Her Ranger Rescuers

by M J Adams

  Her Ranger Rescuers

  Parkwood Protectors Reverse Harem Romance Book 1

  MJ Adams

  Contents

  1. Cora

  2. Max

  3. Luke

  4. Isaac

  5. Cora

  6. Max

  7. Cora

  8. Luke

  9. Cora

  10. Isaac

  11. Cora

  12. Luke

  13. Cora

  14. Luke

  15. Cora

  16. Max

  17. Cora

  18. Isaac

  19. Cora

  20. Luke

  21. Cora

  22. Isaac

  23. Cora

  24. Max

  25. Isaac

  26. Cora

  27. Max

  Sneak Peek! HER SOLDIER SAVIORS Chapter One: Cimony

  28. Jonas

  29. Jeremiah

  30. James

  Untitled

  About MJ Adams

  Chapter 1

  Cora

  Cora Middleton tied the dogs to the bike rack, glancing right and then left. She didn’t want to look like she shouldn’t be there. But well, she shouldn’t be there.

  Her hands shook as she looped all four leashes around the metal, her heart drumming out a staccato beat in her chest. There were several shops along here. If someone saw her, and the news got back to Rich, she could claim she’d stopped for coffee or a doughnut.

  That would likely send her husband into a rage, and she’d have another bruise to carefully make sure she wore the right tank top until the wound healed. Or worse, she’d be forced to beg him for something to eat.

  She didn’t have money to buy coffee or pastries, but she could lie and say Sarah had loaned her a couple of bucks.

  With the dogs secure, she held up one fist and said, “Sit, guys. Stay here, okay? I’m going to be a few minutes. Just chill in the shade.”

  Another look left. Another right.

  One deep breath later, she pushed through the door of the legal aid office. Nondescript and hard to see, she’d taken the dogs past the office twice before she’d seen it. At least Google Maps could still be trusted.

  She had no idea what to do once she was inside. In front of her, the narrow room stretched, a desk every few feet.

  “Can I help you?”

  Cora blinked and looked at the woman in front of her. “No,” she said, wishing she could erase that answer. “I mean, yes.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “I need…I want to talk to a…”

  “Come with me,” the woman said, her dark curls swinging as she turned. She didn’t look back, as if she knew Cora would simply scramble after her. Which she did. She went through a door that had a nameplate that read Thea Traveler, waited until Cora entered the office too before closing the door.

  “Something to drink?” she asked, bending to open a black mini-fridge by the door.

  “No,” Cora said, though she was thirsty. What would it be like to open the fridge without fear? Cora fisted her hands together and sat with her knees pressed tightly together.

  “Are you married?” Thea asked, moving around the desk and taking a seat. Her eyes knew too much already, and Cora had made a horrible mistake in coming here. There was no way Rich wouldn’t find out about this. Even if he didn’t, Cora wasn’t sure she could do more than sit here. Then she’d go back to the mansion in the hills and stand in front of that wall of windows, look at the ocean in the distance, and wonder how she’d gotten to where she was.

  A lock on the door.

  Her stomach clawing itself out.

  Her debit card declined.

  “Maybe we should start with your name,” Thea said, and Cora blinked her way out of her thoughts.

  “Cora,” she said, immediately regretting it. “I mean, that’s my last name. I’m…”

  “Cora,” Thea said gently. “I can tell you’re in trouble.” She gazed at her intently. “Most people are when they come here.”

  “I can’t pay you.”

  “We don’t require payment.” She nodded toward Cora’s shoulder, where her shirt had slipped off. “I’m guessing a husband you’d like to make an ex.”

  Cora grabbed at her clothing, covering up the purple splotch from last week. She couldn’t speak, so she simply nodded.

  “Think you can get away?” Thea hadn’t pulled out a single form or piece of paper.

  Her chin trembled as she shook her head no.

  Thea smacked her lips and pulled open a drawer as she nodded. “I’ll give you this then. You can take a picture of it on your phone if you think you’ll get caught with it.” She paused and looked at Cora.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “You’ll have to call,” Thea said, scrawling a string of numbers on the card and pushing it across the desk. “They only answer calls from victims.”

  Victims.

  Cora did not like how that word sounded in her head. She didn’t want to be a victim. She grabbed the card and looked at it.

  Parkwood Academy.

  It was a plain, black card with white, capital letters. Thea had written the numbers in silver pen, and Cora took a quick picture of the card and looked up.

  “Thank you,” she said again, standing. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been in the office, but when she went back outside, all the dogs were waiting for her, and no one seemed to care that she’d gone to see a lawyer.

  Two hours later, all four pups had been returned to their homes, and Cora keyed in the code to the garage at the mansion that would kill her. She’d tried to stay out all day once, and Rich had found her sitting in the park. He knew when she left and when she came back, and she’d never tried deviating from her schedule again.

  She went straight into the suite he’d fitted with locks on the outside of the doors the weekend after their honeymoon. He knew when she entered there too, so she never detoured to the kitchen the way she wanted to.

  How she hadn’t known about his obsessive controlling personality before they’d gotten married, she had no idea. They’d dated for two years, and he’d been picture perfect.

  Cora stood at the windows, just like she always did.

  Victim.

  With bravery coursing through her, she opened the gallery on her phone and recited the numbers under her breath. She tapped them into the phone and paused with her finger over the green call button.

  If she did this, there’d be no going back.

  “You’re not going anywhere now,” she told herself, and she tapped the button.

  A week later, Cora hadn’t eaten in two days, this time because she couldn’t stomach the thought of putting something in her mouth. She’d fed her dinner last night to Aurora, her cute Boston terrier.

  She leashed the dog now, clad in her normal dog walking clothes, and started her rounds around the neighborhood, collecting canine after canine until she had six with her. Three on each wrist.

  Totally normal.

  Her eyes scanned the road in front of her. The sidewalks. Everywhere. She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but her ten-minute conversation with a woman at Parkwood Academy had been seven days ago.

  She’d been told to go about her business as usual, and she was trying. But wasn’t something supposed to happen? Maybe she hadn’t passed the woman’s rapid-fire questions. Maybe her situation wasn’t as bad as she’d convinced herself it was.

  The way her back ached testified of something else entirely. Rich hadn’t hit her in days, but he had taken her bed from the suite, because she’d accidentally left Aurora in the fifteen-thousand-square-foot house.

  Nothing had happened, but Rich didn’t like her dog. She wondered what he’d do with
Aurora if she disappeared. She almost scoffed. Nothing as drastic as that was going to happen. She couldn’t even get that Academy to call her back.

  Her calves burned, and her breath came quicker as the walk progressed. She went down and up, up and down, only turning back when she was in very real danger of not making it back to the house before Rich’s appointed deadline.

  She turned and stalled completely at the sight of the hulking SUV right behind her. She hadn’t just walked past that. Had she?

  All four doors opened simultaneously, and four men got out as if they were robots. Programmed to move and act and speak exactly alike. They weren’t clones, but they were big, and broad, and Cora couldn’t so much as move.

  “Scream,” one of them said, and Cora’s vocal chords froze. Completely iced over.

  “Now,” he said, his dark brown eyes sparking with danger. She didn’t think anyone disobeyed him, and she didn’t want to either.

  “Cora,” he said, and she opened her mouth and screamed. Two of the dogs started barking as the men approached, and everything happened too quickly after that. Somehow, the leashes got slipped off her wrists as the man who’d spoken to her lifted her right off the ground.

  All the dogs were barking now, high yips and low growls. She lost sight of the other men as the burly one with the lasered eyes carried her toward the SUV. “Stop it,” she said, her voice not quite as strong as she’d like. She beat on the man’s back to no avail, and he easily tossed her in the back seat of the vehicle.

  She immediately started scooting back out, aiming her feet for the man’s groin. Her thoughts swirled, but she knew one thing—she couldn’t let these men put her in this truck. She’d never get out.

  She kicked, causing him to grunt. “Stop it,” he growled. “Let’s go, guys.”

  “I want my dog,” she cried, tears stinging her eyes. Why that was her thought, she wasn’t sure.

  “No dogs,” he barked, ironic considering the conversation. “Roll out.”

  “No,” she said. She took in a deep, deep breath and screamed again. She hooked her heel against the edge of the car and tried to keep herself in position. But the man on the other side of the SUV grabbed onto her waist and dragged her backward.

  She was useless against him, and there were three more as strong and stealthy as him.

  The Talker got in beside her, and the SUV eased away from the curb.

  Her tears fell, splashing her face with furious heat, and she twisted to look behind her. The windows were too dark, and she couldn’t see the dogs.

  “What will happen to them?” she asked.

  “Who?”

  “The dogs,” she said, swiping angrily at her eyes. “Who are you? Where are you taking me?” Panic reared inside her chest. “I have to be home soon.” She hiccupped and tried to get her pulse to quiet.

  She sucked at the air and couldn’t get enough. “I can’t—I can’t breathe.”

  “Cora,” the man said. “Calm down. We’re from Parkwood Academy. We’re taking you to your new life.”

  She blinked, the edge of her vision going white. “My what?”

  His dark eyes didn’t look like he could snap her in half now. Instead, they glittered with compassion and concern. He certainly looked like the military mercenary type, except for the way his dark hair curled at the ends. It was far too long for anyone serving in the armed forces, but he had the tight black shirt and jeans down pat.

  “I’m Max Ellis, from Parkwood Academy. Nobody’s going to hurt you again.” He reached over and took her hand in his, sending shockwaves through her whole body. “I promise.”

  Chapter 2

  Max

  Max couldn’t believe he’d said those last two words. He knew better, as did the Lyons brothers in the truck with him. He ignored Jonas’s look in the rear-view mirror and glanced out his tinted window.

  “Can I go home?” she asked.

  “No,” he said.

  “I don’t have anything with me.”

  “You’ll be fine,” he said.

  “Where—?”

  A voice came through the speakers in the front of the SUV, and he squeezed her hand, making her flinch and silence. He didn’t like that. Cora Middleton was very well trained to stop talking at the very first sign of pain or displeasure.

  “Kidnapping on Outpost near Hillside. Female victim has gone missing from the scene. Who can respond?”

  More voices came in, and Max didn’t like anything they said. “Pull over,” he commanded, and Jonas did just what he said. “Thirty seconds, we’re on our way.”

  They all got out and got to work. Max himself changed the license plate while the others pulled the black wrap off the vehicle to make it red. Twenty-nine seconds later, he said, “We need to get out of the city,” as they got back in the truck.

  Jonas responded by stepping on the accelerator, sending Max into the seat behind him. He normally wasn’t so keyed up during a take, but Cora’s tension filled the vehicle. She wore a pair of spandex leggings in dark purple with a matching tank top, a pair of running shoes, and her dirty blonde hair in a high ponytail.

  All she had left of her old life.

  The profile he’d put together showed that her hair could hang in curled waves around her shoulders, and that she’d once had a reason to smile. Every picture online for the past two years had included Richard Middleton, and they’d seemed like the perfect couple.

  Max’s muscles tightened, as he was extremely familiar with a couple who put on outward appearances and lived a nightmare when the door closed.

  Two police cars with sirens blazing and blaring went past them in the opposite direction. Cora sniffled and cried, whipping around to watch them as they zoomed by.

  “You better start talking,” James said from the other side of Cora, but Max was in charge here, and he’d start talking when it was time to start talking.

  Once they passed the city limits of Los Angeles and were headed west as fast as Jonas dared to go, Max looked at Cora.

  Her face was white and gaunt, showing all the bones in stark lines. But once she put on the weight she should have, he could see her as beautiful and thriving, the way he’d seen her in the pictures.

  “Cora, do you have any questions?” He preferred to address his charge’s questions rather than just start talking.

  “Who are you again?”

  “Max Ellis.” He nodded to the man next to her. “I brought the Lyons brothers with me, but they’re not part of my team. You’ll meet the others when we get to Parkwood.”

  “And where’s that?”

  “In the mountains,” he said evasively. “It’s a long drive. We won’t be there until tomorrow evening. Everything will be ready for you.”

  “Everything?”

  “Clothes, a room, everything,” he said. “We accepted you into our relocation program, Cora. Remember calling Linda last week?”

  “Yes,” she said, her blue eyes so innocent as they came alive. “I did talk to a woman named Linda last week.”

  Max smiled at the exuberance in her voice, at how youthful she seemed though he knew she was twenty-nine-years-old. Her no-good husband had really beaten her down.

  “Right,” he said. “Well, I took your case, and it took us a few days to put together your extraction.”

  Her eyes rounded, and Max saw the beauty inside her. “Extraction?”

  “You can never go back to Hollywood Hills,” he said next, his voice dropping a little, both in pitch and volume. “Your life here is done. Over. You’ll be with us at Parkwood for a couple of weeks, and we’ll place you somewhere that will allow you to start over.”

  Hope filled her eyes, shone from within her. “Start over.” She said the words with wonder, and she didn’t look away from him.

  It had been years since Max had felt anything for a woman—and he wasn’t even sure the tickle down in his gut was attraction. He’d worked with over a dozen women over the past four years he’d been at Parkwood, and while
his heart had bled a little for each one of them, they hadn’t carved a place there.

  He wasn’t sure he had a heart that could love, not after watching his father skip from woman to woman like he was changing clothes.

  His pulse jumped over itself, and he thought maybe this Cora could take a piece of his heart with her when she left.

  “Sir, we’re on the fifteen.”

  “Great. Thanks, Jonas.” He focused on Cora again. “We’ll be in the car for a while. When’s the last time you ate?”

  She lifted her narrow shoulders. “A couple of days ago.”

  Max sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Food, Jonas. Somewhere easy to get back on.”

  Linda deliberately didn’t ask every question. Most women who called Parkwood only had a few minutes, and she’d gotten very good at getting the essentials in a short amount of time. But she didn’t get everything.

  While Jonas ordered, Max leaned into Cora again. “I’ve sent someone to get your dog. She’ll be okay.”

  “Really?” Cora wore joy in her expression now, and she threw her arms around him. “Thank you, Max.”

  “Food,” Jonas said, handing back bag after bag of fast food. Drinks got passed around, and everyone ate—but no one more than Cora.

  The next morning, he stood outside her room in the southwest corner of Utah, glancing around as if her skeevy husband had followed them. He’d put together a dossier on Richard Middleton too, and frankly, Max wouldn’t put it past him. The man had a lot of money, and a lot of well-connected friends.