Lumberjacked (A Holiday Lumberjack Mountain Man Romance) - K.C. Crowne Page 0,73

would have hunted you down and killed you, too. You’re innocent and pure. That’s his favorite.”

My stomach twisted with disgust. “He never hurt me,” I said in a hoarse voice.

“No, he didn’t,” Maksim agreed.

He lifted his hand as if to caress my cheek. I tried to yank my head away, but I couldn’t crank my neck any further. Maksim touched my cheek and I felt instantly dirty. Maybe he wasn’t Viktor, maybe he had been betrayed by his best friend, but that didn’t necessarily make him a good guy. I wanted to get as far away from him as possible.

“He tricks them, you see,” he murmured. “He takes the time to make people trust him. And then, when it’s far too late, he strikes.”

“Viktor would never hurt me,” I said stubbornly.

Maksim lifted on shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. “Believe what you will, Angela. You know best.” He walked away from me, returning to the table to look at the screens. The guy with the crutch glanced over his shoulder. Aleks continued to ignore me.

What if what Maksim had said about Viktor was true? What if I’d narrowly escaped with my life? But it didn’t make sense. I hadn’t had a bad feeling about Viktor. I’d been unsure about Aleks. And I had a terrible feeling about Maksim since the moment I’d seen him. And if Viktor was the bad guy, how could that make these guys good? If they really were that good, if they were trying to save my life, why was I tied up in a chair rather than being kept safely? And why couldn’t I leave?

I thought about Viktor and the way he’d insisted I stay at the cabin, that it was too dangerous to head into the woods. I hadn’t understood. Half the time, I’d thought he was talking about the weather. But what if t was about all of this?

What if the danger had been him? No, that didn’t make sense. None of it did. The heroes didn’t kidnap damsels in distress, they saved them.

I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. I didn’t know what to believe. All I knew for a fact was that Maksim was dangerous and I wasn’t any safer with him than I had been with Viktor.

Viktor

The sun was starting to set and I was getting ready to leave. I had decided to wait until sunset before I headed for Grizzly Falls. It was better for me to travel at night, better to not be seen. If Maksim and his men were around, they would be looking for me. Moving through the forest in the darkness would make it easier to get around unnoticed.

I knew they couldn’t track me. I didn’t have the chip in my arm anymore – I hadn’t had it for years.

I didn’t doubt they were tracking her phone, though. It was how they had found me in the first place. And if they knew I still had it, they would lock onto it and know exactly where I was. So the phone was staying in the cabin. I hoped they thought I was staying put.

I pulled on a black jacket. I wore all black tonight. I hadn’t dressed like this in a long, long time. It brought back a bitter taste at the back of my throat. But I wasn’t heading out into the night to kill someone unless it was Maksim or one of his dirty fuckers. My biggest mission was to make sure Angela was safe. After that, it would be simpler. I would track down Maksim and slit his throat so I could live in peace.

My satellite phone rang, and I jumped. I’d been lost in thoughts of revenge and hadn’t heard the shrill sound for so long, I’d almost forgotten what the damn phone sounded like. I’d brought my satellite equipment into the cabin so I could monitor the area at all times. It was no coincidence that the phone was ringing.

“Maksim,” I growled into the phone when I answered. No one else would know to reach me on this.

“Viktor, you don’t sound happy to hear from an old friend,” Maksim said, his voice mirthful.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“It’s been a long time, my friend.”

“We are not friends,” I spat.

“Well, in that case, I guess you do know what I want, don’t you?”

I didn’t answer him. I wasn’t playing his games. Maksim loved bantering back and forth, using careful wordplay, making it seem like everyone was friends while mocking them