Frozen Vengeance (3 page)

Somewhere near my toes
.

She turned and faced the interior of the room.

A large bed dominated it, and a man
dominated
the bed.

The male restrained on the bed rendered Angelica immobile. He was huge. His frame filled the bed. He had to be about six-feet tall. A thick sheet covered his lower body and the large blindfold wrapped around his eyes, hid his face.

Angelica let her gaze roam his chest. Broad and muscular was an understatement. She could see the cords of muscles on his abdomen and his pectoral muscles bulged even as he lay down. His shoulders were wide with roped muscle leading down his biceps, which were as wide as her thigh.

Her eyes travelled back to his face. His jaw was bearded, but she could see it must be from the time he’d been here. His lower lip was full—
kissable—where the hell did that thought come from?

Dark hair curled around his temples over the blindfold and it looked soft. Angelica felt the urge to go to him and touch him, so she fisted her hands at her side so she wouldn’t act on it.

She moved back to the door and laid her ear against the paneled wood. She wanted to be sure that Malta had left.

She tried the knob and found that Malta had locked her in with the male.

“Good,” she whispered aloud.

Her eyes were on the male in the bed, so when he ground his teeth at the sound of her voice, she felt the need to reassure him.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you.”

A hard sounding hiss escaped his lips, and Angelica tilted her head. He didn’t believe her?

Don’t be so stupid. Of course he won’t believe you. Malta could have been in here countless times
.

The pile of clothes lying in the corner of the room caught her attention and Angelica walked over to them. He’d need them if he was going to make an escape.

She picked up each piece of clothing and folded it, putting it on the edge of the bed as far away from him as she could get. She frowned at the lack of pants.

He moved, just a twitch, and turned his head towards her.

“Look, I’ve come to help you escape. I can’t let them keep you here anymore,” she told him.

* * * *

Ha! What crock of shit was she trying to feed him?

He knew it was
her
. He’d placed the blindfold on so that he could see out under its edge. She had long dark hair. What was her game plan though? Why was she pretending she wanted to free him?

It didn’t matter. She was in the room and unaware that he wasn’t restrained, and he was going to get out of here soon.

“It won’t be easy, but you’ve got to try and get out of here.”

The woman moved towards his hand, a knife appearing in hers. She was going to try to cut the bonds off.

Why not unlock them?
He pushed the question aside. He didn’t have time for riddles.

“I don’t know where you came from, and I can’t open a tear, so you are going to have to live in the forests around the grounds until I can find someone who can open it for you to get through.”

What is she talking about? No, don’t let her distract you.

Colt lunged, ripping the loosely tied restraints from his arms, and ripping off the blindfold. He grabbed the knife in her hand and threw his arm around her waist, pinning her arms, gaining his footing and pulling her back into his chest in the same moment. He put the knife to her throat and held her in a vice like grip.

“Where am I?” He didn’t recognize the sound of his own voice. It was low, gruff and sounded tortured.

“Don’t hurt me,” she pleaded and he tightened his arms around her.

“Answer me, bitch.” Hate boiled from his gut up and he was fighting the urge to plunge the small knife into her jugular.

“Y-you are in th-the Phoenix realm,” she stammered.

Phoenix—yes—that would explain the women who seemed to be on fire, but not burning, though he’d always believed that phoenixes were true myths.

“What did you mean about a tear?”

She was quiet too long, so he pressed the tip of the blade deeper and a crimson drop slid down her neck.

“Stop it!” she hissed. “I’m trying to think how to answer you. I came in here to help you.”

“Bullshit,” he growled in her ear, his breath stirring her hair.

“A tear is what it sounds like… A rip in space-time that allows us to move between planes, but before you make demands…” She wiggled a little to get some space and Colt groaned as his body responded to the press of her curves.

His eyes darted around the room looking for mist. They had to be pumping mist in. He would never get hard for this sadistic bitch without the mist.

“What?” He had to ask when he realized she’d stopped speaking and he had missed the rest of her explanation.

“I can’t make a tear. I can’t send you back where you came from. I’m not strong enough yet. I will only be strong enough after my first…”

Fury boiled through Colt and his grip tightened. It caused her to let out an
oomph
of expelled air.

“You will open a tear! You will do it now and take me back to Alaska or I’ll…” He was at a loss for a moment on what to threaten her with, but then she squirmed to get air, and his hard cock gave him the answer.

“Or I will do to you what you did to me. I will take you repeatedly and I won’t be gentle, and when I’m done, you will wish you were dead. An eye for an eye.”

Even in Colt’s ears, his voice oozed evil and the sound surprised him. It wasn’t like him to be vindictive, but the thought of throwing this woman down and plunging into her warmth…

It was more exciting than he liked, and he felt sick that he wanted her.

He realized, that it was some screwed up version of Stockholm syndrome where he’d start to identify and care about his captor
. He wasn’t going to let her get into his head. Fuck that idea.

The woman had started trembling in his arms.

“Open the tear,” he ordered.

“I can’t.”

He could hear sobbing in her voice.

“Open the fucking tear, bitch!” He lowered his face and licked up the column of her neck to reinforce his threat, but the action backfired when his cock twitched.

Damn, she tastes like sugar.

How the hell could he want the woman who had raped him repeatedly?

“Okay. Okay.” She was weeping. “I’ll try, just don’t—”

“Do it or I’ll deliver on my threat.”

Colt felt her body vibrate with tension. “What’s your name?”

“Angelica,” she squeezed out as the air in front of them started to waver like a mirage.

She was no angel, he could attest to that, but…

“I’ll call you Geli, because you taste sweet, like
Jellybeans
.”

Taking her name from her was one of the punishments he planned. She had no idea what he had in store for her.

Colt felt Angelica—no—Geli, sag as the tear opened, and he let her sit on the floor. “Keep that tear open, Geli. I need to put some clothes on. It’s cold where we are going.”

“What?” She sat in a crumpled heap, tilting her face to him, panic etched on her features. He pulled on the rest of his clothes as fast as he could.

“No, I can’t go with you. Go, you are free. I won’t tell them where you went. Hurry and leave. I can’t keep the tear open.”

Then, she muttered something, and only his superior hearing helped him hear what she’d said. “I can’t believe I opened it to start with.”

Colt laughed and it sounded cruel in his ears. “No, Geli, you have a debt to pay.” He reached down and hooked his hand around her upper arm, dragging her to her feet.

“Let’s move.” Another order as he pulled her towards the mirage-like tear. He could see the white snow on the other side and he was determined to get through as fast as possible.

Angelica pulled, trying to tug her arm free. “Please, leave me here. I don’t want to go to the snow. I don’t want to go with
you
.”

Tears streamed down her face and Colt had to harden himself to them.

A woman’s tears had always made him cave like a sinkhole. He forced himself to remember her sick groaning when she’d ridden him, and that killed any inclination to leave her behind. He yanked at her arm, it felt like it was about to pull from the socket. She winced, but didn’t make a sound.

“Get moving, Geli or I’ll…” He didn’t finish what he was saying, but stepped forward instead. Bending down, he hoisted her over his shoulder in a firefighter’s lift.

Angelica started kicking and screaming. Colt noticed the tear was starting to lose stability on the edges. He moved with speed no normal male could emulate, throwing himself and Geli through the tear as it closed.

They landed in the snow, Colt flipping them so he took the brunt of the impact. “Are you okay?” he asked before he remembered who he was talking to. “Never mind, I don’t care.” He grunted and stood, leaving Geli sitting wide eyed in the snow looking like she’d never seen the stuff before.

Colt looked around, trying to find a landmark that would give him his bearings. Alaska was a big place. He had to hoped he’d lucked out and she’d landed them near the village.

“W-where are we?” She was shivering so much, she struggled to get the words out.

Colt looked down at Geli still huddled up in a ball on the snow. He sighed and shrugged out of the coat he’d put on in the room. “Stand up. You will freeze to death sitting in the snow like that.” He stepped around Geli and helped her into the coat.

“T-thank you.”

He gritted his teeth. “Don’t thank me for anything, and be glad I don’t take it straight back.”

He watched Geli step back from the snarl in his tone.

Figure out where you are before you kill her here and now
, Colt said, giving himself the order and then started walking north. They were in a clearing and he could see a trail between the trees.

He stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Get moving, Geli. I don’t feel like carrying you again.”

She looked around with wide eyes, but she followed him when he started walking again.

She was slow, so getting to the head of the trail he’d spotted took longer than necessary, but when Colt got there and saw the signboard, he let loose a string of curses that made Angelica step back a few steps.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in a trembling voice.

“This is the road to Radcliff.”

“So?”

“So it’s fucking miles away from my village, or anywhere else for that matter.” He looked over his shoulder at her, and then added. “And I hate ghost towns.”

Chapter Three

One foot, next foot, left foot, right foot. One foot, next foot, left foot, right foot.

Angelica chanted the words in her mind as she trudged through the deep snow after Colt. He seemed to have no problems with the snow. Could have been walking on air, and right then, she detested the male who had taken her good deed, and tossed it in her face like a lemon meringue pie thrown by a clown. She used to watch the clowns through the viewing tear and think it was funny. This was the antithesis of funny.

He stopped and turned to look back at her. “Step where I have stepped, it will make the trail easier for you.”

Angelica looked up at him, surprised by his consideration, but he must have realized what he’d said because his face drew into a frown and he faced forward again, his movements jerky like he was mad at himself.

Angelica sighed and wrapped her arms tighter around herself. Despite the exercise of the trudging, she was cold. So cold, she felt she would never get warm. This snow was horrible, and it was hard to believe she’d ever wanted to see it with her own eyes.

Seriously overrated.

They moved deeper into the tree cover where the snow layer wasn’t as deep, and Angelica was grateful it wasn’t such an effort to place one foot in front of the other.

“How much further?” she asked.

He muttered something in response.

“Beg your pardon?”

That had him spinning around and snapping. “As long as it God damn takes!”

Anger stirred in Angelica and she straightened her spine.

“I didn’t ask you to bring me here. I was trying to do something good and you are punishing me for it.”

She should never have opened her mouth because he stalked towards her and grabbed her upper arms in his huge hands.

He shook her once. “Do something nice?” He gritted his teeth as if he would rather kill her than touch her.

“Shut the fuck up, Geli and keep up, or I will kill you were you stand. Got it?”

Angelica nodded, mute, her eyes wide with fear. She kept forgetting how big he was, then he’d invade her space and she was forced to remember.

The problem was that she should be terrified—and she
was
scared—but there was something else stirring in her.

When he’d put his hands on her, she’d felt a spike of something hot shoot down her body and settle at the apex of her thighs.

How stupid could she be? This man wanted her dead, that was obvious, and Angelica was choosing this moment to feel… desire?

Stupid!

Angelica got angry with herself and strongly pulled his hands off her upper arms. “What is your name, anyway?”

He frowned down at her as if he hadn’t expected her to react that way. “Colt.”

“Well, Colt, keep your hands off me. Okay? Then, we’ll be good.”

His frown deepened. “Listen.” His hands came out to encircle her upper arms again. “I say what is going to or
not
going to happen, so if I want to shake the hell out of you, I will.”

Angelica shrugged out of his hold a second time and walked around him in the direction they had been going. She was not going to be bullied, no matter how good looking the
bully
was, and no matter how attractive she might find him.

Ha! We’ll see about that,
her inner voice decided to add. “Oh, shut up,” she said out loud with a hiss.