“I’m going to tell her.”

Austin and I were waiting for her by the hot springs under our tower. She’d taken off earlier to check in with Katrina and Braun before she headed back here to be with us. What’d happened earlier had been incredible. Hell, life in general and as a whole had been incredible ever since she’d fallen into our world. But then, there was one thing burning a hole inside of me.

We’d held back. We hadn’t told her everything.

Maybe we’d been scared, or just not ready to go there yet, or just worried that it’d push her away when things were so perfect. But not telling her the real reason we were up here, and how we were running from an investigation into our father’s death was eating me up inside. We had to tell her. Not sharing all of us with her just felt wrong. And even if it still worried me about what that knowledge would do to what we had here, I knew it had to happen.

“Tell her what?” Austin said quietly, as if he didn’t know exactly what I was thinking.

“You know,” I shot back.

He growled, shaking his head. “Tell her what, that we had to run from our entire world because our shithead uncle made everyone think we murdered our father?”

“Basically.”

He sighed, looking away before his jaw tightened.

“I want to tell her too, man,” he finally said, his voice low. “I want to tell her everything.”

And I knew we both did. We wanted to tell her about the mistakes we’d made, and the life we’d led before this mountain life. The thing was, neither of us missed the glitz of that life, not after living here for so long. We’d run from money and privilege, but we’d found peace up in the woods.

And yet, there was one thing we missed up here. I guess we’d miss it even if we were back home, with dad gone. But up here in the solitude of the mountains, is was even more obvious.

I missed family. And if I’m being honest, I missed thinking about having one of my own someday. I know Austin did too. I knew we both wanted that for ourselves and for each other, but it was kind of hard to make that happen when you were on the run and up in the mountains.

But then, we’d met her — our Stella. And suddenly, it felt like…

I sighed to myself. It felt insane to even think about it like that, considering what it meant and considering how little time we’d known her. But I couldn’t help it. One day with her and I knew. Hell, one fucking second and I’d known. Stella was it — she was the family I’d thought about and hoped for someday. And I saw it with her.

There’d never been jealousy with Austin and me, but suddenly I wondered if this would be the breaking point. I wondered if she would be the thing that came between us and wedged us apart.

“It’s getting dark man.”

“Hmm?”

Austin’s voice broke me from my thoughts, and I looked up at him.

“She’s not here, and it’s getting dark. Look, let’s head to Braun’s place and we’ll just meet up with her there.”

I made a face. Stella had asked us to not say anything to Braun or Katrina about what’d happened. And I totally got it. I mean, for one, it was a lot to tell someone — the three of us? Yeah, that was big. And with her best friend getting married the next day, all telling people now would do is pull attention away from Braun and his woman on their big day. And I got that.

So, her going back to their place to check in, figure some stuff out about the next day, and freshen up a little was something she’d wanted to do without the two of us coming with, and we could totally see that.

But, it was getting darker now, and the thought of her traipsing through these woods alone in the dark wasn’t something either of us wanted to even think about.

“Try her cell?”

Austin nodded, grabbing one of the untraceable burner phones we used up here and dialing her number. I could hear it ringing and ringing against his ear, before it hit her voicemail.

He scowled.

“Nothing.”

He tried again, and this time, it went right to voicemail.

“Shit,” my brother swore. “If she’s already heading back on the trail we showed her, she’ll be by the switchback trail by now.”

“Which gets zero cell reception,” I muttered, finishing his thought as he nodded. “Alright, fuck, let’s hit the trail and see if we can meet her.”

We headed into the woods, hitting the trail we’d shown Stella earlier that basically ran a direct line back to Katrina and Braun’s place. If she was on the way, we’d definitely bump into her on it.

“Hey, uh, I gotta ask you something.”

I glanced at Austin and instantly started to chuckle.

“What?” he frowned.

“Dude, twins.” I grinned at him. “Trust me, we’re thinking the same thing.”

He chuckled. “About her.”

“Of course.”

“And?”

I stopped mid-step and turned to my brother, looking him right in the eye.

“And the answer is no. No jealousy, man. Never. And certainly not with Stella.”

“It’s not just the immediate I see with her,” Austin said quietly.

“Me neither,” I growled back fiercely before I sighed again and shook my head. “Fuck. How the hell did that happen?”

He grinned. “So fast you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know, Dallas, but I don’t care. She’s it.”

“Yeah,” I growled. “She is.”

“For both of us, it seems.”

“No jealousy.”

He shook his head, clapping me on the back. “Never. And there won’t be.”

We embraced, hugging each other fiercely before we turned and started down the path. We made it all of two steps before the rough, growling, deep fucking voice sliced through the silence behind us.

“I hope you two aren’t trying to hide.”

“Fuck!” Austin and I both jumped, my pulse roaring as we ducked out the way and whirled.

“Because I could hear you two a mile a-fuckin-way.”

There, standing behind us like the fucking mountain beast he was, was Axe.

I shot a quick look at my bro — goddamn this guy freaked us out. And I don’t say that lightly.

There were five of us living up on that mountain. Austin and I had come first, I think. Vlad, the Russian with his swank lodge up on Coffer’s Peak came around the same time. Braun came a bit later. Well, I guess there were seven of us now if you counted Katrina and Vlad’s girl Chloe.

So, we’d all been there a while. But Axe? No one knew how the fuck long he’d been there.

He was a monster — huge, bearded, with wild hair and serious tats covering his body. We were all men of the mountains, but Axe was a fucking caveman.

He slunk out from behind a tree, somehow completely silently even with his huge size.

“Fuck, Axe,” Austin muttered. “Didn’t know you were back.”

“Did you know I was gone?”

My brother and I glanced at each other. The guy had a point. Hell, I didn’t even know where Axe fucking lived. I assumed he had a roof somewhere, because the one thing he seemed to own besides a pair of jeans, boots, and a black t-shirt was a his motorcycle, which he’d take tearing down the mountain on the old logging roads before disappearing for, well, who knew how long.

“So, what can we do for—”

“I wanted to tell you both something.”

The words truly growled from Axe’s mouth, cutting me off.

“Yeah? What?”

Axe turned and narrowed his eyes at my brother’s tone, but he seemed to take a breath.

“A man is looking for you.”

A chill went down my spine.

“What?”

Austin swore. “What man?”

“I have no fucking idea,” Axe muttered roughly. “But he’s been asking in town for you two — seeing who’s seen you. He made it up towards Vlad’s place, but the Russian told him to fuck off.”

My jaw tensed. Fuck. Someone looking for us, here? That wasn’t good. That was the fucking opposite of good.

“What’s he want?”

Axe shot me a withering, cold look.

“Just thought I’d ask. Fuck, man.”

“I’d lay low,” Axe growled. He turned, and without another single word, started to melt back into the shadows of the woods.

“Hey, Axe.”

He froze, turning slightly at my words.

“You coming to Braun and Katrina’s thing tomorrow?”

He frowned deep, turning back to us. “Thing?”

“The wedding?”

He smiled thinly, his eyes flashing something I couldn’t even decipher before he turned again and faded into the woods. Austin and I stood there in silence for at least three full minutes before we slowly let our breaths out.

“That dude gives me the fucking creeps,” Austin growled.

I slowly shook my head.

“Who the fuck is looking for us, and how the hell did they find us here?”

His jaw tightened. “No idea. But that can’t be good.”

“No shit.”

His phone suddenly bleeped in his hand, and he glanced down and scowled.

“What?”

He passed me the phone to show a text from Stella.

“Hey, sorry, I fell asleep on the couch. It’s late. See u tomorrow?”

I swore before I texted a quick reply.

“Our bed is going to miss you. Sleep well, beautiful.”

I tossed the phone back to Austin, and the two of us nodded slowly.

“We should head back — try and figure this shit out. Maybe we can call a few people and see if they know anything.”

I nodded, my thoughts swirling as I glared at the ground.

“We’ll see her tomorrow, Dallas,” my brother said lowly, his hand on my shoulder.

“I know,” I growled. “I just don’t like it.”

He smiled thinly. “C’mon, let’s head back.”