“W-who?” I finally ask even though my tormented heart has already whispered his name to me.
“Tyler Westbrook,” he offers immediately. “Your bodyguard.”
“No. I…I saw him. The avalanche… It pushed him over the cliff.”
Thorin and Seth’s whispered conversation during one of my brief bouts of consciousness after they saved me from the storm came rushing back.
“She kept calling me Tyler.”
“You mean the kid we found a week ago?”
And then later, when the four of us were lounging in Khalil’s bed just needing to be close after Thorin tried to give Seth a haircut and Seth tried to disembowel him with the scissors. Khalil had been acting like a jealous boyfriend wanting to know if I’d slept with my bodyguard.
I told him that the answer didn’t matter because he was dead, and none of them corrected me. They let me believe the worst so they could have me all to themselves.
“No.” I shake my head. “That’s impossible.”
Was it?the voice in my head asked. Was it truly impossible that Tyler survived the avalanche, or did I simply not want to believe that my mountain men had lied to me?
“He survived,” my uncle insists. “Tyler’salive. He was found by search and rescue and brought home.”
My gaze flies to Khalil, whose jaw twitches when he reads the accusation in my eyes.
You told me he was dead.
I know. Later, his eyes seem to plead.
But what possible explanation could he have for intentionally causing me pain?
“Westbrook was in a coma for a few weeks, but he’s already made a swift recovery,” Uncle Mars continues. “I’m sure knowing you made it too will make up for the loss of his leg.”
My uncle coldly delivers that last bit of news like the dagger to the heart it’s intended to be.
Bile riles in my throat when I fail to push away the image of Tyler waking up in the hospital, confused, scared, and missing a limb.
All my fault.
“Come with me.” My uncle’s tone is gentle when he holds out his hand. “I can take you to him. I know how close you two were.”
It’s a lie. If my uncle had the smallest inkling how much Tyler had meant to me as my only friend, he wouldn’t have hesitated to fire him and have him blackballed from the industry to ensure we were never in the same room again.
“I…I can’t.” I realize how that sounds when the sheriff shifts in agitation and starts eyeing Khalil like he’s imagining him in handcuffs. “I-I mean I want to stay. My place is here.”
The microscopic shift in my uncle’s demeanor would be undetectable to the untrained eye. Unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of practice recognizing and navigating my uncle’s temper. I know the moment his mask starts to slip when he realizes his plot to use Tyler to manipulate me is failing. “What about Tyler? Don’t you want to see him?”
“Yes, but not if it means going back with you.”
“Why the hell not?”
I barely suppress the urge to flinch and keep my voice light like I’m just a girl who’s lost in the throes and machinations of love and new beginnings. It can’t be helped. “Because I like it here. I want to stay.”
“No. That is not an option.”
Seeing that we’re getting nowhere, I turn and face the gruff older man who looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. “Sheriff, would you mind waiting outside?”
The sheriff’s gaze bounces between Khalil, my uncle, and me. “Would that be wise?”
My uncle visibly bristles when it becomes clear that no one in this room trusts him alone with me. “My niece is perfectly safe in my care. If anything, I should have your badge for your blatant incompetence in finding her and bringing her home. She’s been missing for months, and here she is standing in front of me without a scratch on her and no explanation. It’s clear she’s no longer sound of mind, and I’m still deciding who to hold responsible,” he says with a pointed glare at Khalil.
