Page 166 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

His chest rumbles along my back, his body filled with just as much tension as my own.

I turn to look at him. “Yes.”

If I’m wrong, and we’ve wasted time coming this way, going where we’re about to, instead of heading back into town through the gorge with Sheriff Briggs, Connor, Liam, the rest of the search party, and Earl to continue to question him and try to get answers, it would be a massive failure on my part.

A detour that could cost us time in finding Niall.

But I’m not wrong.

I know it deep in my soul, the same way I knew I was missing something important this whole time.

Killian quickly drops a kiss to the corner of my lips. “Then let’s go get him.”

His determination lifts that tiny ember of hope that’s been burning in my chest, making it flame even higher, and he revs the engine and turns right, away from town instead of toward it.

The desolate, dark road extends in front of us.

Ominous.

Creepy as the sun finally sets and the mist settles in.

There isn’t much on the backside of McBride Mountain. People prefer to live closer to town for obvious reasons, but not the Byers. They’ve been around for generations in the backwoods, far off the beaten path. Mostly keeping to themselves, save for one member of their family.

The one person I could trust.

His words echo in my head as we tear down the road for several more miles. In this darkness, it would be easy to miss the turn-in, half-hidden by overgrown bushes and trees. But Killian knows this mountain like the back of his hand, knows where it is without being able to see it, even though he probably hasn’t been over this way in months, if not longer.

He slows the ATV and turns down the drive, going as fast as he dares on the unmanicured dirt road, overgrown with vines, covered with fallen leaves, branches, and other debris.

A fallen tree halfway blocks the trail. If this is where Earl left our son, he didn’t come this way via car. With the gap between the thick forest and the end of the fallen tree only wide enough for the ATV to get through, it may have been intentional.

Perhaps a way to prevent anyone from getting back to the house easily.

I just hope I’m right about what waits there.

Niall…

The moment I saw his face, I knew his name.

I knew who he was and would become.

Because I know the man behind me, who always has my back.

And his son will become the same strong, reliable, confident, big-hearted person his father is.

Killian slows the ATV as the trees start to open to the clearing where the Byers’ home stands. The dilapidated two-story house sits in the center of it, peeling paint, sagging roof, and porch matching the state of the outbuildings visible around it.

It all appears abandoned, as if it hasn’t been lived in for years.

Doubt creeps in, chilling the confidence I had only moments ago.

Everyone assumed Earl was still living on the family property. He would show up in town once or twice a month for various supplies or to grab something from the diner or bakery, then he would disappear again to the other side of the mountain.

And no one ever thought anything of it.

A lot of people live very isolated lives out here, and the residents of McBride Mountain respect that desire for that kind of privacy.

Even the McBride homestead is well away from town, up a narrow, winding road few travel unless they need to speak with one of them and can’t do it when they’re at the timber yard or down on Main Street for something.