Page 165 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
And they share the same eyes, the same face shape, the same reddish hair.
Liam is a younger version of my captor.
Oh, my God.
The youngest McBride’s face crumbles as Earl struggles to process what’s happening. Blood flows from under his hand that’s clutched over his injured ear, but he seems more concerned with the young man in front of him than his own wound.
Liam staggers back a few steps, resting his back against a tree to keep himself upright on shaking legs.
Shouts come from the trail along with the sound of heavy footsteps.
Sheriff Briggs appears, running up to us and stopping just short of the log where Earl lies. He’s slightly out of breath, hands on his knees. “We found the cabin, but there’s no one inside it.” His gaze sweeps across all of us. “What’s happening?”
His eyes land on Earl and his injury, cut to a stunned, silent Liam, Connor, Killian, and me…
I open my mouth to try to explain, but nothing comes out.
Connor steps forward. “Was there an ATV up there?”
Briggs nods. “Yeah, why?”
“Good. Killian and Willow are going to need it.”
21
WILLOW
The last vestiges of daylight barely touch the mountain by the time we get down the backside of it on the ATV, using the same barely passable old logging trail Earl must have traveled to get between town and the cabin beyond the gorge.
Seated in front of Killian, his strong body at my back, arms on either side of me, holding me securely, despite his injury, we traverse the final few miles of the rough terrain.
With the main road now in sight, the bubbling anxiety that’s strangled me since we set out threatens to boil over.
It’s taken us hours.
Endless hours spent reliving the flood of memories that now wash over me like a tsunami.
Horrible ones of a year spent with a man who had broken from reality.
Good ones of my baby—of our baby—the sole light in what was the darkest time of my life.
Holding him. Just staring at him and seeing all the ways he looks exactly like Killian, even at this young an age. Telling him about his father. Describing the life we would have when we were finally free…
The tears I’ve cried endlessly continue to streak down my cheeks, and I so badly want to dive into that easy darkness I’ve let myself drift into over the past several weeks. Where I block out everything around me. Everything that’s happened to me. Where I pretend it’s a year ago and my life hasn’t crumbled.
But Killian’s warm breath flutters against my neck, his chest presses tightly to my back, his presence keeps me grounded and reminds me that we’re in this together now.
We haven’t even had a chance to talk, to discuss any of the revelations that came with finding Earl and my missing memories, because they don’t matter at this moment.
Only finding Niall does.
Finding him and ending this nightmare once and for all.
The trees start to thin as we near the main road that wraps around the base of McBride Mountain, and eventually, the tires cross from the uneven forest floor to cracked pavement.
Turning left will take us back toward town and the road that leads up to the McBride homestead. But in the opposite direction…the one place we might find the thing we’ve been looking for, the piece of me that’s been missing.
Killian pulls us to a stop. “You’re sure about this?”
