Stranded but not Alone (Midnight Moanings Collection) Read Free Page B

cell, I suggest trying for a signal. Let’s check out the little shanty back in the woods… see if it’s dry. We can stay there.”
    “We?” Simone groaned, pushing off on her thighs to stand. “Why don’t I stay here? If anyone heard the van hit the valley, they’ll see the tracks coming down the mountain. They’ll come for us.”
    “Here,” he said, handing her his cell. “I’ll run up to the house, check it out while you keep trying for a signal. Come get me if you see anything.”
    She waved her phone through the air to pick up a signal. “Hard to believe there aren’t any cell towers up here—this being a touristy area,” she said before he slipped into the woods.
    He called over his shoulder, “Most tourists come for the mountains, not for the cell reception, miss.”
    “You don’t have to...” she started to say, but a muffled explosion rocked the cold mountain air, sending her stumbling forward. Together they bolted to the crumbling edge. She closed a hand over her mouth as the sight of the flames dancing around the tour van burned into her mind. They were too far up to make out any movement, but she knew they were dead. No one could have survived that blast.
    His embrace came just as she closed her eyes and shook her head. His hard jaw pressed down on the top of her knit cap. The clean scent of man wrapped around her. Scraping her booted foot in the soft earth, she ached for those people and their families they’ll never return to.
    Minutes passed. Cold air blew across her face as he stepped away from her, angling her toward the woods. “There’s nothing we could have done for them, Simone,” he acknowledged. “If no one comes for them after that explosion, no one will come for us up here, either, because they don’t know we’re up here.”
    “What about the other tourists up here? I’m sure they heard it.”
    “What other tourists? The hotel is miles from here. Why do you think we left so early this morning?”
    “How far are we from the cabin?” She scrubbed her hands over her jeans while eyeing their surroundings.
    “On foot… seven, eight hours. In good weather. This is just a stretch of bare mountain. It’s a family that owns the cabin, not the hotel. They’ll most likely have a tower up there.”
    “We’re not scheduled to go back for another day. We’re stuck,” she said. From the tight set of his shoulders and the way he kept scrubbing his dark eyebrows, she could almost feel the wheels in his mind spinning He had something other than those lives lost and being stranded on his mind. He was mumbling something incoherently in German or Russian, she wasn‘t certain which. Seth turned those wicked blue eyes to her. He must have noticed her confusion.
    “It’s useless looking for a signal until we get further down the mountain,” Seth remarked, stepping away from the carnage.
    “I’m not the best at accents. Are you from Austria?”
    “Miss Daniels, here in Europe, Americans have the accent, and I’m from Russia.”
    “I stand corrected,” she said. “Where are we going? Not the shanty, I hope.” She pivoted around, taking in her surroundings. It was a beautiful place, just wish she weren’t stranded there with a stranger.
    “You’re welcome to join me,” he said. The heavy clouds overhead left her with few options on how to answer that offer.
    “It’s a pile of rocks, Mr. Dragoslava,” she said, peering around for something sturdier. “Does someone live up there?”
    She stopped talking as his eyes slowly moved over her face, much too intimate for a stranger to be looking at her. She couldn’t pull her attention from his crooked mouth and the way he held it slightly parted. His head tipped it at an angle the closer his face came to hers. Would he try to kiss her? She felt like things were happening in slow motion seeing his hand come up between them. Tension thick. She slid her tongue out, wetting her drying lips and cursing herself for her bad timing.