Protector of the Mountain (The Mountain Men of Fox Hollow Book 2)

by Frankie Love

  “Probably never. If we stop, we’ll get caught.”

  “I’m so tired. I want a different life.”

  “Was the guy worth it?” Carly-Anne asks as I wash my hair. She is the closest thing I have to a friend. She’s been with us for a few years and I want to believe I can trust her.

  “Yes,” I say, turning from her as tears fall down my cheeks.

  “Good,” she says sadly. “Because we’re all gonna be paying for that little stunt for the next year.”

  Four months later…

  Carly-Anne was right. Tim takes it out on us all for months. And now it’s going to get worse.

  I finally get up the nerve to take a pregnancy test, knowing I am more than late. It’s been four months… four months of me living in denial. It’s getting harder to hide the truth. And I already know the answer. I don’t need this test to confirm anything.

  Still, looking at the results terrifies me. Carly-Anne knocks on the door. “What does it say?”

  “I can’t look.” I turn the knob, letting her in the motel bathroom. Then I hand her the test.

  “Sorry honey,” she says. “It’s positive.”

  Tears fill my eyes. “I have to run away, I have to go back.”

  To him. Reed. I can’t stop thinking about our one perfect night.

  Carly-Anne bites her lip. “Fox Hollow is across the country, Rainey. It would take weeks… longer. And Tim won’t let you go.”

  “I could run away. We both could.”

  “Why would I do that?” she asks.

  “Because it would be a chance at a new life. A fresh start.”

  “I’m all used up, Rainey. No good man would want me.”

  “You’re twenty-two years old, Carly-Anne. Hardly used up.”

  “This isn’t about me. This is about you, and this baby.”

  “Tim says we have to leave for Nebraska in the morning,” she says. “We have that load we have to drop. Every day late is less money we make.”

  “Maybe we can convince Tim to head back west. To Fox Hollow. Maybe—”

  “Maybe you hold off on telling him. If we’re patient, we might get closer and you could leave then.”

  “You’d help me?” I ask.

  Carly-Anne bites her lip. She has long, bleached blonde hair and bright blue eyes and yet her confidence is shot. Her life has been as bad as mine, only she is stuck with my brother now.

  “I don’t want to upset Tim.”

  “Why not? He’s been awful ever since that night.”

  “Because he is all I got in this world, Rainey. I don’t have this ideal man to hold onto like you do. I’ve never met a man like Reed in my life, and the way things are going, I won’t. But this life is better than the streets. Better than selling my body.” She wipes away a tear, then reaches for my hand. “I want to help you, I do. But not if it means losing Tim.”

  I stare at the two pink lines on the test, knowing my life is forever changed.

  Reed’s life too.

  Carly-Anne isn’t going to help me if it means costing her a place here. And if I run away, they might go to Fox Hollow to find me. Eventually Carly-Anne will crack.

  I love her, but she loves Tim more.

  I have to run away. Before it’s too late.

  Reed may not want me after I left like I did… but he might want this baby.

  His baby.

  Reed

  Four months later…

  “Did I tell you about the drama at the hospital?” Jasper asks as Jodie delivers us each a beer. He’s been at Merryton Hospital a lot the last week, as his dad is recovering from heart surgery. He’s hoping this might finally encourage him to get a live-in nurse.

  “No, what happened?” I take a long swig. Nothing has been the same in Fox Hollow since Rainey left with her brother. She left with half my heart.

  And damn, I tried finding her. Tried for months. But I had nothing to go on. They paid in cash at the bar, and the gas station in town didn’t get a clear read of their plates on the video cameras. They vanished into thin air.

  “A woman was found outside the Fox Hollow woods, over on the east side of the river. She’s like eight months pregnant and unconscious. Flown to the hospital last night. Fucking insane.”

  “Isn’t that practically how James found Marcie?” I ask, thinking of our friends who don’t live too far from me. “In the woods with a baby?”

  Jodie shakes her head. “So sad. Hope she wakes up soon. And that she remembers who she is.”

  “Damn,” I say. “Can you imagine?”

  Sometimes though, I wish I could wake up and forget everything from before. Forget that one perfect night with Rainey. On the outside, I probably appear fine — like I’ve moved on. My woodworking business keeps me busy and I’ve planted a thousand fucking flowers on my property since she left — but inside, I feel like I lost my person.

  No one would understand. How could they? How can you lose something you hardly ever had?

  “Was there an ID on her or anything?” Jodie asks. “Seems so crazy to be completely off the grid.”

  The words spark a memory.

  Rainey in the sauna, mentioning her family… how no one could find her if they tried. How she was off the grid.

  My heart pounds. Could it be?

  “What hospital is this?” I ask.

  “Merryton,” Jasper says. “Why?”

  I swallow. “I think I know who this is.”

  “Was do you mean?” Jasper asks.

  “It’s Rainey,” I say. “She was coming back for me.”

  Jodie and Jasper exchange a look that says I’ve really lost it.

  “Dude, I know you think you loved that girl… but she’s gone,” Jasper says.

  “And planting a million flowers in her memory and adding another floor to your cabin won’t bring her back,” Jodie adds.

  “I needed a second story anyhow. The place was too small,” I say defensively.

  “She made her choice. If she wanted to be found, she would have been,” Jodie says.

  I shake my head. “No. You don’t know her like I do.”

  “You knew here for like, four hours,” Jasper says.

  I smirk, leaving cash on the bar. “You wait,” I say to him. “You wait until you find the girl of your goddamn dreams. You’ll chase her the same way I’m chasing Rainey now.”

  In my truck, I turn on the radio. First song that’s playing is the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun and if that isn’t a goddamn sign, I don’t know what is.

  “I’m coming, baby.” I drive down the highway, my heart beating hard as I consider the implications. Consider the idea that this really is Rainey.

  She might never wake up.

  And then I consider the other thing Jasper said.

  She’s pregnant. Eight months pregnant.

  I do the math.

  There is no doubt in my mind this woman is Rainey.

  And that this baby is mine.

  When I get to the hospital, I ask a nurse at the first desk I see for help.

  “What’s the problem, exactly?”

  “The woman who was flown here, last night? I think she’s… I think she’s carrying my baby.”

  The nurse’s eyes go wide, and she tells me she will be right back. I pace the linoleum floor, praying that by following my heart I will have Rainey back in my life… in my arms. It’s all I want, all I need.

  Finally, a doctor finds me and tells me to follow him. “You know the patient?”

  “I think I do.”

  “Well, she woke up an hour ago,” he says, guiding me through the hospital to labor and delivery. “Labor brought her out of the coma. Which is a miracle. But she’s struggling, and so is the baby. She says she was on her way to Fox Hollow to find a man—”

  I cut him off as we reach a door with her name on it — Rainey Larson. Larson. I hadn’t known her last name — but soon enough it will be my name she takes.

  “I have to see her.”

&nbs
p; He lets me pass, and I enter the hospital room.

  My heart stops when I see her. Her eyes filled with tears, her belly swollen with child, struggling through a contraction. She grips the bed’s railing.

  “Rainey.” I move toward her and her eyes find mine.

  “Reed. How… how did you get here so fast? They already called you?”

  I shake my head. “I head a woman was brought here… found in Fox Hollow… and I knew. Knew it was you.”

  “I’m so sorry I left,” she cries, then she drops her head back in pain as another contraction grips her body. I take her hand.

  “I’m here now. We are together.”

  “It’s your baby, Reed. I tried to find you sooner but…” She screams as the pain barrels through her. The doctor positions himself at the foot of the bed, and the nurses prep the room. Something changes.

  “It’s time to push, Rainey. You’re almost there,” the doctor tells her.

  I let her grab hold of me as the pain ripples through her, and I tell her I’ve got her. That she isn’t alone.

  “I’m right here, Rainey. Right here.”

  And then, with panting and a cry that sets me on edge, the woman of my dreams pushes hard, harder, until our baby emerges.

  A cry rings loud, a baby brought into the world. Our child. A girl. Tears fill my eyes and Rainey shakes with exhaustion as a nurse places the baby on her chest.

  “I’m so glad you found me.”

  “We were meant to be, Rainey,” I say.

  Tears fall down her cheeks, and I wipe them away. “I shouldn’t have left,” she sobs. “I didn’t think I had a choice.”

  “It’s okay. You’re okay now,” I tell her.

  But she shakes her head, kissing the top of the baby’s head. “No, Reed. I’m not. None of us are.”

  Rainey

  The baby is premature by a month, but she is breathing on her own, and they are letting us hold her a bit even though she has to sleep somewhere else.

  Reed stays by my side all night, asking if I need anything — he is here for me in all the right ways.

  But once I tell him the truth, he will never look at me the same way.

  “Where were you all these months?” he asks, kissing the top of the baby’s head. We haven’t named her yet, or even talked about it. There is still so much to figure out.

  “I’ve spent the last four months trying to get back here. To you.” I’m lying in a hospital bed, and in some ways, I want to stay put forever. As long as I am here, my brother won’t find me. “I tried to run away from Tim but his girlfriend Carly-Anne ratted me out.”

  “Why didn’t you call? I could have helped.”

  “Once Tim realized what I was up to, that I was pregnant, he got us a place to live in Kansas City and basically put me on house arrest.”

  “Why did he care? Why not just let you come here if that’s what you wanted?”

  I swallow, scared. My body has been spent, my heart exhausted. “Because he didn’t trust me not to tell you everything.”

  “Tell me what?” Reed asks. Just then, a nurse comes in and checks my vitals, then takes the baby away to sleep. Reed and I hold a silent conversation while she is here — he wants to know the whole story. He wants me to trust him.

  I want to… but I don’t want him to get hurt.

  “I’m here for you,” he tells me when we’re alone again. “Trust me. I want to keep you and our baby protected. It’s the only thing that matters. But I can’t do that if you don’t tell me the truth.”

  I press my lips together. “Reed, I want you to look at me and see me as the girl who dances in the rain, not the girl I really am…”

  “Nothing will change how I feel about you,” he promises.

  “I stole money from Tim a few days ago. We were only a state away and I knew it was then or never. I got a bus ticket and headed west, toward Fox Hollow. But he is going to be looking for me. And when he finds me, he’s going to be pissed.”

  “Why?” Reed takes my hand, rubbing he too with his thumbs. “Why is he so determined to keep you under his thumb?”

  “Because I know his secrets. The people he’s hurt. I’ve been along for the ride for three years and I’ve seen it all.” I look into Reed’s eyes. “He’s been running drugs across the country on the motorcycles.”

  Reed draws in a breath. “Fuck, I’m so glad you haven’t been hurt, Rainey.”

  I shake my head, loving his concern for me, but also not feeling like I deserve it. “Getting pregnant made Tim angry because I couldn’t keep riding and working with him. He would have left me, except I know too much. And he wouldn’t kill me because I’m his sister.”

  “He’s looking for you, isn’t he?” Reed asks, running a hand over his jaw.

  I nod slowly. “I’m so scared. I’ve been scared ever since I left here eight months ago. Scared you hated me. Scared that the baby wouldn’t be healthy. Scared I wouldn’t escape in time.”

  “But you did, Rainey. You did escape. And you are here now. And nothing will come between us.”

  I scoff. Not believing for second it could be so easy.

  “Listen to me, Rainey, we will get through this. Together.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I ask, imploring him for answers I can’t seem to find on my own.

  “Because I won’t give up on us.”

  He kisses me then, the kiss I have been longing for ever since I left. A kiss that stills my fear long enough for me to believe that maybe this strong man is right. Maybe there is hope for us yet.

  A few days later, we are discharged from the hospital. I leave in a wheelchair, a nurse carrying the baby in her carrier, and when I see the truck, I laugh.

  Reed went out to a store and bought us a car seat, and loaded the back of his truck with every sort of baby gear we might need. Diapers, clothing, a crib, a swing. More than I could have ever dreamed of having.

  “Looks like you’re all set, Mama,” the nurse says, watching as Reed straps the baby into the back row of the truck. Securing her. Making sure our little girl is safe.

  When I get in the truck, Reed closes the door behind me, and I close my eyes, memories flooding back.

  The happiest memories of my life.

  Sitting in this truck all those months ago, a wave of comfort washing over me as I breathed in the smell of the leather seats. Tears fill my eyes now and I don’t blink them away.

  Instead, when Reed climbs into the truck beside me, I reach for his hand. “Thank you. For finding me. For believing in us.”

  “Always.” He kisses me softly, wiping my tears with his calloused thumbs. “Now let me get my girls home safe and sound.”

  Home.

  The thought sends a thrill through me.

  And also a wave of fear. Because I know Reed thinks he can keep us safe… but he doesn’t know Tim.

  I just wish there was a way out of this mess… a way into Reed’s arms, forever.

  Reed

  Rainey is scared. I know that as she grips my hand, as we drive toward home. She can hardly breathe, she’s all worked up, and I understand why. If Tim is as big of a threat as she says he is, I need to ensure the safety of my girls.

  When we get to the cabin, I tell her someone is coming by for a visit.

  “Who?” she asks, alarmed.

  “The local cops,” I tell her as I lift the car seat from the back of the truck.

  “The police?” Her eyes widen in fear. “No.”

  “Baby,” I say, pulling her to my chest. “You need to tell them everything. You want me to keep you safe, and making this call is how I intend to do it. You were roped into your brother’s plans as a teenager. You’ve been basically imprisoned by him for years. You’ll tell the police the whole story, beginning to end, you understand?”

  “I don’t want to go to jail,” she says, looking at the cabin before us, this life I want to share with her.

  “You aren’t going anywhere. This is your home now.”

 
; She shakes her head. “You don’t even know me… You’re going to change your mind.”

  “Give me a chance to love you, Rainey.”

  She nods, taking my hand, and together we walk into the cabin. It’s her first time inside.

  “Oh, wow, Reed… it’s beautiful.”

  I run a hand through my hair, setting the car seat on the granite kitchen island. “I spent the last eight months lost in working on the house. I added a second floor and everything.”

  “What’s out there?” she asks, pointing to the French doors that lead to the patio.

  “Open them up,” I say as I take the baby from the car seat and cradle her in my arms. I follow Rainey outside to the patio. “That’s the sauna, and this is the patio where we danced.”

  She looks over at me, smiling. The sun is out, and her eyes are bright. She’s been through hell the last eight months and God, I pray this can be the start in the right direction she needs.

  “You sang to me,” she says. “It was the best night of my life.”

  “Mine too, Rainey.” I nod to the field of wildflowers. “I planted those thinking about you.”

  “You did?” she asks, taking in the sunflowers and cosmos, the peonies and poppies.

  I nod, running a hand over her back. “Flowers come after the rain.”

  “Oh, Reed,” she says, standing on her tiptoes and kissing me. Her lips are just as I remembered, soft and sweet. Made for me.

  “Can we name our little girl Rainbow?” I ask her. “I’ve been thinking about it and you can’t make a rainbow without a little rain.”

  “It’s perfect.” Tears fall from her eyes. “I’m so scared, Reed.”

  “I know, baby. But you have to come clean, tell the whole story. It’s the only way out of this. You can’t spend your life running form the past when you have a whole future just waiting for you.”

  We hear the cruiser pulling into the gravel driveway and I lead Rainey back inside. As she settles into an armchair to nurse Rainbow, I head outside to talk with the police.