Avenged(3)

Now I was bleeding out on the side of a mountain in Surrender, Montana. I’d taken off minutes after the funeral so I could find Xanthe’s mystery man and tell him what happened when men weren’t careful with delicate hearts. He probably didn’t care and it wouldn’t change a thing, but for my own peace of mind, I had to say something…had to take a stand for my sister. Her death needed to be avenged and the only way I could do that was to confront the MacKenzie that broke her heart. I didn’t have his first name…just his last…but in a town the size of Surrender, I figured it couldn’t be that hard to track him down. I’d say what I had to say, make my point, get my own kind of vengeance, and go back to Denver ready to face my parents’ wrath. After all, I was the one who’d encouraged Xanthe to get out and get a job so she wouldn’t be so melancholy and depressed, so dependent on everyone else for what she needed.

I flipped over to my hands and knees, swearing into the darkness as my left shoulder gave out and left me face-planted in the snow. It hurt worse than anything I’d ever felt before and there was no way I was going to be able to use it. The burn made my eyes cross and had me sucking frigid air through my teeth. I lifted myself up onto my knees and squinted into the shadowy forest as I heard a twig snap and the sound of heavy footfalls. My breaths were suddenly annoyingly loud as they wheezed in and out of me.

I had no idea what was going to come out of the surrounding trees, but my instincts told me it wasn’t going to be something friendly and eager to help.

I was right.

Around a tree twice as big as the one that was holding up my SUV stepped a man. A big man. A burly man. A dark man. An angry man.

He had a shotgun grasped firmly in his hands and a scowl on his face that was easy to read, despite the darkness and the distance that separated us.

The lower half of his face was covered by a dark beard, but his equally dark hair was cut in a style that didn’t match his mountain man look. The sides were cut super short with a severe part shaved into a harshly defined and trendy part. The top was longer and slicked up and back in a style that looked like it should be in a watch ad of a high-end fashion magazine. There was also an obnoxiously large gold ring on his middle finger. I could see the glint of diamonds off it as he moved several steps closer to me. The ring was seriously at odds with his heavy canvas jacket and worn jeans. His boots looked expensive but had heavy tread and were the right kind of footwear for trekking up a mountainside in the middle of the night. I wasn’t sure why, but they seemed out of place. He seemed out of place.

“Are you okay?” His voice was deep and sounded extra loud in the silence surrounding us.

I lowered my head and couldn’t keep back a strangled laugh. “Do I look okay?” He was probably my only option for rescue and I wanted to bite my tongue after the waspish remark. Something about him and his mix-and-match appearance had the hairs on the back of my neck rising.

“How not okay are you?” He sounded faintly amused and if I’d had working use of my arm, I would have flipped him off.

“Dislocated shoulder, possible concussion, various nicks and cuts…I’m pretty sure the top of my head is sliced open from when the roof caved in because I’m still bleeding. I don’t think it’s anything fatal but I’m an insurance adjuster, not a doctor.”

His gaze shifted to the mangled SUV and he let out a low whistle. “I heard the impact from down at my cabin. I figured you would have rolled all the way to the bottom of the mountain. I was planning on finding a body.”

I lifted an eyebrow and winced as it made my whole head throb. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

He smirked and lifted the rifle he was carrying to his shoulder so he could stroke a hand through his beard. “Can you walk? I’ll call the accident in to the sheriff but the roads are bad so I doubt anyone will be able to get up here until sometime tomorrow or the next day. They’re shutting the highway down, no way in, no way out for the next few days. You must have been on the road right when they made the call.”

I groaned and put a shaking hand to my head as the rough noise made everything throb. “Lucky me.”

He took a few steps closer and I squinted up in the darkness so I could really see him. He was alarmingly attractive in a surprisingly polished way. The dark hair led me to believe he would have dark eyes as well, but they weren’t. They were a clear and stunning shade of gray. I also had dark hair and light-colored eyes, so I knew how striking the combination could be. People, mostly men trying to get in my pants, complimented my coloring all the time.