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But she couldn't remember if she should go straight, left or right. She had been running for what felt like a full ten minutes if not more. She uttered an anguished sob, but bit her lip to stop herself from shouting and begging someone to come to her rescue. Her pride would notallowit.
Already she had made a fool of herself by reacting the way she did. Running was the most childish, immature thing to do. It was so backward. A modern, contemporary woman in this industry should not have been shocked, she should have understood these things happened, it wasn’t personal. Okay it was personal, because Jeff attacked her integrity and dammit if she wanted to have an orgy with him, she damn wellwould.
She certainly didn't want to add more embarrassment for herself. She’d walk back to the cabin and do major damage control, laugh it off, say they couldn't afford a five-some with her if they tried, since she'd only have five-somes with movie producers, actors, heirs, writers, and princes. Camera men, make-up artists and amodel...pfft.
She decided turning left felt like the right thing to do. But the crunch of snow under her boots didn't feel the same. The sound of chains and gears didn't sound welcoming either. Before she could think another thought, the ground gave way and she was dropped intoahole.
Before she could do anything else, the top of what appeared to be a barred cage banged down on her head, sealing her in and stealing herconsciousness.
When she came to, darkness enveloped her and she had to pinch herself to make sure she was fully awake. The thought that she'd been trapped like a wild animal took seconds to formulate in her head. And once it did, she screamed until her lungs burned. She shook the cage and yelledsomemore.
Whose bright idea had it been to come to freezing fucking Alaska to shoot models in bikinis? Jeff Olson, that's who. It’s only autumn he had said, it’ll be perfect with the snow and everything. Everyone had thought it was a brilliant idea. Okay, it was a brilliant idea. The Alaskan swimsuit shoot was her gateway to everything else in the industry and her empty bank account would be very pleased with the money it would bring in. And she had to thank Jeff for that because it opened a huge doorforher.
As soon as the most prestigious high end fashion giant, Rochelle, knew she had landed the Alaskan swimsuit contract for Digs, a sports and entertainment magazine, they had signed her up for what would become her most envied, most lucrative contract ever. Not only was it a photo-shoot but they were turning it into a reality show, too and she would bethestar.
But right now, all she wanted was to strangle Jeff for bringing her out here and then letting her do something as stupid as running off into the forsaken wilderness of Alaska because he chose to cheat on her with three other peopleatonce.
Someone had to find her or she'd freeze to death. How long exactly had she been out of it? It could well be night by now for all she knew and here she was stuck in a barred hole in the ground like ananimal.
Okay. She took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts. One, she wasn't dead yet. Two, she wasn't rock-solid frozen yet. Three, Jeff probably had a whole search party looking for her by now. Surely. She just had to be noisy enough that they heard her. And four, obviously, this was meant for an animal so whoever had set the trap had to come and see if they caught something and then she'd say surprise, I'm human, please return me to my people. It will be a great tale to tell a fashion magazine one day about her early days of modeling. She just had to wait it out while screaming for help allthetime.
The cage started to rattle, and her shouts for help increased in volume. She was going to be saved. She was lifted and the darkness around her turned into broaddaylight.
“Pa. Pa. Fuck, look what wecaught.”
Summer's vision filled with a bear-sized man sneering at her. She opened her mouth and started to let out a joyous scream, explaining to the man her stupidity for falling into his trap and how she'd never been happier to see another human in all her life, when suddenly a long gun was pointed at hermouth.
“Now, now, girl. Not another sound out of you,” another man said, crouching next to the other one. The first thing Summer noticed was his complete lack of teeth. When he spread his lips, and grinned at her, all she saw was gum. But the gun made her swallow all her words. She also realized the man pointing his weapon at her didn't lose his teeth through neglect. He looked downright ancient. His face resembled crinkled hide and his eyes had sunk so far in his face, they looked ready to close forever soon. Had she fallen into some AlaskanTwilight Zonenightmare.
No, this wasn'tWrong Turneither, not by a long shot. This was reality. She would explain who she was, maybe more calmly this time. They would say sorry, they thought she was a wild animal and then they would set her free. Maybe even help her find her party if she asked niceenough.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the head of the gun inched closer.Okaythen.
It wasn't a big cage, she was forced onto her hands and knees, although she could probably lay down comfortably if she had to. She held her hands up in surrender, maybe they'd understand she was hardly a threat they needed to guard withagun.
“What you think, Pa? She's very pretty,” said theyoungerman.
The old man rubbed his layered jaw and smiled at his son. Unease took a grip on Summer. For the first time since falling into their trap, she felt a horrible omen about her fate. For the second time, she parted her lips with the intent to scream the trees out of their roots and scare the snow away. She wasn't going down without a fight. She was a city girl. No way would she find her death in a frigging freezing forest by twocavemen.
But her scream was short-lived yet again when a newcomer came onto the scene. If she thought the son was big, the new stranger was massive, over six feet with shoulders as broad as a wall and longish blond hair. Even though the old man turned his gun on their visitor, the young man didn't seem afraid inanyway.
His piercing blue eyes locked on her. Never had a man looked at her with such thoroughness. She felt naked and her soul bared to him and she could do nothing about any of it. He literally took her breath away. Not only because of his good looks, but there was something earthy and genuine about him. As if she could and should trust him, and it was all because of the way he had lookedather.
Trusthim?
How hard had she knocked her head? The guy was a stranger she didn't know from a tree. He could be a serial killer with phenomenal psychotic tendencies. She wassodead.
Once he'd stopped staring open-mouthed at her for what seemed like hours, he couldn't stop smiling at her. His blue eyes, a riveting feature in his face, held nothing but friendly enthusiasm every time they landed on her. She had really truly lost her mind. As far as she should be concerned, they were all a threat to herequally.
The newcomer, who was no older than her own twenty-one years, maybe twenty-three at the most, put his arm around the old man's shoulders, ignoring his gun and took himaside.
Summer couldn't hear what was being said, but she didn't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out a negotiation was happening at herexpense.
Her body was so cramped, her muscles threatened to break in half if she didn't stand up straight soon but she strained to hear what was being said exactly, and only caught the words ‘it's an excellent deal’ every now and again. While the old man and the newcomer spoke, the son kept his eye on her and made Summer want to curl up even more and shield herself from his meanderingogling.
She needed to escape. These people had no intention of letting her go at all. She caught a glimpse of an envelope exchanging hands between the old and young man, then the old man whistled to his son. After showing some annoyed reluctance to leave, father and son were off leaving her alone with her new owner, itwouldseem.
He crouched before her. “Angel,” he said softly, his eyes traveling over her face as if she really were some sort of revelation. He then started to un-cage her. Summer knew she didn't have much time to act. As soon as she was reasonably free she made a mad run for it. But she got no farther than a few steps away before she was in his arms again. Arms? No, those were tree trunks. And how was it possible this big-ass man smelled of almond essence and cookiedough?
