Page 56 of Recurve Ridge

“He’ll wait for you to make a mistake, and given the headspace you’re in, he’s going to find one.”

“He already has.”

Miller snarked on. “It’ll cost you a life or more. Are you willing to risk that?”

I bared my teeth in a feral grimace he couldn’t see. “What do you want me to do? Send her away?” I waited, knowing we’d hit an impasse. Miller would have my back to eternity, but if I fell apart on him…. He was right about the cost, and the failure poked an already bruised heart.

“No. But you need to pull your head out of your ass where she’s concerned.” He stopped talking as the house came into view. “We all do.”

A-fucking-men to that, brother.

My pack heavier than I’d swear it’d been when we left this morning, I pushed the door open to an empty cabin and then unpacked, unable to settle until Jon appeared in the clearing. Miller’s phone bleeped. I grabbed it, looking for a message from Will, but Alan had replied in code to an earlier message.

If I barged in on Will and Mari, I could lose her, and my pride refused to let that happen. Neither would anyone else in the house. I settled in to wait.

Patience wasn’t my strongest suit today.

14

MARI

Fresh mountain airand sunlight mingled above the picnic blanket I sat on while Will regaled me with stories of Robe’s officer life in the military at the end of my third month in the cabin, or outside it. Not that I was counting. Much. Not all of them represented the grumpy man the way he would have liked to have been portrayed, digging at his pride, but some part of me enjoyed hearing tales of his fallibility, what made him human.

Not the machine that pushed forward into some unspoken vengeance for the ruined lives of the men who loved him, however their crazy household worked. And that love became obvious as Will spoke, animated as his hands told the story for him.

“He threw the snake as far as he could, still shrieking a little. It landed right at Miller’s feet. The dude shot it, never taking his eyes off Robe, this look of utter disgust on his face. Robe bought him a lot of near beer—the base was a dry station—and got over it.” Will’s infectious grin brought on my own.

“Are you supposed to be telling me stories like that?” I nudged his shoulder, enjoying the easy warmth he offered. “Something about breaking the bro code.”

“Very American of you, Brit. But… you’re right. I’m probably not.” His smile dimmed as his gaze flicked to the tree line. He blew out a breath and turned his attention back to me. “It’s good to share the memory with someone who appreciates that Robe’s got faults.”

“Oh, he’s got plenty of those, all right.” I twisted a pine needle into segmented pieces, adding to the pile near my crossed ankles, and decided to risk it all. “He looked… stressed this morning.”

“He’s got one hell of a grudge match with that man.”

“Who?” I frowned, searching his face, so full of youth and innocence.

Sandy-brown hair flopped over his eyes. Will pushed it back, pursing his lips as he stared into the water cascading into a steady stream. The river meandered its way along the mountainside and tipped off the edge farther along in a never-ending tumble, though some edges were still covered in the occasional rare smatter of snow. Fine spray kissed his skin, his gentle brown eyes better suited to a poet than a soldier.

Will’s gaze lowered to mine, dark and filled with suppressed rage. Any thought of innocence cowered beneath the intensity there. He blinked, and the tormented eddies disappeared, replaced by the boyish man I’d thought I understood.

“No one.” He caught my wrist and placed a trio of small white flowers into my palm, their fragile petals curled at the tips from being crushed in his hand.

It took me a moment to pick out what they were, my head still full of his switch from a sweet younger-brother type I trusted to a mini wrath-filled demon full of dark passions.

“Strawberries. Jon showed me wild ones. Dead ones at the end of winter,” I corrected myself.

“These flowered early this season. Like they were waiting for you.” Will grinned. “Alan mentioned something about making a hydroponics shed. That came from your head, huh? They’re my favorite.” He added a few of the ripe berries that probably came from the same store as the ones Jon gave me to my palm and closed my fingers over them. “Enjoy.” He leaned back, bracing his hands behind his head, and fully stretched out on the blanket.

“What are you doing?” I poked his side.

“Sleeping.” He yawned.

“Didn’t you get enough last night?” I popped a strawberry into my mouth and sighed. “Yum.”

“I got thirty minutes of shut-eye after Robe—” He cleared his throat and shut his mouth.

“After Robe what?” I poked him again.

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