Saving Her (Her Protector Book 2)

by Katy Kaylee

  But it’s been months since I had to go without a meal.

  I wanted to tell the rational little voice in the back of my head to shut up, but I knew it was right. I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else until I was sure.

  It’s impossible. I thought, raising shakily to my feet. It’s so not. What you and Jake have been doing together for the past few months is exactly what makes it very possible.

  Oh, shut up!

  I ignored the voice, ignored the flutter in the pit of my stomach as I grabbed Jake’s truck keys from the hook by the door and left.

  I drove down the long street that took me into town, parking haphazardly in front of the pharmacy and cursed when I saw it was closed. With a sigh, I glanced at the doctor’s office next door. I had to find out. I had to know the truth.

  With a deep breath, I got out of the truck and walked inside.

  24

  Jake

  “Not again.”

  I stared at the fence. Well, at where the fence used to be any way. Then I looked back at Westley who was signing frantically at me. I motioned for him to slow down and start again. I was getting better at picking up his signing, but I was still learning.

  He gave me a long suffering glare and then pointed at the ground. This time, I saw what he was gesturing to. I walked closer, kneeling down in the dirt to get a better look.

  “Boot prints.”

  Westley rolled his eyes, shaking his head at me before glancing at me as if I was missing the point and when I looked closer at the tracks it finally clicked.

  There were two sets of footprints, still obviously fresh and they went in a direct line from the smashed fence towards the Calhoun’s property line.

  With a sign I got back on Blaze and followed the tracks, Westley riding his brown mare beside me. It didn’t take me long at all to find the perpetrators and I wasn’t even a little bit surprised when Lucas Calhoun turned to confront me, his brother Ian standing beside him still holding the crowbars that had done the damage.

  “I thought we were done with this shit, Lucas.” I drawled, trying to keep a reign on my growing temper but Jesus Christ was it difficult. The man just knew exactly what to do and say to get under my skin.

  It didn’t help that every time I ran into him it seemed to be while he was deliberately messing with the land or the people that I cared about most in the world. Really, it was a poor choice on his part. I could have handled him messing with me no problem. But the minute he brought Zoe into it, he was done. No more games. No more mr. nice cowboy.

  “I wasn’t the one that made you that promise,” Lucas said through a toothy grin. “I didn’t promise you a god damned thing.”

  “Your brother did.” I said gruffly and I had to work at releasing the tension in my jaw enough so that I could speak again. “Where is Wil, by the way? He should be babysitting you two.”

  “I don’t have to take orders from my little brother.”

  “Maybe not, but you do have to take orders from the law and I have it on a good account that Sherriff Copper came and told you directly that if you trespass on my land again I’m within my rights to file a restraining order against the lot of you.”

  I was tempted to do it to. I would have already if not for the exorbitant lawyer fees and the fact that the sheriff would have almost zero chance of enforcing it. The man wasn’t the best of cops at the best of times, and in situations like these, he was the worst.

  “In case you didn’t notice, we aren’t trespassing asshole. We are on our property, and you have no proof that we did anything at all.” Lucas crossed his arms over his chest, his beady eyes alight with joy. He was obviously relishing this entire situation. In giving me a headache that pounded behind my temples.

  I glanced at the fence that marked off the property line and had to grit my teeth. Lucas was fucking right. They were just over the line, but they were standing on their own property now even though I could still make out the trail of boot prints that lead straight from the smashed fence to these two.

  I also knew it wouldn’t matter a damned single little bit.

  “I’m keeping an eye on you. Both of you.” I glared at Lucas first, who just smirked at me and then Ian, who at least had the grace to flinch and look away. It didn’t matter. He would do anything his older brother told him to. “And so is Westley.”

  “Yeah, okay. Right,” Lucas snorted out, his eyes narrowing like a snakes, “What is that deaf old man going to do? Wave his hands at me?”

  Westley took several threatening steps forward, rolling up his sleeves to expose tough, sinewy muscles that had been honed by years of hard physical labor. He balled his hands into fist and it was enough have Lucas and Ian stumbling back a few more feet.

  I would have laughed at the sight of them being intimidated by the ‘deaf, old man’ as Lucas had called him. But I was too worried about what they would try next to find any humor in the situation.

  I let out a reluctant sigh before tapping Westley on the shoulder and gesturing him back.

  “Come on,” I signed, “Let’s go. They’re not worth it.”

  Westley nodded, grinning back at Lucas before spitting at the other man’s feet, egging him on just a little more. I knew it would probably back fire but I felt a flash of satisfaction as that damned smirk finally slid like oil off of Calhoun’s face.

  I had barely made it a step before Lucas’ voice halted me in my tracks.

  “You that bitch of yours? She isn’t who she says she is! She’s lying to you! She’s been playing you this whole fucking time!”

  I froze, my vision going red and I had to fight the sudden shaking in my arms and legs as I forced myself back around to face the other man.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about, and you don’t know Zoe. Don’t ever fucking mention her again. Don’t even think about her.”

  “It’s true you know! I heard it straight from Val. She overheard your little friend talking in the bathroom of the Solace bar. You really do have shit luck with women.”

  “Well, if you’re the one hanging around Val that’s the kind of luck I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Not even an asshole like you.” I snorted the words far more casually than I felt, “I learned the hard way not to trust a single word that comes out of that woman’s mouth.”

  “At least I know Val! I know where she came from. Right here!” Lucas grinned again, knowing that he was getting under my skin and he was right. And there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it. “What do you really know about Zoe?”

  I hated hearing her name on his lips, I hated hearing him say her name. And even worse, I hated the doubts that I thought I had washed away all rush back up to the surface. I turned and got back on my horse, whistling blaze into a trot but I couldn’t stop Lucas’s words from following me.

  “You don’t know anything about her. You can’t trust her. She’s an outsider. A stranger. She’ll screw you over just like all the rest of them.”

  All I could do was clench my jaw as I rode back towards the fence line, Lucas’s words echoing in my head. I just wished it didn’t feel like I was running away.

  25

  Zoe

  “You can make an appointment to come in and discuss what’s next…”

  I let the receptionist’s voice wash over me. Unable to focus on her words or comprehend what she was saying. There was a buzzing in my ears that muffled the world around me and numbly I took the slip of paper that she handed me and turned and walked out, ignoring her questioning glance.

  It didn’t matter. None of this mattered. None of it mattered except for that one, little word on the piece of paper that the doctor had given me. That word that had completely shifted my world on its axis in the space of a millisecond. Positive.

  It echoed over and over again until it started to sound fake. A made up word. A word that couldn’t possibly mean that I was…

  I let the thought trail off, not even able to complete it in my mind. The small
town’s doctor’s office was exactly how I would have imagined it, right down to the mint colored linoleum floor and the heavy, vintage wooden furniture that dotted the cramped lobby.

  The desk I stood in front of, the one the receptionist was sitting behind still looking at me expectantly, was just as heavy and just as dated. There was a framed map of Solace hanging on the wall behind it, flanked with a diploma on one side and a plaque of some sort on the other.

  I couldn’t read the words. Everything started to blur together in a rather alarming way and I drew in a deep breath, sure that I was about to feint. Feint! Me! I’d never feinted in my life, not even when confronted with threats and dead animals. Sure, I may have had a mental breakdown on stage in front of thousands of people, but I did not feint.

  It was a real possibility at the moment.

  “Ma’am? Are you alright?”

  “Hmm?” I glanced over at the other woman behind in the desk. She was younger than me, looking like she was still in her early twenties with strawberry blond curls and wide blue eyes that stared at me in concern.

  I waved that concern right away.

  “I’m…” What was I? Was I fine? Was I alright? Would I ever be alright again? “Okay. I’m okay. Thanks, I’ll uh, I’ll call about the follow up appointment.”

  “Great. Oh, here’s a pamphlet for you too. All about the baby’s first trimester.”

  “Uh huh. Okay.”

  I took the glossy pamphlet quickly, shoving it in my pocket along with the piece of paper but not before catching sight of the mother smiling down joyfully at the little bundle in her arms.

  My chest tightened painfully and turned and marched out of the doctor’s office before I had to answer any more questions. I didn’t think I could handle it at the moment.

  I walked down Main street in a daze. That buzzing in my ears was growing louder and louder until I could barely hear my own thoughts. It didn’t really matter. There was only that one word repeating over and over.

  Positive. Positive. Positive.

  With every step the thought grew louder and I stopped abruptly, staring at my reflection in the shop window. I was staring at a stranger. Who what this woman? This person who was going to be a mother?

  I was so lost in my own thoughts that it took me several moments to realize that I was standing in front of the same antique store and pawn shop that I had tried to hawk Elliot’s wedding ring on that desperate day so long ago.

  It felt like a lifetime ago. Eons had passed since then. I wasn’t the same person I had been then. So afraid. Constantly looking over my shoulder. Fearful of my own shadow. Always running. Drowning with no shoreline in sight.

  I had changed so much that I didn’t even recognize the woman staring back at me in the window reflection. I was so much stronger than I had ever been. So much more at peace with myself. And if I was being honest, so much happier.

  I also knew that so much of that strength and happiness had come because I’d met the Gallagher’s. Beth had taught me what it was to trust someone again. And Jake had taught me how to move past the fear that had paralyzed me for so long. How to let someone in. How to rely on someone. A skill that I had never had, not even before every terrible thing that had sent me running in the first place.

  I shook my head, thinking about everything that had happened to lead me to where I was now. I could see it stretching out, as if fate had been leading me here to this moment my entire life.

  I wrapped my hands around my stomach. It was still flat, no sign of the life growing within. Not yet, anyway. I should be terrified. I should have been fighting the urge to run away but the only place I wanted to run to was straight into Jake’s arms.

  I knew the metallic tang of fear. I knew the sharp blade of panic. But neither of those filled me. Instead, underneath the shock that still held me in its grip, I felt…joy. Joy, and a small, fragile ray of hope.

  Never in a million years would I have guessed I would be standing here, now, pregnant with Jake’s child. But I’d always wanted to be a mother. I’d always wanted a house full of kids to give all the love and tenderness that I’d never had as a child.

  I wondered if I would be a good mother. That thought did strike a spark of fear inside me. I didn’t really know what that looked like or what it meant. Unconditional love, I could do that. I already felt a connection with the tiny life growing inside me. I would fight for them, I knew that too. Fight for them like my own mother never fought for me.

  “Hey! I thought that was you over here.”

  The familiar voice made me jump in surprise and I whipped around to see Beth heading towards me, two cups of coffee in her hand. It all had that surreal sense of déjà vu coming back even stronger than before.

  “Hi, Beth.” I said, forcing a shaky smile to my mouth, hoping she didn’t see the turmoil roiling inside me just beneath the surface. “Coffee break?”

  “Yeah, you know. My one vice.” She laughed and I nodded along.

  “What are you doing in town? Is Jake with you?” She looked around expectantly.

  “No, just me. I needed to pick up some things for myself. You know, get away from the ranch for a little while.”

  “Oh yeah, I get that. When we were kids it used to drive me crazy sometimes, how quiet it would get out there. All that space, but I would start to feel claustrophobic.” She shrugged, then nodded towards the Vet’s office. “Come in and chat with me for a bit. I have an hour before my next appointment and we haven’t caught up in a while.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I should really get back to the ranch.”

  “Jake can survive without out you for a little while, I promise.”

  Beth didn’t give me much of a choice, just looped one arm through mine, still holding both cups of coffee as she dragged me across the street and into the office.

  “Hey, Sam. Here’s your Chai latte.” Beth handed one cup over to the blue haired girl behind the front desk with a cheerful smile.

  “Thanks, boss.” The girl said. After a moment, Beth just shrugged and pulled me sown a short, brightly painted hallway with paw prints on it to another room at the end. It had a small desk and two armchairs. The rest of the space was strewn with papers and books.

  “This is my office. Don’t worry, Sammie takes care of the files. They are all much more organized than this.”

  I just laughed and shook my head.

  “It must be a Gallagher family trait. I swear Jake’s office at the ranch looked the exact same when I first started working there.”

  Beth shot me a bashful grin as she cleaned off one of the chairs before shoving a pile of books to the edge of the desk and perching on it with one hip.

  “So, tell me how things are going? Everything okay at the ranch?”

  “Good! Everything’s going, well, it could be better honestly. Are you familiar with the Calhoun’s?” Beth stiffened at the name and I assumed that she did. Everyone knew everyone in a town the size of Solace, Utah. “I’m worried that they are going to try something again and that this time, it’s really going to hurt someone. I can’t imagine Jake, Owen or Westley getting hurt.”

  “Or you,” She said with a shudder, “They could have broken Josie’s leg, you could have been hurt a lot worse than you were.”

  We both fell silent for a moment and Beth looked worried, even more worried than I was which had butterflies fluttering up inside me.

  “They won’t…they wouldn’t actually attack the ranch, right?” I asked hesitantly, my only thoughts for Jake and the unborn baby barely formed in my womb.

  “No.” Beth shook her head vehemently, “No, of course not. Wil wouldn’t let that happen. Don’t worry. Maybe I can talk to him.”

  “He promised that they would leave the property alone, but…”

  “If Wil made a promise you can guarantee that he’ll keep his word.” She sounded deadly serious and I nodded, believing her. I’d believed him too at the time, but it wasn’t really him I was worried about.

 
“But what about his other brother? The mean one.”

  “Lucas? He’s an asshole I’ll give you that but he’s not stupid. Going after Jake again, or you, would just be stupid.” She gave me a sideways look, “Speaking of Jake, though, how are things going between the two of you?”

  I could tell that she wanted to change the subject but damn I wish she would have picked anything else.

  “Um, it’s good, I think.”

  “Good?”

  “Yeah, good.” I repeated, shrugged this time, “He’s…good, you know? In a way a lot of people aren’t. He really cares about his family.”

  “He cares about you.”

  I didn’t want to admit how much I wanted that to be true.

  “I care about him too.”

  Beth gave me a long look, her gray eyes so much like Jake’s widening suddenly, “Oh my god, you’re in love with him. Don’t even try and deny it. I can see it all over your face.” She squealed in joy, “Oh, I’m so happy for you. And for him! He needed someone good in his life and you are exactly what he needs.”

  “I don’t…” I bit off the words I was going to say, unable to even get them out. “I think…I might be in love with him a little bit, but…”

  “No buts! Don’t say anything else and I won’t either, scout’s honor.” Beth held up her hand as if swearing an oath and I laughed again.

  “Alright, I won’t.” I sighed, rising to my feet, “But I do have to go. There’s something I need to talk to your brother about.”

  “I’m sure there is,” She gave me a knowing look, but she really had no idea. Those butterflies were back in full force but I had no idea how he would react to the news. I just knew that I had to tell him, and I knew, deep down, that we would figure out whatever came next, together.

  * * *

  Beth

  I watched Zoe leave with the rest of what I wanted to say to her stuck in my throat. A part of me was ecstatic for her, and for my brother. Jake was a stubborn pain in the ass sometimes, but he deserved someone who would love him and care about him the same way he would love and care. With his whole heart.