Charlie fought her fright. She didn’t want to freak out, but God help her, the men surrounding her were scary as hell. Big, brawny, and serious-faced, they made her tremble where she lay. The woman, though, appeared friendly and warm in her countenance. Charlie swallowed and winced. Her throat ached, dry and scratchy, and her head pounded. Nausea roiled in her belly. She moaned when she moved.
“I found you.” One of the huge guys spoke up. The one to her right and the biggest of them all.
She turned and looked at him, and despite her fear and pain, something about him soothed her a little. His build and stance might be downright intimidating, but his face was open and relaxed, and his rich brown eyes were warm and friendly. She swallowed and focused on his face and the odd sense of familiarity about him. Had she met him before? She didn’t think so.
“You were passed out. I think you fell and hit your head. So, I carried you back here. I couldn’t leave you in the woods. Once you’re feeling better, we’ll get you home.”
An image flashed into her mind, potent enough it made her cry out. A huge bear loomed over her, so close its breath heated her cheek. She reared back against the headboard instinctively.
“Oh my God. A bear. There was a huge bear. I remember it coming toward me… It looked like it wanted to kill me.”
She reached up to her face with shaky hands and rubbed at her eyes.
“There are no bears in Wales, honey,” the woman said.
“I know what I saw.” Charlie wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and back home. Everything seemed so strange here in this room, as if she dreamed the moment. Her rational mind screamed at her to get away from this place and these people, but her instincts told her somehow she’d be safe here.
“I need to find my team. I lost my team, and my boss and colleagues will be looking for me.”
“What the hell were you doing out here in the middle of winter?” The big guy spoke again, and his gruff voice flayed her skin like sparks of fire, sensitizing all her nerve endings and setting her ablaze.
She swallowed hard and focused on making her mouth work as raw lust, the likes of which she’d never experienced before, roared in her veins. “My company organized some sort of team-bonding week, and we were staying at the hostel near Conwy. Today, they sent us on an orienteering task. I spied a red squirrel, and I’ve never seen one before. I stopped to look at it and rest my leg. The others meandered away but didn’t go far, but the next thing I knew, they were gone. It was so strange.”
Yeah. Strange. Like this place and these people.
“How weird. Almost as if this is all meant to be.” Another of the men spoke, and his striking blue eyes landed on her to stare with cool appraisal.
“Not now, Kyle,” Mr. Gruff said with a bite to his words. The blue-eyed one hitched one shoulder in a lazy shrug and inclined his head in a half nod. The gesture seemed oddly insolent. Gruff huffed out an annoyed breath and they stared at one another a moment, as if having some sort of silent argument.
“Are you hungry?” the woman asked, snagging her attention. Her long, dark hair gleamed as it fell to her shoulders in a straight sheet.
At the idea of food, Charlie gagged.
“I’ll go fetch a bowl in case she’s sick.” A red-haired man spoke from beside the pretty female. His hand on her lower back made Charlie guess they were a couple.
“Bring some pain killers too,” the woman instructed. She turned to Charlie. “I’m Aiyana. The redhead is Eric, my…erm, my partner. This is Kyle.” She pointed to the blue-eyed guy. “Justin.” Another gesture toward a man with wavy brown hair. “And Brenin.” She pointed lastly to the big, gruff-voiced man standing by the bed.
“You’re Americans.” Charlie coughed as she spoke.
“Canadian, actually. But we live here now.”
“All of you, here in this house?” It struck her as somewhat unusual. Where were they anyway? Still in the middle of nowhere? They must be. No matter how strong the guy looked, no way he’d be able to carry her as far as civilization.
“Yes. We’re family,” she replied simply. “We’ll make sure you’re okay, and then one of us will take you home.”
“I need to call my employers.” Her tongue was thick and unwieldy in her mouth as she spoke. She dug around in her pockets but couldn’t feel her phone.
“Did you take my phone from me?” It came out sounding like a wild accusation.
“Of course not.” Brenin frowned. “Why would we?”
“Because it’s not here and I definitely had it on me.”
“Perhaps you lost it out there.” He shrugged, noncommittal and casual.
She sighed. This whole thing got weirder and weirder. “Fine. Can I use your house phone?”
“We don’t have one,” the woman…Aiyana, said.
“No phone? Okay, erm, a mobile then?”
“Nope,” Brenin said. “We do have them, but we don’t get a signal out here. We did have a satellite phone, but Kyle here broke it.”
“Jeez, still on about the damn satellite phone.” Kyle rolled his eyes.
“It means we have no way of communicating with the outside world without taking a three-mile drive down the lane to where we can pick up damn reception,” Brenin snarled. “Never mind the phone was the only internet access we had.”
“I can lend you some porn vids if you’re getting needy.” Kyle made a lewd motion with his hips, and Brenin moved toward him, fists clenched.
She pressed back farther into the headboard at the aggression rolling off the huge men. Maybe she wasn’t so safe after all.
“Boys. This isn’t helpful.” Aiyana clicked her tongue, and immediately, the two men backed down, the aggression bleeding out of their stances.
God, these men were Neanderthals, but it seemed the petite, and beautiful, Aiyana managed to exert some control over them.
As she pondered the dynamics of the group in the room, real fear began to claw at her, undermining the lovely, soothing feelings she’d experienced earlier. It didn’t make sense. What sort of people lived out in the middle of nowhere with no working phones or other modern technology? Unless… She looked at the woman’s simple dress and then at the guys. They all wore stubble or short beards. They came strongly built, as if they worked with their hands. The room contained some lovely wooden furniture, too. “Are you Amish?” she asked.
The blue-eyed guy, Kyle, burst out laughing. “No, honey. We’re not Amish, but we don’t have much call for modern technology. I’ll take a drive out to where we can pick up a signal and call your employers for you. If you give me a number, I’ll go in a minute.”
“I’ll come with you.” She sat up and ignored the way the room spun around her.
“No.” The word was harsh on Brenin’s lips. “You’re hurt. You need to rest up. Kyle will call your people for you, and as soon as you are feeling better, we’ll take you home.”
“Oh, crap.” Kyle looked out of the window, his brow furrowed.
“What?” Brenin sounded bored.
“That snow’s getting real heavy, it’s blizzarding out there. Unless it eases off, neither I, nor she, will be going anywhere soon.”
Brenin looked out the window and then back to her. Did she imagine it or did alarm flicker in his eyes?