Page 3 of Soldier Cowboy
“How many acres on your ranch?”
Colton ignored the question, shook his head, and traced the rim of his glass.
The truth was that the Grange, the family ranch, and Stone Ridge, happened to be the perfect place to hide out. But from now on, he would not have any other job besides cattle ranching.
“So…you want your daughter hiding out in Stone Ridge. With me.”
“I trust you. And she needs protection from a certain man.” Horace frowned.
So, the stalker was a man. They were, in fact, rarely women.
Colton quirked a brow and tried to meet Jennifer’s averted eyes. “Ex-boyfriend? Ex-husband? What about the court system? Restraining order, all that?”
“Yes, but he…he keeps on trying. He hasn’t done anything to hurt me, but he seems obsessed. I went onone datewith him.”
“We’re talking about a possibly mentally unbalanced individual. He seems to think they’re getting married,” Horace spit out. “Tell him how you changed your number when he sent you three hundred text messages daily. Now he shows up unannounced, making a scene when she won’t open the door. The police have been called but he hasn’t technically broken any laws. Yet.”
Jesus.
“I must have done something to encourage him, but I don’t know what I did.” Jennifer folded into herself, biting her lower lip. “I suppose I responded to the text messages for a while. He needs help and I wanted him to get it.”
Colton’s body tightened. This beautiful girl somehow blamed herself.
“I don’t want to hear that. You did nothing wrong,” Horace said, taking the words from Colton’s mouth. “But until he finally moves on and finds a new obsession, you need to be safe.”
“Maybe if someone besides me and the police talks to him,” Jennifer tried. “Gets him to understand.”
Colton snorted and downed the last of his horrible coffee. People like the man she described wouldn’t listen to reason.
“They’ve already talked to him,” Horace said. “If he won’t listen to them, he won’t listen to anyone else. The only thing that will stop him is to be caught in the act and we can’t let it get that far. Jennifer, meet Colton Henderson. Your bodyguard.”
CHAPTER2
Jennifer Walker surveyed the man seated across from her in the booth. He was tall and imposing. Words like scary andintimidatingcame to mind. When he’d stood as she approached, he’d towered over herandher father. He had short chestnut-brown hair and piercing dark eyes. Complete with a square jaw and light dusting of beard stubble, he might have just walked out of central casting.
I’m here to audition for the part of G.I. Joe.
Ugh. Maybe she’d lived in Los Angeles too long.
Growing up in Maryland, Jennifer had wanted to get as far away from home and the family military dynasty as possible. She loved her father, truly she did, but he was an alarmist. Always looking for trouble over his shoulder, assuming the worst of people. She understood why on one level. He had a skewed view of the world through no fault of his own. The soldier sitting across from her was probably similar. Like her father, a man she both adored and feared a little.
All to say that she could hold her own with these alpha men. But she didn’t like to fight as much as they did.
“I don’t need a bodyguard but thank you. Fine, I’ll just go away for a while.”
A minute ago, the man snorted when she’d suggested maybe Dan Gates would listen to someone. It was a Hail Mary pass but even she realized it was too late. People given to the kind of behavior he’d demonstrated had mental health issues. They needed help. Possibly medication.
Dan had been so nice on their one and only date, opening doors, complimenting her. She was used to lousy boyfriends, and he’d been the exception. It had all gone so wrong and there had never been another date. Still, he was a fan of her podcast and somehow became obsessed with her. Maybe because she was the only woman to ever say no to him.
“Yes, youdoneed a bodyguard,” her father said now.
But it was strange to introduce a relative stranger to her hot mess. Colton didn’t know her. He didn’t know that from the time she’d been a little girl, all she’d ever wanted was the truth. Her parents gave up on the Santa Claus myth early on because by the time she was five she’d wanted to interview him. She had to know how in the world he’d trained reindeer to fly. She was often told that she asked too many questions. That was nothing new.
It was what made her good at what she did. She’d studied photojournalism, but it was her podcast,Truth Salad, that gave her a job and reliable income from sponsors. More important than the truth she’d found a way to help others. A way for them to feel connected and not so alone.
And then came her stalker.
Before longshe’dbecome the story. Rumors flew that she had a stalker of her own and sponsors began to drop. The career that meant so much to her might be over. Jennifer understood that she had to stop broadcasting, but she didn’t know why she had to be relocated.
