“The hell it is. He’s about to go all Bane on me.”
“Who?” Was he really standing here in the middle of the freaking woods, in winter, in several inches of snow, having a conversation with his brother, who wasin a tree?
“Are you serious? Bane. The Batman villain on steroids? Kris Kringle on a cookie, watch a movie!”
A bark caught King’s attention, and he groaned. Even better.
“Please tell me that’s not?—”
“Chip and Joker?” King replied. “Okay, I won’t tell you.”
“I have to get out of this tree!”
No shit. Before King could say a word, Chip slammed into the trunk, shaking the entire tree becausethat’swhat the situation needed. The furry torpedo losing his mind.
Ace yelped. “Chip, no!”
Did Ace really think Chip was going to listen to him over chasing a squirrel? Chip’s barking sent the squirrel jumping…right onto Ace’s head.
This was his life.
King turned to Joker and thrust a hand in Chip’s direction.Seriously?He’s your dog. His asshole friend responded by bursting into peals of laughter. Like most events that involved Ace, the situation had escalated into chaos.
“King! Chop down the tree!”
“I am not chopping down the tree.”
“Then glare the squirrels into submission!”
King opened his mouth to reply when a cracking sound filled the air, and Ace fell, hitting every branch on his way down before he plopped into the snow on his back. Chip took the opportunity to bathe Ace’s face with his tongue.
Sighing, King pulled Ace to his feet. “Did Leo say where he was going? Other than to find the mayor?”
“Nope. Just took off.” As Ace brushed off the snow, he looked around. “Where’s the ax?”
Joker handed it to King.
“Good idea. King should chop the tree,” Ace said, nodding.
Was he serious? What was King thinking, of course, he was. “We are not chopping the tree.” He took the ax in one hand and reached into his coat with the other. He sent off a group text to the others about Leo, and after some more nonsense from Ace and another movie reference, Joker pointed to a somewhat smaller tree that was the size Colton had actually asked for.
King did the chopping. Once he finished, they planted a new tree nearby to replace it, and headed back to the Christmas tree farm, all three of them carrying the tree. Soon, they were on their way back to the cabin. King ignored Ace’s complaining and his bickering with Joker.
Leaving the tree for Ace and Colton to deal with, King climbed back into the SUV. He sent Leo another text before driving back into town. By the time he got there, he still hadn’t received a reply from Leo, which wasn’t like him at all. Where the hell could he be?
With Leo nowhere to be found, King called in reinforcements. Normally, it wouldn’t take six former Green Berets to find one man in a small town, but when that man was a genius who didn’t want to be found, it took six former Green Berets and their boyfriends.
They devised a plan and split into pairs, with Ace and King taking the woods surrounding the tree farm in case Leo returned. When they didn’t find him there, they moved on to the woods. They continued to search when King’s phone buzzed. Several townspeople had seen Leo earlier that afternoon, and he’d even been to the café.
“It looks like he’s been to several shops throughout the day. Why wouldn’t he have checked in?” Another buzz, and King frowned down at his phone. “Colton says Leo was at the reindeer farm earlier but left a little over two hours ago. He didn’t say where he was going.”
Ace hummed. “Okay, so he had a snack because he got hungry, then went around town visiting shops for whatever reason. He might have come back here, seen we were gone. So where would he have gone after?”
They put away their flashlights and headed back to the tree farm.
“Logically,” King replied. “He would have gone home, but he would have needed a ride.”
Ace suggested the Ice Castle, and he was right. Logically, that was where Leo would have gone looking for one of them. Unfortunately, Lucky and Mason hadn’t found him there either. They all reconvened at the Ice Castle. No one had seen Leo.
