Page 172 of Cowboys & Navy SEALs
Hot needles rained down on Delaney as she looked at Corbin’s strangled expression. Then she saw the look of triumph on Madison’s face.
It took every ounce of control she could muster to keep from clocking the idiotic woman.
Time to act,her mind screamed. At the same moment, Corbin cleared his throat like he was trying to come up with something to say that would smooth things over.Before she could talk herself out of it, Delaney took off the wig, her hair tumbling around her shoulders. Tonight, she’d left off the hairnet and fixed the wig loosely on her head for this very purpose.
Madison’s eyes bugged as Corbin’s narrowed.
“You’re Delaney Mitchell,” Madison stammered.
She threw back her head, tossing a hand through her hair. “In the flesh,” she said loudly.
“What’re you doing?” Corbin muttered.
Before he could grab her arm, she rushed forward and climbed onto the stage. The music dribbled off as the musicians stopped playing one by one, gaping at her like she was aghost. Murmurs rustled through the crowd. She smiled brightly, stepping up to the lead singer. “May I?”
“Of course.” He gave her an enamored grin as he handed her the microphone and stepped back.
Showtime.“Good evening, Birchwood Springs!” she boomed. “It’s a pleasure to be here with you tonight.”
Thunderous applause rippled through the audience. “It’s Delaney Mitchell,” a man yelled.
“I’d like to sing one of my favorites, a song about my home state of Alabama.” She looked at the man holding the guitar. “May I?”
“Of course,” he said proudly, removing the strap and handing it to her.
Delaney could only imagine what Corbin must be thinking, but she was doing what had to be done. She started playing and singing. The band joined in shortly. She was only halfway through the song when she saw Corbin striding towards her, a furious expression on his handsome face.
He took her arm. “Let’s go,” he hissed in her ear.
She jerked out of his grasp, continuing the song.
“I said, let’s go,” he repeated.
Before she could protest, he put his arms around her waist and threw her over his shoulder, the guitar falling noisily to the floor. Boos rang out across the audience as he carried her offstage.
“Put me down,” she demanded, beating his shoulders and kicking. He paid her no mind, carrying her through the backstage area and out the exit door. Of all the humiliating things to do! “I said put me down!” she screamed.
Finally, he did so, dropping her on the ground where she landed square on her rear end. “Ouch,” she yelped.
He ran both hands through his hair, a look of disbelief on his face. He pointed at the resort “What was that all about? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
She jumped to her feet. “On the contrary, I’m trying to save us.”
“How? By letting the whole world know where you are?”
“By luring the bear to us.”
The whites of his eyes popped. “What?”
“Wallace told me the story about the bear and how people got killed because it attacked when they were unaware.”
He barked out an incredulous laugh. “Are you talking about that stupid bear story Pops tells?”
She rocked back. “Yeah, but it wasn’t a story. It really happened to him and his hunting buddies.”
He shook his head in disgust. “Yeah, it happened, but the story gets bigger with the bear growing more ferocious and more people dying every time he tells it.”
She gulped in a breath, horror trickling down her spine. “Wallace said that Hugh would eventually find us and that it would be better here, where we can get prepared.”
