Page 35 of Beneath the Mountain Sky (McBride Brother Lumberjacks #1)
“Bullshit. This isn’t about rational.” I take a step closer, pointing toward the cabin where my entire life waits. “If anyone laid a hand on her, I need my hands around their fucking throat. Do you understand me?”
He nods slowly, examining me like he’s seeing a complete stranger instead of one of his closest friends since childhood.
And maybe I am a stranger to him now.
Losing Willow turned me into someone else, something else.
A monster that has only grown more restless and volatile the longer this mystery continues.
People should be wary of me right now.
Tony continues to stare me down like there’s something he wants to say but is mustering up the courage to do it, but the sound of the cabin door swinging open draws him a step back from me, whatever he would have said in response to my very clear threat to commit murder lost.
Willow and Raven come out and stop at the porch railing, examining our standoff, with Connor and Liam looking on.
Raven raises a blond brow, crossing her arms over her chest. “What are you boys talking about?”
Connor mimics her stance, tipping up his head defiantly. “Why are you asking? So you can print another article about it?”
She stares him down in challenge, not budging a fucking inch. “The people have a right to know what’s going on, to be prepared.”
Liam glances between the two of them. “She isn’t wrong, Connor.”
His gaze cuts to our youngest brother. “Who the fuck’s side are you on?”
“The one that keeps everyone safe.”
Tony gives me a look, asking for permission to reveal everything we’ve been discussing. And as much as I would love to ignore the fact that there is a threat out there and stay locked in the cabin with Willow indefinitely, that isn’t an option.
I nod.
He clears his throat. “We believe there may be someone dangerous on the mountain.”
Raven scoffs. “You guys just figuring that out now?”
I motion toward the woods. “I found evidence to confirm someone was watching Willow and me last night.”
Willow’s hands tighten on the rail, her breath catching at the confirmation of what I told her last night, and Raven’s mix of indignation and humor fades quickly.
Her green gaze cuts to her best friend, then back to me. “Someone was here?”
I’m sure she—like me—would have loved to discover I was wrong and that it was just a bear or some other type of wildlife that made those noises, but sticking our heads in the sand won’t get us anywhere.
I nod. “Which is why she”—I point to Willow—“doesn’t leave my side unless she’s with Liam or Connor.”
Raven gapes. “What about me? You don’t think she’s safe with me?”
“It isn’t about that, Raven. You’ll be better protected with one of us around. And you’re welcome to stay on the homestead, too, if you feel like you need protection.” I grin at Connor, already anticipating his response to my next suggestion. “You can crash at Liam’s…or Connor’s.”
He opens his mouth to argue with me, but I cut him off with a glare.
“I’ll be taking Willow to the lumberyard today, if you’d like to join us.”
Raven scowls. “No thanks. I can take care of myself, and I’m better off spending my time warning people than hiding behind a McBride.”
“Now, now…” Tony holds up a hand. “We’re not going to cause a panic with some exaggerated story, but I do need your help to spread the word about a search party we’re going to be putting together.”
Raven’s lips twist, annoyed at the reproach, but she nods. “Of course. Anything I can do to help.”
Right now, the only one who appears to need help is Willow.
She stands gripping the banister tightly in her hands, her legs trembling as badly as her bottom lip.
We discussed my belief that whoever took her was likely responsible for the noise I heard, but apparently, confirming it has hit her hard.
I slowly make my way up the porch as Raven comes down to talk to Tony.
Willow turns to face me, still gripping the worn wood in one hand tightly. “Someone was really here? Just watching us and listening?”
To my confession.
To every painful word.
I nod. “Yes…”
“Why would they?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out if it’s the last fucking thing I do.”
* * *
WILLOW
The McBride Timber office swirls around me as I spin in the office chair behind Killian’s desk, pushing off the floor with one foot to keep going for the hundredth time, until my stomach starts to regret my decision.
Nausea rolls through me, and I drop my feet to stop my rotation, pressing my hand over my belly.
A brief flash of a memory fills my head.
This same feeling.
Overwhelming nausea and feeling like the world around me won’t stop spinning, even when I’m standing still.
I swallow back bile rising in my throat.
A low snicker fills the office. “Having fun?”
Hardly.
I glance over to where Connor reclines at his desk with his booted feet kicked up on top of it. One of his thick, dark brows rises, along with the corner of his lips.
He knows how bored I am, and that my current attempt to pass the time has left me feeling…not great.
“Does it look like I’m having fun?”
Connor snorts. “Sort of. Until you turned that shade of green.”
Uggg.
“I am not green. ” I give him a saccharine-sweet smile. “I’m bored out of my mind.”
I settle into the chair, staring at the same ceiling I have been staring at for almost four hours while I’ve sat in here with the grumpiest of the McBride brothers—at least to me.
Though, that might be debatable to everyone else on the mountain.
They all seem to see Killian as the gruffest, roughest of the trio, but it’s hard for me to accept that when I’ve seen his other side.
Connor, on the other hand, rarely shows even a hint of anything but annoyance at people and life in general. He certainly has at having to babysit me all day.
A little chuckle slips from his lips. “I can tell.”
I motion absently toward the front window that overlooks the lumberyard, where dozens of people hustle around, moving uncut timber from the storage area to the saw house and cut boards to stacks along the far fence wall—all with Killian at the center of it.
Checking in with everyone.
Directing traffic.
Doing the job he was born to do.
That man is at home on the mountain, out in the wildest parts that match his soul, but he somehow fits here, too. This business is the heart and soul of the McBride family and this town.
He would never give up on it, never stop trying to improve things, which means I’m in for a very long day, since he wants to get as much done as possible before the larger search party gets organized and takes off up the mountain.
“He really expects me to stay here with him all day?”
Connor nods slowly. “Yep.”
“And you have to babysit?”
If I have to sit here, I can do it alone.
There isn’t any reason to make Connor more miserable by forcing him to when he’s built just like his brothers and prefers to get his hands calloused and dirty.
None of them wants to spend time in the office, which means Connor is as restless as I am by now.
The corners of his mouth twitch.
He doesn’t smile much, but every once in a while, when you get a grin, you realize how truly handsome he is.
If he actually showed any interest in any of the women around town, they’d be in trouble.
But he’s always been a quiet loner, seemingly comfortable leading the bachelor lifestyle indefinitely and ensuring his attitude keeps anyone who would chance it at bay.
Just like Killian did…until me.
Connor motions to the yard beyond the window. “I think Liam’s going to come trade off with me in a little bit, so you’ll have much better company.”
I snort and roll my eyes, even though he’s right.
Liam will be better company.
Somehow, he avoided picking up his older brothers’ attitudes. Maybe the age difference and time he spent alone with their mother while Killian and Connor were off getting into trouble helped temper that gruffness.
Whatever it was, it’s good that they have him around to keep them in check.
“Or…” Connor points to where Killian stands in the middle of the yard, deep in conversation with one of the foremen. “You could always go out into the yard with Killian.”
I scowl. “And watch him tear into the employees? I don’t think so.”
“Oh, come on. He’s not that bad.”
“Really?” I raise a brow. “You know I read the backlog of Raven’s stories from while I was gone.”
He winces—either because of the content of the stories or his deep mistrust and hatred of Raven. Maybe both.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I twirl a strand of my hair around my finger. “Quite a few in there about avoiding Killian McBride because he was on the rampage again.”
His broad shoulders rise and fall. “I wouldn’t call it ‘going on rampages’…”
“What would you call it?”
He issues another slow shrug. “Trying to run a business. And to be fair, he wasn’t really mad at them. He was mostly pissed off because you were gone…and he realized it was his fault.”
My chest tightens imagining what a mess he must have been. If how anguished he appeared last night coming clean with me and reliving what he said was any indication, Killian was likely impossible to deal with. “Do you think it was his fault?”
From what Raven has told me, most of her hostility with Connor has come from his defense of his brother over the last year and frustration with her not giving him any information about where I might be.
Connor drums his fingers on his desk. “I will always defend my brother until the day I die, but what he said to you?” He shakes his head. “I’m surprised you’re so sure you came back after that. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you hadn’t.”
Because Connor understands just as well as Killian what my shitty relationship with Mom did to me and how much those words hurt.
“He didn’t mean it. You and I both know that.”