Up to Snow Good - Kelly Collins Page 0,35

lean on faith or maybe hope.”

“I suppose as long as you know I love you, and we’re standing together, there’s nothing she can do to us. As far as my father’s concerned, he’s formidable. No one goes against him and wins.” He chuckled. “Not true, because I did.”

“Yes, you did,” she said with a sexy wisp in her voice. “You did it for me. You can’t know what that means to me, Max.”

Walking away from the woman of his dreams, the girl he’d loved all his life, made the thought of submitting to his father’s business schemes impossible. The vision of himself seated with his father in that smoke-filled study was a sickening sight compared to walking into that lodge each day to see Lauren.

They kissed, and Max could feel the power of her gratitude, and the urgency of her growing need for him. Their love was swelling to consume them both. Whatever else they were facing, their strength grew within them and between them to make them stronger. Though the mountains were still barren, the ski lifts long closed, there was a sense of possibility at the lodge—the possibility of them.

A scream shot through the air and through Max’s body, making the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. He and Lauren shared a frightened expression before they turned to bolt across the room.

They ran out to the backyard of the property just as Patrick and Cindy came running from the stables.

“Cougar,” Patrick said, “big one, coming at the horses.”

There was no time to go back to the house. Max realized that if there were guns at the lodge, he had no idea where they were. The horses were at risk, and word of such an attack would be the final nail in the lodge’s coffin.

He shouted, “Wait here,” before running toward the stable, already knowing that Lauren would be fast on his heels.

He ran up to see the horses bucking, and a big cougar hissing and swiping its extended claws. It flashed white fangs, and pink gums, and turned its attention to Max and Lauren. Patrick and Cindy stood in fear behind them.

Lauren ducked to a corner of the stable, grabbing a pitchfork and called to Max. He turned just as she tossed him the tool. Caught in the air, he spun it around as the cat lunged. He forced it back with those four sharp prongs. He wasn’t trying to kill the beast, but he had no choice but to repel it and prevent it from attacking Lauren and her staff.

The animal was riled, no doubt a prisoner of its own natural instincts to fight, and hunt, and kill.

The cat swiped, its claws catching the pitchfork and almost pulling it free of Max’s grip. A cat that size had incredible strength and would do damage to any of the lodge’s horses or guests.

Lauren ducked back as the horses became more agitated, shaking their heads, rearing, and clopping their hooves. Max had no choice, throwing himself forward at the deadly cat, feeling those four prongs pressing against the thick hide and reedy muscles. The animal cried out and bolted but got trapped under the hooves of an agitated horse. The hunter had become the prey and the unlikely victor, Speckles the mare.

Death had returned to the lodge, and what the ramifications would be, neither Max nor Lauren could know for sure. Word would get out and much sooner rather than later.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lauren

Lauren’s body shook uncontrollably. The fight with the big cat had come out of nowhere and ended horribly. It was almost impossible for her not to take it as a sign—a bad sign.

“We can’t have a winter village attraction with big predators running around like that.”

Max shrugged. “It’s the season, global warming; it’s too hot, and there’s too much competition on the mountain for food.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that, but I can’t lure my friends and neighbors or anybody else here just to serve them up as a hot lunch!”

“It could be a fluke,” Max said. “He was a lone predator staking out his territory. It’s been so quiet here lately, but with the winter village, the place will be packed, and that’s way too much activity for something like that to happen again.”

She wanted to agree, but the sight of that animal, and knowing how powerful it was, how dangerous it could be, made her doubts impossible to ignore.

“Seems like a terrible risk.”

“I know it was upsetting, and I won’t sit here