Page 135 of Ten Mountain Men

“We don’t need your explanations, Goldie,” he spits, stomping to the front door and flinging it open. “What we need is for you to get the hell out. We know what you’re up to. You told us from day one you were a reality show producer, and I knew you were up to no good! I knew it! This whole thing…it was a setup, wasn’t it? You’ve been secretly filming us for some show you’re working on this entire goddamn time.”

It’s not a question.

“No! That’s not…” My voice trails off and I blanch as he hurls my bag outside. I don’t care about the things inside, but it’s the action itself. I’m frozen, waiting for him to snatch me up and toss me out after my things.

Luke whirls around, more furious than I’ve ever seen anyone in my life. “You must think we’re really stupid. You hurt them.” He points toward Ranger and Ash, who are both silent, not even looking at me. “I told you, didn’t I? I warned you. You hurt them, and we’d have a problem. But what you’ve done…it’s beyond the pale. Now get out! Get out and don’t ever show your face on this mountain again.”

“Ash, Ranger, please hear me out,” I beg, hot tears streaming down my face. I feel like I’m breaking apart. My breath comes in shallow, ragged bursts, my chest tight, like there’s not enough air in the room.

“If you don’t move your ass, you’ll be the next thing I throw out the door,” Luke growls, and the threat in his voice isn’t something I can ignore.

Before I can say anything else, Hunter walks in the open front door, carrying my bag. His eyes dart between Luke, Ash, Ranger, Clay, and me. “What the hell is going on in here?”

Ash holds up the snail. “We found this, Hunter. It’s a camera. She’s been filming us.”

The pain in his voice guts me. It hits me like a sledgehammer, and I crumble inside. I can barely breathe through the sobs that tear out of me. I can’t hold them back.

Luke’s still fuming, pacing like a caged animal. “I told her,” he seethes. “I told her if she hurt any of you, we’d have a goddamned problem. She was warned. She’s out. Not another damned word, she just needs to get the fuck out of this cabin and out of our lives.”

Hunter’s jaw tightens. He looks from Luke to me, then back to Luke. The fact that he’s actually looking at me gives me a surge of hope.

“No. She owes us an explanation. She’s not going anywhere until she gives us that. Get the others,” he says.

Luke grits his teeth so loud I can hear it, but he gives a terse nod.

Hunter sets my bag down. He points at me, then at the couch, and I realize I’ve made my body as small as possible and I’m pressed up against the wall. “Sit and don’t say a word ’til everyone’s here.”

I nod, tears streaming down my face, unable to stop the shaking in my hands.

“Lynx and Nash are in the garden,” Clay says. All the lightness and laughter, all the mischief and playfulness, all the jokes and fun, are drained from his voice and my heart shatters. I’ve taken those things from him. “I’ll go get them.”

“What’s all the commotion about?” Rusty asks, coming from the direction of the bathroom. I look up at him and the details blur through my tears—his sopping wet hair, his bare chest, the towel wrapped around his waist. “Can’t a man take a bubble bath without—” He stops short, seeming not to notice anyone else in the room. His eyes zero in on me and the blubbering mess that I am. “Hey. Rose-Gold. What’s wrong, baby?”

He starts to come to me, but Hunter clears his throat.

“Go put on some clothes, Rusty. We’re having a family meeting.”

“But—” Rusty protests.

“GO,” Hunter says again.

Rusty glances at me and the concern on his face would be the end of me, if I didn’t feel like the end had already come and gone.

Clay comes back in with Lynx, Nash, and Brooks.

“Brooks was just getting back from the orchard. He went to get the pears,” Clay says. He must’ve filled Lynx and Nash in, because neither of them look at me. But Brooks heads straight for me and when Hunter tries to stop him, he swats him away as if he’s a mosquito.

I know I don’t deserve any comfort, but I let Brooks pick me up off the couch, taking me into his arms, where he holds me, swaying like I’m an inconsolable infant he’s trying to soothe.

“It’s gonna be okay, snapdragon,” he says, but I know that this time when I leave, it won’t be my choice and, once he hears the truth, he won’t be coming after me.

Chapter 44

Goldie

Brooks puts me down and I can barely breathe through the panic tightening my chest, but I have to think—how the hell do I fix this? How do I make them see that this wasn’t some grand manipulation, that I wasn’t trying to exploit them for some damn reality show? I was never trying to exploit them. I never had bad intentions. I was stupid, yes, but not malicious.

I was supposed to just enjoy myself, to have sex with them, to have fun with them, but now…I’ve barely fallen in love with them, I’ve barely found them, and I’m losing them. They’ve become the home I’ve spent my entire life searching for. This mountain, this ramshackle cabin, these brothers—they’ve given me more than I ever thought I could have. The moments of laughter, the quiet conversations, the way they’ve let me into their world. They’re my family now. Or they could’ve been. I don’t just want them—I need them.

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