Snow Twink - Sue Brown Page 0,1
had mourned them hard when a man had liquored up and got behind the wheel of his car. He’d died in the blazing wreck along with their parents.
Gruff was the youngest at twenty-eight, Damien the oldest at forty, and they still lived together. They were all gay, but there was an added complication, which was why they were unattached.
Seven gay Daddies living in a house. That was some complication.
Gruff was happy to be close to home and dreaming of his dinner when something at the base of a tree caught his eye. He squinted, trying to work out what it was. In the middle of the forest, the only colors were the pure-white of the snow and the deep browns and greens of the trees. He didn’t expect to see anything red or yellow glinting through the gloom. Heading in the direction of the tree, he was sinking into the snow with every step. Whatever it was, it didn’t belong out here, and he didn’t want an animal to try to eat it by mistake.
As he got closer, he saw that that it was bigger than he expected, and his heart sank, knowing immediately what it was. They were deep in his family’s land. No one would have ventured here by mistake. Gruff braced himself for what he might find. He’d found people in the woods before, frozen to death, miles from help, although never one so close to their home. The forest wasn’t a place for the unwary or unprepared. He loved it here, but then he and his brothers had been born on the mountain. They knew what they were doing.
Gruff knelt beside the body, snow already covering the thin red and yellow jacket. Five minutes later and he might not have spotted it. He studied the damp, dark curls and briefest glimpse of pale skin, then rolled the body over gently, and his breath caught.
Gruff sat back on his heels. “Oh, you’re barely more than a boy. How did you end up here?”
The dark hair, his face the color of the snow and his lips blue, and an abrasion marring the perfection of his left cheek. The poor boy. How had he gotten trapped up here? The nearest trail was miles away. Usually Gruff left the bodies after snapping a photo and notifying the sheriff’s department. But with this pretty one, his heart sank at the idea of leaving him here at the mercy of the predators. Gruff didn’t question too closely his motives for taking the little one back with him. He was beyond help now. It just didn’t seem right to leave him.
“Why were you here all alone, little snow twink?”
He scooped the body up and put it over his shoulder. Despite the fact the boy could be no taller than five foot eight, he was a dead weight. Gruff wasn’t surprised he’d not seen the boy on the way out. The forest was huge, and he’d only spotted him this time by chance. If only he’d found him sooner. How long had the boy been here before succumbing to the cold? Gruff was just thankful in these temperatures, death would have been quick. Small mercies.
It was dark by the time he got home, as it took longer with the additional weight, and he sank to his knees many times. He was relieved when his family’s large log cabin eventually came into view. Where would he put the boy to make him safe from the predators? He didn’t want to attract stray bears and wolves, and neither did he want a dead body in the home. He could just imagine what his brothers would say about that.
As he approached the cabin, the door burst open and a pile of men, all of them bellowing at the top of their considerable voices, rushed toward him. They were huge and bearded, and all had their father’s deep blue eyes.
“Where the hell have you been?” Damien, his eldest brother, snapped.
“We were about to send out a search party,” Brad groused.
Gruff tuned out the rest of the complaints. As the youngest of seven brothers he was used to doing that.
“That doesn’t look like something we can eat,” Jake said, nodding at the body over Gruff’s shoulder. He was two years older than Gruff and the next one in line.
“Found him under a tree,” Gruff said.
PJ, the middle brother and built like a small tank, folded his arms across his chest. “Why did you bring the body here? It’s only