Page 5 of Unguarded

That’s reassuring.

The front door opens and the sound of the party floats out toward us. I glance inside, seeing Zade lean down to whisper into the woman’s ear. His hand is cupping her ass. Embarrassment flushes my chest. Without hesitation, I pull out my phone and text him.

Monroe

Let’s stop pretending this is real. You do you, and we can put on a show for the cameras when needed.

A black SUV pulls up to the front steps. The windows are heavily tinted, but I know Harold is in the driver’s seat. Brooks ushers me toward the back door, opening it up forme. I slide into the back seat, and he gets in the front passenger one. Harold pulls away from the house.

“Hey, Harold.”

“Good evening, Miss Blue. How are you?”

I lie back against the leather seat with a heavy sigh. “I’m all right. Ready to be home.”

“We’ll be there in no time, miss.”

I chew the inside of my lip, my thoughts spinning out of control. Convincing someone like Cash Redford to be my bodyguard shouldn’t be this stressful. He’s a small-town rancher. This is an opportunity for him.

He doesn’t see it that way.

I need to figure out what motivates someone like him.

I tap on my phone with my acrylic-tipped fingers, dialing Ember’s number.

“Hello?”

“Ember, I need you to schedule my jet for a flight to Texas.”

My phone buzzes. I pull it away from my face to see the incoming text.

Zade

Works for me.

3

CASH

“I’ll happily stand in the back of the line. I don’t need to be front and center.”

Holden chuckles as he tosses a bale of hay into the feeder. “Yeah, fuck that. You’re my best man.”

In our world, showing emotion isn’t a bad thing, but we don’t do it often. Growing up on a ranch in West Texas with a dearly departed mother and an alcoholic father meant that my three brothers and I expressed ourselves with fists and fighting. It’s a rare day when we feel the need to say anything nice to each other.

“It’s your wedding,” is all I say.

Holden is the oldest brother, and he’s engaged to the love of his life, Rosie. She’s our little sister’s best friend. She also happened to date our youngest brother, Duke, in high school, so her relationship with Holden didn’t go over well at first.

Thankfully, they’ve all worked it out, andsince their recent engagement, she’s become like a sister to all of us, even Duke.

“Looks like they’ve got the new bulls rounded up for testing. Are we getting dirty today, brother?” Holden asks.

I adjust the straw Stetson on my head, wiping the sweat from my brow. “Damn straight. Gotta keep these cowboys in line.”

We make our way over to the arena, where the hired ranch hands and Duke are rounding the bulls into the chutes. We take our place up on the platform, where we observe and make notes on which bulls will be worth more when we go to sell them for sport. Pops, our father, is up there with the notebook we use to keep track of them.

One of the cowboys, Jensen, is already loaded up on one. These wild animals don’t fuck around. They’re mean, and most of them hate people.

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