Protected by a Hero

by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne

  Cass sighed.

  It was going to be one of those days.

  By the time dinner rolled around, she’d fixed the sink, pulled enough tiles off the wall of the downstairs bathroom to get an idea of the damage behind it, done five loads of laundry—her own plus the sheets and pillowcases in every bedroom of the house—updated the books for the cattle operation, sighing at the way more money kept going out than came in, and vacuumed all three floors of the house. She’d thrown a pot roast and potatoes in the oven and had even pulled out the tallest ladder they owned and rested it against the back of the house.

  She hadn’t quite gathered the courage to climb it, though. Instead, she’d remembered she hadn’t dusted the front room in a week. By the time that was thoroughly done, dinner required all her attention.

  For once, no one’s boyfriends followed them home to mooch a meal and her sisters congregated in the kitchen before six, waiting for the oven timer to go off. Jo was setting the table. Lena, the second oldest at twenty-five, was washing up at the sink—her hot-tempered boyfriend, Scott Howell, nowhere to be seen, thank goodness. Alice was perched on top of the refrigerator, as usual, a habit Cass had never been able to break her of despite all her efforts. The high kitchen ceiling allowed her plenty of room to sit cross-legged up there. Her sketch pad in her lap, she leaned against the wall, a dreamy expression on her face. All must be right between her and Howie, Cass thought.

  Figured.

  “Well? What do you think?” Sadie waltzed into the kitchen in the slinkiest black dress Cass had ever seen, except on a movie screen. A scarlet bra peeked out from its low-cut neckline, and it seemed distinctly possible Sadie wasn’t wearing anything underneath it.

  “It’s great—for a hooker,” Lena said flatly.

  “You’re not going to wear that out,” Cass said. “Sadie, that’s—”

  “I don’t look like a hooker.” Sadie was furious. “It’s a gorgeous dress. The woman in the store said they just got it in.”

  “Why don’t you skip wearing clothes altogether? It’d be about the same thing,” Jo joked.

  Sadie spun on her heel and left without another word. They heard her pound up the stairs and slam her door.

  “She’ll get arrested in that thing,” Lena predicted. “Just you wait.”

  “No one gets arrested for looking sexy,” Jo contradicted. “Who knows, maybe Mark will keep his eyes on her for once instead of hitting on the barmaid.”

  “He doesn’t do that in front of her, does he?” Cass asked, horrified. No wonder Sadie was making such a spectacle of herself.

  “Yes, he does,” Jo said. “And worse.”

  “Well, I hope Sean’s not like that.”

  “Sean’s all about me. He thinks I’m beautiful. That’s why he wants to—”

  “Incoming,” Alice said suddenly.

  All of them turned toward her, used to her predictive abilities.

  “Well? Who is it?” Cass asked impatiently. If it was Mark, she’d give him a piece of her mind no matter what Sadie thought of it.

  “I don’t know.” Alice shook her head, her expression distant, as if she was listening to something only she could hear. “A man.” She began to climb down from the refrigerator, a maneuver only Alice could manage so gracefully. A step on the counter, a leap to the floor and she was striding toward the front door. The others followed her, Cass shutting the oven door.

  “What’s going on?” Sadie asked sulkily when she rejoined them in jeans and a low-cut blouse.

  “Someone’s coming,” Cass told her.

  The front door was propped open to let in the breeze and the five of them gathered together behind the screen door to look outside. They waited patiently even though there was no sign of a car on the drive.

  “Now,” Alice said, a couple of minutes later. Sure enough, Cass spotted a trail of dust that meant a vehicle was making its way down the lane to their house.

  “It’s a truck, but I don’t recognize it.” Sadie craned her neck to see.

  “Must be someone we don’t know.”

  Cass felt a twinge of unease. “Why are they coming here?” she asked Alice. Sometimes her sister got flashes about those things, too.

  “I’m not sure… something…” Alice shook her head, then turned to Cass in surprise. “He’s here for you.”

  “For me?” They watched as the metallic blue GMC pulled up in front of the house and after a moment, a man got out. He retrieved a bag from the back of the truck, and shut the tailgate. As he stood looking at the house, Cass had the chance to take him in. He was tall, muscular, with dark hair, blue eyes and a strong jaw. Something stirred within Cass she’d thought had died when she discovered Bob’s theft—a curl of carnal interest she immediately squashed. She didn’t need another man in her life, but this one was so good-looking she’d have to be a saint not to notice him. He was easy in his body, with a confidence that made her curious to get to know him better. He wore faded jeans, cowboy boots that had seen better days, a crisp, white shirt and a hat that was too new for Cass’s taste. This was a man both at home on a ranch and a stranger to it. Cass couldn’t get a clear read on him. But there was something else about him she recognized immediately, even as she struggled to get her reaction to him under control.

  “Military,” Lena said under her breath.

  “Did something happen to the General?” Jo asked Alice.

  “No.”

  Cass let out a breath, not knowing why she’d held it. She cared as little for the General as he did for them. Still, if Alice said he was alive, then he was alive, and that was good. She wasn’t ready to lose another parent.

  “He’s coming,” Sadie hissed.

  As one, all of them except Alice sprang back from the door and hurried into the front room, where Lena took up a position on the rug in front of the coffee table, and got back to tinkering with a lawnmower motor she’d been repairing for the last several days. Sadie and Jo grabbed magazines and plopped themselves on the couch on the far side of the room. Tabitha appeared from the kitchen and hopped up onto Jo’s lap. Cass sat down at her desk and reached for a pen.

  Their ruse was silly—their dinner was all ready to be served in the kitchen. Cass didn’t know why it felt so important to act like this, but it did. She didn’t want this man—this stranger—to think she’d been waiting for him.

  When footsteps climbed the front steps, Alice opened the screen door. “Welcome to Two Willows. You must be looking for Cass.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  That was Alice. Brian recognized her from the photos from the task force office. Behind her he spotted Jo and Sadie sitting on a sofa, and Lena dismantling some kind of engine on a paper-draped coffee table. It wasn’t until he shifted his gaze to the woman seated at the desk that he spotted his quarry.

  Cass Reed. Twenty-six, homemaker extraordinaire, ex-girlfriend to a departed Two Willows overseer—

  Sweet as shoefly pie on a summer’s day.

  As Cass got to her feet and started toward him, Brian’s pulse kicked up a notch. She was every bit as beautiful as he’d known she would be. Even more attractive in real life than she’d been in the photograph he’d stared at this past month. Her silky blond hair hung in waves down her back. Her wide, blue eyes watched him suspiciously from under long lashes. Her mouth—God, her mouth—made him hungry to taste her.

  And that body—that curvy, wonderful body… She was wearing jean shorts and a simple top. Her long legs were bare, sun-kissed and distracting. She wore nothing on her feet and Brian flashed back to his early childhood, before his father’s gambling had taken over everything—long, carefree summer days on the family’s ranch he hadn’t thought about in years.

  This was the kind of woman he’d missed during his time with the SEALs. Sure, there were pretty girls in bars all over the world ready to take him for a ride, but they lacked what Cass had—that open, fresh, healthy country glow that told a man this was a woman you could make a life with.

 
Not for the first time Brian wondered why the General would send a man like him—a headstrong fuck-up—to marry his daughter. Cass could have anyone she wanted.

  His mission was to make sure she wanted him. Brian decided on the spot he’d give it his all.

  “You’re right.” He removed his hat, shifted it to the hand that held his bag and pushed inside without waiting for an invitation. “I’m here for Cass.”

  “That’s me.” Cass held out a hand and looked him over curiously as he shook it firmly.

  “I’m Brian Lake.” He found himself loath to let her go. But he did. Last thing he wanted was to scare her off before he’d even started. “The General sent me. I’m here to fix the house.”

  “The house?” Lena said. “Aren’t you here to take over the overseer position?”

  “No. Just here to fix the house,” Brian told her. The General had prepared him for this line of questioning. If I start by sending another overseer they’ll never go for it, he’d told Brian back at USSOCOM. They’ll foment a rebellion the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Civil War. We’ve got to be sneakier than that. I’ve got friends who drive by from time to time. They say the place is going to the dogs.”

  Cass’s expression hardened. “I see. I’m sorry he sent you all this way for nothing. As you can see, the house is fine.”

  The General had told him to expect this. “Beg pardon, ma’am, but I’m not asking. I’m telling. The General sent me here to fix the place up, and I’m not leaving until this house is shipshape.”

  There was a pause as the women took this in.

  “You’re in the Army?” Lena asked, not bothering to get up.

  “No, the Navy. I’m a SEAL.”

  If he’d hoped that would garner him some respect he was wrong.

  “How’d you get mixed up with the General?” Sadie asked suspiciously.

  “USSOCOM business.” He hoped that stifled any further interest.

  “USSOCOM’s business is fixing my house?” Cass asked.

  “It is for now.” Brian dropped his bag on the floor. “I’ll be staying awhile.” The General had told him to go in guns blazing. Don’t give them an inch. They’ll tear you apart, he’d warned Brian.

  “Like hell,” Lena said.

  “You’re not staying here,” Cass added.

  “Yes, I am.” Brian didn’t budge, and he made use of every inch of his height to tower over Cass. She glared back at him. “He said if you don’t like it, you all can move out.”

  Just as the General had predicted, that sent a shock wave through them. They’re attached to the ranch, the General had said. Wait and see. They stick close to home, just like their mother used to.

  Cass studied him a moment longer, but she must have seen he couldn’t be budged. “Fine. You can stay in the guest room—after I call my father to make sure you are who you say you are.”

  “I’ll ring him myself.” The General had predicted this, too. He pulled out his phone, tapped on it a few times and handed it to Cass. She took it with a frown.

  “It’s me,” she said into the phone after a moment. “There’s a man here.” She hesitated. “Yes. Yes. That’s right. I’ve got it all under control, you know—” Another pause. “Fine. But the minute the repairs are done, he’s out. Got it?”

  She handed the phone back without cutting the connection. Brian lifted it to his ear. “Lake here, General.”

  “Don’t let those girls of mine scare you off. Eyes on the prize. That’s some mighty fine ranch land, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is.” A mighty fine woman, too, he thought, looking Cass over again. A mighty pissed off one, by the looks of things. “You sure this is where you want me?”

  “Don’t get all mealy-mouthed, Lake. You don’t like Cass, you tell me straight out.”

  “It’s not that,” Brian rushed to tell him.

  The General chuckled, letting him know he’d betrayed far too much. “Yeah, I thought you might see something you liked there. Make sure she finds you interesting, too. No marriage, no share in the ranch. Got it?”

  “Yeah, I got it.” Brian hung up on him, disconcerted by the way the General had seen through him. “We good here?” he asked Cass.

  She blinked. “That’s not the way I would phrase it, but I’m satisfied you’re the minion my father meant to send to annoy me. I don’t know why I bothered to check. He does this all the time.” She turned on her heel and led the way to the staircase.

  “He’s done this before?” The General had never mentioned that. Brian grabbed the handles of his bag and followed Cass. “Sent you a man?”

  She stopped short on the second step and when she turned to face him they were eye to eye. “He’s never sent me a man,” she said waspishly. “He’s sent plenty of workers, though. We always run them off. Eventually.”

  “He’s just trying to help, you know.”

  She made an exasperated sound and continued up the steps. “He’s trying to control us, you mean.”

  “I’m here to fix the house,” he said to her retreating back.

  She didn’t answer until they’d reached a pleasant bedroom on the second floor and she’d ushered him inside. “Then we won’t have to put up with each other for very long.”

  Before he could say another word, she was gone.

  When Cass came downstairs again, her sisters had reconvened in the kitchen. “Where are you going?” Alice asked from her perch atop the refrigerator as Cass passed through the room toward the back door.

  “What about dinner?” Sadie asked.

  “Go ahead without me. I need some fresh air.”

  “Hey—do you know where the repair manual I left on the coffee table got to? It’s gone,” Lena called after her.

  “Haven’t seen it.” Cass walked right out the back door, clattered down the three steps that led from the back porch and strode off toward the small shed she’d claimed years ago for her own. It wasn’t nearly as big as the carriage house Alice used for her sewing room, or as light as the glass greenhouse where Sadie retreated to when she needed to be alone. It wasn’t as pungent as the barns and stables where Lena and Jo spent most of their time, thank God. It was a square, windowless, tidy shed lined with shelves from floor to ceiling, with a large central wooden table—the perfect surface for all kinds of projects.

  And if once in a while those projects involved a small amount of pyrotechnics, how was anyone to know?

  Cass unlocked the building, switched on the bright overhead light and gathered what she needed. She didn’t have time for anything fancy. Matches, bottle rockets. That was enough. She flicked off the light again, shut and locked the door, and made a beeline to her truck. Following the familiar rutted track toward one of the ranch’s farthest pastures, she parked, got out, set the bottle rockets on a flat stone and lit their fuses.

  Cass calmly strode back to the truck, leaned against the driver’s side door and crossed her arms, waiting for them to go off.

  Five.

  Four.

  Three.

  Two.

  One.

  They popped off one after another in crisp, satisfying explosions, allowing her pent-up exasperation to release and drain away. There. That was better.

  Time to go home and face the interloper with a clear head.

  She’d have him out of here in no time.

  CHAPTER THREE

  “She’ll be back in about…” Lena pulled out her phone and checked it. “Six minutes.”

  “Where the hell did she run off to?” Brian asked. He stood in the corner of the kitchen, feeling outnumbered, four sets of female eyes sizing him up. The General was right. This had all the undercurrents of an insurgency about to turn hot.

  “Just a walk before dinner.” Sadie shrugged and as if to belie her words, a truck pulled into the packed-dirt parking area in front of the carriage house and Cass got out.

  “A walk?” Brian echoed.

  “Walk, drive… what’s the difference?” Alice said
from up on top of the refrigerator. She climbed down from her perch and went to wash her hands. The other women moved around the room with the ease of familiarity, getting the meal to the table, pouring drinks and settling themselves into their seats. Cass walked in, hung her purse from a hook near the door and headed for the sink. After washing and drying her hands, she slid into a chair at the head of the table.

  Which is when Brian realized there was no place set for him.

  All five women watched him curiously and once again Brian caught a glimpse of wicked defiance beneath their placid expressions. He’d been in tight situations many times, but none quite so awkward—or as deviously undermining to his authority. He was too well bred to dump one of the women out of their chairs, or to demand to be served—or even to grab a plate and help himself. But he was too versed in conflict to walk away, either. This was a test. If he failed it, he might as well leave right now.

  And Brian had decided he wanted to stay. Every move Cass made fascinated him. He couldn’t say what it was—some combination of sweetness, sexiness and rank insubordination that pierced straight through his defenses. He wanted to get to know her better, and the ranch had already worked its magic on him. He felt more alive right now than he had since he left his SEAL team.

  He went to the cupboard, pulled out another plate, eased his way between the chairs Cass and Lena occupied and stabbed a baked potato with the serving fork that lay in the dish. He transferred a healthy serving of the roast to the plate, too. After adding a helping of green beans, he handed it to Jo. She caught the plate just before he dropped it in front of her and he swiped her empty one out from under it. He went back to serving before anyone could say a word.

  As he expected, none of the others protested his actions out loud. That wasn’t their way. He served each of them in turn, and himself last, grabbed some silverware from a drawer near the sink and took his heavily laden plate to one of the spare chairs.