Dante bumped fists with his cousin, but his gaze continued to comb the growing crowd. “Any chance you’ve seen Lilly?”
Shane thumped him on the back. “Don’t you know it’s bad luck to see your bride before the deed is done?”
“You know I don’t believe in that superstitious bullshit.”
Shane chuckled. “Sorry, can’t say I’ve seen her. But I only got here a few minutes ago myself.”
“I’m sure she’s on her way.” Dante didn’t realize how desperate he’d sounded until he caught Shane’s knowing look. He fought back a scowl. “She will.”
“Yeah, I don’t doubt it.”
Dante abandoned his cousin’s side and made his way through the sea of guests, stopping occasionally to shake a proffered hand or accept yet another hug or kiss. By the time he made it to the far end of the bowling alley where the ceremony would be held, his previously stalwart nerves had begun jumping ship.
He glanced at the enormous digital clock centered on the nearby wall. Where the hell was Lilly? She should have been here by now.
“Dante!”
He swung at the sound of Kinsey Prescott’s frazzled voice. He spotted her and Chloe weaving their way through the throng. The tension uncoiled from his gut. With everything on his mind lately, he’d forgotten that part of the Prescott clan had decided to make the trip up north. No doubt that explained where Lilly had been.
Chloe made it to his side before Kinsey. Tears of happiness glistening in her eyes, she threw her arms around him and squeezed. The woman was deceptively strong for such a little thing.
Kinsey cleared her throat. “Easy, Mom, you don’t want to kill Dante with hugs before he’s even been declared your son-in-law.”
Sniffling, Chloe eased her grip. “Oh phooey. He’s a strapping boy. He can take it.”
Dante resisted the urge to check his ribs for bruises. Chloe patted his arm. “Now where is that daughter of mine? I intend to give her a proper hug before Kinsey and I walk her down the aisle.”
He frowned. “I thought Lilly was with you.”
“No, we just got into town two minutes ago.” Kinsey grimaced. “The roads were so bad last night, we opted to stay in Gaylord rather than risk ending up in a ditch.”
His festering doubts returned to the forefront. “So you haven’t seen Lilly at all this morning?”
Kinsey and Chloe both shook their heads. Before Dante could say anything more, his uncle Wayne approached their small gathering. After Dante made the introductions and explained that Wayne would be performing the ceremony, his uncle clamped a meaty fist on Dante’s shoulder. “You want me to start rounding up this crowd so we can get the show on the road?”
Shoving his brewing worries to the back of his mind, Dante nodded. As he watched his uncle amble off, he tried not to focus on the disturbing revelation that the most important person of all had yet to make an appearance.
Chapter Sixteen
Lilly shivered and blinked against the snowflakes crusted on her eyelashes. She’d never been more cold and miserable in her life. If not for her heat cycle—which had intermittently warmed her blood off and on throughout the endless night—she probably would have frozen to death long before now. But as it was, even those little bursts of sluggish heat were coming less frequently.
It would only be a matter of time before Anna’s dire prediction of the cold killing her came to fruition.
She wanted to scream and cry at the bleak emptiness of that thought, but she didn’t possess enough energy to do either. She peered dismally at the fat snow clouds overhead. What time was it? Surely Dante would have noted her absence by now. Had he begun looking for her? For all she knew, maybe he thought she’d gotten cold feet. God, that was plenty ironic, considering they were currently blocks of ice. Regardless, thanks to her behavior yesterday, she’d given him lots of reason to believe she’d jilt him at the altar.
Then again, if that didn’t seal her fate, there was always the possibility that Anna’s nefarious plan to drive the Escape into the nearby river worked.
Lilly mentally conjured the image of Kinsey and Chloe clinging to each other as they mourned the loss of Lilly. A painful ache settled in her heart. It doubled in size as she pictured Dante’s grief-stricken face. She wasn’t sure what hurt more—the notion that he’d believe she’d ran out on him, or him thinking that she’d drowned.
How much more devastating and painful would it be losing your mate? Wouldn’t the intimate bond they’d established make it a thousand times worse to bear? If she received news that Dante was dead, how would she feel?
The cramp vising her chest was all the answer she needed. She choked back a sob. A rustling noise sounded to the right of her. Muscles too numb to tense, she jerked her focus in that direction. A tree squirrel darted from the underbrush and stared at her before dashing off. Contradicting emotions warred inside Lilly. A part of her was grateful that it hadn’t been a predator looking for a meal bigger than a stashed nut, but for one bittersweet moment, she’d held on to the hope that it might be Dante.
Of course it wouldn’t be him. Other than Anna, no one knew she was out here. More than likely they’d never discover the truth of what had happened to her.
A fresh surge of anguish heated her blood, temporarily banishing a fraction of the chills racking her body. The brief reprieve also managed to fire up her determination to find a way out of her predicament. Although she’d failed during the countless times she’d struggled to escape her bindings during the night, she renewed her efforts to wiggle her wrists enough to loosen the bungees securing them to the tree branch. They wouldn’t budge. An exhausted wave of defeat threatened to swamp her, but she beat it off before it could suck her under. Closing her eyes, she concentrated all of her energy on shifting into her lynx form. Her body stubbornly refused to cooperate. The drugs Anna had given her must still be lurking in her system.
Refusing to bow to the mocking voice of fate, she gathered her wits into a relative semblance of order. There had to be a way to free herself. Glancing upward, she inspected the branch her arms were secured to. Maybe the key wasn’t freeing her wrists from the bungees, but somehow getting the branch to snap. It looked thick and sturdy, but apply enough of her dead weight to the task, and surely it would crack. Yeah, it was a long shot, but it was better than doing nothing and waiting here to die.
Dropping her focus, she eyed the strap bound just below her knees. That was probably the easier of the bindings to work on. She wiggled her legs, scissoring them as much as the nylon cord would allow. For several agonizing and painstaking minutes, she repeated her tiny, awkward motions until she felt a noticeable give in the strap. The small victory sent a thrill of victory shooting through her trembling limbs.
Gathering every ounce of her strength, she pulled away from the tree trunk and let her body slump forward. Now that the lower strap wasn’t holding her entirely, there was nothing to protect her muscles from bearing the brunt of her weight. They screamed in protest at the additional pain being inflicted on them. Desperately blocking out the agony, she set her chattering teeth and wrenched harder until she was certain her arms were seconds away from being torn from their sockets.
A pathetic, blubbery sob escaped her just as an unmistakable crack snapped overhead. At first she thought it might be her bones producing the sound, but suddenly the branch securing her right wrist broke with an audible groan. Dazed and disbelieving, it took her a moment to realize she was now partially free. Her brain and limbs impotently sluggish, she wrestled her arm from the broken section of branch before reaching behind her to fumble with her still-trapped wrist. Loosening the bungee one-handed was no easy feat, but eventually she pried the hooks apart. Weak and limp, she fell forward into the snow.