Her Guarded Hero

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  “Remember one thing Sullivan, I’m the belligerent bastard out of the two of us, don’t try to usurp my role.” Zed’s tone was mellow.

  “Seriously, what makes you think you needed to call?”

  Zed didn’t answer. Then Dalton remembered a conversation he’d never really taken seriously. Hunter had said that Zed had some kind of sixth sense about things. Still, why would it relate to Dalton?

  “You still there, or did you hang up on me?” Zed asked mildly. “I’ll just call again.”

  “Don’t you have a pregnant fiancé? Last I heard she was having morning, afternoon and evening sickness, shouldn’t you be with her?”

  “She’s figured out that she can eat peaches, fettucine alfredo and Kool-Aid for dinner, it’s her new favorite and she can keep it down, so she’s sleeping. Anyway, it’s midnight here. So, spill your guts.”

  Every instinct inside him rebelled, then cool air wafted in from the broken window of his truck, and Dalton realized he needed to vent about Norma. He didn’t want to go into everything, but Norma, yeah, he needed to spew out that poison.

  “My former mother-in-law called.”

  There was a pause. “Former is a different word than ex,” Zed finally commented.

  “My wife is dead. Didn’t Hunter ever tell you?”

  “Nope. Hunter keeps things close to his vest unless it’s pertinent to a situation.”

  Sighing, Dalton had to agree. “Yeah, he only mentioned your voodoo after you showed up out of nowhere when he was in L.A.”

  Zed barked out a laugh. “How come I’m thinking that’s not what he called it.”

  “Probably because you know Hunter. Still I don’t know why you’re signaling onto me.”

  “Man, you’re blaring across the continent, I couldn’t help but pick up on it. So, tell me why this former mother-in-law is calling today. I take it has something to do with your wife’s death, right?”

  Dalton gritted his teeth so hard he thought his jaw might break. “No, my daughter. Today would have been her eighth birthday if she’d lived. Her name is Regan Elizabeth.”

  “That’s a beautiful name,” Zed said quietly.

  Vivid images of her silky black curls and navy-blue eyes floated behind Dalton’s closed eyelids. He could hear her laughter, it would ring out like chimes. Regan’s joy was contagious, he could still feel the fierce hugs that she gave him with her little arms. Every time, Dalton would breathe in the strawberry scent of her baby shampoo and savor the power of her love.

  “She was a beautiful little girl. She was only three years old when her mother killed her.”

  He could feel Zed’s shock through the phone.

  “God, I’m so sorry. No wonder you don’t want to talk to your former mother-in-law. Why Tahoe?”

  “The last four years I’ve been climbing mountains. I wanted to do all the seven seconds, starting with K2, but there were permit issues, so I did Ojos del Salado first, then Mount Kenya, followed by Mount Townsend. Last year I climbed Mount Logan in Canada.”

  “And this year?”

  Dalton took a moment to formulate his answer. “Mount Logan changed my perspective a little bit. I didn’t feel quite the need to punish myself with the climb after witnessing the peace and beauty of Logan. I wanted to recapture the serenity.” Dalton swallowed, he almost couldn’t get the words out. Finally, “Hunter said you and Marcia are having a baby girl.”

  “Yeah.” There was a wealth of satisfaction in Zed’s voice.

  “I’m glad for you. Girls are a gift,” he said quietly. A gift and a curse, he thought to himself, but he would never say that out loud. The air coming into the cab of his truck was frigid, he could see his breath, it looked like a heavy fog of death.

  “Are you listening to me?” Zed asked.

  A stream of white mist came out of his mouth as Dalton asked, “What?”

  “You’re not tracking. Stay with me, Sullivan.”

  Dalton forced himself to pay attention. He needed to stay in the present. The past was the past. How could he tell Zed that some risks were beyond him? That it was better to face the certainty of nothing, than the tiny chance of soul-shearing agony?

  “Dalton?” Zed asked quietly.

  He blinked, his daughter’s smile fading from his mind. “I’m here. What did you say?”

  “Do you need me to have Dex or my guy Kane arrange it, so your former mother-in-law can’t get through to your number again? Better yet, do you want me to arrange it so that her credit is tanked, and there’s an arrest warrant out for her?”

  More mist gusted out as Dalton chuckled. “Dex would never go for it. It’s just not in his nature.”

  “Hell, I know that. Kane would do it. The arrest warrant would only be for unpaid parking tickets though. Unfortunately, he’d be kind of a pussy when it came to a little old lady.”

  Dalton grinned. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that Zed had called.

  “You’re not answering. So, I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “No. No arrests,” Dalton sighed. “I’m going to call Dex. He knows about Norma. I’m going to have him do a little digging and see if there is something going on I need to be aware of. There shouldn’t be. I want those people wiped out of my life, but if there is something that is going to bite me in the ass, I want to know about it.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Fettuccini, Kool-Aid and peaches, huh?” Dalton’s lip curled as he thought about the flavor combination.

  Zed laughed. “I can hardly watch her eat it. It’s grape Kool-Aid. There were three days in there where she wanted asparagus too.”

  All thought of Norma fled as Dalton pictured the plate in front of Marcia and Zed sitting across from her. He burst out laughing. It felt great.

  As both of their laughter faded, a comfortable silence took over. Finally, Zed spoke up. “I’m going to call you tomorrow, you better pick up your phone,” he growled.

  “I might not be able to. I have an appointment with some horseshit.”

  “Explain.”

  “It’s a long story, and I’m tired. I’ll tell you tomorrow. I’m going to bed.”

  “Fine, I’ll call Dex for you,” Zed said. “You go get your beauty sleep. But tomorrow I want to hear why you’re making nice with the horsies.”

  He blew out a long breath. Who knew Zaragoza was so funny?

  He looked over at the broken window. Nope, he wasn’t going to go there. That shit was in the past. Dex or Kane would make sure she wouldn’t call, and Norma would be history and he’d fix the window. Onwards and upwards. He’d play with horses and concentrate on Aurora.

  4

  Oh, for God’s sake, what was she thinking? When had she ever worried this much about what to wear? It was always jeans and a sweater, or jeans and a T-shirt, depending on the time of year. End of story. Aurora plowed through her drawer, reaching under all her sweaters and not finding anything that felt soft.

  Dammit!

  Where was the feel-good sweater? And not the damn pink one. Granddad would give her a ration of shit for it if she wore a pink sweater the first morning Dalton arrived. But blast it all, she knew there was a heather gray sweater that was really soft that would be great. She slammed her drawer shut and yanked open the next one.

  Score!

  She pulled on the sweater and did a cursory look in the mirror and groaned. Why had she even bothered to try? With the bruise on her head she was looking like the Phantom of the Opera without the mask. She sat down on the bed and put on her thick steel-toed boot socks that she preferred wearing with her cowboy boots, then pulled on her boots.

  Leaping up she took a step toward the door and the room took a spin around her.

  “Woozy-Daisy.”

  She gulped in three fast mouthfuls of air and felt a little better. She needed to get outside and get some real-live fresh air. That was all she needed. That and some coffee. Aurora left her room and followed the smell of apple-smoked bacon.

  “Bout time y
ou got up. You feeling okay?” Gunnar handed her a mug. She lifted it and almost choked when she tasted chocolate. Not that she didn’t like it, but was he for real?

  “Granddad, where’s my coffee?”

  “Not good for head injuries. I called Doc Barnes, he said so.”

  Aurora put the mug of hot chocolate down on the kitchen counter, grabbed herself a clean mug from the cupboard and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Dr. Barnes is the vet,” she said patiently.

  “He still had to go to medical school.”

  “He went to veterinary school, Granddad. Veterinary school. I highly doubt that the bulls were sneaking cups of coffee after they got injured in the bullring,” she said wryly. She closed her eyes and took a long sip of the heavenly brew.

  “You still didn’t answer my question, how are you feeling?”

  “I’m feeling so-so. I’m going to take it slow today.” She nudged him with her hip and pulled the eggs and milk out of the fridge.

  “Good, then I won’t hear anymore guff about you actually up on a horse today, right?” he asked as he eyed her carefully. “Maybe just make some more calls about Aladdin and Siren and see if you can pinpoint their origins.”

  She scowled at grandfather. “I’m not going to spend my day shackled to a desk. Anyway, Crystal’s been doing a lot of the legwork.”

  Aurora was happy when there was a knock on the door. Saved by the knock, she grinned to herself. Gunnar went to let Dalton in while she whisked together the eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.

  “Sit down with Dalton, I’ll finish up,” Gunnar said. He put her mug down on the table, and plopped down one in front Dalton as well, filling both before going back to the counter to finish the French toast. Aurora sank down in the chair, pleased when she noted Dalton’s blue eyes perusing the fit of her sweater, but then he frowned.

  “You’re looking kind of pale.”

  “I’m fine,” she protested.

  “No, she’s not,” Gunnar inserted. “She already admitted she plans to take it slow, that means she must be feeling like crap. What’s more she’s drinking coffee when she shouldn’t have caffeine.” She turned and glowered at her grandfather.

  “I can take care of things today,” Dalton said quietly. “Gunnar’s right, you should be resting.”

  “Great just what I need, two mother hens.”

  His eyes started to sparkle. She liked it.

  “Whatchya thinking?” she asked.

  “It’s only fair I get to be someone’s watcher. I just called mine this morning.” He grinned broadly before bending forward to take another sip of his coffee.

  “You have someone mothering you? Who is she?”

  Oh shit, had she really asked that?

  He looked up and raised an eyebrow, Dalton liked that she’d asked the question. Really liked it.

  “There’s no she,” he answered slowly. “Just teammates. The nosey one is Dex. I woke him up out of a sound sleep and it served him right. He’s been hounding my ass since I got here.”

  Gunnar put plates in front of him. “Sounds like how my brothers are. Hell, even since Arvid and Einar moved back to Norway they still call and kibitz.”

  “Older or younger?” he asked.

  “I’m the baby and they don’t let me forget it. My people last a long time.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth a look of profound sadness passed over his face and he turned back to the stove. Dalton looked over at Aurora, she gave a small shake of her head. Dalton realized that the older man must be thinking of his dead wife. He couldn’t imagine feeling that kind of love for a woman. A child yes. A woman? No.

  “So, tell me more about your nursemaid,” Aurora asked changing the subject.

  “Dex is in charge of communications for our team.” Dalton didn’t explain that the man was also an experienced hacker and gathered all the intelligence for the Black Dawn SEAL team. “I think because he does so much communicating, he tends to act as a liaison between all of us and is constantly in touch. Whenever one of us goes off the grid, it drives him crazy.

  “So, you went off the grid?” He watched as Aurora swirled her bacon in syrup and licked it off the meat before taking a bite. He looked into her eyes and realized it was a totally unconscious action, but that didn’t stop him from getting worked up.

  It took him a moment to remember her question. “We all go off the grid from time to time when we have leave, it’s the nature of the beast.”

  Aurora chuckled, and he took a bite of his apple French toast. “Gunnar, this is fantastic,” he raved. Gunnar sat down with his own plate and smiled.

  “I’m not the ranch hand I once was, but I’ll make sure you have three squares while Aurora runs rough shod over you and our other two part-time ranch hands.”

  “Don’t you cook for them?” Dalton asked.

  “I’ll send out lunch to the stables. They prefer to handle breakfast and dinner in their cabins.” Gunnar answered.

  “So, Dalton, did you tell your friend Dex that you would be working on a ranch?” Aurora asked.

  “I did. He thought that was a great idea. Valhalla has one of the best reputations in the state of Nevada for training horses. I didn’t realize I was in the presence of a real live horse whisperer.” He was never surprised at the amount of information that Dex could get his hands on, but he was amazed at what the man had found out about Aurora.

  Blushing, she bent and swirled another piece of bacon and delicately licked it. He had to stifle a groan.

  “I’m just lucky that the horses tend to respond well to me.”

  “That’s a load of crap. She’s been like this since she was a little girl, she charms them. The foals used to follow her around,” Gunnar grinned. Dalton liked the pride he heard in the man’s voice.

  “I look forward to seeing that today.” Dalton saluted her with his coffee mug.

  “It’s really not as big as deal as those people made it out to be. I think sometimes people just believe what they want to believe because it makes them feel good.” She dipped her head and concentrated on her food.

  “Ah, good ole self-delusion.”

  “Are you a cynic?” Gunnar asked Dalton.

  “You got to remember the Navy SEAL motto, The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday. I’m a realist.”

  “While I like that kind of attitude when it comes to protecting my granddaughter, I sure hope you have a better outlook when it comes to your personal life.”

  It was as if the room around him froze for just a moment as he was caught in his memories, but then it sped crazily back to life. Dalton nodded. “Yes Sir, personally, I know that my worst days are behind me.”

  At that moment, the room stopped its crazy ride, and thudded to a stop, and there was Aurora’s smile. “I’m glad you have nothing but good things to look forward to, you deserve that,” she said.

  “I think you lied Mr. Sullivan,” Aurora said archly. “You’re a lot more comfortable around horses then you led me to believe.”

  She watched as he expertly saddled the brown gelding.

  “Yeah, well, one of my former teammates has a ranch in Texas. I’ve spent some time there. Jack has horses and cattle. Any of us who came with him to visit his folks were expected to ride herd.”

  “I’ve never done that, what was it like?” She wanted to get him talking, she liked his voice. It was smooth, dark and melted over her like warm honey. What’s more, he’d been so quiet when they’d left the house, it had taken her almost a half hour to get him to smile. It wasn’t until she’d started in on Erwin’s antics as a rodeo clown that he’d broken a grin. Now Dalton seemed to be behaving more like the man she’d met yesterday.

  She watched his large hands competently cinch up the saddle and then gently stroke Teddy’s neck. “Jack’s parents are salt-of-the-earth people, they make you feel right at home, the same way Gunnar does. I’d ridden a horse a couple of times when I was in boy scouts, but this was something different. Jack is the only one of my teammates who wouldn
’t give me shit, he patiently taught me everything I needed to know so I could help with the round-up.”

  Dalton led Teddy out of the stall and presented him to her.

  “I’d say Jack taught you well,” she smiled. “I’ll go get Aladdin and then we can go for a slow tour around the ranch.”

  “Which one is Aladdin?” Dalton asked as he wrapped the gelding’s reins around a post and followed Aurora to another stall. She had put the big roan stallion in a larger stall that was separated from the other horses. She knew that the he was comforted having more space and less noise around him.

  “What’s his backstory?” Dalton asked quietly as she pulled two baby carrots out of her pocket. She shouldn’t have been surprised that Dalton had known enough to ask that question, after all the man had proven to be very perceptive which was another reason she found him so damned attractive.

  “I really don’t know. The new owners purchased him a month and a half ago. They were told that he was five years old with an even temperament. They bought him sight unseen over the internet from an Arizona horse broker, then had him trailered straight to Sacramento. Aladdin had bloodied himself on the inside of that trailer. They had to call a vet and have him tranquilized before they could get him installed in their barn.”

  “Let me guess, when they called the previous owner, the telephone number was disconnected.”

  “Give the man a cigar,” Aurora nodded. “All trace of their ads was gone from the equestrian web-sites. These are good people, they’ve hired a private detective agency, and haven’t had any luck. They paid a lot of money for Aladdin, but that isn’t what mattered to them. Their vet suggested he be put down, but the Beaumonts refused. They called me.”

  Aurora reached over the stall door and held out the carrots. Aladdin eyed Dalton warily.

  “Come on Gorgeous, I brought these just for you,” she coaxed. She tuned out everything and continued to croon to the big animal. Watching every twitch of his eyelid, every flex of his muscles. Finally, she saw him relax just a bit. “That’s it, come here, you know you want to,” she smiled softly when the red and gray stallion moved majestically forward and nibbled the carrots out of her open palm. She hovered her other hand over his muzzle. After a couple of seconds Aladdin lifted upwards and snuggled his nose into her hand so that she could scratch him.