She wrenched out of his hold, but his hand bit into her arm hard enough to bruise. His pale blue eyes met hers. She’d always felt his eyes held no soul. They were cold and empty.
In that instant when their gazes locked, she knew she was lost. Colby was strong enough to overpower her, and he’d put on muscle in the years since they lived at the Andersons’.
“Get out! Let me go!” The force of her scream didn’t make him rock backward or release her.
In fact, he clamped his hands on her waist, leaned in and forcefully kissed her. She struggled to free herself, twisting and turning. The crush of his disgusting mouth had her stomach rioting.
She prepared to bite him, even though the thought of sinking her teeth into his gross flesh had her on the verge of vomiting. She had to get away. Had to somehow reach Hunt.
When she sank her teeth into Colby’s lip, he jerked his head back and simultaneously cuffed her alongside the head. Her ear rang. Pain shot through her skull.
And with that blow, the memories of that night came flooding back in.
She tore her arm free of his grip, but he caught her easily, wrapping an arm around her waist and locking her to his body. He was going to rape her, and then she didn’t know how she’d ever go on.
That was if he didn’t kill her after.
Mind spinning, she began to spout all she recalled from the night she ended up on the mountain face-down in the snow.
“You hit me on the head and I woke up in my car! You said we were going to get married. A Christmas wedding, because you knew how much I love Christmas!” Her soul shriveled with each word.
His smile widened, a creepy, cold rictus that matched his eyes but warred against his baby face. He looked like a teenager still, his skin unblemished and his face rounded with youth. “That’s right. And you lured me in, Fre-ya,” he said in that sing-song manner that injected terror into her veins. “You told me lies. You told me we were going to be married and you couldn’t wait. You just wanted to take a drive and look at the Christmas lights in the surrounding towns first to celebrate.”
She recalled staring at the lights on the houses blurred by her tears and her mind working furiously on a plan to escape him.
Then she’d spotted the gift bag containing the Santa figurine on the floor. Before she knew it, she had it in hand and smashed it into Colby’s head. He skidded off the road, slumped over the wheel, and she’d run for it.
Racing blindly into the snow that fell faster and faster, until her legs couldn’t trudge uphill through the thick stuff anymore and she collapsed.
She guessed he wouldn’t fall for her bluff a second time. Tricking him wouldn’t be easy, and despite how vacant his expression was, Colby was not dumb.
“I’m not going to turn my back on you again, Fre-ya. I planned to take you when you were alone here last time. Then I heard on the radio that the lost hiker was found and I knew he would be coming back.”
Her heart thundered. Colby had been close to bursting in on her that night when she lay so frightened by every single noise. Now she understood her instincts were honed. She knew the dangers, even if her mind hadn’t detected them yet.
He narrowed his eyes on her. “I almost had you at the festival, but that boyfriend of yours never left your side, and then his dog growled at me.”
Stiff, heart drumming with fear, she pieced together the events. “Y-you were at the festival.”
“Yes. I know you always wanted a special holiday, so I had to be there with you.” He grinned and nodded. He pulled off the Santa hat he wore to reveal the bruise on his face she’d put there by smashing the Santa figurine into his head.
“I touched your sleeve when I walked by you in the crowd.” He edged close enough that his face hovered an inch from hers. The evil in his eyes was that of a serial killer’s. “I smelled him on you. Hunt Cason.”
She tried to pull away, but his stronghold on her arms kept her in place. What she wouldn’t give for Aries right this second. She’d order the dog to go for the throat.
“It wasn’t that hard to find out who Hunt Cason works with, but getting his phone number was a bit harder.” He tapped his temple. “Good thing I know how to do these things. After I got the number, it was easy to say I was his teammate out sick and ask if he’d replace me…”
She ingested this like a bitter pill. Not only had she spent years being manipulated by this man, now poor Hunt had been duped too. Something had to be done to stop Colby—now.
“What do you want from me, Colby? You know that I don’t want to marry you.” She lifted her chin a notch and glared him in the eyes.
“You will marry me, because I’ve been waiting since you came to live at the Andersons’. All those nights I sneaked into your room to watch you sleep, I knew this day would come.”
Her insides coiled. Bile rippled in her throat.
“Now you will be a mountain Christmas bride.” He onehandedly removed the backpack she hadn’t noticed he wore until now and dropped it to the floor. “Your dress is in here. And I’ve got my bowtie in my pocket. For the rest of our lives, you can be happy on Christmas because it will also be close to our anniversary. We can spend weeks celebrating.” He pulled out a red-and-green plaid tie.
Freya couldn’t breathe for a moment. The thought of going through with this hoax of a wedding—
She stopped. They couldn’t be married. No one was around to marry them. Whatever took place would be in Colby’s delusional brain.
Keeping a grip on her arm so she couldn’t escape, he bent and grabbed the backpack. He held it out to her. “Unzip it.”
She stared at him for an endless heartbeat.
“Unzip it!” His bellow had her body breaking out in icy goosebumps.
With shaking hands, she fumbled open the zipper. Inside, the white dress was crumpled into a ball. After this, if she ever did decide to marry, no way did she want a white dress, a Christmas wedding or anything of the sort. She’d get married in Maui under the beating sun and beside the sea in her swimsuit.
Colby’s smile grew even creepier. “I know this is what you always dreamed of.”
“Hunt’s going to be back any time now.” Her voice came out strong, a win for her.
Until Colby issued a high laugh. “No, he won’t. He’s on a search.”
Her eyes widened. All of a sudden, she realized that the call Hunt received from his friend Shane had been fake.
Colby swooped in for a kiss.
More lights panned over the front of the cabin. Her chest ignited with hope that someone was coming for her—anyone.
“That’s Hunt now!” she cried, shoving him away from her.
Colby laughed. “No, it isn’t. That’s the minister.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Fuck!” Hunt gripped the wheel so hard he feared the metal would bend beneath his hands.
He’d fallen for a trick. There was no search on. Shane had not called him.
He got as far as Tippin before realizing that Roger and the others had not contacted him, which was unusual. The group chat never went silent, especially when they were rallying for a search.
Deep down in his bones, he knew someone wanted him far away from the cabin. Away from Freya.