“Come on, darlin’,” I muttered and helped her stagger out onto the gravel driveway. “I gotcha.”
I helped her into the house, carried her up the stairs and sat her on the john in the upstairs bathroom. She was out of it.
I stripped her, got her cleaned up, helped her puke into the tub and spent the better part of an hour helping her into my room and into my bed where she would be more comfortable. Her clothes I put in the laundry across the hall. I got out some aspirin and a clean glass of water and put them on the bedside table for her. Finally, I wrote a long-ass note trying to cover all the bases and left that too.
I still had some proverbial miles before I could sleep, myself. I dragged my ass back downstairs and dealt with my dad’s truck, which wasn’t that bad seeing as she’d mostly nailed herself.
Finally, after all of that, I dragged myself in and onto my couch.
Tomorrow morning was going to be interesting. That was for sure.
Chapter One
Aspen…
I woke up, my head just splitting, and I didn’t know where I was. I sat up in unfamiliar clothes in an unfamiliar bed and looked around.
It was creepy in here. The walls were rustic, rough-hewn boards on three sides, the wall behind me, at the head of the very large bed, stone. The bed itself was similarly rough-hewn logs, stripped of their bark and was not only high up off the ground, but was covered in what looked like animal furs.
An animal skull hung above the bed, vines twining through the eye sockets and around the horns, and I shuddered. On the bedside table was a tall glass of water and two round white tablets, beneath them, a note.
I picked it up with shaking fingers, letting the pills slide to the nightstand’s surface, and read the neat printing in big block letters…
Don’t Panic! You’re safe.
Where are you?
You’re at the bouncer’s house. Your friend ditched you and we couldn’t call anyone for you.
Where are your…
Clothes? In the dryer in the closet across the hallway. (You threw up. A lot.)
Phone? No idea. Maybe with your friend, maybe back at the bar. We’ll look for it.
Jewelry? Bedside drawer.
ID? Also, the bedside drawer with your debit card. Found both in your jeans pocket.
What now?
There’s fresh water and two Tylenol on the bedside table. Start there. There are clean towels in the bathroom if you want a shower, which you might. I don’t think I got all the puke out of your hair.
When you come downstairs, we can give you a ride, call you a cab or an Uber – whatever you’d like. If no one is up when you get up, there’s food in the fridge, Netflix on the TV in the living room, and the dogs love to be played with and loved on.
Main thing is, you’re okay.
See you downstairs. I go by Fenris.
“Huh.” I blinked several times, read and re-read the note as if there were more answers to be found in it.
I had left my phone in Lindsay’s car because Charles had kept blowing it up. I didn’t want to see my soon-to-be-ex-husband. Didn’t want to speak to him. Lindsay, on the other hand, I would like several words with.
I threw back the blankets and furs and sat up, letting my feet dangle off the side of the bed. I opened up the raw and distressed rustic bedside table’s drawer, and sure enough, there was my license, debit card, rings and necklace.
I took the Tylenol, drank the water all the way down, and sat breathing heavy for a moment, willing the throbbing in my skull down to a dull roar.
Donning my jewelry and tucking my license and debit card into the front pocket of the red-and-black checkered flannel I wore, I stood up slowly and found the bathroom. I took care of that bit of business and peeked out into the hall. It was quiet out here. Too quiet, and I didn’t think anyone was up yet.
I crept down the stairs and halted in the entry way to the kitchen. An older man was in the kitchen at the cutting board cutting up mushrooms. He looked up and squinted at me, his head clean shaven, his beard quite the opposite.
“Ah, she lives,” he stated dryly.
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say. I heard a cough behind me and I jumped, turning sideways. It was an open archway at the bottom of the stairs. To the left, there were two steps leading down into the living room, the couch along the wall. Someone rolled off of it and loomed, standing like some great leviathan rising from the deep.
This man, I at least recognized. He was the man checking IDs at the bar last night. I remembered his eyes – sharp and very blue. The silver beads winked from his blond beard, his hair braided and twisted in a sort of modern rendition of a Viking warrior’s mohawk. I shuddered as he loomed, the living room space quite diminished with his presence. He was huge at well over six feet and broad through the chest and shoulders.
“Morning,” he grated in this bass rumble.
I looked back at the older version of him in the kitchen.
“Well, what’s the matter?” the older man asked. “Cat got your tongue?”
I swung my gaze back to the younger man, Fenris, and he cocked his head, staring me down and I couldn’t help it. I broke down, clapping first one hand, then the other over my mouth as a pitiful sob escaped.
“Oh, shit. Hey, now…” Fenris said, everything about his imposing presence softening, but it was too late. The flood gates were open and the tears just started to pour, and I couldn’t stop them.
Too much! This was just too much!
Oh, shit was right.
I crumpled to the floor, sitting down hard on the edge of the landing at the bottom of the steps leading into the room, and hugged myself. I felt like such a freak, crying like that in front of these two strange men.
The older man in the kitchen turned his eyes away from me and grunted, jaw tightening, and I shoved both of my hands over my mouth to try and stifle the unpleasant noise coming from it.
The younger man, who had risen from the couch, who positively towered over me, grunted and came toward me. I scooted aside and pressed myself to the wall as it looked like he was going for the stairs and I wanted out of his way. He took a great step from beside me, skipping one of the stair treads and I tried to get myself together, but then his warmth hit my back and his boots appeared to either side of me. Strong arms went around my body in a stabilizing hug and he grated in my ear, “It’s okay. Let it out.”
I didn’t know what to do for a heartbeat, but then the next wave of emotion hit, and I dissolved against him like sea-foam on the shore. I took his invitation and I let it all out.
Chapter Two
Fenris…
She calmed down eventually. My pops moved around the kitchen unconcerned, fixing up some breakfast for the three of us. I just sat still and waited on her. I was in no rush. She fit inside the circle of my arms kind of nice, actually.
“Come on up here,” I murmured when she’d settled down, and I stood, holding a hand down to her. She took it and I hoisted her up and onto her feet. She was an ugly crier, her face going all blotchy and red, all the way down her neck and across what I could see of her chest before she clutched the collar of the shirt, my shirt, she was wearing closed.
She looked damn good in it – the flannel hugging her breasts, the hem brushing just above her knees, the sleeves rolled back in this adorable way that made her look like a living doll. Like she was wearing her boyfriend’s shirt…