He stops, inhales deeply through his nose, then shakes his head. “Fuck.”
My panic intensifies. “What? What is it?”
He holds his hands up like he’s trying to calm a frightened animal. “Nothing, sweetheart, just calm down and come with me. We’ll get your stuff from the car and we’ll take you somewhere safe for the night, all right?”
“We?” I whip my head around toward the truck that’s still parked on the road, the motor rumbling. “There’s someone else here?”
And then I see him, a dark shadow of a man hunched over the steering wheel, staring at us through the windshield. The snowflakes falling on the glass obscure him for a moment before the wipers brush them away. I can’t see his face, but somehow, the intensity of his gaze hits me hard.
I’ve been so dumb. Thinking I could stab the man in front of me with my ridiculous two-inch pocketknife blade. Thinking I could escape.
A panicked whimper works itself from my throat. “Stop,” I gasp.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” the man says, his voice low and urgent. “But if we don’t get off the road soon, we’ll all be stuck here.”
“Then go,” I yelp. “Leave. I’ll figure things out on my own. I don’t need your help.”
He takes another step toward me. “I can’t do that. That would be murder, leaving you out here.”
“Better than being murdered by you or-or your freaky friend back there.” I throw a hand out to indicate the stranger in the dark. “Now leave!”
He stops, then turns his head toward the truck and bellows, “Troy!”
The driver’s-side door opens, and a thud announces that the other man has jumped to the ground. I let out a shriek of fear and throw the pocketknife right at this man’s head. He ducks, so it only glances off his shoulder and disappears in the freshly fallen snow.
The man looks down at it, then back at me, his eyebrow quirked up. Then he leaps forward, faster than I’ve ever seen a man move, and scoops me up into his arms.
Chapter
Two
EMMA
One moment, I’m standing up to my ankles in snow, the cold permeating through the faux leather of my boots, and the next, I’m clutched in this man’s arms, cradled against his chest.
My first thought is that this is the end. This is how I die, by the side of the road, without anyone missing me.
My second thought is that he smells amazing. Whether it’s his soap or aftershave, I have no idea, but every nerve ending inside me wakes up andsingsin a heavenly choir of awe.
Which is so irrational, I give myself a mental slap and try to figure out a way out of here. I’m completely convinced he’s about to murder or assault me or both, so I swing back my elbow and clock him in the jaw, then squirm as much as I can while simultaneously making myself a dead weight in his arms.
He grunts at the impact of my elbow but doesn’t let go. He’s either a pro at carrying people or he’s freakishly strong, and it’s just my luck that the one person who passed me in this fucking snowstorm is capable of lugging my ass through the snow like I weigh nothing at all. It couldn’t have been an old,puny kidnapper. No, I had to get not one, but two prime male specimens.
Because the other man, the one currently observing my struggles with a dry smile on his lips, is another behemoth, perhaps even taller than the man holding me captive.
“Fuck you,” I spit. “Fuck you and this storm and your stupid truck!”
The newcomer leans in and takes a good whiff of me, then rears back just in time to avoid a swipe of my nails. I’d been aiming to scratch out his eyes, but no dice. They’re both too fast for me. Too strong.
“Grab her stuff from the car, will you?” my captor says casually. “And lock it up?”
The other man goes to do his bidding without a reply. I’m carried to the open passenger door of the truck. The man lifts me to the cabin and lets go of me the moment my ass touches the seat. Then he climbs up next to me and shuts us in.
I lunge toward the driver’s-side door. If I make it into the trees, maybe they won’t be able to track me down through the heavy snowfall?—
“Don’t.”
The command snaps out, a strange ring to it. It vibrates through the air, and I glance back at the man. He looks annoyed, not angry, but as I stay still, his expression changes to that of satisfaction. Which is…weird.
