“What?” They came rushing over, each placing a hand on her lower back. A tingle ran through her where they touched her; it was soothing.
“Did I ask you to do this to me?” She choked the words out.
“Oh, hell fucking no,” the, as yet, unnamed man yelled out, clearly insulted she even asked.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as tears threatened to fall.
“Don’t be sorry, Snow. Better to know than not to,” Ace told her reasonably.
“You keep calling me Snow. Why?” She had to distract her mind. Too many emotions were clawing their way to the surface, and she wasn’t ready to face facts just yet.
They were quiet for a moment before Ace spoke again. “We had to call you something.” Made sense. “And we found you in the snow.”
“You did?” Confusion drew her brows together as she looked between them.
The broody guy answered her. “Two days ago. We were clearing the mountain of hikers when Roxie spotted you. There was a blood trail leading to where you were dumped.”
Her blood ran cold, and she felt all color drain from her face. Dumped. She was dumped. In the mountains. Like garbage.
Plopping down in the seat in front of her, she felt numb. “Christ, Nick, did you have to be so blunt,” Ace reprimanded. At least, she knew his name now.
They bickered back and forth, but she didn’t hear a word of what they said. Her mind reeled with this new information. How could she mean so little as a person that someone would discard her like a pi
ece of trash?
A hand on her shouldered startled her, and she yelped as pain radiated from her ribs when she jumped.
“Sorry,” Nick whispered, hands raised as he took a step back.
“It’s okay, really.”
“How about we eat and figure the rest out after. Sound good?”
Nodding at him, he followed Ace around the island to sit across from her. The soup smelt delicious, but she didn’t taste a thing. Her eyes remained on the floating noodles and vegetables as she spooned each mouthful.
“Two days,” she whispered. “Someone must have hated me.” It was a sad thought. Was she the type of person you could hate on sight? Could it have been that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Suddenly tired, she murmured her thanks as she stood to go back to the other room. Tears silently streamed down her face as she curled up in a ball in the middle of the bed, Roxie at her feet.
At least, the dog liked her.
The pain in her dark green eyes sucked the life from Ace’s lungs as she walked away. Things weren’t going quite as he had imagined when she woke up. He was hoping she’d have retained her memory. As it was, he didn’t think she did. Certainly, not about what caused her to be left for dead.
The horror written across her face when she suggested she might have wanted to be beaten was nearly enough to knock the wind from him. He wondered if, perhaps, pain was something she was into. If that’s what she did like.
“Shit,” Nick cursed, slamming dishes into the dishwasher. He echoed the man’s sentiments.
“What are you thinking?” If Ace knew anything about his cousin, it was that he was always strategizing. Formulating a plan.
“She obviously has no idea what happened to her,” Nick thought aloud. “I have to wonder about before. If she remembers anything. We also need to get a photo of her to dispatch so they can begin a search.” They had to find out who she was and where she was from.
“Someone left her for dead, Nick. If we broadcast that she’s been found, who knows what will happen?” Fuck did that thought terrify him.
“And if she has family looking for her?” Reasonable fucker.
“Then we look for them.” He couldn’t bring himself to budge on this one thing. “We can find out who she is, where they are, and what happened to her without anyone knowing. Maybe someone in her family did this to her?” Scary thought.
“Until the storm passes, we’ll keep this under wraps. Deal?”