Chilled (Bone Secrets, #2)(60)

“Nothing.” Truth.

Jim stopped and turned to face him; his brows were together and the lines around his mouth creased deeper. He carefully pondered his next words. “She’s seeing someone. They live together.”

“I know that.”

“Leave her alone.”

“I haven’t touched her. What’s it to you?”

“She’s practically my wife’s little sister.”

“So you’re the overprotective big brother. Can’t she think for herself?”

“Yeah. But I’ve seen the way she looks at you. She admires you for some stupid reason and was beside herself with grief when we couldn’t find you yesterday.”

“She would’ve been like that for any of you.”

Jim nodded, then angrily shook his head. “No. It’s different. She doesn’t know who or what you are. Maybe I should say what you aren’t.”

“You mean I’m lying to her. You don’t think I deserve her sympathy.”

“Just don’t be twisting her sympathy around into something else.”

“I can’t make her do anything. She’s a big girl, Jim, and I think she’s got her head on pretty straight.”

“No, she doesn’t.” Jim clamped his mouth shut, and a guilty flush touched his cheeks. Alex’s eyebrows rose.

“What the hell does that mean? She’s as sharp a woman as I’ve ever met.”

Jim started to speak, paused, and started again. “She comes from a messed-up family situation. Her parents completely ignored her. They didn’t even protest when the state placed her in foster care due to neglect.”

“When she was sixteen, she was placed with my wife’s parents for foster care. These are good people. She’d been bounced from home to home before that. Me and Anna had been married about five years at that time, and Anna adored Brynn. Even though Anna no longer lived at home, Brynn was like the little sister Anna always wanted. I think Anna was easier for Brynn to bond with at first. It took her awhile to warm up to Anna’s parents.”

“That’s understandable. So her childhood pretty much sucked?”

Jim snorted. “What childhood? Brynn was the adult in her real family. Her mom was like a spoiled little kid, and both parents were alcoholics. Anna says Brynn told her she was packing her lunch and getting herself to school in the morning as far back as she can remember, because her mom was always still sleeping off her drunk. Brynn would ask the neighbors for bread to make sandwiches for her lunch or she’d ask if she could pick apples from their tree. Some weeks she lived off what she scavenged from the next-door neighbor’s garden. Do you think the neighbors knew that girl wasn’t getting fed?”

“No other relatives she could’ve gone to?” Alex asked slowly. He was feeling sick to his stomach. He’d lost his parents in his midtwenties, but before they’d died there’d been lots of happy times.

“None. No one wanted a thirteen-year-old. I don’t know if any of them tried to get to know her. They probably worried that she was a rebellious, out-of-control kid. But they were so wrong. She was the adult in that family. She paid the bills and went to the grocery store on her bike. They never bothered to take her to get her driver’s license. Her foster parents did that. They told me she was a perfect driver from day one.”

“She probably wasn’t using just her bike to go grocery shopping,” Alex said dryly. His brain was trying to absorb Jim’s story.

His mental hard drive was struggling to process all the data. How could someone do that to their kid?

“She had perfect grades in high school. Valedictorian. Full ride to college. Could have picked any school, but wanted to stay in Oregon and do nursing. Said she didn’t want to be too far from Anna’s parents. By the end of high school, she was a true member of that family. Anna has three brothers and one sister, all older. They gave Brynn the big family she’d always wanted.

“But Brynn’s got a pretty bad track record when it comes to men. I think her upbringing gave her a slightly distorted view of marriage. Most men she dates have walked all over her, and they’ve all been older than her. She seems to lean toward older men.” Jim looked at him sideways.

A touch of relief went through his head. Maybe he wasn’t too old in her eyes. But he didn’t want to be a father figure. Alex scowled.

“Liam is closer to her age and treats her like a queen.”

“I don’t see a ring on her finger.”

“Liam says it’s just a matter of time. They’re already talking about getting pregnant.”

“She might be pregnant?” Alex’s toe caught in the snow and he tripped again, barely catching his balance.

“She says she’s not.”

“Jesus, you asked her? You outright asked her if she’s pregnant? When?”

Jim looked uncomfortable. “Day before yesterday. I wasn’t going to let her come on this mission if she was pregnant.”

Alex studied his face. “I bet that conversation went well.”

“I think she was about to skin me. I’m glad she doesn’t carry a gun.”

They were walking just inside the tree line, moving quietly from tree to tree as they talked. Jim cut off the conversation as they drew within a hundred feet of the cockpit. Alex continuously scanned the area, seeking any movement. He didn’t like the constant prickle in his spine. He couldn’t see a reason for it. The avalanche had slammed the cockpit against a bank of firs and covered two-thirds of the metal. Alex couldn’t make out where Jim and Thomas had dug their way in yesterday. The men had hoped to find some extra supplies. Flashlights or tarps or even something to eat, but they found nothing.