Hunted at the Hideaway by Jennifer Brown

Author:Jennifer Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-04-03T19:11:01+00:00

Chapter Nine

Natalie paced the room while she waited for Gabriel to come back. The instant he left, it felt like a thousand years had gone by. She alternately shut all sound out or strained to hear him come to a violent end at the paws of the mountain lion. She didn’t want to hear it if that happened. After all, hearing it wouldn’t make it stop.

She thought about what would happen when he got back with the Carringtons. How they would get out of this mess. If the women were back at the lodge, it must have meant that their car didn’t make it down the mountain. Which was not a positive sign about getting the police here anytime soon. Furthermore, they’d left in an SUV; if Natalie was right, and the SUV couldn’t traverse the mountain in the storm, there was basically no chance that they would make it down in Gabriel’s little sedan. There had to be another way.

They could hide. Wait it out until the police arrived. The room was comfortable and, for now, warm enough. But Cora...

She tried not to think about the fireplace downstairs, and how she and Cora would sit in front of it when the power went out. Cora would often bring supplies for s’mores, which she always seemed to have on hand. It was a nod to their mentor, a habit they’d formed by her side and never let go.

Ruth loved nothing more than a good, dark day without power. She adored wrapping up in a heavy quilt, sitting in front of the fire, eating gooey marshmallows, and telling them stories. Her childhood days spent in the valley, always wondering what mysterious things lived in the mountains. She talked about meeting her husband, about falling in love. About losing two babies to miscarriage, and then losing her husband to a car accident, and moving away from the valley, making the mountain her heart’s focus.

She told them how to run a successful business, about how customers came back if they felt not just welcomed but appreciated. How there was a fine line between good service and hovering. Natalie and Cora would sit side-by-side, listening, sometimes giggling, sometimes sighing in comfort, Cora’s head on Natalie’s shoulder or vice versa.

Natalie sank onto the edge of the bed. Ruth, please, if you’re there...if you have any way of helping from up there...please keep Cora alive.

At some point early on, it became clear to Natalie that she and Ruth were both in such a remote location for a reason. Both were hiding in some way—Natalie from Jed and Ruth from loss. But Cora never volunteered why she was there. Why she had no family. Why she had no reason to stay on flat ground below. She never left the lodge. Never took a vacation or went to a funeral or spent a week with family. If Natalie pressed her, she changed the subject, and eventually Natalie just came to accept that Cora had her own hurt, and that it was too personal to divulge.

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