Page 29 of Pucking Snowed In with the Enemy

Iwoke up to pounding on the door.

“Ms. Freeborn, I have a delivery for you.”

“Coming,” I said, jumping up and rushing around to throw on a hoodie and sleep pants before walking to the door. I looked out the peephole to make sure it was the manager, and it looked like the same guy who had checked me in, so I unlocked the door.

“Good morning, Ms. Freeborn. I trust your stay is going well?”

My body flushed red hot with that question like he knew every sordid detail.

“Yes, it’s been splendid,” I said and sucked in my bottom lip.

“Excellent. Well, I have a delivery for you.” He pointed, and I poked my head out to see six men maneuvering trollies stacked with boxes.

What the hell?

“I didn’t order anything,” I said.

“I was told to bring all this to your room,” he said.

“Oh…okay.” I stepped out of the way and let the men, one at a time, wheel the carts of boxes in and unload them until I had very little room left to move around. Had Shawn sent me all my stuff from the house? No, that couldn’t be it. He didn’t even know where I was staying. At the very end, the last man walked in, set two covered silver trays down on the table, and walked out.

“Have a good day, Ms. Freeborn.”

“Thank you,” I said and then turned to stare at the plain white boxes, a little terrified to find out what was inside them. I decided to tackle the trays first and lifted the lid to find a killer breakfast. Fruit salad, croissants, bacon, pancakes, eggs benedict with potato hash, juice and coffee. How many people were eating with me? Popping a strawberry in my mouth, I pulled the second lid, and there was a white envelope with my name scribbled on the front.

I held it up to the sunlight streaming in the window, and it looked like a piece of paper inside. Peeling it open and pulling out the paper, a ticket and room key dropped to the ground. I bent and picked it up and read the name and location of a hockey game before unfolding the note.

Good morning, Kisa.

I hope you enjoy the breakfast. I know these are all your favorites.

If you want to continue our interview, then you will need to attend the hockey game.

Then you must suffer the night with me at Snowy Peak Resort in the penthouse suite.

If you can handle that…I will see you soon.

You should know that I’ll be away on business after this weekend,

and I’m not sure when I’ll be back.

The choice is yours.

N.M.

P.S. I do hope you find my gift in the boxes helpful.

He certainly liked to make me chase his ass around, but I was secretly excited to see him play, and I’d never been inside a penthouse suite before. I should’ve been terrified that he was having me drive out to the middle of who knows where, but I really didn’t get the feeling that he wanted to kill me despite the fact that I could tell that killing was second nature to him. Nathan didn’t scare me like that, not anymore. My heart was an entirely different story.

I looked at the boxes and gave them a more skeptical glance than the first time. They didn’t seem to be scratching or anything weird. Sitting the note down, I took a deep breath and pulled off the lid of the closest box. It was full of different colored material folded up. Grabbing one, I held it up and began to laugh as I registered what it was.

“He can’t be serious.” I opened the next box and the one after that, and they were all filled with cloth napkins. “Jerk,” I mumbled, but you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

Renting a car in another state was a bigger pain in the ass than I thought it was going to be. I was finally on the road and headed to a place called Big Bear. The hockey game was set for tonight, and the GPS said I still had a three-hour drive to get there.

I was singing away when my phone rang, and I stared at the unknown number.

“Hello?”