‘Did you call out a recovery truck?’ he asked gruffly.
Kitty shook her head. ‘I couldn’t get any reception.’ She waved her phone at him as if to prove her point.
‘Where are you headed?’ he asked. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have sworn he’d rolled his eyes.
‘To a place near Cutler’s Gap.’
The stranger inclined his head at the truck. ‘Jump in, I’m headed that way myself.’
Kitty paused, trying to work out if that was a good idea. Seeing her hesitation, he sighed loudly. ‘Listen, lady, it’s been a long day and I just want to go home and drink a beer in front of my fire. You can get in the truck and I’ll take you wherever you need to go, or you can stand right here in your wet clothes and pretty shoes and let yourself freeze to death. The choice is yours. Either way, I’m getting in and I’m driving home, and I won’t be coming back.’
He slung the leather gun strap over his shoulder and bent down next to the deer, lifting its body with ease. Carrying it across the road, he laid it gently in the flatbed of his truck. He didn’t look back at Kitty, but simply walked around to the front of the vehicle and pulled open the driver’s side door, putting the rifle on the back seat. He was sitting down behind the wheel by the time she realised he really meant it. He was planning to start up the engine and leave without her.
Running in her stupid shoes, Kitty reached the truck as he turned the ignition. Breathless, she yanked the door open and climbed onto the worn-out seat beside him.
Without a word, he put his foot on the accelerator, slowly pulling away from the scene of the accident. His mouth was set in a grim line, his eyes narrowed and piercing.
Welcome to Cutler’s Gap. Home of Dead Deer and Sexy Bearded Assholes.
4
Now is the winter of our discontent
– Richard III
Adam stared out of the windscreen, concentrating on the road ahead while trying to ignore the girl shivering quietly beside him. She was British – he’d guessed enough from her accent – but apart from that he had no idea how she’d ended up stranded on the mountain road. Or why she was heading for Cutler’s Gap, for that matter. Glancing to his right, he caught sight of her soaking jeans clinging to her thighs, trying not to notice the way they were slim and lithe. The ridiculous brown suede shoes she’d been sliding all over the road in, cute yet completely inappropriate, were dripping water on the floor of his truck.
There weren’t a whole lot of pretty girls in Cutler’s Gap. Wasn’t a whole lot of anything, really.
‘What’s your name?’ he asked, to kill the silence as much as anything else.
‘Kitty,’ she replied. Her voice was hoarse and low, like a winter wind.
‘What’s your business in Cutler’s Gap, Kitty?’
Adam glanced at her thighs again – he couldn’t help himself. It had been a long time since he’d seen legs as shapely as hers. Jeez, he needed to get some control. The last thing he wanted was to show any interest in a vapid blonde. He’d met enough of those when he’d been in LA, and they’d all been the same: giggly, friendly and hardly a brain cell between them.
She must have noticed his scrutiny, wriggling in her seat to inch away from him.
To his satisfaction, she had no luck.
‘I’m here for a job,’ she finally replied.
Adam laughed, short and sharp. ‘No offence, ma’am, but that’s a crock of shit. There’s no work in Cutler’s Gap. None that I’m aware of, anyway.’
Kitty turned to look at him, lips thin with anger. ‘Are you calling me a liar?’
The girl was pretty in that overly processed Californ-i-a kind of way. If it wasn’t for her clipped accent he might have described her as All-American, but her streaked blonde hair and light tan obviously came from a bottle. Sitting there with her thin jacket and tight jeans, she was the kind of sexy little thing he used to have a thing for.
Now, of course, he knew better. He just needed to remind his body of that.
‘No, ma’am, I’m not calling you a liar, I’m telling you there are no businesses here. No mines, no mills, only a few run-down houses and a convenience store, plus a bar that’s seen better days.’
That was no exaggeration, either. One of the things Adam loved best about Cutler’s Gap was the fact that nothing changed. No one came, no one went, and nobody wanted to know his business.
Well, almost nobody.
‘I’m not coming to work in a mill,’ Kitty said, her nose wrinkling with disdain. ‘I’m a nanny, if you really want to know, and I’m here to take care of a kid.’