Page 9 of Mountain Men Heroes
“That’s none of your business.”
“And that’s not counting the last five-plus years,” his brother plowed on.
In unison they performed their routine systems check and powered down Betty.
“Hey guys, so when did Esmeralda get back?”
Drake froze. What the hell? He bared his teeth and gave a long-drawn-out growl as he flicked the coms off back to home base. Now his sister and the whole of fucking headquarters knew his business and all Ethan could do was grin like an asshole.
“You did that on purpose.”
“I needed backup.”
Ethan may have a point, but like hell he’d feed his brother’s ego. “That’s low, wait until I tell mom. What kind of brother brings in the little sis for back up?”
“A smart one, that’s who!” Ethan reached across and gave him a slap on the shoulder. Drake unstrapped himself from the cockpit and launched himself from the door. It was that or risk throwing a left hook into the other man’s jaw.
He swiveled his gaze as his brother crossed the front of the chopper shaking his head, wearing that damn smirk. He took long strides, the snow slowing him down, when a raven-haired woman popped her head out of the tent twenty yards up the small incline to another naturally leveled area. She flashed a sweet smile and his brother froze as if caught in a spell. Well, I’ll be damned. He knew that look. Not on his brother, but he recognized smitten when he saw it. Every piece of that particular puzzle snapped into place, but one. How did he not know about this before now?
“Never my ass, huh?”
Ignoring his jab, Ethan’s face lit up with an animated expression he’d never witnessed before. Interesting.
Thunder rumbled an eerie warning and caught his attention. Eyes locked on the skyline; he swore under his breath. The fucking weatherman had it all wrong again, but any veteran of Alaska could tell the second the weather turned for the worse. It didn’t make any sense. Why would anyone be out here with a storm this size rolling in?
Experience had everyone making double-time to find the lost hikers and get them off the mountainside in time enough to hunker down back at the headquarters of Savage Excursions & Mountain Rescue Or that was the plan if the missing hikers were still living.
Some days he wished he could get out of this town. Away from all the memories that chased him and his family. Long before he was born his father had started the mountain rescue operation and when he and his brothers were old enough they’d taken over, adding in excursions for tourists.
He didn’t make it a habit of hating people. Burning bridges in life wasn’t a great practice, but Morgan senior made it easy for a lesser man when her father used his money to bury their family business before leaving Savage Ridge out of misplaced rage and blame. It had taken a lot to dig out from under the shit the old man had piled on them, and there for a while he never wanted to see another Morgan in his life. But today, for one split second, he couldn’t help but think about the what-ifs.
What if he hadn’t been the son of a rival? What if Esme’s father could have embraced their love instead of seeing it as a betrayal?
Drake groaned and strode forward, sinking to his knees in soft snow until he reached the tent. There had been at least a foot of the sugary powder covering already loosely packed snow from the way his foot sank in with little resistance.
A recipe for disaster. They set patrol up for this very reason. Whoever let those fools back there to hike should be arrested. When they returned to town, he’d have a few details to nail down, but he had an idea of who the hikers were and he’d see to it this didn’t happen again and put everyone out searching for them at risk.
A pain he hadn’t felt since he watched her walk out of his life settled deep in his chest. The ache of having her so damn close and to being able to say what’s been on his mind for five years ate at his gut. He knew searching for the adrenaline junkies out looking for their next big fix was part of his job, but damn it. He didn’t have to like it.
All these layers. He pulled at his collar. God, they were suffocating him.
Drake felt the urge to turn around and seek out the little green-eyed temptress just to prove to himself he could resist the instinct hardwired into his brain to get her in his arms and his bed.
Jealousy never occurred to him. Maybe he never felt strongly enough for a woman, but when he caught that lowlife Brax making a move, his world zeroed in on shutting that shit down fast. Only by the skin of his own hide did he manage not to pulverize the fucking asshole where he stood.
Drake braced his thick-soled boots deeper into the snow for a better grip just in time to take a gust of wind brutal enough to lift him a few inches if he were any less of a man.
Son of a bitch.
His back teeth ground together.
He stepped into the makeshift home base and all eyes locked on him. “How bad is it, Chief?” He shook hands with the leader of the Mountain Rescue who also doubled as the Firehouse Chief. In a town this small almost everyone doubled up on something.
Topography maps covered the table between them. “The avalanche took place in this section of the mountain.”
His fears were slowly becoming a reality. The west sector bordered Esmeralda’s father’s land and stretched into no man's land along the base of the mountain. No outsider would know that, though.
Son of a bitch. He should have been paying attention to the radio this morning and not daydreaming about Irish green eyes, sweet honey, and all the luscious curves of Esmeralda Morgan. Her perfume still clung to his clothes, Ethan’s too.