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Page 52 of Beneath the Mountain Sky (McBride Brother Lumberjacks #1)

WILLOW

T he last vestiges of daylight barely touch the mountain by the time we get down the backside of it on the ATV, using the same barely passable old logging trail Earl must have traveled to get between town and the cabin beyond the gorge.

Seated in front of Killian, his strong body at my back, arms on either side of me, holding me securely, despite his injury, we traverse the final few miles of the rough terrain.

With the main road now in sight, the bubbling anxiety that’s strangled me since we set out threatens to boil over.

It’s taken us hours.

Endless hours spent reliving the flood of memories that now wash over me like a tsunami.

Horrible ones of a year spent with a man who had broken from reality.

Good ones of my baby—of our baby—the sole light in what was the darkest time of my life.

Holding him. Just staring at him and seeing all the ways he looks exactly like Killian, even at this young an age. Telling him about his father. Describing the life we would have when we were finally free…

The tears I’ve cried endlessly continue to streak down my cheeks, and I so badly want to dive into that easy darkness I’ve let myself drift into over the past several weeks.

Where I block out everything around me. Everything that’s happened to me.

Where I pretend it’s a year ago and my life hasn’t crumbled.

But Killian’s warm breath flutters against my neck, his chest presses tightly to my back, his presence keeps me grounded and reminds me that we’re in this together now.

We haven’t even had a chance to talk, to discuss any of the revelations that came with finding Earl and my missing memories, because they don’t matter at this moment.

Only finding Niall does.

Finding him and ending this nightmare once and for all.

The trees start to thin as we near the main road that wraps around the base of McBride Mountain, and eventually, the tires cross from the uneven forest floor to cracked pavement.

Turning left will take us back toward town and the road that leads up to the McBride homestead. But in the opposite direction…the one place we might find the thing we’ve been looking for, the piece of me that’s been missing.

Killian pulls us to a stop. “You’re sure about this?”

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.

But seeing this house now, my heart sinks.

There’s no one here .

Killian kills the engine and climbs off the ATV, offering me a hand to help me do the same.

My legs tremble so badly that I can barely stand, but he wraps his arm around my waist, supporting me as he leads me toward the porch across an unmanicured, weed-infested clearing that can’t even be called a lawn.

I keep scanning the property for any signs of life, for a glimpse of anything that might suggest I was right in my faith that Niall would be here.

A flash of blue in the half-collapsed garage to the right catches my attention, and I stop mid-step.

Killian freezes, too. “What?”

I narrow my eyes on it and slip out of his hold slowly. “Killian. Look .”

That hope re-surges again.

My truck.

That’s why no one ever found it on the mountain. Earl must have knocked me unconscious, brought me here, returned and fixed the overheated engine, then gotten it off the road before anyone noticed it abandoned there.

Once he brought it here, no one would ever find it.

And no one was looking for it, either.

Killian mutters a curse and turns back toward the house. “The place looks abandoned, though.”

He’s right.

That same fear ripples through my heart—that I got it completely wrong—but so does something else.

Some instinct that calls to me.

The one that reached out in my dreams, even when I couldn’t remember, telling me I had to go back up the mountain, that I was missing something important.

“He’s here.”

Killian offers me his hand again, and I allow him to pull me toward the house.

We step over two broken treads up onto the porch and weave around a gaping hole in the middle of the old wooden planks where it’s collapsed under the weight of time.

He peers through the dirty, frosted glass on the front door, and I do the same, through a window to the right.

A flicker of movement makes me stagger back. “Someone’s moving inside.”

Killian nods and reaches for the door handle with his left hand and the gun he took from Connor with his right. “You stay out here.”

“What?” I shake my head, my disheveled hair, blown into a rat’s nest by the whipping winds during our frantic drive down the mountain, floating across my face. Shoving it out of the way so I can see him, I stand my ground. “No, I’m going in with you.”

“We don’t know what’s in there, Willow.” He practically hisses the warning, leaning closer so he can lower his voice. “I’m not going to risk your safety.”

“Our baby’s in there, Killian. If you think for one fucking second that I’m not going with you, then you don’t know me at all.”

The corners of his lips twitch, but I can’t tell if it’s because he’s fighting a grin or a scowl. “Stay behind me.”

Thank God.

I don’t have it in me to fight Killian McBride right now.

It seems like that’s all I’ve been doing.

Fighting for my life.

Fighting for my memories.

Fighting for all the things I lost on this mountain.

He tries the door handle, which gives easily. There isn’t any reason to lock it out here.

No neighbors.

No crime.

Nothing to fear.

Except the man who supposedly lives here…

It springs open with a slight creak, and we take a step in, me with my hand against Killian’s lower back, clinging to him the only way I can.

Despite the outward appearances, the interior of the house is shockingly clean and well-kept. Though clearly aging and not updated since likely the fifties, it’s tidy. As if someone cares for it deeply and takes pride in its appearance.

I was wrong about it being abandoned, which means I was probably right in believing this is where Earl left our baby.

Dim light draws us down the front hallway toward what must be the kitchen at the rear of the house.

The sound of someone humming low floats out to us.

Killian freezes and tilts his ear toward it.

A woman’s voice, humming and singing softly.

I lean in to whisper to him. “That must be her. Amy, Earl’s sister. It has to be…”

Killian nods and starts to advance, but I grab his arm, stopping him.

My gaze drifts to the weapon in his hand, the one both Tony and Connor insisted he bring along, since we didn’t know what we might find. “The gun might spook her.”

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