Page 41 of Micah

Patsy burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

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They took their time so about an hour and forty-five minutes later they stopped the horses at the pond, and dismounted. Micah helped Patsy down and handed her the blanket before taking the saddles and blankets off the horses to let them graze. After Patsy spread the blanket out, he took the sandwiches, water, and apples from the saddlebags then sat on the blanket next to her and handed her a sandwich.

“I didn’t think I’d be hungry yet, but I’m starving.”

“It’s the fresh air,” Micah said as he took a bite of his sandwich then twisted the caps off two of the bottles and handed her one.

Patsy took the bottle from him then took a bite of her sandwich. “It’s just beautiful here.”

“My favorite place to ride to, when I get the chance.”

Glancing up, the sun beat down on his face and the rays warmed his shoulders. Once he finished the sandwich, he lay back, put his hat down over his face then clasped his hands across his stomach.

“I can see why,” he heard her say then Patsy cleared her throat.

“Tell me about Bella when she was kidnapped.”

Micah lifted his hat and looked up her.

“She didn’t tell you?” He set his hat down on the blanket.

“Only that she’d fallen in love with Mont, well, Colt.”

Blowing out a breath, he shook his head. “I’m not sure it’s my place to tell you.”

“Why not? You were there, and I need to know.”

“It was hard for her…and Mont. He’d fallen in love with her and he knew it was wrong. We protected her as much as we could without being too obvious about it. If Barkley had an even a small inkling of us doing that, he would have killed us both. He was an evil son of a bitch. I had to hold Mont back when Barkley was choking her—”

“He choked her?”

“Yeah, he was doing it to teach her a lesson. She’d gotten away from me.”

He saw he’d worried Patsy so Micah chuckled.

“She was feisty as hell. We kept her in a locked room and she had already tried to escape once by breaking the window. Mont was keeping an eye on her then. He had to put plywood over the window. He made up some stupid story that she’d made him so mad he’d thrown the lamp and it hit the window. When she got away from me, I had no excuse for her getting out other than not stopping her. She’d pulled at the plywood enough to get it down. I heard her doing it but by the time I’d opened the door, she was halfway out the window. I caught her and tossed her across the bed but she rolled away, and ran out the door.” He stopped when Patsy laughed.

“Sounds like Bella.”

He grinned, feeling better about telling her this.

“Well, she made it to the kitchen where I finally caught her. She struggled then picked up a plate from the table, turned, and whacked me over the head.” Patsy smothered a laugh and he knew she was appreciating her friend getting the better of him.It is funny now. “It about knocked me out and I was woozy enough that she got away. I had to call Mont to come back and help me look for her. He found her and took her back to the house. I was sure Barkley was going to kill me, but he didn’t. He did, however, go into her room, pull her from the bed by her hair, put her against the wall and started choking her. The worst part was Mont and I had to stand there and watch him do it. We couldn’t blow our covers.”

“Wow! I had no idea about that. Why didn’t you let Bella know you were FBI?”

Micah shook his head. “We couldn’t chance that her demeanor would change, thinking she was safe, and Barkley was too damn astute not to catch something like that.”

“Right. I can’t believe she survived all that and more. I know she was devastated when she thought Mont was dead. I’d never seen her so tore up, but she knew she was going to have a part of him in those babies.”

“We didn’t know if he was going to make it at all. It was hard on his mom and hisfriends to think he’d never wake up. He was so mad at me when I told him Isabella thought he was dead.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t just my decision to tell her that. Mont’s mom said it was for the best and at the time, we all thought it was. We couldn’t see having Isabella sit there and watch him die. It was best she already thought he was gone. I couldn’t even bring myself to tell her he was FBI.”

Patsy smiled at him. “I believe she really would have kicked your ass then.”

Micah chuckled. “No doubt there.”

He sobered. “Did she tell you about Silas Blackman?”

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