Montana D-Force (Brotherhood Protectors Book 3) by Elle James Page B

toward her, but stopped when another woman he hadn’t seen before straightened from a grave at the end of the short row.
    Blond hair streaked with gray framed a sad face. The woman laid a single pink rose on the grave, kissed her palm and blew the kiss to the headstone. Then she turned toward Mia and frowned. “Mia? Mia Chastain? Is that you?”
    Mia pushed to her feet and looked at the woman. “Oh, Mrs. Severs. I just heard about Allyson. I’m so sorry. Allyson was a sweetheart. Everyone loved her.”
    As Mrs. Severs closed the distance between herself and Mia, Bear straightened away from the tree and took two steps toward the pair.
    Mrs. Severs pulled Mia into her arms and held her, rocking slightly back and forth, like a mother rocking her child. For a long moment, the two women hugged.
    Bear stood back, reluctant to interrupt the touching moment.
    Finally, Mrs. Severs leaned back and held Mia at arm’s length, “I’m sorry about what happened to your parents.”
    Mia brushed tears from her cheeks. “Thank you. I didn’t know about Allyson until today.”
    Bear moved closer to Mia as Mrs. Severs let go of her arms, her shoulders sagging. The woman glanced over Mia’s shoulder at Bear.
    “This is my handyman, Tate Parker,” Mia said, waving her hand toward him. “We just saw Phillip at the hardware store. He still can’t believe it. He said she seemed so excited about getting married. Everything seemed to be going so well.”
    Mrs. Severs gave a half-smile that didn’t reach her blue eyes. “I’d never seen her so happy, what with all the wedding planning. Allyson and Phillip were perfect for each other. Then one day, it was as though the light went out of her. Her father and I had spent the weekend at our cabin in the mountains. When we got back, Allyson didn’t seem the same. She refused to come out of her room, and she’d quit eating. Whenever we tried to talk to her, she just cried and locked the door.” The older woman seemed to choke on her words.
    Mia slipped an arm around Mrs. Severs, her own eyes filling with tears.
    “We talked to Phillip,” Mrs. Severs continued. “He said he hadn’t spoken to Allyson since they’d been out the night we left. He’d said they were fine. They’d talked about the honeymoon, and Allyson had seemed happy. The next morning, he called. She didn’t answer. He came to the house to speak to her, but she didn’t come to the door. He went around the house to her bedroom window and knocked on the glass. She came to the window, but said she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to make him sick, too.
    “When we got home, we could tell she’d been crying, but she didn’t want to talk about it. It went on like that for two days. The third morning after our return…” Mrs. Severs sucked in a shaky breath. “We found her hanging from the ceiling fan in her bedroom.”
    Bear’s heart broke for the mother. No parent should outlive a child. He couldn’t begin to imagine finding his child the way Mrs. Severs had found hers.
    For a long moment, Mia held Mrs. Severs. The woman’s shoulders shook with her silent sobs.
    “Why?” Mia whispered. “She was a beautiful, happy person.”
    Mrs. Severs dug a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose. “We didn’t know. I looked for a note, anything that would explain what she had been going through. She left her engagement ring on the nightstand. That’s it.”
    “No fight with Phillip?” Bear asked.
    “Phillip was just as torn up about it as we were. He swears they didn’t fight the night of their date. Everything was normal when he left her.” Mrs. Severs drew in a ragged breath. “I even read through her daily journal, hoping to understand.” The woman paused, her brows wrinkling.
    “What did you find?”
    “It was odd. She’d written an entry the night she’d gone out with Phillip. It was all about the honeymoon plans. Every word seemed upbeat and happy. But she didn’t finish the page like she