Storm Bear (Return to Bear Creek Book 5) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Chapter One – Chrysi

  Chapter Two – Nevis

  Chapter Three – Chrysi

  Chapter Four – Nevis

  Chapter Five – Chrysi

  Chapter Six – Nevis

  Chapter Seven – Chrysi

  Chapter Eight – Nevis

  Chapter Nine – Chrysi

  Chapter Ten – Chrysi

  Chapter Eleven – Nevis

  Chapter Twelve – Chrysi

  Chapter Thirteen – Nevis

  Chapter Fourteen – Chrysi

  Chapter Fifteen – Nevis

  Epilogue

  Get In Touch

  Also By Harmony Raines

  Storm Bear

  Return to Bear Creek

  (Book Five)

  ***

  All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.

  This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.

  © 2017 Harmony Raines

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  Storm Bear

  Curvy girl Chrysi hikes into the mountains with her fiancé. In no time at all, she realizes he is not the man for her, as his façade slips. What she did not expect, apart from a whiny man in place of the charming guy she fell in love with, is an attempted kidnapping.

  Her hopes and dreams are soon left shattered, and with a snow storm moving in, her engagement might not be the only thing that is dead.

  Running from her would be kidnappers, she stumbles across Nevis. But can this man be trusted, or is he a part of the conspiracy too?

  Nevis has escaped into the mountains to think about his future. His father wants him to get a proper job—What that really means is, his father wants Nevis to work for him in the business he built from scratch. That is never going to happen.

  What Nevis does not expect, is to find his mate wandering lost, as a deadly storm moves in. The only problem? She is wearing another man’s ring on her finger. Nevis soon realizes everything is not as it seems, and not only does he have to save her from the storm, but he also must save her from the men who want to harm her.

  Chapter One – Chrysi

  “We need to move faster.” Chrysi turned to Ross, her voice conveying her concern.

  “We have time,” Ross countered, his speed not increasing, unlike Chrysi’s frustration.

  “The storm is going to hit in six hours. We have to find shelter,” Chrysi told him, no longer hiding the exasperation from her voice. “If we are exposed when it hits, we could die.” And Chrystal Remington had no intention of dying on a mountainside in a snowstorm. No way. She had plans, big plans: the sad thing was, her fiancé, Ross Lamp, was no longer featuring in any of those plans.

  She sighed as he continued to trail behind. This trip had been her father’s idea. After four days alone with Ross, Chrysi could see why. Her father was an astute businessman, and a reader of people on a molecular level. He could look at you and see how you functioned: he was an assessor of thoughts and acts. Harlan Remington was rich for a reason; he could sort the wheat from the chaff in an instant.

  Harlan had never said the words, but Chrysi didn’t need to be gifted like her father, to know that Harlan did not hold Ross in high regard. In Harlan’s eyes, Ross was chaff. However, whom she dated was her own choice, not her father’s, and Harlan respected that. Chrysi would never hear an I told you so from the man who had raised her.

  That thought gave her little comfort. How had she gotten it so wrong? When they first met, Ross had been charming and attentive. Always there for her. Even if always was only two months. Two months of dating was all it took for Chrysi to believe Ross was the one.

  It had only taken four days on the mountain to undo everything Ross had accomplished in those two months. His attentiveness had slipped within the first six hours of hiking up the first distant peak, his voice becoming whiny at the slightest provocation. And charming no longer appeared to exist in his vocabulary. The deeper into the mountains they hiked, the worse his behavior had become.

  He couldn’t see the wonder of the world around him; he simply wanted the modern conveniences life offered. Or, as Chrysi was beginning to realize, the modern conveniences her family’s wealth offered. This vacation had shattered the illusion he had so painstakingly created. It was like a reality TV show—a person could only put on a face for so long before their true personality burst out.

  It had gotten to the point where he only had to open his mouth and speak for his mere presence to grate on her nerves. This man trailing behind her was not the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Chrysi was certain Ross felt the exact same way. What she could not understand was, why the sudden change? It was as if he had allowed the intricate pretense he had meticulously set up to slip.

  Yes, Chrysi was now sure it was a cold-blooded pretense. Whether he was after her fortune—good luck with that—or simply wanted their marriage to catapult him up the social ladder, she wasn’t sure. The only thing she was sure of, was that true love did not die in a matter of hours. Which meant he had never loved her. He’d simply been going through the motions, and out here, in the wild, the false face he had worn had been unable to stay fixed in place.

  A noise up ahead made her come back to the present, to the icy-cold wind and the heavy, snow-laden clouds. Chrysi slowed her pace; she didn’t want to stumble across a hungry bear. This storm was going to catch more than hikers unprepared. The weather pattern had made a sudden shift, and cold air was being driven down from the north in an icy blast that was out of season.

  “Did you hear that?” Chrysi turned. Ross was digging in his pack, and started at her words. “Ross. Did you hear that?”

  “It was nothing,” Ross replied. He’d removed something from his pack, and was holding it by his side. Concealing something from her, if she wasn’t mistaken.

  Chrysi frowned. “Is that pepper spray?” She lowered her voice and took a step back toward him, her nerves on edge. There was something odd about Ross’s expression, at least what she could see of his expression. His wooly hat was pulled down over his ears, his collar pulled up around his face. He’d also wrapped a scarf around the lower half of his face, covering his mouth and nose, to warm the air before he breathed it in. He looked like a bank robber.

  “No.” Ross didn’t reveal what was in his hand, but he kept on walking toward her. However, his eyes weren’t fixed on Chrysi; they kept sliding off her to look to her left and right. Searching. If she had to describe his actions, she would say he was searching for something. Or someone.

  “Can you see anything?” Chrysi asked, her voice low as her unease grew.

  “There’s nothing there,” Ross answered tartly.

  Chrysi took a deep steadying breath, allowing the sharp needles of cold air to penetrate her lungs and give her some focus. All she wanted to do was tear off her glove and throw the damn engagement ring Ross had given her back at him, and walk out of his life forever. But she was aware of how dangerous
it would be if they didn’t stick together. If only he’d taken her advice and moved faster, they would have been able to seek shelter on the southern side of the mountain.

  A noise sounded again. Ross didn’t say a word, but he had heard it; his attention was drawn to the trees to their right, where the mountain slope, covered in thick pine trees, rose up toward a sharp rock face.

  “There is something out there,” Chrysi told him.

  “You are paranoid,” came his reply.

  Chrysi swallowed her retort; it would do no good. Chrysi could see no reason why they shouldn’t be polite to each other until they reached civilization. Even if Ross didn’t agree. They had a better chance of surviving if they helped each other, but his refusal to listen to her warnings was driving her to the point where she would rather just strike off alone to be free of him.

  Chrysi was certain she would fare better alone. Her father had sent Chrysi, along with a large group of his employees, on a team-building exercise that involved intense survival training. After three days, the group had been left in the middle of nowhere with only the barest minimum of survival gear and the new knowledge they had learned. The team was expected to find their way home, together. If any one of the team had fallen, they would all have failed the task.

  They had succeeded. Chrysi would have allowed nothing less; it was how her father had raised her. Working together as one unit, they’d learned to use each other’s strengths and supported those who were weaker. The weakest link was the one that broke the chain, it was her father’s favorite saying. Although he always insisted that strength was not always physical, that mental strength often meant more.

  Another icy, face-numbing gust of wind hit her, and a flurry of snowflakes fell through the trees. A warning of what was to come. Chrysi was in no doubt Ross was the weakest link here on the mountain. If he had walked faster, and complained less, they would be halfway to Bear Creek with the promise of a mug of hot chocolate in a café. Or a soak in a hot bath…

  But she couldn’t leave him. It would be unforgivable. Somehow, she was going to have to figure out how to get them both through the impending storm. Chrysi sighed. Surviving meant finding shelter, as all chance of them getting off the mountain had passed. They were out of time; her hot bath would have to wait for a few days.

  Great, a couple of days stuck in a cave with only Ross for company. Would they survive without killing each other?

  Her frustration at Ross grew. If her fiancé hadn’t kept mumbling about sticking to the plan, they could have made it. If not into Bear Creek itself before the storm hit, at least low enough to miss the worst of the weather. Chrysi had pulled out the map and plotted a new course, taking them on a shorter route that avoided Cloud Valley. It had been the one place she wanted to see: a valley always hidden in cloud at this time of year.

  Ross’s insistence that they stick to the itinerary they had set out had nothing to do with Chrysi’s desire to see the valley. Nothing so romantic. Ross’s insistence had been due to his concern that if they got into trouble, mountain rescue would know where to find them. In normal circumstances, this would be the sensible thing to do.

  These were not normal circumstances. And when the storm hit, no rescue team would be capable of coming to rescue them, even if they had the exact location.

  However, Chrysi’s argument about how mountain rescue wouldn’t need to know where they were if they walked faster and got off the mountain before the storm hit, had been ignored. Short of knocking him out and carrying him, Ross had been unmovable in his decision. Of course, all this could have been avoided, if Ross had brought the damn satellite phone. It was his one responsibility. He’d insisted he would arrange it, and worse, he had neglected to tell her they were without it until they needed it.

  They only found out about the storm by accident. Her phone picked up a text from her father. She’d sent a reply, but then the cloud coverage prevented any further messages. Chrysi blamed herself for not checking that Ross had brought the satellite phone. But she’d trusted him. Now she knew better.

  Chrysi turned away from Ross and surveyed the forest. Maybe he was right, there was nothing there. And maybe the only thing he held in his hand was a chocolate bar, which he didn’t want to share with the woman he had professed his love to. Shaking her head, she tugged her collar up higher around her face, and trudged on into the biting wind. The temperature was dropping. Their only hope was to crest the range of hills up ahead and drop down into a valley and find shelter, or to head toward the rocky outcrop above them and seek shelter in a cave.

  Neither of these things looked likely at the pace Ross was walking. She glanced behind her to see him looking at his watch. Perhaps he was worried about the storm after all, and was simply putting on a brave face. If that were true, why didn’t he pick up the pace?

  She wanted to shout and scream at him. She wanted to…

  Chrysi stopped in her tracks. “Hello.” So there had been movement in the trees. A man. A shiver of apprehension passed through her. The thought of getting stuck in the storm with Ross was bad enough; the thought of being stuck in a storm with a stranger, too, was worse. Much worse.

  Chrysi swept those thoughts aside. Too many horror films as a teen. Maybe some company was what they needed.

  “Hello there,” the man said, taking a step forward.

  “There’s a storm coming,” Chrysi offered. “Do you know a good place to find shelter?”

  “There certainly is a storm coming.” The stranger sounded jovial, a reprieve from the moodiness Ross had displayed since their trek began. “There’s a cave up above us. I’ve got some supplies and firewood gathered there. You are welcome to share what I have.”

  “Thanks.” Chrysi looked to Ross, expecting him to come out with a reason why they should stay their course and not waver from their planned route. He gave neither.

  Instead, Ross strode forward, hand outstretched, and said, “Thanks. It would be good to have somewhere safe to hole up.”

  The two men shook hands. Chrysi frowned. She couldn’t make out their faces, but there was a familiarity to the way they nodded at each other, the way they grasped onto the other’s arm…

  Chrysi tried to look at the two men through her dad’s eyes. What she saw frightened her.

  “We could walk on,” Chrysi offered. “I know you are worried about leaving our planned route.”

  “No,” Ross replied, his tone of voice lighter, as if he were relieved. “You were right. We need shelter. Mountain rescue will assume we’ve found somewhere to stay. And anyway, they won’t be out looking for anyone in this weather. It’s not safe. We’re better off taking Bart up on his offer.”

  Had they exchanged names? A warning cough from Bart told her they had not.

  “If you think that’s the best idea,” Chrysi said, keeping her voice and expression neutral. Something was off, and she didn’t like it. Digging in her pocket, she pulled out her phone and held it up. “Still no signal. Let’s go.”

  Bart glanced at Ross, who shrugged imperceptibly in his thick layers of clothing. “Sure. This way.”

  Chrysi let the two men lead the way, walking behind as she tried to figure out what she should do. Was she paranoid? That was the accusation Ross had leveled at her. What if he was right?

  Slowly, she put more distance between her and them. Ten paces, eleven… The snowflakes began to drift down in earnest. What should she do? Stay with them? Bart must have shelter. But what was going to happen while they were in that shelter?

  Chrysi swallowed down her rising panic. She was fit. If she turned now and made a run for it, there was a chance she could outrun the storm, or get to safety somewhere…else. There was food in her pack: all she needed to do was find a shelter, get a fire going, and keep it going to stave off the freezing cold that would come with the setting of the sun.

  Suddenly Ross turned. “Don’t try to be the hero, Chrysi.”

  His words were like a punch in the gut. “I don’t know wha
t you mean.”

  “I can tell what is going through that overactive brain of yours. You are just like your father, always trying to think one step ahead, always thinking you are cleverer than your opponent. Well, not this time.”

  Her heart hammered in her chest, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Fight or flight. She could most likely take on Ross and win. But the two men? No. And she might end up injured. Better to go with them now, and try to escape later. Because one thing she was now certain of—If she went with them, she would be their prisoner.

  “So what’s the plan here, Ross?” Chrysi asked. “Since I’m assuming this is why you wouldn’t leave the route we planned.”

  “You are so right. Do you know how many times I’ve wanted to gag you over the last twenty-four hours?” He shook his head dismissively.

  “And I stayed because I thought it was the best thing to do to keep you alive,” Chrysi said.

  “Please. You stayed to be the martyr. It’s your thing. God knows how I’ve put up with you these last couple of months.”

  This stung, his words pierced her heart. She was such a fool. Yet Chrysi was determined that no matter how this turned out, Ross would not put her off finding love. Real love. “You played your part well,” she conceded.

  “I’m good at what I do. I would go into acting, but this pays much better.”

  “Enough with the words,” Bart interjected, glancing up at the sky. “The storm has moved faster than forecast. We need to get inside.”

  “And you expect me to just follow you?” Chrysi surveyed their surroundings. Fight or flight, she still had not decided.

  “We are going to go to the cave Bart has handpicked for us. One way or another.” His voice held a direct threat. “Then Bart is going to call your daddy dearest on the satellite phone.” He held up the phone in his hand as if it were a prize. Chrysi refused to make any comment. “Bart will tell Harlan if he wants you back, he is going to have to pay the price. And we all know he has deep pockets. And how much he luvs you.” Ross’s babyish tone was like a spark to a flame.