Rescued By Her Bear by Felicity Heaton
Chapter 14
Cameo nursed her coffee as she stood on the deck of Lowe’s cabin, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, not feeling the bite in the air as the warmth of the log burner escaped the open door behind her and heated her back. She stroked her fingers over the soft material of the cream sweater Lowe had taken great pains to clean for her, idly shifting them back and forth. She couldn’t stop smiling as she took in Black Ridge, and it wasn’t only because the valley was beautiful, with its towering white peaks bright against the clear blue sky and snow-dusted pine forest.
It was because her leg was already feeling better, wasn’t causing her any pain. Lowe had given her a pair of too-large black sweatpants that fitted over her cast, and it was nice being in something clean and being more mobile.
It was because she felt incredibly sated. She had never been with someone like Lowe. What they had shared had been intense, incredible, and she wanted an encore, but Lowe had needed to speak with Saint and Knox about something and had left her with only a kiss when she had tried to get that encore going.
Cameo was sure that it was because of what she had told him about Karl.
Just thinking that name was enough to set her on edge, had her casting her gaze over the cabins situated around the clearing and then the trees that surrounded her on all sides. How long would it be before Karl found this place? She hoped the answer to that was never. Karl wasn’t the kind of man who enjoyed mountains and the great outdoors. He preferred cities.
The sensible part of her said that wasn’t going to stop him from coming after her.
The only way to stop him was to get him his money or deal with him.
Her stomach squirmed at the thought, at how easily she could think about killing him and his men. It wasn’t like her, and she knew deep in her heart that even if she had the opportunity to take him down, when it came down to it, she wouldn’t be able to go through with it. She wasn’t a killer.
Was Lowe?
She hated herself for thinking that. Lowe was kind. Gentle. Didn’t strike her as the sort of man who would murder someone. She looked at the mountains again. He did live up in this wild place though and he did seem able to handle himself. If it came down to it, she felt certain that Lowe would do whatever it took in order to stay alive or in order to protect her.
Her thoughts drifted to the mountain, to when the man had grabbed her and how she had reacted. She had fought him. The instinct was there inside her too and she had the feeling that if she saw Lowe in danger or was facing death, she would find the strength and courage to do the unthinkable.
She wasn’t sure what that made her.
Cameo looked down at her feet and sipped her coffee, tried to distract herself from her dark thoughts. She wriggled the toes of her left foot, pleased when her leg didn’t ache. She had taken one of the pills Yasmin had left for her this morning when her leg had been a bit sore, and they had been quick to steal that pain away. She smiled. Her feet looked so funny with one in a black plastic cast and the other in a boot. It made her lopsided too. The heel of her boot was higher than the one on the brace. Lowe had chuckled about that when he had found her walking around his cabin, testing her leg because she had wanted to get some fresh air.
The need to see Lowe that had been steadily building inside her reached a crescendo and she willed him to come back to her. She wanted him to take her mind off everything and she knew just the way he could do it.
She lifted her head and took another sip of her coffee, and her smile widened as Lowe stepped out onto the deck of Saint’s cabin, as if he had felt her need of him, and quickly took the steps down to the compacted snow. He turned towards his cabin, his stride hitching as he spotted her and then falling back into an easy rhythm as he strolled towards her.
Cameo wanted to growl at the sight of him.
He looked more than good with his dark green and black checked fleece hugging his broad chest and navy jeans tightening across his powerful thighs with each step. He looked like a predator on the prowl as he closed the distance between them, and she shivered as she stared into his eyes, aware that when he reached her, he was going to eat her whole.
Lowe suddenly spun away from her, twisting to his right and landing hard in the snow.
The gunshot reached her ears a split-second later.
“Lowe!” Cameo darted for the steps of the deck, shrieked as another bullet tore through the wooden post to her right and fell back towards the cabin door, dropping her mug.
It smashed as it hit the wooden boards near her feet.
Cameo stared at Lowe where he lay in the snow, breathing hard as adrenaline surged through her, making her limbs shake and heart race. Her eyes widened as she tried to figure out what to do, as Saint stepped out onto the deck of his cabin and immediately ducked back inside as a bullet ripped into the side wall of it.
It hit her that there was only one way to save Lowe.
She stared at him as he rolled onto his back, leaving a deep crimson patch on the snow.
She didn’t want to leave him, but if she remained, she would end up getting him killed. She glanced at Saint’s cabin. She would end up getting them all killed. She couldn’t let that happen. She had to do something.
Lowe looked at her, their eyes locking, and in that heartbeat of a moment she knew that he knew what she was going to do.
She smiled for him and then hurried down the steps to the snow and broke left, heading for the trees that lined the edges of the clearing, running north as quickly as she could manage.
“Cameo, no!” he bellowed.
Her heart ached as she forced herself to keep running, ignoring the urge to turn back and go to Lowe. She had to do this. She had to draw the man away from the people who had been so kind to her.
From the man she was coming to love.
Her breath fogged the chilly air as she ran, the cold swift to invade her sweatpants and slip icy fingers through every tiny crevice in her cream sweater. Her leg began to ache, but she pushed onwards, into the trees, and shrieked as a bullet ripped through the trunk of one she had just passed. She ducked and kept running, her heart shooting into her mouth to drum there at a fierce rate as adrenaline surged again.
Threatening to make her legs wobble beneath her.
She held it together and kept running, determined to lead the man away from Black Ridge, unsure what her plan was once she had achieved that. Would Lowe come after her? Every instinct she possessed screamed that he would. He wouldn’t let her fight this man alone.
She glanced back over her shoulder as she veered right, following the forest around, heading back towards the centre of the valley.
Bit back another shriek as a deer exploded from the bushes ahead of her, bouncing off into the distance.
The man fired again, the bullet whizzing past her as she ducked and fought to remain upright and keep running. She moved around a dense shrub and ran in a straight line with it at her back, hoping it would make it harder for the man to see where she was going.
The ache in her leg worsened, becoming a throbbing that had a pulse of heat shooting up to her thigh whenever she placed her weight on it. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep running.
She cursed herself.
She should have come up with a better plan before breaking cover. This wasn’t like her.
But the thought of the man killing Lowe had propelled her into action.
She didn’t want to die, but this was her problem, not Lowe’s. If anyone was going to be caught or killed, it should be her. Not that she intended for either of those things to happen. She rounded a stony cliff and paused, sure she recognised it. The place where she had spent the night with Lowe. Her first instinct was to hide inside, and it was hard to resist the urge as adrenaline and fatigue caught up with her, panic making her head hazy as her thoughts collided. It would be a mistake. The man was bound to check it.
Cameo kept running instead, heading past the small cave, moving north still.
Boulders dotted the land, heavy with moss and snow, surrounded by towering pines that offered her little cover. She moved from rock to rock, trying to use them to conceal her trail, making it hard for the man to spot her. She rounded a large boulder and exited on the other side of it.
Threw herself back behind it when a bullet pinged off the rock, ricocheting into the trees.
She landed hard on the dead brown pine needles and twigs, grunting as the air burst from her lungs and her leg throbbed madly. She clutched it and shuffled back onto her feet, gritted her teeth as the pain grew more intense. She had to keep moving.
Cameo looked around her at the forest.
Cursed when she realised she had run into a shallow bowl, one that had a steep slope surrounding it on all sides except the direction she had entered from. The thought of heading back the way she had come had her pulse pounding faster, so she made a break for the section of slope that looked the easiest to scale.
She scrambled up it, grabbing roots and saplings, her teeth clenched hard as every step she took had pain rolling through her.
Screamed as someone grabbed her left leg and pulled her backwards, slamming her face-first into the dirt. Cameo reacted on instinct, kicked out with her booted right foot and nailed the man in his face. He grunted and lost his grip on her. She scrambled forwards, desperate to reach the top, her heart thundering so fast she feared she would pass out.
The man grabbed her again and yanked her towards him, flipping her onto her back this time, and all thoughts of kicking him fled her mind as she came face to face with the barrel of his rifle.
Cameo swallowed hard and sank against the ground.
It was over.
A vicious roar echoed through the trees.
