Her Guarded Hero (Black Dawn Book 5)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  Dalton’s breath hissed out.

  “Are you sure?” He asked again thinking about when the sleepy driver had run her off the road and she’d been hurt.

  “Man, I wouldn’t lie to you,” Dex said passionately. “Trust me. Your woman is fine. But somebody was out to get her.”

  Relieved, Dalton could breathe now. Then rage roared. “When did this happen? Did they find the fucker who did it?”

  “Four days ago. I would have known sooner except we were in the jungle. Now in answer to your next question, nope, they haven’t gotten him yet. She identified a black truck with California plates. They found it abandoned. It was stolen. Guess where from?”

  Dalton slumped. “The rest stop in Placerville.”

  Dex nodded.

  It had been years since he’d felt so torn. He needed Wyatt to be okay, and despite all the shit that his team had given him, he couldn’t leave his young teammate. Never leaving a man behind wasn’t just a motto, it was a deeply ingrained belief that was tattooed on his soul. Somewhere in the inside of his lizard brain, Dalton didn’t think that Wyatt would come out of this whole without his ass planted here in the waiting room.

  That stopped him up short.

  “You need to leave? Want me to go get Gray?” Dex asked.

  Dalton eased into the chair next to Hunter. “I’ll talk to Gray after we hear the good word about Wyatt.”

  Hunter gave him a slow smile.

  “Good man,” he said. “You being here will make a difference.”

  Those words felt right. He’d changed. When had that happened?

  11

  Once again, she felt like she was in a trance. Mornings were no longer her friend. She pushed her hair out of her face, too tired to even throw it into a pony tail. On auto-pilot, she stretched past her grandfather for the coffee pot, then the smell reached her, and she shuddered.

  “Honey sit down before you fall down.” Gunnar guided her to the kitchen chair and Aurora plopped down, resting her head on the table. Last night she couldn’t get to sleep, and this morning was awful. Suddenly, the wonderful aroma of ginger filled the air as her grandfather put a mug of tea in front of her. She heard the toaster ping, and she soon had some dry toast set beside her. She missed butter, but it was her enemy.

  Slowly she sipped and chewed until her stomach settled and the fog lifted.

  “Better?” Gunnar asked.

  She smiled. “Much. Thanks for all of the T.L.C.”

  “I love taking care of you, Darlin’. You remind me of your grandmother. She was still throwing up until the last month of her pregnancy.”

  Aurora looked at him in horror. The idea of being big as a house as she heaved over the toilet made her want to cry. “Please tell me that’s not true.”

  “Sorry, but it is. Each morning, I was on basin patrol, because she couldn’t make it to the bathroom.” Aurora felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it. “That’s why you need Dalton here to take care of you, Aurora.”

  She looked at her Grandfather’s resolute expression. This was a familiar refrain, and despite all her attempts she hadn’t been able to change his mind.

  Deflect.

  Deflect.

  Deflect.

  “I can handle it if you want to eat some bacon today, the smell won’t bother me, really,” she smiled at him.

  “Don’t you mean my turkey bacon?” he asked slyly.

  She barely stopped herself from cringing. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ll tell you what I’m talking about. When I went to pick up supplies at the Safeway, Kim wanted to know why I wasn’t buying turkey bacon. She was also curious as to why I was buying whole milk, when you normally buy non-fat milk. You care to explain that to me?”

  “Kim must be confusing me with another customer.”

  “Nope, when we went to coffee, she and I had a long conversation. There was no confusion at all.”

  Kim and Granddad were way too friendly, that’s why she avoided her line and checked out with Barb.

  Really? Did Kim really have to spill the beans? Fu-Fudgenuggets.

  Aurora sighed.

  Heck, she even had to start thinking in kid friendly terms. Aurora’s hormone addled mind soon had her smiling dreamily.

  “What are you grinning about?” Gunnar asked tenderly. “I’ve been snookered for a year and a half and you can’t have coffee. I don’t see why we’re both over here grinning.”

  Aurora lovingly smoothed her hand over the swell of her stomach and beamed at her grandfather. “Because we are both softies. In just under four months we’re going to be able to hold this little guy.”

  “It shouldn’t just be us holding him. You need to call Dalton.” Gunnar pushed away from the table. “It isn’t right Aurora Dawn, you know better than this.”

  Aurora winced. It wasn’t often that her grandfather threw down with her dreaded middle name, but when he did, he was dead-set serious. She opened her mouth to explain, but her mouth wouldn’t work. She tried to swallow but couldn’t. Finally, she eked out words.

  “I do know better. But you don’t understand. Having another child will break him,” she whispered hoarsely. “I hate the idea of putting the man I love through that kind of pain.”

  “Another child?” he said slowly.

  Gunnar was crouched in front of her before she could even blink. “Tell me, darlin’. Help me understand.”

  “Dalton lost his baby, his little girl. He showed me pictures of her holding her little stuffed baby seal. She was beautiful. So beautiful. Black hair and blue eyes, she was the image of him. She was only three years old when she died.” Her lip trembled. “Oh Grandpa. He doesn’t have room in his heart for another child.”

  Gunnar gripped her shoulder. “That doesn’t sound like the man I know.”

  Aurora blinked back a storm of tears. “Grandpa, he doesn’t believe in himself. He thinks he would fail to love another child. But I’m like you, I can’t believe it’s true either.” She hiccupped a sob, and leaned forward, cradling her stomach with both arms. She looked up. “But what if he’s right? What if he tries and fails? How can I put Dalton through that? How I could I set him up for that type of failure?”

  God, just saying it about killed her. Night after night she’d cried as she caressed her tummy. Her little boy was precious, he was going to be loved to the moon and back, just maybe not by his daddy.

  Aurora fell forward into her Granddad’s waiting arms. She didn’t even know what she was saying, only what she was feeling. She pictured Dalton as he’d told her that he could never love another child, that he had nothing left to give. He was so damn guarded. She’d held him when he’d cried as he’d said that he’d buried his soul with Reagan’s body. When he’d told her that she didn’t know who hurt worse, him or her as she realized that there was never a possibility of a shared future.

  Gunnar finally got her sitting back up in her chair and gave her a napkin to blow her nose. When Aurora’s trembling finally stopped, he sat back down and took both her hands in his.

  “He knew me Grandpa, he didn’t say the words, but they were in his eyes. He knew I was the type who was going to want a corral full of kids.”

  “One thing I don’t understand, why did he leave you when he didn’t know you were pregnant?” Gunnar asked.

  Aurora sighed. “It took me a while to figure that out. It’s guilt. He doesn’t think he’s worthy of being happy. He thinks he’s responsible for Reagan’s death.” Tears threatened, and she blew her nose again.

  They sat there for a long time and she took in the comfort that her grandfather offered. Then she felt her son move. The little flutters had just started in the last week.

  “He’s moving?”

  “Yep.” Aurora bit her lip, willing herself not to cry again. She so wanted to share this with Dalton. She wanted him to have joy and love in his life. Nobody deserved it more.

  “When are you going to tell him?”

  Aurora gave
a watery laugh. She was so lucky to have her grandfather. He knew her inside and out.

  “So, you knew that despite all my big protests I was going to tell him, huh?”

  “You always do the right thing,” he smiled with pride.

  “I have to figure out the way to tell him in the most loving way.”

  “You know he’s going to love him because he’s Reagan’s little brother, have you thought of that?”

  She nodded. She thought of the pictures she’d seen of the little girl and imagined how their son would most likely look like her.

  Gunnar leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “If you want me to be with you when you tell him, I will.”

  Aurora laughed. It felt good.

  “I’m serious,” Gunnar said.

  “I know you are. But I think I can manage that on my own. I just have to figure out what to say.”

  “And even if he doesn’t want to be in his boy’s life, you have all of us who’ll be here for him.”

  “I always knew that,” Aurora smiled.

  “Good, because tonight Tate and your other uncle Zebadiah will be here for dinner along with all three of your cousins. We’ve invited the good sheriff to join us.”

  “Three? You mean Lindy too?” Lindy Dressler worked in Los Angeles on the SWAT team.

  “Yep, Lindy too. Can’t imagine why she might have taken some vacation to visit her family, can you?” He raised one bushy eyebrow.

  “But-”

  “What did you expect?” Gunnar’s blue eyes were the color of steel. “There is something going on around here, and it didn’t end with Ned Little going to jail.”

  Aurora wandered into the barn and her eye immediately went to the end of the aisle and saw the closed door to the tack room. It called to her. It was the last place she and Dalton had made love, in the hour before he had left the ranch for good. Maybe if she could just untangle what he’d said that afternoon, she’d figure out the right way to tell him about their son.

  She walked purposefully down the long aisle and opened the tack room door and was immediately transported back in time.

  “Sunshine, you stay here,” Dalton smoothed his hands down her arms. “I’m going to talk to your grandfather.”

  “I’m not twelve,” she huffed in amusement.

  His hands came up and cupped her face. “We’ve been in the stables for three hours. He’s going to know why. I need to talk to him, man to man.”

  “Dalton, my grandfather has eyes, he knows we’re lovers. And if he didn’t, Uncle Tate has told him.”

  “I still need to go and talk to him.” Dalton was resolute.

  It took everything she had not to roll her eyes. Then he stroked her bottom lip with his thumb. “Please Aurora, I have to do this.”

  He was so damn solemn, how could she do anything but say yes? She nodded. Dalton dipped down and gave her a toe-tingling kiss. She whimpered when he lifted his head.

  “Give me twenty minutes, and then come to the house, okay?”

  She watched as he left the tack room. She looked around and realized she would never be able to come into this room again without thinking of Dalton, of the gentle and passionate storm they had created together in one another’s arms. Of course, he’d already put the saddle back up on the wall and helped her fold up the blankets. And, of course, being a guy, he thought the blankets could be put back onto the shelf with the other clean ones. Silly man.

  She set those on the grain bin, then went over to Vertigo and gave him some love, as well as Troy, Siren, Lucky and, of course, Aladdin.

  “So, would you also insist on going and talking to your girl’s grandfather?” she asked the big stallion. She grinned when he shook his big head. It was almost as if he could understand her. Maybe he could.

  “I like you Aladdin. You’re my kind of horse.”

  Vertigo whinnied from the stall over. She looked at him and he snorted. “What, are you saying you would do what Dalton’s doing?” Vertigo stamped his foot.

  “God save me from hard-headed males.”

  She went down the row and gave pats and scratches. She should be monitoring to see if they were all in good health, but her mind was on what was possibly being said at the house.

  “Bloody hell.” She pulled out her phone from her back pocket and checked the time. Fourteen minutes. She hustled and grabbed the blankets, so she could throw them in the wash, as she reached the barn door she paused.

  “Really? You’re really going to rub Grandpa’s nose in it?” God she was an idiot. She was not going to bring the soiled blankets that smelled of sex into the house.

  She rushed back to the tack room and shoved the blankets into the laundry bin, and then launched herself toward the house. When she noted that Gunnar’s car was missing from the drive she slowed down.

  Was he that mad?

  She tried to picture what had gone down between the two men and for the life of her she couldn’t. What could have made her grandfather leave? She took the porch steps two at a time and opened the screen door. She found Dalton sitting at the kitchen table.

  “What happened?”

  “Everything’s fine,” he assured her.

  “It’s not fine if my Grandpa isn’t here.”

  Dalton held out her hand and she grasped it. He tugged her onto his lap. “He left to give us some privacy.”

  She sat down on one knee, she couldn’t bring herself to relax into his hold. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”

  He made a move toward her hair, as if to push it behind her ear, then pulled back. “Yes,” he agreed.

  “Tonight.”

  He nodded.

  “Now,” she whispered.

  He leaned his forehead against hers. “Yes,” his voice was low.

  She couldn’t stop the next words. She tried, but they spewed forth like a lava from a volcano. “Could I come with you?”

  His eyes were indigo again. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

  That was her answer. She tried to hold back the tears, and she did, barely.

  His eyes turned heavenward, then he looked back at her. “Aurora-” he started

  “It’s okay,” she interrupted. Then she swallowed and gave a wan smile. “Just remember, you always have a safe place to come back to, I need you to know that, okay?”

  He gave her a half smile back, and she knew he never intended to return. He was so buried in grief he was never going to break free.

  “I’m so sorry, Aurora. Please say I didn’t hurt you.”

  She finally relaxed in his hold and cupped his cheek, then whispered a kiss over his sculpted lips. “I don’t regret one moment of our time together.” She was content, knowing that she had spoken the truth.

  “You’re a special woman.”

  “I hope you know that you’re special too.” God, how she wished she could tell him that she loved him, but she knew that would just be a burden.

  “I’m glad you think that, Sunshine.”

  She got up from his lap and tugged at his arm. “Do you need help packing?”

  The corner of his mouth kicked up. “You’re just trying to get your hands on my skivvies.”

  “Always,” she might have grinned, but she died a little on the inside.

  She used the soft brush around Aladdin’s face. She’d started working with her favorite horse after she finished crying in the tack room. These pregnancy hormones were going to be the death of her.

  She dropped the brush and Aladdin jerked when her cell phone rang. She looked at the display.

  “It’s okay Baby. It’ll only be a minute. It’s Grandpa,” she reassured the horse.

  “I’ll be on-time for dinner this time, I promise. I thought everyone was arriving at six-thirty. It isn’t even six yet.”

  “Thought I’d let you know that there are two trucks coming up the drive. One I recognize and one I don’t.”

  “Okay, give me five, and I’ll come in and help you get dinner on the table,” she reassured her g
randfather.

  “Hold up. The first truck is a beat-up baby blue Chevy.”

  As soon as the words were out of his mouth, her blood turned to ice, and her left hand spanned her stomach. What was Dalton doing here? Worse. She hadn’t figured out anything to tell him.

  “Aurora, you still there?”

  “I’m here. Just considering all of my options.”

  “Seems like fate has taken a hand.”

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “Grandpa am I hearing glee in your voice?”

  “No baby girl, you’re not,” Gunnar sighed. “Just know that in fifteen minutes there will be a house full of Dressler’s as well as one big Olsen who’ll have your back. So, I want you to wait before you come up to the house.”

  “That’s not-”

  She heard what sounded like a knock on the front door. “Just do what I tell you and sit tight. Play with your horsies little girl.”

  She snorted with laughter at her grandfather’s long-ago refrain. He hung up, and she turned back to her horsie.

  “What do you think, Aladdin? Should you and I play?” She bent down and picked up the soft brush off the ground. Aurora did long sweeping strokes along the length of Aladdin’s body, she didn’t know who she was trying to soothe more, the stallion or herself.

  She’d expected to be the one to determine when they’d see each other again. What was she going to say? How was he going to react? Please God, let him be happy.

  She looked at the time. Six-forty-five. She breathed deeply as she passed the corral and made her way to the ranch house. She counted five trucks and the sheriff’s SUV parked in front.

  Great.

  She thanked all the powers that be that she’d grabbed her grandfather’s shearling coat on the way to the barn. It hid her swelling stomach better than her own coat. Aurora climbed the steps just a little more slowly than she had five months ago, her breath fogged in the cold air. She opened the door and saw Lindy waiting for her in the kitchen. Her cousin’s eyes immediately lowered to her stomach, then they lifted with a twinkle.