Lumberjacked : A Holiday Mountain Man Lumberjack Romance

by K. C. Crowne

  Silently, I crept after him. I was a shadow in the night. I stayed hidden in the dark until I was close enough that none of them would see me coming.

  The first guard blinked sleepily. He wouldn’t have seen me coming even if it was daytime, he was so far off dreaming. I snapped his neck and slowly lowered him to the ground.

  The next guard was more alert and saw me coming. I slapped him against his ear. He reeled, searching for his balance. He pulled a gun on me. I turned the gun around and pushed it into his chest. It had a silencer on the muzzle, and the bullet left the chamber with nothing more than a quiet thump. I lowered the second body to the ground.

  “Yuri,” someone said, speaking Russian. “I’m so fucking tired. Cover for me, and I’ll get your back in an hour.” When there was no answer, the guard hesitated. “Yuri?”

  Seriously? If this was what Maksim was working with, he had bigger problems on his hands than just me.

  The guard noticed the body on the ground in front of me. I’d pressed myself against the wall, and he didn’t seem to see me. He wouldn’t if I didn’t move. He walked to Yuri’s body, realizing he was dead. He opened his mouth to scream when I stepped out of the shadow. He looked up at my tall frame, shock on his face. But he was alert, and a fighter. Instead of freezing or running, he attacked.

  Brownie points for the fucker if he was on my side. But he worked for Maksim. He’d signed his own death warrant without knowing what he was doing at the time. The poor asshole.

  He put up a solid fight for his height and weight. It just wasn’t enough. He got in a blow, but it didn’t do much to me. I hit him under the chin with an elbow, punched him in the stomach so he doubled over, and hit him behind the head. He fell to the ground. I pulled the trigger on the gun I’d taken from Yuri. A silencer was a good thing, and I didn’t have one of my own. The guard didn’t move where his body had fallen.

  But the others had heard it. Two more were still up and running, and they came at me with their guns drawn. I pointed at one, firing from the hip before he had a chance to pull the trigger. When he fell, the other guard stumbled over the dead body. I aimed down sight and pulled the trigger another time. The bullet hit home, and the last body fell on the one just in front of him.

  This was too easy, which was suspicious. There had to be more to it. Was this a trap?

  I stood still in the darkness, away from the sodium lights that were placed along the walls at intervals and strained to listen. The generator hummed a short distance away, drowning out the sounds of the forest at night. I heard conversation inside, Maksim’s voice roaring over the others. I curled my hands into fists, my lips pulling up involuntarily in an animalistic snarl.

  Hearing his voice brought back feelings of hatred. Not only for him, but for myself, too. For the person I had been.

  I was going to fucking kill him.

  But not yet. I had to bide my time. I had to make sure I knew where everyone was. I was just one man. I had to play it right and make sure Angela was safe.

  So instead of charging into the building and grabbing the son of a bitch by the neck like I wanted to, I backed away slowly, back into the trees, to calculate my next move. I had to see how long it would take before he noticed his guards were gone. He would check on them soon. As soon as he mobilized them all, I’d know how many he had.

  I sank into a crouch between the trees, waiting, watching.

  Angela

  I was wide awake. I couldn’t go back to sleep. Not in this shitty position on the chair. I was freezing, goosebumps on my skin. My lower lip trembled. An icy breeze blew in through the broken windows. Even the Russians, who were used to the cold and snow, wore jackets. I was wearing nothing but a thin shirt. A shirt I’d bought when I was with Viktor.

  I had to get the hell out of there. He would come in the morning; I was sure of that. It was too dangerous to move through the forest at night. I had to get away as soon as possible so I could find him and warn him. He was being led into a trap.

  My mind ran feverishly through all the ways I could escape. I thought about sawing through the ropes the way they did in movies, behind my back. But I had nothing to do it with. How did the heroines always have a nail file or something handy? It was so ridiculous.

  Getting out of the ropes wasn’t going to happen unless someone untied me. This was reality, and in reality, ropes didn’t just fall off because I really, really wanted them to.

  How was I going to convince them to untie me? I could complain about being uncomfortable, but that wasn’t going to make a difference. Quite simply, they didn’t give a shit about what I felt.

  But if there was a reason…

  Aleks walked past me. He eyed me, and it made me shiver, the way he looked at me. He had a weird way about him; he looked predatory. Again, I kicked myself for not listening to my gut when he’d approached on the road with the cab driver.

  “I need to pee,” I said.

  “So,” Aleks replied, looking blandly at me. “Pee.”

  I looked at him, horrified. “You can’t seriously think I’ll just wet my pants?”

  “I don’t care what you do,” Aleks said and walked on.

  Maksim was at his desk, looking at his computers again. He was very worried about his computer and his radars.

  “Please, Maksim,” I called. “I need to pee.”

  He groaned. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

  I was going to pull out all the stops. “How can you say that you’ll keep me safe but treat me like a prisoner? Please, just let me pee. You can send your guards with me or whatever. I just… I can’t just go, you know? It’s…embarrassing.”

  Maksim sighed exaggeratedly. “Fine,” he said, gesturing to Crutch. “Take her.”

  The guy with the crutch – Mikael, I’d learned – looked up at Maksim, surprised. Me?” he asked.

  “You’re just sitting there, aren’t you? Make yourself useful.”

  This was better than I’d expected it would be. Mikael wasn’t very mobile on his crutch. I could get away from him if I planned it right.

  “Fine,” he said, hobbling to me.

  He dropped the crutch and balanced on one leg while he fumbled with the ropes, trying to untie them. It took him quite some time, and I struggled to be patient. Finally, the ropes slackened around my waist and arms and I rubbed my wrists and ankles where they hurt. My skin was red, and touching my wrists stung.

  “Don’t try anything funny,” Mikael said. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at me.

  “I won’t,” I said, and for a moment I truly meant it. I didn’t want him to shoot me. He poked me with the gun, and I yelped.

  “That way,” he said, and I started moving, with him hobbling after me with his gun.

  I walked in the direction he kept waving at, finally going through a half-broken door that led into a toilet stall. The place smelled like stale urine even though it hadn’t been used for what seemed to be years. The toilet bowl didn’t have a cover. The door didn’t close properly, and Mikael hovered outside. I watched him, nervous. I pulled down my pants and peed. I actually did have to go; it had been hours since I’d been to a bathroom.

  When I pulled up my pants again, I knew my time was running out, and I still didn’t know how I was going to get out. I tried to flush, but apparently the toilet didn’t work. The basin had running water, so I washed my hands. When I pushed the door open, shaking my hands to get rid of the excess water, Mikael nodded and waved the gun at me again.

  “Can you not point that thing at me?” I asked. I hated the feel of a gun trained on me.

  Mikael laughed and pointed the weapon at my face. “Does it scare you?” He moved a little closer, struggling to keep his balance on his crappy crutch with his other arm up in the air. He took one more step, and the crutch slipped out from under him, probably from the water I’d splashed all over the place, and he fell backward. The gun flew up, and when Mikael hit the ground, he fired an accidental shot. The ceiling fell in patches around us
.

  Mikael lay on the floor, cursing, and I ran. I didn’t know which way to go, but the building wasn’t that big. I headed for the window closest to me, the one with most of the glass missing, and climbed through. I cut my leg but couldn’t stop to worry about it.

  The building was surrounded by dark trees. I started running but tripped over a body on the ground. I yelped and backed away from it. I stared at the dead man and repeated, “No, no, no.”

  Shouts from inside snapped me back into action, and a gun fired. I ran for the trees, hurrying up against the hill side. Bullets flew past me, but they were scattered as if they weren’t sure which direction to shoot.

  Out of nowhere, strong, large hands grabbed my arms, and I screamed. A thick hand clapped over my mouth, muffling the sound, and I was yanked into the trees. I fought and kicked. I refused to be taken again. I bit the hand around my mouth.

  “Fuck!” a familiar voice yelped. “Angela!”

  I stopped fighting. “Viktor?”

  “It’s me, Malen kiy. You’re safe.”

  “Oh, my God,” I said, a sob leaving my mouth unexpectedly. “You’re here.”

  “I’m here,” he said and pulled me tightly against him.

  Never in my life had I been so relieved to see someone. His large body wrapped around me, protecting me from everything going on around us.

  “They’re coming,” I said, trembling.

  “I know,” he said. “Come.”

  I didn’t fight him. I didn’t know who he was or what he’d done. But I knew that I didn’t want to be anywhere near Maksim. And now that Viktor was here to take me away, I would follow wherever he led.

  We trekked through the trees. Viktor held onto me, clasping my hand so tightly, like he was scared I was going to disappear. We hurried in the darkness with no light to guide us, but Viktor moved through the forest as if he knew exactly where everything was.

  I trusted him with my life. I knew that he wouldn’t lead us into danger.

  By the time we reached a cabin, I was dead on my feet. It wasn’t Viktor’s place, though. Viktor knocked on the door, and a moment later, Axel opened.

  “Viktor,” he said with a frown. He looked at me. “You found her.”

  Viktor nodded. “They’ll come after me. I can’t go back to the cabin.”

  “Stay here for the night,” Axel said without hesitation.

  Viktor shook his head. “It will bring danger to your doorstep.”

  Axel chuckled. “I’ve been bored lately. Wouldn’t mind a little action.”

  Something passed between the two men in the silence that I didn’t understand. Then Axel stepped back, Viktor nodded, and we walked into the cabin.

  The cabin was larger than Viktor’s and had an extra room. He made a crude bed for us. If I’d had to sleep on the floor, I wouldn’t have cared. I was exhausted.

  Viktor tucked me into bed and sat down next to me on the blankets. My head rested on the pillow, and I felt a terribly deep sleep dragging me under.

  “You’re not sleeping here with me?” I asked. I was terrified he was going to leave.

  Viktor shook his head. “I need to talk to Axel first. Rest, Angel. I’ll come later.”

  “You’re not leaving me, are you?”

  “Never,” he said. His eyes were bright, his response fierce, and I relaxed. He lifted my arm and studied my wrist. “Did they hurt you?”

  “No more than that and knocking me out when I tried to escape in the truck.” I was mumbling. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open.

  Viktor sounded furious when he spoke again. “He will pay for that. I am so sorry. I am so sorry I have put you in danger.”

  I blinked my eyes open. “It’s your past, isn’t it?”

  Viktor nodded. “It’s catching up with me. I never wanted you to be a part of it. I need you to understand that I left all that behind. I don’t know what Maksim told you, but—”

  “It’s okay, Viktor.” He was worried. I understood that. But he didn’t have to be. “I saw what sort of man he is. And I know what sort of man you are. I don’t know what you did before… but I do know what I see when I look at you now. I’m so glad you came for me.”

  Relief washed over his features, and it was difficult to think a man so confident and sure of himself could be so unsure about my feelings for him. But it mattered to him, the same way it mattered to me what he thought.

  “Rest, Malen kiy,” he finally said, brushing the back of his hand down my cheek. “I’ll take care of you.”

  I closed my eyes again as he dropped a kiss in my hair. “Viktor,” I said when he started moving away.

  “Hmm?”

  “I think I’m in love with you.”

  He was silent for so long, I opened my eyes again to look at him. His face was filled with affection, his eyes filled with the same intensity as when we were making love when we were completely vulnerable with each other.

  “I’m in love with you too, Angela,” he said. “I feel much more than I’m able to say.”

  I nodded and smiled a sleepy smile, feeling safe and happy. “Okay.”

  “I’ll take care of you, Angel,” Viktor said.

  I closed my eyes again, barely able to stay awake, now. “I know,” I whispered.

  A deep sleep dragged me under, and I escaped everything that had happened in the past twelve hours.

  Viktor

  I wished I could take her away somewhere far, far away from here. But there was no time. Maksim would come looking for me. He was probably already mobilizing his men. But they would only move at dawn. It was too dangerous to traipse through these trees in the dead of night if you didn’t know the terrain.

  Maksim was an asshole, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew this was the sort of ground I could navigate. He knew this was my turf, and if he came after me now, he would be on my home ground. I had the advantage. So even though I knew he was impatient as fuck to come after me, he would wait.

  When I stepped out of the room where Angela was already asleep, I pulled the door shut silently behind me. Axel sat in the front room, perched on the edge of his leather armchair, staring into the fire. He looked up at me when I stepped toward him.

  “How is she?” Axel asked.

  “Rattled,” I said, sitting in the other armchair, perched on the edge the same way he was. The flames danced around the logs he’d just put on. “Shaken up, but she’ll live. She’s tough.”

  “Did they hurt her?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing too serious. Chafed wrists. A bump on the head.”

  “It could have been a hell of a lot worse.”’

  I growled at the back of my throat. I didn’t even want to think what those fuckers could have done to her. Maksim was a dark man with an even darker disposition and I had witnessed him doing terrible things to women. He hadn’t touched Angela, though. Not really. I was still going to relish killing him.

  “What’s the plan?” Axel asked.

  “I’m going to hunt him down and kill him,” I said simply.

  Axel nodded. “Tie up loose ends.”

  “It’s the only way.”

  Axel nodded again. We stared silently into the fire for a while.

  “I’m leaving her here with you,” I said.

  “Of course,” Axel replied. “She’ll be safe here. But I don’t think she’s going to like it.”

  “I know,” I said, frowning. Axel chuckled. “I can’t take her with me when I take care of this. I’m going to do things I swore I would never do again. I’m going to end this. I don’t want her to see it. I don’t want her to see that part of me.”

  “You’ll have to be open with her about who you used to be, you know,” Axel said. “You can’t hide it from her. Secrets have a way of pulling everything apart if they fester too long.”

  I shook my head. “I won’t hide anything from her. Not anymore. I’ve learned. But she doesn’t need to see it. Hearing about death and witnessing it are two very different things.”

>   Axel nodded. “I’ll take care of her, make sure everything is safe here while you do what you need to do. And when it’s all over, you tell your woman how you feel, you tell her what was and what is, and you move forward.”

  I nodded. Axel nodded. We were on the same page. Of all the people in my life, in the past and now, Axel was the only person who truly understood what I was going through. We were cut from the same cloth even though he had come from a different background and was up here for different reasons.

  “You should rest up for what’s to come,” he advised.

  I nodded, knowing I could trust Axel with my life. I stood and walked to the room where Angela was sleeping.

  “I’ll be up a while,” Axel said. “I’ll keep watch. Rest easy.”

  I nodded and pushed the door open. I had about two hours’ sleep before I had to be up again. But I could rest because I knew Axel had my back. And I knew Angela was safe.

  I climbed into the makeshift bed on the floor and curled my body around Angela’s. In her sleep, she responded, rolling her tiny body against me so tightly, it was like we were one.

  It felt like heaven.

  Angela

  When I opened my eyes, I knew exactly where I was. I was immediately wide awake and rolled over in the bed on the floor in Axel’s cabin to find Viktor still sleeping next to me.

  The night had a shimmery quality to it, anticipating the dawn, but it was still dark out. Viktor’s breathing was steady and deep. I studied his features in the dim light, his brow knit in worry even while he slept, his high cheekbones accentuated by the beard that covered the bottom half of his face. The scar that he seemed so conscious of running across his cheek…how had he gotten it? It was a part of him that I loved. Something unique, different. Something that made him seem real.

  What had he been through?

  Last night when I’d realized he’d come for me, I’d nearly fallen apart with relief. Now that I’d slept a bit, I didn’t feel any different. I’d left Viktor because I’d been terrified of who he might be, what his past held.