Mountain Refuge (Mountain Mutineers #1)

Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Elijah (formerly Adam)

“ A nnabelle Louise! Don’t you dare jump down from there!”

My daughter, laughing from her perch on the tree branch, looked down at me, who was safely on the ground, with glee. “Come on, Daddy! It’s not that high!”

It was high enough to break a bone if she didn’t land correctly. “You climbed up, you can climb back down.”

Annabelle, or Belle, as we now called her, grumbled as she started her slow descent but thankfully listened to me. I was not yet used to the number of trees, rocks, and a variety of other high items in the forest surrounding our cabin that Belle could get herself into trouble climbing. I thought winter was bad, with her constant begging to play outside in the snow. Corbin generally obliged, because my daughter had him wrapped around her little finger. He did anything she asked, just so he could make her smile or laugh.

Overall, living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. While we were stuck where we were, we weren’t stuck inside as much as I’d thought we would be. Lucas, as we now called my son, even joined us outside a lot. The snow had been like a barrier to the real world, caging us in but also setting us free.

As the months went by, we fell into a rhythm. Mornings were the times for lessons. Mrs. Mullaney, or Gertie as she insisted we call her, was a lifesaver. While I did lessons with Belle, Gertie entertained Lucas. Both kids were growing fast and had gained weight since our days of being on the run. Gertie kept us all fed, and sometimes overfed.

Corbin’s cabin only had one extra room besides his and his mom’s. When they’d learned that the kids and I were in danger, Gertie had immediately started rearranging their old storage room into a bedroom. Lucas slept in a crib that Corbin made himself. Apparently, my best friend was a carpenter now and made a living off of beautifully crafted homemade pieces he would bring down to Jack for him to sell in his store. Sometimes he received a commission for something specific too.

My bedroom furniture was mismatched pieces he’d had in storage that were already completed but hadn’t been brought down the mountain yet. The dresser, bed frame, and nightstand were well-crafted pieces, and I felt bad that my taking them meant Corbin wouldn’t get any compensation for them. He assured me it was fine, but I had to wonder.

Lucas’s crib was in my room. Belle slept in Gertie’s room. They both had twin beds, again ones that Corbin had made. Corbin had added a small dresser for Belle. Once we were able to get off the mountain, I wanted to get a bedside lamp for her. Corbin was already working on building her a bookshelf. That man was going to spoil my daughter rotten.

After lunch, we would generally go outside. Belle called this playtime, and it was for the most part, but it was also the time when Corbin was showing me his equipment and explaining how his cabin functioned.

Changing our names had been weird. I was grateful for the time secluded in the cabin for us to get used to calling each other the different names. Corbin was the worst. I would hear “Adam!” shouted from across the cabin, followed by “Fudge! I mean, Elijah!” His messing up always made Belle laugh, and a part of me wondered if he did it on purpose just to get a rise out of my daughter.

Belle loved her name. She thought that Annabelle was pretty, but Belle was better because it made her a princess. My little angel was adapting to mountain life wonderfully. Lucas was too young to register the change in his name. He definitely had a slower reaction time to ‘Lucas’ in the beginning, but now responded immediately when someone said his name.

My nickname for Belle had not changed nor had her referring to me as ‘Daddy’. Corbin loved that she called him ‘Uncle’. Gertie had become ‘Grammy’.

After the kids were asleep for the night and adult conversations took place, Gertie, Corbin, and I figured out contingency plans for if we were found. Some nights Corbin would set up his radio so we could also speak with Jack. I had yet to meet the man who had helped save us. Belle had a pile of colored pictures to give him as a thank you. She’d overheard Corbin refer to him as a superhero and now called him ‘Super Jack’.

Jack was positive no one from New York knew where we were. He said that if his contacts heard anything, he would let us know immediately. I also learned that Trenton had survived the shootout. I was beyond relieved to hear that. His possible death had been weighing heavily on me. He’d sacrificed himself so I had time to get away. I owed him everything for that.

The worst bit of news was that there was a warrant out for my arrest for kidnapping and murder. Gunther had followed through on his threat to release the gun to the police with my fingerprints on it. I didn’t recognize the name of my supposed victim when Jack said it, but I felt sorry for the man, whoever he was. According to Jack, Gunther hadn’t reported the children missing for almost a month after we’d left. I had to wonder if that was because he’d been injured too and wanted to play the grieving father without a bullet wound, or perhaps that they had to hide the bodies from the shootout and didn’t want to draw police attention to the mansion until they had staged everything to look like it had never happened.

Jack said that there were private investigators and bounty hunters looking for me. I asked him to look in on my parents and sisters. The police had talked with them, but phone records and social media posts proved that I hadn’t been in contact with them since before I’d kidnapped the children. Jack told me my parents denied the charges and refused to believe I was guilty. I hoped like hell no one casually mentioned Corbin, which would point the police in our direction. As far as they knew, I hadn’t spoken to or of Corbin in eighteen years. My family shouldn’t be mentioning him to anyone.

My car, the one I’d driven away from the mansion in and left at the train station Jack had instructed me to go to, had been found within days of the reported kidnapping. Per Jack, they had not yet found the security footage of me walking the kids through the station to get to the locker where we found the supplies Jack had left for us. He believed it was because no one was looking that far back, due to Gunther’s delayed report.

Gunther wasn’t counting on the police finding us, though. That was just smoke and mirrors. He had issued a million-dollar bounty on me, dead or alive, and for the safe return of Lydia Gunther. Jack said there was no mention of a reward for Henry Gunther’s return. The man couldn’t even care about his own infant son. What if I was a real kidnapper who meant to do harm to his children? The man didn’t even care. It was disgusting.

I didn’t ask where or how Jack got us new identities. Once the snow cleared enough where we could come down off the mountain, Jack said he had all the documents I needed to claim my new persona. Including a backlog of data that indicated my children and I had been living in Whitefish our entire lives. There was even a death certificate for my ‘wife’ and the children’s mother.

I didn’t know how I felt about leaving the safety of the cabin and Corbin’s land. Corbin had said he would get the documentation from Jack if I didn’t go down with him for his first trip into town since the snowfall. While I appreciated Jack’s efforts to cover our tracks, there still were ways to prove we weren’t who we claimed to be. DNA, for one. Also we still looked the same. My face was on hundreds of thousands of wanted posters around the country. Surely, someone would recognize me and turn me in.

I hadn’t shaved my beard for that reason. It was now past my chin. Belle was looking forward to the day it was long enough to braid, like she did with Corbin’s. The man usually walked around with glittery barrettes or ribbon bows in his hair and/or beard.

Gertie suggested I dye my hair. Corbin argued that my sandy brown hair would match the town’s populace better and suggested I keep it. He had some extra ball caps around too and offered them to me to wear when I went out in public.

We cut Belle’s hair. She cried for an hour after we made the suggestion. She loved her beautiful blonde hair—so did I—but cutting it meant less maintenance during the winter months. In exchange for allowing us to cut it, I promised she was allowed to dye her hair whatever color she wanted come springtime.

Pink hair dye was now on Corbin’s shopping list for when he finally got to town. We probably should have seen that one coming.

When the snow started to melt and the air became noticeably warmer, my old fears and stress returned. The snow kept us in and barricaded from the world.

It also meant there were no more excuses as to why I couldn’t bring Belle down the mountain to visit her friend Brooke.

Every time I thought of Brooke, it was like a punch to the solar plexus. Any time her name was mentioned, especially when I wasn’t expecting it, I couldn’t breathe for several seconds. To this day, months later, I could still feel the imprint of her fingers in mine. At night I would dream about holding her, kissing her, making love with her. The best dreams, though, were of a family, a mother for my children.

I was a wanted man. I could never be with her. She deserved better. The nights when Jack would get on the radio to give us updates about the manhunt for my children and me, it always hammered that fact home. I was living on borrowed time, and I refused to bring her down with me when the axe fell.

Because it would. Living up here in the mountains was a sanctuary. I didn’t know how long it would last, but one day, maybe not one day soon, but one day we would be found out. Brooke could not be standing next to me when that day arrived.

The times when the mountain men—and one strikingly beautiful woman I was trying my damndest not to think about—would do their check-ins after a storm or a brutally cold night, it was both heartbreaking and soothing to hear her voice. When she came across the radio, I would wonder if she was thinking about me, maybe hoping that I was there listening. She never asked about me or the children, and I had yet to determine if that was good or bad.

With my permission, Jack had informed the mountain men of the additions to Corbin’s cabin. While he didn’t give details, he made it clear that there were to be no strangers on the mountain. He implored all of them to be on the lookout for signs of others on the mountain and to send up a signal if found. They all agreed, though one was just a series of clicks that Jack said was an agreement. I had no idea what that meant. Corbin didn’t say anything about it, so I remained quiet. One, I think his name was Dalton, even offered to babysit. According to Corbin, while the men who lived on the mountain were formidable and not ones you wanted to cross, they were extremely protective of their land and each other. The fact that Corbin now had children living on the mountain with him meant extra protection.

Belle finally landed safely on the ground next to me. She automatically reached for Lucas’s hand. I had his other. We slowly walked back towards the cabin at Lucas’s wobbly pace. My son was getting so big. His eagerness to follow his sister everywhere had driven him to start walking sooner than I’d expected. He was even talking. Mind, his vocabulary extended to “mik” (which was milk), “Da”, “Bee-Bee” (which was Belle), and, my personal favorite, a short and precise “yeah”. He was very good at pointing to get what he wanted too. When Corbin was around, that was usually a silent “up” command.

Gertie was waiting for us at the cabin’s door. As a child, I always compared Mrs. Mullaney to an old lady. She’d had a rundown, gaunt look about her. Her shoulders were always hunched and her hair prematurely gray. Now, the woman looked beautiful. She stood tall, had some meat on her. Her hair was still gray but now looked healthy and washed. The biggest difference to eighteen years ago, she looked happy .

Belle let go of Lucas’s hand and ran towards her. “Is it ready?”

Gertie smiled down at my daughter and nodded. “Darling, it is a masterpiece beyond measure. Even I surprised myself.”

Belle cheered before rushing into the house. I picked Lucas up so I could pick up my pace. “Did you really make her a spaghetti birthday cake? ”

Gertie nodded. “The girl wanted spaghetti and chocolate. I’m not sure she’s quite right in the head.”

I laughed. “I think it’s the altitude.”

We entered the cabin. I set Lucas down in the playpen Corbin had constructed for him in the living room. While it was warmer outside where we didn’t need heavy winter jackets, it still had a chill in the air when the sun set. Corbin let the fires in each room go low during the day before building them back up at night.

When putting together our new identities, Jack had asked if I wanted to keep the kids’ birthdays. He said it was safer to change them, but it was my call. In the end, I chose to change them. I would always know their real birthdays and what day we celebrated on wouldn’t matter in the long run.

Belle’s birthday was now two months sooner, which she was ecstatic about. By her logic, this meant she would always get her presents earlier.

Lucas, who was about to turn eleven months, would be waiting an extra month before we celebrated his birthday. In fact, his birthday was now what his predicted delivery date had been if he hadn’t been born a preemie.

So today we were celebrating Belle’s eighth birthday. To which, my unique daughter asked for a spaghetti cake. Dinner was going to be interesting.

I heard the sound of an engine in the distance. I still wasn’t used to that sound intruding on the silence of the mountain. Corbin had taken his four-wheeler out this morning. He said he was getting Belle’s birthday gift. I wasn’t sure what that meant and wondered if he was going all the way to town. While the snow had mostly melted, Corbin wasn’t expecting to go back to town with all the furniture he’d built over the winter for another couple of weeks.

Even though I knew the chances that it wasn’t Corbin were low, I still tensed at the sound approaching. I automatically moved so I could see both my children. Gertie noticed but didn’t comment on my reaction. I appreciated her discretion.

Once I saw it was Corbin approaching, I relaxed. When I saw there was another vehicle following behind him, I tensed back up.

Gertie looked out the living room window. “Ah, don’t worry. That’s just Dalton.”

I knew the name and his voice from the radio check-ins, but I had never met the man. I wondered what he was doing here.

Belle ran to the door as soon as she heard the vehicles approach. She rushed outside just in time to see them park in front of the porch. “Uncle Corbin!”

Corbin climbed off his vehicle, taking his helmet off. He opened his arms just in time to catch my little daredevil as she flung herself off the porch at him. Geez, I was going to have a heart attack one of these days if she didn’t stop jumping off of things.

I remained in the doorway so I could watch outside while also keeping an eye on Hen—damn it. Lucas . At least that slip up wasn’t out loud.

The second four-wheeler pulled up next to Corbin’s. The driver was dressed all in black and had his helmet on. My divided attention between my children was my only excuse as to why I didn’t notice the passenger on the back of the vehicle with him until she got off.

Blonde hair came piling out of the helmet as she raised it off of her head. She shook her hair free, and I realized I was seeing it loose for the first time. Before, she’d always had it braided.

Our eyes met, and my mind went blank. Had her eyes always been so blue? I couldn’t think, I couldn’t speak. She was gorgeous. I wasn’t even sure I was breathing. My chest hurt, but that could either be lack of oxygen or the punch I had felt at seeing her again.

“Brooke!” was screamed so loudly it broke me out of my stupor.

Belle climbed down from Corbin’s arms and ran over to Brooke. Thankfully, she didn’t jump this time. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Brooke’s waist and squeezed as tightly as she could.

“Hi, sweetie,” Brooke smiled down at her. She put her hand on Belle’s shorter hair, pulling on the ends. “I love the new hairdo.”

Since Belle was looking up at Brooke, her chin resting on Brooke’s flat belly, I could see her scrunching her nose. “I look like a boy.”

Brooke shook her head. “No, baby. I think you look very pretty. I also hear you’ll be dying it pink soon.”

That got Belle excited again. “Yes! Will you do it for me?”

“Well, I’ve never dyed mine or anyone else’s hair before, but, if your dad allows it, I’ll try.” She didn’t look up, even though she’d mentioned me.

“Great!” Belle let go of her waist. She turned towards the cabin and then spun around so quick she nearly toppled over her own feet. Thankfully, Brooke caught her because neither Corbin nor I were close enough to have. “Oh, and my name is Annabelle now, but everyone calls me ‘Belle.’”

I winced at her wording. Brooke was the only other one on this mountain who knew Belle’s birth name. Hopefully she would just introduce herself regularly in the future and not add in the ‘now’. I still would have a talk with her later about making sure she never admitted or hinted that she once had a different name.

Brooke smiled indulgently at her. “I know, sweetie. I think the name ‘Belle’ suits you perfectly. ”

Movement behind Brooke brought my attention to Dalton as he approached. He’d taken off his helmet. I was surprised to see he was African American. I hadn’t guessed that by his voice. He was tall, maybe six-two, and bald. When he walked up behind Brooke, he placed his hand on the small of her back. He leaned in close to whisper something in her ear.

Red clouded my vision as she leaned into him. Well, that hadn’t taken long. Here I was pining over her, still struggling whether I’d made the right decision to leave, and she’d already moved on. Guess her feelings weren’t as deep as I’d imagined they were.

Before they reached the stairs, I turned my back and walked into the cabin.