He leaned over to the right and picked up something that was lying on the floor. In his open palm, I saw a small round pellet. “Son of a bitch,” he said, standing and whirling around in a graceful move I’d seen him pull off on a snowboard. “I’m not an avid hunter or anything, but this looks like goddamn buckshot.”

“What?” My shriek had to have burst his eardrums. “Are you serious?”

He nodded. “Fuck-a-duck, that’s what it looks like.”

I couldn’t believe it. “But doesn’t a buck shell, like, spread out? Wouldn’t we’ve been hit?”

“I don’t know.” He tipped his head back, and the edges of his brown hair grazed the collar of his hoodie. “If someone aimed for the top of the window, it has to be possible that the spray would’ve missed us.”

I shivered again, but this time it had nothing to do with the cold. “You really think someone was aiming for us?”

Kyler said nothing.

“That’s crazy,” I whispered, and then added, louder, “Do you think it’s a good idea to be standing in front of the window, if that’s the case?”

“No one’s out there now, and neither of us was paying attention before…. Someone could’ve been standing right in the opening for all we know.”

“Watching us?” I was hot and cold all at once. Our eyes met, and then I looked away, swallowing against the sudden nausea. I’d been topless and his hand had been… Someone could’ve been watching that?

Someone with really bad aim?

“Could it have been someone hunting?” I asked, hopeful.

His brows formed a deep V. “In this kind of weather? It’s a blizzard out there.”

“It’s West Virginia. People hunt here in all kinds of conditions.”

Kyler turned back to the broken windowpane. “If that’s the case, a bear must’ve been hanging from our roof.”

I would have rather believed that than that someone actually had been shooting at us, but after the guy on the snowmobile I wasn’t so sure I could consider those two situations to be coincidences. But it didn’t make sense. I couldn’t imagine anyone being that mad at us. Fear trickled in, though, as icy as the wind.

What if that shot really had been on purpose?

Kyler

Pure mother fucking rage boiled my blood, where, a few moments ago, a different kind of anger had been lighting me up from the inside. Lust fueled with an indignant disbelief and anger. Syd wanted me to fuck her like a one-night stand? Like that was all I was good for, and that would be good enough for her?

What. The. Fuck.

But really, that wasn’t the most pressing issue at the moment. I’d deal with that later.