Protected by a Hero

by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne

  “Not exactly,” Brian said. “But he was involved in a little business transaction—along with Howie, wasn’t he, Sadie?” he prompted. The SEAL looked all too dangerous tonight. He stood behind Sadie, and Cass had the feeling he meant to corral her in the living room until she confessed to whatever had happened.

  “We got pulled over,” Sadie managed.

  “We?” Alice echoed.

  “Me and Mark. And Howie.”

  “Howie? I don’t understand.” Alice paled. “Why were you with Howie?”

  “Because he and Mark… work together,” Sadie said. “Mark… He… he fills the orders Howie ships.”

  This was far worse than Cass had ever imagined. “Drugs?” she asked.

  “All kinds, right, Sadie?” Brian prompted.

  “I didn’t know.” Sadie’s tears were falling thick and fast. “I feel like an idiot. I thought it was… pot. I know that doesn’t excuse it—”

  Cass covered her face with her hands, and sank back down on the couch. She had failed. Completely and totally failed. Her mother had trusted her with her sisters’ safety and she’d let Amelia down in every way. A tear slid down her own cheek as she fought for control and she scraped it away with the sleeve of her shirt. Nausea clawed its way into her throat. Drugs. Dangerous men. What else had she missed?

  “You knew Mark was giving Howie drugs to deliver? And you didn’t say anything?” Alice’s voice slid higher as she spoke.

  “You had to know what was going on,” Sadie cried. “I’ve seen you with him when he was supposed to be delivering. Don’t pretend to be innocent!”

  Cass looked up at this last bit of information. Alice looked as shocked as she felt. She was breathing fast, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. “You knew I could be in danger and never said a thing?”

  “It was Mark’s fault, not mine,” Sadie retorted, but her flushed face told Cass she was mortified at the outcome of her actions. “It wasn’t supposed to be anything serious. Just pot, not pills or…or meth!” Her eyes welled up again. “I hate men. I hate all of them. I will never trust another one as long as I live!”

  “I will never trust anyone as long as I live! Least of all you!” Alice rushed toward the kitchen and a moment later the back door slammed shut. With a cry, Sadie raced upstairs to her room, and the slam of her bedroom door rattled through the house.

  Cass, still breathless with shock, faced Brian. “Meth?”

  He nodded.

  “But—”

  Jo stood up beside her. “I’ll go talk to Sadie,” she said unevenly.

  “Thank you,” Cass managed. She didn’t think she could talk to anyone right now. Sorrow warred with shame within her. How had everything gone so far astray? If only she and her sisters had kept to themselves, the way they used to, maybe they could have avoided this heartbreak. Maybe Sadie was right; maybe they needed to give up on men.

  “Rough night for everyone, huh?” Brian said quietly when they were alone.

  “Yeah, you could say that.” A thought occurred to her. “How much of this are you going to relay to the General?”

  “Cass, come on. You know me better than that.”

  “No,” she said a little wildly. “I don’t.” Every man they knew was turning out to be trouble. How was she supposed to trust anyone?

  He ran a hand through his hair and nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. You don’t. I want to change that, you know. I want you to know me better than…” He looked around for a comparison. “Better than this house.”

  “That’s pretty well.” Despite everything that had happened, Cass had to smile a little. She knew this damn house like the back of her hand. She’d fixed about every part of it, hadn’t she?

  If only she knew how to fix this latest disaster.

  He moved closer. “The way I see it, we’re in this together. I’m not going to rat you out to the General. I’m glad we found out what was going on before things got worse, though. It bugs me that Howie and Mark were both in on it—both talking to each other without anyone but Sadie knowing.”

  “It bothers me that Sadie never told Alice. I never figured her for keeping secrets like that.”

  “Why not? You’re keeping a bunch of them, aren’t you?”

  She sucked in a breath at the accusation. When she didn’t answer, he went on. “What’s going on with the money? Did Bob take it?”

  Cass closed her eyes. She’d wanted so badly for no one to know. Trust Brian to be the one who figured it out. Finally, she nodded. “He stole about thirty grand, near as I can make out.”

  Brian whistled. “Thought it had to be something like that. Why didn’t you turn him in?”

  “The General has waited for years for an excuse to take Two Willows from us. I’m not going to hand it to him.”

  “Wait. Hold up. Take it from you?”

  She could tell he didn’t believe her. “That’s right. He’s never wanted us here, not since Mom died.”

  “But—” Brian broke off. “I don’t think you’ve got that right. He’s proud of this ranch.”

  Cass shook her head at him in disbelief. “Maybe. But he’s not proud of us. We can’t let him know anything’s happened. Promise me, Brian. Or I swear, I will run you off no matter what that takes.”

  Brian crossed his arms over his chest, wanting her to know that wasn’t possible, but in the end he only said, “I’ll keep your secrets—if you start being honest with me. If we can find a way to get the ranch back on track without him knowing about it, mum’s the word. Otherwise, I’ve got to tell him about Bob, at least.”

  “Don’t tell him about Alice and Sadie. They won’t make the same mistake twice, I guarantee it. I doubt you’ll see them with any man after this.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Brian said enigmatically. “It’s late. Let’s talk more tomorrow. You and I had better sit down soon and go through those books.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  When Brian came down to find Lena loitering in the kitchen the next morning, he instantly knew she had something she wanted to say to him. Instead of asking her outright, however, he moved to fix himself a simple breakfast of toast and fruit, figuring she’d speak up when she was ready. She fiddled with the calendar hanging on the wall near the refrigerator, then suddenly asked, “Have you ever worked below-decks on a Nimitz-Class?”

  “An aircraft carrier?” Somehow he doubted that was really what she wanted to know, but he remembered the weed-whacker she’d been disassembling the first time he met her. She was definitely interested in motors. “I’m a SEAL, not a technician. Sorry.” He hid a grin. Was he actually apologizing for being a SEAL? That was a first.

  “Ah.” Her disappointment was clear, but still she lingered. “You ever deal with insubordination?”

  Brian laughed outright. “Hell, yeah. Dished it out a bunch, too.”

  “Right. Is that why you’re here?”

  That was a little too close to the mark. “I’ve gotten myself into a little trouble now and then,” he hedged.

  “If you tell someone to do something, and they don’t do it, then what? Without asking someone else to take over?”

  Brian sat down at the table with his food. “That’s always the issue, isn’t it? The Navy has some pretty strong built-in fail-safes to stop a mutiny in its tracks. Everyone involved knows what they are. The disincentives outweigh the incentives most of the time. Don’t want to find yourself in front of a firing squad, so to speak.”

  “Makes sense.” She hesitated. “See you around.”

  Her abrupt dismissal of the topic didn’t fool him, but again he knew he couldn’t push too hard. “Lena, let me know if there’s any way I can help… without taking over.” He didn’t think she’d go for that, but he figured he might as well put it out there. He wondered who was giving her trouble. The hands?

  She shrugged. “I’ll be in the Park around one,” she said, confirming his guess. She left without saying more, but Brian got the message. He decided he’d be in th
e Park around one, as well. In the meantime, he had an errand to run in town.

  An hour and a half later, he stood at the center of the hedge maze and stared up at the standing stone. He had to admit it had a certain presence. About ten feet tall, an irregular rectangle, its surface was rough to the touch—warm from the sun.

  The bright sun that had dawned this morning was fading, though, in advance of storm clouds on the horizon. Brian had squinted at them on his way to the maze and judged he had a little time before it hit. Enough for what he wanted to do. Alice had weathered some hard blows in the last few days, and he hadn’t been kind when she told him about her premonitions. He wanted to make up for that if he could.

  Still, the stone held his attention. Who had decided to erect this monument? Why go through the trouble? That ancestral Welshman, maybe, who’d lived near some megalith in his homeland and wanted to recreate it here?

  He didn’t believe it really gave answers. When the wedding invitation had slapped him in the face, he’d made use of the incident to give Cass a hard time and press his case, but it seemed to him the card could have been interpreted any number of ways. Since Cass had interpreted it to mean they would marry, did that mean she hoped they would? It was a cheering thought.

  Brian placed both hands on the stone’s warm surface, drawn to it somehow. He shut his eyes a moment, wanting to feel the rock rather than see it. It had its own strength and his sense was that its presence here was old. It belonged right here on this ranch in a way he wanted to.

  Will Two Willows ever be my home?

  Brian opened his eyes and pulled back, letting his hands drop to his sides, uncomfortable with what he’d just done. That didn’t count, he told himself. He hadn’t asked the stone a question—not really. He turned his back on it and faced the bench he’d purchased in town. He busied himself looking for the perfect location for it. Far back enough to be able to see the standing stone without craning your neck. Close enough to still feel its presence.

  There he went again.

  Brian told himself to get a grip, but as he adjusted the bench, the back of his neck prickled, as if he was being watched. He checked reluctantly, already knowing no one was there, and wasn’t surprised to find himself still alone. When he went back to shifting the bench into place, however, the space between his shoulder blades began to tingle, as if a sniper had him in his sights. If one did, he was a goner, he told himself, but unless that sniper was in a helicopter, there was no way anyone had a bead on him in the heart of the maze. You couldn’t see the center from an upper story window in the house or carriage house. He was alone here.

  Except for the stone.

  A crackle behind him made him spin around. Just the breeze rustling the grass on the pathways… and a bit of trash caught in the lower branches of one of the hedges. He went to pocket it, planning to throw it away later. The faded paper was so windblown and parched he couldn’t tell what it once had been. A newspaper article, maybe. Once there had been a paragraph of writing on it, but he couldn’t make out any of the words.

  Except one.

  Yes.

  Brian swallowed hard and glanced at the stone, wondering if it was his answer. He wanted it to be, but that made him just like Cass—seeing what he wanted to see.

  Had Cass seen what she wanted to see, though? She’d seemed upset when the stone confirmed he would marry her, and he’d been a stranger at the time. No sane woman would have wanted him then.

  Was the stone an independent force?

  He was going soft. Brian crumpled up the paper, shoved it in his pocket. Turned back to the bench and adjusted it again.

  “You got an answer, didn’t you?”

  Brian jumped. “When did you get here?” he asked Alice.

  “Just now.” She nodded at his pocket. “What did it say?”

  “Nothing.” He smoothed a hand over his jeans.

  “What did you ask it?”

  She wouldn’t let it go, would she? Maybe it was time to trust her a little bit. “It said I’ll stay here and make Two Willows my home.”

  She gazed at him thoughtfully. “You must have asked it if you would, then. Which means you want to.”

  “You’re right,” he admitted. Alice might be a little fey, and a little gullible where men were concerned, but she was no dummy.

  “Do you love my sister?” She drew closer, caught sight of the bench and her eyes lit up. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”

  “It’s for you. An apology. I didn’t mean to hurt you when I doubted your premonitions.” He realized they had come true. Sadie had gotten into trouble with Mark. Maybe Alice did see the future sometimes.

  Not always, though. She hadn’t predicted how things would turn out with Howie.

  Shock, incredulity and something else flashed across Alice’s face. Something like… gratitude. The tears in her eyes made Brian wince.

  “Why are all of you so surprised when someone treats you right?” he asked.

  “Because it happens so seldom. I knew a change was coming,” she rushed on. “I felt it. Before you even arrived. Now it’s happening.” Her expression faltered. “I didn’t know it would include so much heartache, though.”

  “How are you doing today?”

  She sat down on the bench and ran her hand over the wood. “Okay. A little wiser, I guess. I don’t want to think about my problems right now, though.” She looked up. “I knew you were here for Cass the day you arrived, you know. I saw a connection between you—a strong one. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to scare either one of you, but you knew it, too, didn’t you?”

  Brian wasn’t sure how to answer that without giving away the General’s plan. “I guess that’s true. Anyway, I want to stay now. And I want to be with her.”

  “I’m glad.” She smiled a little wistfully. “I feel… I feel like you will be with her.”

  “You do?”

  She nodded. “I wonder if there’s someone out there for me?”

  “Last night you said you were done with men,” he reminded her gently.

  “Last night I was.”

  “I definitely think there’s a man out there for you,” he said, thinking of Jack. “I think you’ll meet him before you know it.”

  She smiled again. “Now who’s having premonitions?”

  When Cass spotted the storm clouds piling up in the west, she raced to the attic to make sure she had plenty of buckets and they were positioned under each leak she knew about. Brian had told her he’d ordered shingles, and she hoped they got here before the roof gave out once and for all.

  As she made her way downstairs looking for him, she had to admit she was relieved she had someone else to talk to about household problems. Lena was the only other practical person at Two Willows, and she was so tied up with the cattle operation—and the ornery hired hands—she had little time or interest in the state of their home. Which reminded her; she needed to set up a time with Lena to inspect Ed’s trailer again, something she wasn’t looking forward to at all. This time they’d better bring backup, she decided. She’d talk to Brian about that.

  On the second floor, she thought about checking in with Jo, but when she got to her bedroom, it was empty. Clothes and other items were scattered all over. The bed half-heartedly made, but rumpled. If only Brian could sort her out, too.

  She sent a text, got no answer, but that was par for the course with her sister, who compared cell phones to an electronic leash, and consistently turned hers off. Cass headed to the barns next. She spent a half hour looking for her in all the outbuildings, to no avail.

  Making her way back toward the house, she didn’t see Jo in the gardens or the greenhouse. She headed for the maze next. Jo was just as apt to go there as the rest of them if she needed a chance to think. Cass traced the paths as she had so many times before, thinking of the message she’d gotten the last time she’d come here.

  What if the stone was right and Brian really was the man for her? Sometimes she almost believed i
t. It was hard to allow herself to think about finding a partner when the possibility that she was wrong—that she was doomed to go through life alone—loomed so large. She’d been impressed with the way he’d sorted out Alice’s problems with Howie—and rescued Sadie from the trouble she’d gotten herself into. She liked the way he talked to Lena as an equal—not just a girl playing cowboy. She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t attracted to him.

  It took a lot more than that to make a life with a man, though. Cass continued to follow the twists and turns of the paths. Trust, for one thing. Respect. A common vision of the future. Loyalty. He still answered to the General, after all.

  She met Alice halfway to the center. “Have you seen Jo?”

  “No, but you have to see what Brian’s done.” She hesitated, frowning suddenly. “Cass…”

  “What is it?” Cass stepped closer in concern. Alice had a look on her face she couldn’t interpret.

  “I don’t know. Something—” She broke off and searched Cass’s face. “Be careful. But… it’s all right if you’re not careful.” Alice shook her head, obviously as confused as Cass was by this unusual bit of advice. “I don’t know why,” she said before Cass could speak up. “That’s all I’m getting. Have you seen Lena?”

  “No. Not lately. Why?”

  Alice shook her head again. “I don’t know. There’s too much coming at me all at once. She shouldn’t be with Scott. He’s not right for her.”

  “Of course he’s not right for her. If you see her, tell her I said that and you agree. Maybe she’ll come to her senses.”

  “Maybe.” Alice hurried on toward the house, leaving Cass to continue, wondering what would happen next. If Alice was sensing trouble, trouble was sure to come sooner or later. She’d talk to Brian, then go after Jo, she decided. And when Jo was in hand, she’d help Alice find Lena—and Sadie. She’d keep her sisters close today, just in case.

  A short time later, she rounded the final twist in the path and came to a stop. Brian was bent over a beautiful, rustic wooden bench and as she watched, he gave it a little twist and push, settling it into the ground in what he seemed to feel was the perfect location. He straightened, took a step back, surveyed it and nodded.