The wind screamed through the bitterroot mountains like a dying animal.
Anna’s boots were soaked in blood and snow.
She knocked on the heavy oak door bracing for the shotgun blast of a ruthless hermit.
Instead the heavy wood creaked open and a gruff voice rumbled Come sit by the fire.
The winter of 1883 in the Idaho territory was not meant for the weak and it certainly was not meant for a disgraced woman from Philadelphia in a ruined velvet riding dress.
Anna Abernathy had spent the last four weeks learning exactly how cruel the frontier could be.
She was 24 completely alone and carrying nothing but a leather satchel and a desperate hope of finding her older brother Thomas.
The mining town of Wallace lay miles below her buried under a fresh foot of powder but the cold of the snow was nothing compared to the ice in the eyes of the town’s folk.
Anna had expected Western hospitality.
Instead she found doors slammed in her face.
The local boarding house matron a hard-faced Irish immigrant named Mrs. Oor had taken one look at Anna’s torn clothes and the desperation in her eyes and barred the door.
We don’t take in strays with trouble trailing behind him.
She had sneered.
At the livery stable old man Higgins had been even less kind.
When Anna asked for a horse to ride up the canyon toward the logging claims he laughed.
A wet hacking sound.
Ain’t nobody up there but the wolves and Lucy and Huckabe.
And if the wolves don’t tear you to shreds Huckabe will.
He don’t take kindly to trespassers.
Shot a Pinkerton man in the knee last spring just for stepping on his porch.
You go up there girly.
You’re marching to your own funeral.
But Anna had no choice.
She was running from a scandal that had shattered her life back eaSt. A broken engagement to William Sterling a wealthy railway magnate who had framed her for theft when she discovered his illicit affairs.
Disowned by her family her only lifeline was Thomas who had sent her a cryptic letter months ago mentioning a claim near the highest ridge of the Cordelines.
So she climbed.
For 6 hours Anna fought her way up the treacherous winding switchbacks of the mountain.
The temperature plummeted as the sun dipped behind the jagged peaks painting the snow in bruised shades of purple and gray.
Every breath burned her lungs like inhaled glass.
She had lost the feeling in her toes 2 hours ago.
Now her fingers were stiff useless claws inside her thin leather gloves.
The silence of the mountain was deafening broken only by the whistling wind and the violent chattering of her own teeth.
When she finally saw the cabin it looked less like a home and more like a fortress.
Built of massive unpeeled pine logs it sat backed against a sheer cliff face a solitary plume of gray smoke rising from its stone chimney.
Anna stumbled falling to her knees in a snowdrift.
She was so tired.
The urge to simply close her eyes and let the snow claim her was overwhelming a seductive whisper in her mind.
But she forced herself up.
She dragged her frozen body onto the heavy timber porch.
Her hand trembling and blue curled into a fiSt. She knocked.
It was a weak pathetic sound against the thick wood.
She expected the door to fly open.
She expected the terrifying mountain man Higgins had warned her about to level a Winchester rifle at her chest and tell her to go die in the snow.
She had been rejected by everyone her family her fiancee the town of Wallace.
Why should this wild violent recluse be any different.
She squeezed her eyes shut bracing for the harsh curse.
The sound of a gunhammer clicking back.
The heavy iron latch scraped.
The door swung inward with a low groan.
Anna swayed barely able to keep her head up.
The man standing in the doorway blocked out the warm orange light spilling from the hearth behind him.
He was massive built like the very mountains he inhabited.
He wore a thick buffalo hide coat and a rugged untamed beard obscured the lower half of his face.
His eyes however caught the firelight striking stormy gray eyes that swept over her shivering broken form with intense terrifying calculation.
Anna opened her cracked lips to speak to beg to apologize for intruding but her voice failed.
A violent shiver racked her spine and her knees finally gave out.
Before she could hit the floorboards a large calloused hand caught her by the arm.
The grip was shockingly strong yet surprisingly steady.
He didn’t shove her away.
He didn’t raise a weapon.
The mountain man stepped aside pulling her gently into the overwhelming warmth of the cabin.
Come sit by the fire he said.
His voice was a low rumble rough as tree bark but entirely devoid of the malice she had anticipated.
Anna stumbled past him her boots dragging across the heavy bear rug that covered the floor.
She collapsed onto a sturdy wooden chair positioned directly in front of a roaring stone fireplace.
The heat hit her like a physical blow causing her frozen skin to prickle with agonizing burning pain.
She gasped curling into herself as the man quietly shut the door sealing the howling blizzard outside.
For a long time the only sounds in the cabin were the crackling of the pine logs and Anna’s ragged breathing.
She sat huddled near the hearth the snow melting off her dress and pooling on the floorboards.
She watched the man wearily out of the corner of her eye.
Lucy and Huckabe moved around his cabin with a quiet grace that belied his massive frame.
He didn’t pepper her with questions.
He didn’t demand to know her business.
Instead he went to a cast iron stove poured a steaming mug of black coffee and brought it to her.
Drink he commanded softly holding it out.
Nah reached for it but her hands were shaking so violently she nearly dropped the heavy tin cup.
Without a word Lucy and knelt beside her.
He wrapped his large scarred hands over her small trembling ones guiding the cup to her lips.
The contact sent a strange jolt through Anna.
His hands were incredibly warm rough with calluses and scars yet his touch was remarkably gentle.
Slowly he murmured his gray eyes locked on hers.
It’ll burn you coming back to life.
The coffee was bitter and strong but it felt like liquid salvation sliding down her throat.
As the heat began to thaw her core the terrifying reality of her situation settled in.
She was entirely at the mercy of a man who was rumored to be a killer.
They told me you would shoot me.
Anna rasped her voice and broken.
Lucienne stood taking the empty cup from her hands.
A grim humorless smile touched the corners of his mouth beneath his beard.
Higgins talks too much down in the valley.
I only shoot men who come looking for a fight.
You look like you’re just looking for a grave.
I’m looking for my brother Anna said sitting up a little straighter trying to summon a dignity she didn’t feel.
Thomas Abernay.
The moment the name left her lips the atmosphere in the cabin shifted violently.
The relaxed quiet mountain man vanished.
Lucian’s jaw clenched and his broad shoulders went rigid.
He turned his back to her staring into the flames of the hearth.
You’re an Abernathy he stated.
It wasn’t a question it was a realization heavy with dread.
Yes I’m Anna.
Do you know him.
He wrote to me said he had a claim near the ridge.
Thomas doesn’t have a claim Miss Abernathy.
Lucienne interrupted his voice dropping an octave taking on a hard dangerous edge.
He turned back to face her the fire light casting long ominous shadows across his rugged features.
Thomas has a death wish.
Anna’s heart pounded against her ribs.
What do you mean.
Is he hurt.
Lucien sighed running a hand over his face.
He walked over to a heavy oak table and pulled out a chair sinking into it.
Your brother didn’t come to the Cordelines to mine silver.
Anna he came to steal it.
He crossed the Anaconda Copper Company.
Worse he crossed their chief enforcer a man named Jeremiah Kraton.
Kraton used to ride with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
He’s a tracker and he’s ruthless.
Thomas stole a lockbox full of company script and deed transfers three weeks ago.
He’s been running ever since.
Anna felt the blood drain from her face.
No no Tommy wouldn’t do that.
He’s a good man.
Good men do desperate things out here.
Lucien said softly his eyes softening as he looked at her pale face.
He came through here a week ago half starved riding a lame horse.
I gave him supplies and told him to ride north to the Canadian border.
If he kept moving he might have made it.
Might have.
Anna whispered tears welling in her eyes.
The hope that had kept her alive on the grueling journey west was shattering into pieces.
Kraton is hunting him Lucienne explained his tone serious.
Andraton doesn’t lose a trail.
Which brings me to you Miss Abernathy.
You didn’t just walk up this mountain.
You left a trail a blind man could follow in the snow.
If you were asking around Wallace for Thomas Kraton knows about you by now.
You didn’t just walk into my cabin.
You brought the devil right to my doorstep.
Anna shrank back in her chair the warmth of the fire suddenly feeling oppressive.
I I didn’t know.
I swear to you Mr. Huckabe I have nowhere else to go.
I’ll leave.
I’ll go back out into the snow.
She tried to stand her legs shaking terribly but Lucien was across the room in a flash his hands gripping her shoulders pressing her firmly but gently back into the chair.
Don’t be a fool he grunted.
You wouldn’t make it a mile in this blizzard.
You’d freeze to death before midnight.
But you said I brought danger here.
I’ve lived with danger for 5 years Anna.
It’s the only company I keep Lucien said his voice dropping to a near whisper.
He looked down at her his rugged face inches from hers.
For a brief second the walls he had built around himself seemed to crack.
Anna saw a deep agonizing loneliness in his gray eyes a mirror to the profound isolation she felt in her own soul.
Before either of them could speak again a thunderous crash echoed through the cabin.
It wasn’t the wind.
It was the heavy deliberate sound of a booted foot kicking the solid oak door.
Lucenne’s hands released her shoulders instantly.
His demeanor transformed from a reluctant host to a lethal predator.
He moved silently to the corner of the room his hand wrapping around the cold steel barrel of a Winchester rifle leaning against the wall.
He cocked the lever back with a sharp terrifying clack.
Huckabe.
A voice roared from outside cutting through the howling wind.
It was a vicious mocking voice.
I She’s in there.
Open this door or I’ll burn you both out of that rat hole.
Anna clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream.
Lucien looked back at her his eyes blazing with a fierce protective fire that sent a chaotic mix of terror and electricity rushing through her veins.
Stay behind the hearth the mountain man ordered his voice devoid of fear.
And whatever happens do not make a sound.
The heavy oak door shuttered under another violent kick raining dust and dried pine bark onto the floorboards.
Outside the wind howled as if cheering on the intruders.
Anna scrambled backward her breath catching in her throat as she pressed herself into the tight shadowed al cove beside the stone chimney.
Her heart hammered a frantic sickening rhythm against her ribs.
Lucian.
Jeremiah Kraton’s voice cut through the storm again dripping with malicious amusement.
I know you’re in there you stubborn mule.
I tracked the girl’s dainty little footprints right up your ridge.
Send her out and maybe I’ll forget you’ve been harboring a thief.
Lucy and Huckabe did not flinch.
He stood in the center of the room his massive shoulders squared the Winchester rifle tucked firmly against his shoulder.
His stormy gray eyes were locked on the thick wooden planks of the door.
Kraton.
Lucien’s voice boomed deep and resonant easily carrying over the shrieking wind.
You step foot on my porch you’re a dead man.
You know I don’t miss.
A harsh grading laugh echoed from the other side.
You always were a self-righteous bastard Lucien.
But I didn’t come alone.
I’ve got Miller and Hayes with me.
You want to die over an Eastern runaway and a stolen lockbox.
Open the damn door.
Anna watched Lucien’s jaw tighten.
The realization hit her like a physical blow.
They knew each other.
This wasn’t just a random bounty hunter.
This was a man from Lucien’s paSt. Stay down.
Lucienne commanded Anna in a low tight whisper not taking his eyes off the door.
Suddenly the front window shattered.
Glass exploded inward sparkling like deadly ice in the firelight.
A heavy ironbarreled revolver shoved through the jagged frame spitting fire and thunder into the cabin.
The deafening roar of the gunshot made Anna scream pressing her hands over her ears.
The bullet tore through the air burying itself into the log wall mere inches from Lucien’s head.
Lucien didn’t hesitate.
He pivoted smoothly leveling his Winchester at the broken window and fired.
The sharp crack of the rifle was followed instantly by a choked gargle from outside.
The revolver dropped onto the snowy sill and the shadow in the window vanished.
One down.
Hayes is dead.
You son of a Kraton roared.
Before Lucien could chamber another round the front door gave way.
A massive iron shaw boot kicked the latch to splinters and the door slammed inward rebounding off the wall.
The blizzard instantly invaded the cabin.
A swirling vortex of blinding white snow and freezing air that caused the hearth flames to violently whip and sputter.
Two figures charged through the threshold.
The first was a stocky desperate looking man Miller.
Lucien swung the rifle but Miller was fast diving low and firing a wild shot from his pistol.
The bullet grazed Lucian’s thigh tearing through the thick denim and drawing a sharp grunt of pain from the mountain man.
Lucian pulled the trigger catching Miller squarely in the cheSt. The man crumpled backward into the snow drift on the porch but the distraction was exactly what Jeremiah needed.
Kraton lunged through the doorway like a rabid wolf.
He was a tall whipcord lean man with a scarred cheek and eyes as cold and lifeless as a frozen lake.
He slammed into Lucien before the mountain man could work the lever of his rifle.
The two massive men crashed to the floor the impact shaking the entire cabin.
The Winchester clattered away sliding across the bloody floorboards.
Anna watched in absolute terror as the two men brawled with savage animalistic fury.
Kraton delivered a brutal punch to Lucien’s jaw snapping the mountain man’s head back.
Lucian roared shifting his weight and driving a heavy knee intoraton’s ribs flipping the Pinkerton enforcer over.
They rolled into the center of the room crushing the heavy oak table and sending the tin coffee cups flying.
You should have stayed out of this Huckabe.
Kraton spat blood speckling his teeth as he drew a long vicious hunting knife from his belt.
The blade caught the erratic fire light.
But now I get to put you in the ground just like we did to those strikers in Colorado.
Lucien caught Kraton’s wrist straining to keep the descending blade away from his throat.
The muscles in Lucien’s neck corded his wounded leg slipping on the snow that had blown onto the floor.
I’m not that man anymore Jeremiah.
Lucien grunted through clenched teeth.
No you’re just a coward.
Kraton snarled bearing down with all his weight.
Anna saw Lucian’s arm trembling.
The blade was inches from his eye.
He was losing leverage.
The man who had taken her in who had offered her warmth and coffee while the rest of the world condemned her was about to be slaughtered on his own floor.
A sudden unfamiliar heat surged through Anna’s veins.
It wasn’t the warmth of the fire.
It was pure unadulterated rage.
She was done running.
She was done being a victim of cruel men.
William Sterling had destroyed her reputation in Philadelphia driving her into the wilderness.
Mrs. Oor and Higgins had left her to freeze.
And now this monster was trying to kill the only person who had shown her an ounce of mercy.
Anna scrambled out of the al cove.
Her eyes darted wildly and locked onto the heavy cast iron fire poker leaning against the stone hearth.
She grabbed it the blackened iron heavy and reassuring in her grip.
She rushed forward.
Kraton saw her movement out of the corner of his eye and laughed.
A cruel breathless sound.
Go ahead and run little bird.
William Sterling paid a premium for your head and I intend to collect.
The name hit Anna like a lightning bolt.
Sterling her ex fiance.
He hadn’t just framed her.
He had hired Pinkertons to hunt her down and silence her permanently.
Thomas hadn’t brought the danger to her.
She had brought it to Thomas.
I’m not running Anna breathed.
She swung the heavy iron poker with every ounce of strength her exhausted freezing body possessed.
It connected with the side of Kraton’s skull with a sickening crack.
The enforcer’s eyes rolled back.
His grip on the knife slacked and he slumped sideways collapsing heavily onto the floorboards like a sack of grain.
Lucian heaved the unconscious man off his chest gasping for air.
He sat up wiping a smear of blood from his cheek and looked up at Anna.
She stood over the fallen Pinkerton the iron poker still raised her chest heaving her eyes burning with a fierce untamed fire that rivaled the flames in the hearth.
The mountain man stared at her awe and profound respect dawning in his storm gay eyes.
Remind me.
Lucien panted a rugged breathless smirk touching his lips.
Never to get on your bad side Miss Abernathy.
The howling wind slowly began to die down.
As the midnight hour passed giving way to an eerie suffocating silence on the mountain.
Inside the cabin the heavy oak door had been propped back into place and barricaded with a heavy wooden dresser.
Kraton was bound tightly to a structural beam in the corner with thick hemp rope still unconscious and bleeding onto the floorboards.
The bodies of his two men had been dragged out to the woodshed to freeze until the ground thawed enough to dig a grave.
Anna knelt beside the hearth.
A tin basin of water steamed furiously over the fire.
She dipped a clean strip of cotton torn from the petticoat of her ruined dress into the boiling water ringing it out with trembling hands.
Lucien sat on a wooden stool beside her his chest bare.
The buffalo hide coat and bloody flannel shirt lay discarded on the floor.
His torso was a map of old violence faded white scars and deep ridges criss-crossed his muscular chest and arms telling a silent story of a brutal paSt. But Anna’s focus was on the fresh bleeding groove along his outer thigh where Miller’s bullet had grazed him.
This is going to burn Anna warned softly her voice barely above a whisper.
I’ve had worse Lucien grunted his eyes fixed on the fire.
She pressed the scalding cloth to his wound.
Lucien’s entire body tensed the muscles in his arms cording like steel cables but he didn’t make a sound.
Anna carefully cleaned the gunpowder and blood from the torn flesh her movements remarkably gentle.
As she worked she could feel his steady heavy gaze shifting from the flames to her face.
Kraton said You rode with him Anna said keeping her eyes focused on her task though her heart was fluttering nervously in her cheSt. In Colorado Lucienne let out a long slow breath.
We were Pinkertons hired guns for the railroad and the mining barons.
They sent us to break a silver miner strike in Leadville.
The orders were to intimidate butraton he liked the killing.
He ordered us to fire on a camp that had women and children in it.
Lucien’s jaw clenched his voice dropping to a grally rasp.
I put my gun toraton’s head told my men to stand down and I rode away.
I’ve been hiding up here ever since.
A ghoSt. Anna paused looking up into his rugged face.
The fire light cast deep shadows under his eyes highlighting the profound lingering guilt he carried.
You aren’t a ghost Lucien.
You saved those people.
And you saved me today.
You saved yourself Anna he corrected his voice softening as he reached out.
His large calloused hand gently brushed a stray lock of soot stained hair behind her ear.
The touch sent a cascade of electricity down her spine.
Kraton said William Sterling hired him.
Why does an Eastern Railway magnate want a woman dead in the Idaho territory.
Anna dropped her gaze wrapping a clean linen bandage securely around his thigh.
William and I were engaged.
I thought he was a gentleman but a month before the wedding I found his private ledgers.
He was embezzling millions from his own investors and using it to buy up stolen deeds in the West including Anaconda copper claiMs. When I confronted him he turned the tables.
He planted stolen jewelry in my quarters and told my family I was a thief and a hysteric.
They disowned me.
I fled west to find Thomas hoping he could help me clear my name.
She tied off the bandage and sat back on her heels feeling the exhausting weight of her reality crashing down on her.
And now Thomas is running for his life because of me.
Sterling must have realized I knew too much and sent Kraton to silence us both.
Lucien stared at her for a long moment.
Then slowly he pushed himself up from the stool.
He limped over to the far corner of the cabin near his narrow cot.
Kneeling down he wedged a hunting knife between the floorboards and popped one loose.
He reached into the dark space and pulled out a heavy ironbound lock box.
Anna gasped recognizing the Anaconda copper seal stamped into the metal the stolen script.
Lucienne brought the heavy box to the hearth and set it down between them.
He pulled a small iron key from a leather cord around his neck and unlocked it.
He popped the lid open.
Inside were not just stacks of company script but a thick leatherbound ledger.
Your brother didn’t steal this to get rich Anna Lucien said quietly.
When Thomas came through here a week ago he was panicked.
He said he had found the proof that William Sterling was illegally buying out Anaconda claims through shell companies.
Thomas stole the box to get the ledger.
He knew Kraton was tracking him so he left the box with me to keep it safe.
Anna stared at the ledger tears welling in her eyes.
Thomas isn’t a thief.
He was trying to save me and he did.
Lucien said his voice thick with emotion.
Thomas told me he was riding hard for the Canadian border to drawraton’s men away from Wallace so you could slip of the chew hound unnoticed and find a lawyer.
He’s alive Anna.
Kraton stopped chasing him the moment he got word from Sterling that you were in the territory.
You were the bigger threat.
A sob broke through Anna’s lips.
The crushing guilt and terror she had carried for weeks finally shattered.
She covered her face with her hands weeping as the adrenaline left her body.
Lucien didn’t hesitate.
He dropped to his knees beside her ignoring the burning pain in his leg and pulled her into his arMs. His embrace was like a fortress warm solid and fiercely protective.
Anna collapsed against his bare chest burying her face in the crook of his neck breathing in the scent of pine wood smoke and sweat.
You’re safe now Lucien murmured into her hair his strong arms wrapping around her trembling frame.
I swear to God Anna no one will ever touch you again she pulled back slightly looking up into his stormy gray eyes.
The walls between them were completely gone burned away by the violence and the truth they had shared.
In his eyes she didn’t see a terrifying hermit or a hardened killer.
She saw a man of honor a man who understood the weight of betrayal and the desperate need for redemption.
And Lucien looked at Anna not as a broken stray but as a warrior a woman who had braved a blizzard and fought a killer to protect him.
The air between them grew thick.
The heat of the fire paling in comparison to the sudden undeniable pull drawing them together.
Lucien’s gaze dropped to her lips his breathing growing shallow.
Anna didn’t pull away.
She leaned into him her heart pounding a new exhilarating rhythm.
Lucien cupped her cheek with his rough scarred hand and slowly deliberately pressed his lips to hers.
The kiss was desperate bruising and deeply tender all at once.
It tasted of coffee copper and profound relief.
Anna wrapped her arms around his thick neck kissing him back with all the pent up passion and longing she had buried away.
For the first time in her life she wasn’t just surviving.
She was alive.
When they finally broke apart the first pale rays of dawn were piercing through the shattered window painting the snowy cabin floor in hues of gold and pink.
The storm had passed.
Lucienne rested his forehead against hers a genuine breathtaking smile finally breaking through his rugged beard.
When the snow clears Lucien whispered his thumb tracing her jawline we’ll take that ledger down to the federal marshall in Boise.
We’ll clear your name.
And then Anna asked a hopeful radiant smile touching her own lips.
Lucien glanced around the bullet riddled blood stained cabin then looked back at her his eyes shining with a promise of tomorrow.
Then maybe you’ll come back up the mountain and sit by the fire for good.
