Page 54 of Single Mom for the Mountain Men
I bite my lip, but I make myself nod. I don’t have time to argue.
“How long of a walk is it to the Jesperson place?” I ask.
“About a half hour on a good day. Maybe longer in this snow,” Aiden replies.
“You can’t go out there with us to look for Sophie,” Brody says before giving in to another coughing fit.
I glare at him and stomp my foot. “Brody, I won’t listen to you bossing me around anymore tonight. My child has been kidnapped by my crazy ex, it’s freezing and snowing hard, and she must be scared. You won’t be able to say anything to me that will convince me to stay here while you two go looking for her.”
“She has a point,” Aiden says.
“Traitor,” Brody mumbles under his breath, but he just sighs and wipes a big hand down his face. His skin is still blackened with soot, and his eyes are red and irritated from the smoke and the fire.
“We need to get going,” Aiden states. “Sophie is probably very cold and scared, and the longer that she’s with James, the more at risk she is.”
“Hurry and grab some of Sophie’s clothes,” Brody says to me simply. He steps closer and presses a hard kiss to my lips. “I won’t stand for you to get killed out there, woman,” he says to me. “See that you don’t.”
I watch him as he walks over to Aiden, and my heart feels overflowing with love.Love. Yes, I know that I love all of them.Now isn’t the time to tell them, but once we get through all of this mess, I’m going to say it over and over again.
Chapter twenty-eight
CHAPTER 28: Brody
Ishiver a little as the cold wind bites at my ears. I’m wearing a borrowed hat that Lena found in her closet, but it’s not quite big enough to fully cover my head. Neither Aiden or I have coats due to the fire. It’s risky to be out wandering through the snow without the right gear, but it’s not like we have much choice.
I check my watch and grimace. Tanner might have made it to the police station by now, but that means that we have probably another hour to wait before anyone can get back up here.If they even can, I remind myself, trudging along in front of Aiden and Lena.
If my memory is right, we should be close to the Jesperson property by now. I slow down as the sound of crackling, like from a fire, reaches my ears. I gesture for Aiden and Lena to slow down behind me as I creep closer to the ring of trees ahead of us.
I poke my head over a sprawling row of overgrown shrubs and spot the twinkling of a fire. It looks like a few of the walls of the old house are still standing, with a chunk of roof overhanging them. One side of the room is open to the elements, but it looks like someone has hung a tarp to block that side of the room from some of the weather.
I gesture for my brother and Lena to trudge quietly after me as I head to the left, trying to come around on the blind side of the structure, my ears straining for sounds.
“When is Mommy getting here?” I finally hear Sophie ask, and my heart feels like it freezes in my chest.Poor baby. She must be so scared.
“Soon, I’m sure, my love,” James says to the child, his tone filled with false steadiness. I know how much Sophie hates to be talked down to. She must be seething with frustration by now.
“I don’t think she’ll be happy with you about burning down the mountain men’s house,” Sophie prattles on, and I smile a little.
“Mountain men? Is that what you call them?”
I can practically see her little nod in reply. “Yes. Aiden, Brody, and Tanner are my friends, and Mommy’s too. They take care of us, and they give me candy when I’m a good girl.”
“Do you like them?” James asks, a dangerous note of malice in his tone.
Sophie carries on talking, oblivious to the threat lurking in her father’s question. “Oh, sure. They’re fun, you know? They have all kinds of things they know how to do, too. They could live up here forever, I bet, without any help at all.”
“Probably not now that they don’t have a house,” James says with a smirk in his tone, and I grit my teeth.
“That was really mean of you, Daddy,” Sophie says with a note of censure in her voice. “You should pay for a new house for them.”
James barks out a peal of laughter. “I won’t be doing that, baby.” I see a shadow block the light from the fire, and I draw all of us to a halt, trying to still my shivering as best as I can.
“I want Mommy,” Sophie says again. “I want to go home.”
“You aren’t going to go back home with Mommy,” James says to her, his tone impatient.
My heart twists in my chest when I hear Sophie start crying. I glance back at Lena, who meets my eyes. There are tears on her cheeks, and I reach back and press a hand to her shoulder comfortingly before I gesture for us to keep moving around the edge of the remnants of the house.
