Above All Else: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 2)

by Gemma Hart

  “You said that they had done everything to break down your will,” I said, meaning Minister Pryto and Lady Angstrom. “But they didn’t, did they?” Sofia’s blue eyes, rich and deep as the ocean, turned away from me. I pulled her face back up towards me. I wanted her to hear these words. I needed her to hear them.

  “Did they?” I insisted. I looked down at possibly the bravest person I had ever met. Years of abuse and torture and coldness and still she stood up on her own two feet. How many people could say they could do that?

  I ran a hand down her hair before swiping back down towards her cheek. “No, they could never break you. And that’s why tried so hard,” I said. “They saw that strength inside you. And it scared them. You were too strong for them to break.” I locked eyes with her. “You were too strong for them.” I emphasized the words.

  Sofia’s eyes swept across my face before a single tear slid down her cheek. I wiped it away with my thumb. She gave me a shaky smile and a half shrug.

  “Maybe,” she said, her voice breathy and soft. “But in the end, they won.” Her lips quivered as she tried to hold back her tears.

  I knew what she was saying. Minister Pryto was leading a successful coup and Sofia was here in Wyoming hiding.

  I shook my head. “It’s not over yet,” I said firmly. “Don’t give up. Be brave for just a little longer.”

  I waited for her reply, keeping my body close to her, aching to pull her into my arms, hold her as more than just my ward and mission. I wanted to feel her soft breasts press against my chest as I held this incredible woman.

  Sofia swallowed before nodding and smiling softly without a trace of a quiver. “For just a little longer,” she agreed.

  ***

  “Okay!” I heard Sofia call in a singsong voice from the kitchen. “Dinner is now read—God! That’s hot!”

  I rushed over to the kitchen suppressing a smile.

  “What’d you do? Do you need help?” I said, looking over her shoulder.

  With her thumb in her mouth, Sofia shook her head. “The plate was hot,” she said in a muffled voice, still sucking her burned finger. “I didn’t realize it had been sitting right next to the stove.” She glared at the stove as if it should’ve warned her about the hot plate.

  I knew she wouldn’t want me to laugh but my jaw nearly cracked in my efforts not to.

  She carefully picked up two heaping plates and smiled brightly as she led the way to the dining table. “Dinner is served!”

  After pouring out two healthy glasses of red wine, she sat down at her seat, looking up at me expectantly.

  I took my seat, staring at my plate with a little wariness.

  I had never seen gray food in my life. And I had never seen food that both jiggled and yet was opaque. It was like solid colored jello. It was kind of impressive. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how you would go about concocting such a dish and Sofia had done it on the fly.

  Sofia sat in front of her own plate of gray jello staring at me with a bright smile. “Go on,” she said encouragingly. “Try it.”

  Not wanting to hurt her feelings, I picked up my spoon. After all, I was touched she had gone through such efforts on my behalf.

  I scooped up a tiny portion of the wiggling gray mass and praying for my stomach’s forgiveness, I put it in my mouth and swallowed. Immediately, it was both spicy and sour at the same time. I tasted something nut-like within the blob even though I don’t ever recall buying any nuts. And the slimy finish left a taste on my tongue that I knew I would be tasting for days to come.

  My eyes nearly watered after swallowing the bite.

  But I saw Sofia looking up at me. And on her face, I saw superimposed all the other faces of her I had seen. I remembered the haughty face from the magazines. I remembered her reckless face from Colombia. I remembered her scared face in L.A. Her angry face at the airport. Her teasing face at the diner. Her broken face by the fence posts.

  And now her, smiling, hopeful face here tonight, in front of me.

  “Well?” she asked, biting down on her lip in anticipation. “Good?”

  Fuck.

  You’re in love with her. You’re in love with a wanted princess.

  And there was no denying the realization.

  I smiled back. “The best.”

  Chapter Nine

  Sofia

  “I thought you had all your supplies delivered to you,” I said, sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, watching the open plains pass by the window. “Why are we going back into town?”

  I looked over as Xander sat behind the wheel, one arm comfortably bent out the window. It never ceased to amaze me that this giant man could fit inside a truck. Or any vehicle for that matter. His call tag, I quickly realized, was very appropriate.

  Like a bear, he belonged out here in this openness. Like a bear, he was ferocious, strong, powerful. And perhaps, also like a bear, he was protective, skilled, and I thought with a giggle, a good provider. After all, I haven’t starved since arriving in Wyoming.

  But seeing him sitting so comfortably behind the wheel, I realized, this truck had been modified. He must have had it customized to fit his large body. The space between myself and the dash had seemed unusually big and now seeing just how well Xander fit into the truck, I realized why that was.

  Wow, he really was a bear.

  “We’re not going into town for more supplies,” he answered. He turned to me and gave a slow searing smile that made me heat up from head to toe. God, how did that man ignite such a feeling in me from one look? “Unless you think we need some more nails.” He winked rakishly.

  I glared at him. “If I see one more bag of nails, I’m going to throw up,” I said dramatically. I grinned when Xander laughed, his low chuckle tickling my ribs.

  When I had first met him, I had thought him a giant muscly oaf who I’d have to manipulate to keep me in L.A. and in touch with Uncle Gregory. But he had proven from the start that he was no oaf.

  But he was muscly. I remembered that day in L.A. when he had jumped out of the shower and ran after me. The steam had been pouring off of his body as water had trickled across every hard, defined muscle. I had stared up at him, his body towering over me, his arm extended above my head, keeping the front door shut and preventing me from escaping.

  My cheeks flushed now just thinking about how instinctively my body had reacted to his nearness.

  And then, almost immediately, a sense of guilt followed right after. How could I indulge myself in this pseudo sexual play with a bodyguard when my uncle was out there, fighting for my throne?

  I still hadn’t heard from Uncle Gregory. It worried me but Xander reassured me that that was a good thing. “No news is good news,” he said. “And there’s no news of you which means people still don’t know you’re here.” And that’s what Uncle Gregory was fighting to do—keep me safe and hidden while he tried to reclaim my rightful throne.

  I remembered the dark circles under my uncle’s eyes and the exhaustions that had lined his face.

  It seemed almost disrespectful to even think about falling for a man, let alone actually doing it.

  I straightened up in my seat, trying to cool my body temperature and to try and keep some modicum of distance between the two of us, physically and emotionally.

  “So,” I said, my voice coming out a little sharper than I intended it to, “if not supplies, what’s with the drive into town?”

  Xander quirked a brow at me when he heard the sudden bite in my tone but didn’t make any remarks.

  “This weekend is the Simone Retreat and we’re going in to help set up,” Xander explained.

  “Simone Retreat?” I asked, confused. “The whole town is going on retreat for the weekend?”

  “Well, yes and no,” Xander said with a kind of shrug. “It’s more about a time for the town to learn some skills in a fun, festival kind of atmosphere. This is a ranch town. People work hard at manual labor here but these days, that doesn’t always guarantee you�
��ll be able to put food on the table. There are other skills you need to learn. So the retreat is just a monthly event where for a weekend, people can either brush up or learn a new basic skill that might help them modernize a little.”

  I was impressed. “That’s…a really good idea,” I said. It was incredible to think a town was learning to improve and push themselves like this as a whole community. “Who thought of this?”

  Xander gave another kind of shrug. “Well, there’s a whole committee overseeing the event so it’s more of a town endeavor.”

  I stared at him in silence, his rugged profile highlighted by the early afternoon light.

  “It was your idea, wasn’t it?” I said, understanding dawning on me.

  Xander kept his eyes on the road but I saw his lips twitch a little. “I might’ve given the initial idea,” he said evasively, “but like I said, it’s a town effort to make the weekend happen every month so the credit goes to everybody.”

  I bit my lip, unsure if I should smile, laugh, or just sit back in awe.

  The man never ceased to amaze me. His heart must be the size of a boulder. He cared about everything. He cared about his Easy Team teammates, he cared about his town Simone, and, I thought with a small flame of hope, he cared about me.

  ***

  “Hey, Miss Jeannie,” Xander greeted as the older woman squealed upon seeing her favorite customer and came over to crush him in a hug.

  We were out in front of Jeannie’s store. I was amazed by the transformation of the small main street. There were tents set up with rows of tables underneath. Some of the stores had rearranged their shops so they could accommodate desks with computers on them, clearly meant for some kind of computer lesson. People were bustling back and forth, boxes were stacked with papers, books, crafts, and food.

  It almost felt like a carnival.

  “This looks like quite the turnout,” Xander said, eyeing the event with a practiced and proud eye of an owner. I bit my lip, trying not to grin. As much as he deflected his own participation in the creation of the Simone Retreat, I could tell he was incredibly proud of his creation.

  Jeannie nodded after giving me a long hug. “Nearly all of Simone is here!” she crowed happily. “Marta is in Dave’s lumber shop giving a refresher course on spreadsheets and George is down the street teaching how to apply for agricultural grants online. We have a full house in every class so far.”

  I nodded slowly, very impressed by the extent of what the retreat was trying to accomplish. I knew that the kind of lifestyle the people of Simone lived was not a totally sustainable one anymore. Xander probably got by more easily than others because of the money he made from Easy Team. Others here didn’t have that option.

  It was wise to try and learn to adapt to the current times so they could continue not to just survive but thrive.

  Xander put a large hand on my back. “Well, I was hoping you could find a place for Sofia here in all this hoopla,” Xander said. He looked down at me, his eyes twinkling with humor, clearly ready to tease. “There’s an arts and craft section to this weekend. How’re your knitting skills?”

  I gave him a look of annoyed bemusement.

  “I bet you're topnotch at embroidering,” he said, grinning.

  I sighed and rolled my eyes at him before smiling at Jeannie. No I didn’t have any of those aforementioned skills but I wasn’t afraid to work. “You put me where you need me,” I said to the older woman with a smile.

  Jeannie beamed and grabbed my hand. Before being pulled away, I turned to Xander and asked accusingly, “And what do you plan to be doing?”

  He grinned. “Gathering some of the younger boys and teaching them roping, woodwork, and the like. I’m no good at computers and the boys need to be occupied so their parents can learn. So it’s just glorified babysitting.”

  Bear the mercenary.

  Now Xander the babysitter.

  The imagery made me giggle as Jeannie pulled me into the crowd. I saw Xander’s head above the rest of the people. He gave me a quick wink in goodbye.

  ***

  I told Jeannie that if Xander was watching the boys, I could watch the girls. Presumably there must be little girls as well who needed to be kept occupied. I had no idea what I would teach them but figured I had a better chance with girls than I did with a pair of knitting needles.

  “Oh that’d be a great help!” Jeannie said as she effortlessly navigated through the crowds, using her size to push our way through. “Hannah from Tully’s Ranch is teaching the girls how to make flower crowns. You could help with that easily!”

  I jerked a bit, hearing her say the word ‘crowns’ but calmed myself and made sure to keep my expression neutral. It had been an innocently used word but I never forgot exactly why I was hiding in Simone in the first place.

  But before Jeannie could take me to wherever Hannah from Tully’s Ranch was, another woman rushed up to Jeannie, grabbing her arm.

  “Jeannie! There you are!” she said. “I’ve been calling you!”

  Jeannie patted herself as if searching for something then threw her head back and sighed. “I left my cellphone in my shop again!” she said, giving me a weary look of a long battle against an errant cellphone. “I swear if the thing isn’t attached to my body—”

  “Jeannie,” the woman interrupted, clearly not interested in Jeannie’s wandering cellphone, “Hank and Tilly aren’t available to teach the afternoon classes anymore.”

  Jeannie stared at the woman in confusion. “Wait, what? What do you mean? They were the highlight classes for today!”

  The woman nodded in agreement. “I know! But apparently Tilly’s sister had some kind of flooding happen on their ranch and asked for as many extra hands as possible to come help rectify the damage. So Tilly and Hank left early this morning but I didn’t hear their message till an hour ago.” The woman shook her head in shame. “I had been so busy setting up, I hadn’t seen the voice message on my phone.”

  Jeannie squeezed the woman’s arm. “It’s okay, Michelle,” she said comfortingly. “Without your work, this weekend wouldn’t have happened. But now, what do we about their classes? Without them, we have a four hour gap in our schedule.”

  Michelle bit her lip, worriedly, as she shook her head. “I mean, I could see if some of the classes from tomorrow’s schedule could be shifted over to today but that’s just moving the gap around. We still will have that empty four hours.” She sighed. “And they had such good classes planned.”

  “I’m sorry,” I interrupted, startling both ladies who had clearly forgotten I was still there. “Could I ask what those classes were?”

  Michelle looked over at Jeannie before answering, clearly confused by the sudden stranger. “Well Tilly was going to give a talk on the organics trend since she’s recently set up a business selling her organic apples to a few markets and co-ops. And Hank was going to talk about space utilization, basically how people can use the land they have for other types of businesses effectively.”

  I pressed my lips as I thought. An idea slowly formed. “If you don’t mind, I have some experience with start up businesses,” I said. “I could take over both classes. We could merge them into one class that covered both topics.”

  Jeannie stared at me in shock. “You’ve run businesses?” she asked in surprise.

  “Well, I have a bachelors in business economic and a Masters in entrepreneurship,” I explained, omitting the fact that both of those degrees were from Harvard. I thought that extra piece of information might draw more attention to me than necessary. “If you could direct me to a computer, I think I could pull together a lesson plan.”

  Both ladies stared at me in awed surprise for a moment before Jeannie snapped back. Immediately she hustled me into her shop where several computers were set up.

  She sat me down in front of one before kissing my cheek. “What a blessing you’ve turned out to be!” she said, smiling warmly. “Not just to Xander but to me as well!”

  I stared af
ter Jeannie’s back, a little shocked by her words and also…a little happy.

  ***

  “…with so much interest now in more natural and less contrived vacation experiences, ranches can make excellent income through tourism,” I lectured.

  The class was about forty people, men and women, all living around Simone. They gave me their undivided attention as I lectured about utilizing the recent craze for organics, the advantageous use of the internet, and the expanding world of hospitality.

  “Land is already there and the regular day to day life that Simone and your ranch has to offer is what most visitors are seeking. Your natural, open environment is your advantage in the market,” I stressed.

  The students, clearly hardworking ranchers who wanted to keep their lands and their homes for as long as possible, nodded along with me, engrossed in my topic. I hadn’t realized how hungry they would be for knowledge but they were soaking it up like a sponge.

  But now I had been speaking for nearly four hours, taking breaks in between for questions, and I was parched and exhausted. It had been a very last minute lecture but clearly it had been the most anticipated one. I hope I was doing them service in giving my best advice.

  I finished a few more points before wrapping up. I asked for final questions. Everyone seemed a little stunned and quiet. I suddenly panicked, thinking maybe I had overwhelmed them with too much information. I wasn’t sure if Hank had meant to include the idea of tourism or Tilly the idea of online markets but both of those things were incredible opportunities for the people of Simone and I wanted to make sure they learned about them.

  Finally one man in the back raised his hand.

  “Yes?” I said, relieved to have someone finally break the silence.

  “Will you be here, teaching tomorrow?” he asked.

  I was surprised by his question. And by the ensuing response. The other people in the tent murmured agreement and similar questions.