Page 2

And now I’m being brought back to the place I’d been running from.

What a stupid girl I’ve been. Stupid and naïve.

At least Tobias had been honest about where he saw our relationship going. He’d never offered me a home and had given me no illusions about what he wanted from me.

It suddenly becomes clear to me just what a spoke in the wheels Tobias turning up here must have been.

The man carrying me now with such care is the same man who murdered my boyfriend…

There’s a reason Blake kept his son hidden here. He’s dangerous. He put cameras in my room and has been watching over me at night. Did he see what Tobias did to me? Was it because Tobias attacked me that he murdered him? Or had he just been overwhelmed with jealousy at seeing Tobias in my room?

The power of the wind and the volume of snow has lessened as we’re sheltered by the building ahead of us. With Dov’s long strides, it doesn’t take long until he’s mounting the porch steps to the double front doors and then using his huge body to shove them open. A flurry of snow drifts into the large entrance hall, but it’s an instant relief to be out of the weather, though my heart feels like a rock in my chest at the knowledge I’m back.

“Pen?” Blake’s voice, distraught. “Fuck, what happened?” Then, to his son, “What did you do?”

“I saved her,” Dov growls, the deepness of his voice reverberating through his chest and vibrating against my cheek. “You can thank me later.”

I want to argue with him, tell him that I wouldn’t have needed saving if it wasn’t for all of them fucking with my head—and my body—but I can’t get my mouth to work. My tongue feels too fat, and my lips are too numb to move.

“Take her into the drawing room, near the fire.”

Fuck you, Blake, I scream in my head. I don’t want your help. I hate you!

Except I don’t. Even after learning the truth, I still love him. My heart aches for the relationship I’d believed we’d been building before learning it was all a lie. And rather than torture myself with the pain, I allow my eyes to flutter shut and give in to the darkness.

2

BLAKE

Fuck.

My heart feels like it’s cracking in two.

There isn’t time to get Aspen to the hospital. We’re too far away, and even if we weren’t, the mountain road is impassable now. We’d risk ending up off the side of the road. I suddenly realize she must have taken my truck and, if she crashed it, it won’t be in any condition to go anywhere.

I don’t give a fuck about my old Range Rover now. All I can see is the way Aspen is as white as the snow she’s just come in from and how blue her lips are.

And that she’s in Dov’s arms.

He hasn’t hurt her, at least not yet. If anything, the way he’s cradling her is almost nurturing. I think of the little stick dolls he’s been making her and how he’s been watching over her as she sleeps. He’s protective of her. The fact that he killed a man who’d been trying to hurt her says as much. But unfortunately, my son cannot be trusted fully.

Then again, I guess none of us can.

“She’s probably hypothermic,” I tell him.

I take hold of her wrist as Dov passes and walk with them, concentrating while I take her pulse. It’s too slow, but it’s there, and that’s the main thing. Her eyes are half shut, and her lids flicker. Does she have any idea what’s happening to her?

I’m angry at myself. Hadn’t I known this would happen, or at least something to this effect? Of course she was going to try to run when she learned the truth. Had I been hoping to hide it from her forever?

What choice did I have, though? If I’d told her the truth, she’d have left for sure. She hadn’t even known of Dov’s existence at that point, not really. She’d have wanted to do the right thing and would have gone to the police. I couldn’t have them questioning things.

So I let her believe she’d been the one at fault.

I hate myself for it, but if I could go back and change the choices I’d made, would I? No. Because every other option would have led to her leaving, and I couldn’t have that.

She’s ours.

This is what the future holds for her. To be trapped in this old hotel with the three of us and whatever secrets the hotel holds.