Page 47 of Mountain Men Heroes

He could feel her eyes on him and her presence grow even stronger on his radar.

She wanted blood too.

“Brax. You should have stayed away because this is only going to end one way.” His fists clenched by his side as he scooped an arm around him to keep Remy out of harm’s way. If she didn’t want to run, she sure as hell wouldn’t be putting herself out there to protect him again. Not while he breathed. “You son of a bitch. Why don’t you come closer so I can sink my fist into your face?” he rasped out with all the hatred eating at his gut.

Red-rimmed eyes bored into him from where Brax stood several feet away. He’d seen eyes like that on a man once and he was as fucked up as Brax.

A smirk smeared across his face. One he’d gladly wipe off. Shoulders slumped, he barely recognized the man he’d known for the better part of a decade.

Dried, crusted blood smeared across his neck and shoulder where Remy’s bullet hit him.

“Easy brother. I’m not here to kill you. Yet,” the sleaze-ball added with a little hum to his words while slithering a dirty look over Remy, who stood by Ethan with a fierce expression of her own. She worked her way to the side, and he took another step in front of her but faltered when his stomach tumbled into his throat. Dry heaves fisted around his insides and he hunched over, gasping for air.

Steel nerves and sheer fucking hate brought him back to his full height.

“Breathe through it. Nostrils then mouth. It will pass,” Remy leaned in and whispered.

He did as she suggested.

“Having trouble, bro?”

“Looks like your plan worked, Brax.”

A voice came up behind him and he angled sideways in time to see beefy hands wrap around Remy’s arms. A man who looked way too similar to Brax for it to be a coincidence licked a slimy tongue up her cheek while provoking him with a challenging glare.

The world turned red. The thirst for blood flooded Ethan’s senses.

The stranger holding Remy backed away quickly, leaving him to face Brax.

He didn’t know who swung first but he took great satisfaction when his fist plowed into the asshole’s face. Drops of blood quenched the thirst of the earth at their feet. And he kept pounding.

“Ethan. No. You can’t kill him.”

Yes. He could. And he would.

Eight

Ethan let out a roar of rage as Brax somehow managed to throw him off. The brute that held her from behind let out a loud whoop that deafened her right ear. She flinched and angled her body just so to avoid the slimy kiss the bastard wanted to plant on her cheek and who knew where else. He smelled of dirt and at least three days’ worth of grime. From the dingy white shirt and the mucked-up jeans, she’d say this one had forgotten the need for soap and a toothbrush.

An abrasive wind laced with the poison from the lake wound through the trees and felt like a thousand fire ants against her skin. And all theirs too. She could tell because the guy with python-like arms around her growled through the pain as he damn near shattered her ribcage in the process until the wind subsided.

Irony at its best.

Tremors rumbled across the ground. Chunks of dirt flew through the air and pelted nearby trees as Ethan and Brax fought. Fierce power drove Ethan’s fist into ribs. A few more punches and Brax fell to the ground bloody and gasping for air.

Ethan reared back, wild rage in his eyes. She used the distraction to throw her weight left and lifted her legs to knock the man holding her hostage off balance. Free from him, she ran to Ethan and pulled him off Brax.

“Stop! Ethan. Listen to me.”

Chest heaving, he pushed her behind him. “Are you okay?” he asked harshly.

“It’s okay. I’m okay.”

In unison, they turned back to back as stranger number one and Brax started circling them. She had to admit, Brax could take a beating. While Ethan probably fought all the time, this was only her second real time kicking real ass. The wrestling match she did with her brothers didn’t count.

Deep, deeper than she could ever remember digging, she searched for the strength and nerves of steel she would need to face their enemy.

The Brax’s slithery friend with the permanent lopsided grin on his face nodded to a man she failed to see until now. Another brother she assumed. Ok. Three against two. Because even hurt Ethan was a man to reckon with. Brax wore the evidence of that truth on his face.

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