Page 10 of Fear Me Not

Blake shakes his head. “Not yet. We need to make sure she’s fully warm first. If we try to move her when she’s still got cold blood in her extremities, it could cause a heart attack.”

She croaks out some words. “Are you trying to get rid of me, Levi?”

I have the sudden urge to sit on the side of the couch and take her hand. I fight it, not only because I’m worried holding her hand will hurt her heart. I’m not going to give in to whatever these feelings are. I’ll fuck her when she’s better. I’ll chase her through the halls of the hotel, and I’ll pin her down and lose myself in her, but I won’t fall for her. My dad is already in too deep, and it’s not going to make this any easier.

“You almost got rid of yourself,” I retort.

I’m angry with her, I realize. Perhaps I should be angry with myself. I played my part in all this. I kept the truth from her as well.

At least now she knows my dad isn’t some fucking savior. It had been pissing me off that my father was always the one with the halo. She fucking hero worshipped him, when that isn’t who he is at all. He brought her here so we’d have a distraction during the long months, so we wouldn’t give in to the ghosts trying to get inside our heads, and she acted like he saved her.

What now? Is she going to shut herself off from us? Deny us what we need? How will that work? Will we be forced to take it anyway? It’ll be far more dangerous to let the ghosts take over. We need that female contact. Three men trapped here for months without it will mean we’ll go crazy and likely kill each other… or ourselves.

“I’m feeling better now,” Aspen says, gathering the blanket closer around her. “I’ll be fine if I can just get into bed.”

She does look better. The shivering has stopped. Her lips still have a slight blueish tinge, but they’re not as bad as they were. She’s out of danger—at least from the hypothermia.

Blake thins his lips. “I think you should stay here just a little longer.”

She gives a light cough. “Funny, I don’t care what you think as much as I once did.”

Aspen slowly moves her legs off the couch, planting her bare feet on the floor. She grips the blanket at her throat but doesn’t move any farther. It’s as though just sitting up has taken everything out of her. I want to move closer, to scoop her up and hold her in my arms, but I remain rooted to the spot.

She hesitates then says, “I think I saw someone out there. A woman was standing in the middle of the road. It’s the reason I swerved.”

I exchange a glance with my father, who gives an imperceptible shake of his head. She doesn’t need to know anything more right now. She’s already been through so much.

With the winter months ahead, there will be plenty of time for her to learn the truth.

“The snow is disorienting,” Blake says. “It’s easy to think something is there when it isn’t.”

“I saw something,” she insists. “It wasn’t because of the snow.”

“That’s impossible, Pen. How would someone get out onto the road? Where would they have come from? You know we’re the only ones out here, and the weather would have made it impossible for someone else to reach the hotel.”

She shakes her head then winces. “I don’t know, but they were there. It was a woman. I saw her face. She looked right at me.”

“You were upset. Your mind was playing tricks on you.”

She lets out a sigh and covers her face with one hand, ducking her head. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. My head is a mess, no thanks to you.”

“Do you think you can stand?”

She clutches the blanket tightly at her throat, keeping her body covered. “I think so.”

My father steps forward and scoops his arm around Aspen’s back, helping to steady her as she stands. She gets to her feet, wobbly as a newborn foal. I wonder if she’ll tell him she can walk and doesn’t need his help, but she remains quiet. Even after everything she’s learned, she’s still leaning on him.

And a part of me hates that.

7

ASPEN

Despite everything, I still love the feeling of Blake’s strong arm around my back, supporting me. How can he treat me with such tenderness when he hurts me so much? My head is heavy and automatically rests against his shoulder. The scent of him sweeps over me, warm and masculine, and I wish I could take him to bed with me, to have his big body wrapped around mine, holding me while I completely warm through.

But I can’t trust him. I know that. I’ve allowed him to fool me once, and now I plan to guard my heart.

I’m lucky I wasn’t hurt more badly in the crash. The worst part is the hypothermia, but I seem to be over the worst of that. My limbs feel like they are embedded in concrete, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired, but I’ll survive.