Page 45 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

I run my hand gently down her back, and she relaxes into me, resting her hand over my heart, directly on top of the tattoo of McBride Mountain. “I think you left McBride Mountain with every intention of never returning because of me.”

She stiffens in my arms but doesn’t say anything as I continue to trail my fingers up and down her spine.

“I think, at some point, something happened that made you come back. Some reason you didn’t tell Raven about. Maybe because you hadn’t planned to stay very long, or maybe to surprise her. And I think something happened that brought you up to that secluded part of the mountain, but…” I swallow the lump in my throat that attempts to prevent me from speaking what might be the ultimate truth. “I don’t think it was by your own choice.”

Willow tenses again and lifts her head, the tears really flowing now, leaving streaks down her pale cheeks. “That’s what I’m afraid of. What if…what if someone…”

I pull my hand from her back and cradle her face in my palm, brushing away the tears. “If there was someone else involved in this, if anyone laid a hand on you, I swear to fucking God, I’ll slice him apart with my axe while he’s still alive so he can watch it happen and then rip his throat out with my bare hands.”

WILLOW

The absolute menacing threat in his words and the sincerity of it swimming in his blue eyes should terrify me. It should make me wary of the type of violence Killian is capable of. I should fear it and him. But the promise settles over me like a warm blanket, comforting me the same way being in his arms does.

Even if it shouldn’t.

Given how things apparently ended, this is the last place I should be now—in the arms of the man who drove me away in the first place.

After five years together and a lifetime of friendship before that, whatever it was had to have been bad.

Maybe unforgivable.

I left the only home I’ve ever known, the town and the mountain, my best friend, and the man I loved, without telling anyone why. It was too painful for me to even reveal to Raven. And it drove me away from my life.

Yet, since the moment I woke up in that hospital, he’s been nothing but the man I always knew him to be.

Protective.

Loyal.

Kind.

Caring.

Sweet.

Moody, certainly…

And gruff.

Even violently rough around the edges, but it’s impossible not to be growing up the way he and his brothers did up here on the mountain.

Fighting to maintain their family legacy after his father died when he was so young, his mother stepped into a role she never intended to take. She had to run McBride Timber, be a mother to a little boy, then she took in Connor and Liam, and also mothered the entire mountain.

He had to be tough. He had to step up, too.

They all took care of each other, and now, he’s doing the same for me, even though I left him. So, I can’t feel threatened by this man, despite what Raven might think. Despite the potential warning signs screaming that I wouldn’t have left if I hadn’t needed to. I can’t be afraid when he says things like that to me because that type of anger and intended violence would never be directed at me.

His promise to eviscerate anyone who may have had a hand in what happened to me isn’t a threat.

It’s hope.

The kind I need right now.

I relax even more against him, his strength and tight hold on me grounding me in a way no one and nothing else ever could. “You really think you can find out what happened?”

Please, God, let him succeed.

I want to believe his promise, pray that it’s true, but it’s hard to know if that’s possible when I still can’t remember anything.