by C. M. Steele
“Don’t even start with the money thing. I’m taking you out to eat. You look like a good meal is calling your name.”
“You’ve got me.”
“Is this everything?” He takes the duffle that I carry everywhere with me. There’s one thing about living in a shelter—no set place to put your belongings.
From that moment on, Joseph did all he could to make us a family. That’s a big reason I try to make him proud. After all he’s done for me, I’d move mountains for the man. He’s at the hospital today, so I’m home alone and need something to do. I get dressed and step out of the house. Two prospects come with me as part of my new protection detail, but they know that they have to give me some space. I’m just down the road when I see Raymond “Cowboy” Williams driving by.
I slip my fingers into my mouth and whistle. He’s a Steele Rider as well and owns a large ranch in town. He’s a major supplier of crops and beef for our local store.
“Hey there, pretty little girl. Do you need a ride?” He winks his eye at me. I know he’s only teasing me, but he’s a handsome guy that many women probably fall over themselves for. Not me. I don’t want anything to do with my brother’s friends. They’ve become like family to me, and I can’t see them that way.
“Not at all. Do you need some help on the ranch today?” I ask. I’ve never shown any interest in farmland and know nothing about it as well, but I’m bored. He hops out of his truck and walks around, shaking the hands of my handlers.
He gives me a hug and then says, “Nothing that you can do, little girl. Are you going stir-crazy?”
I nod, looking around. “Yes. You can tell?”
“Kind of. You flagged me down, and that hasn’t happened in all the years I’ve known you.”
“I am. I’m not sure if I should drive to Dallas or something, but I’m bored out of my mind.”
“I’m going to go out and check the fences after I drop off this feed. Have you ever been on horseback?”
“No, I haven’t. It’s on my bucket list, though.” I wonder if he’s going to offer to take me.
“Come on. Hop in and I’ll take you.” He looks over to the prospects standing nearby and says, “I’ve got her, boys. See if you’re needed elsewhere.”
He leads me to his pickup and helps me in before going around and jumping in the driver’s seat. “Thanks. I feel bad that I have a security detail all day long. They must be bored too.”
“They’ll be all right. You know they don’t always stick around.”
“I know, but I feel guilty.”
“They get paid. It’s a job for them. Now, let me show you the path we’ll take.” As we pass his fields on the way to the barn, he points out spots that are clearly only accessible by horse or ATVs. It takes about thirty minutes before we’re saddled up and ready to go.
“I’m totally petrified, Cowboy.”
“Relax and let the horse guide you.” We go out slow, and I sort of get the hang of it. After checking two fences, I feel completely one with the horse.
“Wow, I want a horse now.”
“You don’t have a stable for one, but if you want to ride I can have someone bring you out once a week for a quick jaunt.”
“You would do that?”
“Sure. Why not? You’re one of the Riders, even if just a sister of our favorite doctor.”
“Thanks. I’ll take that offer.” He takes me back home in time to cook dinner for my brother. Today has been a nice change. I’d been so busy trying not to fall off the horse that I pushed thoughts of Daniel out of my mind. Unfortunately, he’s back now, invading my mental space until I fall asleep.
***
I wake up in the middle of the night, unable to stop thinking about Danny. Rolling off the bed, I mosey on down to the living room to watch some television. I flip the channels and freeze on a midnight showing of TMZ with a split-screen:
Danny on one side and a sexy woman on the other. Exclusive photos were taken of the champ Daniel "The Beast" Miller with his new leading lady. Rumors claim the couple are hot and heavy and from these shots it looks steamy. Who is she? Sources say that she's his personal trainer turned lover. She was spotted outside of his house with this massive diamond ring. T
ears stream down my eyes. I turn off the TV because I can't take seeing her face. I need to get over him and over quick.
Chapter Five
Daniel
“What the fuck do you mean it’s not healing properly?” I bark out at the doctor. It’s been six weeks since the surgery. Six weeks since I was away from my woman. Not that she knew she was mine, but as far as I’m concerned, she is mine.
“You haven’t been resting it like you should have,” he accuses as if I’ve been pumping iron or partying. Shit, I put on ten pounds from spending most of my time reading or watching movies. I’ve done everything asked to get back to good health. I don’t care about my title or the shit Otero is going to toss out, but I want to go and claim my woman.
I move my mouth to say something, but I bite my tongue when my father glares at me. “You need to take the rest you need. I mean that. This isn’t some basic surgery. You need to be resting and only doing what your rehabilitation specialist tells you.”
“I have been,” I snarl through gritted teeth. These past six weeks have been hell on earth for me. I’ve hired a female PI to take an interest in the town and report back to me. I’d be fucking nuts to send a guy to follow my woman around.
“You’re anxious to get back into training, aren’t you?” Not really. My goal is to get to Sammie as soon as humanly possible. I don’t care to give him any information on my personal life, so I just nod. “Well, you’re not going to get there anytime soon if you don’t follow the instructions and stop firing your specialists.”
“The last one leaked shit to the papers. What the fuck was I supposed to do?” The bitch deserved more than being fired, but I’ve never laid a hand on a woman no matter how much I really wanted to this time. She intentionally hired a photographer to catch her coming and going from my place and made statements about my stamina that were more than suggestive.
“Well, you need to take it easy. I say another month and you’ll be right as rain.”
“A month?” I’m about to lose my mind. The thought of being unable to claim Sammie soon is driving me mad.
“Yes.” I hop off the bed without using my arms, so I don’t manage to fuck it up worse. I can’t take another damn setback. Seeing Sammie is a must. I’m going to have to find out what Sammie thinks of the rumors about me. I don’t even have to wonder. She’s probably pissed and thinking worse of me than she did before.
As soon as I get back to the house, I go into my room and make the call. “Tell me what you got.” I hired a woman to keep tabs on Sammie from a distance and let me know what’s going on and if she’s in any danger.
“Nothing, really. She’s been in and out of work. She goes to a ranch once a week. I tried to get closer, but the fucker who works on the ranch spotted me. I played it off, but now I feel like I’ve been pegged,” Angel confesses.
“Shit. Why is she going to the ranch?” I can’t stop the aching jealousy running through me. It’s insanely out of control because she works at the movie theatre.
“She goes horseback riding. I even used it as my ruse to get the cowboy off my back.”
“Good. Well, let me know if any fucker gets close to her.”
“Will do.” I hear a rapid hard knock on her door. “Shit. I have to let you go. It’s the cowboy. Stupid riding lessons.”
“Ha. You had to sign up?”
“No, now he practically demanded it. At least he’s flat-out gorgeous. I’ll talk to you later.” She hangs up just as she opens the door.
So the fucker giving my woman lessons is some attractive bastard. I need to know who it is. I send Angel a text message, but she doesn’t text me back right away.
Now, I’m walking around my bedroom, waiting for her message. This is fucking crazy. I’m about to go out of
my mind when there’s a knock on my door. I open it because it’s either my mom or dad. “Hey, bro. What’s up? What are you doing here?”
He pulls me in for our usual hug before dropping back and answering, “I came to check on you.”
“Why?”
He cocks his brow, frowning with an “are you kidding me” expression. “Because you’re a fucking wreck, and you know it.”
I don’t know how I thought I could fool him, even for a second. We’re twins, and the connection is strong. “It’s nothing. I just want to get better.”
“So you can go after Sammie?” he asks, a smile slowly stretching over his face.
“Yeah.” I drop and sit down on the edge of my bed, running my fingers in my hair.
He takes a seat on my weight bench that we temporarily added to my room for my recovery. “Does Sophia know about Sammie?”
I give a slow shake of my head. “No. You know I can’t tell her because of all this bullshit with Doc. Dad needs to let her know that the jackass thinks he’s protecting her already. I can’t claim my woman and let Sophia languish here.”
“Well, he is. You don’t even want to know what I just learned today,” he says, clenching his fist on his knee.
He pauses too damn long for my taste and temper. “Well, what the fuck? Tell me.”
“Someone in their crew tried to kidnap Crystal.” He says it so fast that it takes me a second to comprehend what he’s saying.
When it registers, I’m feeling nuts. Usually I’m a calm person, but they all entered our world and I’m no longer the quiet, staid fighter who only gets aggressive for my fights. “What?” Fucking someone has a death wish. I’m sure that Boomer has already taken care of it. They have been known to deal with problems in a less than legal manner.
“Yes. I just got done talking to Dad. They didn’t get away with it because Crystal and one of Boomer’s closest guys were quick thinking, but it was close.”
“Are you fucking for real?”
“Realer than a motherfucker. I’m ready to bust some heads, but you know we can’t get involved. Fucking celebrity status ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
When you’re famous, you’re never sure who might have a camera ready to catch you acting up in any way. Some people live to see who they can ruin. “Damn right. What about Sammie? Is she okay?”
“Yeah, Boomer added that tidbit before Dad even asked. Fuck, the only ones who don’t know about you two are Sophia and Doc.”
“And for now, I’m going to keep it that way.” I want to tell everyone about my obsession with Sammie. “So what happened?”
“I don’t know, but I do know our brother-in-law took care of it. For everything that surrounds them, the guy proved that he’s in love with our sister. He’d destroy anyone for messing with Crystal.”
“I know. Do you think the doctor is serious about our sister?” I ask, feeling resentful that my sister is hurting.
He nods gently with a sigh. “Yeah, I do. He’s a little too old for her, but if she’s still this lost after just a few brief moments with him, maybe it’s for the best.”
“I can’t deny that, but I don’t like the fact that he’s over a decade older than her.” That still bristles me because she’s so young. We didn’t really let her date, and now she wants a guy that’s a lot older than her.
“But you’re willing to steal his sister.” The prick has got a point.
Yeah, I suppose I’m a hypocrite, but at least I’m not old enough to be her daddy. “Hey, she and I aren’t that far apart in age.”
“It’s still a good gap. You are being a little hypocritical since she’s alone in Texas and you’re here, leaving her wallowing in her own misery.”
“I doubt she’s miserable. She thinks I’m a piece of shit that gets her hot and bothered but that’s it.” He raises his brows, looking at me with judgment written all over his face. “Do you think I should go after her? Do you think I should stop thinking of Sophia and go claim my woman?”
“What does this have to do with Soph?”
“Doc’s leaving her here. If I steal his sister, what will she think? That she’s not good enough for him. She’s a fucking ghost of herself.”
“I know, but maybe we need to start pushing Soph to go out again.”
“That can work. She needs to meet another guy. Do you have anyone that you trust to take her out?”
“No. I’ve warned too many fuckers away from our sisters that they wouldn’t take me seriously anyway. Besides, I don’t want her dating anyone—I just don’t want her sad.”
Chapter Six
Sammie
It’s been three months since Boomer’s wedding in Vegas, and the day I met that jackass meathead. Three months of longing and misery for me. Now, I’m on my way to my brother’s wedding in Tennessee, and I’m running straight into the snake pit. I miss him even though we hardly know each other. Why? I don’t understand. How could I miss someone I barely even met? Maybe it’s the way his hands caressed my skin, or how his lips claimed mine. The light brown eyes that commanded my attention. I can still feel him dominating me for that brief moment, and it pisses me off because he had an easy time forgetting mine as he moved on to the next piece of ass.
“I can’t wait to see Danny,” Crystal sighs, leaning on Boomer’s shoulder as his private plane takes off for Tennessee. My body has been a ball of nerves since the second my brother called to say he was getting married.
“Why?” I blurt out.
She sits up and looks at me with a brow raised. “He’s my brother,” she sasses. Crystal frowns and then continues, “Besides, the surgery’s been hard on him.”
“Surgery?” A feeling of pain hits my chest. It stings of guilt, like for some reason I should have been by his side looking after him. I shake my head, remembering he had someone already taking care of all his needs. The burning pain in my chest is back. I’ve been suffering over a month now with the visions of him and her. I refused to look him up again because I couldn’t take hearing of an engagement or worse—a sudden wedding
“Yeah. You didn’t know he had surgery?” she asks.
“No.”
With chagrin, she says, “Oh. My bad, I thought everyone knew. He had shoulder surgery over two months ago and he’s been recovering ever since.”
“Recovering? That’s not what they called it on TMZ?”
“His surgery was kept a secret until that story came out. He didn’t want people to know about it, but that reporter was too fucking nosy and found the perfect spot to spy on him.”
“Oh shit, I mutter, pretending to be indifferent, but internally I’m barely hanging onto my emotions.
“That bitch is lucky she only lost her job. She’s one of the physiotherapists there to help him heal and get his strength back without injuring himself, but all she wanted was to get famous.”
“Are you sure they weren’t just hooking up?”
“Positive. He couldn’t have been more pissed when he got calls from his manager about the photos. He overturned a table which I’m sure only aggravated the incision.”
I was the one pissed. The pictures were more than a little risqué. Or at least that’s the way it seemed. He had his shirt off and her hands were all over his back. Then there’s a point when they are facing each other and she’s gripping his shoulders and leaning in. It looked as if they were going to kiss. Now for the first time since the story came out, I feel a sense of relief. When it’s put into the context of him in the middle of a PT session, it can all be explained away. I refused to watch any TV for over two weeks just in case something popped up. After that, I stuck strictly to movies.
I couldn’t stand to see him with someone else. It’s crazy, but that’s the way he’s made me feel. Shit, I need a drink—a really strong one.
The stewardess has come out to greet us, and I ask for a vodka on the rocks. I’m going to need alcohol to make it through this week. She smiles kindly at me and nods as I go back into my mind an
d fantasize about what he’ll do when he sees me again.
Will he try to kiss me again?
Will he just ignore me?
Will he have someone else there at the wedding?
Those last two questions cause my stomach to roll and my chest to hurt.
The flight attendant interrupts my thoughts with my drink and some for Boomer and Crystal. Apparently, they ordered something while I was off in my own little world. Oops, I completely forgot about them for a moment.
“Don’t drink too many.” Boomer is ever the big brother. He’s not even related, but he sure as hell acts like it. This isn’t the first time he’s told me what to do, and I don’t mean about the job. They hardly ever let me come to the clubhouse because my brother wanted to not murder his friends for checking me out, so Boomer agreed and rarely let me in. He’s a pain in the ass, but I love him anyway.
“Yes, sir,” I mutter, saluting him before drinking all of it down in one gulp.
“Afraid of flying?” Boomer asks.
“No.”
“Then what could be bothering you, Sammie?” Crystal brow is arched, and her smirk tells me she’s on to me.
“Anything to do with Danny?”
“Besides the fact that he’s an asshole? No.”
“That’s not nice. I’m going to tell him,” Boomer teases, winking as he brings Crystal’s hand up to his lips for a kiss.
“I’ll tell him myself,” I snip, pressing the button for the stewardess.
“Oh…Just let the wedding get done with before you two fight like cats and dogs,” Boomer warns, handing my glass to the stewardess. “Just one more and then she’s cut off.” She takes the proffered glass and leaves us.
“Party pooper.” I stick out my tongue and sit back, waiting for her to return with my drink.
“Well, just contain your anger and desire until you and Daniel are alone.”
“Whatever.” Thankfully the woman is back quickly, so I toss back the next one. After two minutes, I feel the cabin spinning a little more than it should, but they appear comfortably unconcerned, so I know it’s not the plane, but rather, me. I close my eyes, hoping to settle myself, and instantly regret it. They fly back open, and my companions are staring at me.