Read Online Montana D-Force (Brotherhood Protectors Book 3) by Elle James - Free Book Online

usually did. It was as if she’d stopped in midsentence and never went back to finish the entry. I found the journal underneath her bed. Not tucked in, but upside down, as if it had been thrown or fallen from her desk and kicked across the floor.”
    A cold sensation washed over Bear. He touched Mia’s back.
    She glanced over her shoulder at Bear, nodded, and then turned to the older woman. “Mrs. Severs, would you mind if I looked at that journal?”
    She shook her head. “No. I suppose you could. Although I don’t see why. Nothing’s going to bring her back.”
    Mia squeezed the woman’s hands. “I’m so sorry. Allyson was my friend. I’d just like to read through those last couple of days, as a kind of closure.”
    “Certainly,” Mrs. Severs said. “Phillip has been so good to us. The poor man seems so lost without her. I don’t have the heart to tell him that it hurts when he comes over. Just his being there reminds us of what we’re missing. They would have been married. She might have been pregnant with our first grandchild. Now, we’ll never have grandchildren.”
    Mrs. Severs stood with her eyes closed, tears dripping down her face. After a moment, she wiped her cheeks. “If you want to see the journal, please come during the workday. I’d rather my husband didn’t know. He gets upset every time Allyson’s name comes up. You know how close they were.”
    Mia nodded. “I remember.” She hooked her arm through Mrs. Severs’s arm. “Let me walk you back to your car.”
    “Thank you, dear,” Mrs. Severs said.
    Bear fell in step on the other side of the frail woman in case she collapsed from her misery. When they arrived at her car, he helped her into the driver’s seat.
    Mia leaned into the open car door. “Do you mind very much if I follow you back to your house to have a look at that journal, now?”
    Mrs. Severs glanced at the clock on her dash. “I suppose that would be okay. I didn’t have any more plans for the day. I’m never much good after I visit Allyson.”
    “Do you want me to drive you home?” Mia asked.
    Bear’s fingers curled into fists. He didn’t want her to drive with someone else. How could he protect her if she wasn’t with him at all times?
    “No, thank you, dear. I can get myself home.” She gave Mia a wan smile. “I’m sad, not helpless.”
    “We’ll be right behind you,” Mia said and closed the car door.
    Mrs. Severs backed out of the parking lot and pulled onto the road heading back into town.
    Mia and Bear hurried to follow.
    Once inside the truck, Mia turned to Bear. “I didn’t want to see or talk to anyone after I’d been attacked.”
    “We don’t know why Allyson shut down,” Bear said. “It could have been something else.”
    “But if it was him…” Mia pounded her fist on the armrest. “If only I’d—”
    Bear reached out and touched her arm. “Stop it. You are not responsible for that bastard’s actions.”
    “You didn’t know Allyson,” Mia cried. “She was so beautiful, loving and full of life. I can’t think of anything else that would make her want to take her life. I wanted to take my own life when it happened to me. But I was too much of a coward to do even that.”
    “Sweetheart, you were anything but a coward. You did the bravest thing of all…you lived and made something of yourself, despite your fears and insecurities.” Bear shook his head. “You’re an amazing woman. Sadie said you write scripts for movies. The scripts you write make people laugh, cry and feel.”
    “But Allyson might be alive today if I had reported my rape thirteen years ago.”
    “You don’t know that.”
    “Why else would a woman on the verge of the happiest day of her life take her own life?”
    Bear couldn’t explain why Allyson Severs had committed suicide. Only Allyson could answer that. Unfortunately, the woman had been successful in her attempt to end her torment.
    Bear’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. If he ever