"What do you mean a strange man? What'd he look like? Ash was furious, and loud. He'd come stumbling into the cafe that morning when he'd heard the news. "I'll be a real gentleman and break his nose."
I slid a hand down my face. Howard had just about pummeled me into the floor when I had explained the situation last night. "My precious adoptive daughter is kidnapped!" he'd been wailing at the top of his lungs all the while crying like a little girl and shaking me so hard I'm still spinning with a massive migraine this morning. I had always known better than to get on the bad side of a transsexual man, it was a terrifying combination of massive strength and emotional, temperamental feminine qualities.
"That's it then. We're going." Ash declared.
Had I missed something? My eyes shot open to stare at the farm boy who smelled quite like nasty cow this morning. He had fire in his eyes it was only in one fell swoop he'd taken up arms, well my arm and a slice of cake from Laney who held it out to him smiling and waving a cheery goodbye to me. I had most certainly missed something, I thought as I was drug from the cafe out into the freshly laid snow.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I growled to this person who was supposed to be my friend. He stopped and turned to face me with the most determined expression I'd ever seen him wear.
"Seeing as it is your fault and all, we are going to save Lillian."
All I could manage to do was stare blankly at him. What what he thinking? The guy we were going up against actually kicked in a solid wood door! The freakin' hinges were broken off man! "Uh no."
"Hey wait!" Nope. I'm walking away from this one. "Cam, it's your responsibility!" Yeah, screw that. I'm not about to go chase some guy down only to get my ass kicked, or possibly killed. This guy was superhuman not to mention psycho because really, who says 'give me the girl' like that anyway? Who even kidnaps someone if they aren't crazy?
"Alright, but you pushed me to it," his voice sounded distant behind me and that's when the little bastard hit me in the head with a rock.
I fell to the ground instantly curling up holding my head. "Fffff! Ash you ASSHOLE!"
His hand wrapped around my leg and the next thing I knew he was dragging me out of the town gates. "What? No! Ah, dammit that hurts!"
xxx
The trip went about like that for a while. I didn't know he'd had it in him to drag me out so far, and uphill too as it seems that was the only place the kidnapper could have gone to. Of course once we got to the bridge I managed to squirm around enough to make him loose his balance and fall into the icy creek. That's what he gets. Then dripping wet and irritable, he somehow managed to pull me in too. Of course that didn't make things any easier.
"If things keep going this way we're never going to catch up to him." Ash mumbled ringing out his hat. We were both freezing now if we weren't before, go figure being that it was the middle of winter.
I snorted. "If things keep going this way, I'm going to kill you."
He eyed me warily but stood his ground. "You wouldn't be so bitter if you took the time to get to know her you know." He rubbed his hands together trying to warm them. "She's a great person. Maybe the guy who kidnapped her is her stalker?"
And he kept going, but by this point I had tuned his blabbering out. It was cold, we were wet, and if we couldn't go back to town then we were going to have to find some shelter until our clothes dried out or we weren't going to do too well.
That was the point when I realized he'd stopped talking.
"What is it?" I asked catching him staring at me.
He frowned. "You haven't been listening at all."
My brow twitched. You just now noticed? I turned away choosing to look out at the bland white sceneary than invite him to nag me. This journey was going to be long, arduous, and irritating. I might as well accept that since it seemed I couldn't back out now. Though, looking out I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
There weren't any flowers this time of year.