The man glanced past Mitch toward Simone sitting on a rock. To her credit, she waved and smiled, putting on a good show. She’d obviously learned how to do that—pretend like nothing bothered her—and Mitch wondered why the hell he hadn’t picked up on that sooner.

Shaking the thought out of his head, he refocused on the man who was saving their bacon.

“Sure,” Judd answered. “Might be kind of tight, though. Truck’s only got two seats. As long as you and your girl don’t mind sharing, the more the merrier.”

Simone wasn’t his girl, and she never really had been. That was the problem here. For a minute, Mitch reconsidered. Freezing to death didn’t sound so bad, not when he was faced with having to cozy up to Simone so soon after she’d kicked his teeth in—again.

He worked up a smile for Judd. Only for Judd. “Perfect. We appreciate it, man.”

He turned and motioned for Simone to join them. Judd moved around the truck and climbed into the driver’s seat. When Simone reached Mitch’s side, she was breathless again, her cheeks rosy, her nose a red little ball in the center of her face he didn’t want to kiss, dammit.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“I got us a ride.” He pulled the door open. “Judd, this is Simone.”

Judd smiled and leaned toward the steering wheel to get a better look at her. “Well, hello, pretty lady.” He looked past Simone to Mitch. “You caught yourself a nice one there. Go ahead and toss your gear in the back.”

Mitch pulled off his pack and put it in the bed of the truck. As Simone handed him her snowshoes, she whispered, “What am I, a fish?”

He put his snowshoes in the back with hers and shot her a warning look. “No, fish have hearts. We can leave you out here if you’d rather.”

She glared his way and moved toward the open door, but when she looked inside again, her eyes flared, just a touch. “There’s only one seat.”

“I told your husband it would be tight,” Judd said, flipping on the heaters.

“He’s not my husband.”

Mitch came around next to her and climbed into the truck. The way he figured it, the less this guy knew, the better off they’d all be. “Boyfriend.” He grabbed Simone’s hand and tugged her in to sit on his lap. “Always have to be so technical, don’t you, honey?”

She narrowed her eyes and looked down at him while he pulled the door closed. He fixed her with a silent look, telling her to deal with it.

The truck bounced along the snowy gravel as Judd backed out of the lot, then shifted into gear. Simone braced one hand on the dashboard and slid the other around Mitch’s shoulder to keep from falling off his lap. Heat seeped into Mitch’s skin even through the layers of clothing between them, and her scent filled his head, making him achingly aware of her cute little ass brushing his groin with every single rock of the vehicle.

Stay focused. She doesn’t want you, remember?

“You two up here vacationing?”

“We don’t look like locals to you?” Simone asked.

Judd slid a look over her spendy parka and new hiking boots, the ones they’d snagged from Kendrick’s house, which he kept around for guests. “No, definitely not locals. My guess is San Francisco. Maybe LA, but I doubt it.”

Simone tensed against his lap, and Mitch snaked his arm around her waist to hold her in place. The last thing he needed was for her to give this local any reason to tell people about the strange couple he’d picked up on the road. If someone was looking for them, he wasn’t leaving a trail. “Seattle, actually. We flew into Reno a few days ago and rented a car. Gonna be a bitch explaining how we lost it to the rental agency.”

“Eh, they have those things insured,” Judd said as he pulled out onto the highway. “You’ll be fine.”

Simone turned to look down at Mitch, and the surprise in her eyes told him she hadn’t expected him to be able to lie so easily.

See, sweetheart, you’re not the only one who can do it.

Tearing his gaze from hers, he looked out the windshield at the wet pavement. The hills on both sides of the road were all covered in snow, making the area look like a winter wonderland.

Her jacket was puffy and thick, but he could still feel her breast pressing sideways against his chest, could still feel her heat radiating into every inch of his body. Clenching his jaw, Mitch told himself to just get through this, then it would be smooth sailing.

“What is that?” Simone asked.

They rounded a bend, and brake lights shone in the distance. As Judd slowed the vehicle, Mitch looked past Simone toward a fire truck on the side of the road and the handful of firefighters hosing down a smoking vehicle. He couldn’t tell what kind of car it had been at first. It was nothing more than a blackened pile of burned metal. Then he caught sight of the bumper, lying askew against the pavement, and the license plate angled their direction.

“Oh my God,” Simone muttered.

“Ouch,” Judd muttered. “Guarantee whoever was in that car didn’t make it.”

The hillside next to the wreckage was black, the snow all melted. The highway had been closed down to one lane, and police were directing traffic. Mitch scanned the accident scene as they crept by. A black SUV, definitely, just like the one they’d driven.

“Crying shame,” Judd muttered.

“Looks like they lost it on the ice,” Mitch managed, his throat thick. Though that wasn’t really what it looked like to him. It looked like the vehicle had caught fire somehow and gone up in flames.

“That wasn’t just ice, sonny,” Judd answered. “Looks like a bomb went off.”

Simone’s head jerked Mitch’s way, and he saw the horror in her eyes.

He knew what she was thinking. The same damn thing he was. He shook his head slowly, hoping she didn’t do or say anything to give them away.

They passed the accident, and, thankfully, traffic slowly picked up. Tugging the phone from his pocket, Mitch looked down at the screen and silently rejoiced when it registered service. Simone shifted on his lap to see what he was looking at, and sparks of electricity pulsed through his groin on reflex.

Dammit. The sooner they got to town, the faster he could get away from her and her sultry heat. And figure out what the hell was going on.

In town, at the junction of Highway 28, which ran around the lake, Judd asked, “What hotel are you two staying at?”

“We’re actually staying at a condo,” Mitch said. “If you could just drop us at the Safeway around the corner, we can give our friends a call to pick us up.”

“Sure that’s where you want to go?” Judd asked, making a right turn.

No, Mitch wanted to get the hell out of here, but it was the best he could do for now. He nodded.

Judd pulled into the grocery store’s parking lot and put the truck in Park. Simone popped the door and climbed out, leaving behind a chill that spread over Mitch.

“Thank you so much,” Simone said.

Mitch grabbed his pack and their snowshoes from the bed of the truck, then looked back into the cab. “We appreciate it.”

“No problem. You two have a great vacation.”

Judd waved and pulled out of the parking lot. When they were alone, Simone turned her worried gaze on Mitch. “That was our car.”

“Not here.” Mitch nodded toward the store. “Why don’t you get us some coffee? They’ve got a Starbucks.”

Simone flashed him an annoyed look, but he didn’t care.

“I’ll meet you out here in a few minutes.” He swung his pack over his shoulder and headed away from the store, into an empty area of the parking lot, and dialed Ford’s number.

“Ben Ford,” a voice said in his ear moments later.

“Hey, Ford. It’s Mathews. We need a ride.”

“Where the hell have you been?” Ford asked. “I was about to send Search and Rescue up to Martis Peak to look for you. You were supposed to check in hours ago.”

Mitch was thankful that hadn’t happened. “Sorry about that. We got snowed in at the lookout last night. When we came down this morning, we discovered our car was gone.”

“Damn vandals. Nowhere’s safe anymore. Where are you?”

Mitch had a sinking feeling it wasn’t just vandals, but he wasn’t about to tell Ford that. “Tahoe Vista. Safeway parking lot.”

“Car’s on its way.”

“Thanks, man. I do need one other favor, though.”

“Shoot.”

“Kendrick mentioned you have a contact at the local police department. We passed an accident on the way down the mountain. Can you find out the make and model of the car and if anyone was injured?”

“Yeah,” Ford said hesitantly. “You think it was your ride?”

Um, yeah, he was almost positive it was their ride. “I don’t know,” he lied. “But if it was, it’s a rental, and I need to be able to tell the agency what happened.”

“Okay,” Ford answered. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

When Mitch hung up, Simone was just walking out the grocery store’s automatic doors, two steaming paper cups in her gloved hands. His heart squeezed at the sight of her, and another burst of loss rushed through him, a reaction that only irritated him more. He was done getting his teeth kicked in. Done pretending this wasn’t exactly what it was: the worst damn thing he could imagine.

He took the cup from her without looking into her eyes. Yeah, he was done doing that too. “Thanks.”

“Did you get a hold of Ford?” She wrapped both hands around her cup and shivered, and he fought the urge to pull her close and warm her with his body.

“He’s on his way.”

She pressed her lips together and glanced around the parking lot. They were far enough from any other cars, so no one wandering in and out of the store could hear them. “That wasn’t a random accident up there, was it?”