by Elle Aycart
A sudden move from the passenger side caught his attention. He gave her a quick glance and saw, flabbergasted, that her head had lolled to the side.
“Lady, you okay?”
A light snore was all the answer he got.
“And you don’t get into a stranger’s ride and proceed to check out,” he muttered. Jesus fucking Christ. Talk about a lack of common sense.
Chapter 2
Sky woke up enveloped in softness and toasty warmth. She stretched luxuriously. Wow, she hadn’t slept that well in tourist class since frigging ever. No cramps, no sore neck, plenty of leg room. Silence all around her.
Then the fogginess in her head cleared and it all came back to her. Slowly at first, tumbling and rushing after that. Minnesota, the snowstorm, the truck barreling in her direction, her screwed-up plans.
She wasn’t in a plane on her way to France. She was on a couch in somebody’s living room.
“Fuck. Shit. Crap. You’re so dead, Lola!”
A hearty laugh caught her by surprise. “Sleeping Beauty is finally awake. And she’s got a mouth on her.”
She turned toward the voice to find a mountain of a man leaning against the wall, looking pretty amused. He must have just come from the outside, because he still had on his jacket and a wool watch cap. Between that and the beard, she couldn’t see much of his face except the big green eyes staring at her.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, trying to get up. “I didn’t mean to—” She wasn’t sure what she hadn’t meant to, but the unstoppable itch in her nose wouldn’t be denied, and she choked out a sneeze. Then another and another. “Sorry,” she managed to let out. “Serial sneezer.”
“Here,” he said, handing her a tissue.
She took it and blew her nose. “Thanks. You’re the guy who almost ran me over, aren’t you?”
He pulled off the watch cap, freeing a dark mop of shaggy hair. “Guilty as charged. In my defense, though, you were perfectly camouflaged.”
Wow, the mountain man was handsome, in a rough, unkempt sort of way. He had lines of laughter around his eyes, very visible because the skin there was white and the rest of his face was deeply tanned. An outdoor tan, not a fake bake. It suited him. Most men she knew would have bathed in moisturizer or gone under the knife to make those lines less noticeable. Then again, most men she knew would have had a heart attack if they woke and found that out-of-control beard on their faces.
If this guy was anything to go by, then metrosexual didn’t seem to be a big thing around here.
“That I was.” She looked out the window. It was bright out there. Morning bright. “Seems like I dozed off.”
His chuckle was irritatingly male. “More like passed out. I carried you in and you didn’t stir, not even once. It’s been almost twelve hours since then.”
Twelve hours? She looked down at herself. She was still dressed, a quilt covering her. No jacket.
He must have read her mind. “Your jacket was soaked. Heads up: in Minnesota, you do need a real, waterproof coat. Your pants and sweater were wet too, but I figured you might object to waking up in a stranger’s house and wearing only your underwear.”
Object? She would have totally freaked.
“Thanks for helping me out there.” She offered her hand. “Sky Gonzalez.”
He sat beside her and engulfed her hand in his. “Logan Nolting. You’re welcome.”
The sofa sank under his weight. Wow, Mr. Mountain Man was huge, with broad shoulders and bulging arms. The manspreading didn’t help either.
This close, she realized his eyes weren’t just green, but yellow and blue and brown. As if whoever had put him together couldn’t make up their mind. This guy was handsome. Well, the part she could see, because the shaggy hair and Duck Dynasty beard covered most of his face.
Sky broke the contact and looked away, noticing her bags off to the side. “You found my car.”
He nodded. “In a ditch, covered by snow. Oh, and this.” He reached inside his pocket and handed her her missing mitten. “It was right there, by the door. Paw-print facing the snow.”
“Of course it was,” she muttered, chagrined. “Damn Murphy’s Law.”
“Murphy’s Law is a bitch on the best of days. There’s no need to help it along and make matters worse.” She didn’t care for his tone, but before she could comment on that, he continued. “What on earth compelled you to rent a city car like that in the middle of a Minnesota blizzard? And a white car on top of that?”
She didn’t have a good answer. Nothing that would make the level of condescension in his voice diminish, anyway. By the time she landed in Minnesota and tried to change her rental to an SUV, it had been too late. There were none available. Guess she had to count her blessings that she hadn’t gone for a cute little electric car with an eighty-mile driving range. She shuddered to think what Mr. Monster Truck would have said about that.
“I nearly had to call the rental company and ask them for a GPS location,” he said. “It was that or wait for the spring thaw.”
“How did you know it was a rental?”
“Nobody in their right mind would buy a Mini in rural Minnesota. Nobody. You didn’t strike me as a nutjob.”
“Yeah, well. I wouldn’t bet on that. I better contact the rental company.” She reached down to the sofa table, where her cell and purse lay. “No signal. Color me surprised.”
“The whole town is located in between towers, in a protected zone. Reception is sketchy at best, unless you have a satellite phone. The landline is out too because of the storm. A tree fell and took out a telephone pole.”
“No internet?” she asked, already panicking. She hadn’t been without internet since… ever, really. She wasn’t sure she could survive.
He shook his head, as if it weren’t that big a thing. “You don’t need to worry about your car. We already had it towed into town.”
“Where exactly are we? What’s the name of this town?”
Logan snorted. “Good question. Can’t tell you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, stiffening.
“The residents developed a strong objection to the town’s original name, so they voted to change it. But they can’t decide on a new one.”
“Fantastic. So I’m stuck in…”
“NoName, Minnesota,” he filled in. “It’s kind of temporary.”
“I guess that’s that for calling an Uber.”
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Yes—not that the locals would jump into strangers’ cars. So, who’s Lola and why is she dead?”
“My sister. Long story. Wouldn’t want to bore you. What’s the closest city? Or the next town? Does it have a name?”
“I don’t know what you’d consider a city. Paris is down Route 65 about half an hour. Turn right and you’ll wind up in Grand Rapids. Where were you going?”
She hadn’t been that lost. “New job in Paris.”
“Your car will be out of commission for a while. How soon are you starting? We’re snowed in, but once the main roads are clear, I can drive you to Paris.”
“Thanks, but my job isn’t starting for another three weeks. I came ahead of time to do some sightseeing.”
Logan stared at her. “I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but any sightseeing in Paris can be done in five minutes. Maybe less.”
“I know. Now. When I made my travel plans, I thought I was going to Paris, France. Not Paris, frigging Minnesota.”
Logan opened his eyes wide, a smirk emerging from under his facial hair. “You’re shitting me, right?”
“Nope. School arranged for the plane ticket and the car rental. As far as I knew, I had applied to be a student teacher of English in Europe. I discovered my mistake at the airport, when my flight wasn’t taking off from the international terminal.”
“So that’s why your sister is going to die?”
“A long, agonizing death, I assure you.”
“I guess you don’t have a place to stay either.
”
“In Paris, France, I did. In Paris, Minnesota, I don’t.” She had maxed out her credit cards paying for the cute European hotel she’d planned to stay at for the three weeks before her internship started. Her savings had gone to buying euros and paying for Arnie’s boarding. “But don’t worry. If you let me make a call once the landline is repaired, I’ll contact the rental agency and be out of your way in no—” She held her breath, reached for a tissue from the box, and sneezed again. “—time.”
“There’s no hurry. The roads are blocked. Better to sit this one out.”
At her first chance, she was going to get her hands on a working phone and contact her school. There had to be a way to change her application, damn it. If she had to stay in the US, then she could do so in a major city, not some backwater where they didn’t even have internet.
At that moment the doorbell rang.
“Excuse me.” She lost sight of Logan as he went to open the door.
“Good morning,” said a woman’s voice.
“Hi, Carol, what can I do for you?”
Plastic rustling. “This is for you, Alchemist.”
“Thanks.”
“Say, I heard you had Bart tow some weird car into town. Where’s the owner?”
“She’s resting. The car got stuck—”
“She? You have a ‘she’ here?”
“I don’t think now’s the time—”
Whatever he thought, it was irrelevant, because a middle-aged woman peeked through the doorway from the hall. She smiled widely and walked toward Sky. “Hello, I’m Carol McGowan. The neighbor.”
Logan was behind her, looking aggravated and holding a white plastic bag, tightly knotted.
“Sky.” Unable to repress it, she let out a sneeze and the guest stopped dead in her tracks. “Sorry,” Sky mumbled, mopping her nose. “Got a nasty bug on my way here.”
“Oh, boy,” Logan muttered.
Carol took a step backward, then another, an expression akin to terror on her face. “I remember now. I forgot something in the oven. Gotta go. Nice to meet you.”
Their guest left in a hurry.
“What was that?”
Logan shrugged, leaving the white plastic bag on the table and taking off his jacket. “Nosy people being nosy. Don’t mind her.”
“Did she call you ‘Alchemist’?”
“Nosy people being nosy and nuts. You okay?” he asked as she sneezed again. “You look flushed.”
“I think I have a fever.”
He leaned close and touched her forehead, pinning her down with his gorgeous and worried stare. If her temperature hadn’t been high before, it was now. It had skyrocketed at the contact, so much that she could almost forget about the shaggy hair and Unabomber beard.
Almost.
His clothes—ratty jeans and a black T-shirt—weren’t much better. A fashion statement, this guy wasn’t. Such a pity, because the frame was spectacular. Great eye candy.
“Yes, you do,” he assented, totally oblivious to her lecherous thoughts. “Let me get you something for that.”
She must be delirious, because she was ogling his ass. Fine as that ass might be, it was attached to a whole lot of failed hipster look she totally hated.
As he came back with a thermometer and an aspirin bottle, his cell beeped.
“Hey, why does your phone work?”
“Satellite.” He checked the message and said resignedly, “That was fast.”
“What was fast?”
“Emergency town council meeting.”
The mayor scowled down from the podium. The pandemic squad surrounded him, standing in judgment. “What the hell were you thinking, Alchemist? Bringing a potential patient zero into town!”
Logan looked up at the ceiling of the council room, praying for patience. He could feel the eyes of every adult resident of NoName focused squarely on him. Of all the towns in America, why oh why did he have to end up in one run by crazy preppers? As if that weren’t bad enough, he had to live next door to Carol McGowan, head cheerleader of the frigging pandemic squad, a bunch of relentless wackos who believed the world was one influenza away from total extinction. Sky could have waved an automatic rifle and Carol wouldn’t have blinked, but a sneeze? Ha! That had sent the lady running so fast, it was a fucking miracle his property wasn’t cordoned off. Then again, the day was young. Lots of shit could still go down.
“What would you have me do?” he asked, standing and addressing the crowd. “I couldn’t let her freeze to death.”
Carol tsked him. “Who’s talking about letting her freeze to death? Maybe point her in the right direction? Away from here?”
“She was freezing,” he repeated. “She had no means of getting anywhere. No way of sitting out the weather either.”
“What do you mean? Didn’t she have a bug-out bag?” At his shake of the head, Carol lifted her arms in dismay. “Who goes on the road without one of those?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Logan muttered under his breath. “Normal people?”
Damn doomsday preppers.
Ty, sitting beside him, leaned closer. “I should’ve figured all this fuss was because of you. What’s going on?”
“What’s going on? These crazy people are up in arms because of a fucking sneeze.”
Tyler barked out a laugh. “What did you do now to get these nice ladies’ panties in a twist?”
Nice ladies? The pandemic squadron was a bunch of innocent-looking women who were nothing short of radical lunatics, ready to invade your house at the drop of a hat to demonstrate, whether you liked it or not, how to survive the end of civilization by boiling, sterilizing, and isolating. And God forbid you didn’t listen.
The first time he’d met his lovely neighbors, they’d been running a drill while wearing hazmat suits. He’d committed the ultimate offense and offered them his hand in greeting. Apparently, a hand had more germs on it than a toilet seat. They shoved a pandemic-preparedness kit at him and ordered him to glove himself before contact.
Such a pity no one had photographed his facial expression upon hearing those words. It had been epic.
After the shock wore off, he’d questioned how his germs could make it through their hazmat suits even if he didn’t wear gloves. Second fatal mistake. Almost two years of drills later, he still didn’t know how their theories of transmission worked, but he’d learned not to question. Faster that way.
“You understand we have to quarantine her, don’t you?” Carol said, interrupting his thoughts.
Like that was going to go down well with Sky. She seemed like a very independent, capable woman. Hooked on being connected and on the go all the time. Flashy and dressed to show.
He’d known his share of those. Dancing to others’ tunes wasn’t something they tended to excel at.
Ty frowned. “Whom exactly are we quarantining?”
“Logan found a sick lady and brought her home,” somebody whispered behind them.
“I see,” Ty said, amused, and turned to Logan. “What? Can’t convince healthy chicks to go home with you, so now you’re kidnapping unhealthy ones?”
“She was healthy when I met her, you ass. Well, mostly, but that’s beside the point.” Logan addressed the pandemic squad up on the platform. “Sorry to break it to you. This is a free country. You can’t go quarantining people at will.”
“Wrong. Exactly because this is a free country, we can.”
There were some mumbles of agreement from the crowd, “That’s right” and “You got it” and “Try to stop us.”
“We live in a democracy. Let’s take a vote,” Carol suggested. “All in favor of quarantining Patient Zero, please raise your hands.”
Everyone, including a smirking Ty, raised their hands.
“Oh, come on,” Logan grumbled. “Really? You serious?”
“Motion accepted,” Carol said, wrestling the gavel from the mayor and banging it on the podium. “Besides, Patient Zero doesn’t have to know she’s been quar
antined. Just keep her indoors by any means necessary until she gets better.”
“Or she kicks the bucket,” somebody chimed in.
Nuts. The whole bunch of them. Down to the very last one.
“She’s not Patient Zero, people. Her name is Sky and she’s got the flu, damn it. Not Ebola. Just a common, garden-variety flu.”
“By our calculations, Patient Zero has been here almost twenty-four hours. We’re late on containment,” Carol said.
Logan shook his head in dismay. Man, like talking to a wall.
“You had her hidden away for a whole day?” Ty asked impishly.
“She was just sleeping on my sofa.” Logan realized his mistake right away and turned to Carol and the rest. “You are not burning my sofa. Are we clear?”
Whether it was clear or not, Logan didn’t know, because Carol ignored his words. “And we’ll be monitoring you,” she added while the rest nodded. “At the slightest indication you’re sick—”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ll quarantine me too, and if I don’t get better fast enough, you’ll shoot me and cremate my remains.” Along with the damn couch, of course.
Carol rolled her eyes. “Don’t be silly.”
“Yeah, don’t be silly,” someone interjected. “We’ll autopsy you before that. Dissect you into tiny pieces.”
Jesus fucking Christ. Why couldn’t his neighbors have been the gearheads prepping for solar flares that would fry the grid? More kumbaya. Less ready to dissect.
“This is all your fault, Megan,” he said to his sister, who was sitting two rows behind him. “Couldn’t you have moved somewhere else? A normal fucking place?”
She just laughed. “You heard the lady. Keep Patient Zero indoors—by any means necessary.”
“Ha. Ha.”
“What? Skills too rusty to keep a woman indoors?” she asked.
“I can help,” Ty added. “Is she pretty?”
Gorgeous, actually. Big, dark eyes. Olive-colored skin. Delicate features. But that was beside the point too.
