Chapter 3 - The Cabin Was Never Safe Again
Luca wanted me gone before sunrise.
Not from my cabin.
From Colorado.
I refused.
He stared at me.
“You don’t understand the situation.”
“You people say that constantly.”
“Nora.”
“This is my house.”
“Adrian has men searching for you.”
“Then tell them to stop.”
Rafael actually closed his eyes.
Luca leaned back against the couch.
“You think I can call the brother who shot me and politely ask him not to inconvenience you?”
“It would be a start.”
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’ve been told.”
That last sentence carried more history than I intended.
Luca noticed.
He noticed everything.
“Who told you?”
“Not relevant.”
“Probably.”
I hated how easily he read tone.
Rafael interrupted.
“We need to move.”
This time, I knew he was right.
Knowing did not make me cooperative.
I packed one bag.
Laptop.
Medical kit.
Two sweaters.
Jeans.
My mother’s photograph.
Then I stopped.
Mother.
Not biological.
But that distinction never mattered to me.
She died four years earlier.
My father six years before that.
The cabin had belonged to them.
Every board.
Every scar on the kitchen table.
Every ridiculous cabinet handle my father installed because he refused to admit he bought the wrong size.
Leaving felt like surrendering them.
Luca appeared in the doorway.
He had no business standing.
He looked terrible.
“Sit down.”
“No.”
“You have two bullet wounds.”
“I’m aware.”
I threw a sweater into the bag.
“You enjoy saying that.”
“You’re angry.”
“Brilliant.”
“At me?”
“At everyone.”
He leaned against the doorway.
“I’m sorry.”
I stopped.
“For what?”
“This.”
I looked around.
“You didn’t tell your brother to shoot you.”
“No.”
“You didn’t tell him to find me.”
“No.”
“Then stop apologizing for things you didn’t choose.”
His eyes stayed on mine.
Something shifted.
“Is that advice you follow?”
I went still.
“No.”
He understood.
Neither of us said more.
We left at 6:15.
Rafael drove.
Luca sat beside him.
I sat in the back.
Two vehicles followed.
Snow covered the mountain road.
For forty minutes, nobody spoke.
Then the lead vehicle ahead of us stopped.
Rafael cursed.
“What?”
The driver pointed.
A truck blocked the road.
Abandoned.
Luca’s entire body changed.
The wounded man disappeared.
The boss returned.
“Reverse.”
Rafael did not question him.
Our SUV moved backward.
Too late.
A tree fell behind us.
Not naturally.
Cut.
The second vehicle stopped hard.
Men appeared through the woods.
Gunfire cracked.
I dropped.
Luca reached over the seat and shoved me beneath the window line.
“Stay down.”
“You’re injured.”
“I noticed.”
“Not funny anymore.”
“It was never funny.”
Rafael returned fire.
The windshield cracked.
Someone shouted.
Then the driver accelerated toward the shoulder.
“What are you doing?” I yelled.
“Trust me.”
“I met you yesterday!”
“Fair.”
The SUV left the road.
We crashed through brush.
Down a short slope.
Back onto an old service track.
Gunfire faded behind us.
My hands shook.
Luca looked at me.
“You hit?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
He touched my face.
Blood.
I had cut my cheek on something.
His thumb stopped beneath it.
For one strange second, the entire world became his eyes.
Then Rafael shouted:
“We have company.”
Headlights appeared behind us.
One SUV.
Closing fast.
Luca took a handgun from the console.
I stared.
“You were keeping that there?”
“My life is complicated.”
“That word is doing a lot of work.”
The pursuing vehicle moved closer.
Luca lowered the window.
I grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“What?”
“You can barely sit upright.”
“I can shoot.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
The SUV rammed us.
Our vehicle fishtailed.
Rafael fought the wheel.
Another impact.
I looked ahead.
The service road curved along a frozen creek.
A narrow bridge.
I knew it.
“Turn left before the bridge.”
Rafael glanced back.
“There’s no road.”
“Yes, there is.”
“I don’t see it.”
“Exactly.”
Thirty feet before the bridge, an old logging trail disappeared beneath snow.
My father used it.
Almost no one else knew it existed.
Rafael turned.
Branches slammed against the SUV.
The pursuing car overshot.
By the time they reversed, we were gone beneath the trees.
Five miles later, we stopped at an abandoned ranger station.
Everyone breathed again.
Luca looked at me.
“You just saved me twice.”
“Don’t make it a habit.”
He smiled.
Fully this time.
That was a mistake.
His face changed when he smiled.
Less dangerous.
More human.
I did not want to notice.
Rafael walked outside to contact the other vehicles.
I checked Luca’s bandage.
Blood had soaked through.
“You reopened it.”
“I’ll survive.”
“Your confidence is medically irritating.”
He watched my hands.
“Why did you come here?”
“To Colorado?”
“To the mountain.”
I kept working.
“My parents died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.”
“That isn’t the whole answer.”
I looked up.
“You’re nosy.”
“I manage people.”
“That explains nothing.”
“It explains everything.”
I taped the fresh dressing.
“Seven years ago, I married someone.”
Luca said nothing.
“He was charming. Successful. Everyone loved him.”
My fingers slowed.
“Then he started deciding who I could see.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“What I could wear. Where I could work.”
“Nora.”
“I stayed too long.”
His jaw tightened.
“Did he hurt you?”
“Yes.”
One word.
Enough.
“I left.”
“Where is he now?”
The tone changed.
Cold.
Controlled.
I looked at him.
“No.”
“No what?”
“You don’t get to solve that.”
“I didn’t say I would.”
“Your face did.”
He actually looked offended.
Then conceded:
“Fair.”
I zipped the medical kit.
“I moved here because the mountain never asked me to become smaller.”
Luca looked toward the window.
“I understand that.”
I almost asked why.
Then Rafael rushed inside.
“Boss.”
Luca turned.
“We intercepted a call.”
“From?”
“Adrian.”
“And?”
Rafael looked at me.
Luca noticed.
“Say it.”
Rafael hesitated.
“He ordered the cabin burned.”
My stomach dropped.
Luca became completely still.
“With her inside?”
Rafael nodded.
Luca looked toward the snowy mountains.
May you like
When he spoke, his voice was quieter than I had ever heard it.
“My brother just made this personal.”
