AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had to shout in order to make myself heard over this raging wind, its gale force making me wobble.
The man cocks his head to the side, visibly amused.
Who the hell am I kidding at this point? I will die out here if I don’t accept his offer to help.
“Suit yourself. It seems you have an itch to freeze to death. I won’t get in your way,” he replies and starts walking back to his car. “Good luck.”
A sense of urgency takes hold, and I find myself following him. “Okay. Just please don’t be some kind of homicidal maniac.”
“I’m an accountant.”
That is literally the last choice of career I’d imagined for a big scary guy like him.
He nods at my duffel bag. “I can put that in the trunk for you.”
“The back seat?”
“Can’t let it out of your sight, huh?”
I shake my head slowly. He takes it and leaves it on the back seat, while I get in the front. As soon as he shuts the door, the heating system goes to work on each of my senses. I can feel myself thawing, melting into the warmed seat as a soft pop tune oozes through the stereo. Ahead, it’s all white. Everywhere, it’s all white. How the hell did I make it this far, in the first place? As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right. I’ll freeze to death out here.
“My name is Leo,” he says as he gets behind the wheel.
“Hm. Thank you,” I mumble, stealing a glance at him.
I can see the scar over his eye better in this light.
And the shade of green is different.
Lighter, almost milky. Whatever caused the scar must’ve caused this mismatch in color, too. But damn, he’s good looking. That’s for certain.
Sharp cheekbones, a five o’clock shadow that’ll make a girl’s fingertips tingle slightly. Mine are definitely tingling.
“Maybe I should watch my back around you.Youcould be a homicidal maniac, for all I know.”
Guess I deserved that.
“My name is Nikita.” I glance ahead. “Where’s your cabin again?”
“You’ll see in a minute.”
Lo and behold, precisely one minute later, the country lane emerges on the right side of the road. I must have been too distracted by the storm to notice it before.
Leo takes a cautious right turn, and the car starts wobbling as we go over a series of hidden potholes until we reach the cabin—a small but sturdy looking thing wedged between ancient pine trees dressed in white.
“Well, it’s a good place to bury dead bodies,” I say once I’m out of the car.
“True. But I prefer to keep a couple of vats full of acid at the back. It’s easier than digging holes in this hard ground.”
I give him a cautious look but find his smile eerily reassuring as he points to the narrow front porch of the cabin. It’s made entirely out of pine wood, with thick walls and a sloped roof, glass windows and flowerless pots hanging on both sides of the door.
“Come on, let’s go inside,” Leo says.
Quietly, I follow him up the steps and into the cabin.
He turns the lights on, and I close the door behind me. As soon as we leave the storm outside, the quiet takes over. Without the fireplace running, it’s not exactly warm, but compared to what we just came from, it feels like a little slice of heaven.
I stand still for a while, watching Leo as he takes his thick coat off and starts a fire. My gaze wanders over the mantel, adorned with framed photos whose details I can’t make out from here.
