Matt sensed from the look Dr. Uvi shot him that things were about to get more stressful and Piper was already clearly upset.
“Come on, we can fill out all those forms outside and grab a coffee from the vending machine,” Matt said. She just nodded and turned her back before she could see the vet nod at him. “I could certainly do with a hot drink.”
Fifteen minutes of listening to chilling howls from the lobby later, and a harassed looking veterinary nurse emerged carrying the beige pet carrier. “She’s a feisty madam, that’s for sure!” She put the box on the floor and handed Piper a box of medication. “Instructions are printed on the box. Keep her as quiet, warm, and inactive as you can. She’s booked in for the op the day after tomorrow and we’ve put a cone on her. She went for the tail a couple of times so the doctor’s not sure she can be trusted with that bandage. Try to keep it on her if you can.”
“Oh poor baby,” Piper crooned through the slats of the carrier and a claw shot out. “I’d be angry, too, sweetheart.”
Matt settled the bill, thanked the nurse, and picked up the box. “I’ll carry her to the car. We’ll need to be quick if we want to make it back into town. It’s getting bad out there.”
Piper grabbed the sleeve of his jacket.
“Are you a humane and understanding person behind all the CEO stuff?”
“What?”
“I need another favor.”
“Go on.”
“Could you keep the cat at your place for the night?”
“Why? You scared of her now? If you don’t want to keep her after all, nobody will judge you.”
“Can you or not? I think my furnace is broken again and I won’t be able to get a guy out until tomorrow or even later with this storm. It’s going to be really cold and I don’t think she’s going to take kindly to crawling under a blanket with me tonight.”
“Piper, are you crazy? It’s supposed to be the coldest night in years. What makes you think you’re going to have a great night with or without the cat?”
The strip light in the lobby flickered. “I’ll be fine, but I’m worried about her. I’d never forgive myself if—”
“Neither would I, and we have no way of knowing how long this storm is going to last.” He put the carrier down and stared through the glass double doors for a moment. Somebody needed to keep an eye on Piper whether she liked it or not. Independent and sassy she may well be, but he needed her in the next few weeks and he wasn’t about to let his best-laid plans fall apart. His concern was purely practical, and had nothing to do with the image his mind was torturing him with: a picture of her shivering under a thin blanket in the dark. Alone, worrying about her feral cat, possibly sobbing… “Are your folks in Passion Creek? Could I take you both there?”
She looked horrified. “No way. Sophie’s making the place crowded as it is, and my mom doesn’t like pets because of the way they shed. She’s OCD on the cleaning front. Besides, I’m a big girl and I have blankets. I’ll be fine.”
He shook his head. “A buddy, then? You can’t spend a night like this alone in sub-zero temperatures with no heating.”
Her face lit up. “Genius idea, why didn’t I think of that? Yes, my friend Melanie will let us stay the night, no problem. I’ll call her on the way.”
“Excellent, then let’s get out of here.”
Piper jabbed at the screen of her phone irritably. She’d tried five times to send a text to Melanie and each time it had bounced back as undelivered. Her network coverage was virtually non-existent, but what choice did she have but to keep trying to call?
“Can’t get a text to go through. She wasn’t answering earlier,” she muttered, half to herself, half to Matt. “And damn, now that I’ve got a signal, I’m going straight to voicemail again.”
Matt raised his voice over the lash of the windshield wipers thrashing back and forth in the screaming wind. “What if she’s not there?”
Piper continued to listen to Melanie’s voice recording. “She will be.”
“Can you be absolutely sure about that? What if she’s not?”
She frowned at the question and then her hands flew to her mouth as the road ahead disappeared beneath a wall of falling snow and rock. “Watch out!”
“Shit,” Matt growled and braked so quickly and so hard it was like being kicked by a horse in the chest when the seat belts activated. He swerved the car to the left, avoiding hitting the six-foot-high wall, but coming perilously close to the mountainside of the road—harsh, black jagged, unforgiving rock. His breath came out in short bursts. Even Superman had his limits, it seemed. The engine whined. “That was close.”
“Holy crap.” Piper heard the shake in her voice, but it was okay to be scared and in a state of shock. They could have been buried alive or crushed to death if he hadn’t reacted so quickly. Even the cat had fallen silent.
Matt took a deep breath, gripped the steering wheel, and closed his eyes briefly. “Nobody this side of that avalanche is going back to Passion Creek tonight.” His eyes opened and they were dark and serious when they connected with hers. “Before you say anything, I’m not going to argue with you, Piper, okay?” He looked edgy, but maybe he was in shock, too. “I’m taking you to my cabin.”
“Oh no, I don’t think—”
“No, don’t think about it at all because you have no choice.” He snatched his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and jabbed at the screen for a few seconds. “We have no choice. If we don’t get shelter in the next fifteen minutes or so we could be in serious trouble.”
He carefully turned the car around and she could see a muscle working in his jaw as he concentrated on the maneuver. She wanted to protest, to try and find some other way of not being taken into the middle of nowhere with Matt DeLeo, but was too frightened by their brush with death to even speak as they roared off. They passed by the veterinary center again and neither of them spoke to confirm what she had suspected and feared. All the lights were out, even in the parking lot, which Matt’s headlights showed was now empty.
“Power’s out,” he announced flatly and squinted through the windshield. Visibility had gone beyond poor to verging on the impossible. “Hold tight. Five miles.”
Piper squeezed her eyes shut against the black and white whirlpool of the ferocious, unforgiving night. She was clenching her fists the way she did in the dentist’s chair and she had a tension headache brewing. Not surprising. Just five miles and they would be safe and another nightmare would take its place; she’d be stranded with Matt DeLeo, on his territory, with no polite means of escape, and no clean underwear. It truly had been the shittiest of days and it wasn’t over yet. If it wasn’t for the poor little cat…