Page 27 of Trapped

“They will.”My tone was emphatic.

Even if Baron let me down, her mother had to come through, didn’t she?I knew nothing about her relationship with her family, but the woman who’d birthed her would surely want to make sure she was all right.

“One day, we’ll look back on all this and laugh.”I feigned amusement at the idea, already sensing it wasn’t the greatest analogy.Of all the days I could look back on, there were exceptionally few memories that made me laugh.

“Will we?”She smirked.“Is there anus, sir?”

“I hope so.”It was my turn to sound suddenly unsure.“I’d like for there to be, little girl.”

“That’s a nice thought, sir.”Reaching up on her tiptoes, she kissed the stubble on the underside of my jaw, sending a pulse of electricity through my cooling body.“Let’s hold on to that.”

Chapter Ten

Accelerating Doom

Erin

“No one’s coming.”Staring into the flames, my head ached with despondency.

I had no way of knowing how much time had passed since I’d sent the message to my mum, but it was a few hours at least—time where we’d built a new fire with one of the remaining available logs, reluctantly got dressed, and huddled for additional body heat before starting to watch the blaze dwindle.In all that time, neither one of us had received a response to our appeals.

How can that be right?

The question echoed in my head, heightening my misery.I didn’t know who Eli had messaged or what relationship they had with him, but I’d hoped that my own mother would have responded to my call for help.

Why hasn’t she?

Sure, it had been a while since we’d last talked, but I was her daughter, for fuck’s sake.She should have cared that I was in trouble.

Maybe the message never went through.

I clung to the idea, but deep down, I sensed it was bullshit.I’d watched that message go through and I knew it had been sent into the ether.It was possible Mum hadn’tseenthe message, but it had definitely been sent.

“I can’t believe Mum hasn’t replied.”I turned my face from the fire, the sight of the wood bearing down on me from all directions.

As a general rule, I liked wooden décor and I’d always had a lingering respect for trees, but spending so much time imprisoned by the material had taken its toll.Wherever I looked, there was more of it—endless meters of brown timber jutting out in various forms and stretching in all directions.Somehow, the never-ending nature of it had started to grate, reminding me that while the cabin had been a sanctuary, it had also become a prison, and if something didn’t change soon, it could turn into our tomb.

“Maybe the signal is intermittent.”Eli glanced out of the window, a direction he increasingly seemed drawn to.I knew he was trying to make me feel better with the explanation, but his attempt didn’t even make sense.

“If mobile data was falling in and out, we should still be receiving replies, sir.”I studied the fine lines around his eyes as he turned back to me.

I didn’t know how old he was, or really anything of any real consequence about the man.Even after tumultuous hours confined together, the most I could muster about him was how bloody good he looked without his shirt, but despite his ruthless attempts at keeping me as his captive, all I could think was how lucky I’d been to have him with me and how badly things could have gone without him.For a start, I’d never have found the cabin on my own.My navigation skills had always been awful, so finding my way back to safety would have been a challenge.My guess was that I wouldn’t have made it to the tourist office by myself.

A shiver passed through me at the dull certainty.I dreaded to dwell on what my plight might have been but for the man sitting beside me.We might not have always agreed about how to behave, but I knew that he’d saved me.

“I know.”His clenching jaw conveyed something of the tension he was trying to bury inside.Even then, he was trying to carry the burden himself to relieve the pressure from me.“I’m sorry, little girl.I don’t mean to bullshit you.”

“It’s okay.”Reaching for his arm, I tugged him closer.“You’re doing your best.”

Eli was such a bewildering contradiction.He was my savior, yet at the same time, he’d held me against my will, provoking the kind of rage I’d rarely experienced before.That in itself was confusing enough, but then, in the escalating dread of the wooden lodge, where there was only time, the cold and the absolute knowledge that every resource we needed was running out, something else had grown between us.

Lust, yes—the raw and unadulterated kind I’d only seen in Hollywood movies—but there in front of the fire, I sensed something else, a part of him that might actually give a shit about me beyond the bounds of the deal he’d struck with James and his own ego.Maybe it was the hunger gnawing at my belly or the low-lying trepidation that had never really gone away, but there was something different about him.His touches were lighter, defter, and more tender, and when he stared into my eyes, I saw more than only a man who wanted to conquer me.I thought I saw affection and grace.

“Sadly, I’m not sure that’s going to be good enough.”Once more, his gaze floated to the window as though he expected to see a SWAT team diving through the glass, but predictably, there was nothing except for miles of snow and icy terrain.

There was no one else.

Only the two of us in the same dusty cabin we’d ridden the rollercoaster in so far.

---