Mountain Devil (8 page)

He wasn’t Ed Peters.

“I heard my little tree hugger got lost in the woods,” he said, not unkindly. But the veiled insult wasn’t lost on her. Brandon always tore her down with secret words and a smile, and no one else ever noticed.

“I’m sorry,” she said as they sunk into the couch.

She placed the roses on a side table. “I guess I missed our wedding.”

“Well,” he said, squeezing her leg, “I hope you won’t miss it two days from now.”

“What?” Ella was shocked. It couldn’t possibly be so soon. Not so soon after Ed Peters.

He kissed her cheek. “Our families have been anticipating our marriage for years, Ella. I don’t think we could hold them off for another week even if we wanted to.”

“I didn’t really get lost in the woods,” she blurted, feeling more desperate than ever.

Brandon pulled away, his thick brows narrowing together. “
What
?”

“I got cold feet. I’m sorry. It was so selfish of me, especially making everyone worry. I should’ve left a note.” She would confess this much, but she didn’t dare speak of the days spent at Ed Peters’s house.
The
deal, the arguments, the spankings, the sex…

Brandon dug his fingers into her thigh. “Who else knows about this?” he hissed.

“No one. I was too scared to tell my parents the truth.”

He dug his fingers deeper, and Ella tried to squirm away. “Both our families have flown important clients, business partners, and friends into town for this wedding. Most of them are still here. I will not have you make a fool of me, Ella.”

“I…I…” But the right words were hard to find.

Marriage to Brandon Andrews seemed inevitable.

Maybe after all the pain she’d put her family through, she deserved to marry a man she didn’t love.

“We will be married in two days, Ella. We have good jobs waiting for us, along with a nice house.

Don’t be
stupid
.”

“All right,” she finally whispered, tired and defeated. Brandon relaxed his grip on her thigh, but the pain lingered…on her leg, in her chest, and in her burning throat.

Around 11:00 p.m., Brandon finally went home, and Ella bid good night to her parents and crawled into bed. Things were bad. Brandon had lingered long after dinner, dazzling her parents with the details of their honeymoon plans to Spain. Ella’s father had regarded her with suspicion for most of the night, especially after she’d insisted she didn’t know the full name of her rescuer. “His first name was Steve, but he never told me his last name,” she’d said.

Calling off the wedding now would only expose her lies. And the only job she had lined up would put her in contact with Brandon and his family on a daily basis. Marrying Brandon seemed like the only option, short of running away again.

As she drifted to sleep, Ella thought of Ed Peters.

Besides missing him terribly, her heart was broken beyond repair at his hands.

His hands…

She thought of his hands and the conflicting emotions that each spanking had conjured. Though she’d been initially outraged that a
stranger
would do such a thing, the idea was no longer angering. If Ed was here right now, he would punish her for each lie, absolving her sins and giving her the forgiveness she longed to feel.

Dreading Saturday and each day to come after that, Ella tossed and turned through the long night.

The next morning, Brandon was waiting downstairs, looking as smug as ever.

“Your parents went into the office for a few hours,” he said, pouring her a cup of coffee.

Ella nodded and buried her face behind the large cup, wishing she could just disappear. If only she’d never accepted Brandon Andrews’s marriage proposal in the first place. Why hadn’t she been strong enough to say
no
?

“I was thinking we could head up to Deep Creek today,” he said, crossing his legs.

“OK, sounds good.” Their parents owned cabins on the lake there, built side by side ten years ago after a particularly lucrative business deal.

“We can take the boat out all day,” he said, standing to reach the newspaper. Ella noticed her face on the front page under the title, “Emerson-Andrews Wedding Rescheduled.” She cringed and felt like throwing up.

“I’ll go get ready,” she said, her heart pounding.

Ed Peters didn’t live far from the Deep Creek area.

Ella had been blindfolded on the way there, but not on the way back. They’d passed the exit to the cabins on the way to Catoctin. Being even thirty minutes away from Ed Peters was too close, but Ella couldn’t let Brandon know that.

The next few days would pass slowly and painfully, and Ed Peters would fade in the memory of Mrs. Andrews. Or maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe the memory of him would remain a raw wound in her heart forever. Ella took another sip of coffee, and wished she was someone else.

* * *

“Boss, I heard you didn’t take the reward. The newspaper was pretty vague and said the man who found Ella Emerson was named
Steve
,” said Randy.

Ed’s hand tightened over the phone. “No, I didn’t take the reward. But I do appreciate all the help you gave me this weekend, Randy.”

“Something wrong, boss?”

“No, things are fine, Randy,” Ed lied. “I’ll call you in a few days. I’m sure there will be something I need your help with by then.”

Ed hung up, but beat the phone against the wall repeatedly before tossing the receiver across the room. Just minutes ago, he’d read the newspaper article.
Emerson-Andrews Wedding Rescheduled
. Ella had lied about running away and now she was going to marry Brandon Andrews anyway.

The dossier about her fiancé was still on Ed’s desk. Brandon had a record with serious charges, all of them dropped or expunged. Ed hadn’t spoken of the dossier to Ella, so whether she knew about his crimes was an unknown.

She had to know and he had to tell her. Even if she wasn’t with him, she couldn’t marry Brandon Andrews. Her life would be ruined.

Retrieving the phone, Ed dialed the Emerson home, picturing Ella inside the beautiful brick mansion. He hung up immediately after a man answered. Then Ed dialed Ella’s cell phone number, as found in Randy’s dossier. To his surprise, she answered.

“Hello?” Ella’s voice was a breath of fresh air, despite her sad tone.

“Ella, this is Ed.”

“What do you want?” she asked angrily. “Oh, let me guess—the reward money.”

“No, that’s not why I’m calling,” he said quickly.

“It’s Brandon.”

“What about him?”

“You can’t marry him. He has a record—sort of.

All of his charges have been dropped or expunged, but—”

Ella cut him off. “What kind of charges?” she asked, her tone transforming from angry to suspicious.

“DUI, assault, and…rape.” Ed listened to Ella’s short intake of breath. He silently hoped that should would believe him. She couldn’t marry Brandon Andrews! Her life would be ruined!

“You’re unbelievable,” she said. “I’ve known Brandon since we were kids. If any of this was true, I would know about it.”

“Ella—” he pleaded, only to be cut off again.

“Don’t contact me again. Ever.”

The dial tone was like an icy blanket over Ed’s heart. But a few minutes later, he snapped out of his despair and grabbed his car keys along with Brandon’s dossier. Ella Emerson wasn’t going to marry Brandon Andrews, not if Ed had anything to say about it.

Halfway down the gravel driveway, Ed called Randy and gave him Ella’s cell phone number. “I need you to track this number on GPS.”

“She’s traveling west on I-70,” he said after a long minute.

“I’ll need updates every five minutes,” Ed said, turning out of his driveway.

“Will do, boss.” The kid sounded eager to help, just as always.

By the time Ed reached I-68 traveling east, Ella was almost nearing the end of I-70 west. He silently willed her to merge onto I-68. Even if she wasn’t intentionally driving toward his house, he would more quickly intercept her if she merged onto I-68.

The speedometer needle wavered around ninety miles an hour, but Ed didn’t slow a bit, not even as the SUV curved dangerously around the mountains.

Randy’s next update confirmed Ed’s hopes: Ella was traveling on I-68, heading directly toward him on the opposite side of the highway. Though he had no idea what type of vehicle she was traveling in, or even if she traveled alone, he planned to loop around and peer into each vehicle he passed.

One way or another, Ed Peters was going to find Ella Emerson. Even if he had to kidnap her, and even if he had to spank her until she agreed to listen. And after she was done listening, Ed planned to do something he’d never done before: confess his true feelings to a woman.

I love her, he thought. I love Ella Emerson, and I’m going to make her mine.

Mine.

“Stop scowling,” Brandon hissed. “People are staring at you.” He took a bite of his sandwich inside the diner they frequented near Deep Creek, chewing vigorously.

“I’m not scowling,” she insisted, and glared around the diner. “People are just staring because I was missing, that’s all.” How was she going to survive a day on the lake with Brandon? How was she going to survive marriage to Brandon?
Her thoughts were racing and buzzing, and the sickness that had formed in her stomach the moment she’d left Ed Peters lingered like a bad dream.

“Where’s your ring?” he demanded with a soft hiss, gesturing at her naked hand. The engagement ring she usually wore was missing. Ella had taken it off while she slept the night before, leaving it under her pillow because she couldn’t bear the sight of it.

“I forgot to put it on after showering,” she lied, glancing at the ceiling fan spinning above their table.

“I sure as hell hope that’s the truth,” he sneered, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“It is!” Ella hissed, a lot more loudly than she’d intended.

Enraged, Brandon reached under her dress, digging his fingers into her thigh. “Smile,” he whispered through clenched teeth.

But she pushed him away and stormed toward the exit, feeling the scorching stares hot on her back.

Brandon would be angry, but she didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Tomorrow she would become his wife, no matter how angry they were with each other.

As Ella rounded the corner for the door, she collided with a large body.

“Oh.” She gasped. “I’m so sorry.” But when she looked up into familiar blue eyes, her stomach flipped.

It was Ed Peters. The man she hated
and
loved.

The man she never wished to see again
and
never wished to be without.

“You’re coming with me,” he said, tugging at her wrist.

Ella glanced back to see Brandon waving for the waitress. But before she could make any decision, Ed was dragging her outside toward his SUV.

“Let go of me!” she said, pushing away.

Ed’s response was to throw Ella over his shoulders, caveman-style. “We need to talk,” he announced. “Alone.”

As the blood rushed to her head, Ella’s anger grew. Ed Peters had broken her heart, and now he was back to stamp on it some more. “No!” she yelled.

“Put me the fuck down!” Curling her hands into fists, she pounded at his back and wiggled, but Ed’s hold was firm.

Ella found herself being shoved into the backseat, handcuffed, and buckled in. “I believe I’ve warned you about your bad language before, young lady,” he said into her ear.

She shivered but said nothing, even as they drove away. The last thing Ella saw was Brandon exiting the diner and heading for his car. Great, she was missing again.

“Where are we going?” she finally asked, grateful she wasn’t blindfolded this time.

“To take that walk we should’ve taken yesterday,” he replied over his shoulder.

Ella could barely think over the constant pounding of her heart, which increased the closer they drove to Ed Peters’s house. When they finally arrived, Ella feared her heart would burst through her chest.

“Will you behave if I take these off?” Ed asked, tugging on the handcuffs as they stood outside the house.

“Yes. I promise,” she replied, barely a whisper.

He leaned close with the key, so close she could smell the musky scent of his aftershave. Repressing a shudder, Ella stood as still as possible. She wanted to kiss Ed and slap him at the same time, but the latter option would only earn her a spanking.

Not that she didn’t deserve one…

As they neared the lake, Ella peered curiously at the file in Ed’s hand. “What’s that?” she finally asked.

Silently, Ed guided her toward a large, flat rock along the lake. When they were seated, he placed the file in her hands, his eyes apologetic. “Read it,” he said. “Read all of it.”

Halfway through the first page, Ella was in tears.

Ed hadn’t been lying about Brandon Andrews. One charge she could’ve forgiven, but there were half a dozen crimes listed, none of which she’d known about. “His family and their money,” she murmured angrily, flipping to the next page. Ed put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” he said once she’d finished.

The file slid from Ella’s hands. A heavy weight had been removed from her shoulders. Her parents would understand if she didn’t want to marry Brandon Andrews now. In fact, when she told them about his legal troubles, they would insist the wedding be canceled.

“I never really liked him in the first place,” she confessed. “There was always something about him that I couldn’t put my finger on. Now I know.” Ed pulled her close, unresisting. “This wasn’t the only thing I wanted to talk about, Ella.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, not daring to hope for anything more than Ed’s friendship.

“I
want
you, Ella Emerson,” he confessed. “I
love
you.” His deep voice didn’t waver once.

Had anyone else spoken these words to Ella after only knowing her for a few days, she would’ve laughed in their face. But Ed Peters was different.

Somehow, she felt as if she’d known him for years.

Pulling back, she studied his face, the same handsome face that had haunted her dreams the night prior. “I want you, Ed Peters,” she said. “And I love you.” A moment later, Ed leaned down and urgently captured her lips. Ella responded with fervor, wrapping her arms around his neck and losing all sense of time and place.