Chapter 6
RAVEN
The moment Connor pulls his truck in front of his cabin on the homestead and puts it into park, I reach for the handle on the door, throw it open, and leap out, slamming it behind me.
Before I can make a break for it toward Willow and Killian’s place, Connor steps out of the truck, snags my computer bag and the hastily packed backpack he forced me to bring, and stands directly between me and my escape path.
I throw up my hands. “This is your big plan? To bring me back to your cabin and keep me locked up here until you can convince me not to write my story?”
For the entire ride up the mountain, I’ve been demanding answers, some sort of explanation for why he’s literally kidnapped me and forced me to come with him, yet this infuriating lumberjack in front of me has been completely silent.
Not a grunt.
Not a growl.
Not so much as a hard fucking swallow.
The entire drive, he kept his hard gaze on the unpaved road and didn’t even glance at me.
I wouldn’t have even known he was still aware I was even in the damn truck with him if I didn’t see the ticcing of the muscle in his clenched jaw and the whitening of his knuckles on the steering wheel every time I spoke.
Connor McBride is stone cold.
I learned that a long time ago, but seeing it in action in these current circumstances has reminded me just how icy and thoughtless he can be. Right now, he seems intent on doing…whatever the hell he’s doing, whether I cooperate or not.
His massive body directly in my way confirms that he has no intention of letting me slip past him to try to find someone rational on the property who might talk him out of whatever deranged plan he’s concocted in his head.
My eyes dart toward the dark path through the trees that would lead to Killian and Willow’s, but Connor just issues a warning growl.
“We’re alone on the homestead, Raven. Killian and Liam are helping Willow and Lucky with some new installations at the shop tonight. More shelves or some shit like that. There is nowhere for you to go and no one to run to.”
Fuck.
I didn’t see Killian’s truck when we drove onto the homestead, so there’s a good chance Connor isn’t completely full of shit and just fucking with me right now.
Which means I am in big trouble.
He stalks past me without a word, up onto the porch, and opens the door to his cabin, seemingly unconcerned that I’ll make a break for it when there isn’t anyone to run to.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
There may not be anywhere to hide from Connor, but that doesn’t mean I have to make any of this easy on him.
I remain standing on the ground next to the truck, glaring at him as he tosses my bags unceremoniously onto the floor just inside his door in a way that makes me cringe. “I swear to God, if you damaged my computer…”
It’s bad enough I have the broken pieces of the voice recorder jammed in my pocket. If he fucks with my laptop, too, I will literally kill him with my bare hands.
He issues a low growl. “Get up here.”
I cross my arms over my chest, maintaining my ground and whatever dignity I still possess after being manhandled by him. “No.”
The man already managed to muscle me into his truck against my will. He’s lucky no one saw him, otherwise Tony might be up here trying to intervene, but it looks like I’m on my own until one of the McBrides returns home, hears us arguing, and comes to my rescue.
He raises a brow. “No? So, you want to do this the hard way.”
I throw up my hands. “I don’t want to do this at all.”
A sneer curls his lips. “Well, you don’t have a fucking choice, Raven.”
He stalks back down the porch steps, drops his shoulder, and throws me over it, clamping his thickly muscled arm around the back of my thighs.
“Hey!” I yelp and pound at his back. “Put me down!”
“Absolutely fucking not.”
“What are you doing?”
He can’t seriously think there’s any way I am going to stay in his cabin willingly, and he isn’t unhinged enough to tie me up.
Is he?
He stalks back up the porch steps into his place and kicks the door closed, then sets me on my feet. “Grabbing some things. And I don’t trust you out there alone for one second.”
Because he knows damn well I would run.
There might not be anyone else on the homestead at the moment, but there are plenty of places to hide and weapons to be found.
But his words fully register, bringing on a whole new level of panic.
If he was going to keep me here in the cabin, he wouldn’t need to “grab” anything.
Bile climbs my throat.
Where is he taking me?
“Connor, what the fuck are you planning?”
He scowls and goes to a small door on the far wall, tugs it open, and grabs a heavy-looking hiking backpack from the floor.
“What is that?”
“My go bag.”
“Your what?”
Connor doesn’t respond, just throws it over his shoulders, then walks over to another cabinet and grabs a handgun, which he slides into his waistband.
“What the hell do you need that for?”
His head whips toward me. “Do you really have to ask that?”
Ice travels through my veins that matches the frosty look in his eyes.
It’s gone just as quickly, though, and he walks over to me and glances down at my bags on the floor. “Are you going to make me carry you and these?”
“Carry me where?” It never crossed my mind that we might be going anywhere but here, that this wasn’t our final destination. “Where are you taking me?”
That stubbled jaw of his hardens. “Away from here.”
A growl of frustration rips from my throat, and I stomp my foot. “That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I’m giving you.” He raises a dark brow. “So, are we doing this the easy way or the hard way?”
I gape at him.
Is this actually happening?
“Jesus Christ, you’re a lunatic…”
He offers a tight smile. “Probably, but that isn’t an answer to my question.”
I scowl at him.
Some part of me would take really intense pleasure in making him carry me, the backpacks, and my computer bag to wherever we’re going, but I don’t want this man’s hands on me again.
Definitely not.
I huff. “At least let me talk to Willow before we go.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “It’s just you and me. It’s how it has to be. So, easy way or hard way?”
I release an annoyed breath.
Connor isn’t going to budge.
Not a centimeter, not an inch.
Whatever he’s thinking, whatever he’s planning, it is going to happen one way or another, and I’m just along for the fucking ride, whether I want to be or not.
“The easy way”—I point a finger at him—“because you don’t ever touch me.”
He issues a dark chuckle. “Believe me, Raven, the last thing I want is to touch you.”
I flinch as he stalks past me and tugs open the door, then glances back.
“Grab your shit.” His eyes dart down to my feet. “I hope those are good hiking boots.”
“Hiking?” I grab my bags and scramble after him as he steps onto the porch just as the night reaches its darkest point and the stars start to come out above the mountain. “Connor, it’s the middle of the fucking night and I don’t hike. Not even in the daylight. You know this.”
“Yeah.” He peers over his shoulder at me. “I also know that you have zero regard for your life.”
“Excuse me?”
He trudges down the steps, but instead of making his way toward the truck, he starts to move around to the side of the cabin.
“Where are you going?” I follow him. “Connor! Answer me!”
This is getting really old, really fast.
Whatever he thinks he’s doing, keeping me in the dark about it isn’t going to get him any cooperation from me.
He whirls to face me, anger etching lines across his handsome face. “If I told you where we were going, that would defeat the entire fucking purpose!”
I recoil slightly. “Which is what?”
“To keep you safe.”
My footsteps falter. “What?”
His chest heaves, anger making the little lines around his eyes even deeper. “You’re trying to unleash a story that’s going to put a target in the middle of your fucking back.”
“And you think you can stop me?”
He scowls but doesn’t answer, just turns and keeps stalking toward the treeline.
“Connor!”
With my backpack over my shoulders and my computer bag draped over the right one, I follow him into the dark woods.
I’m barely able to see in front of me more than a few steps, but I can make out a narrow trail that he must have walked enough that the branches don’t hang over it too low and the leaves beneath our feet are pounded down somewhat. “Where are we going?”
Again, silence.
Just the sound of our boots slamming against the ground and the night animals rustling in the trees around us. Until Connor finally stops at a small opening in the trees where an ATV sits.
“We’ll take this as far as we can, but the rest of the way is on foot.”
“You are serious…”
Part of me prayed that this was all an act on his part to try to scare me into killing the story. Deep down, that tiny flame of hope that he would end this game and let me go flickers out.
“I am.” He tosses his bag on the back of the small vehicle, then comes over and grabs mine, jerking them off my shoulders and again, tossing them unceremoniously into the back. “Get in and buckle up.”
“And if I say no?”
He crowds my space, making me back into the frame until my head bumps the roof.
“I’ve already proven to you what I’m willing to do to accomplish my goal tonight, Raven.
If I have to bind your hands and feet to make you stop fighting and get you into this thing, I will.
Or I guess I can just strap you to the fucking roof. ”
I gape at him. “You wouldn’t!”
A sinister grin pulls at his lips. “Try me, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that.”
He scoffs. “Believe me, it wasn’t a compliment or a term of endearment. Now, get in.”
I hate him.
That might not even be a strong enough word.
Loathe.
That’s stronger than hate.
And I truly loathe Connor McBride for what he’s doing right now.
He stalks around to the driver’s side, turns the key, and waits as I debate my options. I can feel his eyes on my back, but I refuse to turn and look at him, to give him any satisfaction in knowing I’m trapped.
Because he’s right.
There is no one else on the homestead.