The snow lasted for another three days, burying them in four feet of the cold stuff. It was an idyllic time for the two; they talked and laughed, loved and teased each other, enjoying their time with an enthusiasm that was coated with an underlying fear of what would happen when they left their little retreat. By unspoken agreement, neither spoke of what they might face when they finally drove away from the cabin.
Or of their quest now, to find the location of the stone and to try to retrieve it before Sebastian could find them.
It had been Angel's idea, to get the stone and to use it to get Sebastian to leave them alone, a trade of sorts. They would let him have the stone and whatever curses went with it, he would let them go back to their lives and never bother them again. Maybe a little naïve on her part, but she was praying it would work.
Now they were in the woods, going for a hike on the snowshoes that Hunter had found in the shed. The weather had warmed enough that the snow was melting somewhat where the sun was beating down on it.
"I look like a duck, a big clumsy duck," Angel laughed, brushing snow off of her from where she'd fallen yet again.
Hunter laughed, making his way over to her and rubbing his hand over the curve of her ass where the snow still clung. He'd been on the unwieldy shoes before and knew more about how to walk on them. "But you're a cute clumsy duck," he laughed, ducking as she tried to rub snow into his face.
"You're not swinging your leg out far enough to clear your other foot, honey. That's your problem, right there."
"No, my problem is that I let you talk me into doing this in the first place," she grouched good naturedly, lifting her foot and swinging it out and away from her body before bringing it back into the snow. She repeated the action with her other leg, grinning when she'd managed four steps without whacking her ankle or tripping herself up. "Look!" she shouted, holding her hands up in triumph. "The duck did it!"
She turned her head when he made no comment and saw a puzzled frown on his face. His head was tilted as if he was listening and then suddenly, she heard it too. A buzzing noise, sort of like the sound a hive of bees would make when angered, that steadily grew louder as they listened. "What is it?" she asked quietly. But then she knew. She'd lived in Michigan long enough to know the sound of a snowmobile engine.
"Someone's here," Hunter said. "I want you to stay out here, out of sight, baby. I'm going to see what they want."
"NO!" Angel shook her head, trying to make her way back to him. "What if it's Sebastian?"
"It's a single snowmobile, Angel. It's probably the caretaker of the place coming to check up on it." He grabbed her as she started to fall, giving her a quick hard hug. "If something happens, you get in the truck and drive down the hill and call that number I gave you. Brandon will take care of you. Okay?"
"No, it's not okay, it's not okay at all," she groused, grabbing a hold of him and kissing him. "If anything happens to you..." her voice trailed off as she saw the fierce look in his eyes, a look that matched the one in her own.
"I love you, too, Angel mine," he whispered, turning away from her and trudging his way back the way they had come.
Shock held her motionless for a single moment, and then she wondered if she'd actually heard him right. His words, whispered in that husky voice, tingled through her system. Her eyes turned determined and she started to make her own way back, trying hard to concentrate on the right way to move the snowshoes so she didn't fall again.
It was hard to think of anything but what might be happening to Hunter. If that was one of Sebastian's goons and they had finally tracked them down, Hunter could be lying in the snow dead right now while the cabin was ransacked and the journals taken.
The thought of him, dead or dying in the snow, had her moving faster cursing when she clipped her ankle with the snowshoe and then stepped on her other one, ending up face first in the snow. Pushing herself up, she brushed the snow off, as she started moving again, not even checking the clearing around the cabin before pushing through the growth of underbrush and surging forward.
Her shoe got caught on a root, tripping her up once more and she sprawled down again. This time she hit the snow with her fist before she struggled to get up, cursing as the accumulated soft snow kept sucking her back down and not giving her a firm surface to rise from.
A shadow loomed over her, blocking the sun and she looked up warily.
"Here," the man said, holding out his hand. "It took me forever to learn how to walk in those damn things."
Angel took his hand cautiously, feeling his strong grip and the ease with which he helped her out of the snow. She brushed the snow out of her face, her eyes on his. "Thanks," she said, her voice unsteady with fear that she was determined not to show. "Who are you?" Her eyes darted around the clearing, searching for Hunter. When she couldn't spot him anywhere, her panic rose trying to choke her as she struggled not to give in to it.
He was just about to answer when Hunter came out of the cabin. He bent to pick up the snowshoes that he'd dropped there before going inside then lifted his head, seeing Angel coming into the clearing.
"I'm Brandon Austin, a friend of Hunt's as he's about to tell you himself," he said, laughing as Hunter came trotting across the clearing.
Angel felt Hunter wrap his arm around her shoulders. "Brandon came up to find us, baby. Shanna has been taken hostage."
"Sebastian?" she asked, though she didn't think it was necessary to wait for the answer. Of course it was Sebastian. He hadn't been able to get to them so he'd gone on to the most helpless of the three siblings, Shanna. "How did he know where she would be? Didn't you tell me that she'd run away from her husband only recently? How could Sebastian have known?"
"It's been on the news that Senator Clinton's wife had left him and had returned home to her family," Brandon answered her. "You can't get away from the news."
Angel shivered, fearing for the young woman at the hands of that monster. She kept seeing Clyde and Floyd's eyes and the evil lust in them.
Hunter, mistaking her shiver for cold, rubbed his hand down her arm. "Let's get you inside. It's too late to start heading out tonight. I want to look at the ransom note that they left with Brandon and we need to get packed up." He looked over at his friend, a part of him wanted to blame Brandon for the predicament his sister was in, but he knew his friend. It would have taken some kind of ambush before Brandon would have let anything happen to Shanna. "You wouldn't happen to be staying at some cushy hotel for the night," he asked hopefully.
"Buddy, you wanna tell me that there is a hotel, motel, b and b, or anything within sixty miles? Sorry, you're stuck with me for the night." Brandon couldn't help but laugh at the disappointed look in Hunt's eyes. "I understand the thought, Hunt, but there isn't much I can do to help you."
"We could put him in the shed? He could have his collection for company," Angel said to Hunter, laughing as Brandon blushed.
