Forever Thrown: Forever Bluegrass #16

by Kathleen Brooks

“So were you.” Porter kissed her quickly and Willa felt as if she’d just won it all. Apollo was on, she nailed it, and she had a boyfriend who was proud and excited for her.

  “Great ride!” Tilly said, giving her a hug.

  “That was so cool,” Greer said, coming up and hugging her before taking Apollo’s reins. “You made that look easy and those jumps are crazy high.”

  “That was insane,” Bodyguard Barry said with a shake of his head as he fell into line slightly behind her as they headed back to the barn.

  “There’s no way you could get me to do that. I think I’d rather jump out of a plane,” Deshaun told her.

  “What about between jumping or asking Greer out?” Willa said, giving Greer a wink. Reggie and Barry laughed so Willa knew Deshaun must have told them about girls’ night. Greer rolled her eyes and Willa was pretty sure Greer flicked her off, too.

  “Greer, you’re fine and I appreciate you, but if it’s between facing your brother or jumping over a five-foot fence on the back of a horse, which I don’t know how to ride, I’m taking my chances with the horse. A broken neck would be better than what Jackson would do,” Deshaun said without hesitation.

  “My freaking brother,” Greer groaned. Porter knew Jackson was overprotective, but geez, maybe it was worse than he thought. “And Deshaun, you’re a wimp. I don’t care about all those muscles. You’re a wimp. All men are!”

  Porter grinned at his cousin as they entered the barn. “Yet you love us.”

  “At this point, I think I’d have more luck getting laid by her,” Greer said with a head nod to a tall woman with dark hair up in a ponytail and wearing the standard jumping attire.

  “Who is that?” Tilly asked Willa.

  “I don’t know. She’s very pretty,” Willa said and Porter had to agree as a group of women riders walked in from the other side of the barn. They were all tall and gorgeous.

  “Damn, those women are fine and I bet they don’t have a scary ass brother,” Deshaun said, teasing Greer.

  Porter laughed as Greer rolled her eyes.

  “Did you just finish?” the woman Greer had eyed asked as the other women joined her.

  “I did. They’re on the sixteenth rider right now,” Willa told them. “I’m Willa Aldridge. Are you all new?”

  “We’re the riders on the Israeli team,” the woman told her.

  “That’s neat. Good luck today,” Willa said as the group parted for them to walk between.

  Porter gave them a friendly smile and a tip of his hat. In return he got a punch to the face.

  Porter staggered backward at the unexpected blow. Reggie, Deshaun, and Barry tried to converge on Willa to protect her but the women were on them. One took out Barry’s knee, another was beating the crap out of Reggie, and a third was fighting with Deshaun.

  “Still thinking of asking her out?” Deshaun yelled to Greer as the woman Greer had joked about dating attacked her with a knife.

  “This only makes me like her more!” Greer yelled back as she and the woman were locked in a lightning-fast battle of knife slices, blocks, and punches. “Tilly, take the horse!”

  Tilly stopped screaming as she grabbed Apollo’s reins and ducked out of the grasp of a woman to move him out of the fray. The bodyguards had their hands full and the last thing they needed was to lose control of a horse his size. Willa fought off two women trying to kidnap her and Porter was face to face with an Israeli-trained super soldier.

  Porter ducked an elbow intended to break his jaw. “So, is it sexist to hit her or not to hit her?” he yelled out.

  “It’s sexist to not hit her,” Greer called back as she took the woman with a knife down and two more went after her.

  “I agree. I can take any man, but I appreciate you asking,” the attacker told him.

  With that settled, Porter got to work. No longer only on the defensive, he went on the offensive and fought with all the training his father and Ahmed had taught him since he was a child. Hit, block, punch, duck, elbow . . .

  “You’re very well-trained. Our intel says you’ve only been with the CIA a week,” the woman said as she jumped back to avoid a punch.

  Porter made his move now that she’d given him room. He didn’t leap forward to continue the fight with the woman. Instead, he leapt sideways and tackled the two women who had Willa by the arms and were trying to pull her away.

  They went down in a heap on the rubber mats of the barn floor. Porter kicked out and sent one of the women rolling backward. “Get onto Apollo!” he yelled at Willa as he leapt up and put himself between the now three attackers and Willa.

  He didn’t look back to see if she did what he told her. Instead he was embroiled in a three-on-one fight.

  “Okay, enough playing around,” he heard Greer mutter as he heard the hoofbeats of Apollo galloping away from them. Good, Willa was safe.

  Greer grabbed the closest woman soldier fighting her by the collar and head-butted her. The woman she’d been fighting crumpled to the ground and then his cousin was by his side. “You know what I’m craving all of a sudden? Bread pudding with a caramel bourbon sauce,” Greer said.

  “Are you serious right now?” Porter ducked a punch and slammed his fist into the woman attacker’s face. Her nose broke under his hit, but she hardly blinked. “They’re like super soldiers.”

  “Your training is superior. It’s a shame after this we can’t collaborate,” Greer told the two women she was fighting.

  Porter took a punch to the gut and swore it was just as hard a hit as a fall from a bull. Time to pull out the move he used to beat Parker.

  Porter took a step back and then dropped to the ground as if he were sliding into home plate. The woman jumped his lead leg, thinking he was trying to sweep her feet out from under her, and never saw the hook with the other leg coming. His leg, strong from rodeo, hooked behind her knee and brought her crashing down. Porter had her in a headlock before she could regain her balance. He squeezed just enough to send her into unconsciousness.

  Porter glanced around and saw security running toward them yet again. Tilly and Willa were on Apollo at the back of the barn, watching to see if they needed to run or not. Barry hobbled around, barely holding off his attacker, Reggie was unconscious, and Deshaun was about to be knocked out.

  Greer was in full badass mode, taking on two at a time. She also didn’t need his help. Porter glanced around, found a lead rope hanging near a stall, and grabbed it. He snapped it quickly, whipping it through the air like a bullwhip. It slashed into the back of the head of the woman fighting Deshaun. It gave him the time he needed to take her down with an uppercut.

  Then Porter went down and dirty and tackled the woman fighting Barry. It was a short battle on the ground with her, but then Deshaun and Barry leapt in and pinned her down.

  Porter felt pretty good about the number of soldiers he took down until he turned to see Greer wiping her hands on her pants with four unconscious women at her feet. “So, about that bread pudding.”

  Willa held Tilly’s hand as the fighting continued. Her heart was pounding and she was doing everything she could to keep Apollo calm.

  “Do we need to help them?” Tilly asked, her voice full of fear.

  Willa saw Greer head-butt a woman and Porter break one of their noses. “I think they’ve got it, but run for security.” Tilly slid down off Apollo’s back and hit the ground running.

  Willa heard Tilly screaming for security. A second later she was back. “They’re on their way.”

  Willa reached out for Tilly and removed her foot from the stirrup. “Jump back on behind me in case we need to make a quick getaway.”

  Willa was sure she didn’t breathe until it was all over. Porter had been a beast, but Greer had been next level. Where Porter moved with power, Greer moved with lethal grace. As security rushed the building, there was nothing left but a pile of unconscious women and Reggie moaning as he tried to get up.

  Greer flashed her FBI badge, had security zip-tie the women,
and then they were loaded into the back of a horse trailer Greer was “borrowing.” Willa was pretty sure Callum’s staff gleefully handed it over and even told her not to bother with returning it.

  Porter had Willa in his arms as soon as the soldiers were fully secured and off to Desert Sun Farm. “Is Apollo okay? Are you okay?”

  “I love you for asking about my horse first,” Willa told him a second before she kissed him. “We’re fine, but I’m going to need to stay here for a while and calm him down.”

  “I’ll stay with you. My family is on their way. Deshaun needs to take Barry and Reggie to the hospital. I think Barry’s knee is busted and Reggie has one hell of a concussion.”

  Willa looked up and saw Parker striding into the barn sending people running for cover at the thunderous look on his face. “Is anyone hurt?”

  “No, we’re all fine,” Willa assured him.

  “Where’s Matilda?” Parker asked even as his eyes scanned the barn.

  “She had to go up to the show ring to check on how much longer she has before her ride,” Willa told him. “You do know she hates that name, right?”

  A slow, wicked smile spread across his face. “I know.”

  Willa shook her head. Whatever was going on with them was between them. Tilly would tell her eventually. In the meantime, she had her own troubles to worry about.

  Willa spent the next hour making sure Apollo was rubbed down and cleaned up from his time in the ring. The familiar routine calmed the horse. By the time he finally decided to eat an apple, Abby, Dylan, Aiden, Walker, and Jameson were sitting outside his stall and Jackson and his FBI team had the barn exits covered.

  “So, badass women kidnappers. That’s a new one,” Dylan said, winking at his wife.

  “They were pretty awesome actually,” Willa said, taking a seat on the stool by Apollo’s stall. “If I were to be kidnapped by anyone, I’d want it to be them.”

  “Kale said they were getting closer,” Abby told her. “Although he says it’s like finally moving an inch when you still have a mile to go.”

  Willa let out a long breath of frustration. “So, we’re doomed to do this day in and day out until we’ve either killed every assassin and kidnapper in the world or my father and your brother find a way to take down The Panther.”

  “Basically,” Abby said with a shrug. “But look at all the people from around the world you’re meeting.”

  Willa snickered and then laughed out loud. Apollo stuck his head over his door and nuzzled her hair as she laughed. “Very true, Abby. And I got to meet Porter.”

  Porter walked over and put his hand on the base of her neck. His thumb ran over her skin and caused it to warm. “It’s worth it because of you,” Porter whispered to her before kissing the top of her head.

  Teasing, laughing, stories, and conversation flowed around Willa as she began to feel part of this crazy Keeneston world, even if Dylan and Abby didn’t tell her who they worked for. Maybe when she and Porter married . . . whoa. Marriage? That thought just snuck in and exploded in her mind. Marrying Porter refused to go back in the bottle. It was all Willa could think about now.

  27

  The next night, Porter lay in bed with Willa curled up against his chest. She’d scored well for Team Competition Day. Luckily Callum and his cohorts, who were no longer competing, were on a separate team. Tilly and Willa had stepped up big time to help lead their team into fourth place. They had always been second to Callum’s team at previous events. Willa was exhausted and had fallen asleep after a quick dinner at the café.

  Porter turned the page of his reading app on his phone with one hand and held Willa with the other. It was only nine at night, but he enjoyed holding her while she slept and didn’t even think about sneaking from bed to go into another room.

  You might want to get to the café, was the text that came from his father.

  Willa is asleep. Did something happen? Porter typed with his thumb as he began to pull himself free from Willa.

  Trouble at the Café. Meet me there in five. Blythe is at your door.

  Of course she was. His father would have everything all lined up.

  Porter slid from bed, pulled on his jeans, and yanked a T-shirt over his head before picking up his boots. He carried them from the bedroom to the front of the house and opened the door to find Blythe sitting on the front step.

  “What’s happened?” Porter whispered.

  “The café is in an uproar. There have been some incidents. I was sent here to watch Willa.”

  “Alone?”

  Blythe just narrowed her eyes at him. “Is everyone okay?” he asked.

  “Of course they are. Keenestonites aren’t your average citizens. Jackson and Talon are on their way to walk the perimeter,” Blythe told him as she stood up and dusted off her pants. That’s when he saw the gun at her hip, the one strapped to her thigh, and the assault weapon she had leaning against the stairs.

  “Keep her safe, Blythe. Please,” Porter practically begged as he trotted down the stairs and out to his truck.

  The drive to the café was fast in the middle of the night when there were no tractors, horse vans, or giant trailers moving rolls of hay. For just after nine at night, the place was hopping. Well, it was a Friday night and the café was literally the only place to go in town.

  Porter didn’t care that he double-parked outside the door to the café. He’d talk Matt into dropping any ticket he got. Not that his brother-in-law or friends would even write a ticket at a time like this.

  Porter flung open the door and rushed inside. He expected worried looks and panicked conversation from the people inside. Instead, he found people laughing and teasing Pam Gilbert, who looked like a pouting teenager.

  “What’s going on?” Porter asked as his father came forward.

  “Well, there’s a regular United Nations convention going on in the Desert Sun Farm holding cells,” his father said. “There are people from China, France, Australia, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, and Israel.”

  “I know this. Did Kale find something?” Porter asked. “Is this what’s going on?”

  “Everyone found something,” his father said dryly. “Walker and Layne were on a date night when a man stopped and asked for directions to your house. He claimed to be a friend of yours. Walker took him out and added Pakistan to the Assassins’ UN Assembly. Then Nash and Sophie were on their way to the café for their date night when they found a car hidden along the side of the road near the farm. They leapt into action and captured an assassin from Saudi Arabia.”

  “How many countries spy on the US and would want this information?” Porter asked with a shake of his head.

  “All of them. Just like we have spies in every country. And don’t think just because we’re allies with someone that we don’t have spies in their country and vice versa. Heck, allied spies in the US probably outnumber all of our enemies two to one,” his father told him and his father would know since he had been one of those spies.

  “So, two more countries have been caught?” Porter asked.

  His father shook his head and held up a third finger. “Matt, Cody, and Luke found an Italian assassin trying to hide in the upstairs courtroom with a sniper rifle aimed at the café door.” His father held up a fourth finger. “Ryan and Deacon caught Spain trying to cut through the neighboring farm.” Then his father stuck out his thumb as well. “And Dylan, Abby, Greer, Jackson, and his team got into a shoot-out on Main Street, taking down a large cell of Russians. My brothers and I got to help with that. Good times for a Friday night.” His father gave a little grin and Porter shook his head. His father had a strange idea of fun.

  Porter took a deep breath and let his head fall back. “Please tell me there weren’t anymore. We’re running out of countries.”

  His father grinned then. “I saved the best for last. Cassidy was babysitting everyone’s kids for date night. She had a baby strapped to her front and was pushing that large multi-baby stroller toward the café to pick up
dinner to go before putting them all to bed. We were all in here celebrating taking down the Russians when a German assassin came up behind her and grabbed her. He intended to hold her and the children hostage in exchange for you and Willa.”

  Porter quickly scanned the café. Cassidy was sitting at a table talking to Sophie and Nash, bouncing their daughter, Emersyn, on her knee. “Who saved them?” Porter asked.

  “Cassidy had the situation handled by the time Greer got to her,” Cy said with a grin.

  “Cassidy?” Porter looked at his little cousin with question. “She’s good with a bow and arrow, but close combat?”

  “No one knew it, but she’s been training with Abby and Dylan. Dylan insisted after Cassidy told them she intended to travel on her own more with her language work.” Cassidy had a knack for languages. She could learn a new one at a drop of a hat. Right now she was fluent in eight different languages and conversant in several more.

  “What happened then?” Porter asked.

  “She strangled the assassin into unconsciousness with the diaper bag as she cussed him out in whispered German. She took him down without waking the babies and now Germany is with the rest of the International Brotherhood of Assassins at Desert Sun Farm. Plus, she’s just been deemed the best babysitter in the world. She’s throwing around the idea of a business training babysitters for combat for diplomats and celebrities,” his father told him.

  “It’s not fair!” Pam suddenly yelled as she jumped up from her chair. “I’ve been driving around town all day trying to spot someone to hit. Six countries! Two right here on Main Street while I was sitting in here with my keys in my hand and at the ready. I’m literally the only person who hasn’t caught a bad guy yet.”

  Pam’s face was red, her bottom lip trembled, and the keys to her military Hummer hung limply from her hand.

  Porter walked over to her and wrapped her up in a hug. “I really appreciate you looking out for Willa and me.”

  “I just want to help. I want to be part of the team again. I used to hit bad guys all the time, but now it’s like I’ve lost my touch,” Pam said with a sniffle.