4. Emile
CHAPTER 4
Emile
I swing the ax again, grunting with the effort. Sweat drips from my brow and down onto my shirt and I growl under my breath when the cooling sweat makes my shirt stick to my body.
“Fuck this shit,” I snarl and rip the shirt off over my head, shivering when the air hits my warm skin. But after a few more swings of the ax, I barely feel the cool air anymore. The sweat continues to drip down my chest and splatter on my arms until I’m a sopping wet mess of disgusting man odor but it doesn’t stop me.
I need the wood to keep my little cabin warm for the winter. Oh sure, I could buy it. But that’s not what I’m here for. I forage for my food for the most part, hunting and trapping to eat. Anything I feel like I can’t use, I sell it to put a little money away for a rainy day.
I have a greenhouse that has a stock of vegetables and even some strawberry plants and a potted apple tree. Everything is something that I can use to sustain myself and keep from having to go anywhere near people. I don’t have anything to say to anybody out there so it’s just me and the wind around here. I don’t even have a cell phone. Too much trouble. If someone needs to get a message to me, either send a letter or use the sat phone which I have strictly for emergencies. Some people even choose to drop by. Like if they need help tracking someone who’s missing. The bed and breakfast that’s a little ways down the mountain sometimes pays me to go hunt up one of their guests if they get lost. I’m the best in these parts so it makes sense to hire the best.
The peace and quiet is what I’m craving. Being alone fills a need that I never thought I’d have to just disappear from the face of the earth. But after all the people I worked with giving me sympathetic looks and the pats on the back when I made it back after my run and it had already gotten around that the bitch had cleaned me out to take care of her little man whore, I found myself the object of a shitload of pity that I didn’t want. Pity that made it actually fucking hurt to even go into work. To see all those people staring and talking behind their hands and know that it was probably about me. That they all felt so damn sorry for the dumbass sap that couldn’t manage to keep his woman happy.
Ugh. Fucking annoying.
I stop and wipe my hand across my brow, eyes going up to the sky. There’s barely a sliver of sun left and it looks like there’s a storm moving in. There’s only about thirty minutes of daylight left but it looks like the storm is going to hit before that. We don’t get a lot of them but when we do, they can be real doozies.
I hear a vehicle coming and shade my eyes with my hand, grunting when I see the head guide from the bed and breakfast on Carter Creek.
Pacing up to his SUV when he stops, I grunt a greeting. He jumps out and runs up to me, slapping my hand. “Hey man! Thank fuck you’re here. I’ve got a real problem and I think you’re about the only one that can handle it.”
“What’s wrong?” I grunt, hoping that it isn’t what I think it is. I’m not in the mood to get soaking wet tonight looking for a lost tourist from the inn.
No such luck though. “One of our guests got lost when we were out on our hike today. I don’t even know how it happened because I was trying to keep an eye on her but she just kept ducking out of sight until I realized that I hadn’t seen her for quite awhile. By then it must have been at least an hour. So we backtracked and tried to pick up her trail but it looks like she wandered completely off the trail for some reason.”
“Right,” I sigh and grab my shirt from the ground, throwing it on and stalking back to my cabin. “I’ll take my sat phone with me and let you know if I find her. Send me the GPS coordinates for where you were when you figured out she was lost and the trail that you were on. But with the storm moving in the way that it is, we may have to hunker down someplace unpleasant for awhile.”
He nods his dark head at me. “Just do your best to find her and please…when you do, take good care of her.”
I eye him as I pause on the steps. “She your girl or something?”
He flushes and his eyes light up. “Not yet but I wish. I think she might be a bit older than me and she’s skittish. Pretty though and smart. American.”
Grimacing, I sigh again, running my hand over the short-cropped sides of my dark hair. “Of course she is.”
Only an American would wander way off the trail to do something asinine. She probably was trying to take the perfect selfie with her damn phone and fell over a fucking cliff.
“I’ll let you know when I find her.”
“Thank you, man. I haven’t even been back yet. I called one of the other guides to come get the rest of them and take them back and I’ve been searching for her, calling for her but I just can’t find her.”
“I’ll find her but do me a favor and go back to the inn. I don’t want to be searching for two people tonight.”
“You got it,” he says with a smirk and for some reason, even though I usually like the guy…I really want to punch him. Weird.
I grab my go bag that I keep in the closet by the door, ready to head out on a moment’s notice in an emergency. Like a stupid lost hiker.
With one quick look around to make sure that I’ve got everything secure, I throw my pack on my back and slam the damn door behind me.
Lord save me from foolish women that can’t stay with a big fucking group of people to save their lives.
Lightning cracks overhead as I stalk into the woods and I pull my slicker over my head just in time. The promised rain sheets down on me and it’s like I’m sucking in water every time I take a breath of frosty air.
Rolling my eyes, I grumble under my breath. “Perfect. Just fucking perfect.”
Pulling out my phone and the information I asked for, I stalk down the path, my eyes on the trail, searching for anything out of place. Anything that’s been disturbed by something bigger than a damn rabbit.
Up and down the trail, I search, my eyes getting more and more tired, my body slumping as I feel more and more of my forty-three years catching up with me.
“I’m gettin’ too old for this shit,” I mumble.
But I keep searching and after three hours, I find what I think might be my first sign of her.
But if it’s her, she’s way off the trail and heading straight up the damn mountain.
Another hour and I’m almost positive it’s her. The only problem is that the rain has been a fucking deluge for hours now and the trails are washing out. The ground is saturated and I’m struggling to keep on my feet. I can only guess how she’s doing now.
At one point, I realize that I must be catching up to her since I find a small boot print that must be her and it’s not washed away completely yet.
“Lizzie! Are you here? Where are you? I’m here to help you! George sent me!” I’m hoping she at least recognizes the guide’s name and comes out of hiding.
Nothing. I stop for a second and there’s no sound but the wind whipping over me and the rush of the nearby creek leading up into the lake that Carter Creek is fed by further up the mountain.
Slipping and falling to my knees as I make a quick move, I jerk upwards again and struggle to my feet, wincing as I feel a sharp sting in my ankle.
“Fucking hell. Just what I don’t need.” If it’s a sprain it’s a slight one. I just need to be careful and get it wrapped as soon as I can.
My head jerks up when there’s a sharp crack and a shrill scream ahead of me.
“Shit!” I holler and wincing, I race as fast as I can up the steep incline, praying that I don’t have to take a body back. I’ve had to do that and I hate it.
“Dammit!” I hear a sharp holler and a smile curls my lips.
“Well she ain’t dead yet,” I say, smiling. There’s something about her voice that makes me shiver and I push that thought aside. She’s as good as taken if George wants her and with my past, there’s no way in hell I’d touch another man’s woman.
Besides, I’m just not interested. I’ve got my total freedom at this point. The bitch can’t even bother me anymore and I’m free and clear and I’m keeping it that way.
All those thoughts go through my mind until I finally find her and my heart almost stops in my chest. She’s beautiful. Even covered in mud and with her hair slicked back to her head like a wet seal she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Her hair is wet and dark, her skin is like pure white snow at the top of the mountain. Her eyes. Well, I can’t see her eyes because she’s got tinted glasses on. Which makes no sense. It’s not bright out. Only idiots wear sunglasses at night.
But if she’s an idiot, I’m okay with that. Her jeans are plastered darkly to her thick thighs and legs and she’s got these tiny boots on that look like they’re not even half my size. She’s wearing a flannel shirt that’s stuck to her like wrapping paper and shows off all of her curves. Big breasts, dipped-in waist and all.
She sees me standing there where she’s balancing on a rock and swinging a stick at something and it’s all I can do not to let my jaw drop to the ground.
“Can you do something about this?” She hollers and I shake my head, dazed.
Glancing down, I see a little puppy yapping and jumping at her and I smirk. “Is it yours?”
She shoots me a glare, taking off the glasses and squinting at me. “Would I be standing on this if that was my dog?”
Cocking my head and crossing my arms, I grin. “I don’t honestly know. Women are a mystery to me. And not one I usually want to read.”
“Humph! Why does that not surprise me? A little help here!” She hollers as the little pup keeps jumping up at her.
I stalk up and catch the little bugger as he attempts to get to her yet again. He grunts and then wiggles ecstatically, jumping all over me and licking me until I feel like he’s washed off most of the rain water.
“Why exactly are you trying to avoid this little guy? He seems friendly.”
“Too friendly. He’s been following me since he caught me with my pants down going to the bathroom and wouldn’t leave.”
I study the little guy and smirk at his grin. “I don’t blame you,” I whisper to him, watching the little minx climb down off the rock.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. Are you Lizzie Montgomery?”
She nods, sniffling. “Yeah. I am. Who are you?”
“Emile. The Bed and Breakfast sent me to find you.” I glance up at the sky and then down to the washed-out trail. “I’d like to get out of here but I have a feeling that it’s all washed-out down the trail and we’re stuck until the rain stops and it dries out a little.”
She pales. “Shoot.”
I almost smile yet again. I don’t know any adults that say shoot. It’s a little cute and adorable and I don’t fucking like cute and adorable. Except apparently on her.
“Yeah. Let’s go up a little bit. I’ve got a little shack that I use up the mountain when I’m out hunting and I get stuck.”
“Does it have a fire?” She cocks her head and I see her eyes are a pure hazel color, green and gold and brown all mixed up together. Like a shimmery crystal.
“It does.”
“Lead on. I desperately need to get warm.”
“You and me both,” I whisper, but I’m thinking about wrapping her around me and then fucking her into a bearskin rug.
Swearing under my breath, I push that thought out of my head. She’s taken. Get over it.
And you don’t want a damn woman. Right?
I’m just not sure my body’s getting the same memo my brain is.
But it better. Because I don’t need the hassle that any woman…let alone this one will bring me.