Brothers of Miller Ranch Box Set

by Natalie Dean

  But he was concerned. It was clear that his engagement ruse wasn’t enough. Or at least that he wasn’t putting nearly enough effort into it. No ring, of course the son of a cop would notice that right off the bat.

  If he wanted Sophia to stay with his family, or just to be safe and happy in general, he needed to do a better job of protecting her.

  He had to.

  “I’ll be taking Sophia now,” he said. “She needs to go home.”

  “Wait, there’s just one more thing. While the grocery isn’t one to press charges, they are a bit concerned about all the damages. They wanted to know if she would be willing to pay for some of what was lost.”

  “Fine,” Bradley said. “Whatever they said, I’ll write you a check right now.”

  “Oh, uh, are you certain, sir? I thought you might want to talk to one of your lawyers.”

  “No. I want this done and over with. Tell me the amount.”

  He did, and Bradley went back to his truck, pulling his checkbook from his glove compartment. He had plenty of money saved up from working all the time, never leaving the ranch and his own investments in his personal portfolio, so he didn’t care what the grocery wanted. He just needed Sophia to be safe. And she certainly wasn’t safe where she was.

  Thankfully, the whole process went quickly, and soon he was being walked back to where they were holding Sophia.

  “You’re not the one who sedated her, were you?” he asked.

  “Me? Oh no. Guns, bar fights and the like I’m all good for, but I don’t do needles. No, it was our medic that did her up.”

  “You have a medic?”

  “Yeah. She’s a real sweet lady. Works with the people we have in the jail who are waiting to be shipped out to the state penitentiary. Or the drunks in the tank. So don’t worry, she did the best she could for your girl.”

  “The best thing for my girl would be never being brought here in the first place. She’s the victim in all this, but she ended up being the one arrested!”

  “Yeah, I’m really sorry about that, sir. I’ll make sure that everyone in the precinct knows to look out for these fellers who are trying to abuse their authority.”

  “Yeah, you do that.”

  The officer opened the door for him, and Bradley went in. Sophia’s eyes fluttered slightly as he approached, but she stayed soundly asleep.

  Oh well, maybe that would make this easier for her. He hated the thought of her sitting in the jail, waiting for him to arrive, wondering if her ex was going to make it there first.

  Crouching in front of her, he scooped her up in his arms and against his chest. She was lighter than she should have been, but not as badly as she had been when they had first met. When he stood, he noticed bandages around her wrist with a slight bit of dark brown seeping through them.

  “What’s this?” he asked sharply.

  “Like I said, she was hurting herself. The arresting officer put her in handcuffs, and she fought ’em really hard. The medic was worried if she broke the skin much further that she’d hit a vein or damage a nerve. That’s what started the whole sedation decision.”

  Bradley bit back exactly what he wanted to say to that and headed out the front doors. Missy and Chastity accompanied him on either side, quiet and grim.

  Once more, all of them had underestimated exactly what Sophia had told them. Her ex really was relentless, and it was terrifying. All this time, Bradley thought he was doing right by her, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

  Not at all.

  “You two go back to your car and ride home. I’ll come after you, but I’ll be going slower. I don’t want to jostle Sophia.”

  “Right. You gonna be okay, Bradley?” Chastity asked, a comforting hand on his arm.

  “Right now, I’m not the one I’m worried about.”

  “I know. But you matter too, in all this. I know you like to act all logical and like you’re not as sappy as the rest of us, but I see how much she means to you.”

  “Just head home. Let them know what happened. We’re going to need to come up with a plan to handle this.”

  “Okay, Bradley. We’ll see you at home.”

  The two women headed off, leaving Bradley to put Sophia in his passenger seat and buckle her up. Finally, he was able to look her fully over, and he felt so guilty. Her forehead was covered in sweat, and it looked like there was a scratch on her chin. There were the bandages around her wrist, and he was sure that when her eyes opened that they would be bloodshot.

  Couldn’t life just give her a little bit of a break?

  It seemed not.

  Shaking his head, he closed the door and went over to his side of the truck. Pulling out, he resolved to do a better job in making Sophia safe.

  The kind of job she deserved.

  12

  Sophia

  Sophia’s head felt like cotton.

  No… her head felt like it was an empty helium balloon that had been filled up and let go too many times, and then stuffed with cotton.

  Wait, that didn’t make sense either.

  Why were all of her thoughts so groggy? The last thing she remembered was walking around the grocery store. In her downtime between lessons with Missy and drawing commissions, she’d taken to researching different recipes now that she had access to food. She wanted to do something special for the Millers, so she’d asked Missy and Chastity to take her into town. And also sworn them to secrecy.

  But then, her ex—

  Her ex!

  Sophia sat up with a jolt, throwing herself to the side. She was moving, far too fast to be carried, so that meant that she was in a car.

  “Let me go!” she screamed, bringing up her fists like Missy had taught her and twisting so that she could kick at the driver.

  “Whoa, whoa, Sophia, it’s me! You’re alright, it’s okay. I got you. Your ex ran off again.”

  The voice. Sophia knew that voice. That voice meant that she was safe.

  “Bradley?” she asked hazily, her vision clearing.

  “Yeah. Sophia, it’s me. It’s okay, you’re in my truck and we’re headed home.”

  “Home.”

  She sat up slowly, her heartbeat coming down. Her ex… her ex had been at the grocery, but she wasn’t at the grocery. She was safe.

  But why was her head so… funny?

  She didn’t know, but more and more of her memory slid back to her. Cops had shown up and she’d tried to tell them what happened, but they’d treated her like she was the bad one. The next thing she knew, cuffs were being put on her, and she was being dragged.

  She’d yelled at them that they had everything all messed up, yeah, but she’d managed to keep mostly calm until she thought she saw a glimpse of her ex’s father outside one of the windows. Then everything had clicked together, and she understood that this was a setup. Even if she didn’t go with him, there was a backup plan to get her to where they could easily load her up and haul her out.

  And that… that was so terrifying.

  Even with the fake engagement, even with all the Millers on her side, they still wouldn’t stop. Would they ever stop? Or was she going to have to lay in the ground, cold and dead, before they finally would leave her be?

  But then, right when her mind was done wrapping itself around that, the embarrassment set in.

  She was pretty sure that she had been passed out, which wasn’t great. But she had also been in literal jail before that, which meant that Bradley had bailed her out. How humiliating! His family was helping her out, letting her stay with them for free, and she repaid them by getting arrested and costing them more money? And what would she do when she had to show up for court? When even was her court date? And would he be there?

  One thing for certain was that Bradley had to hate her now. He had been so kind, so patient, and she’d thrown all of that back in his face.

  She surely hadn’t meant to. She was just trying to do something nice for the family. To show them how much she appreciated all of them. But she’
s messed that up too.

  She could hear her breath picking up into a wheeze, and her heart was beating hard again like it was trying to break through her rib cage.

  “Hey, easy there. You’re safe, okay? I promise. We’re on the ranch property, almost to the house.”

  “I’m sorry,” she gasped, barely able to get the words out.

  “Hey, hey, there’s nothing to be sorry about. Hold on, let me pull over and we can talk. Just breathe for me in the meantime, okay? In and out.”

  He was being so nice again, but it made it sting more. She’d messed up. And she knew she was too broken for someone like him.

  They pulled off the road and up to a cluster of oaks. The sun was almost done setting, leaving a thin line of burning viridian across the skyline.

  They came to a stop, and she watched Bradley put the truck into park then pull up the emergency brake. Oh no, this was probably the part where he told her she would have to go soon. Where he told her that she was too much for his family, that she had caused one too many problems.

  “Hey, are you alright?” he asked, turning to look at her with concern across his features.

  “I’m fine. I’m sorry. I just—”

  “Hey, I told you that you didn’t need to apologize. I know that your ex was involved in this whole fiasco. None of it was your fault.” He reached out tentatively as if he was going to stroke her face, but he stopped himself before he made contact. “Look, I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to protect you. That I wasn’t enough.”

  No, no, no. He was plenty enough. Too many of his words sounded like sweet but empty comforts someone said before delivering bad news. He was going to tell her it was time for her to leave.

  But that couldn’t happen. She finally had found a place with the Millers, and she was so close to having several grand saved up. If she was frugal with it, she’d be able to live decent for about a year.

  Besides, she liked Ma, Chastity, Missy, Dani, and all the rest. They were fun. And they felt like real friends. Not to mention Bradley. She liked the quiet in her head when she was around him. The serenity he brought her. She even liked the strange feeling in her chest that she got every so often when she looked at him.

  The Millers were the only ones who ever believed her, who had ever tried to keep her ex away, and she couldn’t lose that. She had to make him like her again. Make him look at her like he did during that first picnic.

  But what to do? Like he had said, she was more trouble than she was worth and not particularly good at much. She wasn’t smart and had a knack for giving people headaches. Her ex had always said if it weren’t for her pretty face, she wouldn’t be worth much at all.

  But that was fine. She could use that.

  She didn’t have a choice.

  13

  Bradley

  Bradley looked up at the night sky for a moment, trying to contain his anger at Sophia’s ex. The fearful look in her mismatched eyes, the pale tint to her normally golden skin, she looked like a woman who was truly haunted, and he hated it.

  He wanted to wipe that look away. To make it so she never knew fear again, but that monster of a man was ruining it!

  Still, it would do Sophia no good for him to lose his temper. She’d probably just internalize it as anger at her, and that was the last thing he wanted. He was sure that the sedative they injected her with wasn’t helping. He could tell by her slightly slurred words and added confusion to everything that she still wasn’t feeling like her normal self.

  “Hey, let’s just sit for a minute. Breathe a little. You wanna listen to some music?”

  She nodded, her face looking screwed up in concentration. But as he went to turn on the radio, she caught his hand, pulling it to gently touch her face.

  Bradley was surprised, that was for certain. It was the most intimate moment that they’d ever shared, and she was the one who had initiated it. He went with it, however, his thumb stroking away the tear tracks on her cheek.

  He hated that her ex was still making her cry. He wanted to soothe her, to protect her, to keep her safe until every cell in her body knew she didn’t have to be afraid anymore.

  He could stay in that moment forever, just touching her face, comforting her, but then suddenly she was moving, crawling into his lap and kissing him.

  Now that was a shock. A shock that went right through his system, jolting his brain so that his body reacted before his mind did.

  It was so easy to sink into the kiss. She was so warm, so soft atop him, even with some of her bones sticking out a little more than they should on her frame. She smelled like pomegranate, and the weight of her made his blood rush in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time.

  A real long time.

  His hands went around her back and he pulled her to him. She let out the slightest of whimpers, wrapping her arms around his neck, but it was that uncertain sound that brought him back to reality.

  The kiss felt good, that was for certain, but it wasn’t right.

  Like a wrecking ball, his practical side swung in, shattering the haze of pure want that had filled him and making him realize exactly what was going on.

  “Wait,” he breathed headily, breaking away and pushing her back a little. It was an awkward balance, with both of her slender yet muscled legs on either side of his own thighs and the steering wheel behind her, but he kept one hand on her back to steady her.

  Her eyes went wide at that, however, and she leaned in almost determinedly, kissing him with twice the ferocity.

  “Sophia, I said wait.”

  It took much more willpower than he would like to admit for him to lift her up and put her back in the seat next to him, turning and putting an arm up to keep her from crowding him again.

  She looked up at him a moment, just a moment, desperate and begging and oh, so beautiful, before his words sank in and she broke into outright sobs.

  “Please, don’t get rid of me. I can be good, I promise.” Suddenly she was up on her knees, both of her hands gripping his arm as she leaned in as close as he would let her. Tears were flowing freely down her face, and he didn’t think that he’d ever seen something so heartbreaking. “I can be real good to you, I promise. Just don’t make me leave, okay? Don’t, please?”

  He thought her expression was heartbreaking, but the words out of her mouth made his heart outright shatter. With slow and careful movements, he took her hands in his own and made sure she looked him in the eye as he spoke.

  “Listen, I need you to understand what I’m about to say, okay?”

  “Anything, please, just don’t make me leave yet.”

  Like he ever could. “Sophia, you never, ever have to try to earn your keep with us, you get that? Not with your money, not with your time, and especially not with your—” He faltered a moment but forced himself to push through. “Not with your body either, okay? If you want to freeload in the main house until you’re ninety, that’s fine with me. That’s fine with everyone in the whole family. You have a place with us, no conditions, no fine print, no paying back. It’s an open invitation, you got that?”

  “… no one is that nice,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut. “No one gives everything for nothing.”

  Bradley didn’t know how to respond to that. He wanted to tell her that she was wrong, but she’d lived such a different life than him. Maybe he was the one in the bubble.

  “I guess my brothers did say that I’ve always been different.”

  She didn’t answer that and just sat there, her sniffles slowing. He reached into his glove box and pulled out some tissues he’d stashed in there last time he had a summer cold and handed her a few.

  Once it seemed like she mostly settled, he held up the plastic bag he kept in the back for trash. “You ready to go back to the main house? Maybe have a good lie down and sleep off the rest of those sedatives, huh?”

  But she just shook her head. “No. Not really. Can you… can you maybe just… hold me?” She must have felt him hesitate because s
he rushed to continue. “Just, like a friend would. Like Missy.”

  He smiled at that. “Missy has always been a touchy one. Yeah, I can do that. Come’ere.”

  “Thank you.”

  A little shakily, she curled into his side. He hated the circumstances that lead them up to that point, but she felt right sitting against him.

  With one arm, he cracked the windows open and turned the truck off. Leaning the seat back, he settled down to look at the stars with Sophia beside him. Right where he could protect her.

  And it was in his truck, looking up at the beautiful night sky, that he held her while she slept.

  14

  Sophia

  Sophia was pretty sure that she was in love.

  Which was stupid and silly and impossible and irresponsible and…and… and a whole lot of other things, but that didn’t stop it from being what it was. Ever since that moment in Bradley’s car, when she threw herself at him to distract him from hating her, from hurting her, just like her ex and he had turned her down.

  Strange, that it was rejection that solidified her feelings for him, but it was exactly what she needed. When she was at her weakest, her most vulnerable, offering herself up willingly to him under the influence of the sedatives, he hadn’t been willing to take the bait. Somehow, he knew that her motives came from a dark, sticky place that always whispered how worthless she was. How she could only buy favor for a time until her presence outweighed her usefulness.

  Her ex had never done that. No, he’d pressured her into being intimate after just a few months of dating. She hadn’t been ready. She’d been scared and nervous, but she had been so afraid of losing him, so she’d let him go further and further, until suddenly she was in a situation where she felt like she couldn’t back out. If he’d noticed her trepidation, he certainly didn’t say so, and that had been that.

  From then on, when things started to go bad, she learned that she could sometimes distract her ex from his anger with a good kiss, or even taking off her top. Sometimes that didn’t work at all, though. And sometimes he demanded her body even when she wasn’t in the mood.