Protecting His Beautiful Lover (Southern Soldiers of Fortune Book 3)

by Leslie North

  “I promise I’ll do better this time,” he whispered into her hair. “I won’t use work to shut you out. I’ll be here for you and Ashley. I’ll change my priorities, my focus. I had it all wrong before. I thought my job was the most important thing, but it’s not. The most important things in the world to me are you and Ashley. I won’t ever forget that again.”

  Tara cupped his cheeks and pulled him in for a long, deep kiss, then rested her forehead against his and met his eyes, smiling. “And I promise to let you know if you ever forget that promise.”

  He laughed and put her down, but didn’t let her go, locking his hands behind her lower back. “Sounds like a plan.”

  “It does.” She smoothed her palms down the front of his T-shirt. “Now, let’s go plant a garden.”

  22

  Tara kept hold of Clint’s hand as they walked out the sliding doors to the backyard, the perfect weather reflecting the perfect turn her day had taken. She still had a hard time believing what had just happened, that Clint had walked into her house and offered her basically exactly what she wanted more than anything.

  He loved her. She loved him. Fairy tale ending achieved. And sure, life wasn’t always perfect, but it sure as hell felt like it at that moment.

  They walked over to the corner where she’d set out the stuff for the butterfly garden. Ashley had already gotten started on following the directions that came with the garden supplies. She had dumped out the bag of soil into one of the raised beds and was smoothing it out with a hoe.

  “Daddy, we need more dirt,” Ashley said. “It says two bags, but there was only one here.”

  “Oh, darn it. I thought I got enough,” Tara said.

  “I can go get more.” Clint pulled out his keys. “Anything else we need?”

  “No,” Ashley said, watching them now. “Are you guys friends again?”

  Tara grinned as Clint leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Yep, we are.”

  “Yay!” Ashley clapped, then started hoeing again. “We can start putting in the seeds next.”

  “Be right back.” Clint kissed her once more, this time on the lips before jogging back toward the house. “Don’t start planting without me.”

  “Deal,” Tara called and picked up the instructions to read them. “Did you find all the seeds, kiddo?”

  “Yep. I laid them out on the table over there.” She pointed toward the table on the patio and Tara walked back over there to check them out. She hadn’t had a lot of time to garden for a while, though she always enjoyed it. There was something about weeding and digging in the dirt that was good for the soul.

  After checking out the diagram in the instructions about how far apart to place the seeds, she pulled out her phone to check her emails. Her digital edition of the local paper had arrived, and Tara took a seat at the table to scroll through the news articles. One of them focused on the climate change legislation and the battle she’d fought the past few months to get it passed. Most of it was things she already knew, except for the last few paragraphs. Those were about the opposition to the bill and how one company in particular stood to lose millions because of the new law—Bartlet Energy.

  Huh. She’d guessed that the company’s bottom line would be hurt by her legislation, but she’d never imagined they had so much to lose.

  As if on cue, the doorbell chimed and Tara frowned. Maybe it was Clint with the dirt. It seemed awfully fast, but the store was only a block away. She put down her phone and called over her shoulder to Ashley, “Be right back, kiddo. I need to answer that.”

  Inside, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness as she walked across the room to the front door. She opened it, then stared at the person on the other side, her stomach plummeting to her toes as she took in the gun in his hand, pointed at her heart. “Jacob, what are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for your boyfriend to leave so we could talk,” he said, motioning with the weapon for her to step back. Jacob closed and locked the door behind him, then moved forward, forcing her to retreat. “I’m sure you’ve figured out it was me behind the attacks by now. You’re a lot of things, Tara Crumb, but stupid isn’t one of them. Too bad I can’t say the same for the men I hired to take you out. I guess if you want something done right, you really do need to do it yourself.”

  Her mind whirled as she tried to think of a way to keep herself and Ashley safe until Clint returned. Why did she have to send him off to buy dirt? Oh yeah, because she didn’t know a psycho with a gun would show up on her doorstep, that’s why. She swallowed hard and inched back toward the kitchen, thinking maybe she could grab the garden shears she’d laid on the island earlier to protect herself. “You don’t have to do this, Jacob.”

  He laughed without amusement, the gun in his hand shaking ominously. “Actually, I do. Because of you.”

  “Me?” She inched back farther, grasping the edge of the island in a white-knuckled grip. Please hurry, Clint. If she could just keep this guy talking, maybe she’d have a chance to survive. That’s what they did in the movies, right? Then Tara made the mistake of glancing at the gun in his hand again and her throat dried. Oh God. She didn’t want to die. She’d just found the love of her life. And Ashley…

  Tara’s heart tripped. The little girl was in the backyard. She didn’t know what was going on.

  Fierce determination flared inside her.

  Must protect Ashley.

  When Jacob didn’t answer, she kept prodding him, desperate to keep his attention focused on her and not the backyard. “Is this about the bill?”

  “Of course it’s about that damned bill.” Jacob’s face flushed and his eyes burned with anger. “Do you have any idea how much your stupid legislation is going to cost my family? It’ll destroy us.” He narrowed his gaze and moved closer to her even as she took another step back. “I tried to kill that legislation I don’t know how many times, tried to do this the easy way. I even went to Harrison and tried to have him get rid of you—without you rallying the public, there were some state representatives willing to play ball for the right price. But no, you had to go and get the whole town invested in that damn bill. My great-grandfather started Bartlet Energy. Passed it down from generation to generation to me. It was supposed to go on forever. Would have gone on forever, except for—”

  “Me?” A giddy rush of terror swept through her. She was going to get herself shot and then who would protect Ashley, who would comfort Clint after he returned and found her brain splattered all over the kitchen floor? Her stomach lurched and she choked back the hot bile rising in the back of her throat. If looks could kill she’d already be dead. Switching tracks fast, she held up her hands in surrender. “Look, I’m so sorry if this bill has caused issues for your family and your business. Maybe if we take a look at things, we can figure out a way to transition your energy company to a greener footprint. Wind turbines and solar panels are—”

  “Fuck your green footprint,” he snarled. “It’s gone way beyond transitioning the business now.” Jacob’s nostrils flared as he exhaled hard. “I did what I needed to do to keep things afloat. Even when it took a bit of creative documenting.”

  She stared at him, her mind connecting the dots. “You doctored your EPA paperwork. You’ve been doctoring it all along—but with the new requirements, you won’t be able to hide it anymore.”

  “Well, how else were we supposed to comply with all their stupid regulations? Every year there were more and more, until it just became ridiculous. We couldn’t flush a toilet without breaking some law or other.” He waved that gun around again, gesturing, and her heart banged against her ribcage like a trapped canary. “When this new legislation came along, I knew I needed to kill it. Steinman backed it, so I had him taken care of. I thought that would be it. But then you came along and championed it—even after I had that sniper take a shot at you. If you’d just backed off and gone away, none of this had to happen. None of it. This is your fault.”

  Her eyes widened. “You had How
ard Steinman killed?”

  Jacob’s face twitched. “He gave me no choice. He wouldn’t listen to me either. Same crazy crusader that you are. It’s idiotic, you know, your devotion to the environment. And now, it’s going to get you killed.” He cocked the trigger, the sinister snick echoing through the otherwise quiet house. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard the roar of an engine outside and the slam of a car door. She wasn’t sure if Jacob even noticed, as focused as he was on the revenge he was about to take. “The next bullet’s for me,” he confided. “It’s all over for me anyway—might as well go out with a bang. But this bullet…this one’s for you. Goodbye, Tara Crumb. The world will be better without you.”

  “Huh. I was just thinking the same about you, asshole,” a deep male voice said from the front door.

  Clint.

  She wondered how he’d managed to get inside without her knowing, but then he was a SEAL. He stood there now, silhouetted in the light from outside, his own weapon raised and pointed at Bartlet. The sound of his voice finally snapped the spell and Tara’s gaze flew from Jacob’s weapon to the man she loved. He’d made it. He’d come to her rescue. Jacob didn’t turn, however, just kept that gun of his pointed at her chest.

  Tara swallowed hard then said, “He killed Howard Steinman. He faked his government paperwork to keep his company in business. He’s behind the attack at the rally—and all the other attacks.”

  “I know,” Clint said. “The guys just put the pieces together and gave me a call to fill me in.” He moved a step closer. “They also told me you’re wanted on federal fraud charges, Bartlet. As soon as I saw your car outside, I called the authorities—they’re on their way now to arrest you. Drop your weapon and surrender. It’s over.”

  “Never!” Jacob yelled, swiveling fast to face Clint.

  The next few moments seemed to take place in slow motion for Tara. All she could think was that he was going to kill Clint and she couldn’t let that happen. She loved Clint more than life itself and she refused to lose him when she’d just started something real with him. She fumbled for the garden shears and grabbed them just as the loud crack of gunfire reverberated through the house. Outside Ashley screamed and Tara lunged with the shears, intent on protecting the man she loved even if it meant sacrificing her own life. She managed to stab Bartlet in the arm just before he could shoot, hopefully throwing off his aim. She didn’t have a chance to check, though, because he turned in fury to aim the gun at her.

  A second shot rang out…and Jacob collapsed to the floor, the gun dropping from his hand.

  The sharp scent of gunpowder and smoke hazed the air in the living room. She watched, frozen, as Clint retrieved the man’s gun from the floor, then pulled a zip tie from his pocket to bind the man’s hands together. After he stood back up, his eyes met hers and time sped up to warp speed. Tara vaulted over Bartlet’s squirming body and flew into Clint’s arms, needing to reassure herself that he was okay.

  “I was so scared.” She was babbling and she knew it, but couldn’t seem to stop herself. “He showed up and I let him in because I didn’t know. I didn’t think…”

  “I know.” He held her tight to his chest and kissed the top of her head. “Where’s Ashley?”

  “Daddy!” The little girl sobbed and ran straight for them, dodging Bartlet and locking her arms around Clint and Tara’s legs in a death grip. “What’s happening? Is that man hurt?”

  Clint gave Tara a swift kiss, then let her go with one arm to bend and scoop up his daughter with the other. Through the open front door the wail of sirens and screech of tires heralded the arrival of the cops. He stared down at Jacob Bartlet on the floor. “Yes. He’s hurt. He’s a bad man and the police are going to take him away.”

  Ashley buried her face in her dad’s neck and Tara wished she could do the same, but now the cops were there, and the house was filled with people. Still, Clint kept her close by his side and made her feel protected. Feel safe. Feel like part of his family. Feel like she was as important to him as he was to her.

  And in the end, that was all she’d ever wanted. There might be dangers and disasters and all sorts of other things they’d never planned on dealing with in the future, but as long as they had each other, they’d make it through.

  23

  One month later…

  “Thank you for coming, Miss Burnby,” Clint said, forcing a polite smile he didn’t feel. “We’ll be in touch.”

  When hell freezes over.

  Yep. He was interviewing nannies again.

  Joy. Not.

  With a sigh, he set the woman’s file aside and picked up the next one from the stack the agency sent over. The only thing that was making this onerous task easier today was the fact that Tara and Ashley were helping him.

  “I didn’t like her, Daddy,” Ashley said, scowling at the now closed front door that the woman had just exited. “She looked mean.”

  “Agreed,” Tara added. “And that pink suit was horrible.”

  They all chuckled and Clint flipped open the next folder, excitement filling him at last. Not for the candidate inside, though that was part of it. He’d actually already met this woman and hired her, but was going through the motions of interviewing her again today because he had a surprise planned.

  A very special surprise for Tara.

  Ashley knew about it, and kept shooting her father looks. He’d been surprised she’d kept the secret this long, considering how thrilled she’d been when Clint had sat her down a few nights before and asked her what she’d think of him marrying Tara.

  Ashley had been all for it. She loved Tara as much as Clint did and the three of them had bonded into a complete family unit already, even though it had only been a few weeks. Still, he wanted to make it permanent, so he’d bought a ring and planned to get down on one knee to propose. But first, they had this fake interview to get through to lead into it.

  “How many more do we have?” Tara asked, checking her watch. “I’ve got some work to finish up for the new social media campaign.”

  “Just this last one,” Clint said, pretending to study the application in front of him. “And she looks pretty great.”

  The new nanny was great. An older woman named Margaret, she’d lost her husband a few years back and was looking for something to keep her busy and get her out of the house. She’d raised three kids of her own and now had seven grandchildren she doted on as well. She even lived close to Clint and Tara, so it felt like a match made in heaven.

  Now, all he needed to complete the fairy tale was his happily ever after.

  Clint snorted and shook his head. God. Listen to him talking about fairy tales and shit. If the guys could hear him now, they’d never let him live it down. Then again, Levon and Noah had their own wives and kids to deal with and had traversed their own rocky roads to love, so maybe they’d get it.

  If someone had asked him even three months ago if he thought he’d be here today, ready to marry the woman of his dreams, he’d have laughed in their face. But now, here he was, antsy with anticipation and heart racing.

  A knock sounded on the door and Ashley jumped up to answer it before he could stop her. “It’s her, Daddy!”

  He gave his daughter a look, hopefully conveying “don’t blow it, kid”, then plastered on a smile for Mrs. Carter.

  “Hi, I’m Clint Buckman,” he said, pushing to his feet to shake the woman’s hand. “And this is Tara Crumb. You just met my daughter, Ashley.”

  “Yes, yes,” Margaret Carter said, taking the seat on the sofa he offered her. She was dressed in a flowy skirt and twinset, her smile kind and warm. “Nice to meet you all.”

  Clint caught the twinkle in her eye behind her glasses and silently thanked her for playing along with all this. “Right.” He sat down beside Tara on the loveseat again and picked up the file, clearing his throat. “Why don’t we start with you telling us a bit about yourself, Mrs. Carter?”

  “Happy to,” she said. “And please call me Margaret.”


  While she went through her bio, Clint was far too aware of Tara beside him and the ring box in his pocket, seeming to nudge him to hurry up and do it already. Ashley was sitting on Tara’s lap and kept kicking him in the leg with her foot.

  “How do you feel about working on Friday evenings?” Tara asked. “Clint and I want to schedule some date nights into our roster and we’d need someone who’d be available to cover those evenings with Ashley.”

  “I’d be fine with Friday evenings when you need me,” Margaret assured them.

  “What about rainbows?” Ashley narrowed her gaze on the woman. “Do you like them?”

  “I love them. One of my favorite things, actually.” Margaret grinned. “I have a rice crispy treat recipe my grandkids love that uses rainbow marshmallows, too.”

  “I like her, Daddy!” the little girl pronounced, making them all laugh.

  “What about longer stints?” Clint asked. “Like, say, a couple of weeks at a time. Would you be able to stay with Ashley then?”

  This time, it was Tara snorting. “You planning a vacation I don’t know about?”

  Margaret’s gaze darted from Clint to Tara. “I’d be fine with a few weeks, as long as I knew ahead of time so I could make some arrangements.”

  “And infants? Are you good with those too?” he asked, adding quickly. “I mean, I know that you have grandchildren, but—”

  “Why are you asking her that now?” Tara interrupted. “We’re not there yet at all. Let’s take it one step at a time, right?”

  Silence fell and Clint set the folder aside before standing and turning to kneel in front of Tara. “Well, actually…”

  He pulled out the ring box and cracked it open. The weight of the three female stares weighed heavily on him as the moment arrived. His throat clogged and his chest ached and if she said no, he didn’t know what he’d do. But life was nothing without risk, right? Tara had taught him that. Taught him that risk brought its own rewards. Taught him that love and emotions didn’t have to be suppressed, locked away and feared. He looked up at her now, looked at his daughter snuggled on her lap like it was meant to be, looked at the future he wanted more than he wanted his next breath, and said, “Tara Crumb, will you marry me?”