Brothers of Miller Ranch Box Set

by Natalie Dean

  “It took me years to think that I could deserve anything better, and just when I mustered up the courage to break up, he proposed in front of everyone we knew.”

  More hot, volcanic shame bubbled up in her as she remembered that exact scene. She had thought they were going to some sort of work event that ended up being a big dinner at a fancy restaurant with his family and hers. She remembered being utterly shocked, but then he’d gotten down on one knee, and everyone was cheering and whooping, and everything kinda faded away as she went from a girlfriend to a fiancé.

  He’d really changed after that, like really changed, and she was certain that their bad times were behind them. But then she’d lost her job as a waitress, and he’d gone back to work after his injuries. After a lot of talking, he decided that she should stay at home and keep things clean and in order, make sure his lunches were packed and dinner was always on the table.

  Until she started messing that up too. She didn’t mean to, but it was stupid little mistakes, something a child could get right, but she just… couldn’t.

  “And so you stayed?”

  Sophia nodded, feeling like an utter moron. Who stayed with someone who tortured them? An idiot, that’s who. If she was stronger, if she had applied herself in high school like her mom had tried to get her to do, maybe she wouldn’t be in this whole mess.

  “That’s alright. The important part is you’re here now. Are you from around here?”

  His voice was so soft, like a blanket, promising good things, kind things. The sound was a honeyed balm on her soul, but that kind of thing was dangerous.

  Trusting was dangerous. That was how she got tricked in the first place. Caught up in a web of carefully crafted words and syrupy-sweet promises.

  “No. I’ve been running from him for a year. Wait… has it been longer? I… I left in July. The summers were always the worst. He hated the heat. We lived in St. Louis, and even with an air conditioner in the top and bottom window, it was still sweltering.”

  She took a deep breath. “But he always finds me. No matter what, he always finds me.”

  “That’s not right. None of this is right.”

  She shrugged; a bit amused at his adamant disapproval. “It might not be right, but it’s just how it is.”

  The water bottle in his hand suddenly gushed, and she realized it was because he was squeezing it too tightly.

  The show of physical strength triggered a wave of panic in her, and her fingers bit into the sides of the chair. He let out a surprising string of curses and quickly stood, grabbing another cloth to wipe away the slight mess he had made. Once that was taken care of, he had another bottle in his hand, straw already bent.

  She sipped at it, looking him over, trying to figure out if he was a threat or adorable as he bumbled around her, looking like he didn’t know quite what to do with his lanky frame. He paced, his hands clasping at each other, but his anger didn’t seem directed at her. It put her on edge, but still, she knew… it wasn’t directed at her.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She’d heard those exact words so many times that it made her flinch. Which in turn made him wince, and they were just a mess of random body movements.

  He continued, “I understand you probably don’t need this right now. I’m sorry, but people like that make me—” he cut himself off and shook his head. “I’m making this about me. That’s selfish. Sorry.”

  She had no idea what to do with what he was saying. Selfish? What she needed? These were not phrases that came out of other people in an argument.

  …or did they?

  She was confused now, her head spinning, but the flashing of cop lights shining through the window stopped her from asking him what he could possibly be apologizing for, and her stomach dropped.

  “I have to go,” she said again. This time she managed to get to her feet but stumbled, the strange man catching her.

  “Easy there, easy. I think you have a concussion. Let’s ease you back into the chair, okay?”

  “You don’t understand,” she whimpered. Ugh. She hated whimpering. It always drove Travis up the wall. He said whimpering was for babies, and she wasn’t a baby. “You don’t…” The words escaped her. “He’ll find me.”

  “I promise you, I chased him off good an’ well. He won’t be back anytime soon.”

  “The ambulance…” It was hard to wrap her mind around what she wanted to say. There was a huge pit of darkness below her feet that swirled and churned and made her feel like she was going to sink into the nothingness. “He’ll follow the ambulance. He’ll follow me.

  “What if I went with you?”

  She blinked at him blearily, trying to figure out if she had imagined that or not.

  “You want to what?”

  “Go with you. To the hospital. I already chased him away once, and if I see him again, I don’t think I’ll be so partial to using my words.”

  It felt like it took her so long to understand what he was saying. Sure, his mouth was moving just fine and sounds were coming out, but they didn’t make sense. He wanted to come with her? Why? It was one thing to be a good Samaritan and help her at the scene of the crime, as it were, but it was another thing entirely to treat her like some sort of escort mission.

  “What do you want for it?” she asked suspiciously. Because he had to want something… right?

  But his eyes went wide, and he looked completely shocked by what she said. “Want? Uh, nothing. To keep you safe? I just want you to get to the hospital and not be afraid.”

  Everything in her gut told her no, that it was dangerous, and he wanted a price that would turn out to be much more than she could ever pay. But despite all of that fear and uncertainty, she found herself nodding.

  “Okay. You can escort me to the hospital.”

  He visibly sagged with relief. “Thanks.”

  Thanks? What a strange man.

  3

  Bradley

  Bradley couldn’t remember a time when he had been so angry. Fury pumped through his veins like poison, making his stomach churn, but he forced himself to remain calm. It wouldn’t do for the woman to pick up on his rage and get uncomfortable.

  No. It wouldn’t do at all.

  By the time he pulled up to the hospital behind the ambulance, his knuckles were white. It made his stomach boil and his head rush. Her situation seemed so entirely wrong. It affronted his entire sense of justice, his desire to protect and do what was right.

  When he arrived at the hospital, he was separated from her as she was whisked off into another room. Suddenly there were police in front of him, asking more and more questions.

  Bradley tamped down his irritation with them. He understood that if they were going to help, they needed as much information as possible. So he told them all that he saw, all that he could remember. It was a lengthy affair, and by the time the two officers seemed satisfied with his responses, it was time for them to question the woman.

  Bradley got the feeling that he probably wasn’t supposed to be in the room with her, considering he was basically a total stranger, but he followed along behind the police officers and slid into the room.

  And his anger ramped right back up again.

  It was one thing to see the woman’s injuries in the soft lights of the hotel. And another thing entirely to see them in the stark, bright lights of the city hospital. She had dark bruising along her face and far too much swelling. The abuse she’d been subjected to was wrong, and vile, and made him want to go find that man and teach him a real lesson. He didn’t care that he was the nerd of the family, the math whiz. He was still a man to be reckoned with. And he’d use his knack for math to figure out the best way to knock that guy’s block off.

  “Miss…” one of the officers started.

  “Sophia,” she answered shakily. “Sophia Hernandez.”

  Her voice quivered as she answered, and it made Bradley’s pulse shoot up that much more. She looked so small in her bed; olive skin sallo
w from her trauma. Her dark wavy hair was mussed, and it was only in the bright fluorescent lightning that he noticed that while one of her eyes was a defined hazel, the other had a pupil so blown out that her eye was almost pure black.

  But instead of being off-putting it was… something else entirely. Like she was a mythological being that wasn’t supposed to exist in the mortal world.

  It was hard not to scoff at himself with that thought. Now he sounded like those fantasy books he liked to read so much as a kid.

  “Right, Miss Hernandez, we were told that you were attacked at the hotel. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine. They’ll be releasing me soon. Nothing but a few hours of observation needed.”

  “Right. We were hoping you could tell us about the attack.”

  “Nope. I don’t remember a thing.”

  All three of the men in the room paused, clearly surprised. Bradley felt his own brow furrowed, and he stepped forward slightly.

  One of the police officers tried again. “Mrs. Hernan—”

  “Miss,” she corrected quickly. “Miss Hernandez. Never a Mrs.”

  “Right, well, Miss Hernandez, we need your report in order to find this guy.”

  “Well, I’m declining on making one.”

  “What?” Bradley asked, unable to stop himself from walking all the way forward to her bedside. “Look, Miss, maybe you just need some rest. I know you’ve been through a—”

  “There’s no point!” she yelled, sitting up for a moment before wincing and sinking back down into the pillows. “There’s no point. Just go. If the hotel wants to pursue damages, that’s on them. I just want to get out of here.”

  The two cops exchanged glances before nodding. If they’d have been city officers, maybe they would have pressed her, but Bradley recognized them from the town. While there were all sorts of stories about corruption and bad apples in other precincts, his town had a grand total of five officers and a sheriff, and they all seemed fairly on the up-and-up.

  Sometimes there was an advantage to small numbers. Hard to get away with anything when everything was more transparent.

  “Here’s our card ma’am. We ask that you stick around for a bit in case we have any other questions.”

  “Uh-huh,” she answered in the most noncommittal way that clearly said she wasn’t planning on staying in town. “Thanks.”

  “Be safe now. And try to rest so you can heal.”

  With that the two men exited, giving Bradley a nod on their way out. Once they left, he found the woman studying him with her mismatched gaze.

  “What?” she asked, tone pointed and layered with exhaustion.

  “I’m not quite sure what you mean by that,” he answered honestly, sliding into one of the chairs so he could study her further.

  His brain was wired differently than all of his older brothers. They all had their quirks, the three of them were all clearly meant for farm life. They understood animals. They understood working with their hands. They understood how to take things apart and put them together and be of general service to anything that was possibly needed.

  But not Bradley. He saw numbers, figures, and ideas. He liked solving puzzles like budgets and statistics and riddles. So, when confronted with someone who was so clearly illogical—someone who didn’t make the choices that were the most beneficial—his brain eagerly tried to figure out how he could fix it.

  And this woman, this Sophia, wasn’t making any sense at all.

  “You’re staring at me like you want something. And you followed me here. Nobody goes through all of that for nothing.”

  There was a bitterness to her tone like it was a hard-taught lesson that she’d been through multiple times. Bradley noted that in the back of his mind, then said the question that was lingering on his tongue.

  “Why don’t you want to report him?”

  “I already said, there’s no point.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean exactly what I said. You think this is my first rodeo? You think I was born with eyes like this? I’ve filled out enough of those police reports and restraining orders to know they do nothing for me. In fact, I learned a while ago that they usually give him a way of finding me.

  “So, no. No report. No giving them my address.” She paused and groaned, running a hand over her long dark hair. “Not that I even have an address right now.”

  But that didn’t make sense to Bradley. The law was there to help people. Why would we have laws if they didn’t help? He felt like there was something he wasn’t understanding, and it was entirely due to his own lack of understanding rather than any error on the woman’s part.

  “Miss Hernandez?”

  Their conversation stilled as a nurse came in. If the nurse noticed their wide stares, she didn’t say anything and continued smoothly. “I need to go over some aftercare things with you, and we have a counselor who’d like to talk to you. Then you’ll be released.”

  “You can skip the whole social worker thing. Been there, done that.”

  “Actually, we can’t. It’s protocol.”

  “Uh-huh, I’m sure.”

  The nurse’s gaze flicked to Bradley. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’ll have to ask you to wait outside.”

  But Bradley understood exactly why. He was some random male in the room with a domestic abuse victim. They wouldn’t be doing their job if they let him stay.

  “I’ll be in the lobby,” he said, looking to Sophia. “I’d like to make sure you get out of here safely.”

  “Why?” There was that sharp tone again.

  He lifted his eyebrows and nodded once in her direction. “I like to see things through, that’s all.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  It was that same unbelieving intonation she used with the nurse, but he got it. He couldn’t even blame her really. With his own nod to the two women, he exited.

  Maybe with a little bit of space, he could get everything figured out.

  Not much clarity came in the two hours it took before Sophia was wheeled out to the front of the hospital with several papers in her hand. She looked more irritated than in pain, but he didn’t know if that was a relief or not.

  He also didn’t know what he was doing there. Part of him said it was to support Sophia—after all, she’d been through quite a lot—but another part told him that she had no desire for his help. Really, if he was being completely honest with himself, it was more about satisfying his curiosity than anything else. And that reasoning made him feel uncomfortable, like he was somehow in the wrong.

  “You’re still here?” Sophia asked suspiciously when he approached her wheelchair.

  “I told you I would be.”

  “Yeah, but that was before that counselor gave me the third degree. They’re real worried I’m going back to someone who does all this to me.”

  “You aren’t, right?”

  She gave him a look, then rolled her eyes. “No. I just need to get to the hotel and gather my stuff, then I’ll be long gone. I’m never going back to… to all that.”

  The nurse started pushing her to the front doors, which slid open. The moment she was past the threshold, Sophia stood up, groaning as she stretched.

  “Dang, how much is it gonna cost to get a taxi back to the city? I don’t even have my wallet on me.”

  “I’ll take you,” Bradley said before he could even think it through.

  The woman looked over her shoulder at him. Although one of her eyes was nearly swollen closed, it was still easy to see the suspicion in her gaze.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why would you do that? You’ve been awfully helpful for someone whose night I ruined.”

  He tried to look neutral as he answered. “I have to get back to town either way. It makes sense for me to drop you off.”

  “I… I guess that makes sense.” She took a deep breath and looked him over again.

  Her gaze was keen, knowing, and Bradley got the d
istinct feeling that she was looking for weapons on him. She was going to come up empty because while the other brothers were handy with rifles or hunting bows, Bradley’s only real skill was with a staff.

  And even that was because he had gone through a ninja phase from ages ten to fifteen where he was obsessed with mimicking all the action heroes from Japanese movies and internet video tutorials.

  “Alright. Thanks. I don’t have anything I can pay you with.”

  “That’s fine,” he answered, pulling out his keys. “I moved to the parking garage after you were admitted. Why don’t you sit right inside in the ER waiting room and I’ll pull up?”

  She nodded, and Bradley headed off. It didn’t take him long to find his car on the upper floor of the parking garage, but getting out was the nightmare he expected. He was almost worried that she would think that he’d ditched her by the time he made it to the front of the ER entrance, but thankfully, she was sitting right there.

  He unlocked the door and started to slide out, intending on helping her in, but she was already coming outside and jerking open the passenger side door before his feet could even hit the ground.

  Right. She probably wouldn’t be comfortable with him touching her. Personal space. While Bradley was probably the least touchy of his whole family, he was still used to tons of hugs and jostled arms and ruffled hair. It wasn’t unusual for one of his elder brothers to throw an arm around his shoulders, or even for them to have a friendly tussle during family gatherings. So he was going to have to keep that in mind.

  He needed to keep his movements slow and fluid. No sudden jerks or exaggerated motions.

  Easier said than done.

  He was concentrating so much about not bothering Sophia that he ended up silent pretty much the entire hour ride back home. She didn’t seem to mind, however, huddled in the corner and looking out the window like she’d rather be anywhere else.

  Eventually, they pulled up to the hotel. She jumped out of the truck way too fast for someone in her condition, and Bradley found himself rushing out as well.