Bound to the Bachelor

by Sarah Mayberry

  A friend, then. Someone who’d been waiting for her to get home. Maybe even her boyfriend. Andie hadn’t mentioned Lily was seeing someone, and Lily certainly hadn’t made any reference to a significant other during the day, but neither of those facts meant anything.

  Just as well he hadn’t given in to the crazy impulse to kiss her.

  He checked the road, then signaled and pulled out.

  It wasn’t until he was turning out of Lily’s street that it hit him Lily hadn’t just stopped when she’d looked over her shoulder – she’d taken a step backward. As though she was afraid.

  Beau frowned.

  It probably doesn’t mean anything.

  It might not. Then again, it might. He drummed his hands on the steering wheel. Then, giving in to instinct, he performed a sweeping U-turn.

  *

  Lily had almost gained the warmth of the foyer when someone called out.

  “Lily.”

  She didn’t immediately recognize the voice, but when she glanced over her shoulder she was terrified as she saw the tall, intimidating man bearing down on her.

  Luther.

  Then reality kicked in and she realized it couldn’t possibly be Luther – this man was far too young, not to mention alive and breathing. She stood and blinked in surprise as her brain supplied the answer to the riddle.

  “Darren,” she said as he stopped in front of her.

  His resemblance to Luther was uncanny – he had the same broad forehead and deep-set, pale blue eyes. His hair was the also gingery-blonde, like Luther’s, but he was nowhere near as big throughout the body – even in cold weather gear, he appeared to be on the scrawny side of skinny.

  Darren’s gaze was assessing as he took in her ski gear. “You haven’t changed.”

  There was something in his tone that made her uneasy. It took her a second to recognize it as anger. But why would he be angry with her she didn’t know.

  “What are you doing here? How did you find me?” she asked.

  After fourteen years, she should probably have come up with something more welcoming, but this didn’t feel like a reunion.

  “I got your address from the lawyer.” He flicked a glance at the apartment building over her shoulder. When he refocused on her she had to repress a shiver at the coldness she saw in his eyes. “They should never have sent that money to you.”

  “You mean the bequest?” she said stupidly.

  “That money is rightfully mine. You need to sign it back over to me,” Darren said.

  “Wh-what?” She shook her head, sure she was misunderstanding him.

  He took a step closer. “You heard me. I want the ten thousand back.”

  She flinched away from the suppressed fury in his face. “I can’t give it to you. I’ve already donated it to someone else.”

  “Then you’ll have to get it back.”

  Despite her wariness, Lily felt the spark of anger. She hadn’t seen or heard from her stepbrother in fourteen years, and the first contact was about him shaking her down for money?

  “I can’t. And you know what? It’s none of your business what I did with the money. Luther left it to me.”

  Darren moved so fast she didn’t have a chance to do anything but give a yelp of fright as he lunged forward and seized her upper arm. His grip was punishing as he got right up in her face.

  “Listen here, you dumb bitch. You’re going to give that money to me or I’m going to make you regret it for the rest of your life.”

  Fear was a cold stab in her belly, seizing her muscles, stealing the breath from her lungs. For a horrible moment she was back in her bedroom again, Luther tearing at her clothes.

  “I can’t. It’s gone.”

  Darren shook her so hard her teeth clicked together. “I know all about you, Lily. How do you think the good people of this town would feel if they knew what a whore you really are?”

  He meant the stripping, of course. A bubble of hysterical, inappropriate laughter swelled her throat. Darren had no idea that the “good people” of Marietta had already judged her for her past.

  “Knock yourself out, buddy. Go nuts,” she said.

  His slap caught her full on the cheek, snapping her head to the side, making her ears ring.

  “Here’s what’s going to –”

  Suddenly, the grip on her arm was gone. Lily staggered backward, her head still ringing, trying to make sense of what she was seeing – Darren on his back on the ground, a dark figure looming over him.

  Beau.

  Lily had never been more grateful to see anyone in her life. Beau’s eyes found hers, his expression tight and hard.

  “Are you okay?”

  Somehow she managed to force sound from her tight throat. “Yes.”

  Beau leaned down and gathered a fistful of Darren’s jacket, dragging his torso off the ground in an impressive display of power.

  “I don’t know who you are, but if I ever catch you laying a finger on Lily again, you’ll be eating food through a straw for the rest of your fucking life,” he said, his tone low and menacing and more than a little terrifying.

  “Get off me. I’ll have you charged with assault.” Darren’s voice was high with fear as he kicked out at Beau, but Beau simply stepped aside, retaining his grip on the other man’s torso.

  “Great idea. Lily, you want to call Toby Walton, get him or Deputy Dawson over here,” Beau said, not taking his eyes off Darren.

  Lily pulled her phone from her pocket.

  “Toby’s direct line is 555-2936,” Beau said.

  “Let me go.” Darren thrashed around some more, and Beau released him, stepping back out range of his flailing legs.

  “You attacked me,” Darren said, his face flushed as he scrambled to his feet. “I’ll sue you. I’ll have you charged with assault and I’ll sue you for damages.”

  “You go right ahead and do that. I’m sure the court will love to hear about how I found you restraining and assaulting a woman,” Beau said.

  Lily was standing a few feet away, but she could feel the coiled tension in his big body. She held her breath, worried that any second now, the two of them were going to be on the ground, pounding on each other. Not that she wouldn’t like to see Darren get a dose of what he’d dished out, but she didn’t want Beau to get hurt or bring down trouble on himself.

  “Beau,” she said, reaching out to rest a hand on his arm to get his attention.

  He glanced at her, and Darren took advantage of his distraction to make a run for his car. Beau started after him, but Lily caught his elbow.

  “No, don’t!”

  Beau threw her a disbelieving look as he shook her off.

  “He’s my stepbrother,” she said, immediately feeling foolish for the knee-jerk impulse to protect Darren, even though he was a grown adult now. The man had just attacked her. He didn’t deserve her consideration.

  The sound of a car door slamming ended the debate. Beau watched darkly as Darren pulled away from the curb with a squeal of tires, his car fishtailing on the icy road before he gained traction and tore up the street. Grim-faced, Beau noted the other man’s plate details, tapping them into his phone.

  “Has he hit you before?” he asked, turning on her.

  “Never. And I haven’t seen him for fourteen years.”

  Her cheek felt hot where Darren had hit her. She lifted a hand to her face and realized it was trembling. Which was when she registered her whole body was shaking, an almost imperceptible vibration born of fear and too much adrenalin. The harshness left Beau’s face and he glanced toward her building.

  “Let’s go inside.”

  She let him herd her into the foyer, then into the elevator. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to stop trembling. She was so busy trying to calm herself she started when the bell chimed as they reached her floor, and Beau threw her an assessing look.

  “I’m fine,” she said before he could say anything.

  “Right. Because getting assaulted is an e
veryday event for you. Come on.”

  He took her elbow, walking her to her door. Her keys jangled as she let herself into her apartment.

  She turned to Beau. “Thanks for –”

  He brushed past her, striding into her apartment. He glanced around, getting his bearings, then headed straight into the kitchen. When he came back, he had a bag of frozen corn wrapped in a tea towel.

  “Let me see.”

  There was no arguing with his tone, and she let him catch her chin in his hand, lifting her face toward the light. His gaze ran over her, coolly assessing.

  “I don’t think it’ll bruise. You’re lucky he missed your eye.”

  “I should buy a lottery ticket while my luck’s this good.” She’d meant for it to come out blasé, as though she had a grip on things, but her voice quivered with suppressed emotion.

  “Here.” He handed her the make shift ice pack and she pressed it to her cheek. “Do you have anything to drink?”

  The cold pack on her face felt so good it took her a moment to register what he’d asked. “Um. I think there’s a bottle of wine in the fridge. And there’s beer, if you want one.”

  “It’s not for me. Don’t you have anything stronger?”

  “I don’t need anything to drink.” Just to make a liar out of her, the trembling throughout her body graduated to outright shivering, making her teeth chatter.

  He glanced around. “This your bedroom?”

  Before she could respond, he ducked through the doorway, reappearing seconds later with her fuzzy bath robe. “Put this on.” He held the garment, his expression uncompromising.

  She didn’t bother arguing, setting the cold pack aside for a moment while she slipped her arms into the sleeves. The soft fabric settled around her, enveloping her in instant warmth.

  “I’m making tea,” he announced.

  “Is there any point me asking you not to?”

  “No.”

  She settled on the arm of the couch, cold pack against her cheek, and watched through the kitchen doorway as he looked for tea making paraphernalia, opening and shutting drawers and cupboards at random.

  “Top right cupboard for mugs,” she said. “The teabags are in the canister on the bench.”

  “Sugar?”

  “I don’t take sugar.”

  “You do today.”

  He found the sugar himself, in the little jar next to the tea canister. A few minutes later, he brought a steaming mug to her.

  “I really am okay.” It was almost true. Now that the shock of Darren’s attack was starting to wear off, her brain was starting to work again.

  “Humor me,” he said, and she took the tea.

  The first mouthful burned all the way down, the second filled her belly with warmth. She wrapped her hands around the warm mug and felt the tremors begin to ease.

  “If you haven’t seen this guy in fourteen years, why is he suddenly on your doorstep, trying to hurt you?” Beau asked.

  “My stepfather died a few months ago, and he left me money in his will. Darren seems to think it all should have gone to him.”

  “This is the inheritance you mentioned last week?”

  “Yes.”

  “So how did your stepbrother find you?”

  “He said the lawyers gave him my address.”

  Beau frowned. “What’s his name?”

  He pulled out his phone, ready to make a note on it.

  “Darren Pascoe.”

  “Originally from?”

  “Seattle, Washington.”

  He flicked her a look. “Is that we’re you’re from, too?”

  She nodded.

  “You said you hadn’t seen him for fourteen years. Why was that?”

  “I left home.” The tea was finished. She leaned forward and set the empty mug on the coffee table.

  “At, what, fifteen? Sixteen?” Beau didn’t seem too impressed by the information.

  “Sixteen.”

  “And you didn’t have any contact with your family afterward?”

  “That’s right.”

  He stared at her, his blue eyes full of questions, and for the first time in her life she felt the urge to simply spill it all out—Luther, her mother, the attack, the first terrifying year when she’d been homeless… she’d shared details with Andie and Molly, but no one knew the full story. Lily had never wanted to expose herself so fully. So completely. Yet right now, the compulsion to simply lay it all at Beau’s feet was a pressure in the back of her throat and chest.

  She bit her lip, denying the impulse. Beau didn’t need to hear her sad, sordid little story. He was just being helpful, like the good guy he was.

  “I’ll ask around, see what I can find on him,” Beau said, filling the silence between them. “In the meantime, I’m going to put a guy on you. He’ll keep a watch on your place, make sure it’s safe when you come and go.”

  “What? No. I can’t let you do that.”

  “He knows where you live, Lily. What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t turned up?”

  She swallowed as she remembered the cold fury in Darren’s face and the shocking power of his slap.

  “The security on this place is a joke,” Beau said. “Anyone can get into the building. You want to open your door and find him waiting for you? You want to get out of your car at night and worry about him coming at you?”

  His words painted vivid word pictures in her head, and as much as she hated to give in to fear, she knew he was talking sense. Darren had not only threatened her, he’d attacked her, all within the space of a couple of minutes. One of the most terrifying things about the whole ordeal was how quickly it had escalated, how much he seemed to want to hurt her.

  “He was always so quiet as a kid,” she said. “I mean, we weren’t friends, we never really got close… but I never thought he’d turn out so much like Luther.”

  Beau was already typing a text into his phone. Lily reached out and covered his hand.

  “I don’t want a guard,” she said.

  “Tough luck.”

  “It’s too expensive, Beau. How much would you charge a client for that kind of protection? Hundreds, maybe thousands a week?”

  He didn’t flinch. “Consider it part of your auction win.”

  “It’s incredibly generous, but I’m not your responsibility,” she said firmly.

  She couldn’t take that kind of help from Beau. Her pride wouldn’t let her. There had to be some other way to handle this situation.

  “He’s not going to just let this go, Lily.”

  “I’ll call Andie, ask if I can stay with her and Heath for a few days. And I’ll talk to Toby about some kind of protection order.”

  The frown creasing Beau’s brow eased a little. “A piece of paper isn’t going to stop him if he comes at you again.”

  “I’ll work something out. Like I said, this isn’t your problem.”

  He brushed her assertion away with an impatient gesture. “You ever done any self-defense? Karate? Kick-boxing?”

  “Do I look like I know how to kick-box?” Her weapon of choice had always been her tongue.

  Water dripped down her wrist, and she eased the cold pack from her cheek. The hot, angry sensation had diminished considerably.

  “How is it?” Beau asked, momentarily distracted.

  “Better. Thanks for the corn.”

  “Come to the bunker tomorrow, and I’ll show you some key moves.”

  It took her a second to work out “the bunker” was a reference to Copper Mountain Security’s cinderblock headquarters.

  “What sort of moves?” she asked, skeptical. The two times she’d been monstered by men in her life, she’d been outclassed in both strength and weight. She couldn’t imagine anything Beau could show her that would fend off a determined man the size of Luther or Darren.

  “You know the right places to hit, you can do a lot of damage,” Beau said.

  “Even against someone built like a refrigerator?”


  “You land the right blow, you could take me down, no problems,” he said.

  She blinked. The man was solid muscle, and fit enough to be a Navy Seal.

  “If we’re talking about kneeing someone in the balls, I know how to do that already.”

  “One o’clock tomorrow, at the bunker. It’s that or I put someone on you until Toby can get a bead on this guy.”

  His jaw was set, his shoulders square. He wasn’t going to move on this.

  “Okay, fine. If you want to waste an afternoon…”

  “I never waste my time.” He glanced toward her bedroom. “You want to pack while I call Andie?”

  Under normal circumstances, Lily would have taken exception to him taking charge so unequivocally. She would have pushed back, told him to mind his own business, assured him she could sort out things with Andie on her own. Right now, though, she was grateful for his solid presence and cool, determined head.

  “That would be good. Thanks, Beau.” She started for her bedroom, then swiveled back to face him. “Can I ask – what made you come back?”

  Because Beau had driven off almost immediately after she’d left his car.

  “You stepped back when he approached you. I figured he wasn’t welcome.”

  She stared at him. “I don’t remember doing that.”

  The urge to retreat must have been pure instinct, driven by some deep inner knowledge the man approaching her wished her harm.

  “Sometimes our bodies know stuff our brains haven’t worked out yet.”

  “Well, thanks for coming back and saving my ass.”

  Tugging her robe more tightly around her, she headed for her bedroom to start to pack.

  Chapter Seven

  ‡

  Lily wasn’t far from Beau’s thoughts for the rest of the day.

  She’d been so pale, so shaken, and the image of her slim body huddled in her oversized robe kept slipping into his mind. That, and the frozen moment when her attacker had hauled back and slapped her across the face. He’d been twenty feet away, already moving fast, but he’d lost it a little when he saw her head rock back and heard her gasp of pain.

  Years of training and discipline had been the only thing that stopped him from pounding her stepbrother into mincemeat on the spot – that, and the burning need to ensure she was okay.