Page 21 of Single Mom for the Mountain Men
Once we make it inside the boys’ cabin, I can relax. My muscles loosen as the familiar smell of Tanner’s cooking wafts around us.
“Brody, did you—oh, Lena,” Aiden says in surprise as he walks in, a mini screwdriver tucked behind his ear. Sophie rushes to Aiden and clutches his leg tightly. He pets her head, eyeing the three of us with a confused stare. “Did something happen? Why is everyone so tense?”
“Let her take a breath first, for fuck’s sake,” Brody snaps as he walks into the kitchen, his palm slowly disappearing from my back.
I wobble over to their sofa to sit down, inhaling deeply.
“There was a man. He was spying on us from behind the trees, the ones right beside your fence. He saw me and then made a run for it, deeper into the tree line,” I confess once Tanner and Brody are back in the room. Brody hands me a glass of water. Sophie is curled halfway in Aiden’s lap as he sits down on their other sofa. He combs his fingers through her hair, and her eyes close.
“A man?” Tanner repeats as Brody’s jaw clenches.
“He was wearing all black and had a ski mask on, so I couldn’t see his face. I got scared and Sophie was with me—”
“Hey, hey, you’re all right,” Tanner says gently, rubbing my shoulder. “He ran back into the tree line, you say?”
The fear I felt at that moment returns as I recall the event. The fear thathemight have found us, after all, that no matter what I do or where I run away to,that manwill always find me, slams back into me full-force.
“There is no escape route from there,” Tanner points out. “The thicker trees are hard to pass through, and they extend down to the base of the mountain.”
“How could he come so close to the trees in the pathway without coming across you, Brody?” Aiden mutters.
“Is there any way he could reach my cabin?” I ask fearfully, my mind working overtime at the thought.
“Not a chance,” Brody counters roughly. “To reach your house through the trees is impossible geographically. The only way he will reach you without being spotted is if he uses our backyard to sneak into yours.”
The three brothers lock eyes immediately. “And that isn’t happening.”
The conviction in their voices calms me down a bit as Brody ponders the technicalities of this man’s movements. His predictions of this stranger’s movements seem calculated and precise, like this is a stimulation he has been through many times.
“All right, Mr. ex-SEAL.” Tanner claps him on the back as Brody moves to get a large sheet of paper and a pencil to sketch out his predictions. “You might be right about him moving southward, but you do know the lay of the land at this time of the year?”
“It should be even harder to move through the trees during this time of the year,” Brody counters. “There’s so much snow underneath the trees right now.”
The brothers discuss the technicalities, each offering their own insight. It’s clear that they all have a different expert opinion. Tanner can track the man’s movements, Aiden can help set up a way to monitor all the entrances and exits of my cabin and theirs.
It’s Brody, though, who takes charge and directs the other two brothers during the conversation. He has one question clear in his eyes as he glances at me, though, which is why this man would be after me. I don’t know how to tell him that James is insane enough to pull off something like this.
Chapter eleven
CHAPTER 11: Aiden
“But, Lena—”
“No, guys, I’m serious. I don’t want any of you to uproot your lives to move in with me. Not Aiden, not Tanner, not Brody. I won’t allow it.”
“It’s not uprooting any of us, Lena,” I try again, frustration creeping into my voice. “Wewantto do this. I don’t want you living in fear of a fucking weirdo crashing into your house at any moment, especially not when it could be your nutcase of an ex.”
“Ex?” Tanner echoes, brows rising.
Fuck.
I look at Lena, my eyes searching hers to see if she wants me to divulge the truth. It is her story to share, after all, but the cat is out of the bag now.
“My ex, James, he’s a crazy man. I have a feeling that it’s him I saw today,” she confesses softly while wringing her hands anxiously in her lap.
“The man was abusive. He would physically harm her, and when he tried harming Sophie, Lena escaped. That’s when she came to Whitefish,” I complete the story for Tanner and Brody when it’s obvious that Lena can’t.
Brody’s knuckles go white with how hard they clench into fists, and Tanner’s eyes flash dangerously. The anger I felt that night when she confessed her backstory to me is mirrored in my brothers’ eyes, and quite righteously.
