“Because I know that’s what Sasha wants. You can’t force her to be with us.”
“I’m not suggesting—”
“You don’t even know what you’re suggesting!” Dan interjected. “You’re only thinking with your heart.”
I had no answer for him, mostly because I knew he was telling the truth.
Instead, I stormed out of the office and headed into the kitchen, yanking open the fridge to stare inside.
I wasn’t hungry, not with the weight of Bash’s rock meatloaf in my stomach but I wanted to be closer to Sasha somehow and being in the kitchen reminded me of her.
In my mind’s eye, I saw her bouncing around the room, humming softly to herself, despite the pain in her leg, happiest in her element.
Her element was taking care of us and ours was taking care of her. We fit together. How can Dan not see that?
But I knew it wasn’t that he was blind to it. No, he was probably in just as much pain as me, even if he hid it behind the guise of work.
I slammed the fridge door shut and sank into a stool around the kitchen bar, drumming my fingers against the countertop. I could see her sprawled on her back, the seven of us on her, tasting her skin, our mouths on her as her cries bounced off the kitchen walls.
What are you doing right now, Sasha? Are you missing me as much as I miss you?
Oddly, I felt like she should answer me, like she could somehow reach out psychically and give me an answer.
I sat up then.
She wasn’t far away, not really.
Maybe I could pop by and see how she was doing.
A quick glance at the clock on the stove told me it was after midnight and such an excursion was out of the question but maybe in the morning?
I knew what the others, particularly Dan would have to say about that but did I really care?
I just wanted to make sure she was happy, safe, and comfortable.
Ah, who was I kidding? I wanted to see if she’d changed her mind and was missing us.
We’d shared something that none of us had ever shared with another woman, not even Collette. Collette had toyed with our emotions, broken our hearts but Sasha, she’d done her best to unite us and she’d succeeded—even with me who made it the most difficult.
It couldn’t be over yet. I just couldn’t accept that.
20
Sasha
The pain in my leg woke me and I instantly looked around for one of the boys but it took me a full minute to remember where I was.
Disappointment filled me, adding to the nausea in my gut as I sat up and looked toward Queenie’s bed but she wasn’t in it.
Not that I expected she would help me if I’d asked.
Not that I wanted her to help me in any way. I could take care of myself. I would just rather have someone else do it.
My brow knit with pain. It hadn’t been that bad last night or the night before but I remembered what I’d teasingly told Dan about endorphins and sex.
Looks like I’m back to old fashion pain killers now, I thought grimly, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and padding across the cracked linoleum floor toward the door. I didn’t even know what we had for pain there but I seemed to remember there was a medical kit of sorts in the bathroom. I hoped I wouldn’t have to hear sex noises from Frick and Frack when I went out there.
At least I’ll only have to listen for two minutes, I thought wryly, shaking my head as I made my way into the common area.
It was dark but I saw the glow of a computer screen in the labs. Instinctively, I paused when I realized Queenie was up and speaking to someone via video conference. She hadn’t seen me and for some inexplicable reason, I didn’t want her to either.
I hung back in the doorway of our shared room, wincing at the weight on my leg and shifted against the doorframe to take the pressure off.
I strained my ears to listen, wondering who she was talking to at that hour but it occurred to me that it was five hours later in New York.
“…doesn’t apply to us,” Queenie was saying as I eavesdropped. “No one needs to know, Silva.”
Andrea Silva was Queenie’s superior at Mirror, Mirror.
Her voice piped through the computer.
“The EPA is on my ass,” Silva insisted. “You’ve got to do better about hiding your findings. Are you sure your team is under control? What about Snow? If she gets wind of this—”
“Don’t worry about Sasha,” Queenie said with a confidence that made a chill rush through my body. “She might be lucky but it can’t last forever.”
“What does that mean?”
Queenie chuckled and shook her head.
“She doesn’t know anything about our methods yet.”
“Yet?”
“Silva, you need to trust me. Just handle the EPA and I’ll deal with Snow.”
“Is something happening over there that I need to know about?” There was a deep suspicion in Silva’s voice.
“Nope,” Queenie lied. “Everything’s great. Sasha doesn’t know what’s happening with the prototype. As far as she’s concerned, we’re here collecting samples for her useless model. I mean, how naïve does someone have to be to believe that eco-fuel is the wave of the future?”
Both women laughed and I felt my breaths growing short.
What the hell was this? If we weren’t working on my prototype, what were we doing?
“Stupid liberals,” Silva agreed. “They don’t look at the big picture.”
I could almost hear Queenie’s eyeroll from across the room.
“We’re away from civilization so no one knows about the testing. There should be a minimal affect to the wildlife if the water gets polluted but even if some minks die, no one will be the wiser and we’ll have a new chemical fuel.”
“That’s why we sent you out there, Amanda. I knew you’d do Mirror, Mirror proud. Just make sure your team is none the wiser.”
“I’ve got Hunter under control,” she smirked. “Don’t worry about Snow.”
I sank back into our room, trying to make sense of what I’d learned but what had I really learned?
I chewed on my lower lip, my heart racing. If the Environmental Protection Agency was onto us, Mirror, Mirror was doing something to harm the environment, not protect it as I had always believed.
Poisoning the water? Chemical fuel?
Bile rose in my throat and I struggled to control my emotions. I needed to do something but what could I do?
My resources were limited in the middle of nowhere but I had one resource, which was invaluable.
Alex.
With trembling hands, I pushed my way out of the bedroom, but Queenie had already logged off her video call.
“What are you doing up?” she demanded, guilt coloring her face. I forced a nonchalant look onto my face and shrugged.
“I didn’t know I needed to check in on you when I needed to pee,” I retorted, sauntering toward the bathroom.
Queenie scoffed at me but she turned her attention back to the computer and I sank inside the bathroom, my phone in my hand.
First, I dug out the medical kit and found a Vicodin which I downed without water before sinking onto the toilet lid and dialing Alex’s number.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Alex demanded without preamble. I lowered my voice to a whisper.
“I need you to do me a favor,” I breathed into the phone. I doubted that Queenie could hear me beyond the door but I didn’t want to risk it.
“What? Do you need to come home?” I could hear the stress rising in her tone.
“Not yet,” I mumbled. “But I changed my mind. I need you to start looking into Mirror, Mirror after all.”
I heard Alex inhale sharply.
“Look in how?”
“I’m not sure,” I replied slowly, keeping my words quiet. “But I think they’re poisoning the environment under the guise of doing eco-friendly research. They may even be taking government grants for this. I don’t know. That’
s why I need you.”
“Sash…even if you’re right about this, I’m going to need more than just suspicions. I’m going to need proof.”
“I know that,” I sighed. “But my hands are a little tied at the moment, Al.”
“Where is this coming from? Did something happen over there?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered evasively. “I’m going to see what I can find out from my end and you see what you can do from yours, all right?”
“Sash, are you in trouble? I’m coming over there—”
“NO!”
I said that much louder than I intended and I lowered my voice instantly.
“It won’t do you any good to come,” I insisted. “You do what you can and I’ll do the same.”
“I don’t like this.”
“I know.”
I hated myself for worrying Alex even more than she already was but I needed her. I couldn’t exactly use the company computers to investigate them and Alex certainly had more contacts than I did as a journalist.
“Maybe this will be your big break,” I teased even though my pulse was racing erratically. I was terrified about the position I’d put myself in but I needed to know who I was working for.
“I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?” I said, realizing I’d been in the bathroom for a while. I didn’t want Queenie getting suspicious.
“You better,” Alex growled.
“I don’t need to tell you that Mom doesn’t need to know about this, right?”
Alex scoffed.
“Obviously, although I’m starting to understand exactly how she feels, Sash.”
“Love you, girl.”
“Love you too.”
We hung up and I stared at the cell in my hand nervously. I’d just committed to being a whistleblower for a company I’d worked at for years.
And based on what? A conversation I’d overheard that I could have misconstrued?
Suddenly I felt ridiculous and I wished I hadn’t been so hasty calling Alex.
I’ll call her back tomorrow and tell her I was on drugs when I called.
If there was something going on, I would need more proof than an eavesdropped conversation, wouldn’t I, Nancy Drew?
Shaking my head, I rose from the toilet seat lid, feeling incredibly foolish. I chalked it up to all the turmoil I’d been through over the last days, the emotional rollercoaster I’d twisted and turned upon.
You’re looking for a distraction from the drillers and making up problems where there are none.
I knew that what I’d heard was more than me concocting things in my mind but it wasn’t enough for me to expose a company I’d always loved.
The Vicodin was beginning to take effect and I threw open the bathroom door. My phone clattered to the floor as I stared at a barrel of a rifle.
My eyes rose to look at Queenie in shock and a slow, cruel smile formed on her lips.
“My dear, what big eyes you have,” she jeered, adjusting the barrel and I stepped back into the bathroom in shock.
“What the hell are you doing, Queenie?” I gasped, calling her by her last name to her face for the first time in our working relationship.
“Taking care of you once and for all,” Queenie growled, waving the barrel toward me. “Get out of there.”
“No!” I yelled, hoping to rouse Hunter from his sleep. A look of fury crossed over her face.
“Shut up!” she hissed. “Hunter can’t save you. He doesn’t care if you live or die!”
I wondered if that was true or if she was saying that to make herself feel better. After all, Hunter may not hold a candle to any of my men but he wasn’t heartless.
Not like Queenie.
“Then you won’t care if he sees what you’re doing!”
“Keep your voice down and get outside!” Queenie hissed. “Don’t make me shoot you here.”
I thought quickly, desperately and looked around for something to use as a weapon but what could I use against a gun?
I decided to keep her talking instead.
“Why are you doing this?” I demanded. “What have I ever done to you?”
“You know too much,” Queenie replied but there was malice in her tone, which told me that she’d been planning this for a long while.
I thought about what Hunter had told me, that she was jealous of me. Could that really be the root of all this or was Queenie just a run-of-the-mill psycho?
“I don’t know anything!” I promised. “I swear, I didn’t hear anything.”
Her mouth formed a smirk of disbelief.
“You’re not even smart enough to lie well,” she spat. “Come on.”
I knew my stalling tactics were failing and I shuffled past her, opening my mouth to scream for Hunter but I quickly reconsidered.
What if she shot him? I’d never be able to live with myself.
“Outside,” Queenie growled. “Move faster.”
“So you’re just going to kill me in the snow? Won’t that look suspicious?”
“Not if no one ever finds your body. You have a history of hiding out, after all.”
I turned my head as we reached the doorway and gaped at her.
“You can’t be serious,” I choked. “There will be a search for me, Queenie. My mom—”
“You should have thought about that before coming back here,” Queenie snarled and I continued to stare at her uncomprehendingly.
“What are you talking about?”
“Ugh, you really are dumb. You were supposed to get caught in that storm—and die there.”
My eyes almost popped out of my head.
“T-that is the most terrible plan I’ve ever heard,” I muttered before I could stop myself. “How could you guarantee that?”
“Because I poisoned your water. You were supposed to drink from it and die in the snow.”
Fear permeated my body.
“Why?” I whispered. “Why do you hate me so much? What have I ever done to you?”
“Just shut up!” She hit me with the nose of the gun and I stumbled out of the building in socked feet, stumbling through the snow, which was almost to my knees.
It was impossible to walk with my leg and the amount of snow but Queenie didn’t seem to care.
“Keep going,” she insisted. “I need to get out somewhere remote.”
I headed toward the only place I could think of—the cabin. I had no idea if Queenie knew what direction I was going but in my head, I was silently willing one of my men to save me again.
Just a little bit further and I’ll see the cabin, I thought, shivering violently against the cold.
“This is far enough.”
I turned to look at her, knowing this was it but to my shock, I saw someone in the distance, running toward us.
“AMANDA!” Hunter screamed after us. She turned in shock and I took the opportunity without pause.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter that my leg hurt or that I was drowning in snow. I had to run.
I zigzagged across the snow awkwardly, each step bringing me closer to the cabin’s view when suddenly, the shot rang out.
With laser precision, the bullet tore through me and I was falling face-first into the snow.
21
Dan
I jumped at the unexpected noise, my head spinning to look outside the snow-capped window in shock. At first I thought I was imagining things in my exhausted state but the more I thought about it, the more I realized what it was I’d just heard.
Was that a gunshot?
I didn’t give myself much more time to think about it and I bolted out of the office and into the main part of the house.
No one else was around, all of them in bed in the dorm. I didn’t bother to call out to anyone as I threw open the front door and peered into the snow. The blackness made it impossible to see much but something propelled me forward, the snow crunching beneath my feet. I didn’t even notice the cold as I surged forward into the unforgiving landscape, my heart racing.
<
br /> My deeply honed sixth sense told me that something terrible was waiting for me in that vast nothingness.
It was stupid. I should have called for backup. I knew better.
But there was no time for regrets now and I listened for signs of life. If there was a gunshot, there was a person. I hoped it wasn’t a dead person.
There was no chance it was a hunter in the middle of the night and not when I suddenly heard loud voices arguing nearby.
It wasn’t a dueling pair who I came across but Sasha, unconscious and bleeding in the snow. Yet I’d somehow known that was exactly who it was going to be all along.
“Oh shit!” I muttered, scooping her up in my arms. “Sasha! Sasha open your eyes!”
The voices were getting nearer and I knew whoever had shot her was coming back to finish the job. I had to get her out of there.
“AMANDA NO!” I heard a man yell. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
“I’ll explain everything to you in a minute, Hunter,” Amanda muttered breathlessly. I could tell she was looking for Sasha but I wasn’t about to let her anywhere near the limp figure in my arms.
“Amanda, come back to the container with me,” Hunter told her.
“Not yet. I just have to—"
Her words abruptly cut out and then there was silence. I wondered if Hunter had knocked her out but I was already ducking back into the night with Sasha, trying to put as much distance between me and whatever firearm was out there. I wasn’t about to go investigate what those two were up to.
Harry was standing in the door I’d left wide open and I was struck by a peculiar sense of déjà vu as I hurried back into the cabin.
“What are you doing out there?” He demanded. “You left the door—”
He abruptly stopped speaking.
“I-is that Sasha?” He gasped.
“I need you to stand guard,” I growled. “There’s someone armed out there and she’s been shot. Get Stevie and Seth too.”
“W-what?” Harry choked but I was already racing into the dorm.
“Get up!” I yelled and instantly, five heads poked up from their respective beds. “Get up and get armed.”
Snow and the Seven Men: A Reverse Harem Fairy Tale Romance Page 10
