Nerd Gone Wild Read online

  “You’re strong,” Ally said. “Stronger than I thought you’d be.”

  Vivian smiled in satisfaction. “That’s more like it. Why don’t you try begging for your life? Who knows, I might reconsider.”

  Oh, sure she would. Ally wasn’t into begging, but she was into stalling. The longer she stayed alive, the more likely she could figure out a way to overcome Vivian. “It’s a good thing you didn’t hook up with Mitch. You’re way too much woman for him.”

  “I knew that.” Her lip curled. “Wimpy little nerdling. He missed out. I could have taught him a few things. I’m sure he’s boring in bed.”

  “Oh, yeah, totally.” If Vivian didn’t kill her, she might be struck dead for telling such a whopper of a lie.

  Vivian sighed. “I could have whipped him into shape. He has nice buns.”

  “I suppose.” It was as if they were two girlfriends dishing about a guy they both knew. If the situation hadn’t been potentially lethal, Ally might have laughed.

  “I insist on nice buns. That’s a number one prior—” She paused. “What’s that noise?”

  Ally couldn’t hear much with the wind blowing and her head pressed into the snow.

  “Maybe it’s hunters.” Still holding the gun on Ally, Vivian climbed off her. “Get up, but don’t try anything.”

  Getting slowly to her feet as she kept her eye on Vivian’s trigger finger, she brushed off some of the snow. And now she heard the noise. A snowmobile.

  She cautioned herself not to get too excited. Sound carried out here, and the snowmobile could be quite a distance away. It might not be headed in this direction at all. Except that the noise got louder. And louder. Soon she could see it, coming across the open area toward them. Coming fast.

  “Get back toward the trees!” Vivian grabbed Ally’s camera out of the snowbank where it had fallen during their wrestling match. “If anybody asks, you and I are taking pictures. Got it?”

  “Got it.” As if Ally planned to let these snowmobilers have a chat with them and leave. Uh-huh. And if Vivian thought Ally wouldn’t make use of this heaven-sent arrival, she was completely crazy. Which, of course, she was.

  Nevertheless, Ally went back to the trees at gunpoint and brushed the snow off her camera, as if she’d go along with the story like a good girl. But no matter what she tried, she had to be careful not to put an innocent person in the line of fire. Vivian would shoot any witnesses in a heartbeat.

  “I’ll stand behind you, so they won’t see the gun,”

  “Yeah, they might get suspicious if they see the gun.”

  “Shut up.” Vivian jammed the barrel right under Ally’s left shoulder blade.

  As the snowmobile came nearer, Ally began to suspect who was driving it. Only one person in the area had both a snowmobile and a bushy red beard. And when she realized who was riding behind Rudy, she got really scared. She felt like yelling for them to go back. Mitch was not up to this.

  But if he caught on to the situation, he would try to save her, bless his heart. And Vivian would get great pleasure out of shooting him, after he’d turned down her sexual advances. If she had the chance, she might even torture him first.

  And Rudy was big and brawny, but he was also an old-fashioned kind of guy. He would probably hesitate to tackle a woman, so he could be a sitting duck for someone as deadly as Vivian. He’d never expect her to be serious about shooting someone with a gun. He might even assume it wasn’t loaded.

  They’d probably come out here to see how the photo shoot was going. Mitch had been worried about Ally, so he’d probably talked Rudy into coming out here with him to check on them. Ally’s job was to tell them everything was fine and they could go back home now. She wasn’t about to let either of them get shot.

  As they pulled up and climbed off the snowmobile, she smiled and waved. “Hi, guys! You just missed a pair of ptarmigan! I got a couple of really good shots.”

  “Is that right?” Mitch was on the far side of the snowmobile and leaned down, doing something with his boot. Probably hadn’t zipped it up tight. Then he took off his goggles.

  Ally expected him to put on his glasses after that, but he didn’t. That was strange. Maybe he’d left them back at the Loose Moose. Good God, now she’d have to worry about him even more if he was blind as a bat.

  “So everything’s going good?” Rudy stood by the snowmobile, his hands in his pockets. He seemed to be waiting for Mitch.

  “Yeah, Tanya and I are making terrific progress. So if that’s all you wanted to know, you can head on back. I’m sure Mitch was glad to get a ride, though. He loves these machines.”

  Mitch came around from the snowmobile, his hands in his pockets, too. “Actually, we had a reason for coming out here besides that.”

  Vivian laughed. “If you brought wine and cheese, that’s very sweet, but we’re working. This isn’t a picnic.”

  Mitch drew closer, his boots crunching in the snow. He glanced around, as if taking note of the area where Vivian and Ally had rolled. Then he surveyed the two of them and their parkas, which still had plenty of snow clinging to them.

  He didn’t seem to be squinting at all. In fact, he acted as if he could see perfectly well. “Oh, I’m sure it’s not a picnic, Vivian.”

  It took a beat before Ally realized that Mitch had called Vivian by her real name. Her gaze locked with his. At that moment she knew he could see just fine without his glasses.

  She didn’t have time to wonder about that now. Silently she mouthed the words I know. His eyesight had to be excellent, because he got the message. His nod was slight, but she saw it.

  But Vivian wasn’t giving up. “Who are you referring to, Mitchell? There’s no one named Vivian here.”

  “You mean there’s no one named Tanya Mandell here,” Rudy said. “You’re a fake. Tanya Mandell’s on one of them safaris in Africa.”

  Vivian laughed. “I canceled that trip so I could come here! I guess I didn’t notify everyone. Where did you hear that, Mitchell?”

  “Give it up, Vivian,” Mitch said. “Kurt told us who you are. So let’s all go back to Porcupine now, shall we?”

  “No, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Vivian said.

  “Yes, you will.” Mitch pulled a gun out of his pocket. “Now.”

  Ally stared at it. Two guns in one day was two more than she’d ever seen in her life, except in the movies or on TV. So Mitch could see without his glasses and he had a gun. It was slightly possible Grammy had hired a bodyguard, after all.

  “Why, Mitchell, you little sneak, you.” Vivian sounded more excited than worried by this turn of events. “You’re not a geeky boy after all, are you?”

  “Oh, yeah, I still am. But now I’m a geeky boy with a gun. And we’re all going back to Porcupine. The police should be there by now. They might even be headed out this way.”

  “Nicely finessed, Mitchell.” Vivian pulled the gun from behind Ally’s back and placed the muzzle up against her temple. “But I hate it when someone gives me orders. Really hate it. And you see, I still have the winning hand. Can you spell the word ransom, Mitchell?”

  “Don’t try it, Vivian.” Mitch’s gun hand didn’t waver.

  “Oh, I’ll do more than try it. I’ll do it. Either you head on back to Porcupine and call off the cops, or your rich little girlfriend’s brains will be splattered all over this clean, white snow. And I know how you’d hate to see that happen.”

  Mitch paled and his throat moved in a swallow. But his voice remained steady. “You wouldn’t follow through,” he said. “You pull the trigger and you’re a dead woman.”

  “I go back with you and I’m a dead woman. I crave freedom. I crave men. Lock me up in a cage with nothing but women around and no vibrator in sight? It would be a hundred times worse than dying! Don’t make the mistake of calling my bluff. I’m not bluffing.”

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Mitch had played a lot of poker in his life, and most of the time he’d won, not counting when he’d want
ed to lose, like last night with Ally. He could usually spot a bluffer. Unfortunately, Vivian didn’t show any of the signs.

  “You had your little fun giving orders, Mitchell. Now it’s my turn. Toss your gun into that snowbank over there.” She tilted her head to Mitch’s right.

  “Don’t do it, Mitch,” Ally said. “She’ll kill us all. That gun is your only insurance that she won’t.”

  “How sweet. Your girlfriend’s worried about you, even if she puts herself at risk. It looks like true love. Too bad it’s doomed. I’ll count to three. On three, unless your gun’s in the snow, I’ll pull the trigger. One, t—”

  Mitch tossed his gun away. He wondered what was going through Rudy’s mind right now. Damn, he didn’t even know if Rudy had ever shot a gun in his life. But at least they still had something going for them. Then he heard the sound of dogs barking, and wondered what in hell that was.

  “That would be Ernie coming with his dogsled,” Rudy said. “And Dave.”

  Oh, yeah. And Ernie might or might not be sober. And he had a shotgun. Mitch would have welcomed a sharpshooter with a rifle, but a drunk guy with a shotgun—not so much. Mitch noticed that Rudy didn’t mention the shotgun, though. Maybe Rudy was playing it cool, waiting to see what developed. Mitch wished he’d asked Rudy if he’d ever shot a gun before.

  “My, my,” Vivian said. “Quite a little gathering we’ll have out here. Now you can all go back together. I’ll contact you and let you know where to send the check.”

  The dogsled pulled up alongside the two snowmobiles and Dave hopped out first. “So what’s going on? Ernie said he wasn’t sure. He’d had a couple of drinks, and the phone connection wasn’t so good when Clyde called, but he got the idea that he should come on out here and see what was happening.”

  “Hold it, everybody!” Ernie reached into the dogsled and pulled out a shotgun. “There’s a couple of ptarmigan in that tree about ten feet above where you’re standing. Them’s real good eatin’ and I just ran out of the ones I had stashed in the freezer. Just let me get a shot off, and then we can see what’s what.”

  “Ernie, wait!” Mitch trembled to think what might happen if Ernie started shooting in Ally’s direction.

  “Don’t do that, Ernie,” Dave said, starting back toward him.

  “They taste great, I’m tellin’ ya. Now hold still, everybody!”

  “No!” Vivian yelled. “Do not—”

  The shotgun roared. A snow-covered branch cracked and fell right on top of Ally and Vivian. As they went down, another shot rang out.

  Mitch leaped forward and pulled away the branch. “Ally! My God, Ally!”

  She lay there motionless.

  Vivian, however, staggered to her feet and started searching the snow for her gun.

  “No you don’t!” Rudy was on her immediately. He pulled out Clyde’s gun and shoved the barrel under her chin. “Don’t try anything or I’ll drill ya! Don’t worry, Mitch, I got her. You see to Ally.”

  Mitch dropped to his knees and took Ally by the shoulders. Slowly he turned her over, his heart pounding with fear at what he might find.

  Her eyes opened. “Mitch? What happened?”

  His breath came out in a rush. She was alive. But she might be shot and not realize it. “A branch fell,” he said, his voice thick with worry. “Where does it hurt, Ally?”

  “The back of my head.”

  He slid his hand gently under her head and groaned in relief when he didn’t feel any blood. “That’s it? Nowhere else?”

  “I have another bump on the side of my head, where she hit me with the gun. And probably some bruises from wrestling in the snow.”

  He looked her over from head to toe. “But no bullet holes.”

  “No, no bullet holes. Mitch, you’re grinning like you just won the lottery.”

  “Yeah. I know.” He couldn’t stop looking at her. She was alive. She was alive.

  Ernie came wandering over carrying his shotgun in the crook of his arm. “Everybody all right? Sorry about that.”

  Dave grabbed him. “Ernie, you shouldn’t have fired that gun. What if your aim had been off?”

  “Looks like it was off! I missed those danged birds and hit the branch by mistake! Didn’t mean to have the branch collapse on those ladies.”

  “This one I got ahold of is no lady,” Rudy said. “You got any rope in your sled, Ernie?”

  “I reckon.”

  “Then how about getting it so we can tie her up good and tight?”

  Vivian glanced up at Rudy. “Say, handsome, have you ever let a woman tie you up before you have sex?”

  Rudy cleared his throat. “Can’t say as I have.”

  “Believe me, you’d love it, and I know exactly how it’s done. How about you and me go back to town right now, and I’ll give you a personal demonstration?”

  “Sorry,” Rudy said. “I got me a girlfriend. Besides, next on my list is oral sex. If that goes okay, I’ll ask Lurleen about this tying-up stuff.”

  “Here’s your rope.” Ernie returned carrying a coil over his shoulder. He still had his shotgun, as if hoping the ptarmigan would show up again.

  “I’ll help tie,” Dave said. “I was a Boy Scout. I know my knots.”

  “I could give all three of you some experience with bondage,” Vivian said. “We can start right now. How about it?”

  “Bondage?” Ernie said. “No, thanks. I don’t go for fancy investments. I got everything in CDs. Listen, Dave, how about you ride back on one of them snowmobiles? Once she’s trussed up, she won’t be able to ride, so I’ll carry her back to town on the sled.”

  “I can do that,” Dave said.

  “That would be great, Ernie,” Mitch added. And then maybe Dave would go with Rudy, and Mitch could take Ally. Right now he didn’t feel like trusting her to anyone else.

  “Then I’ll go rearrange things in there so it’s all ready.” Ernie walked off, shotgun still cradled in one arm.

  Mitch gazed after him. “What he did worked out great and maybe saved your life, but he could have gotten you killed. I don’t know whether to hit him or kiss him.”

  Ally brushed some of the snow out of her hair. “You know, Mitch, all things considered, that’s exactly how I feel about you.”

  * * *

  Ally rode back with Mitch because Rudy and Dave obviously thought it was the right thing to do. But she had some very mixed feelings about him. Yes, he’d come to her rescue, but that didn’t completely erase the fact that he’d been dishonest with her from the beginning. He’d had sex with her under false pretenses. She didn’t like that.

  Well, she’d liked the sex, but she didn’t like the false pretenses. He’d planted that bug under her bed, no question. Double agents, indeed. He was the double agent, masquerading as a nerd when in fact he was a… what? Not a nerd, that was certain. No wonder he had that killer body.

  Maybe he drove a snowmobile well because he was used to a motorcycle. Maybe all along he’d been toying with her, laughing at how naive she was to believe he was a nerd with a crush. Instead he was a professional hired to guard her with his gun, his surveillance equipment, and his body.

  She kept returning to the subject of his body, probably because she had to wrap her arms around that body while they whizzed back to town. Yesterday, although she hadn’t loved the loud machine, she’d loved riding it with Mitch. Anticipating his movements and matching his rhythm had felt sexual.

  It still did. And that was a problem, because she didn’t know where she and Mitch stood right now. He’d finished his job here in Alaska. He’d probably finished finalizing all the details of the estate. He’d lied to her, but he’d given her great orgasms. She was in lust, maybe even a little in love. How was she supposed to process all that?

  When they arrived in town, Uncle Kurt’s fifth wheel was still there, as if nothing had changed. But two official-looking SUVs were parked in front of the Top Hat. Things had changed.

  Mitch eased back on the gas. “They’ll
want to talk to you. But I can take you to the lodge first, if you want some time.”

  She hadn’t known exactly what she wanted until she’d seen that fifth wheel. Now she did. “Please stop at the Top Hat. I want to talk to Uncle Kurt.”

  “You’ve got it.” He pulled in next to one of the state trooper vehicles.

  “And after that, I want to talk to you.”

  “Whenever you say.”

  She couldn’t resist a dig. “Because you work for me? Is that why you’re being so cooperative?”

  He shut off the motor and took off his helmet. “No.” He stared straight ahead. “In fact, I’ve decided to quit.”

  Panic set in. “You promised you wouldn’t! I remember that distinctly.” Among other things. She also distinctly remembered the look in his eyes when she’d whipped off her sweatshirt, and the way he’d torn her panties off, and the way he’d loved her better than any man, ever.

  “That was when I thought you still needed me,” he said. “Aside from the fact that I bungled this assignment, I don’t think you—”

  “I’m here, aren’t I? If you hadn’t come out there when you did, I would be dead right now.”

  He sighed. “I should have figured it out sooner. All the evidence was there.”

  “I should have figured it out sooner, too.” She took off her helmet and goggles before climbing off the snowmobile. Then she looked into his eyes, so vulnerable without the glasses. Her heart ached for him. He thought he’d failed her. That, more than anything, made her ready to forgive. “Neither of us saw this coming, Mitch.”

  “But I was paid to see it coming.”

  She gazed at him. “Do you allow yourself to make mistakes?”

  “Not when someone could die.”

  “But I didn’t.” She hung the helmet and goggles on the handlebars. “I’m going in. I’d really appreciate it if you’d go with me.”