Cold

by Max Monroe

  He popped open the passenger door and nodded toward the interior. “Get in.”

  “What?” I questioned.

  “You’re staying with me tonight,” he answered.

  With a hand to my hip, I offered my retort without delay. “Uh…no, I’m not.”

  He sighed, heavy, deep, and I could tell it was his exasperated sigh. The one that only left his lungs when he was really at his wit’s end. “Yes. You. Are.”

  “This makes no sense.”

  “The fact that you’re not realizing how very serious this might be makes no sense,” he interjected. “Ivy, I can’t let you sleep at Grace’s house tonight, or any other night, for that matter. Tomorrow you can work on finding another house to rent for the duration of filming.”

  I stared at him, and he stared back at me. His midnight-blue eyes were so damn resolute.

  “This feels a little overboard, Levi.”

  “Trust me,” he responded. “This isn’t overboard. This is exactly how we need to handle this.”

  We, he’d said. Like we were some sort of team. Like we were together.

  “Just get in the car, Ivy.” His voice stretched thin with patience. “It’s either you get in the truck, or I will put you in the truck.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Caveman, much?’

  He just shrugged. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep you safe. If that means being a caveman, then so be it. Bring on the loincloths, animal hides, and wooden clubs. I’m game.”

  “You’re infuriating, you know that?”

  Another fucking shrug, only this time, a smirk followed it. “I can say the same about you, sweetheart.”

  “What about my rental?” I asked, nodding toward the now defaced car.

  “I’ll call the station and have someone come by to pick it up.”

  “And what about clothes? And Camilla? I can’t leave my sister there to fend for herself.”

  “I already planned on her staying at my place too. We’ll head on over to Grace’s old house now, and you can call your sister on the way and explain the situation. Surely, she’ll understand,” he responded in a far-too-knowing voice.

  Fucking hell, he is right.

  Camilla would lose her shit when I told her. And, considering the fact that before I’d left LA to come to Cold, I’d had a bit of a stalker situation on my hands, she had every right to.

  My twin would start packing up our stuff the moment I let her know about the creepy broken heart finger-painted onto the windshield.

  “Now, get your little ass in the truck and let me keep you and your sister out of harm’s way. Okay?”

  What could I do?

  He had a point. I doubted I could sleep at Grace’s house even if I had the option. And more than that, I couldn’t risk my sister sleeping there either.

  Whoever was sending me all of this weird shit obviously had the address.

  And apparently, they also knew what car I drove.

  It was alarming. And scary. And, if I was being honest, I was thankful Levi was here.

  He hadn’t hesitated to take charge of the situation.

  And to protect you.

  Once my ass was in the passenger seat, Levi shut the door and walked around the front of the truck.

  As soon as our tires hit the road, he put a call out to the station and let them know the situation, while I sent Camilla a quick text.

  Me: Hey, so, we need to stay somewhere else tonight. Can you start packing an overnight bag for us? I’ll be there in about 10 minutes.

  Camilla: Huh?

  Me: There’s been a bit of a situation, and we won’t be able to stay in Grace’s house anymore. Levi and I are headed to the house now. Just pack up the essentials for tonight, and we’ll work on getting everything else tomorrow.

  Camilla: Situation? I’m so confused right now…

  Me: I’ll explain everything when I get there. Be there in about 10 minutes.

  Me: Oh, and keep the doors locked.

  Shit. I probably shouldn’t have sent that, but I couldn’t help myself.

  If anything happened to Camilla, I didn’t know what I’d do.

  Camilla: Keep the doors locked??? Should I be worried?

  Yeah. Definitely shouldn’t have sent that.

  Me: No. Just cautious. I promise everything is fine. And I’ll explain it all when I get there.

  Camilla: Where are we staying tonight?

  Me: Levi’s.

  Camilla: Oh, man. You’re just tossing out plot twists everywhere, huh? And now, I’d say it’s pretty obvious you have SO much to tell me. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure that happens very, very soon.

  No doubt, I would receive the sister inquisition tonight. I couldn’t blame her, though. I’d be doing the same thing if I were in her shoes.

  Me: Jesus. Just pack us an overnight bag, okay?

  Camilla: Uh-huh… ;) Consider it done. But prepare yourself, the interrogation is near…

  Me: (insert heavy sigh) I’m well aware.

  “Did you get Ivy’s rental?” Levi asked as he took a right out of Grace’s driveway and headed toward the main road.

  “Dane is bringing it back to the station now.” Officer Glen Chase’s voice filtered in through the Bluetooth speakers of Levi’s truck. “You headed home now?”

  “Yeah,” Levi responded. “Both Ivy and Camilla are going to stay with me for the night.”

  “Good idea,” Glen responded.

  While Levi proceeded to give Glen a rundown of things he wanted done, my phone pinged with a text message notification, and I pulled it out of my purse only to find that my sister, who was currently sitting in the back seat of Levi’s truck, was texting me.

  Camilla: Where are you going to sleep tonight?

  My nose scrunched up in confusion.

  Me: Uh…the same place you’re going to sleep.

  Camilla: You know that’s not what I meant.

  Me: Are you being serious right now?

  Camilla: Uh-huh. :)

  Me: I will be sleeping in a guest room. By myself.

  Camilla: That’s lame.

  Me: You’re lame.

  Camilla: Also, I’m a little pissed you didn’t tell me about Officer Dane Marx.

  Me: Dane? How do you know Dane?

  Camilla: I met him this afternoon while you were otherwise occupied.

  Me: Met him where?

  Camilla: I had to make a grocery run. I ran out of French vanilla creamer, and you know I cannot start my day without it in my coffee.

  Me: You met Dane at the grocery store?

  Camilla: Yep. And he is fucking adorable.

  Me: Well, well, well…looks like I’m not the only one who deserves a sister interrogation.

  Camilla: Oh, stop it. There’s not much to tell.

  Me: Interesting that you’re bringing him up, though…

  Camilla: Yeah. I’m ignoring you now.

  I silently giggled at her response and decided to let the subject go for a little while.

  Well, at least until we got to Levi’s house and I could ask her a million questions without having to use our phones as a third party.

  I wanted to ask questions and actually see her reactions.

  It was easy for her to hide behind a device, but in person, she had a hell of a time hiding her true feelings.

  Relief settled into my veins over the fact that Levi, Camilla, and I were all inside of his truck, heading toward his house where we’d all cohabitate for the night, and even after everything that had happened, it wasn’t awkward.

  Weirdly enough, it just felt normal. It felt right.

  Levi’s phone conversation with Glen was long done, and I took it upon myself to adjust the volume knob for the stereo until music filled the otherwise silent cab of his truck.

  I switched through the channels until I found an oldies station playing Ben E. King.

  The last few beats of “Stand by Me” reverberated through the speakers, and I settled into the passenger seat as
Levi took a left turn on a snow- and dirt-covered back road.

  Out of my periphery, I glanced at him, taking in the edges of his strong jaw, the way his jet-black hair looked even darker beneath the night sky, and the way his dark blue gaze stayed focused on the road.

  He was handsome, painfully so, and that I couldn’t deny.

  Through the passenger window, I looked out across the miles and miles of pristine and white-covered plains of Montana. The snowcapped mountains provided a majestic background, and the moon bouncing off the snow only made the landscape more beautiful.

  The song switched over, and Roy Orbison started singing about being lonesome and Blue Bayou.

  I sighed, soft and slow. A memory from my childhood, I could remember my dad playing this very song on an old record player that, to this day, he still refused to get rid of.

  Levi muttered something under his breath, and I darted my eyes from the window until they met the now harsh, pained lines of his jaw.

  “Fuck. Not today. Of all fucking days,” he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else in the truck, and with a quick tap of his index finger, slid the knob to the off position and sent us into silence.

  “You don’t like Roy Orbison?” I asked, and he only offered a short shake of his head and a curt two-word response.

  “Not anymore.”

  I didn’t have a response to that. But my brain was trying its damnedest to decode the secret messages only Levi appeared to know and understand.

  He glanced at me out of the corner of his blue eyes as he pulled into the driveway of the veritable mansion he called home.

  With a twist of his wrist, he turned off the engine and Camilla opened the back passenger door of the crew cab and hopped out.

  But Levi grabbed my wrist before I could follow her lead.

  “It’s a long story,” he said, and our gazes locked.

  I scrunched up my nose, and he nodded toward the radio.

  “The song, I mean,” he said. “It’s a long story, but one day soon, I’ll tell you all about it. But today is just not that day. We’ve already had too much shit to face as it is.”

  I’ll tell you all about it.

  The vulnerability in those words pushed against my heart, and it responded by increasing its tempo and making its presence known inside my chest.

  He never wanted to tell me anything.

  Until now.

  I searched his eyes, expecting the familiar closed-off reaction I’d received so many times before, but staring back at me was a man who wasn’t holding anything back or trying to keep secrets. His midnight-blue eyes were merely asking for some time and patience.

  “Okay,” I whispered back.

  Thought it was half-past eleven by the time we’d arrived at my house, Ivy and Camilla had already managed to make themselves comfortable and settle into the spare guest rooms of my house.

  Surely, I had enough room.

  We probably could’ve brought another four guests, and the house still wouldn’t have been filled.

  I’d lain awake for the past hour or so, trying not to eavesdrop on their conversation, but despite how quiet they were trying to be, their voices carried through the otherwise silent rooms and hallways with ease.

  “So, what happened?”

  Instantly, I knew that voice was Camilla.

  Although the sisters were identical, near replicas of each other in every physical attribute, their voices, their tones, the way they pushed their words past their lips had distinctive differences.

  Where Camilla was generally more soft-spoken, her words a low hum or a lull, Ivy was all rasp, and her voice carried, even when she was trying to whisper.

  “Nothing,” Ivy responded quietly.

  “Oh, come on,” her sister answered, amusement and annoyance highlighting the edges of her voice. “You ended up at his house earlier today. You were late to dinner with Sam because you were here. And, to top it all off, you were together when you came and picked me up from the house.”

  “Well, technically, Sam and I didn’t meet up for dinner,” Ivy responded. “He had a fall and ended up in the hospital.”

  “Oh my God!” Camilla gasped. “Is he okay?”

  “Yeah. He’s fine. Both Levi and I went to visit him before we…well…before we picked you up.”

  “So, you basically spent the whole day with him?” Camilla questioned.

  Ivy didn’t respond, but that apparently didn’t stop Camilla from continuing the conversation.

  “You know you can tell me anything, Ivy,” she said. “I feel like you’re not wanting to tell me because you think I still have some misplaced feelings for him. I also think you’re forgetting the fact that the only reason I kissed him in the first place was because I had no idea something had been going on between the two of you. If you’d actually given me a heads-up, I never would have made a move.”

  “Do you have feelings for him?” Ivy asked.

  “I’m not going to deny I was interested in him, but to say I had feelings would be a pretty big fucking stretch,” she responded with a giggle. “I’d just met him. And sure, he was sweet to me in the beginning and had shown me some attention, but I wasn’t, like, planning our marriage and shit. To me, he would’ve just been someone to fill the time with while we were stuck in this godforsaken frozen tundra.”

  A soft laugh reverberated down the hall, and I knew it was Ivy’s.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you from the beginning about Levi. I was just confused. We fought…a lot. Then, between all that fighting, we’d kiss. And it…well…I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. He’s not exactly the easiest egg to crack. If anything, he’s the exact type of man I should avoid.”

  Straight to the chest, her words, the ones I knew I wasn’t supposed to hear, hit me hard.

  And, God, it stung like a motherfucker.

  But I couldn’t deny that what she’d said was true.

  With the way I’d been from the very first day she’d arrived in Cold, I was the exact kind of man Ivy Stone should avoid.

  But I didn’t want to be that kind of man anymore. I wanted to be the man Ivy would run toward with open arms. The kind of man she could trust and rely on. Someone who only made her feel good and safe and fucking happy.

  “Today”—Ivy’s voice filled my ears—“I went to his house to return the flowers I’d thought he’d sent me. And, well, I ended up throwing them at him, and then, we did what we always do. We fought…a lot. Then, we kissed.”

  “Jesus. I’m disappointed in myself for not catching on to all the sexual-tension vibes flowing between the two of you.”

  “We do not—”

  “Shut up.” Camilla laughed. “Don’t bullshit me, you little bullshitter. You two are attracted to each other like fucking magnets. And you know what I think?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think you need to just give in to it and fuck his brains out.”

  “Cami!” Ivy shouted on a whisper-yell.

  “Oh, come on,” Camilla retorted. “You know you’re curious. You know you want to. I think you need to just give in to all the pent-up sexual tension and have some goddamn fun.”

  “That’s an awful plan.”

  “But is it? I mean, really?” Camilla questioned.

  “Well, considering everything that’s happened, I’m not sure it’s the best plan.”

  “You mean everything that’s happened in the past?” her sister questioned. “Ivy, sometimes, you just have to let go of the past. Sometimes, people make mistakes, but that doesn’t make them bad people. And, from what I’ve seen, Levi Fox has been trying to make some serious amends for his sins.”

  Silence stretched between them for a few quiet moments, until Camilla spoke up again. “You’re single. You haven’t had that kind of fun in a long fucking time. I think it’s time, honey. Between your crazy work schedule and all of the other bullshit that comes along with being one of Hollywood’s sweethearts, you deserve a little fun.”
>
  “And what about you?” Ivy asked. “Your work schedule is just as crazy as mine.”

  “That’s exactly why I’m going to make damn sure I have some fun while we’re spending our days and nights in the fucking arctic.”

  “Is this where Dane Marx comes in?”

  “He’s definitely on my list of fun possibilities.”

  Ivy giggled. “I love you, you know that?”

  “I love you too. Now, get the hell out of my room and go get some sleep. We’ve got an early day tomorrow.”

  More giggles and soft laughter filled the house until a bedroom door opened and shut.

  As what I assumed were the sounds of Ivy’s soft footsteps moving across the hardwood floor of the hallway reached my ears, I turned over on my side and adjusted the pillow underneath my head until I found the most comfortable position.

  Another bedroom door opened and closed.

  Eventually, all that was left was utter silence.

  I let my eyes fall closed, and for once, I felt like sleep might come easy tonight.

  A turn of a knob, the creak of the door, the sounds filled the space of my bedroom, and I opened my eyes, searching the darkened space for a visitor.

  Softly, footsteps moved toward me, and I sat up in bed to find a petite figure approaching me.

  “Ivy?”

  “Yes… Wait—” She paused, her voice and her steps. “Oh my God, are you checking to make sure you know which sister I am?”

  Of course I wasn’t fucking checking.

  Even though Ivy and her sister were identical twins, and it was the middle of the fucking night, I knew the difference by now. Where Camilla would be careful with her steps and her movements, Ivy was the type of woman who walked into a room and made damn sure you knew she was there, even when she was attempting to be quiet.