Page 46 of Mountain Men Heroes

Pure adrenaline and a side dose of her juju flushed his veins and he hauled himself to his feet. “What the hell just happened?”

“You passed out. The heavy dose coming off the water mixed with what’s already in you and it hit like a ton of bricks. But get this, I found something.” She talked as they gathered her things and started out toward his brother’s place at a slow pace and away from this fucking death trap. Excitement worked into her energy. It gathered behind her eyes and spilled over through every part of exposed skin as she talked.

Repeatedly glancing down at her and their surroundings, he asked, “How damn long was I out?”

Remy leaned in close and placed her hand over his heart. “Too long.”

He cringed and doused his face with more water from the bottle she offered him instead of meeting her worried gaze.

“It took me five minutes to get you to respond. I had to resort to slapping you. Any longer and I would have started pounding on you with my fists or anything else I could find.”

He grunted.

“What are you smirking at, Ethan Savage?”

“You slap like a sausage-handed Italian mob boss.” He rubbed at his face. “It still stings.”

“Good. You scared the crap outta me.” Her nose wrinkled up and caused her glasses to slip. Again. What a weakness to have. God have mercy. Ethan wanted to resist the urge to pull her up for a kiss, but he gave in to the battle and decided losing the war wasn’t all that bad after all.

They didn’t have time for what he wanted to do to her, but he needed to taste her, feel her alive in his arms to settle the fucking panic attack wanting to take over him.

“Your medicine has worked, it seems.” He took another step, placing more weight on his injured leg. “Thank you,” he whispered against her lips.

“I thought I would leave this mountain and you once my job was complete and now…” Her thoughts faded.

He tightened his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Not in a million years.”

She stared up at him and smiled in a way that made the pain fade to nothing but background noise.

The farther away from the water they walked the easier they both breathed. “I think I’ll be fine now. Did you get your samples?”

“Got more than that. I know what Brax used to poison you and I know how to counteract it. That’s what I gave you.”

That had his eyebrows climbing and them both coming to an abrupt halt. “You what? Really?”

“It’s all pretty simple. He concocted a poison that flew under the radar from a couple of plants no one would have suspected. Pretty smart, if not totally freaking insane. Another few doses to the water and it would have been strong enough to kill humans and wildlife well into the hundreds instead of just making them ill.”

“We’re lucky you sampled the water and knew the counteractive steps to take.”

He let her continue talking uninterrupted from there. When she got started on the business end of her degree, he knew better than to try and jump in. She fixed her glasses and started off with a flourish of old Latin names and concoctions he’d never understand unless they were written in his field guide of how to care for a broken leg or high-altitude sickness.

“Doc, hold up, you lost me at Epilobium ang-something or other. Back up to the Silverleaf nightshade. You can confirm that?”

“Yes. I don’t know how he made the compound so concentrated, but yes.”

“What the hell?” Flooded with fear for his family and loved ones that lived around this lake and used the water, he balled his fists at his side, leaned back and let loose a deep roar of frustration. “Why? Damn him. Why!”

“It’s what I used to clear the land of the filth. Savage filthy.”

Darkness rose inside him and every muscle in his body flexed with hatred. Raw and brutal hatred. The familiar grating voice whipped them both around. Lips peeled back from his teeth, he felt the burn to kill.

“Fuck you, asshole,” Ethan rumbled long and low until every cell in his body hungered for a fight.

For blood.

Ethan’s gaze darted from side to side as his senses scanned the area for more potential threats. Through the mist, a single pair of pale blue eyes stood out first. Ethan’s attention shot to the right then left when he picked up on additional rustling.

“Run. Or stay back, but don’t you dare get in the middle of this,” he snarled at Remy.

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