Chapter 4

“I’ve pulled some strings, and my contact has agreed to drive up and get you in his Jeep,” said Anthony without preamble when she finally came downstairs.

When he saw the flare of anger in Thea’s eyes, he ignored it. She was getting out of this cabin whether she liked it or not. He’d throw her over his shoulder, kicking and screaming, if he had to.

“Are you serious?” she said. “In this weather? This is crazy. Once the rain stops I’ll drive out of here myself. Besides, I have four-wheel drive. How is a Jeep going to be better?”

“We have no idea when the rain will stop. According to the weather, it isn’t supposed to let up for days. Maybe a week. I’m not prepared to wait.”

“And what about you?” she countered. “What if you get stranded from the rain?”

He shrugged. “I doubt that will happen.”

“Since you’re so rich, why not call in your private jet? Or even better, Air Force One? I’m sure you have loads of contacts in D.C.”

Each word from her was a barb, but he ignored them all. She could hate him all she wanted.

“For one, you can’t land a plane around here,” said Anthony. “Secondly, getting a helicopter in this weather is complicated.”

She scoffed. “Even for you?”

“Yes, even for me.” His ego hated that he couldn’t get a helicopter here like he’d thought, and even worse, admitting that fact to this woman.

Thea’s lips curled. “I thought you could do anything, Mr. Moneybags?”

“Despite what you might think, I’m not the master of the universe.” His voice dripped sarcasm.

“Could’ve fooled me.” Thea sighed dramatically. “What about my car? I need it, you know. I can’t just leave it here.”

“I’ll have one of my guys drive it down when the rain stops.”

Her nose wrinkled. Thea wasn’t conventionally attractive by any means, but she had the body of a dancer, lithe and tight. The thought of throwing her over his shoulder was way too appealing.

He pushed the thought aside. The last thing he needed was to entangle himself with some hippie woman who would drive him insane within a week.

You want her out of here so you don’t touch her, his mind told him.

Okay, so what? He was under a lot of stress, and he was obviously losing his mind a little bit to be attracted to a woman like Thea. If he got rid of the temptation, the problem would be solved.

Simple as that.

Thea just crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “I’m not going. You can’t make me.”

He heard the steel in her voice, and although it amused him, it also rankled him. Standing, he used his height to tower over her. She just tipped her head up, reminiscent of when he’d tried to intimidate her during their first meeting.

“I can make you,” he said in a low voice, “and I will. I promise you that. No one crosses me. No one.”

“What will you do? Tie me up and carry me?”

“If necessary.”

They stared at each other, the moment lengthening until the tension was palpable. Anthony could just make out her pulse beating in her throat, and God Almighty, he wanted to kiss her right there and taste her skin.

Then a loud boom shattered the moment, shaking the cabin. What the hell?

Anthony followed the sound, but not before telling Thea, “You stay here.”

“Hell no.” She pushed past him into the rain. Swearing, he followed. He wasn’t about to let her fall into a swiftly moving stream or get caught in the mud. He was getting rid of her fair and square, not through some random accident. He was an asshole, but as she’d so sweetly stated that morning, he wasn’t much for actual homicide, accidental or no.

They followed the noise that was coming from below the hill where the cabin was situated. The rain fell steady and relentlessly, and Anthony had to concentrate on not getting his boots caught in the mud. With every step, the mud made a squelching sound, and it took twice as long to get down the hill as when it had been dry. He just hoped Thea was strong enough to walk back uphill in this weather, because he sure as hell wasn’t carrying her.

The closer they got to the creek that had become a river in the rain, the more Anthony’s stomach sank. He realized they were nearing the small bridge that crossed the creek. When they rounded a copse of evergreens, Thea gasped, and Anthony wanted to punch something.

A huge tree had collapsed onto the bridge, essentially breaking it in half. Much of the old, splintered wood from the bridge had been swept away in the creek.

That bridge was the only way down the mountain to civilization. Without it, they were stranded.

There was no way his guy could drive up here to get Thea out. It could be days—weeks—before anyone could get up here to help them. And despite his best efforts, getting someone to rescue them via helicopter was essentially impossible at the moment. Anthony had already talked to everyone he could think of and had gotten the same answer: no way in hell.

Anthony broke out into a cold sweat before anger swept through him. He’d needed this time alone to reorder his thoughts, to get away from it all, to figure out what the hell he was going to do with all of the bullshit that was coming down on him. And now—now he was stuck with this woman who was currently at the edge of the bridge, just inches away from the rushing water below.

Anger turned to panic as he watched Thea lose her balance, her arms flailing as the ground fell away from under her feet. In a flash, he wrapped an arm around her waist and hoisted her up and away just in time.

She cried out in surprise. “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.

She pushed at his arm, but she weighed as much as a feather. Anthony set her down on firm ground none too gently. His body had heated at the feeling of her against him, and it only pissed him off more. He wiped rain from his face.

“If we’re going to be stuck here,” he growled, “you can’t be fucking stupid. I’m not going to jump into the creek to save you if you fall in.”

“I wasn’t that close! I can take care of myself.”

Her face was red, rain rolling down her cheeks, her hair wet now that her hood had fallen away. One part of him wanted to kiss her into submission. The other part wished she’d fallen in the creek instead.

He put her hood up. “Let’s go,” was all he said.

When they returned to the cabin, Anthony headed upstairs to dry off, his mind whirling. He didn’t know how long he’d be stuck in this cabin with Thea, but by God, he could control himself if he had to. He was Anthony fucking Bertram. He hadn’t built his company from the ground up by being a damn idiot. He wasn’t going to let himself be distracted by his attraction to a woman who would only bring him down.

He scrubbed at his face with a towel. He’d taken on people who had thought he would only be a failure. His wife had betrayed him with his best friend. He’d had investors that were shady, he’d fired employees who’d tried to screw him over. He’d created his empire brick by brick with his own two hands, not caring who he stepped on as he made his way to the top.

One tiny woman wasn’t going to lead to his downfall.

Now that Thea had to stay at the cabin for the foreseeable future, she found herself rather wishing she had left when she could. The thought of Anthony throwing her out had made her stubborn, and now she was paying for it.

She was stuck in this place with this asshole for who knew how long. When would anyone get up here to fix that bridge? It could be weeks.

Just the thought of being in the vicinity of Anthony Bertram for weeks gave her hives.

After they’d returned to the cabin, she’d looked him square in the face and said, “I can’t go anywhere now.”

And to her surprise, he’d said, “No, you can’t.” Then he’d ignored her for the rest of the day.

That evening, she came downstairs to smell bacon sizzling. Her stomach turned. She’d been vegan for only a few years now, but she’d quickly found that the smell of meat cooking made her sick to her stomach. It didn’t help that she knew firsthand where that meat had come from. She’d seen the animals suffering before being led to the slaughter.

But her own stomach was rumbling with hunger, and, defiant, she went into the kitchen to begin making her own dinner. Anthony didn’t even glance up at her. It was like she didn’t even exist.

Thea got some veggies from the fridge and began chopping. After putting some quinoa on to boil, she ignored Anthony as much as he ignored her. It was ridiculous, how they were acting, but she didn’t care. She hoped he choked on his bacon.

Anthony soon began making a sandwich across from her, some version of a BLT, she thought. She wrinkled her nose as he piled the sandwich with bacon.

“You’re going to have a heart attack eating that stuff,” she said.

Anthony picked up the sandwich and took a big bite, chewing loudly in front of her. “Why, are you worried about me?” he asked sardonically after he’d swallowed.

“Not in the least. You should eat some French fries, maybe dip that sandwich in mayo. Because then if you die, I get the cabin to myself like I should have.”

He snorted. “Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I’m in better shape than you probably are.”

“It must help that you don’t have a heart in the first place,” she said sweetly.

He came closer to her and took another large bite of his sandwich. The smell of the bacon combined with the sound of his chewing made Thea pale.

“You’re looking a little green,” he said, smiling. “Something the matter?”

Anger flaring, she grabbed his sandwich. She then went to the nearby windows overlooking the backyard. Opening one, she tossed the sandwich outside. It landed right in the middle of a puddle, giving a satisfying plunk sound before it began to sink into the mud.

“Did you just throw my sandwich out a window?” demanded Anthony. “Are you fucking crazy?”

“Yes, I am. I’d lock my door at night if I were you.” She pushed past him, laughter welling up inside her at the expression on his face.

Two can play at this game, asshole.

“You,” he said, his voice low and angry. “You’ll pay for that.”

“You don’t scare me,” she taunted.

“Then that’s your mistake,” were his cryptic words before he pushed past her and out of the kitchen. Before he left, though, he grabbed a bag of beef jerky from the counter and took a bite of one with a flash of teeth.

As she ate her dinner in the living room, Thea wondered how she could weasel useful information out of Anthony to use against him. Obviously he hated her now, so there was no way in hell he’d tell her a damn thing.

Was she ballsy enough to go through his stuff? She considered. At the moment, she was so angry with him that she could dig through his stuff without an ounce of guilt. The only issue was doing it with him in the cabin.

Thea was in her bedroom later that evening when she heard the shower turn on. Anthony tended to take a shower for at least ten minutes, sometimes longer if he shaved afterward. The only reason she’d paid attention was because she’d wanted to shower last night and he’d taken forever to finish.

Thea glanced at the clock. Then, shutting her notebook, she tiptoed into Anthony’s bedroom. The second he shut off the water, she’d hightail it out of there.

His bedroom looked like it had barely been used. A suitcase sat on a table next to the wall, and to her immense amusement, he’d hung up all of his clothes and placed socks, belts, and boxer briefs in the drawers. Everything was arranged according to color.

Jesus, who is this guy? When she saw that one of his polo shirts was Armani, she was half-tempted to spill something on the front in revenge.

But this wasn’t about his clothes or how ridiculously anal he was. She found his briefcase and began to rifle through it.

His laptop was locked with a passcode—unsurprising. Same with his phone. Finding his wallet, she discovered the usual things—driver’s license, Social Security card, health insurance, bank cards, credit cards. Some cash, but she was disappointed to see that he didn’t carry a pile of hundred-dollar bills in his wallet. Not that she was going to steal from him, but didn’t rich guys love to carry around lots of money?

She felt around in the pocket in the back of the wallet, pulling out a business card for some auto shop and then what looked like a folded-up piece of paper. But when she unfolded it, she realized it was a photo of Anthony and some beautiful woman with honey-blond hair. What was even more shocking was that Anthony looked…happy. Anthony, happy? She’d almost say that he looked carefree in the photo. Her eyes narrowed when she saw that something was scrawled on the back corner of the photo: Anthony and Elise, honeymoon.

Honeymoon. So he was married, or he had been. She hadn’t seen a ring on his finger—had she? Gazing at that photo, seeing his wide smile on his face as he gazed down at the woman, something pinched at Thea’s heart. If she were crazy enough, she’d almost think it was jealousy.

Stupid. What did she have to be jealous of?

The water shut off. Heart pounding, Thea shoved his wallet back into the briefcase and returned the case next to the nightstand.

She raced back to her room only a second before Anthony emerged from the bathroom.

Letting out a long breath, she couldn’t help but wonder why somebody as heartless as Anthony Bertram kept a photo like that in his wallet.