Page 114 of The Defiant Curse

Yeah, he was a douchebag to not want to be part of this. It was a hard lesson to learn—that was for sure.

Looking at his watch, he knew that his wife was somewhere.

Now, he just had to find her.

If he was Elizabeth, where would he be?

Oh, he knew.

As far from him as humanly possible.

Still, he wasn’t giving up until she personally told him to kick rocks.

So, the hunt was on.

Heading downstairs, he heard a beep, and it was very familiar. They had something similar in all of their homes.

It was the security system. In fact, it sounded like it was coming from the console at the door.

Heading toward it, he saw a message on it, and that meant his arrival was NOT a surprise.

Well, damn.

Touching the screen, it opened up a message for Ethan.

‘We are in town shopping. We’ll be back later. All is well here, and she isn’t aware you’ve arrived. Fix this mess. Mom deserves better. Michael.’

Honestly, had anyone commented on his marriage, he would be a raging lunatic, but Michael had a special connection to Elizabeth, and she really did consider him her son.

On top of that, he wasn’t exactly wrong. This was a mess that he needed to fix.

Oh, and he would.

Bet.

On.

It.

How the man knew he was here…

Well, that had to be when he’d turned off the security, Michael had to have been alerted. On top of that, he’d seen a car moving down the mountain, and he hadn’t thought anything of it.

Now, he saw that it had to be them. There were no other structures up here but the castle, and the land attached to it. Callen and Chris owned the whole damn mountain, apparently.

Since his wife wasn’t here, that gave him more time to get acquainted with the place. It appeared that he was going to wander the grounds and wait for his wife to come home.

Besides, he was curious what the place was like.

Moving out the door, he was enthralled with the courtyard. It looked like something out of a movie with the white stone walkway, surrounded by the greenery.

Because it would be silly not to enjoy it, Ethan moved around it, enjoying the mini maze of boxwood hedges. The white cobblestone pavers against the dying leaves that had blown around, and the dark green were lovely, and made him focus on fall.

It was rare he enjoyed a walk in the fall weather. Last year, they’d gone for a bike ride after welcoming Gene into their family, but that was the last time they’d gotten a chance to take a moment as a unit.

It had been one of the last moments he’d enjoyed before the year of hell, with everything exploding around them. Now, it was fall again, and Ethan wanted to make memories.

With Elizabeth.