She must be heading for the trail, the only way down. Then she hesitated as if listening. He snorted once, and then continued to snore.
What a good actor. Maybe I ought to dump this town and try my luck on stage. Then he’d get some Hollywood ass every night.
Later.
Right now, he kept his attention on the person who made his balls ache. Destiny Blake was the reason he sat on the cold ground with frostbitten toes. She loomed closer. Why did she raise one arm? Stars blurred his vision while pain suddenly pierced his skull. She’d hit him with a tree branch.
“Bitch!” Quick reflexes, honed during months of training, let him reach out and connect with a slim leg as she tried to run. He latched on tight and then laughed when she tumbled face-first to the ground. With the wind knocked out of her, he rolled her to her back. She moaned as if in pain as his anxious fingers tore at her clothes.
“No!” she screamed. Her small fists pummeled his chest and face, but he ignored her flimsy attempts at escape.
“It’s time, you slut—time to get your comeuppance. I’m gonna blow your mind, then you’re gonna blow me! Then we’ll take it from there, you frigid bitch.”
***
Destiny came to her senses when ice-cold fingers tore open her ski jacket, ripped her shirt, and grabbed her naked breast.
“I gave you plenty of chances to come around. We would’ve spent hot nights alone in your cabin. But you snubbed me, you royal pain-in-the-ass,” he wheezed, “so I’m gonna show you what happens when I don’t get my way.”
When his darkened gaze latched on to her naked chest, Destiny’s breath returned. She screamed as loud as she could. Horrified and in pain, she fought beneath his muscular body, large and stronger than herself.
“Have faith. Evil’s fate is in his hands.”
The voice’s words, another puzzle, boomed loud and clear. Destiny didn’t realize how clear until her attacker’s head snapped up.
“Cindy? Cindy Nelson? Where the fuck are you?”
As Destiny rolled the name over in her mind, her attacker swiveled his head, searching the gray light of morning. With sudden, horrid awareness, she remembered where she’d heard that name.
“Cindy Nelson is dead. You murdered her!” she shouted. His gaze returned to her face. He loomed above her, pinning her to the frozen ground.
“That’s right, bitch. She can’t hurt me, and she can’t help you. I fucked her again and again, but it was you I thought of every time I shoved my prick inside her. Now it’s your turn, my love. Stop fighting me. You’ll enjoy it.”
Destiny’s scream rose from her gut, fueled by her animal instinct to fight the monster who abused her.
“You’re stronger than you think. Keep fighting. Help comes!” the voice cried.
By her attacker’s hesitation, she realized they both heard the words. How could this be possible? Could this eerie voice actually be Cindy’s ghost? Either way, her words propelled Destiny to fight. Hate and raw desperation filled her attacker’s now-ugly face. If the voice belonged to Cindy Nelson’s spirit, she’d fight until the promised help arrived. Even if bent on talking her through this ordeal, a ghost couldn’t help her now. She had to help herself.
She was dying of exposure and he wanted to rape her. Stimulated by fury and a renewed strength, Destiny lashed out with all ten fingernails and scraped the bastard’s frozen cheeks while her boots kicked soft flesh.
What more could she do? Death would be the better outcome than rape. With the last fragment of energy she could muster, she let out a guttural scream and then tumbled, forcing the two of them toward the edge of the cliff.
“Guess what, you bastard. I’m not going to die alone!”
***
Matilda Johnson drove her little red sedan up the dirt road with slow and methodical care toward Destiny’s modest cabin. Last night’s snowfall failed to leave much accumulation, but it did make the road muddy and slick.
Why hadn’t Destiny answered her phone this morning? Tilly had tried several times to get through to her, but the never-ending busy signal made her uneasy.
Maybe Destiny had gone out with a man and stayed over, making nookie. However, times being what they were, and with the information she wanted to share, the trip to her friend’s home was necessary. That idiot student, Roger something-or-other, had gotten caught stealing music and DVDs in Tilly’s neighborhood. He’d come off too cocky, so they’d added him to the list of Cindy Nelson’s possible murderers. Suddenly scared sober, Roger had coughed up the names Marcus Benton and Pete Thayer, Destiny’s stalkers.
“I gotta’ let Destiny know what’s going down. She’d better get over to the police station and swear out a restraining order. No, two. She’s the daughter I never had and nobody’s gonna hurt her.”
Tilly meant every word. When she smiled, Destiny’s blue eyes sparkled. She kept her blonde hair clean and braided, and reported for work nearly always on time. But, there was more to her than cleanliness and a pleasant attitude. Destiny’s eyes lit up when she described Professor Braun’s labs. She loved to help people, and took pride in her duties at the college dining hall. So why did she live alone?
I pray every day that she’ll find someone to share her life. I hate to see her so sad, especially these last few months.
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. Tears threatened and she wiped her eyes with the back of her glove. Why hadn’t Destiny found someone to love? She had shared the fact that she’d had a brief affair with Professor Oliver, but he’d broken it off.
Well, Destiny deserves to find someone special. If the Professor is so blind he can’t see the girl has it bad for him, he doesn’t deserve her.
The heater in the sedan kicked in just as she approached Destiny’s cabin. She slid to a stop and saw two vehicles. Strange, she’d never noticed a beige Land Rover in Fairfield.
“She must have company. I sure don’t want to be rude. I’ll leave before they hear me.” She slipped her car into reverse. Slap, slap, slip went the tires on melting ice mixed with mud.
“Dang!” Thoroughly stuck, she’d have to take her licks and disturb Destiny and her overnight guest.
Good thing I brought apple-cinnamon muffins with me today.
She hoped to get Destiny alone for a couple of minutes to tell her about Marcus and Pete. What if her guest was one of those men? Tilly took a deep breath and gathered strength to brave the situation. Then she stepped onto the porch. Lifting her eyes, a curse rushed from between her lips at the sight of the smashed front door.
“Jeepers! What happened here? Destiny!” With no response from the cabin, she hesitated. Should she go in? Well, she couldn’t very well stay out here in the cold, and she couldn’t move her car. She stepped over the glass and splintered wood.
“Destiny, you here?” All the lights were on and the back door stood wide open. The wind had blown fresh snow inside. Her breath turned to fog in the unheated kitchen. Within minutes, she had checked the entire cabin. While she stood there scratching her head, another gust of wind blew a slip of paper off the counter to land at her feet. She leaned over with a grunt of pain caused by aging hips, and picked it up.
She caught her breath as she read the note scribbled by Professor Jacob Oliver. Then she reread it. She held back tears as her heart thumped. Crinkling the note between her chilled fingers, she let her anger boil over at the drama forced upon her friend, and turned to the phone, picked up the handset, then cursed.
“No dial tone.”
Her car was stuck. She had no means with which to call the authorities. She had to go for help, but her disabled car blocked Destiny’s van. Stepping carefully through the mud, she stood on her toes and peeked inside the professor’s Land Rover.
“Yes, he left the keys!” With a prayer of thanks, she tucked the note down her bra for safekeeping and climbed inside. When she turned the key, the large vehicle sputtered, then died.
“Please, Lord,” she prayed. “My good friend is in trouble and I need to get going.
” Inhaling a deep breath of cold morning air, Tilly turned the key again. This time, the engine roared to life.
She slammed the gearshift into reverse, backed out, and headed down the mountain. The vehicle flew around corners and slid onto Main Street.
“God Almighty!”
Tilly skidded into a snow bank, only feet from the police station. With the note’s message burning inside her brain, she trudged through the snow toward the entrance. Too much time had passed. Organized and logical, the professor had recorded the date and time he’d left the cabin in search of Destiny and her assailant. He’d written the note hours ago. Who knew what could have happened by now, with the maniac and the storm?
Professor Oliver and Destiny needed help, and fast.
CHAPTER 20
A scream echoed over the mountain, and heightened terror propelled Jacob’s aching legs up the trail toward the sound. His knee throbbed in agony as daybreak arrived. The morning sun’s brilliant rays lit upon a scene that stole his breath. Two grappling bodies tumbled toward the precipice called Garnet Cliffs.
He grabbed a fallen tree branch. Clenching his fingers around it, he smacked the bigger of the two figures on the back. It growled. Jacob hit him again, harder. The monster flung Destiny away and turned toward Jacob, who watched in horror as her screaming, twisting body sailed over the edge of the cliff.
Baring his teeth as his hatred toward the man on the ground boiled over, Jacob pounced. With his bare fists, he beat the snarling form and managed to bloody the monster’s frozen lips. Fingers bent, and then snapped. Destiny’s attacker yelled in pain as the two men rolled across the snow-covered ground, growling and screaming.
Crushed beneath the body of a very angry man, Jacob’s bad knee throbbed in agony. Rolling free, Jacob cradled his knee with both arms in a vain attempt to protect it from further damage. Too late. Destiny’s attacker rose to his feet and staggered in his direction. Massive fists clenched below a face contorted by rage.
Unable to move, Jacob held his breath. The moment the monster’s shadowy form loomed above him, a flying missile glanced off the beast’s temple. The man screeched, wobbled, and then fell from the cliff, while spewing a litany of curses.
Jacob listened as the man’s voice faded away until he heard no sound—nothing but the wind. Soon, even the bitter gusts of air fell quiet. Surrounded by the profound silence of the once-windy ridge, Jacob lay on his back in the snow and gave in to the pain. Both the agony of his bruised knee and the sense of deep loss, from witnessing Destiny’s fall, threatened the release of hot tears. Catching his breath, he forced himself back up into a sitting position.
“What do I do now?” Then a question popped into his mind. Where had the rock come from that hit the bastard in the head? As he pondered the mystery, a scraping sound echoed up from below the precipice. Crawling toward the edge, a sudden horrible thought made bile rise in his throat. Was the monster climbing back up the cliff?
What greeted him, instead, was the very pale face of the woman of his dreams, clawing her way to the top.
“Destiny!” he cried, “you’re alive!” Tears sprang unbidden as he lay on his belly at the edge and reached down. She stared up at him in shared amazement.
“Jacob? Is that really you?”
One boot skittered up and lodged in a crack in the cliff’s rocky face. She pushed up, stretched as far as she could, and grabbed his offered hand.
“Your hand’s so warm.”
“I wore gloves, unlike you.”
“How about sharing them?”
With one big pull, she flew into his embrace. Crushed together, they huddled on the cold ground. He cuddled her in silence until she let out a small, contented sigh.
“I hope you brought an all-terrain vehicle or a helicopter to get us back, because I’ll be dead in about twenty minutes.” Destiny murmured.
Her body relaxed. The arms that clutched his waist went limp. His body froze in horror at the thought of her dying. Again. He shook her and then assessed her pale face, blue-tinged, cracked lips, and shallow breaths. She opened her eyes and managed to give him a smile.
“That animal is done for. Not you. Together we are stronger. We proved it. I came to your cabin to talk to you. You’re not going to avoid important issues by dying on me.”
Destiny just looked up at him. “You came to see me?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I figured out what happened once I arrived. I grabbed your flashlight and followed your tracks. I even found your emergency backpack.” He nodded toward the bundle on the ground. “Bright pink. Nice touch.”
She actually smiled at his statement.
With no more time to talk, Jacob reluctantly let her go, pushed himself to his feet, and gingerly hopped to the backpack. The reinjured knee screamed its disapproval with every step.
Once he’d dumped all the items on the ground, he grabbed the little tent. With a shake, it sprang into shape. He weighted the corners down with rocks, and then hopped over to Destiny. His gaze locked on her wet jeans before spying the ripped ski jacket and shirt.
“Strip.”
“What?”
“Strip and get into the tent,” he demanded. Turning his back to her, he broke open the small package holding the foil rescue blanket.
Destiny hesitated. “Fine. I’ll do it…only because I remember the lecture my friend, Josie, gave me about hypothermia.”
“Sounds like a smart friend.”
“She’s the paramedic who told me how to care for your injury, after your fall.” She turned away and struggled with the laces of her hiking boots.
“I can’t feel my feet at all,” she chattered, “and my fingers are screaming for me to stop.”
He leaned down, unlaced both boots, and then again turned away. When her shed clothes hit the ground, he kept his eyes averted as he wrapped the emergency blanket around her naked body. Leaving her garments in the melting snow, she crawled into the tent. Jacob carried the clothes to a fallen log and a nearby stump, brushed off the loose snow, and spread them out under the morning sun. When they dried, he’d lead her down the trail and back to the safety and comfort of her cabin.
A brisk wind blew across the plateau’s flat peak and prevented him from building a fire. He peeked inside the tent. Destiny huddled under the foil blanket, shaking like a leaf.
“I can’t get warm,” she whispered, “I have no body heat left.”
Jacob saw fear in her eyes for the first time. A powerful need to protect this woman surged through his body. It was the same urge that made him race from her cabin. He’d thought his response was that of an ex-police officer, but now he knew better. His drive to find her had been more than an ingrained sense of duty.
I love her.
Gazing at blue eyes locked in uncertainty, he prayed they made it off the mountain in one piece. He slipped all the way into the tent and parked himself, being careful with regard to his reinjured knee. He removed his ski jacket and flannel shirt, and held back a smirk at the hungry stare she leveled at his bare chest.
“What are you up to?”
Removing the blanket from her, he pushed her to the floor of the nylon tent. Jacob curled around her, pressing his warm length against her pale, frost-tinged body.
A groan erupted as her icy skin chilled him. Then his head filled with erotic images. Shaking them clear, he wrapped the blanket around their bodies.
“My body heat should thaw us both,” Jacob whispered. Destiny’s moan of pleasure preceded her hands, which slipped under his armpits.
“Do you mind?”
“No, you’ll warm up quicker.” He closed his eyes to the pain. Her icy fingers hurt, but the bulge swelling beneath his belt gave the discomfort a run for its money.
He scolded himself. How dare he think of her in that way? She clutched him in the darkness of the small tent. Her shallow breaths tickled his neck. He pressed light kisses to the top of her frost-laden hair while he caressed her rigid back. Her muscles trembled and then relaxe
d, as the space heated up fast.
“When you get warmed enough to walk, we’ll hike to your cabin. After we call the police to report—”
“I don’t want to think about him. Please.”
“Don’t give him another thought. After we hike down, we’ll get you in a nice, hot shower, and then…”
Pleasure-filled memories of their shared shower pulsed inside his head. “So beautiful.”
He’d whispered these words straight from his heart, hopefully too quiet for her to detect. To calm her concern, he hugged her close.
“I think I’ll sleep.” She closed her eyes. “Maybe I’ll dream of a green meadow, daisies, birds singing, and—”
“And what?”
“Never you mind. Let’s just say, pleasant thoughts.”
Did she notice the bulge straining behind his zipper? Could she hear his heart slamming inside his chest? He slowed his breathing as he relished her touch for what it was.
Salvation.
A short time later, after the temperature inside the tent grew comfortably warm, Jacob’s fingers roamed over her body as he checked for injuries. She’d lost the bandage on her palm during the attack, and the wound bled. He rolled from the tent, and then opened the first aid kit in order to treat her wounds.
“The wind’s died,” he called to her. “The sun has warmed the air.” Standing one-legged and half-naked on the melting snow, he basked in the beams of bright morning light.
***
Destiny emerged from the tent and stared. His naked back, broad and muscular, was the first thing she spied. Those muscles moved in harmony as his arms held up her backpack while he searched inside. His trim waist flared slightly at the hips, as he stood with his weight on one leg, while she feared he’d reinjured his leg. Lowering her gaze to the round buttocks molded by his jeans, the thrill that had raced down her spine two months ago was nothing to the stimulation zipping through her body at this point in time. She’d seen those thighs unclothed. She’d had that perfect body pressed against hers as she straddled him on her little bed. She’d tasted the salty texture of the skin encircling his nipples. She’d smelled the musky scent of his arousal.
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