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Chapter 1
Sadie
For most of my life things have been just barely manageable. It was only my mother and me. My father left town when I was little, and heaven only knows where he is today. They were never married so it was easier for him to just disappear on us.
Mom did alright. We usually had enough food to eat, not the best food, but food, nonetheless. Maybe not new clothes when we most needed them, but I’d rather eat than have new clothes anyway.
Then two years ago she got sick—freaking cancer—and I started working more hours to provide for her. The only issue with that was I only had my high school diploma and cancer treatments cost a lot. More than I ever imagined even with insurance, which of course ended when she couldn’t work any longer due to the pain she was in. It took months to get her on a state plan, which meant either owing a buttload out of pocket, or delaying some treatments. Neither was a good option, but there was no way she would have survived without the treatments. So, we kept doing them.
I worked as many hours as I could, while also taking care of Mom when she wasn’t in the hospital, running up more bills, but honestly, those aren’t what’s worrying me now.
No. What’s worrying me most, has me where I am now, is that I had to take out a loan to pay for her funeral three months ago. A loan the holder now wants me to pay up in full. I’ve only got my job at a coffee shop to cover everything—apartment, food, utilities…there is no way I could pay the loan entirely and Jonah knows it.
The only reason I agreed to his terms to start is because I couldn’t bear to watch my mother’s ashes be tossed into a cardboard box. I wanted a proper burial for her and although I knew it was dangerous, I say yes to the terms that Jonah could set the repayment amount.
It’s not like I could get a loan anywhere else, not with as much as we owed the hospital for Mom’s treatments at that point still. Thankfully, they agreed to write it off when she died of a staph infection she got at the hospital. It wasn’t even the cancer that killed her, which really sucks.
Jonah wants his money anyway he can get it, and I’m in no better position now to qualify for a freaking loan with my part-time, barely minimum-wage job. It’s not really covering everything I already need to cover, so paying him back entirely right now, isn’t possible. No matter how he tries to convey it.
He told me not so delicately just last night that he wasn’t going to give me much longer. Now, I’m sporting a swollen eye in constant reminder of it.
Not to mention have the ickiest thoughts running through my head after his suggestion as to a way ensure he gets paid back. He actually suggested that I sell my virginity to the highest bidder at the next auction. Which just so happens to be this weekend, convenient right?
How he knew I was still a virgin at twenty-one I don’t know, and I was not about to risk him getting to me. So instead of sticking around, trying to come up with some sort of plan to pay him back without it resorting to that, I ran. Not the easiest task when two of Jonah’s men were put on my ass to keep watch on me, but I managed to get out of town. Not the best way though considering I am hiding on a semi’s trailer, freezing as it goes through the mountains, to where? I’ve no clue but the further away from Jonah and home the better.
I am not letting him get his hands on me ever again. I’d gladly die first because I’ve heard rumors about the man and none of them are comforting. The best one was that he didn’t leave behind cuts on the girls he claimed as his. I have the worst feeling that he would bid on me only to then make me work it off for him however he wants as well. No way will I do that with him. Instead, I’ll freeze my ass off in the back of this semi.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. The load it was carrying were pipes, covered with a tarp and there was just enough room for someone small like me to crawl between the rows and hide from the thugs trying to figure out where I went. I didn’t realize how much the pipes would shift every time we went around a curve or how much air would blow through here. The only good thing is that it’s pretty well dry and we haven’t hit any downpours of rain.
The bed under me suddenly shifts and sound of tires squealing sends a shiver down my spine, and I curse for jinxing myself and this ride. One second it’s just squealing that’s sending me quivering and the next, I feel the load around me shift heavily, the bed tipping and then the pipes are falling sending me into a ball to protect myself, clinging to the bottom edge of the trailer bed to stop from going over the deep hill the pipes just fell down.
Thank god I was still wearing my backpack, or it would have been history, and it has everything important to me in it. I know that’s a stupid thought considering I just nearly died but it’s what runs through my mind first as the truck shudders to a stop and I scramble around the end of the trailer and back onto the road. The sound of a door opening sends me hurrying to the other side of the icy road, praying the driver didn’t see or hear me. Last thing I want is someone looking for me and I hurry into the darkened woods praying as well for somewhere warm to stay.
I have no idea where we are, how far from Seattle we are, but I know I have to get as far from it as possible. I left my phone at the apartment when I ran and as cold as it was, I don’t really have a clue as to how long I was in it. My luck we’re barely forty minutes outside of Seattle but I will make it somewhere safe somehow, even if I have to walk through this apparent snowstorm that’s now making a mockery of my thanks.
It starts blowing as I move carefully away from the truck, staying out of the light that comes from it, hoping the guy is only looking at where he lost the load and the mess of the truck itself and not my way. By the time someone else gets there my tracks will hopefully be covered and I’ll just get lost somewhere in the forest. That sounds a million times better than Jonah finding me, taking me back to Seattle and doing god knows what to me.
I haven’t been holding onto my v-card for any grand reason, but my mom was seventeen when she had me, and I was firm that I would at least graduate before I even thought of going there with a guy. The first year after graduation, there was just no one that intrigued me enough to go there with, and then, Mom got sick. I was too busy working and taking care of her to think about giving into some of the flirtations that were sent my way around the coffee shop.
I know I’m not the most stunning girl in the world. I’m pretty plain for the most part, but I do have nice eyes, a light cashmere blue that matches my favorite scarf which is wrapped tight around my neck and face right now. My hair is naturally a light blonde color, but it’s hidden under a knit cap because the long length of it falls to my waist. I was letting it grow more so I could cut it when Mom was done with her cancer treatments, get it made into a wig for her because we both shared the same hair tone. Now, I just haven’t bothered to cut it.
I again don’t know how long it is as I walk, the moon barely lighting the ground ahead of me, and I fall into big drifts a couple times before I spot a single cabin with a wisp of smoke coming from the chimney. I trudge ahead, dragging myself into it when the door is thankfully unlocked, and no one answers. There isn’t much here, it’s a one-room cabin with a closed off bathroom and a loft I know I’ll never manage to crawl up to get into tonight.
I’m bone tired and freezing, soaked from falling into the snow. The wisp of smoke is from a fire that’s burnt out and I push the only remaining log in the cabin towards it, shivering further from the exertion. I know the log won’t keep the space warm for long but if it will warm me up enough to let me get up off my knees, then I’ll see if there’s more or something else I can use to keep the fire going for tonight.
I force my coat off, grabbing a sheet off the pile on a chair and slip out of my jeans, then down to nothing as every piece of clothing I was wearing is soaked through. The fire catches finally and a bit of warmth emits from it as I scoot closer, a fur sort of rug underneath me and I close my eyes for a moment to rest.
Chapter 2
Kellan
There is no way I’m getting back down to the house tonight, not with this snowstorm kicking up, obscuring the path two inches ahead of me. This is the exact reason that I built the cabins though. Well, beyond to let my brothers have spots to stay when they bring their families in for a visit at least. The four of them like to get away for a night knowing their kids are safe with Uncle Kellan. They are though; I love kids, particularly my nephews, even if I don’t have any of my own.
I’m the only brother that’s not married and my mother hates that all of her boys aren’t happily settled, especially since I’m the oldest. I suppose that’s one of the reasons that I’m not though—our father died in a skiing accident at our resort during a snowstorm when I was seventeen. Twenty years ago tomorrow actually…Rylan was only seven at the time, the baby but even now he’s married with a two-year-old little boy while I’m still single.
I spent most of my twenties taking care of the family, ensuring the resorts stayed open and now, they’re actually worth more than when I first took over. Mom loves the one here, so she stays year-round. My brothers all live near one of our newer resorts, just in different states, but we all get together several times a year to see each other and they always ask the same thing—did I find a woman yet.
The truth is, I don’t want just any woman to spend the rest of my life with, I want someone who will give me everything I want and need now. I want a partner who can match me passion for passion in and out of bed but who will also let me do what is engrained in me to do now—take care of them.
