Saved by the Blizzard: A romantic winter thriller (Tellure Hollow Book 2)
Read Saved by the Blizzard: A romantic winter thriller (Tellure Hollow Book 2) Online
Authors: Adele Huxley
Tags: #A winter thriller romance
Excerpt from The Billionaire's Power Trip
Saved
by the
Blizzard
Adele Huxley
This book is work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. This book contains explicit material and is intended for readers 18 years or older.
The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademarked owners of any wordmarks mentioned in the following fiction.
Copyright ©
2014 by Adele Huxley
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.
All requests should be forwarded to:
[email protected]
Other books by Adele Huxley
The Tellure Hollow Series
The Billionaire’s Power Trip Series
The Kael Family Series
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STOP!
Don’t continue any further until you’ve read this!
The Tellure Hollow Series
is a two book series with cliffhangers. This means the story will be concluded at the end of
Saved by the Blizzard,
which is out now. Make sure you’ve read
Caught by the Blizzard
first or you’re going to be mighty confused.
I've become a big fan of the two-book series. Readers can pick up the first book risk free, explore a new genre or author. Then hopefully they're happy to support the author by buying the conclusion. I want to make it as easy as possible for you to dive into a new book! The entire series totals more than 600 pages.
These books contain swearing, sex, use of legal and illegal substances, and violence. In other words, this story is for mature audiences. Enjoy!
Adele x
I braced myself against Bryan’s taut body, waiting for the searing pain of the buckshot to tear through my skin. Never before had I felt so much like a hunted animal. As Bryan guided the snowmobile around the back of Rick’s truck, my eyes darted across the forest. He could be hiding anywhere, behind any tree or bush. Any sign or warning, even a fraction of a second, could be the difference between life and death.
We rounded the corner in the road and a few moments later, the terrifying alarm of imminent death faded to a dull ring inside my head. There’s no way he’d be able to travel that quickly through the deep snow of the forest and on this snowmobile. We’d bought ourselves a little time.
Bryan quickly coasted up the driveway, following the tracks Rick’s truck had left in the snow. He skidded to a quick stop and jumped off, flinging the door of the cabin wide open.
As I followed him in, I began to tremble, shock and cold sinking in. All around us were the makings of a beautiful Christmas morning. Ingredients for breakfast lined up on the counter, our coffee now gone cold, the nest of blankets in which we’d slept in front of the fire. As I gazed around the little haven we had built for ourselves, I saw it for the illusion it really was. We’d never been safe here. Rick managed to tear it apart simply by arriving. We’d never be safe anywhere as long as he was around.
“Grab all your stuff. We’re going back to town,” Bryan said as he whizzed past. But I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to. I refused. Rick had ruined enough for me and I wasn’t ready to let him destroy this as well. Bryan noticed my lack of movement and came over to me. “Liz, we have to go.”
I shook my head, biting back tears. “No. We’ll stay. We’re fine here. Let’s stay and have breakfast.” I wanted to be chipper, excited, but it came out manic. I tried to sound like I didn’t have a crazy man following me half way across the country, chasing me through the forest with a shotgun.
Bryan took my shoulders in his broad hands and stooped his head, meeting my eye level. “Liz, he’ll know we’re here. Even if he didn’t, this is the closest house to his truck. He has no place else to go...” he trailed off, chewing on the last part of the sentence. “He wants to hurt you and I can’t let that happen.”
I broke away with a flourish, storming over to my suitcase. “So what? What’s the point in running anymore? Maybe I should just give him what he wants and then he’ll go away!” I shouted. As I yelled, I tossed my clothes back in the case, balling them up and punching them down with all my might. “You should go, just leave me here and I’ll take care of it. I shouldn’t have dragged you into it in the first place. It was selfish of me.” In a lower voice I mumbled, “
I
shouldn’t even be in this situation.”
He came up beside me, putting a gentle hand on the small of my back. I froze, both in speech and movement, my outburst stayed by one touch of his hand. I realized I was crying, tears of frustration, anger, and fear rolling freely down my face as I yelled. I didn’t look at him as I took a deep breath. He didn’t need to reiterate the point. The longer we stayed in the cabin, the louder that survival alarm bell rang. “I’m fine,” I said in a strained voice. “I’ll be ready in a minute.” He cleared his throat in response, walking briskly away.
It was like Bryan could move in fast forward, twice as quickly as me. He managed to turn off the generator, close the furnace, pack his things, and start the truck in the time it took me to zip up my bag. As he brushed the snow off the truck, glancing around the forest as he did, I took one last look at the cabin. I loved that he’d brought me up here, shared this with me. I could tell he wasn’t ready to talk about the car accident, but he’d folded me into his life just by bringing me to this place all the same. Whether he knew it or not, it meant the world to me.
I’ll tell him all that as soon as we’re safe
, I thought.
I shut the door, feeling odd that there was no way of locking it. As Bryan took my bag and threw it in the back, I held my hands to the vents, hoping to warm my fingers enough to use my phone. In the stress, we’d become mechanical, pragmatic.
“There’s no signal,” I said to him as he climbed behind the wheel. “Shouldn’t we at least call 911 or something?”
His jaw clenched and I could tell he wanted to leave Rick to fend for himself. “Cell tower probably came down with the snow. Keep trying.”
I resisted the urge to look back as we coasted down the snowy drive. I wanted to tell him we could go hide up by the falls. Rick would never find us there...but we’d freeze. Besides, it was beginning to sink in that no matter what, I couldn’t keep running away. It obviously wasn’t going to work.
The tension between us escalated as we approached the crash scene, the stress eating away at both of us. Just as we were about to round the bend, Bryan looked over at me. His face was so anxious, filled with fear. “You should get down in case...” He didn’t have to finish the sentence. It hung heavy in the air.
In case Rick shoots
.
I shook my head and leaned forward, my hands on the dashboard. I looked out the windshield, catching the first glimpse of Rick’s truck. “No, I’ll keep a lookout for him.” I hit redial on my phone but still, nothing got through.
For some reason, my eyes locked onto the license plate. Where I was expecting to see ‘First in Flight’ I saw a green and white mountain range. My brow knitted as I realized he’d swapped out the North Carolina plates for Colorado.
Why would he have done that?
I recognized the truck as the same one he’d had back home, right down to the dented bumper and custom rims. As we raced past, I didn’t voice my concern. It was more of an afterthought, a strange observation, maybe a detail to distract me from the stress of the situation.
Bryan concentrated on keeping us on the road, even slowing when the unweighted tail began to swing. The last thing we wanted was to end up stranded with no signal and a maniac chasing us. Rick’s footprints trailed into the thick of the forest, disappearing into the underbrush. I didn’t see any blood, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t hurt. Even if he’d hit his head and gotten a concussion, he could still freeze to death in a short time. To be honest, it surprised me how little I cared. I watched as the wreck disappeared behind us, the only reminder we had of the incident were the tire tracks Rick had left on his way in.
“What are we going to do?” I finally asked in a small voice. “If he doesn’t die out there, he’s just gonna keep coming and coming.” I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering with cold and fear. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up until we were safe, but the question had been bouncing around my head so much it’d finally popped out.
Bryan’s jaw tightened. “We’re going to the police like we should’ve in the first place. I don’t know why you didn’t report him the first time he showed up. After everything you’ve told me—”
