"Does your mom know where you are?"
My stomach drops. "God, no. And you can't tell her."
"Jade—"
"I mean it, Chloe. She'll lose her mind. She'll call the police. She'll make everything worse."
"She's probably already losing her mind. You've been gone for days without any contact."
Guilt twists in my chest. Mom. I haven't even thought about her, haven't considered what she must be going through.
"I'll call her," I say. "Soon. Just not yet. I need to figure out what to say first."
"Figure it out fast. The longer you wait, the worse it's going to be."
"I know."
The signal crackles, and Chloe's voice breaks up for a moment before coming back. “Be careful, okay? I love you, but this whole situation scares me."
"I love you too. And I'll be careful. I promise."
The call ends. I'm not sure if she hung up or if the signal finally died. Either way, the silence that follows feels deafening.
I stare at my phone. At the contact list. At my mother's name, right there at the top.
My finger hovers over it.
I should call her. Should tell her I'm okay, that I'm safe, that she doesn't need to worry. But what would I even say? How do I explain any of this without making it sound exactly as crazy as it is?
The signal flickers one last time and dies.
I shove the phone in my pocket and turn to find Phoenix watching me from across the room. His expression is unreadable, but his eyes miss nothing.
"Everything okay?" he asks.
"Fine."
It's not fine. Nothing about this is fine. I'm trapped in a cabin with a man who kidnapped me, and I'm not even sure I want to leave anymore. I'm falling for him despite every red flag, every warning, every voice in my head screaming that this is a mistake.
And I can't tell my mother any of it.
Outside, the storm howls. Inside, the fire crackles. Phoenix crosses the room and pulls me against his chest without a word, his arms wrapping around me like he knows exactly what I need.
I let him hold me and let myself sink into the warmth of him. I love the solid strength of his body and the steady beat of his heart against my ear.
Then I realize that the terrifying part isn't being trapped here with him, but how much I want to stay.
32
JADE
The storm is still raging, but it's lost some of its fury.
Through the window, I can see the trees now, their branches bending under the weight of snow, swaying in the wind. The white-out conditions from yesterday have faded into something slightly less apocalyptic, but Phoenix checked the road this morning and came back shaking his head. Still impassable.
I should be climbing the walls. Instead, I'm curled up on the sofa with a book I'm not actually reading, watching the fire and trying not to watch him.
He's restless too. I can feel it in the way he moves around the cabin, picking things up and putting them down, checking the windows, stoking a fire that doesn't need stoking. We've barely spoken all day, the air between us thick with something neither of us wants to name.
