Claimed by 3 Mountain Men (Silver Ridge Mountain Men)

10. Jt

10

JT

I lean against the weathered wooden railing of the porch, the rough texture biting into my palms as I stare out at the forest. The sun is dipping low in the sky, casting long shadows that stretch across the front yard. It’s been a long day—hell, it’s been a long few weeks.

I hear the creak of the screen door opening behind me and glance over my shoulder to see Hank stepping out onto the porch. He’s got that look on his face, the one that says he’s carrying the same burden I am but doesn’t want to talk about it.

I wait a beat.

“You figure out what Ben’s been up to?” I ask, keeping my voice low and steady.

Hank doesn’t answer right away. He steps up beside me, leaning on the railing, his eyes fixed ahead.

“Did you hear me?” I repeat, staring him down. He’s a million miles away from me right now.

“What?” he sighs, running a hand through his hair.

“Ben, our brother. Did you find anything?”

“Oh…yeah. It’s nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“That’s what I said.” He keeps his gaze locked onto the forest. He’s hiding something.

“Hank, cut the bullshit, alright? I’m not in the mood.”

He sighs again, longer this time, like he’s dragging the words out of some deep well within him.

I know something’s going on.

They’ve been acting off ever since Mac showed up.

“Hank—" I pry,

After a pause, he finally opens his mouth.

“I followed him out into the woods the other day. He’s been meeting up with Mac.” He speaks fast to get all the words out at once.

I turn to him, surprised by the admission. “Mac? What the hell’s he doing with her?”

“Hell if I know.”

There’s a bitterness in his voice that I don’t miss, and it makes me wonder if there’s more to this than he’s letting on. We’re triplets, after all—and I can read him like a book, both of them. But right now, he’s got pages he’s not letting me see.

“Well, you got any ideas?”

“No,” he says, a little too quickly.

I narrow my eyes at him. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying,” he snaps. “I don’t know exactly what he’s doing with her.”

“Well, did you ask him?”

“No, I didn’t ask him, JT. Jesus Christ. He doesn’t even know that I followed his tracks.”

“Hey, easy there, brother. I’m just trying to help.”

“I know, I know.” Hank sighs again. “It’s just—I told her to piss off.”

“You spoke to her?”

“I found her camp. It’s off on the edge of the property near the lake and the old sawmill.”

“She’s been there all this time?”

“I guess so.”

“And?” I take a step forward. God. This is like pulling teeth.

“And nothing. I told her to leave and that she wasn’t welcome here. She lit into me, said she had as much right to be here as we did.”

I take in a long, deep breath. “What’s she doing? Did she say?”

Hank leans on the railing, staring out at the darkening forest. “She’s tracking the lynx, cataloging vegetation, the whole conservation spiel. Claims she’s trying to find a way to protect the species without ruining our business. It’s the same schtick from the bar.”

The admission catches me off guard. Hank’s always been the one to dig his heels in, to stand firm against anyone who challenges us or our way of life. But now, there’s a hint of doubt in his voice.

“What are you saying, Hank?”

He sighs again, raking a hand through his dark hair. “I don’t know. I just...” He trails off, unable to finish the thought.

“What?” I prod gently.

“I just don’t know if we’re right about her anymore, JT.”

“Oh, piss off! Listen to yourself. We’ve just buried our dad, Hank. And now, we have some environmentalist snob running around trying to ruin our family.” I can hear the anger in my voice rising, but I can’t help it. “She’s not welcome here and you know it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Hank nods sounding defeated. “I just...”

“You what, Hank? This is our land, our business. We can’t just let her come in and tell us how to run things.”

“I know, I know. It’s just...” Hank trails off again, staring off into the distance.

“What is it?” I ask, exasperated. “God. Since when are you afraid to speak your mind?”

He finally looks at me, his eyes clouded with a mix of frustration and something else—something I can’t place.

I grind my teeth together.

Jesus Christ. “Neither one of you have been thinking straight since she arrived in town.”

Hank’s cheeks flush with color, but he doesn’t deny it. “It’s just... she’s not what I expected, JT. That’s all.”

I take a step back, shaking my head in disbelief. “Fine. You two can think what you want. But I’m not going to sit idly by and watch our father’s legacy go up in smoke because of some crush."

“It’s not like that?—”

“Save it, Hank. I don’t want to hear it.”

With that, I turn on my heel and storm back into the house, slamming the front door behind me.

Like everything else in this damn family, I’ll take care of it.

I follow the path Hank described, the one that leads to the edge of our property near the lake and the old sawmill. The trail is narrow, and overgrown in places, but it’s clear enough to follow.

I push through the last of the underbrush and come into a small clearing. There it is—Mac’s camp.

For a moment, I just stand there, taking it all in. This is where she’s been hiding out, where she’s been working, where Ben’s been sneaking off to.

And somehow she has gotten Hank under her spell as well. I should have left her at that airport, canceled all the flights coming into Silver Ridge.

I take a few cautious steps closer, the soft earth muffling my footsteps.

She’s wearing a loose T-shirt and shorts, and she looks tired, like she hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in days. Her eyes meet mine, and for a second, there’s a flicker of surprise—like she wasn’t expecting to see me, of all people.

“What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I reply, keeping my tone neutral, though the tension is clear. “You’ve been camped out here for how long now?”

“Not long,” she says, her guard coming up instantly.

“Long enough to mess with my brothers. What’s your endgame, Mac? What are you really after?”

She straightens, crossing her arms over her chest, her expression hardening. “I’ve already told you. I’m here to protect this land, JT.”

“Bullshit. What are you doing with Ben and Hank?”

Her cheeks flush the same exact way Hank’s did, and she looks away. “That’s none of your business.”

“Wrong. When it involves my family, it’s very much my business.”

She doesn't break eye contact with me. "I don't owe you or anyone else an explanation about my personal life."

"This is more than just about your 'personal life' Mac, this is about our family's land, our livelihood," I counter. “How many times do I need to go over this with you?”

"I know that, JT!" she snaps, her temper flaring. "I'm here to protect it too, just like you are. I'm not the enemy here."

“No one gave you permission to be here.”

Her eyes narrow, the anger in them flaring like a spark catching fire. “I don’t need your permission, JT. This land doesn’t belong to you.”

“The hell it doesn’t,” I shoot back, taking a step closer, my voice rising. “This land has been in my family for generations. My father, my grandfather, and his grandfather put their blood and sweat into building this place.”

“I’m trying to save something that’s worth protecting—something that your father and your brothers seem to have forgotten about.”

I can feel my blood boiling, the heat of her words searing through me. “You don’t know a damn thing about my family or what we’ve been through.”

“I know enough to see that you’re destroying everything around you,” she spits back. “And for what? Money? Power? You’re so caught up in your own world that you can’t see what you’re doing to the land—to the animals that live here.”

“Don’t you dare lecture me about this land,” I snarl, stepping even closer, until I’m towering over her. “You’re an outsider, Mac. You have no idea what it takes to keep this place running, to keep food on the table and roofs over our heads. You think you can just waltz in here with your high-minded ideals and change everything? You don’t know a damn thing about what it means to survive out here.”

She doesn’t back down, her chin lifts defiantly as she stares. “I know more than you think, JT. I know that if something doesn’t change, there won’t be anything left to survive on. You’re so focused on the short term, on squeezing every last bit of profit out of this land, that you’re blind to the long-term damage you’re causing.”

“Enough!” I shout, the force of my voice echoes through the clearing. “I’m done listening to your self-righteous bullshit. This is our land, and you have no right to be here.”

“And you have no right to destroy it!” she fires back.

The tension between us is electric, crackling like lightning in the air. Neither of us is backing down, both too stubborn to admit we might be wrong. We stand there, chests heaving, eyes locked in a silent standoff, the only sound our harsh breathing filling our ears.

But beneath the anger, there’s something else—something that gnaws at me, that makes me question if maybe, just maybe, there’s a kernel of truth in what she’s saying.

“You don’t belong here,” I say again, my voice low and dangerous, the words feeling like a final line drawn in the sand.

I stare at her, my breath coming in ragged gasps, my mind a storm of conflicting emotions. I should walk away, should leave her here and go back to the life I know. But something about her—her conviction, her passion, the fire in her eyes—holds me in place.

Slowly, I unclench my fists, taking a deep breath to steady myself. “You have until sunset to pack your things and go.”

“No.”

“No?”

She shakes her head. “You have no idea what your dad has been up to, do you?”

“What are you talking about?” I demand.

“I’ll tell you, but only on one condition,” she says, her voice firm.

“You’re in no position to be making demands, Mac.”

“Wanna bet?” she says. I can’t help but wonder how I never noticed the steel in her spine before. “I know something you don’t, JT. Something that could change everything.”

I should say no, should turn around and leave her to her own devices, but I can’t. “What is it?”

“Let me stay.”

“So, you can ruin my family?”

“I’m here to expose the truth.”

“The truth?” I scoff, trying to keep the edge of sarcasm in my voice, but there’s a gnawing doubt, a creeping unease that I can’t shake. “What truth, Mac?”

“Your dad was up to something, poaching maybe? The lynxes? I’m not sure but he was definitely doing something more than just running a logging business.”

I stare at her, the words slowly sink in, but they don’t quite stick. They don’t quite make sense. My father was a lot of things, but a liar? A cheat? A poacher? I can’t reconcile that with the man I knew.

“And you have proof of this?” I ask, challenging her, daring her to come up with something real, something solid. For all I know, this is a bluff. Her last ditch attempt to let her stay here.

“I have enough to know that something’s off,” she replies, but there’s a flicker in her eyes, a hesitation that tells me all I need to know. She’s got suspicions, theories but no concrete evidence.

I take a step closer, closing the distance between us. “You’re bluffing, Mac. You don’t have anything, do you?”

“I have enough to keep looking.”

“Enough to keep looking?” I repeat, incredulous. “You’re willing to stay out here, poking around, putting my family and everything we’ve built at risk, based on what? A hunch? A feeling?”

“I’m not leaving, JT,” she says, but her voice isn’t as firm as it was just a moment ago. “I know there’s more to this, and I’m going to find it.”

The anger flares up in me again, but this time it’s mixed with something else—fear. Fear of what she might find, fear of what she might do with it, and fear of how it could tear apart everything I’ve ever known. There’s another fear, too—a fear of her getting too close.

“Listen to me,” I say, my voice low and dangerous, leaning in close so there’s no mistaking the seriousness in my tone. “If you stay here, if you keep digging, it’s not going to end well for you, or my family. You need to leave.”

Mac raises an eyebrow, and for a moment, I think she’s about to argue. But then she surprises me once again by nodding curtly.

“Are you done? I have work that needs to get done,” she hisses lowly.

“You leave tomorrow” I say, my jaw clenched tight. “I don’t care where you go or what happens to you, but you’re gone.”

With that, I stride away in satisfaction, leaving her standing there, beautifully defiant.

The rain starts to fall just as I return to the house.

My boots squelch in the mud as I head up the porch steps, the boards creaking under my weight. I don’t bother shaking off the rain when I step inside; the water dripping from my jacket matches the cold, wet feeling settling in my gut.

Hank and Ben are in the living room, their faces tense as they look up from whatever it is they were discussing before I had barged in. I don’t give them time to ask where I’ve been, or why I look like I’ve been through hell and back. The words are out before I can think of them.

“You two need to stay the hell away from that woman,” I snap, my voice cutting through the silence.

Hank raises an eyebrow, a flash of annoyance crosses his face. “JT, what the hell are you talking about?”

“You know damn well what I’m talking about,” I growl, peeling off my soaked jacket and tossing it onto the nearest chair. “Mac. You guys need to stay away from her.”

Ben looks from me to Hank and back again, confusion written all over his face. “What happened?”

“What happened,” I say, my voice cold and deliberate, “is that she’s out there digging up dirt on us, trying to find something to bring us down. And you two are playing right into her hands.”

“JT, you’re overreacting,” Hank says, his tone is flat, but there’s an edge to it, like he’s barely holding back his own frustration.

“She’s got it in her head that Dad was involved in something illegal, and she’s determined to prove it.”

Ben crosses his arms, watching me cooly. “And what if she’s right, JT? What if Dad was into something we didn’t know about?”

“Don’t even start with that,” I snap, feeling the anger surge again. “You really think Dad was poaching animals? You think he’d risk everything we’ve built? For what? A few bucks on the black market?”

Ben’s eyes widen, shock and disbelief flickering across his face. “Poaching? Is that what she’s saying?”

“Yeah. Poaching a rare and near extinct animal,” I say, meeting his gaze, seeing the worry there. “And if she’s right—if she finds proof—then everything we’ve worked for goes up in smoke. Everything.”

The room falls silent, the only sound is the steady beating of the rain against the windows, and the wind howling outside like some wild thing.

Hank’s eyes narrow, a flicker of something dark passing over his face. “So, what do we do, JT? Kick her out? Run her off? And what if she’s already found something?”

I don’t have an answer, and the silence between us stretches, the unease growing, filling the space between us. I don’t want to believe it, don’t want to even consider the possibility that our father—our father—could have been involved in something so dirty, and dangerous.

“She hasn’t found anything,” I say, my voice tight, though I’m not sure if I’m trying more to convince them or myself.

Ben’s face pales, and he looks like he’s about to say something, but I don’t give him the chance. I’m done with this conversation, doubt and fear gnawing at my insides. I head for the stairs, the wooden steps creaking under my weight.

“I’m going to cool off,” I throw over my shoulder, though the words feel hollow. There’s no cooling off from this, no escaping.

As I reach the top of the stairs, the house shudders with a loud crack of thunder, and the lights flicker ominously. I pause, my hand gripping the banister.

Dammit it, Dad!

I shake my head, trying to push the thoughts away, but they stick like tar, coating everything.

I reach the door to my room, my hand hovering over the knob. I can’t stop thinking about Mac—about what she might know, and what she might find.

Mac’s face flashes through my mind, the curve of her lips and her dark eyes as she watched me, defied me.

Damn her too.

I suppress a shiver, trying to ignore the way my body tingles at the thought of her. Anger surges through me, hot and wild. I curse her again for making me feel this way—confused, angry, aroused .

I drag a hand over my face, trying to clear my thoughts, but it does nothing to relieve the tension coiling in my gut.

I don’t bother turning on the light. Instead, I stand there, staring out the window, the wind howling like a warning.

I know my brothers, and I know they both want her.

They might deny it, but it’s there, written in their eyes whenever her name comes up. I can recognize the burning desire.

And what’s worse… I want her too.