“Shut the fuck up and help me,” Matthew snaps. “Get her arms.”
I thrash harder, twisting, trying to bite the hand over my mouth. The second man grabs my wrists, yanking them behind my back. Plastic zip-ties bite into my skin with a zip-zip sound that makes my stomach lurch. Tears burn my eyes. Colt’s in the shower. He can’t hear this. The water’s too loud. He’s humming now—I can just make it out, that low rumble he does when he’s relaxed. My big, strong, protective cowboy is ten feet away, naked and happy and completely unaware while they drag me away.
I buck violently, knee connecting with Matthew’s thigh. He hisses, spins me around, and backhands me across the face. Pain explodes across my cheekbone. Stars burst behind my eyelids.
“Stop fighting or I’ll put a bullet in your mountain man’s head right now,” he snarls. His breath is hot on my face, sour with whiskey. “You think I didn’t see his truck? His rifle by the door? One word from you and he dies bleeding on the bathroom floor. You want that?”
I go still. Tears spill over, hot on my cold cheeks. No. Not Colt. Not after everything—the way he held me in the shower this morning, the way he whispered“I love you”while he came inside me, the way he smiled all day teaching me about the horses. I can’t lose him. I won’t.
Matthew nods like he sees the surrender in my eyes. “Smart girl.” He yanks a black hood over my head. The world goes dark, fabric smelling of motor oil and fear. My breathing turns ragged, too fast. I can’t see. Can’t scream. Bare feet drag acrossthe cold floorboards, then the rough porch wood. Snow bites my soles like needles. I’m naked. Completely naked. The cold wind slaps my skin, tightening my nipples, raising goosebumps everywhere. My thighs are still slick with Colt’s seed. The humiliation burns worse than the cold.
They wrap me in a flannel, thankfully. I think it’s more of Matthew not wanting his friends to see me naked.
They half-carry, half-drag me down the porch steps. I stumble, knees hitting snow. Someone laughs—low, cruel. A van door slides open with a metallic screech. Hands shove me inside. My shoulder slams into metal flooring. The zip-ties cut deeper as I land on my side. The door slams shut. Engine roars to life.
We’re moving.
Down the mountain.
I curl into a ball, trying to cover myself with my knees and bound arms, but there’s no blanket, no mercy. The van bounces over ruts, snow crunching under tires. Every jolt sends pain through my bruised ribs. I can hear them up front—Matthew and at least two others. Their voices are muffled through the hood but clear enough.
“…didn’t think the storm would let us up here so fast.”
“Paid that plow guy double. Worth every penny.”
“Judge’ll have this buried by morning. Flash drive’s probably in his safe anyway.”
Matthew laughs, the sound I used to think was charming. Now it turns my stomach. “She thinks she’s so smart. Duplicated everything. But once we get the original and she disappears… problem solved.”
Disappears.
The word lodges in my throat like a scream I can’t release. They’re going to kill me. Or worse—take me somewhere no one will ever find me. Colt will wake up from his shower to an empty bed, my flannel on the floor, drag marks in the snow. He’ll know. He’ll come for me. But how fast? The pass is still half-blocked. Cell service is dead up here. By the time he gets to Hank…
Tears soak the inside of the hood. I bite my lip until I taste blood to keep from sobbing out loud. I can’t let them hear me break. But inside I’m shattering.
Colt.
His face flashes behind my closed eyes—green eyes soft in the firelight, big hands gentle on my wounds, then rough and perfect on my hips while he claimed me. The way he said “you’re staying” like it was already decided. The life we mapped out tonight: me teaching in town, coming home to him, babies someday, horses, quiet nights by the fire. It was so close. So real.
Now I’m naked in the back of a van, zip-tied, hooded, freezing, with Matthew’s voice drifting back like a nightmare I can’t wake from.
“Should’ve stayed gone, Willa,” he calls over his shoulder. “But you had to come crawling back to the mountains, huh? Found yourself a big dumb cowboy to hide behind. Cute. Real cute.”
I flinch at every word. My mind races in frantic circles. The flash drive. Colt locked it in the drawer by the bed. Did they find it? Or is it still there? If they don’t have it, maybe Colt can still get it to Hank. Maybe the evidence survives even if I don’t. The thought should comfort me. It doesn’t. Because I want to live. I want the future we whispered about while he was still inside me. I wantmornings with coffee and his grumpy-not-grumpy smile. I want to brush Stamp and Whiskey and learn to ride. I want Colt’s babies. I want forever.
The van hits a deep rut. My head cracks against the wheel well. Pain blooms white-hot. I taste copper again. Nausea rolls through me. I’m going to be sick. I swallow hard, breathing through my nose, the hood fabric sticking to my wet face. My bare skin is ice now. Shivers rack me so hard my teeth chatter. Every bump presses my breasts and hips against the cold metal floor. I feel exposed in a way that goes beyond naked—violated, small, helpless.
I think about screaming anyway. Maybe Colt will hear if they’re still close enough. But the engine’s loud, the mountain’s vast, and Matthew’s threat echoes: one word and Colt dies. I can’t risk him. I won’t. So I stay silent, body curled tight, mind screaming instead.
Colt, please notice. Please be okay. Please come after me.
I replay every moment of today like a lifeline. His patient hands guiding mine while I brushed Whiskey. The way he laughed—really laughed—when I got hay in my hair. The way he looked at me by the fire tonight, soft and certain, saying “I love you” like it was the simplest truth in the world. The shower this morning, slow and loving, his voice in my ear: “You’re mine. Never letting you go.”
I cling to those words. They’re all I have now.
The van turns sharply—probably onto the county road. The snow sounds different under the tires, packed instead of deep powder. We’re lower. Closer to town. Closer to whatever Matthew has planned. My heart pounds so hard I’m dizzy. Whatif they take me to the judge’s house? What if they hurt me first, make me tell them where the copies are? I don’t know if I’m strong enough. I want to be. For Colt. For the kids I teach. For the life I almost had.
Tears keep coming. Silent. Endless. The hood is soaked. My nose runs. I can’t wipe it. The humiliation mixes with terror until I feel like I might shatter apart.
