Page 34 of Mountain Men Heroes

Well shit.

That’s when she caught a glimpse of the older blood drying across his chest and upper thighs. Her gaze skimmed over him and froze on the bruises that marred his jaw.

He’d found Ethan. Or more like, Ethan found him and it didn’t turn out too well for their attacker.

Her hand brushed against metal. Finally. She wrapped her fingers around the smooth handle of her gun, brought it around and took aim down the length of her body.

“What the hell do you want?”

Gray, now tattered and stained with blood, filled her vision and her attacker disappeared behind a wall of bulging muscle.

Ethan’s shoulders heaved with labored breathing as he stood between her and the other man who looked a little more crazed than she cared to think about.

Ethan reared back and slammed a fist into the other man when he lunged for him like a ferocious bear.

When she heard the sound of their forces colliding, she rolled out of the way just in time to see Ethan plow another blow into the man’s jaw. “It’s a fine line you’re treading, man. You need to get the fuck off my mountain before I bury you in an unmarked grave for harming my woman. You don’t belong here anymore.”

Remy felt her mouth go dry. Did he know the man? Ethan’s words were labored and that’s when Remy noticed fresh blood oozing through his pant leg.

When he didn’t budge, Ethan hauled the man, who nearly matched him in size, by the shoulders and threw him against a nearby tree with a solid thud that made her cringe.

“Hard hearing all of a sudden,” Ethan growled, but the man still didn’t say anything.

Maybe it was the blood trickling down Ethan's forehead and messing with his sight or maybe it was the pure adrenaline in his blood that kept him from seeing the huge knife the other guy pulled out of somewhere, but the sight of the blade and fear of what he would do with it drove Remy into action. She rolled to her back, squeezed on the trigger and did the one thing her brothers said to never do.

She cringed, slamming her eyes closed.

Within knife-throwing distance, she was just as easy a target as Ethan was, for sure. One good throw and she would be minced meat in tacky knee waders. She definitely didn’t see her days ending like this, but she couldn’t just lie here and do nothing.

“What the fuck!”

She heard rather than saw Ethan’s feet shift as he bellowed his shock out. No doubt from the loud shot that seemed to ricochet off every tree in the damn forest.

She waited for something. The noise of a body hitting the ground…something. But it didn’t come.

Peeking one eye open followed by the other, she dared a look. One by one the muscles in her shoulders relaxed enough for her to move. He was gone.

Ethan, however, stood over her, the gold of his eyes swirling and darkening.

“Are you crazy? Or just plain suicidal, woman? You want to put me in an early grave. God almighty, woman, I think I’m having a heart attack.” Ethan fell to his knees and hunched over, his hands shaking as he clutched at his chest.

When he just sat there a minute, his head hung low she took in the sight of the blood smeared across his chest and back through the tears of his T-shirt and didn’t fail to see the bruised and battered knuckles.

“Heart attack. Yep. Me too. Is he gone? He didn’t make a sound. Just simply vanished.” She stayed in her position, gun in hand a few seconds longer. Her head fell back to the earth and she finally let out a breath. Then again, it is kind of hard to hear anything when oh shit, oh shit played on repeat in her head.

She shoved to her feet and holstered her gun, making a mental note to thank her pain-in-the-ass brothers for making sure she knew which end went bang. She’d leave out the part of a maniac attacking them for now, though.

Analyzing her near-death experience could come later. Now she had to help Ethan.

Blood spotted the foliage and penetrated the dirt around him. From what she could tell, if he lost any more, they were in for some real trouble this far from a hospital. Especially if the lunatic decided to double back for a second round. She didn’t exactly have more bullets on hand and only a few left in the gun.

Dirt and leaves mixed with blood caked random parts of his body. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he’d gone mud wrestling.

“I leave you ten minutes and you go find trouble! I’m not the crazy one charging at lunatics in the middle of nowhere.” Her voice trembled more than her hands as she dropped to her knees beside him.

“The other guy’s sporting some good bruises too.” He gave a weak, low rumble of laughter before it abruptly cut off. Molten whiskey eyes caught her gaze. “Fuck. What did he do to you?” He reached out and brushed his hand against her swollen cheekbones. She hissed from the sudden jolt of pain.

“Ouch.” In all the ruckus she’d shoved her own pain to the side, worried about him. Now the slow, steady throb thickened until it hurt to smile.

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