Page 29 of Snowed In with Three Mountain Men

“What the fuck was that?” I ask, my head flipping this way and that as I try to locate the source.

“It was Dax,” he mutters, pulling back from me. “Shit. I should see what that’s about…”

“I’ll come with you,” I offer, and he looks down at me for a moment. Before I can get out another word, he leans down to kiss me one more time.

“If you think this is over,” he murmurs against my mouth, his voice low with desire once more. “You’re wrong. You hear me?”

His words are almost forceful—but I know exactly how he feels. Whatever happened here today, it’s not enough, not by a long shot, and I know I need more.

I nod. And then, before I can so much as get my bearings, he turns to head into the house, leaving me to catch up in an attempt to find out what this commotion is all about.

13

DAX

I burstout the back door, the cold air biting at my skin, though I can barely feel it. No, all I can think about is what Callum just told me—and how fucking furious I am that he didn’t come clean as soon as he stepped through that door last night.

“What the fuck happened yesterday?” I demand, pushing Chuck aside and striding toward Charli, who has just emerged from the greenhouse. Her eyes are downcast and her cheeks are red, but I’m not about to let her off because she’s playing demure. No, I deserve a fucking answer—and I want to know if she’s willing to give it to me, or if she’s going to try and cover her ass to avoid landing in more trouble than she already has.

“Dax, calm down,” Chuck tells me. He reaches for my shoulder, but I shrug him off before he can touch me, and I round on him, my eyes narrowed.

“Did you know about this?” I demand.

He stares at me for a second. “Know about what?”

“About what happened last night, while they were out,” I reply, stabbing my finger past him and toward Callum, who has followed me out of the house.

Chuck furrows his brow, and looks between Callum and Charli, clearly searching for an answer. “I didn’t know anything happened last night.”

“Neither did I, until Callum told me just now,” I spit back. “He kept it from us. We could have been in danger, and he didn’t say a damn thing?—”

“Dax!” Callum yells, trying to shut me up, but I’m spinning out. I know it’s not going to help anyone, to have me freak the fuck out on them like this, but I can’t just let it go. Someone was prowling the woods last night with a gun, and they came after Charli and Callum. Something could have happened to them. I could have lost them?—

That thought stutters to a halt in my brain, and rage takes over.As if I haven’t lost enough already.My unit, my father. My fucking sanity, it feels like sometimes. And Callum would let that kind of danger slide? No. No fucking way am I going to let them get away with this.

“Shut the fuck up!” I yell, rounding on Callum furiously. “You could have died out there.”

“Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” Chuck demands.

“I can tell you,” Charli replies, her voice hollow, robotic. I turn back to her, and she stares at me, fear in her eyes. For a split second, I feel bad about spooking her, but no—I’m not going to let her guilt-trip me into thinking this is an overreaction. Chuck looks at her expectantly, and she pauses for a moment, clenchingand unclenching her fists at her sides before she finally comes up with an answer.

“We were…Callum and I were shot at last night,” she finally confesses. The words hang in the air between the four of us, and I watch as Chuck registers them.

But then, instead of anger, his brow furrows, and he moves toward her. “Shit, you okay?”

“We’re fine,” Callum replies for her. “Nothing happened. We?—”

“How can you say nothing happened?” I interrupt, incredulous. “You were attacked. You could have died. You could have led them back here.”

“I would never have let that happen,” Callum cuts in hotly, his voice laced with irritation that I would even bring up the possibility—but it can’t come as that much of a surprise to him. He knows how precious this place is to me out of all of us. He knows how bad things got for me back in the city. And he knows that if I lose this place, I’ll lose myself with it.

“Of course you would,” I fire back, and I jab my finger in Charli’s direction. “You’ve been willing to walk us into trouble since the second she turned up in your life again.”

“Because she needs us!” Callum protests, and I turn to Charli, locking eyes with her.

“But she won’t tell us why,” I point out, taking a step toward her. She stands her ground, her hands clenching to fists at her sides as she stares me down. I can still feel that tension between us, the same tension that was there that day in the kitchen when we kissed, but it’s turned into something else entirely.

“You really want to know?” she replies, her voice dropping. She doesn’t want to put it all out there, but she can’t keep hiding it from us.

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