Brotherhood Protectors_Guarding Aurora

by Lynne St. James

  “Okay.” She changed into her PJs, brushed her teeth, and had just climbed into bed when he came back.

  “I brought some water in case you get thirsty.”

  “Thank you, that was sweet.” His eyes met hers, and she wondered what he was thinking. What would he say if she asked him to stay with her? Would he make love to her? He said she could set the pace, but after seeing her red blotchy face in the mirror, she couldn’t believe anyone would want her.

  “I’m sorry I upset you. I hope you can get some sleep, I’ll see you in the morning, angel.” His lips met hers in a brief kiss but as he straightened she grabbed his hand.

  “Could you stay? At least until I fall asleep.”

  “Of course, baby.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and took off his sneakers. Then he laid down on the bed and pulled her into the crook of his arm. She rested her head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat.

  “Thank you, Raptor,” she mumbled, it seemed hard to talk for some reason, and her eyes were so heavy. “Night.”

  She thought she heard him answer but she wasn’t sure.

  ***

  “Good night, my sweet angel.”

  She was everything he never knew he wanted. He’d dated more than his fair share, but never had any plans to settle down, but then he hadn’t expected to leave the teams either. Delta Force had been his life. There wasn’t room for anything else. Or hadn’t been until Paris when a little woman with huge blue eyes burrowed into his heart and refused to leave.

  After all the dead ends he’d run into trying to find her, he’d been about ready to give up. Strange how the universe worked. Chase believed that everything happened for a reason, maybe he was right. What were the odds he’d go to work for Chase and end up farmed out to the Brotherhood Protectors in Montana and meet the woman who had haunted his life? He wouldn’t have taken that bet. But there he was, with Rori’s head lying on his chest, and her body curled around his.

  Pulling the clip holding up her hair, he put it on the nightstand and ran his hands through her curls. Soft, and fluffy, and the scent of her shampoo surrounded him. He’d been truthful earlier when he told her he wanted her, and lying there now was painful. He hadn’t been with a woman in longer than he could remember, and now the one he wanted was within reach but strictly off limits.

  When he was sure she was asleep, he gently slid out from under her. He’d have loved to stay, but it was only nine p.m. not too late to give Chase a call to see if he could look at a few things. He was used to functioning on only a few hours of sleep, and as long as he was in bed by midnight, he’d be fine.

  Stopping by his room, he grabbed his laptop and sat at the kitchen table. He transferred his notes from the phone to a file on the computer, then he dialed the phone.

  “Brennan.”

  “Hey, Chase.”

  “How’s it going, Raptor? Are you ready to come back to the Florida heat?”

  “No way. It’s fuckin’ beautiful weather here.”

  “What’s up? Have any leads?”

  “I’m not sure. But I do have questions. And you won’t believe this but the woman I’m up here to protect, it’s the woman I saved in Paris. The one I’ve been searching for.”

  “No way. Are you sure?”

  “Hell yeah, I’m sure. I couldn’t believe it. I expected some blue haired old lady, and when she looked at me, I thought I was dreaming.”

  “Well, don’t forget she’s your client. Not your girlfriend. Didn’t you tell me she was engaged?”

  “Yeah, but he died along with her parents. And it’s been two years.”

  “I know that, but remember she’s a client, I’ll keep saying it until you acknowledge it. You need to remember that. She’s not even just our client, she’s Hank’s too. You need to think about every action before you do it.”

  “I will.”

  “Why am I having trouble believing you?”

  “I don’t know, boss. Why are you?” The laughter from the other end of the phone wasn’t comforting. He knew she was his client. He thought he was doing well, a few kisses couldn’t hurt anyone.

  “You’re a good man, Raptor. Now is there something I can help with?”

  “I wanted to run a few things past you, see what you think?”

  “Sounds good. I guess you need Alex to work some of his magic tomorrow?”

  “If possible, yes. I’m going to send him an email with as much information as I can dig up tonight and hopefully he’ll be able to connect the dots.”

  “What have you found out?”

  “What’s interesting is none of her trouble started until she was interviewed about the bakery and it went viral on social media. After that hit, the harassment started and has continued for the last six months, she just didn’t bother to tell anyone. The stubborn woman wouldn’t have told a soul if the plate glass window hadn’t been broken.”

  “Any suspects there?”

  “No, that’s what I need your help with. I think it’s either someone fixated on her from the interview or who knew her or her fiancé.”

  “Name?”

  “James Marshall, the third. The family is on the east coast and old money with a family business. But Jim was a photographer in Paris. Rori says she never met them. It feels off to me.”

  “Understood. Send me anything else you come up with, and we’ll start working it in the morning. If there’s dirt out there, Alex will find it.”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  “Did you tell Rori you were there?”

  “Yeah. I wrestled with it for a bit, but it didn’t feel right for her not to know. I was hoping she’d recognize me, but she didn’t. Not at first, anyway.”

  “How’d she take it?”

  “She thanked me for saving her life.”

  “I bet you weren’t expecting that, were you?”

  “Exactly. I was relieved she didn’t freak out. There was a fifty-fifty chance it was going to go badly, it was nice to have it go well for a change. Anyway, let me know what you find. My reception isn’t bad as long as I’m in town.”

  “You got it. Talk to you tomorrow.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Rori woke just before her alarm went off and she was disappointed Raptor wasn’t still in bed with her, but she hadn’t asked for all night. She’d dreamed that they were making love in the bakery, and they were covered in chocolate frosting. It’s no wonder she’d looked for him the moment she opened her eyes.

  “Oh well, time to get your butt out of bed and into the shower.” Showered and dressed in record time, she quietly walked down the hall to start some coffee. She felt like some Kona today. Raptor said as long as it was coffee he was happy, so she’d see what he thought about her favorite bean.

  “Good morning.”

  “Morning,” she answered as she turned with a smile.

  “Did you sleep well?”

  “Yes, but that was going to be my question.”

  “Oh, I slept fine. Thank you for staying.”

  “You are so adorable when you sleep, angel. I hated to leave, but I wanted to see if I could get some work done.”

  “Did you come up with anything?”

  “Not yet. But I have my boss working on it back in Florida too. We’ll get to the bottom of it. Don’t worry.”

  She wasn’t worried about him catching the person, it was what would happen after he did. Would he leave and go back to Florida? Would he want to stay and see if they had a chance at making it work?

  “I’m not. Ready to head downstairs?”

  “Yup.” She handed him his coffee and grabbed hers and headed for the door. It felt so normal for him to be there and it had only been one day. He made it easy.

  As they stepped outside the floodlight came on and startled her. She’d forgotten he’d installed it the day before, but now she knew it worked. Chances of anyone pulling anything back there at night would be slim.

  “The light works well.”

  “Yeah, I
wish I’d been able to get cameras yesterday too.”

  “Cameras, like surveillance?”

  “Yup. They didn’t stock them, so I put in an order online last night after you were asleep.”

  “Where are you going to put the cameras?” she asked as she unlocked the back door of the bakery.

  “I ordered enough to put one back here, at the front of the shop, and inside the hallway, figured it couldn’t hurt in case they got through the door. I’ll put a monitor up in the apartment, and you’ll never have to wonder who is at your door.”

  “Thanks. But don’t you think that’s overkill?”

  “No, angel, not where you’re concerned. I don’t want you to have to be afraid.”

  Not knowing what to say, she went about getting ready. Making the bread dough first, followed by the different pastries and rolls. Then it was on to finishing the croissants, she’d started the day before. The routine was so ingrained in her she didn’t have to think about it.

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Want to learn how to knead bread?”

  “Need bread? I love bread, but I don’t need it.”

  Laughing, she grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the bread board. “This is what you do. You knead it with your knuckles like this then rotate it, knead again, fold it over and knead it again. Then you put it into those pans and cover them with the clothes. Think you can handle that?”

  “Yeah, no problem.” He washed his hands and went to work. She watched for a bit and stopped him from mutilating the bread a couple of times before he got the hang of it. It was nice being able to move on to tackle the next thing on her list. Six a.m. arrived quickly once again she had a line of customers waiting for her to open.

  “Did I tell you they were coming to install the new window?

  “No, when is that?”

  “Not sure, just today sometime. I’ll be happy to be able to see out again, I hate that piece of wood.”

  “I don’t blame you. Do you want some more coffee before we open up?”

  “Thanks, that’d be great.” She watched him walk into the bakery area and couldn’t help admiring the buns of steel encased in the dark blue jeans. Then her mind wandered to when she saw him without his shirt. He’d had lots of scarring on his chest and an angry one on his side, but it didn’t detract from his beauty at all. If she didn’t watch it, she’d be drooling all over the counter.

  Raptor handed her the coffee and took a drink of his. “Anything out of the ordinary happening today?”

  “Besides the window? I have to finish a wedding cake I’ve been working on. It needs to be delivered to Ruby’s B&B later. The Evanston’s are renewing their vows – fifty years. Can you believe it? Anyway, she ordered the wedding cake since they didn’t have one when they first got married.”

  “You said you started it?”

  “Yup, the cake is baked, and the first layer of fondant is on. It still needs the fancy stuff which will take me most of the day. Luckily, I have you to help.

  “What could I do to decorate a wedding cake?”

  “You won’t be decorating, you’ll be handling the customers out front. All you have to do is yell if you need me.”

  “What would you have done if I wasn’t here?”

  “I don’t know, probably beg Sadie to come and help out? I suppose I’m going to have to consider hiring someone soon. So, will you help out?”

  “Only if you promise not to unlock the back door or leave the shop.”

  “I promise. I’ll be too busy to do anything else.”

  “What time does it have to be delivered?”

  “Four, so we’ll have time to close up and drive it over there. Ruby’s is only a couple of blocks away.”

  Before they could say anything else, the jingling bells on the front door let them know they had customers.

  ***

  The day flew by. He didn’t know how she managed the bakery by herself. There was a steady stream of customers and half of them wanted to chat. Yesterday they must have been checking him out. Today, it was one question after another. Why was he there, was he Rori’s boyfriend, how long was he staying? It went on and on. He kept to his cover story that he was a distant relative of Hank’s and was just helping Rori out. For most of the people it placated them, but then a guy walked in, Raptor tried to make eye contact, but he avoided him, and just wandered around looking in all the cases. All the while Raptor took care of a couple of women buying a bunch of the petit four things for a book club meeting, he continued to wander around never saying anything or looking impatient. It didn’t feel right.

  He tried to keep an eye on him while he packaged the tiny squares of goodness. He didn’t realize he had a sweet tooth until he sampled some of Rori’s confections. Finally finished with the chatty women, he looked around, but the man was no place to be found. Worried the guy had managed to get past him and into the kitchen, he peeked to make sure she was okay.

  Then he sighed with relief to see Rori working away on the cake that was more like a work of art. He’d never seen anything so beautiful that was made of sugar, except maybe his angel. She had quite a bit of the white stuff on her as well.

  Mid-morning the window installers arrived and mounted the new window faster than he’d expected and with little disruption of the bakery traffic. Having the glass made a huge difference. It also allowed him a much better view of the area and let in a lot of sunlight making the patisserie a cheery place. Hard to believe that four months ago he was knee deep in mud in Central America on a rescue mission. The mission that cost him his military career. Just thinking about it made the muscles in his thigh ache, a reminder that he’d been standing on it all day.

  Why did it seem that the last hour of the day dragged by? Three o’clock couldn’t get there fast enough for him. He had emails from Chase and Alex but hadn’t had time to read them. And he wanted to ask Rori if she’d noticed that man before. After locking the door, he went to check on his little pastry chef extraordinaire.

  “How’s it going?”

  “Great. What do you think?” She backed away from the sugary masterpiece she’d created to give him his first full view of the cake.

  “Holy shit. You made all those flowers?”

  “Yup. Everything is edible. I think it came out well.”

  “It’s fantastic. Mrs. Evanston is going to be head over heels for the cake.”

  “Now we just have to deliver it without any catastrophes. I figured since we didn’t have far to go I could risk putting it together for the delivery.”

  “It’s not usually like this?”

  “Nope, it’s delicate this way, or extra delicate I guess, so I leave it in a couple of pieces and do the final assembly at the wedding sight.”

  “Have you made a lot of these?”

  “This is my third. But I do love making them. It’s magical for me. Maybe someday I’ll get to make my own.”

  “I’m sure you will.” But as soon as the words were out of his mouth he wanted to kick himself. But the eyes she lifted to meet his weren’t sad as he’d expected but hopeful, and it eased the painful twisting of his heart. The last thing he wanted to do was bring her pain. If he could just convince her to open her heart to him, he’d make sure the rest of her life was as magical as the cake.

  “Maybe. Okay, let’s get this beauty loaded up and out of here. I don’t want to hold up the reception, these people aren’t getting any younger.” Raptor snorted. Had she really just said that? It was the snarkiest thing he’d heard come out of her mouth, and it cracked him up and gave him another peek into his angel.

  “I can’t believe you said that?”

  “I know, I can be horrible at times. But usually only if I’m comfortable around someone.”

  “I’ll carry the cake, and you open the van doors, okay? But don’t get too far ahead of me, I want to be able to keep an eye on you.”

  “Okay, but be careful with that. I can’t whip up a new one.”

 
; “Don’t worry. I will.”

  She washed her hands and removed her icing-covered apron, then unlocked the back door. After waiting for his nod, she opened the door, and he followed her outside with the cake. Relieved that everything looked quiet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. But without visible signs, it was just his gut.

  Carefully loading the cake and strapping it into the built-in cake box, he gently closed the doors and got into the van. He’d wanted to drive, but she insisted it was faster for her to drive since she knew where they were going, and he couldn’t think of any reason to disagree.

  Chapter Twelve

  Taking the turn from the parking lot onto Main Street was a slow process, but Rori didn’t want to take any chances with the cake. Just as she pulled onto the main road through town, Raptor yelled to stop. She pushed on the brake pedal, but nothing happened. Then she stood on it, but the van kept moving.

  “There’s something wrong. It won’t stop.” Thank God it was Eagle Rock, and there was never a lot of traffic, or they’d have hit someone already. The traffic light was approaching fast, and panic churned in her stomach, and she broke out in a sweat. “What do I do about the light?”

  “It’ll be okay, angel. Just hold on. I’ll tell you when you need to turn.” His hand covered hers on the steering wheel, and that with his calmness helped ease some of the fear coursing through her. They were going to die, and poor Mrs. Evanston was never going to have her wedding cake. “Angel, concentrate. I swear you’re going to be okay. Just focus on my voice and do what I ask.”

  “Okay. I’m trying.”

  “I know, and you’re doing a great job. Just hold on for a little longer. I’m going to pull the emergency brake. The van should slow down, but it might pull. Are you ready?”

  “I think so.”

  “Okay, hold on. I’m pulling it now.” Rori held onto the steering wheel for dear life as the van jerked to the right. It slowed a bit but didn’t stop.