Page 31 of Snowed In with Three Mountain Men

It’s the same pain I suffered when I lost the unit. The guilt, the anger, the certainty that I was to blame—it’s enough to destroy a person, if you don’t keep it under lock and key. It nearly destroyed me. And if my brothers hadn’t been there to pull meout of that downward spiral before it completely consumed me, I don’t know where I’d be right now.

Which would make me all kinds of a hypocrite if I left her to deal with this alone.

I nod my head, just once. It still doesn’t feel comfortable, the thought of opening this place up to such danger. But if I can help her make things right, maybe it will go some way to fixing the mess in my own head.

“She can stay,” I mutter. And just like that, she lets out a gasp of relief and dives toward me, throwing her arms around me and clinging on to me tightly. I think of pulling away, but instead, I lift my hands to her waist and pull her in close to me.

I don’t know what the hell I’ve just gotten myself into. But I know there’s no way in hell I can leave this girl to face her ex alone.

No matter what it takes, we’re in it together.

And I’m not going to let anything change that.

14

CHUCK

I plantmy hand against the door, holding back for a second before I push it open. For a moment, I consider just leaving her to rest—but I know, after everything that happened yesterday, I need to clear the air, and this seems to be the best time to do it.

Dax and Callum are out scouting the area to check for any remnants of the shooter who came after them earlier this week. I know they’ll take their time. Dax won’t be able to rest until he knows for sure that we’re not in any more danger, at least for the time being, and that gives me a good hour or two alone with Charli. An hour or two that I intend to make the most of.

I knock on the door and push it open—inside, I see her lying in bed, staring at the window. The bedside light is on, and I can’t tell if she’s awake or not.

“Charli,” I murmur. “You sleeping?”

“No,” she responds with a sigh, turning over to face me. “I know I should, after everything, I just…can’t.”

I move toward the bed, sitting down at the edge of it and reaching over to rest a hand on her leg beneath the covers. I halfexpect her to flinch away, but she doesn’t. After what she told us yesterday about her ex, it seems damn close to a miracle that she doesn’t want to shove any man who comes near her as far away as she can get them. But she trusts us.

“Why not?”

“Can’t stop thinking about…about everything,” she admits, propping herself up on a pillow behind her. Her eyes are ringed with dark circles, and it’s clear from a glance that she’s not doing well. I squeeze her leg slightly, and she smiles, though it doesn’t seem entirely convincing.

“About what?”

“About…about him. James,” she confesses. “And you guys. And how much trouble I brought to your door by turning up like this out of the blue…”

She shakes her head, and casts a look toward the window.

“It’s not fair,” she adds softly. “It’s not fair that you—that you have to deal with all of this. You guys came out here to get a new start away from everything, and now?—”

“And now, we’ve decided we want to help you,” I remind her. “You gave us the choice. Remember? And we chose to help you.”

She looks over at me again and smiles slightly. “I know,” she replies quietly. “And I—I’m so grateful for that. I just…I can’t help but wonder if you really know how bad James is going to make this. When he doesn’t get something he wants…”

She shakes her head. I raise my eyebrows at her.

“Charli, we’re SEALs,” I counter. “I promise whatever your shithead of an ex has planned, it’s going to be nothing compared to what we saw out there in the field.”

She smiles, a little more sincerely this time. “Of course,” she murmurs. “I forget with you sometimes, you just seem so…so calm.”

I chuckle. “I was in comms,” I tell her. “I had to keep a cool head, no matter what was thrown at me.”

“Why did you choose that?” she asks curiously.

I shrug. “Our father was a SEAL, and he was in active service,” I reply. “And I saw the weight that put on his shoulders. I wanted to do my part, don’t get me wrong, but I felt like I would be better off working the more technical side of things. Callum and Dax, they were the ones who went out there and…”

I trail off. I still don’t know the extent of what my brothers saw in their respective time fighting. Neither of them talk about it much. What I do know, I’ve gleaned from reports and documents I’ve pulled from their files, and that’s enough to confirm to me that I should never go bringing it up.

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