Brothers of Miller Ranch Box Set

by Natalie Dean

  “Preaching, huh? I’m not so sure she’d want to hear you call it that.”

  “Hah, ain’t that right? But that’s always been my girl. Wait, I… uh, you know what I mean. My… partner?”

  Bradley chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t think Dani minds being called your girl the way Sophia does.”

  “That makes sense.” Benji sidled up beside him and handed him a chilled water bottle. “You know, for an engaged couple, the two of you don’t seem to do much of the, uh, engaging.”

  “What do you mean?” Bradley asked cautiously. He wasn’t used to lying, and it all seemed so complicated. If his plan hadn’t actually worked to get that man and his cop friends away, he would probably regret all of it.

  “Well, I know for the first few months together, Dani and I couldn’t keep our hands off each other. Got to the point where we couldn’t let ourselves be alone after the sun set. But you and Miss Hernandez? I don’t think I’ve seen you so much as hold hands.”

  “We’re private,” Bradley said, practically out of habit. “And we find our time when we need it. She’s healing from a lot of stuff, so we take things slow.”

  “Really? Being engaged to a woman you’ve only known for a few months is slow?”

  “Well, that was mostly for her own protection. We both figured out that having someone legally tied to her that wasn’t her ex or his folks would be a big help. We were planning on going public with it eventually, once she was comfortable, but that kinda got rushed from the unfortunate visit.”

  “It sure did, didn’t it?” Benji laughed and patted Bradley’s back. “You’ve always had your own way of going about things, haven’t you?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Benji let the subject go at that, dismissing himself to grab some more tacks and a saddle. His words made Bradley think, however, and he realized that he should probably do more if he wanted to sell the idea that he and Sophia were a real thing.

  He was so involved in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice how much time had passed until he heard a gentle cough at the end of the stall he was in. Turning, he was surprised to see Sophia standing there, a picnic basket in the crook of one of her arms and a blanket under the other. She still had bits of paint spattering her hands and even across her nose, but it was all very cute.

  “You hungry?” she asked simply, almost looking nervous.

  His stomach gave an appreciative growl. “Yeah, I could eat.”

  “I thought maybe we should eat together. You know, maybe actually act like a couple aside from our once a day ride around the ranch.”

  “Hey, I like those once a day rides around the ranch.”

  It could have just been a trick of the light, but he swore that she blushed lightly at that.

  “Me too.” She nodded her head towards the front doors of the barn. “Yesterday Missy took me to this nice spot on the hill overlooking the pond. I thought that’d be a nice place to go eat.”

  Bradley almost expected for there to be some sort of trick, but Sophia looked earnest. “By all means, lead the way.”

  She gave him the tiniest smile before doing exactly that, and they walked together across one of the grazing fields and a hill that did indeed overlook the pond. Once they were there, she laid out the blanket and sat right down as if there wasn’t anything unusual about their little exchange.

  Bradley sat down across from her, making sure to give her enough space, wondering what was in that basket of hers.

  “Your Ma helped me make it,” she said matter-of-factly. “But I thought this would be nice.”

  “Yeah, it is.”

  There was that flush again, then she was handing him a cold glass bottle of apple cider, a very large sandwich, an apple, and some chips and dip. He had no idea how she’d gotten her hands on junk food if Ma was the one who helped her put the thing together. Benji always had to go into town on his own for junk runs because Ma wouldn’t buy it for them.

  “There’s some deviled eggs in there too,” she said, fishing around under some cloths and pulling out some utensils first. “Your ma had me put the plate in the center of these ice packs, kinda like a wall.”

  “Yeah, that’s a classic Ma trick to keep things fresh. The packs are also big enough to make sure that they don’t get squashed. Ain’t nothing worse than warm, squished deviled eggs.”

  She chuckled at that. “Well, I could think of a few things.”

  Bradley felt guilty for a moment at his poor choice of words, but a glimpse of the rueful grin on her face cleared that right up. It was a good sign that she was able to start to joke about things, right? Seemed that way to him.

  They slid into silence again as she unpacked two plates and split the food between the two of them. Despite the sandwich loaded with an absolutely delicious amount of roast beef and pepper jack cheese, he decided to start with the veggies. Once those were done, he went to the apple, and then finally, to his sandwich.

  It was nice, just sitting there, listening to the breeze cut through the grass and the sounds of the workers at their jobs and the animals making their various noises. He often sat in silence while he worked out numbers in his office, but it was different with Sophia. She didn’t seem to expect anything of him. In fact, she seemed to appreciate it when he did nothing.

  “How do you do it?” she said.

  Bradley blinked, looking up at Sophia with his mouth full. It took him a couple solid seconds to finish chewing and swallow it down.

  “Do what?”

  “Make me forget.”

  Bradley stared at her a moment more, trying to figure out if he was being particularly dense. “I don’t follow.”

  She set down her sandwich and gave him a long, earnest look. “You make me forget about all the bad things in my life. Sometimes, in moments like these, all of those things that I know are there, that I know are waiting for me… they kinda… disappear, and it’s just me and you. In the moment. Living. I’d forgotten what it’s like to live.”

  Of all the things Bradley had expected to come out of her mouth, that was nowhere on the list. He stared at her a long moment before he remembered that he should probably say something back.

  “I want you to be safe, Sophia. That’s all. If my family and me are making you feel that way, well, I’d consider that a job well done.”

  “I…” She looked like she was struggling to say something, or perhaps even that she wanted to argue, but instead she nodded and then picked up a deviled egg, popping the thing into her mouth whole. It wasn’t until she fully chewed and swallowed that she nodded. “Okay. A job well done. Right.”

  They fell quiet again, and Bradley picked his sandwich up. But as he did, her words echoed in his head.

  All this time he thought that he stressed her out, that his concern for her was too much of a weight and that he needed to give her as much space as he could considering their little engagement ruse. But that didn’t seem to be at all the situation. He was making her feel like she was living, as she had put it. Even if only for a couple of minutes a day, he was keeping all the bad thoughts away and letting her just exist for a moment. Just breathe without fear or paranoia.

  That… that was a heady thought, and it weighed with him long after they packed up the lunch and returned home. But as he went up to his office to work on some new research before dinner and the horse ride, he couldn’t help but think that her revelation changed some things.

  …or maybe everything.

  11

  Bradley

  For the first time in a long time, Bradley’s life felt appropriately full.

  It was strange, going from longing for something he didn’t understand and denying that anything was missing at all, to suddenly feeling fulfilled without even that much of a shift. But there definitely was a shift, because that empty sort of ache hadn’t been in his chest in weeks.

  It’d been a full month since Sophia joined them and a good two weeks since she even mentioned leaving. Their time
together had only increased since their picnic on the hill; either she would come up and eat lunch in his office or ask him to go out to the yard and eat with her. Between supper and their ride, when she used to sit on the porch with Ma, she’d taken to coming up to his office and drawing on her tablet for a while.

  It was nice. Bradley found he concentrated even better with her there, the soft scratching of her stylus against her screen, or the sound of her shifting giving him something to ground him to reality when his head started getting away from himself. She also was pretty good about reminding him to drink and eat on a regular schedule, something he hadn’t quite managed to do himself in all of his twenty-five years.

  Yeah, it was pretty nice, as much as things could be considering the situation, and he was content to pretend to be engaged for a good, long while if this was what it was like.

  Of course, he should have known better.

  He was alone in his office, a late afternoon, in the middle of researching expanding their brand into organic yogurts and other processed dairy products beyond cheese and milk when his office phone rang shrilly, nearly startling him out of his chair.

  It wasn’t his personal cell, which meant it had to be business. Collecting himself, he cleared his throat then picked up.

  “Bradley Miller, of the Miller Ranch, how may I help you?”

  “Hey, yeah, this is Randall down at the police station. Uh, I was calling to ask if you know a Miss Sophia Hernandez?”

  Suddenly the entire world shrank down to a single point. Fighting to keep his tone steady, Bradley swallowed. “Yes. She’s my fiancé.” The lie fell off his tongue more and more easily nowadays. He didn’t know quite what that meant, but it certainly wasn’t the moment to ponder it.

  “Fiancé? Well, I’ll be. Y’all Miller boys are getting snatched up all in a row, ain’t cha?”

  But Bradley wasn’t interested in his friendly banter. “You mentioned Sophia. Where is she? Is she alright? Was she attacked? Hurt?”

  A dozen and one ideas came to him all at once. He hadn’t even known she was in town! As far as he knew, she’d only ever left the property once, and that was with a full escort of all the girls.

  “Whoa, whoa. We have her in custody right here. She’s fine, for the most part.”

  “And why was she arrested?”

  “I’m not sure, to be honest, I’m not the one on the scene. It says here on her papers disorderly conduct, and I’d believe that from the shiner she gave me.”

  “She hit you?”

  He let out a slight chuckle. “It ain’t the worst I had. Why don’t you come down? It’s a bit of a mess here, and I think it would help clear things up. For what it’s worth, your lady seemed more scared than angry, but she sure has a mean hook.”

  “Right. I’ll be right there. Don’t you touch her.”

  “Hey, it ain’t like that. She’s resting right now on a padded cot and secure. I know there’s always two sides to a story.”

  Bradley didn’t know what to say to that, so he hung up without responding. Heart in his throat, he rushed down the stairs, racing past anyone in his path and bursting into the garage.

  The automated door had never taken so long to rise, but once it did, he was burning rubber to hit the drive. He definitely broke all of the speed limits getting to town, not slowing down until he reached where other cars and people would be. But while he didn’t want to endanger anyone’s life, he couldn’t help but bounce in his seat, wishing that someone would go just a bit faster.

  A thousand and one possibilities were flooding his mind as to what happened. He was piecing what little info he had together like a puzzle, hoping and praying that Sophia was alright.

  So, she had gone into town without letting him know. Not that she needed his permission or anything, but she always let him know when she was deviating from her schedule of her own accord. That was odd.

  Also, arrested for disorderly conduct, but not assault. So the cop she’d punched in the eye apparently wasn’t interested in pressing charges. That boded well but… still. She was in jail. Or at least a holding cell. He didn’t know what to think about that.

  Had she been set off? Was this more of her ex’s doing? Or had she had a sudden panic attack? A psychotic break? Did someone startle her and she decked them on accident?

  So many questions, not enough info. He knew Sophia wasn’t the type to just randomly cause mayhem for no reason, so the question was, what set her off?

  He was no closer to having any answers by the time he pulled into the lot in front of the small sheriff’s office and jail. He knew that things were more complicated in big cities, but he was quite grateful for once at the simplicity of living on the edge of a small town.

  He stormed in through the door, banging it against the wall as he strode in. Sure enough, one of the officers with what looked like a growing black eye stood up from behind one of the desks.

  “Hey there,” he said, standing up with a friendly grin. “I take it you’re the young Bradley Miller? I think out of all the boys, I see you the least. Hardly even knew what you looked like.”

  “I tend to stay around the ranch,” Bradley answered firmly. “Where’s Sophia?”

  “Right this way. We’ve been keeping her in the back. Come on.”

  He picked up a set of keys from behind the desk and walked off. Bradley followed after, so many emotions churning through him that he thought he might combust right then and there.

  Eventually, they did make it to a couple of large holding cells that were all empty. Except for one, where Sophia was laying down on a cot.

  “Sophia!” he cried out automatically, rushing to the bars. She didn’t respond, however, her breathing steady and even. “Sophia! Wake up!”

  She didn’t even budge, and he rounded on the cop. “What’s going on?”

  “Well, like I said, she was putting up quite a fight when we got her in here. Almost like a frenzy. We had to sedate her for her own good.”

  “You had to… sedate… her,” Bradley repeated. In all his life, he could remember losing his temper a grand total of twice before he hit twenty-five. But he could feel that he was about to lose it again, his anger ramping up hot and fast. “Did you ever think that maybe she was panicking because you brought her to a police station? This is exactly where her ex has the best access to her!”

  “Her ex? Uh, pardon me, Mr. Miller, sir, but I feel like I’m missing out on part of the story here.”

  “All you need to know is being here is bad for her. I’ll be taking her home now.”

  “Hold up now, sir. We need you to sign some papers. Now the grocery isn’t really keen on pressing charges, but she went nuts in there and started knocking over shelves, screaming and causing a scene. Are you sure your lady might not need some professional help?”

  “I mean, maybe she could use a therapist,” Bradley hesitantly replied. He had nothing against them. Bart saw one on the regular. “But that’s disconnected from whatever this business is. Sophia wouldn’t have just randomly ‘gone crazy.’ Something, or most likely someone, was threatening her.”

  “Uh, look, sir. I know you’re out to protect her, but we don’t have any reports—”

  There was a thundering bang, and Bradley realized it was the front door being slammed open much as he had entered.

  “Gosh dang it, I told the sheriff we need to put one of them door stopper things before the townsfolk bust the handle right through the wall. This’ll have to wait a second. I can’t leave you back here.”

  Bradley wanted to argue, but he knew it wouldn’t get him anywhere, so he angrily followed after the officer as they headed back to the front.

  But surprisingly enough, it was Chastity and Missy who had busted in, both of them breathing hard and looking around wildly.

  “What were you two thinking?!” he heard himself shout before he even really thought it through. “You took Sophia into town, and she ends up in jail?”

  “I’m sorry!” Chastity to
ok a deep breath, her face flushed and sweat was all across her brow. “It was her ex. We were just walking along, shopping for this surprise meal she wanted to make the family, when suddenly he was right there. He’s big, Bradley. Real big.”

  “I had Chastity run to the front while I pulled out my phone to call the cops,” Missy cut in. “But he grabbed it and stomped on it right there in front of me. I slugged him one, but… man, that guy is a tank. He basically threw me and then managed to corner Sophia before I could get back on my feet.”

  The blond grinned. “You should have seen her, though. She really stood up for herself. She screamed at him that she wasn’t going to listen to him anymore and that her fiancé was gonna be mad he was there bothering her. He said that he didn’t see any sort of ring, so she just up and pushed a shelf over on him! It was something.

  “By that point, me n’ Chastity got back to her to check if she was alright. She was shaking real hard but seemed to be okay, so we went to make sure her ex stuck around to get his just desserts this time, but he had already pushed the shelf up and was running out the door. We went after him on instinct, but we lost him. When we went back to the grocery store, Sophia was gone. We’ve been running around like crazy trying to figure out what happened!”

  Bradley stood there a moment, digesting it all. The puzzle in his head started to come together, snapping into place like a clear picture.

  “I have a pretty good idea.” He looked to the officer, who certainly looked surprised by the recent developments. “Who called the cops, and were they there when you got to the scene?”

  “Uh, let me check the notes. The arresting officers got called back out again.” He crossed to the same desk that he had been sitting at when Bradley entered. “Uh, it looks here like it was an older gentleman, big, with salt and pepper hair. First name Jack, uh, last name… uh, it doesn’t say.”

  Bradley could be wrong, but that sounded exactly like the ex’s father. He wished that he could say he was surprised, but he wasn’t at all.