Page 161 of Mountain Men Heroes
Shit. Here it came.
I was not going to get off easy here.
“So this is like a case? You want us to hunt down the one that got away for you?”
My jaw clenched. But I knew this day would come. After getting my discharge papers, part of the reason I’d decided to join the private sector with another company was that Trinity was way too fucking young and innocent for a man fifteen years her senior. If I’d stayed in town, it would have been hell staying away from her. Plain and simple.
I knew when I left that I had to give her the chance to grow up and to follow her dreams of working for the top fashion designers in Syn City. I had no doubt she’d hightailed it out of Wilde Ridge the second she had the chance.
That meant, as much as it sucked, I needed help to figure out where she’d gone. By now she must have started college and grabbed a great job working alongside big names making jewelry.
No matter how tempted I was to look her up I knew myself too well to trust I’d be able to walk away after the first time, so I stayed away. But that meant she could be anywhere.
“I need you to help me find her.” I leveled a look at each of them, letting all signs of joking leach from my face. “I’m not going to be any good to anyone until I have her with me.” That made me sound like a bastard, but fuck it.
For a long time, this clawing urgency to have her at my side made me one of the deadliest soldiers on my team. But let loose on my small hometown, my need to finally claim Trinity could make me a real threat to anyone who stepped in my path.
Mac, Dyson, and Eeli met my eyes with the cold-eyed stares of the soldiers I knew them to be.
Good. They were beginning to understand the seriousness of the situation.
“Anything you need, brother,” Eeli spoke for the first time in what seemed like fucking days. How he did that, I didn’t have a damn clue.
I nodded my thanks.
“From me, too,” Dyson echoed Eeli’s vow.
Mac stared at me a few beats before his eyes flicked over my shoulder and then back to my face. He eased back in his chair again, kicking his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles.
I recognized his shit-eating grin and braced myself.
“So what do we get if we find her?” Mac asked.
I blinked. Not the reaction I was expecting. I narrowed my eyes. It’s not like the fucker needed money. “What do you want?”
“Maybe a kiss from your woman? You know, like a little token of appreciation for my superior tracking skills. A slow dance in the back room?” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
My lips curled back from my teeth. “You might want to ask for something else real quick.”
Mac shrugged, completely unconcerned with the imminent threat I posed to his life. “You know what? No worries. You can owe me one.”
“Cocky bastard. Before I plant my fist in your face, how about you actually do some work and help me find her.”
It was all I could do to keep myself planted in the chair. Everything in me wanted to jump across the table and take him down just because he teased me about putting his lips on my woman.
He grunted. “Mission accomplished, brother. Looks like your girl just walked through the door.”
Two
Trinity
Ihurried into the back room to hang up my jacket. Somebody needed to tell Mother Nature it was late summertime. Judging by my numb fingers and frozen nose, she hadn’t gotten the memo. Then again, summer on the side of a mountain meant weird weather and snow in the summertime when the people down in Cherry Falls wore shorts and sandals with copious amounts of sunshine.
“You’re late.” Birdie stormed into Rusty Nails break room, her mass of red hair flaming behind her looking as angry as she did.
I sighed. So what else was new?
Syn City, big fashion names, and moving money. My trifecta dream. But there was college tuition too.