Mountain's Captive (3 page)

“
D
evon Wentworth’s office
, please,” Chloe said into the hotel room’s phone. She drummed her bare feet lightly on the plush carpet. She had to give it to the people of Vegas—they sure knew the meaning of comfort. The shower she had used had been big enough for five grown men with spouts coming out at every angle and everything around her was soft and covered in velvet. “This is Chloe Masters.”

“One moment please, Miss Masters.”

Chloe pulled the pink towel off of her wet hair. She held the phone with her shoulder as she brushed through her shoulder-length tresses with nervous fingers.

“Chloe?” Devon questioned immediately, sounding upset. “Where are you?”

“I’m in the hotel suite.” Chloe frowned at the woman’s worried tone. Devon had been one of her roommates in college. She was a good friend, but lately she had been getting overprotective. “The real question is—where’s Paul?”

“What do you mean, where’s Paul?” Devon sounded shocked.

Chloe stood up and walked over to her clothing. “He left me this note. It says I had to leave, order room service. And the funny thing is I can’t really remember what he looks like.”

“What are you talking about a note?” Devon queried. Her voice was puzzled and Chloe could imagine the frown that would be marring her perfect brow. “Paul has been calling me frantically all night. He said that you never got a hold of him. He thinks something happened to you. He’s really quite worried.”

“What are you talking about?” Chloe scratched her head in confusion. Spotting her oversized purse on the floor she picked it up and set it on the table next to her clothing. “I am in Paul’s room right now. We spent the night together.”

“You’re in Paul’s room?” Devon’s tone was disbelieving.

“Yeah, only he isn’t.” Chloe sighed as she slipped on her underwear with one hand.

“What do you mean you spent the night together?” Devon questioned, her voice growing even more skeptical.

“All I know is that I woke up this morning naked and not in my room.” Chloe sighed. Then, sheepishly, she added, “If you must know, I can tell. I haven’t been this sore in a long time. It’s as if I was doing gymnastics in bed. And there were more condoms in the trash can—and shower—than I care to admit to.”

“Oh, no.” Devon started to laugh despite her concern. “Chloe, that’s not right.”

“What?” Chloe asked, confused.

“Chloe, honey, listen to me very carefully.” Devon took an audible breath before stating in a firm tone, “You didn’t spent last night with Paul. He hasn’t met you yet. In fact he said you never called him. He’s still in his room as we speak.”

“But, that’s impossible.” Chloe’s knees weakened and she sunk to the floor. “Then, who?”

“Honey, I don’t know. Can’t you remember anything?”

“I remember calling Paul and telling him to meet me downstairs. Then I woke up alone this morning with a cheap metal band on my finger, which looks as if it came out of a toy machine.” Chloe picked herself off the plush carpet and began searching her purse for an aspirin. “Devon, I had a lot to drink.”

“Paul doesn’t have to know a thing. I’ll tell him my secretary gave you the wrong hotel name. You can still meet him today and get married. Everything will be all right.” Devon tried to sound encouraging. “We’ll just chalk last night up as a girl bachelor party.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Chloe laughed halfheartedly. Inside she trembled with uncertainty. “I just wish I knew where I was now. What if I am not even at the same hotel?”

“What room number are you in? Check the phone. It should be printed on the side. The hotel’s name should be there, too.” Devon turned to her professional calm. Being a top-notch attorney, she was used to dealing with high stress situations.

“Well, it’s the same hotel. It says so on my robe. Just give me a second and I’ll look up the room number. I’m trying to find my aspirin first.” Chloe turned her purse over, dumping the contents on the table in frustration. She picked through the mess and found the bottle. “Got it.”

“Well?” Devon questioned sharply.

“I meant I got the aspirin.” Chloe started to move to the phone when she spotted a piece of newly folded paper amidst her belongings. “What’s this?”

“What?” Devon’s voice demanded. “What’s wrong, Chloe?”

Chloe fingers quivered violently as she unfolded it. “Oh, my God.

“Chloe?”

Chloe stared at the paper as if it would start fire and disappear. “Oh, Devon. Your plan is not going to work. I’m married and it’s not to Paul.”

T
wo Weeks
Later

Chloe frowned in irritation. She pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes as the rental car bounced heavily on the mountain pass road. The sedan was the only car the rental lot had left. The rental agent had told her it was because many of the tourists were leaving Montana due to the heavy snowfall the state had experienced recently.

Chloe scanned the sides of the mountains, searching for avalanches. She couldn’t imagine that they would occur too often, as the agent had suggested, or at least not this early in the fall. She guessed they only told people that so they would purchase the extra insurance when they made the rental.

It had taken her twice as long to drive across the mountain passes as she had at first anticipated. What looked like an hour’s drive on the map actually had taken her closer to three, due to the dangerous curves. Chloe slowed the car as she came to a fork in the road.

“Miner’s Cove.” She squinted and lifted her glasses to read the faded print on an old, rusted sign. “I guess it’s that way.”

Chloe turned the car to the left. From the looks of the landscape she guessed that her husband lived in the most un-populated area of northern Montana. She sent a brief prayer to heaven that he wasn’t a backwoods hillbilly or a militia leader of some sort.

It had taken her the better part of two weeks to track down Everest Beaumont. Luckily, she had Devon to help her. Devon flew to Vegas shortly after Chloe discovered she married the wrong man. And with a few subtle bribes to the hotel staff, Devon found that the man on the wedding certificate did indeed exist and was a prosperous Montana businessman. At least that was to be assumed since a major corporation had paid for his hotel suite.

Chloe took a deep breath. She was running out of time. Her thirtieth birthday was coming up in a little over a month. That gave her four weeks to divorce one husband, marry another, and collect her inheritance from her father.

Coming quickly to a small town hidden within the mountain valley, she stopped the car in front of a small General Store. Miner’s Cove was a modest town built into the side of a mountain. She was sure she had seen the exact same community in pictures of the old west. It was really a beautiful area, once a person got over the fact that they were out in the middle of nowhere.

Chloe had been raised in the hustle and bustle world of New York. She hadn’t even seen the countryside until she was thirteen. By then, the wide-open area frightened her in its quiet serenity and she had begged her father to take her back to the city.

There was a light sprinkling of snow on the ground so Chloe grabbed her jacket out of the back seat. Making sure to take her purse, she locked the car door. A few of the local’s watched her with avid interest. It was clear that they rarely had visitors. Chloe averted her eyes and walked straight into the General Store. Years in the city had taught her to mind her own business and these locals terrified her more than the city at night.

The small store stood in a lone brick building that actually was a grocery that doubled as a hardware store that doubled as a post office. Every imaginable item a person would need was packed onto the cluttered shelving until there was hardly room left for walking. As she pulled open the thick glass door, it jingled.

“Hello?” Chloe called, as she made her way toward the back. She grimaced softly as her jacket snagged on a protruding broomstick.

“Be with you in a moment, I will,” an old voice answered her.

Chloe found the register. It was inconveniently located in the rear of the store, as not to allow for easy departure. She leaned on the counter and started to drum her fingers.

“There now, how can I be of help?”

Chloe smiled as an old man bustled from the back room. He was very energetic for his advanced years. Smiling kindly, she reminded herself that these people lived at a slower pace. Trying not to sound panicked she greeted him politely. “Hello.”

“There now, who do we have here?” The man smiled as he scratched at his balding head. He was a compassionate looking person, with a round face and a cheery smile. Chloe imagined that if he grew a white beard he would look exactly like a skinny Santa.

“My name’s Chloe.” Chloe held out her hand.

“Just Chloe?” The old man laughed. “That will do, that will do. Are you lost, Chloe?”

“Actually it’s Chloe Masters.” Chloe scrunched up her face in confusion. “I mean, Chloe Masters-Beaumont.”

“Beaumont, eh?” the man inquired, growing curious. “I’m Grandpa. Everyone just calls me Grandpa. You related to any Beaumont’s around this way?”

“I am actually. I’m looking for an Everest Beaumont.” Chloe to a deep breath before rushing, “I’ve been informed he lives around here.”

“Everest, you say?” Grandpa laughed again. “Could be I know him.”

“If you could tell me where to find him,” she began, only to frown when he cut her off with his chuckling amusement.

“Seems to me that I heard of a Chloe Masters,” Grandpa broke in. “Could it be that you’re her, the writer I mean?”

Chloe nodded, trying not to let her frustration show, “Yes, I am a writer.”

“Well, I’ll be. What are you wanting with Everest? He finally take my advice and write you a piece of fan mail?” Grandpa grinned delightedly and clapped his hands with glee. “That boy has me ordering your books as fast as they come out.”

“Really,” Chloe answered dejectedly. She grew apprehensive. Surely she wasn’t married to a fanatical admirer. Her stomach began to churn with nausea. Over the weeks the sultry image of chiseled muscles had dissolved into scrawny arms with a machine gun and hatchet.

“Well, you never mind that. Everest has me ordering him all kinds of books.” Grandpa smiled and shook his head. “What are you wanting with our Everest? Hey, is he going to be in your next book? Wouldn’t that be something?”

“Maybe. I haven’t thought about it. There’s something I need to discuss with him.” Chloe lowered her voice as the bell tinkled behind them at the front door. Two elderly ladies walked into the store. The man lifted his hand to them in greeting. Ignoring the women, she hushed, “Of a personal nature.”

“Personal, eh?” Grandpa leaned forward, his tone growing suspicious. “How personal? You don’t want to cause him trouble, do you? Are you in the family way?”

“No, I am certainly not. Please this is between Everest and myself.” Chloe looked painfully at the two ladies and leaned closer. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to let up. She whispered just so the old man could hear her. “I’m his wife.”

“Everest is married?” Grandpa shot back loudly. “Well, I’ll be! Did you hear that Gladys? Everest finally went and got himself a wife!”

Chloe flinched as Grandpa waved over one of the women who milled quietly near the entrance. Turning her pleading gaze to the old man, she begged, “No, please, don’t… do that. It’s just a misunderstanding.”

“Well, I never!” exclaimed Gladys. She was a woman in her late fifties who patted her bouffant hairdo into place as she approached in her waitress uniform. “He was just in town a couple weeks ago and didn’t mention it.”

“There is nothing to mention. It’s a simple mistake,” Chloe persisted. She gripped her purse to her hip in aggravation. “I’m here to get some papers signed to clear up the confusion. Honestly, it’s all a misunderstanding.”

“Divorce, she means.” Gladys raised a disapproving eyebrow toward Grandpa, who nodded his head in silent understanding. “That’s what they all mean these days when they call marriage a mistake. Can’t seem to make them last. Not like we did, anyhow. Back in the old days we knew ‘til death do us part’ meant just that. You were going to be together until one of you croaked, in some cases longer.”

Chloe backed away, feeling like she was cast into the middle of a bad fifties movie. Grandpa and Gladys stared after her. “Excuse me. I should be going. I really must find him.”

“Wait a minute, child,” said Grandpa before turning to Gladys. “You hush up. You don’t know if that is the case. Maybe she’s here to straighten things out with him. Could be she’s here to make the marriage work.”

Both of them turned their head to her in expectation. Chloe slowly moved back to the counter. She silently pondered the fact that both of them might be in need of a good hearing aide. This was not how she wanted the conversation to go. She hadn’t planned on anyone finding out about the fake marriage. Everest would no doubt have a lot of explaining to do when she left. She was sorry for it, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

“I have a load of supplies I have to take up to Everest’s place tonight. It’s a good hour’s ride from here. You’re welcome to come with me in the jeep,” Grandpa offered. “Your car won’t make the trek into the mountains.”

Chloe turned to glance out of the front window. Her car could be seen through the dusty pane of glass. Already snowflakes were covering the hood.

“That would be fine,” Chloe nodded when she once again faced them. “And I’m afraid that the car is a rental.”

“Anyhow, it won’t make it.” Gladys chimed in as if she hadn’t heard Grandpa’s offer. “And the only available room for rent is taken up by some photographer fellow. So you’d better take your luggage with you and stay the night there with Grandpa. Maybe it will give you some time to work whatever it is out. There’s no need to resort to divorce quite yet. Everest is an upstanding man. He’ll make whatever it is right with you. You’ll see.”

“What a splendid idea, Gladys.” Grandpa nodded in approval. “Everest has plenty of room in that cabin of his.”

Chloe gave a smile that she wasn’t sure she meant. She didn’t like the idea of spending the night in the mountains, let alone a log cabin. People disappeared all the time in the mountains. Anything could happen to her. Chloe shivered as she imagined being attacked by a hungry bear or getting bitten by a diseased tick. And if the wilderness didn’t do her in, her husband just might. Either way, the prospect of roughing it in nature didn’t hold too much appeal. She liked the relative safety of the city. Sure there was crime, but she knew how to protect herself against that. How did one convince a bear not to eat?

Seeing Grandpa’s smiling face, it appeared as if a night in the mountains was going to be her only option. It’s not like she had the time to be choosy about her accommodations.

“Fine, when do we leave?” she asked quietly. She tried not to let her apprehension show.

“I close up here in about two hours. Why don’t you go grab something to eat at the diner until then? It’s across the street. Can’t miss it.” Grandpa winked at Gladys.

“Very well.” Chloe nodded with a sigh as she left the store.

“What are you up to, Grandpa?” Gladys gave him a suspicious look. “Did you know about this?”

“Not at all, Grandma.” Grandpa leaned over and kissed his wife’s cheek. “But, I’ll find out tonight.”

“I like her,” Gladys put forth. “I wish there was a way we could get her to stay up there longer. Everest has been alone for too many years now. It isn’t good for a man his age to spend all that time by himself. He should get out more.”

“I quite agree.” Grandpa smiled mischievously as he whirled his wife around in a dance. For a moment they swayed to a song only they could hear. Pressing his cheek to his wife’s, he breathed heavily in contentment. “I’ll take care of everything. Now, help me round up some extra supplies to take to Everest. We only got two hours and your old bones don’t move like they used to.”

“Oh, you!” Gladys swatted his arm and laughed as he chased her playfully into the back room.