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The five-day outdoor experience was exactly what Aliya had dreamed of doing. She had only gotten a nibble of it with the larger, structured, and mostly over fifty tour group. When Gracie agreed immediately, as much because she had a huge crush on Ammon and his ‘sexy British accent’ as her desire to do the extreme hike, Aliya wasn’t hard to persuade. She’d be safe with a group and two experienced mountaineers. When would she ever get back to Europe and have an experience like this? When she was seventy and her knees couldn’t handle the hiking?
Her parents and the entire town of Blue Ridge weren’t happy when they heard she was extending her trip to explore the Alps with ‘unknown foreign fellers,’ but what could they say? She was twenty-six and had saved for this trip for a year. Her small-town friends were simply leery of anyone they hadn’t known since diapers, even though tourists frequented the town because of its proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains and were welcomed warmly because Southern hospitality was taken very seriously.
“Where are Ammon and Gracie?” she asked as she and Jared ambled along the trail side by side. They were on day one, only six hours into the hike, and already Ammon and Gracie had fallen behind several times.
Aliya craned her neck but couldn’t see the pair through the thick green trees. She was constantly amazed at the changing scenery of the Alps. Back home the trees were thick as molasses. It was hard to see much of the landscape unless you got to a peak. Here the peaks were insanely high and she hadn’t reached one on foot yet. Along the journey, the forest would often clear and reveal a rolling, green meadow with a lake. Sometimes there would be perfect mountain villages, each with its own quaint church. She was in heaven.
“Just between you and me, I think they stopped to take in the view.” Jared winked, his grayish-blue eyes bright with humor.
“I don’t think either one of them has their eyes open to see any view.”
He chuckled at that. “You’re probably right. Unless it’s the view of ‘Gracie’s blindingly beautiful blue eyes.’”
Aliya didn’t begrudge the two for finding love or romance on the trail—except it put her constantly alone with Jared. He was handsome, nice, and could hold up his end of a conversation, but she wasn’t interested in some dating fling. In five days, she’d be flying home to Georgia and would most likely never see him again. She was too practical and never led with her heart. Her best friend Sydnee Lee was always saying that. Truthfully, her heart wasn’t tugged by Jared, and living in such a miniscule town in the mountains before and after attending the nearby and also small University of the Cumberlands for her schooling, there weren’t a lot of handsome male options available for heart-tugging.
“Should we stop and wait?” she asked.
“In a bit. Let them have their minute.”
“She sure thinks he’s the tomcat.”
“I am not certain what that expression means.”
“The actual expression is ‘Well, ain’t he just the tomcat’s kitten’.” Aliya tried to think how to explain and then she laughed. “I really don’t know what it means. Basically, a man thinks he’s the best so if Ammon is Gracie’s tomcat, then she thinks he’s the best.” She shrugged. “You know how it is. You’re British; you have all kinds of expressions. Do you know what all of them mean?”
“Why, certainly I do.” He chuckled.
She smiled, arched her eyebrows, and kept walking. She would be spending a lot of time alone with Jared the next five days, so at least they could talk and tease easily.
A scream split the peaceful mountain air.
“Gracie!” Aliya jumped and spun to head back to their friends and help with whatever was wrong.
Jared was directly in her path and he had a knife out—a long, vicious-looking knife. His eyes glinted maliciously, no humor in them at all.
“Jared?” She backed up a step. “What are you …? We need to go help?—”
The scream came again.
“Gracie!”
The first scream had sounded surprised and scared. This scream sounded like their friend was in pain.
“I wouldn’t worry so much about Gracie.” Jared stepped closer, and Aliya instinctively backed up again. “She’s simply learning that Ammon isn’t nearly the quintessential gentleman he portrayed himself to be.”
Aliya’s heart thumped in an out-of-control race. She eased farther away, her eyes flitting from Jared’s face to that knife. Her mind couldn’t compute that this seemingly-nice guy would threaten her with a knife and that Ammon, who’d appeared to be head over boots for Gracie, was hurting her.
“What do you want?” she asked, trying to keep her lip and her hands from trembling. She clung to the straps of her backpack, trying to think if she had any kind of weapon accessible. Her pepper spray was … in a pocket of the backpack. Which pocket and could she reach it in time?
“It’s not so much about what I want as what you’re going to give me, beautiful.” He sneered, and there was nothing handsome about his face anymore. “Ammon might not have informed Gracie how this will all play out, but I like my victims to know their options. It makes things more interesting.”
Victims? Obviously this snake in the grass had pulled this stunt before. Prey on unsuspecting tourists, lure them into the woods, and then cut their throats? Chills covered her body, and she shivered.
Gracie screamed again, louder and louder, each scream increasing in pitch.
Aliya’s neck tightened and her hands trembled violently. She wanted to help her friend, but she didn’t know how to get past that knife and the suddenly evil-looking man in her path.
“Nobody will hear your screams up here, so don’t think throwing a tantrum like Gracie is wont to do will bring you any form of rescue.”
