Page 95 of Snowed In with her Mountain Men
“YES,” Oakley and Ryder said, in perfect unison.
Their gazes shifted immediately to Jaxon, who remained utterly silent. So did mine.
“Fine,” he eventually admitted. “Yes. We would.”
The man on the floor blinked a few times, looking suddenly nonplussed. As if, for some reason, their answer seemed utterly absurd to him.
“You’re forgetting that Sarge was our brother too,” Ryder explained, stepping forward. “Every bit as much as he was yours.”
He reached behind himself for a moment, and produced a long, wicked-looking knife. The polished steel flashed dangerously in the firelight.
“We honored him in life,” Ryder went on, as he dropped to one knee. “It goes without saying we extend that honor in death.”
His arm jerked violently for a moment, as he cut through the zip-ties holding Bryce’s wrists together. Pausing to stare him down one last time, he freed his ankles next.
Bryce rose slowly, stretching and uncoiling his body. Eventually he stood at his full, intimidating height.
“What exactly does that mean?” he asked cautiously.
“It means if Sarge wanted to share the diamonds with you, that’s all we needed to hear.”
Bryce was only slightly less confused. He looked at them one by one, sizing them up, but in a much different way than he had before. I couldn’t help but gasp when he whirled on me.
“I’m sorry,” he said gravely. “For striking you.”
Those deep-set eyes still blazed with an innately fearsome intensity. But for the first time, I actually noticed their color: a swirling, stormy gray.
“Guess I can’t really blame you,” I shrugged, still holding his gaze. “Iwasswinging a rifle around.”
He nodded before turning away.
“And I’m sorry to the rest of you,” he added, rubbing his wrists. “For… you know.”
Oakley looked at his friends and chuckled. “For delivering an ass-kicking?”
Bryce gave a shrug of his massive shoulders. “Sure.”
“I still can’t believe he beatbothyour asses,” Oakley prodded. “I mean—”
“He kicked your ass too, numbnuts,” barked Jaxon. “If it weren’t for us, you’d still be wearing the staircase.”
“Yeah,” Ryder agreed. “I have to say, you fight like—”
“Colton?” Bryce smirked. “Where’d you think my brother learned to fight? It wasn’t all at boot camp, I’ll tell you that. We fought and boxed and wrestled like maniacs, all through ourchildhood.” His voice went lower, growing more introspective. “Even more so, after it was just us and mom.”
The tension in the room drained away, leaving only the glowing warmth of the fire. I found myself grateful and relieved. I was still hurting from the blow to my head, but it wasn’t anything a couple of Ibuprofen couldn’t fix.
For a while the five of us stood there, silently licking our wounds.
“Alright then,” said Oakley at last. “You’re in.”
When he dropped a hand on Bryce’s shoulder, the man didn’t even flinch.
“At least now you can help us dig during the daylight, instead of sneaking in and out of the woods at night,” he went on. “We still don’t know what the hell your brother did with the diamonds, but—”
“Yes we do.”
The words came bursting out of me, along with an ear-to-ear smile. Four very tired, pain-filled gazes shifted my way.
