Page 89 of Snowed In with her Mountain Men
I couldn’t help my mouth from dropping open. Confusion swirled through the labyrinth of my beclouded brain.
“But you… you were the one who hid—”
“LOOK AT ME!”
His wrath came from absolutely nowhere. He’d gone from calm to mildly annoyed to outright furious, all in the span of a few seconds.
“Did you even know this man you’re calling ‘Sarge?’” my captor seethed. “Colton Tyler? Have you ever met him?”
I didn’t know what he was driving at. I shook my head.
“Well, I’m not him,” he spat. “Never was. I’m way smarter than that.”
“But—”
I gasped as he bent down, grabbed me by the shoulders, and pulled me in. Our faces were mere inches away. I could smell the stink of his heated breath as he shook me.
“I’m notSarge!”he sneered, drawing the word out in a way that degraded it. Then, more slowly: “I’m his brother.”
A moment of silence stretched out, our gazes locked until I finally broke eye contact. And then I saw it — the tiny differences, the things that both were and weren’t there. The man before me had less wisdom, less experience, less of everything. The lines in his face told a different story, too. One that was no less sad, but still very much unlike the photo above the stairway I’d seen so many times before.
“You’re his… brother?” I repeated numbly.
“Yes.”
“A—Are you twins?”
His ensuing laugh was also a scoff. “Might as well be. Born eleven months apart, people always did think so. Especially when we were young.”
He released me, and I nearly slumped over again. My bonds were duct tape, wrapped so tightly it was chafing my wrists. I craned my neck, scanning the room, looking for any way out. A mountain lion snarled down at me, urging me to pull it together. Its glass eyes were angry and vengeful.
“But if you’re not him…” I murmured. “What are you here for?”
The man whirled on me again. He looked even more incensed than the lion.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I mean, the diamonds, I know. But they were his, not yours. It’s not like your brother—”
“Everything that’s his is mine,” the man seethed. “My brother may be gone, but I’m his flesh, his blood. His only living relative.” He spat. “His little group of protégés that have been squatting here can have this cabin, along with the insane weather that comes with it.”
Turning, he leaned down into my face again.
“But the diamonds aremine.”
I wanted to ask how he knew about the diamonds in the first place, or why his brother hadn’t included him in his will. But I knew I’d be pushing my luck. The man standing over me wasn’t all there, but at least he hadn’t hurt me yet. Not seriously, anyway. Pieces of him were definitely missing, though. They probably had been for a long time.
“Look,” I reasoned, “no one knows if there evenarediamonds. We haven’t found them yet. It’s probably some stupid story, made up by—”
The man abruptly crossed the room and snatched the rifle, instantly shutting me up. But he didn’t level it at me. Instead, he merely unchambered the round and put it back.
“I don’t like guns,” he said, simply.
My shoulders slumped in obvious relief. Maybe this is why he never got along with his brother.
“O—Okay.”
“The diamonds are real though,” he grunted without looking at me. “Trust me, I know my brother. I know what he was capable of.”
