Page 64 of Mountain Refuge

“Jack sent me. I’m so sorry, I came as soon as I could.”

My brain was not comprehending what the man was saying. How could Jack have known we were in trouble? I hadn’t called him. I should have, but I figured I would do that once we were safely on the road.

“He noticed the news feed of Gunther’s release wasn’t live. Something about the sun placement being wrong. Anyway, when he couldn’t get ahold of you, he sent me.”

“You’re a Mountain Mutineer,” I surmised.

The man nodded. I noticed for the first time that, though young, he had a weathered look about him. Like he’d suffered more than he should have given his youth. I placed him around twenty-two or twenty-three years old. “My name’s Owen. Can you stand? We need to get out of here. Do you know where Trenton is?”

I shook my head to the last question. I was walking out of here no matter what. Owen moved around to help me stand. I appreciated that. I was still wearing only one boot and had no idea where the other one was.

Noticing this, Owen surveyed our surroundings. When he spotted it, he helped me hobble over and then even knelt before me to place it on my foot.

“Come on, Cinderella,” he said with a sense of humor I was surprised he could feel in our current situation. “Let’s go find your charge and get the fuck out of here.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Brooke

Elijah and I had moved my lounge chair back and then piled all the blankets and pillows I owned in front of the fireplace in my living room. We got up only to use the bathroom or grab something to eat or drink. We were completely lost in a bubble of us. I had every intention of sleeping out here in the firelight with him as my pillow, blanket, and bed.

Thebeepfrom upstairs broke through our reverie. I did not want to answer it, knowing it meant that someone was trying to hail me on the radio, but knew that we could not ignore it. Not with his kids elsewhere.

I tapped on the top of his head. I was lying on my back with him laid out over me, his cheek pressed into my belly. We were resting, just taking in the serenity and loveliness of the day. We talked on occasion, but mostly just stayed in the moment with each other. I had a feeling this spot before the fireplace was going to become ‘our spot’ when the kids weren’t about.

He lifted his head, his eyes drooped with sleep.

“We’re being hailed,” I informed him with a frown.

He made a face that reflected how I felt.Placing a kiss between my breasts, he rose. I instantly felt cold, despite the roaring fire beside us. Elijah wrapped one of my homemade quilts around his shoulders before he journeyed towards the stairs to the loft. I followed behind him, my blanket wrapped like a toga.

Elijah expertly turned on the radio, as mine was just like Corbin’s. Seeing that I had followed him up, he caught my hand and pulled me over to sit on his lap. “You could have stayed down where it’s warm.”

“It’s warmer here with you,” I declared, folding myself against him.

He gave me a cocky grin before calling my callsign over the radio. When Jack answered, he glanced over at me in surprise. Like me, he probably assumed it had been Corbin calling regarding the kids.

“Jack, what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but Gunther’s free. He was acquitted this morning. Over.”

I felt my stomach drop at the news. I remembered Gunther’s reputation from my days as an NYPD detective. The Vice Department could never pin anything on him. They had nicknamed him ‘the Magician’ because it always seemed like he was having us look one way while pulling a rabbit out of his hat behind our backs. Even months later, I was still struggling with the realization thatSebastian Guntherwas the man Elijah and the kids had been running from.

Elijah looked pale, and for a moment, I thought he might faint. Then he leaned forward and clicked the microphone. “What happened? Over.”

His grip around my waist got tighter.

“Officially? Misappropriation of evidence. Unofficially? He paid someone off to fuck up the evidence. Even if I find out who did it—and I will—it won’t change the fact that they hadto let him go. They would need to find new evidence of new crimes or new evidence of the previous crimes to arrest him again. Over.”

Both Elijah and I let out low curses. It was so messed up that the justice system could be so easily foiled. As a former cop, I knew all too well how easy it was to mishandle evidence. The first time one of my cases had been dismissed because a crime scene tech had used the bathroom at the crime scene and had unknowingly flushed a dime of cocaine. The defense had argued that the tech could have planted the trace evidence we had been able to find and the charges had been dismissed.

“Where is Gunther now?” Elijah asked into the microphone. “What about Trenton and Josie? Over.”

We did not know much about the bounty hunter who had been able to track Elijah to Whitefish.Noneof us had been pleased when Jack had shared that news. However, he had quickly eased our fears when he informed us of Josie’s good intentions and that he had sent her back to New York City to help bring Gunther down. It hadn’t been until Gunther’s arrest that I think any of us truly believed that Josie was on our side. Then Jack had kept us informed over the winter about Trenton and Josie’s efforts to shut down Gunther’s organization. It was unfortunate, but there were some things Trenton simply couldn’t do either because the government had frozen the assets or because his father was still alive, even if he was incarcerated.

“That’s where the worst news comes in. Gunther paid off several news stations to air footage of his release later and call it ‘live’. Basically, made it look like he was being released when he was actually already released. Trenton and Josie were caught unaware…”Jack’s voice trailed off.

Though he hadn’t said ‘over’, I reached forward to key the mic when there was an extremely long pause. “What happened?” I demanded.

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