Snow and the Seven Men (Seven Ways to Sin 1)

I’ll call her back tomorrow and tell her I was on drugs when I called.

If something were going on, I would need more proof than an eavesdropped conversation, wouldn’t I, Nancy Drew?

Shaking my head, I rose from the toilet seat lid, feeling incredibly foolish. I chalked it up to all the turmoil I’d been through over the last days, the emotional rollercoaster I’d twisted and turned upon.

You’re looking for a distraction from the drillers and making up problems where there are none.

I knew that what I’d heard was more than my concocting things in my mind, but it wasn’t enough for me to expose a company I’d always loved.

The Vicodin was beginning to take effect, and I threw open the bathroom door. My phone clattered to the floor as I stared at a barrel of a rifle.

My eyes rose to look at Queenie in shock, and a slow, cruel smile formed on her lips. “My dear, what big eyes you have,” she jeered, adjusting the barrel, and I stepped back into the bathroom in shock.

“What the hell are you doing, Queenie?” I gasped, calling her by her last name to her face for the first time in our working relationship.

“Taking care of you once and for all,” Queenie growled, waving the barrel toward me. “Get out of there.”

“No!” I yelled, hoping to rouse Hunter from his sleep.

A look of fury crossed over her face. “Shut up!” she hissed. “Hunter can’t save you. He doesn’t care if you live or die!”

I wondered if that were true or if she was saying that to make herself feel better. After all, Hunter may not hold a candle to any of my men but he wasn’t heartless.

Not like Queenie.

“Then you won’t care if he sees what you’re doing!”

“Keep your voice down and get outside!” Queenie hissed. “Don’t make me shoot you here.”

I thought quickly, desperately and looked around for something to use as a weapon, but what could I use against a gun?

I decided to keep her talking instead. “Why are you doing this?” I demanded. “What have I ever done to you?”

“You know too much,” Queenie replied, but there was malice in her tone, which told me that she’d been planning this for a long while.

I thought about what Hunter had told me, that she was jealous of me. Could that really be the root of all this, or was Queenie just a run-of-the-mill psycho?

“I don’t know anything!” I promised. “I swear, I didn’t hear anything.”

Her mouth formed a smirk of disbelief. “You’re not even smart enough to lie well,” she spat. “Come on.”

I knew my stalling tactics were failing, and I shuffled past her, opening my mouth to scream for Hunter, but I quickly reconsidered.

What if she shot him? I’d never be able to live with myself.

“Outside,” Queenie growled. “Move faster.”

“So you’re just going to kill me in the snow? Won’t that look suspicious?”

“Not if no one ever finds your body. You have a history of hiding out, after all.”

I turned my head as we reached the doorway and gaped at her. “You can’t be serious,” I choked. “There will be a search for me, Queenie. My mom—”

“You should have thought about that before coming back here,” Queenie snarled, and I continued to stare at her uncomprehendingly.

“What are you talking about?”

“Ugh, you really are dumb. You were supposed to get caught in that storm—and die there.”

My eyes almost popped out of my head. “T-that is the most terrible plan I’ve ever heard,” I muttered before I could stop myself. “How could you guarantee that?”

“Because I poisoned your water. You were supposed to drink from it and die in the snow.”

Fear permeated my body. “Why?” I whispered. “Why do you hate me so much? What have I ever done to you?”

“Just shut up!” She hit me with the nose of the gun, and I stumbled out of the building in socked feet, stumbling through the snow, which was almost to my knees.

It was impossible to walk with my leg and the amount of snow, but Queenie didn’t seem to care.

“Keep going,” she insisted. “I need to get out somewhere remote.”

I headed toward the only place I could think of—the cabin. I had no idea if Queenie knew what direction I was going, but in my head, I was silently willing one of my men to save me again.

Just a little bit farther and I’ll see the cabin, I thought, shivering violently against the cold.

“This is far enough.”

I turned to look at her, knowing this was it, but to my shock, I saw someone in the distance running toward us.

“Amanda!” Hunter screamed after us.

She turned in shock, and I took the opportunity without pause. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that my leg hurt or that I was drowning in snow. I had to run.

I zigzagged across the snow awkwardly, each step bringing me closer to the cabin’s view, when suddenly, the shot rang out.