noise. This was going to be a long as fuck, however many days.