Chapter 1 #3
He could easily move me himself if his hands weren’t full, but I’m willing to bet he isn’t giving up his axe or the booze. That leaves him at a tremendous disadvantage at this moment. As does the fact that he’s unsteady on his feet from no doubt drinking too much bourbon already.
The last thing he needs right now is to be alone. And while I am certainly not the person Connor wants to see right now, I’m also the only one literally standing between him and a downward spiral he might not be able to get free from.
Which means as much as I may want to tell him off and explain how selfish he’s being when everyone is trying to help him, I have to maintain my cool.
“Come with me to Willow and Killian’s. They’re putting Niall to bed now, but she has dinner waiting for you. You shouldn’t be alone—”
“Who the hell are you to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be?”
Fair.
This man has always hated me, and I’ve given him plenty of reasons over the past couple of years to stoke that hatred into flat-out loathing. Something I can clearly see in his dark eyes now. But I’ve never been afraid of Connor McBride, and I’m not about to start cowering in front of him now.
“I’m the person who is here.”
It’s really all I can say, all I can offer.
I’m not the person who has heart to hearts with the McBrides, who tries to talk them off ledges.
I’m the one who puts stories about them on my community page when they do something stupid or laughable.
I warn the people of McBride Mountain when they should stay away from the homestead and its residents, when things are volatile and the men who keep the town running should be avoided.
I’m the enemy, as far as he’s concerned.
Connor growls low again. “No one asked you to be.”
I scoff, throwing up my hands. “You’re right.
No one asked me to hike up this hill, in the dark, to deal with a grumpy, unhinged lumberjack.
I offered so my best friend and her husband can put their baby to bed, so that maybe when they’re done, the one person they want to see, the person they need to be okay, would be sitting at their table where he should have been hours ago. ”
My words seem to echo around us, the night making my raised voice carry way too far. At this point, I can only hope Lucky and Liam aren’t outside to hear it. If they do, they might come running to intervene, and throwing them into the mix probably won’t do any good tonight.
Connor goes deathly still.
So damn still that my own breath stops, lodged in my chest as I wait for him to react…
I wait for him to explode.
Because this is what we do, what we always do.
We argue.
We sling insults and use words like they’re arrows.
We rage at each other.
And it always ends the same way—with one of us storming away when the tension boils over, when the explosion happens. But I can’t walk away tonight when I don’t trust what he might do if I turn my back on him.
Because no matter how much I may despise Connor McBride, he’s family to the only family I have left.
The tension between us grows, thickening the chilling night air until the pressure of it pushing down on me becomes crushing.
Finally, he takes another step, so damn close that I can smell the bourbon on his breath and feel the trembling of his huge body.
“I don’t need a babysitter, Raven. And I sure as hell don’t need your fake concern.
” He motions toward the woods with his axe.
“Deep down, we both know you would love it if I walked off into those trees and never came back.”
I can’t hide my flinch at his words, at that hint of hurt there when he repeated exactly what I’ve been thinking.
“You don’t know me, Raven. You don’t owe me anything. But what you do need to do is get the hell out of my way.”
“Or what?”
His dark brows fly up. “Don’t try me, Perry.”
I hold my ground. “Don’t try me, McBride.”
“What do you want? Another story for your little gossip column? Another reason to smear my name across that stupid social media page and make me look stupid?” He throws up his hands, still clutching the axe and booze. “Well, you have it now.”
My chest tightens. “Is that what you think? That I wanted to come up here to get dirt for a story?”
“That is your M.O., and I am done being fodder for your bullshit.”
Instead of trying to move past me or through me, he rushes back up the steps, sets the bottle on the railing nearest the woods, and easily leaps over it, landing with a thud on the hard ground. He snags the bottle without a look back at me, clutching his axe as he stalks off into the trees.
Shit.
I rush after him. “Connor!”
The forest swallows up his name as I step into it.
Only a few feet into the trees, the darkness surrounds me, the moon completely blocked by the canopy above us.
I try to follow him, but my boot catches on something, and I start to tumble forward.
My hand manages to find a tree trunk just in time to prevent me from falling face-first into the underbrush.
“Fuck!”
I can’t see more than a foot or two in front of me, let alone which way he went. And if Connor doesn’t want to be found, he knows full well how to disappear out here.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
He’s gone.