Page 9 of Nanny for the Single Dad Cowboy
Her hand is tight around mine, grounding me, even as panic claws its way up my throat.
We stumble out, slam the door shut behind us, and bolt down the stairs, bags forgotten, adrenaline burning through our veins.
On the sidewalk, under the yellow glare of the streetlight, we stand there gulping air like survivors of a shipwreck.
Sienna paces the sidewalk, hair flying loose around her face, hands slicing the air as if she can cut through the terror clinging to us. I sink onto the curb, elbows on my knees, staring at the way my hands won’t stop trembling.
“I can’t believe this,” I whisper, more to myself than her. “I thought—God, I thought moving again would fix it.”
She spins on me, eyes blazing. “Tess, this isn’t about apartments. You could move a hundred times, and Richard would still find you. He’s not just pissed—he’s obsessed.”
Her words hit like a punch. I know she’s right, but hearing it out loud makes my chest cave in.
“What am I supposed to do?” I ask, hating the break in my voice. “I can’t exactly stop existing.”
She stops pacing, crouches in front of me, and grabs my shaking hands. “No. But you can disappear for a while. Lay low. Somewhere he wouldn’t think to look.”
I shake my head. “Where? I’ve already—“
“Texas.”
I blink. “What?”
“My gig. The one I was supposed to take tomorrow. It’s perfect. Out of state, rural, off his radar. You can slide right in under my name. I’ll head to Miami; I’ve got work lined up there anyway. He’ll think I’m still moving around, hard to pin down. But you…” She squeezes my hands tighter. “You’ll be safe.”
My stomach lurches. “Sienna, no. That’s your job.”
Her mouth twists into a humorless smile. “You think I’m worried about missing a paycheck when my best friend’s life is on the line? Screw that. I’ll manage. You need this more than I do.”
The night air chills my skin, but it’s nothing compared to the cold knot forming inside me. She’s serious.
“I can’t just…” I swallow hard. “Pretend to be you?”
“Sure you can,” she says, fierce and fast. “You’ve got the skills, Tess. Hell, you’re better than me in half the stuff they’ll need. All you have to do is show up, do the work, and keep your head down. Meanwhile, he’ll be looking for you here.”
My pulse hammers. Texas. Some ranch in the middle of nowhere. Trading one kind of fear for another.
But when I look into her eyes—wide, desperate, full of that stubborn love that’s carried me through worse—I realize I don’t have a choice.
Finally, I nod. “Okay.”
Sienna exhales, relief flooding her face. She pulls me into a hug so tight it almost hurts.
“You’re going to Texas,” she whispers into my hair. “And you’re going to live.”
“So, this job. Where exactly am I going?”
“Texas,” she says again, like the single word explains everything.
“Yeah, I got that part,” I mutter. “But where in Texas? You didn’t tell me much.”
“Iron Stallion Ranch. Some big family enterprise. They hired me to audit their cybersecurity systems, mostly upgrades, hardening their networks, and staff training. Easy stuff. Remote, quiet, isolated. Perfect for you to blend in.”
The name hits me like a faint bell. Iron Stallion. Something about it tugs at the edge of memory, a conversation overheard, maybe an article I skimmed once. It scratches at me like a half-forgotten dream, but I can’t pin it down.
“Sounds… familiar,” I say slowly.
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that no one there will connect you to AegisTech. You’ll be anonymous. Safe.”
