Everything in the room was quaint and charming, and the idea of sleeping in any bed at all was beyond welcome. Cozying up with Axel . . . The thought made her shiver and flush.

A door in the corner led to a bathroom with a pedestal sink and an old claw-foot tub. And a toilet with a pump handle to flush. After making use of it, she snooped around. Someone had left behind a few new toothbrushes and a tube of toothpaste, a comb, a bar of soap, a bottle of shampoo, a razor, and a spray can of deodorant. Mystery thanked her lucky stars.

Back in the bedroom, she opened the dresser drawers and hit pay dirt. A woman had obviously been here and left behind a pair of jeans. They’d be two sizes too big, but way more practical than her skimpy dress. Not only that, but she found a few shirts, some clean socks, and tennis shoes close to her size.

Lantern in hand, she searched the rest of the hotel. The office that had obviously been shuttered a while ago had an old phone, but it didn’t work. The rest of the hotel held a parlor with an aging piano, a storage room empty of everything except a few rusted antiques, and not much more. By Beverly Hills standards, she was totally roughing it. But if she stacked it up against last night’s accommodations, this was the freaking Ritz.

Mystery returned to the kitchen as the sun edged behind the mountains. Outside, the sky turned dark fast. Inside, too. Axel busted through the back door, carrying a bucket of water in each hand. “I found a well. I’ve got more where this came from. Does that stove work?”

She hadn’t thought to check and shrugged.

“Matches?” he barked.

Mystery grabbed the rest of the book and handed them over. Axel set the buckets down and took them, gesturing to her. “Bring the lantern over here.”

She followed him across the kitchen, then watched as he lit the match and turned the knob to release the gas from the stove. It hissed and sputtered, then the burner flared to life.

“That antique works?”

“It’s a replica. I found the old wooden stove in a storage shed, along with a couple of propane tanks. I guessed this one was rigged up to heat like a barbeque since the gas company probably didn’t run lines out this far. Grab some of those pans. Let’s heat up this chow. The rest of the town is empty, by the way.”

She’d suspected as much.

Together, they grabbed pans from the ceiling and wiped them out with clean dish towels while Mystery filled him in on everything she’d found upstairs. He looked pleased.

Within minutes, they were shoveling in beans and soup, then washing it down with the bottled water. As they did, Axel heated the well water from his buckets in two big pots. He ate more than a few cans, shoveling food in at a rate that amazed her. Where did he put all the calories? After a can of stew and half a can of green beans, Mystery was stuffed.

As the water in the pots began boiling, he carried one across the room. “Can you lug that other bucket of water upstairs?”

Mystery retrieved it from its resting spot near the back door. It seemed to weigh a hundred pounds, and she grabbed it with both hands. “Probably. What are we doing with this?”

“Getting you clean.”

“Like . . . in the bathtub?”

“Originally, I was going to suggest sponge baths in the kitchen, but since you found an actual bathtub, lead the way.” He gestured to her with a nod of his head.

For that, she’d carry this bucket up a mountain. The muscles of her shoulders strained, and the brittle plastic of the handle threatened to break, but she kept on, leading him in the shadowy dark to the bedroom, then the small bathroom beyond.

He set the bucket on the floor behind her. “Stay here. I’ll bring one of the lanterns.”

Mystery groped her way to the old tub and shivered in the dark. It wasn’t cold but the air around her felt a bit creepy. She supposed this was known as a ghost town for a reason. History lingered, and she almost felt as if she could close her eyes and picture the people who had once stayed here, when this mining town had been in its heyday.

Axel returned a moment later, shedding soft, golden light on the situation. He set one of the lanterns in the little pedestal sink and gripped the other as he edged past her to shove the old rubber stopper in the drain. After, he dumped the bucket of hot water inside the tub. Steam rose in a billowing cloud, fogging up the old mirror hanging in its wooden frame above the sink. Mystery looked at herself and nearly shrieked. She didn’t look anything like the cool, sophisticated girl who’d gone out for a night on the town a few days ago. Now she looked bedraggled and filthy . . . and haunted, as if she’d seen more of the seedy underbelly of life than she’d been ready for.

She managed to bite her tongue, then catalog what she needed to do to get clean. At least the dirt on her cheeks and her rat’s-nest hairdo would be gone soon. As for the emotional turmoil from her ordeal, she couldn’t do anything about that now so she locked it away in a mental box for later.

“Put your hand in the tub,” Axel instructed. “Too hot for you?”

Mystery dipped her fingers in. Together, they worked to add some of the cool water from the bucket she’d brought upstairs until the temperature felt just right. The tub didn’t even fill halfway, but she could work with it.

“You’ll rinse with the rest of this water.” He pointed to the bucket. “Let me see if I can find one more thing . . .” He left the little room and after opening and closing some doors and drawers, he returned with a blessedly clean and big towel. “Here you go. When you’re out, I’ll do my thing. Until then, I’ll keep guard in the hall, just in case unexpected company comes.”

Then he closed the door behind him, leaving her alone with the glow of the lantern. Mystery stripped and stepped into the tub. Just like heaven . . . She shampooed her hair twice, then soaped down and shaved, rinsing with the final bucket of icy water. She was shivering as she stepped out, but she was blissfully clean.

She dried off, tossed on some of the clothes she’d seen in the dresser, braided her hair over one shoulder, brushed her teeth—and felt incredibly human again. When she emerged from the bedroom, Axel stood in the hall with a pan of steaming water and another bucket from the well.

“You done?”

“Yeah. I found soap, shampoo, clean toothbrushes, a comb . . . It’s all in there. Do you need anything else?”

“Good job.” He slid past her with the pan of hot water.

She dragged in the cold after him. “We make a good team.”

Mystery cringed the second the words left her mouth. Ugh, that sounded stupid. Axel knew how to survive. She’d just done her best to keep up and follow his directions.

“Sure,” he tossed back.

But he didn’t mean it.

“Here’s your cold water,” she blurted, bucket in hand.

With a nod, he stopped up the tub, then turned to her like he was waiting for her to shut the door so he could get started. And there she stood, gaping at him like an idiot. Awesome.

In the hallway, she heard water sloshing, imagined him taking off his shirt, his boots, his pants . . . Did he go commando? Was he big all over?

Mystery’s breath caught, and she pushed away from the wall, heading downstairs. Mooning over him was totally embarrassing, yet she couldn’t seem to stop. Everything about him appealed to her. Yes, he was handsome, but that didn’t impress her. He was smart and funny, of course, but she’d met guys like that before, too. What made Axel so special was that, on top of his other qualities, he protected. He cared. He’d made sure she ate, drank, covered her feet, kept her face from burning. Hell, he’d even given her a place to pillow her head on his chest. Okay, so that might be part of his job, but he could have been an ass about it. He could have treated her like a thorn in his side or like a kid. Instead, he’d encouraged her, talked to her, actually listened.