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“I don’t want to hurt her…I don’t need to. I just need to scare her. Trap her,” I mused aloud.
Marcus sighed. “I mean, it still sounds like the beginning of a true-crime doc, but who am I to judge? Use the cabin. I’ll even help set it up.”
I set up the cabin with everything I’d need to trap Winter inside with me for a few days, if necessary. The bathroom was the fucking downside, of course, being outside. I’d solve that by getting rid of her footwear, and maybe all her clothes. She wouldn’t run away during a bathroom break if she didn’t have any clothes to wear. I’d just have to stand guard outside when she did her business. I hid anything that could be used as a weapon and even nailed the windows shut. I’d borrowed a couple of balaclavas from the bikers at The Clutch. They were black with a white skull painted on; suitably menacing enough to scare Winter. Was I an asshole for planning to scare her like this? But then again, I’d never claimed to be anything but, and she’d started this whole thing.
I parked my motorcycle around the back of the cabin and headed down the gravel path. I’d already texted Marcus Winter’s coordinates. She still hadn’t found the tracking app on her phone.
I waited. Before long, the sound of an SUV rumbling up the road reached me. Marcus had borrowed a buddy’s vehicle so he could kidnap Winter without her knowing who it was. She couldn’t know it was me, not yet. She wouldn’t be scared enough to shatter the sky-high wall of glass she’d put between us.
She wasn’t leaving the woods until it was gone. Not even if we both had to starve out here.
The lights of the SUV flashed over the ground. Marcus pulled up a little distance from me and got out. With the stenciled balaclava on, he looked menacing. We couldn’t afford to talk much, so he just headed around the back of the truck and opened the trunk. I didn’t like enclosing her in a small, dark space for half an hour, knowing she was scared of them, but I needed to scare her and if I was lucky, she’d be well on her way to breaking down her emotionless fortress.
Marcus opened the trunk without a second thought.
That was his first mistake.
Winter’s foot shot out and clocked him square in the balls. Marcus went down silently, thankfully. Winter scrambled out of the truck.
“Don’t come near me!” she warned, brandishing a tire iron in her bound hands.
I’d told Marcus not to hurt her under any circumstances, but taking weapons out of the trunk might have been a good idea.
I kept silent and watched. She edged around the side of the truck, pointing the tire iron at me. I waited until she got to the driver’s side and attempted to get into the cab. I was on her in seconds, dragging her away from the open door and into the darkness of the woods. The tire iron fell. She fought back and managed to wriggle away. I let her go. I wanted Marcus to get his balls together and leave us alone. It was just the beginning of Winter’s dark night of the soul.
“Who are you?” she demanded, and stared at me like I was a monster from her darkest nightmares.
“Asher?” She was blinking hard, her breath shallow. “Ash, is it you?”
Ash?
I swallowed my confirmation, the sound of the nickname on her lips making me feel all kinds of things I wasn’t allowed to. I shook my head slowly, and a tear dashed out of her eye and down her cheek.
“Trent?” Her voice wobbled on the name. The other person she thought might harm her wasn’t a surprise. I already knew that fucker was behind everything. I shook my head again.
“Whatever he’s paying you isn’t enough to get into serious trouble for,” she continued, clearly convinced it was Trent who had organized this. “There are people waiting for me. They’ll notice when I don’t come home. They’ll look for you and your friend.”
I tilted my head to the side, soundlessly mocking her, and then shook my masked head, like I didn’t believe her.
Her hands were curling into fists at her sides. My clever little Ice Queen was trying to figure out what to do. Of course she was. Winter DeLaurie didn’t know how to take something lying down.
Then she put her head back and screamed.
“Help! Someone help me!”
Her scream was so loud, if there had been anyone else around, they definitely would have heard. But I knew there wasn’t. The weather wasn’t great for the woods. I wouldn’t be out here myself if it wasn’t for this special project.
“Oh my God! Over here, please help!” Winter suddenly cried, waving frantically at something behind me.
I couldn’t help my grin under the mask. She was one in a million, my Ice Queen. Devious and ballsy. God, I loved her.
I turned to check, because honestly, I wanted her to feel like she had a chance before I ripped it away.
As soon as I turned, she leapt in the other direction, grabbing for her phone in her pocket. Marcus hadn’t taken her phone either? This was the last kidnapping I was organizing with him. I charged after her and swiped for her hand, but she dodged away.
She was fast, my cheerleader.
She sprinted down the road, and I followed, my breath loud inside the mask. She took a sharp right and went into the wilderness, abandoning the road, her flaxen hair glittering in the moonlight that shone through the leafy canopy.
