Page 58 of Saved By the Mountain Man

I looked at Burke, sizing him up. He was shorter than Tanner, but wider, and he wore a permanent scowl on his face. His thick neck ran straight to his ears, his head looking small on his broad shoulders and his dark hair was short. He was clean-shaven, so I could see the tick in his jaw.

“Burke?”

He glanced at me without answering.

“You’re just going to ignore me?” I asked. “Come on, we were friends once, right?”

I wouldn’t have called it friendship, but whatever.

“It’s not like we’re strangers.” I tried again. “Jethro’s just… in a mood.”

Burke grunted, but he didn’t react, so I kept going.

“You know how he gets when he’s like that. Full of shit, snappy, no respect for anyone and no gratitude for what they do.”

Burke glanced at me again. It was quick, but I knew I had something. I grabbed onto the opportunity with both hands. If I could get Burke on my side…

“He loved me once, you know,” I said. “Or at least, that’s what he told me. But we know that was never true, don’t we?”

Burke didn’t respond.

“It makes me wonder what he’s said to other people who are loyal to him, who will sacrifice it all for his sake. Will he just throw them by the wayside, too?”

“Shut up, McKenna,” Burke snapped.

I’d hoped he would put two and two together and maybe doubt whether Jethro really cared about him. If I could convince Burke that Jethro was lying to him, too, maybe he could let me go.

“Jethro just uses people for what he can get out of it, and when it’s over, he tosses them aside.”

Burke narrowed his eyes at me. “You were the one who ran, McKenna. Jethro didn’t do anything to you.”

He wasn’t wrong. Shit. That meant he wasn’t going to be on my side.

I had to think of another plan. If I couldn’t use Burke’s brain—or his lack thereof—against him, I would have to do things another way.

My bladder started to bug me. It had been a long time since I’d been to the bathroom last—I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out for. How long ago had I been taken from the mountainside? I glanced toward the windows. It was light outside, but was it the next day? Or the same day?

Suddenly, I knew what I had to do.

“Burke,” I said, and he looked at me again, irritated.

“I thought I told you to shut up.”

“I need to go to the toilet.”

Burke blinked at me.

“I need to pee. I’ve been on this chair for God knows how long and, well, you know…”

Burke grunted, warring with himself. I was willing to bet Jethro hadn’t given Burke a contingency plan for something like this.

“I mean, I can go on this chair, but it will be weird, and I think—”

“I’ll take you,” Burke said quickly, exceedingly uncomfortable. Jethro hadn’t considered that a dumb henchman wouldn’t know what to do when a girl had to go. That counted in my favor. Men like Burke could beat up someone, shoot someone, be all growland grit, but they didn’t know how to handle the opposite sex when it got down to the facts, and right now, that was what I was relying on.

He walked to me and cut through the ropes with a knife that was ridiculously sharp. Did they have more rope where that came from? I guess so.

I rubbed my wrists where the ropes had chafed, and Burke nodded in the direction of a door behind me I hadn’t been able to see.

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