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I consider nodding and avoiding the touch all together, given I know the dangers of a beautiful woman, but considering I’ve already been a dick most of the afternoon, I relent and reach for her soft skin.
Our hands sink into one another, and our gaze meets. Again, this isn’t ideal. Her long, blonde hair blows back in the breeze and there’s a warmth in her touch that shouldn’t be radiating throughout me. I can’t look away. Instinct won’t let me. In fact, I only want to get closer.
“Who the hell is this?” Dad steps out onto the front porch of the cabin and snarls like an old dog who’s seen a trespasser. I don’t expect him to be up and moving, but he honestly looks pretty great, all things considered.
Lainey crunches through the snow, careful to step in the boot marks I left this morning, though they’re half-filled already. She reaches her small hand out for my father’s. “Hi, I’m Lainey. I’m sorry to bother you like this, sir, but I need your help.”
Dad quiets for a second, then hollers past her, “You get my orange juice?”
Jesus Christ, this man is rude.
“Yes, I got the orange juice and some antibiotics.”
“Don’t need ‘em.” He groans and spins back inside, tucking the flannel back into his jeans as he walks. “Get rid of the girl.”
“Actually, sir.” Lainey follows him inside. Apparently, she’s got a degradation kink. “If I could talk to you for just a second, I have an idea.”
My father keeps walking. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t hand out help like candy. Now leave, please.”
Lainey turns toward me, her cheeks red, tears welling in her eyes.
Why do I want to help her?
“Sir,” she pleads, “if you could hear me out. It’s a life-or-death sort of situation.”
My father laughs, a cough catching in his throat as he drags his gaze over her frame. I know what he’s thinking. A little rich girl standing before him, begging for help. To a man like my father, this looks like a joke. He grew up off the grid in the woods, and he’s lived that way his entire life. The outside world, especially rich people, is the enemy. “And how would a girl like you get herself into a situation like that?”
“I’m being forced into a marriage I don’t want. My father is Martin Zeller. Do you know him?”
Dad glances toward me. “Where’d you pick her up and why’d you drag us into this?” He speaks as though he’s heard of her father before and wasn’t impressed.
“She’s got medicine. You need it to live.”
“You put us all in danger for medicine?” He shakes his head. “You’re dumber than I thought. I don’t need any damn medicine and I don’t need you putting us in harm's way. Got it? Take her back where you found her.” He glances toward Lainey. “If you wrap us up in your rich people bullshit, you’re going to have two problems. You hear me?”
She drags in a staggered breath, and I expect her to run away crying, but she doesn’t. She stands taller, widens her shoulders, and laughs… quite hard. “There are two versions of me, Mr. Laskin. One, I’m a sweet little thing who’ll make you pie and bring you the orange juice you so desperately think is going to save your life. I’ll even do it with a smile.” She pulls a pistol out of her bag and points it toward my father. “The second version gets what she wants the hard way. The good thing is you get to choose who you play with. Which will it be?”
Fuck!I wasn’t expecting this version of her, given the death by can opener story from earlier… but I like it.I like it a lot.I’m not sure anyone has ever quieted my father like this in the forty years I’ve known him.
He stands tall in the kitchen, glancing toward me, then Lainey, studying us both carefully. I half expect him to pull his own gun, so I keep my hand on my pistol, just in case. I don’t have an attachment to this girl, but she doesn’t deserve to be put in her place by a harsh old man with anger issues.
His shoulders stiffen and he stands tall, glancing toward me. “Give her a room and a shotgun. She’s going bear hunting.”
Chapter Three
Lainey
“You sleep tonight and head out when the snow clears,” Niko’s dad, Sergei, says, gulping down the lifesaving vitamin C. “How well do you shoot?”
I’m not here to hunt bear, but given the fact that I’m clearly out of options, I figure this is the best-case scenario. Either that or threaten to shoot everyone again, and I’m not sure that’s the way to go, especially considering I could never do it. I’m not even sure I could shoot the bear. I mean… it’s a bear. They look big and cuddly.Why would I want to shoot one?
“I’ve taken marksman lessons since I was old enough to hold a gun steady. My father wanted me well equipped in case of emergency.”
Sergei looks down at my pistol. “That’s an expensive tool. You’re going to be working with a much bigger gun than you’re used to. Older too. Niko will show you. We’ll protect you here in exchange for help with the hunt, but you have to promise me something.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t fall in love with him.” His tone is rough and dry. He sips the juice again, staring at me with a dark brown gaze of a man who isn’t fucking around.
