MOUNTAIN MEN OF PINEVILLE

CHAPTER ONE

KANE

 

“You want me to do what? With your sister?” I’d been and done a lot of things in my forty-two years, but being responsible for the safety of just one person was not something I’d ever expected, or wanted, to deal with. Heck, just the thought of caring for a goldfish gave me hives.

“Look, I’m not asking you to marry her. I know your feelings on that front. Besides, you’re not Chassie’s type. I don’t think she even has one based on her dating history, but that will not be a problem, right? Just keep her safe at your place. Besides, you owe me.” Finn’s unspoken but fully understood warning landed like a lead weight in my gut.

Nodding, because at this very moment my cock and my head were not sure I could voice the reassurance Finn was looking for. And he was half right; I owed him, but this? This was beyond the almost decades-old favor he’d conned me out of before I was sent home on a medical discharge from the Army.

I’d never met said sister who’d just arrived and was sending all my internal systems into overdrive. Finn was like a brother to me, as all my fellow Rangers were, but this was a big ask. Chassie had some creepy fan messaging her, but the vision I was keeping a low-key lock on looked perfectly capable of handling anything life dished out as she unknowingly dazzled me with her smile, her laugh directed not at me but her sister-in-law and baby nephew.

The last fifteen minutes had been an effing awakening, and I wasn’t sure I’d even fully heard Finn correctly. He was he was here on vacation, and because he promised West he’d run a session on writing for the client-guests who wanted to learn and to see from someone like them that there was a path after the service. A way out from under the nightmares, the trauma.

That’s what they did here at the Triple R. And I guess what I’d signed up for too, although I was still figuring out what in my background as a newly retired stuntman I could use to help. Instead, in the last few months I had become more student than teacher as I followed Lars around and learned everything I could about carpentry and woodworking. To my surprise, my need to always be active, living for the next adrenaline hit had lessened, and I’d found something I’d never experienced. Peace.

And yet, there’d still been an itch I couldn’t quite reach. Yeah, something was still missing, but maybe….

“Kane, you got this, right?” Finn’s sharp tone snapped me back to the moment.

“Roger that. No one’s going to touch her. You have my word.” My word given, I’d do my best to bury whatever his sister had unknowingly stirred up inside me. Otherwise, Finn’s fist would connect with my twice-broken nose.

Sure, he was now a bestselling author of military suspense novels, but his sister meant more to him than being able to punch letters on a laptop, and he wouldn’t think twice about busting his hand on my face.

But before he stepped off the porch to deliver the news to his sister, Finn’s steely glare reminded me of the man I’d served with all those years ago. He’d been the most accurate sniper in our division, and I’d do well to remember all the times his aim saved our asses.

Outside of having the backs of my fellow Rangers when I was active duty, it had never been about just one soldier. Save one, save all. But this time was different. It was family. But it sure as heck was never a female I wanted to take to bed. So, now I’d made a commitment to ensure Chassie’s safety, and if he knew I’d been silently lusting after her since she’d stepped out of her car, well, fist meet face. And that would only be the beginning.

In that moment, I felt like a damn lurker, like the “super fan” that had Chassie running to Pineville Mountain looking for refuge as I hid in the shadows and ate up her curves, her bright smile and pink hair.

Yeah, pink. And wavy. It looked so soft as the wind lifted the long waves off her shoulders. Shit. My gaze had strayed again as Finn and I talked. Okay, he continued to talk, and I pretended to listen while Chassie cuddled her nephew with Sami, Finn’s wife, looking on, concern marring her features.

Finn and Sami had met, fallen in love, married and got pregnant all within the last year, not unlike the rest of our tight group now coupled up at the Triple R. The only difference was Finn and his family were still living in Misty Mountain, Colorado, but after visiting for the last week, there’d been discussions of moving back to Pineville where he and his sisters had grown up.

I knew it was a tough choice for him since their childhood had been rough and he hadn’t been back much since he joined the service, but both Chassie still lived here, and their younger sister was off somewhere in the south, but you’d have to be blind not to see how tight the siblings were. I could appreciate that feeling. I had two brothers myself.

When I woke up this morning, I had no clue my foundation would be rocked, and now I had this persistent drumbeat in my head, its volume increasing with every passing second. It was as if I was back in the service and I’d been handed another impossible mission.

But an equally insistent thought — the one about brotherhood — matched it beat for beat. So, how the hell was I going to keep my unspoken "no touching" oath when everything inside me screamed, she—is—the—one?