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  On wobbly legs, she stood, turned and stopped cold as two familiar black-haired men stood in front of her.

  Her tummy hollowed out in a knot of pure terror. Ron and Rick Smart had found her.

  “Looks like you skipped the wedding and went straight to the honeymoon,” Rick said in the calmest, deadliest voice she’d ever heard.

  “What are you two doing here?” she asked, her mouth going so dry she wondered how she could speak at all.

  “I should be asking you the same thing,” Ron said and she shivered as his eyes narrowed into evil slits. “What are you doing here? Reminiscing about old times?”

  “You hurt my brother’s feelings leaving him at the altar like you did,” Rick replied in a wounded voice. But she could tell by the coldness shadowing his eyes, he was playing with her. Amusing himself.

  “I’m sorry. I had no idea I would be kidnapped.”

  “By your ex-husband. A man who obviously still wants you. How romantic.” Ron smirked. She could tell she’d hurt him badly. Could see it in his wry smile as he looked at her. Suddenly she felt bad for having used him the way she had.

  “I’m sorry. I really am sorry,” she told him, and she meant it. She’d been cold-hearted in using him and she knew a simple apology wouldn’t help.

  But they knew Mason had taken her. How did they find out so quickly? How did they find her so fast?

  “I’ve told him I want nothing to do with him,” she said quickly, struggling to figure a way out of this mess.

  Rick made a nasty sound of contempt but Ron smiled. The smile however didn’t reach his cold eyes. “Have you? Is that why you’re wearing his clothes?”

  “He hid mine. I took his. C’mon, let’s go get married.” God, she sounded like an idiot. She should be telling them both to go to hell. Inform them she had no intention of marrying Ron. But she needed to protect Mason. She could only hope they hadn’t already done something to him.

  She bit back a sob at that horrid thought. No. She couldn’t go there. Couldn’t even think of that possibility or she would go mad.

  “I really loved you, Avery. I can’t believe you could do something like this. I thought you were a woman with morals. No sex until we married. You were so insistent that I thought I had found one true woman I could trust. You had me and I might also add, my parents, wrapped around your finger from day one and I guess it’s safe to say I was blinded by love for you.”

  “I hate to interrupt this mushy crap, brother, but remember your lovely bride-to-be forgot something back at the church,” Rick interjected with an abundance of impatience.

  Avery stiffened as Rick stuck his hand inside his jacket pocket and produced a gun.

  Shit. It was the gun she’d dropped in the church. Rick’s dark look stopped her from denying the gun belonged to her. If looks could kill, she had the feeling she was going to be dead soon.

  “So you want to marry my brother still? Maybe have a son with him? Just like your David? Drug overdose, wasn’t it?”

  Ron shifted uncomfortably beside his brother, but Rick smiled and Avery’s skin crawled with hatred for the man. Such filth shouldn’t even have David’s name on his lips. Anger smashed into her and she reached out to slap him, but he was faster. Grabbing her wrist, he yanked her against his cold body. His face came within inches of hers. His warm breath splashed across her face as if he’d been the one who’d physically just slapped her.

  “You were good, Avery. Very good. You had him wrapped around your little finger so badly he couldn’t even think straight. Such a sweet, old-fashioned woman, he bragged to me. She doesn’t want sex until we get married. He said it so many times I thought he’d finally found a really decent woman. I should have had you checked out better than I did. I didn’t because you had me fooled too. I wanted my brother to be happy. It was my mistake not to look out for him better.”

  “We’ve had our say, Rick. Let’s leave her be. Let’s get out of here,” Ron said, and Avery breathed a sigh of relief as he turned to move. Her relief was short-lived when Rick didn’t let her go. The barrel of her gun stuck against her belly.

  “Oh don’t leave the party so soon, brother. We haven’t finished with her.” He didn’t take his cold blue eyes off her as he spoke to Ron, and Avery got the feeling she wasn’t going to be let off as easily by him as Ron appeared to want.

  She gasped as Rick shoved the gun barrel harder into her tummy until she winced, then kept it there, obviously enjoying her discomfort.

  “I had my private dick flash your picture around the local cop shop asking them to run your face this morning. I love up-to-date technology, don’t you? Surprise. Surprise. We find your picture in a newspaper from a few years back. You and your husband weeping at the funeral of your druggie son. Accidental overdose, wasn’t it? A friend of his dropped something into his drink and then another did the same thing without each knowing? And to make matters worse one of those drugs was tainted. They said they wanted to loosen the straitlaced smart kid up a little. So you figure since I’m in charge of that area of town, the drugs came from my camp, right?”

  Fucking bastard.

  “A good thing I have legal ties throughout the whole justice system. A lot of people work for me, darling. I pay them good and they work fast. My lawyers got Ron out of jail early this morning, quietly of course. I got my people to hit the newspapers, television and radio with your kidnapping and a hotline for anyone who’d seen you to call. Wasn’t long before a good upstanding citizen was calling in saying she saw something odd going down in a back alley in Toronto. Says she saw a woman dressed in what appeared to be a black wedding dress fainting beside a motorcycle and then some guy carried her to a car. She even got the license plate.

  “We figured he was probably taking you somewhere he knows and a little bit of discreet asking around in your old neighborhood and we find out you honeymooned up north. So we took a chance, and used my private water plane and dropped in on the nearby lake. It pays to be rich, you know. You can do anything you want. Buy anyone. We saw your ex’s rental car in that inn’s parking lot, found that honeymoon cabin, kept an eye on it. We saw you leave earlier and here we are. I say you give my brother and me what you’ve been giving your ex. Right here and right now. And we can call it even.”

  Rage and fear tore through her as she stared into his eyes. He wasn’t just trying to scare her. He was serious. She sensed it. Knew he wanted to rape her. Wished Ron would step in and protest, but he wasn’t the dominant one. He would do what his brother told him to do.

  She wished she could do something. Stomp on his foot or rip herself away from him. But the menacing gun was poking into her so hard, she couldn’t think straight. Let alone move. One pull of that trigger and she would be dead.

  “I’m going to fuck you right here, Avery. If I like what I get, I might even let your ex live. Maybe let him watch as we do you again and again.”

  He cupped her chin with his cold, clammy, repulsive hand. His rancid breath washed in disgust across her face as he studied her with the most evil smile she’d ever seen.

  This can’t be happening. God help her, this can’t be happening!

  “We’ll let him watch as I take you from behind like he did you.”

  Nausea sucker punched her in the belly. They saw Mason and her in the cabin?

  “Through your window. You really should draw the blinds when you have a man in your bed, Avery. I almost came in my pants as I watched you two fucking each other. We almost walked in and joined the party when he was cuffed to the bed. It would have been an awesome foursome. Brother dearest just wanted to leave but I had so much fun watching.”

  “You’re disgusting! Get your hands off me!”

  She struggled in his arms and suddenly fell through the air as he let her go. She hit the ground hard, the breath knocked from her lungs. Struggling to breathe, trying to react and pull up her legs in a self-defense position, she couldn’t do it before Rick threw himself on top of her, effectively capturing her.


  “Stay still, darling. I’ll tell you when you can start moving those nice succulent hips of yours.”

  “Come on, Rick. Leave her alone. Let’s get out of here,” Ron muttered from somewhere nearby. She could tell by his voice he was nervous.

  “Shut up! Nobody fucks with my brother like that and gets away with it!” Rick snapped at Ron and Avery jolted at the feel of a cold metal gun barrel stroking gently against her cheek.

  “Get the hell out of here if you don’t want to watch. I want her and I’m going to have her. So get lost!”

  “Fine! Just don’t fucking leave any evidence on her. I don’t want to have to clean up a dirty crime scene. I’ll wait in the plane.”

  No!

  She struggled as blades of furious panic burned through her but Rick’s arm came down across her neck, pressing into her windpipe, cutting off her air circulation.

  “Brother is gone. Look at him go. Like a scared cat with his tail between his legs. But at least we can be alone together, huh sweet thing.”

  Darkness hovered at the edges of her sight as his arm seemed to crush her windpipe and she knew she would pass out if he didn’t give her some air soon. It appeared as if he knew it too, because his arm eased a bit and she was finally gasping the fresh cool air into her burning lungs.

  “There you go. I want you alive when I fuck you. Unlike some other dames that have double crossed me.”

  Terror racked her at that comment. Her alarm only increased as he slid the gun into the hand of the arm pressing against her neck and she stiffened when his other hand slid under the black leather jacket and over her bare belly, slipping under Mason’s baggy jeans, heading for her pussy.

  Suffocating fear made her dizzy. She hated the vulnerability of being pinned beneath this monster. Of what he intended to do to her.

  The razor sharp hatred for him exploded within her and Avery lashed out kicking and screaming. At the same moment a shadow loomed above her and she blinked in shock as a giant tree branch swung downward.

  Mason knew he should have shot the bastard, but he’d been all over Avery. Rage had taken hold of him, pure and deadly, but he knew if he’d shouted to get Rick’s attention, Rick could have broken Avery’s neck. Mason had been afraid to shoot him too because he knew the bullet could very well go through Rick into her.

  Unfortunately the son of a bitch was tougher than he’d anticipated because Rick recovered quickly, rolling off Avery. Mason froze as the gun in Rick’s hand came up and aimed straight at Mason’s mid-section.

  Oh shit.

  “You seem awfully eager to die, lover,” Rick cooed. “Let’s see if Avery will cooperate with me once you’re out of the way.”

  Avery, who’d seemed dazed by Mason’s appearance and Rick’s assault upon her, recovered in record time. She jerked a leg up and her foot collided with Rick’s gun, knocking the weapon into the air. It clattered against a nearby gravestone and fell into the tall grass.

  As both men dived for it, Mason knew he wouldn’t get to it first and was already ripping his gun out of his shoulder holster. Rick landed on the gun but not before Mason had his gun in hand and landed on Rick’s back. Shards of pain ripped through Mason’s cheek as Rick’s elbow slammed into his face. But he held a death grip on his gun and, knowing Rick probably had the gun he’d gone for, pulled the trigger.

  The ear-shattering explosion of the gunshot made them both jump against each other.

  Nearby Avery screamed and for a horrifying moment Mason thought she’d been hit, but then beneath him, Rick went flaccid.

  Relief poured through him and he went limp himself.

  “Mason! God! Mason!” she screamed hysterically as she frantically pulled on his shoulders urging him backward and off Rick. Mason flopped onto his back and blinked up into Avery’s tear-streaked face.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, scanning her for any signs of injury. He couldn’t see any evidence of a bullet wound and relief flooded him when she nodded.

  She looked over at Rick and went deathly pale. “I think he’s dead. There’s so much blood. I think he’s dead.”

  Strangely enough Mason relaxed at the news. The man who supplied drugs to kids was dead. Their ordeal was finally over.

  “Ron is around here. They came in a plane,” she sobbed.

  “We saw him. Trey went after him and I came for you.”

  “Trey’s here?”

  “He tried to call my cell, but the batteries were dead. I forgot to charge it last night. They tried to call the inn but the lines were down. Apparently that rain storm was more severe south of us and took out the power. He came up to warn us that Ron was sprung from jail and that we were all over the news.”

  On trembling legs, he managed to stand but almost fell over as Avery flew into his arms, her body heaving with shivers.

  “How did you find me?” she sobbed into his shoulder. He curled his arms around her and held her tight, burying his face in her windswept hair, silently thanking God that she was okay.

  “I ran over to the owner of the inn to get some clothes to come after you. She mentioned she saw you heading up the trail.”

  “Hey, man! I saw everything,” Trey shouted as he jogged up beside them, gun in hand, huffing and puffing as if he’d been running a marathon for hours.

  “I cuffed Ron to the plane and hoofed it right back over here. Saw you two fighting. I’ve made a 9-1-1 call. When they get here I’ll explain what I saw. It was self-defense. Pure and simple. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  “Thanks, man.” Mason sighed in relief. With Trey backing him, he wouldn’t be brought up on charges.

  “Yes, thanks very much, Trey. We owe you big-time,” Avery said shakily.

  Mason drew his arm around her waist and led her away from the dead body. When the three of them reached the edge of the meadow, Trey was chuckling.

  “I’d like to take you up on your earlier comment, Avery. About you guys owing me one.”

  “Anything, Trey,” Mason said as he hugged Avery closer to him. She was still trembling like a leaf. Understandable under the circumstances.

  “You guys have to come to my wedding.” Trey grinned and then pink blossoms blushed across his cheeks as Mason and Avery studied him. Because of a previous bad marriage, Trey had been shy to ask his girlfriend of four years to marry him. Had sworn he would never get married again. His girlfriend had threatened to leave him if he didn’t pop the question soon.

  “Did you finally ask her?” Avery laughed. Trey’s girlfriend had been the one Avery had asked to help her get in touch with someone who could get her a new identity. She must have finally told Trey, who’d told Mason.

  Trey nodded and puffed his chest up proud as a peacock. “And she said yes, right away. Didn’t even blink.”

  “I’m so happy for you two,” Avery gushed and gave Trey a kiss on his cheek. Mason laughed as Trey’s face grew red as a beet.

  “Congratulations, man. I knew you could do it!”

  The sound of a helicopter approaching caught their attention.

  “It’s probably the cops. I’ll run out and flag them down. You two stay here and take it easy. You’ve both been through hell.”

  They remained silent as they watched Trey run out into the meadow to flag the chopper down.

  Mason knew they only had a few minutes before they would be asked a shitload of questions and he had one important thing to ask his ex.

  He let go of her and then grabbed her hand. He ignored her surprised look and dropped to one knee, gazing up into her puzzled eyes.

  “Will you marry me again, baby?”

  She shook her head and for one horrible second, he thought maybe it really was too late. But then he saw the tears in her eyes and the beautiful smile curve her luscious lips.

  “Yes, I will marry you. Again and again.”

  He let out a huge sigh of relief.

  “Good. I’m glad that’s over with,” he kidded and stood.

  In an instant Avery
curled her arms around Mason’s neck and looked straight into his eyes and straight into his soul.

  “I want you back in my life, Mason. I want you so much, it hurts. Please, take me home.”

  And after answering the shitload of questions from the cops, he did.

  Chapter Six

  Two months later

  “We’d better get inside the cabin before we drown in all this snow.” Avery laughed, inhaling a frigid lungful of Northern Ontario winter air as she helped Mason drag out their suitcases from the trunk of the car and place them on the snow-crusted parking lot ground beside them.

  “Good thing we were able to beat the snowstorm,” he replied and glanced at the quickly darkening late afternoon sky. “But by the way the sky is looking we may get trapped in here for a while.”

  Avery liked the sound of that. Being trapped here at Peppermint Creek Inn with her hunky hubby and in their very own honeymoon cabin. The thought gave her such a wonderful warm feeling that it pushed away the icy chill of the December wind. Following his gaze, she noted the desolate sky glowed with a combination of bruised blue and gunmetal gray and as if nature knew they were speaking about her, giant lacy snowflakes started to spiral down on them. They peppered her face and Avery looked with longing down the rustic snow cleared path that meandered into the forest to their secluded cabin.

  Suddenly everything seemed so unbelievable. She was back here again with Mason and it felt as if they’d never left. But they had left and they’d been very busy getting on with their lives. Both of them had gone into serious grief counseling. She’d moved back into their Ottawa home with Mason and thankfully he’d been cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of Rick Smart.

  Rick’s brother, Ron, was out on bail, pending a trial for being an accessory to attempted rape because he’d left her with Rick, knowing his brother wanted to rape her and then kill her. She wasn’t looking forward to facing him again in a court of law. She just wished this horrible experience was over and she could go on with her life. But she knew it had to be done. With court dates aside for a while, Mason had remarried her yesterday.