Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Thorin, Khalil, and Seth didn’t just refuse to help me. They stripped and locked away anything I might use to save myself if it came to that. They stacked the deck so that I don’t ever stand a chance.
Feeling this raw and angry need to fight for my survival rise inside me, I open my eyes.
As cruel as it was, Seth had at least helped me see that it was weak to wait around, hoping to be rescued.
No one’s coming for me.
I guess I knew that. Every day that I’m not found lowers the chance in the eyes of the world that I’ll ever be.
If I’m going to survive this mountain and its men, I have to stop thinking of myself as the Aurelia before the crash—the popstar and the celebrity.
America’s sweetheart.
I’m not that girl anymore—if I ever was.
I’m the fallen star that may not gleam brightly anymore, but I’m stronger for it. If I’m going to be saved, I have to do it myself.
I mentally run through a list of everything I’ll need to make it off this godforsaken mountain.
Vengeance will come later. When I’m out of their reach, but they’re not out of mine.
I’ll need a map—if I can find the one they hid and figure out how to read it.
Clothes for the climate.
Food.
Water.
Protection.
A phone.
It’s hard to believe they don’t have one. All the way out here? It’s too big of a risk, but I don’t remember seeing any cell towers, so I cross a phone off my list and add a radio in its place.
When they healed me, they unwittingly showed their hand.
Thorin, Khalil, and Seth are no ordinary cavemen. They’re cunning and resourceful and two steps ahead, which means I’ll need to be three.
Food and water.
So far, it’s the only thing I can get my hands on, but it’s a start.
I gnaw on my thumbnail as I continue to plot—to plan. I thought my uncle had exorcised me of the habit, but it’s back with a vengeance, and I can’t bring myself to care.
I’ll have to find something to carry my supplies in and a hiding place to store them until I’m ready to make a run for it. Somewhere, these mountain men won’t think to look. It doesn’t take long before I have the perfect place in mind.
Thorin’s words from the night before rise in my memory with a vengeance as my mind shifts to the most challenging objective. The task that—without success—will make all the others meaningless.
“These wilds haven’t tamed us, and neither will you.”
Yeah…we’ll see about that.
Standing, I take one step to get started on my chores when the room spins.
At first, I think I’m about to black out again, but my throat jumps, and I clap a hand over my mouth before making a mad dash to the bathroom, where I empty my stomach of last night’s meal.
KHALIL
Leaning over with one hand braced on a tree, I try to tune out the sound of Seth retching a few feet away. It doesn’t work, and I end up emptying my guts for the second time this morning before I see Thorin stumbling back to camp from wherever he’d gone to expel the effects of Aurelia’s cooking.
“I think that bitch poisoned us,” Thorin says under his breath so that only the three of us hear.
Seth wipes his mouth and starts weakly singing the hook of “Poison” by Bell Biv DeVoe.
Fucker.
We’re currently in a camp surrounded by military personnel, local deputies, and civilian volunteers from three neighboring towns. Right after Aurelia lost consciousness the night we found her, Sheriff Kelly radioed to inform us about the plane crash and that we’d be leading the search for the popstar princess and her entourage. Other than Aurelia, her head bodyguard, Tyler Westbrook, was the only one we’d found alive.
And so close to our cabin, too.
After that, it was easy to piece together how we came upon our infuriating captive.
Tyler and Aurelia must have wandered too far searching for the emergency transmitter and had gotten separated in the avalanche. The same one that had lured us from our cabin that morning. Aurelia had probably tried to find her bodyguard and found us instead. She’d taken shelter in our cabin and waited for us to come home and rescue her.
So hopeful.
So naïve.
So ours.
What hasn’t been easy is keeping the search away from our cabin and later explaining why we insist on the long trek back to our side of the Cold Peaks every night. But with each passing day, Aurelia’s chances of survival dwindle, along with everyone’s morale.
Not much longer now.
Ironically, anyone with the authority to question why we’ve kept the search off our mountain has been too busy fielding questions from the press and assuring the public that we’re leaving no stone unturned to know the actual details of the search.