Page 164 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
I freeze, my back stiffening.
What the hell is he talking about?
This is the first time I’ve seen him since I fled. He must be referencing something to do with his real wife, Roberta.
Killian seems to sense it, too. “What did you do to her, Earl?”
Earl’s gaze darts between us. Wild, unfocused, just like the man who possesses the information we need so badly. “I slit that bitch’s throat and tossed her in the river.”
I gasp and stagger back as his gaze lands on me.
“You shouldn’t have come back. I should have done it again to you.”
My body trembles. My legs threaten to give out from under me. That threat sounds very real. And with as far gone as he is, he probably would act on it.
Killian sneers in Earl’s face, pushing forward. “And what about your son?”
“We never could find what that bitch did with him.”
We?
“Where’s my son?” Killian pushes the blade slightly, slicing into Earl’s ear, drawing another agonized cry from the man. “Where. Is. He?”
Earl claws at Killian’s hand, desperate to escape the pain he’s suffering, the same way I was to get away from him when he held me against my will. “I told you, he’s with the only person I’ve ever been able to trust my entire life.”
My entire life…
Someone he’s known forever.
There’s only one person he ever mentioned during our entire time together who he would have trusted like that, one person he might have brought the baby to if he needed help after I was gone.
I turn to Killian. “I know where he is.”
Killian snarls in Earl’s face and pushes to his feet, releasing the man’s neck and raising his axe above his head, ready to bring it down on him.
Liam steps forward and catches the handle, stopping the blade. “No.”
One word from his little brother…and Killian shatters. His shoulders relax, slumping. The axe slips from his hand and into Liam’s as he pulls it away.
Earl’s eyes widen when he sees the youngest McBride. “You, but…I…”
He stumbles over his words, mouth opening and closing several times as he stares at him like he’s seen a ghost.
And for the first time, I see it, too.
I don’t know how I missed it in all the time I was staring at this man, or when he showed me the photos of his younger self with Roberta and their son, but seeing them together, it’s impossible not to notice it…
The resemblance.
“Oh, my God.”
I wobble back a step, and Connor seems to have the same realization, but it takes Liam and Killian another second to process what’s happening.
“No.” Liam shakes his head, retreating, Killian’s axe slipping from his hand to the forest floor. “No.”
Someone left him on Connie’s doorstep twenty-one years ago with a note asking her to take care of him.
The timeline makes sense.
