by Em Petrova
His lips twitched. Nothing about her situation was in any way humorous, but the fact she could joke around made him remember her dry wit as a child. His brothers hadn’t appreciated it, but since he was older, and more mature than his years even then, he did.
“Definitely ham.” He liked what he saw far too much.
The previous night a sexy woman in a red thong with a pierced clit wiggled her ass in his face, and she didn’t have a fraction of the effect on him that Pippa did at this minute—disheveled, tired, frightened…beautiful.
Shit. Rule one of personal protective services? Don’t get involved with your ward.
Her link to his family already threw a heap of dirt over that rule. But this was more. Ross never lied to himself. He couldn’t stand in front of Pippa and say he didn’t feel attraction on a big level.
Bigger than any he’d felt in years, if he was a straight-talker—and he was.
This flashed through his mind in an instant, but it took him a minute to gather his words and the gumption to say them to her.
“Pippa…”
She waited.
“What do you say about one of my brothers taking over your case? I have a big contract to negotiate and a ton of things to manage with the company—” He broke off as he saw her expression.
He could only describe it as utter devastation.
Well, I did basically say she’s less important than negotiating a contract. Goddammit.
Her lips wobbled and her eyes flooded with tears. Red patches hit her cheeks. But the look she gave him really did him in.
He stepped up to her. “Hell. I’m sorry, Pip. I shouldn’t have suggested it. Forget I said anything. I’ll figure it out, delegate more.”
A step closer put them within touching distance. The urge to draw her into his arms twisted him up bad, but he resisted. Not only was she his ward, but she was his family friend. Crossing boundaries would be a disaster.
She stared at her boots for a long heartbeat, giving him a chance to study the faint freckles across her forehead, probably put there by the Montana sun. Finally, she glanced up and dashed a tear off her cheek. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day.”
“It’s me that’s sorry.” He started to reach to pull her into his arms.
“Ross! Oh here you are. Momma said to come and find you when I got home.” Corrine’s voice echoed down the long barn.
They both turned to his little sister, walking down the center aisle as if she strutted on a runway. Corrine may look like a rodeo queen, though she worked harder than most men on the ranch.
She didn’t know it, but he couldn’t be more glad to see her. This conversation with Pippa threw him into a world he had no clue how to navigate.
“Pippa, you remember Corrine.”
She stepped out of the stall and hurried forward to embrace his sister. As she brushed past him, he caught her scent. What made him pull in a deep breath at that moment?
She smelled like…
Like apple blossoms.
And honey.
Something welled inside him, as if he’d known those scents all his life and she’d only just reminded him how much he loved them.
Shaking himself, he watched the women’s reunion. Over Pippa’s shoulder, his sister met his gaze. A question lingered in her eyes, but he only nodded.
She stepped back. “Is that my jacket?”
Pippa stammered, “Y-yes. Ross loaned it to me. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not. And I’m jealous because you look better in it! But I did buy you a new one.” His sassy fireball sister swung toward him. “Ross?”
“Why don’t you go inside with Corrine? I’ll finish up.” And call a meeting with his team to fix a plan concerning his new ward.
Pippa faced him, and he gave her a nod and as much of a normal smile as possible when his insides felt like big, knotted ropes and a black cloud of disaster hung over him.
He definitely needed to talk this through.
As soon as Corrine led Pippa from the barn, he snatched his phone from his pocket and ordered everyone to the conference room.
“And I don’t mean the damn strip club,” he growled.
* * * * *
Deep in thought, Ross stared at the light dancing across the surface of the long walnut table. The WEST Protection headquarters was situated on the Wynton Ranch on a south-facing slope, so the room flooded with late morning sun.
The scrape of a chair on the floor brought his attention to Josiah. Behind him, the rest of his brothers, cousins and friends, all but Boone, filed into the conference room.
He waited until every man sat before he spoke. “I picked up an old friend at the airport. She requires protection.”
Josiah’s brows shot up. “Pippa?”
“How the hell did you hear that already? You weren’t anywhere near the house when she arrived.”
Josiah shot him a come-the-hell-on look. “Not as if it isn’t my job to be observant and overhear things.”
He removed his Stetson and set it on the table before him. “You talked to Corrine.”
“Passed her on the way down the driveway—going to buy your new ward a wardrobe.”
“I never should have trusted Corrine. She probably blabbed to everyone in Stone Pass that Pippa’s here.”
“Give her the benefit of the doubt, brother,” Noah spoke up from the opposite end of the table. “The only people she’d say a word to is Josiah, Boone, or me.”
Josiah bobbed his head.
“None of that matters right this minute. I called a meeting for another reason. I need one of you here to man the phones while I’m gone.”
“Where are you going?” Josiah asked.
“Seattle.”
“Flying?”
“Road trip.” He couldn’t see a way to fly with a woman who didn’t have any identification, and getting clearances for a personal jet would take more time than he could waste. He went on, “We can’t let this contract for the Grammys pass us by. It means putting our name at the top of the list of security services. Dammit, it’s the worst possible time for me to leave.”
“So hand her off to someone else,” Josiah said.
“I can’t do that.” The panic reflected in her eyes when he suggested the same thing to her in the barn really touched him in a way he didn’t want to think about.
“Which one of us is sitting around waiting for a phone call?” Josiah nodded toward Noah. “I say the youngest does it.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “I thought the youngest always shovels the manure?”
“I just did that,” Ross muttered, analyzing the field in his mind and the players on it. “Boone’s on duty at the capital with the governor.”
Josiah dipped his head in a nod.
“Silas, Landon, Mathias, you’re working the bank.”
“Yep,” his lifelong friend Silas said.
“We were up all night installing firewalls. You woke me up to come here.” Landon’s homeless appearance reflected his sleepless night. He wore a ratty T-shirt with a few holes in it and sported a day’s beard growth.
Ross grunted. “Pretty sure when I left the club, you guys were on your third whiskies.”
“You’re not wrong—but we went straight to work.”
Ross tapped the table with his palm to indicate they were finished with the topic. “All this proves to me that we need to hire more people. Noah, keep on that while I’m gone. And Josiah, you get the honor of babysitting the phone.”
His brothers exchanged glares.
“Can’t we do rock, paper, scissors for it?” Josiah readied his hand.
Ross arched a brow.
“I had to try, Ross. You know I hate sitting around twiddlin’ my thumbs.”
He understood that sentiment, but he still needed Josiah here. Time was slipping by too quickly, and he wanted a strong plan in place.
“Josiah, I could use a route that isn’t a straight shot to Seattle. No goat paths through the mountai
ns either. The weather will be harsh enough this time of year.”
“Got it.”
“Also, I need you to find out everything you can about these names I’m sending you.” He shot off the list he compiled from his discussion with Pippa and turned his attention to Landon. “How long will it take you to run some fingerprints for me?”
He straightened, looking suddenly more alert than five minutes before. “Just have to run them through the database for a match.”
“Good. Follow me to the house and I’ll give you the specimen.” He stood, ready for action. The only other question in his mind was whether leaving first thing in the morning would be best. Pippa hadn’t slept, and they had another long trip ahead. On the other hand, the sooner they got on the road the better.
He started out of the room, but thought of something and turned. “Josiah, I’ll need you to back me up in Seattle.”
“When do I arrive?”
“Sunday.”
“You can count on me.”
He met his brother’s gaze. “I know I can.”
As he left the headquarters and headed to the main house, his mind whirled with all the things he needed in place before their trip, supplies the least of their worries.
His top priority was finding out who was threatening Pippa’s life.
* * * * *
Pippa watched Ross carry a case of water from a metal shelving unit in the garage to the back seat of the truck. He set it on the floor before returning to the shelf for more supplies. He grabbed two blankets and a mini cooler, adding those to the growing stash in the truck.
He tossed a couple heavy chains in the bed, and she arched a brow. “You already got tire chains.”
“Couple extra in case one breaks.” He strode past her and grabbed yet another flashlight.
Okay, this was ridiculous. She knew he took his job seriously, but his obsessive behavior teetered on the verge of some sort of manic breakdown.
She stepped between him and the shelves. He sucked in a sharp breath and met her gaze. “Aren’t you going a bit overboard?”
“Not at all. Blueberry or raspberry?”
“What?”
“Which fruit bar do you prefer?” He looked past her left ear to boxes of food stacked on the shelf.
“Blueberry. But seriously, Ross. We aren’t going to freeze, starve or need three sets of tire chains.”
“You ever traveled the mountains in the winter? We could very well be stranded for up to a week if a storm hits.”
“Did you check the weather? There’s this thing called an app.”
He grunted and reached around her to grab the box of blueberry fruit bars. “I know what I’m doing.”
“I don’t doubt you do—if you’re heading a wagon train.”
The light of his smirk danced in his eyes. “We don’t want to have to resort to cannibalism.”
He pivoted and headed to the truck. She watched him go, and even the sight of a gorgeous cowboy’s backside in worn denim couldn’t keep her from swaying with exhaustion.
After a whirlwind unboxing of her new wardrobe, thanks to Corrine, the woman made Pippa try it all on. She said there wasn’t any point in keeping it if it didn’t fit. But it had—every single thick sweater and soft flannel shirt, as well as three pairs of jeans, socks, boots, underwear and a heavy winter jacket with matching wool scarf, hat and gloves.
Pippa shopped online for clothes only when absolutely necessary, so to say she was overwhelmed received the award for understatement of the year. Everything had been packed away neatly into a canvas duffle bag with a heavy strap that Corrine had also purchased.
As if a full day at the lab, a death threat, fleeing to Montana and being swallowed by the Wyntons hadn’t tired her out, watching Ross pack the truck as though they were headed into apocalypse territory did.
She followed him and leaned against the door. He finished stowing the blueberry bars, giving her a wonderful view of his strong back and the way his jeans hug nice and low on his—
She froze.
He carried a gun, tucked in the waist of his jeans along his spine.
At that moment, he straightened and looked at her hard. The realization came to her all over again—she was on the run, from some crazy person who wanted to kill her. She wasn’t in Montana to vacation and reunite with old friends. This old friend packed heat and would shoot to kill. She knew that as well as she knew he wouldn’t stop packing the truck until he was satisfied they wouldn’t perish on the road to Seattle.
“Pippa,” he said in a soft drawl that sent shivers snaking up and down her spine. “You’re dead on your feet. Maybe we should stay the night here. Leave in the morning.”
She tipped her head, and her hair tumbled to the side like a waterfall. “You said yourself it’s safer to travel at off times of day. I can steal a few hours of sleep in the truck.”
Concern drew his brows together, and he searched her face. She had no doubt he could sniff out a lie clear across the Rockies. But he finally nodded.
“I’m finished here. Let’s go in the house and say goodbye to my family.”
The sun slanted lower in the sky, and she blinked against the glare. A sensation of this all being a dream amplified by the memory of following Ross around the ranch as a kid, waiting with stomach flutters for him to throw her a glance or smile.
So when he did that very thing, she felt too flustered to walk a straight line. Her shoulder bumped his, and he reached out to hook an arm around her middle. “God, you are dead on your feet, Pip. Can you make it inside, or should I toss you over my shoulder?”
A vision of her rump high in the air, riding up around his head, planted two hot coals in her cheeks. She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
To prove this, she pulled free of his touch before her fatigue made her do something stupid like fawn all over him. Quickening her pace, she made it to the house before he did.
He held the door for her. “Your legs are a lot longer than I remember.”
Why did her stomach take a sharp dive at his comment? He was referring to something most humans had—legs. Some long, some short. No big deal. It wasn’t as if he remarked on her breasts.
Oh God. Why did she have to think that?
Halfway to the house, Josiah and Noah intercepted Ross. He waved her on ahead, while he stopped to talk to them. She checked over her shoulder once and saw his shoulders set. All of them looked to be involved in a deep, serious discussion. About her?
The trio stood in the same stiff pose with steeled spines. Their white hats would give any girl a heart attack if she saw them headed her way.
A minute later, he jogged to catch up. Neither spoke as they continued to the house.
Saying farewell to the Wyntons always left her with pangs and bittersweet feelings. This time felt extra weighty, because she hardly spent any time with them.
But Mr. and Mrs. Wynton, along with Corrine, hugged her and Corrine even dropped a kiss to her cheek, surprising her with the display of affection. They hadn’t been very close growing up, as so many years separated them. But now she couldn’t resist kissing her cheek in return.
Then Ross, in true take-charge fashion, took her elbow and led her to the truck. In seconds, they were trundling down the driveway.
She looked at the house and barns and the beauty of it all. “I wish I could have stayed longer.”
“You’ll come back,” he said with such conviction in his tone that she turned to him.
“Do you really believe that?”
He pierced her in his stare. “Yeah. I do. You’re tired, Pippa. Don’t get depressed on me. We have a lot of hours ahead of us.”
She tossed a glance at the back seat piled with supplies and reached for one of the blankets. “Did we really need all this?”
“Never leave without enough to keep you warm and hydrated.”
“What about the blueberry bars?”
“You’ll be glad I brought them, believe me.”
“Are you one of those men who never stops to eat, only for gas?”
“This truck has double gas tanks. It’ll be a while.” The corner of his mouth twitched, but he didn’t dimple for her.
God, how she used to wish for that dimple. All the Wynton boys had one, but Ross’s especially did things to her insides.
She draped the blanket over herself and the seat felt comfy enough, but her mind flitted like a wild bird did from branch to branch. The work she abandoned in the lab, things she planned to finish before leaving for Seattle, all left behind. She did have her laptop containing all her files, and the majority of her breakthrough experiment was burned into her brain, but her latest experiment was left behind.
“I wish I had all my data before I left the lab. Maybe I can access the database—”
“No.” The single word sent goosebumps all over her body.
“Why not?”
“You can’t contact the lab, even by accessing it through the internet. In fact, all emails go through me too.”
At that instant, her cell phone buzzed. She sat forward to rummage in her computer bag for the device.
“Hand me the phone, Pippa.” He held out a hand, broad palm up. The tone of his voice brooked no arguments.
She glanced at the screen. “It’s only my friend Meredith!”
“Don’t talk to her unless I’m on the line too.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. She’s my friend from college!” Her voice ended on a rasp that reminded her of being choked what felt like days ago.
The phone buzzed again.
“I have to answer her, Ross.” She started to accept the call, and he threw out a hand.
“Put it on speakerphone.”
Seeing he wouldn’t take anything less than her compliance, she answered and pressed speaker.
“Pippa! Thank goodness you picked up the phone. I was really worried when I saw you’d left early without signing out and then I couldn’t reach you. What’s going on?”
“Hi, Meredith. Thanks for checking up on me. I’m fine. Just had a sudden bout of sickness and left in a rush.” She slanted a look at Ross, who responded with an approving nod.
“You do sound a little hoarse. Do you have a virus?”
“I think it might be influenza. I went home sick.”
