Renegade Protector

He nodded and turned for the doorway. Toro got up, followed him for a step, then stopped as Ty descended the stairs. Mariana closed the door and didn’t lock it. She placed the rifle next to the bed and sat on the mattress. Toro curled near her feet and let out a satisfied sigh, his job done for the night.

Transitioning to sleep wouldn’t be that easy for her. Each tick of the floorboards downstairs was amplified in her ears. Ty returned to the guest room. His presence washed across her skin. But as potent as it was, she knew better than to pursue the attraction. It was only a side effect of all the tension of the night.

She slipped under the covers and stared at the ceiling. Yeah, she tried to convince herself, adrenaline keyed her body up and it was easy to focus that energy on Ty. He’d stepped in when no one else had. Now that her body sank into the mattress, exhaustion dragged her into a warm darkness. But, her mind objected, you were taken by him when he first walked into the shop. Before the trouble. Ty was trouble. She knew that. And as she fell asleep, a long-dormant need inside her was waking up.

* * *

AFTER STARTLING AWAKE what felt like every ten minutes, Mariana finally gave up trying to sleep near dawn and left her bed. There had been no more threats that night. Toro rose, much sprier than she was feeling. Mariana went through her morning movements, pausing every few moments to listen for Ty on the ground floor. All seemed silent there.

She dressed and walked downstairs. The sun crested the far hills. Yellow light sliced in through the side windows. At least it would be a clear day, even if she couldn’t predict what the next few hours would bring.

As soon as she reached the ground floor, Ty stepped from the guest room. He wore jeans and a hoodie, and looked as fresh as if he’d slept twelve hours after a spa day. Her tired body immediately responded with a surge of energy. Their connection had gone untested last night, and parts of her wanted to find out just where it led. Instead she maintained her distance and her equilibrium.

Ty eyed the rifle in her hand. “You going to hunt up some breakfast?”

“Yeah.” She nodded and moved toward the kitchen. “California moose chorizo.”

“Just like Momma used to make.” He followed her, and both of them came to a stop at the large island.

She rested the rifle against the side. “I just feel safer having it in the room.” The same feeling she discovered with Ty.

“I get it.” He turned to reveal his pistol in its holster on his belt. “Get any sleep?”

“Who needs sleep when there’s coffee?” She collected the necessary elements to brew a pot. “How long have you been up? I didn’t hear you.”

He checked his watch. “An hour?” She felt him collecting her details as his gaze tracked her movement. “I figured out most of the creaky floorboards and walked around them.”

“Stealthy.” She cut up a crusty loaf of bread from a local baker into slabs for toast. “You would’ve made a good burglar.”

“What do you think I did before I was a cop?”

“Really?” She started to assess him completely differently.

He smiled easily and shook his head, more relaxed than she’d seen him before. “Nah. I worked in a couple restaurants through college.” He took a couple of slices of bread and put them in the toaster.

For months, her morning routine had been the same. Toast. Coffee. Work on the orchard and work in the shop. Nothing was normal this day. Ty’s presence shifted everything. The sunlight came through the windows differently, making her see aspects of her house that had gone unnoticed in...forever. “Was the guest room okay?”

Ty found the plates for the toast in a cabinet and stacked them at the ready. “Upper sash on one of the windows is loose and wouldn’t close. A little drafty, but no problem.”

“Really?” It felt like everything was falling apart around her as she broke her back trying to keep all the pieces together. “I’m sorry. There just hasn’t been time to work on the house. Or enough money.”

“It’s not your fault those bastards have been after you.” He pulled out his phone and set it on the island. “I was reading comments and reviews for your shop this morning.”

“Oh, God.” She rolled her eyes and shuddered. “So many fake accounts trashing me.” The coffee was ready and she brought two mugs to the pot. “And they’ve been leaning on the harvesters. No one’s willing to come out here to work the trees.”

“And still your local PD didn’t do anything.” Anger heated his voice.

She poured coffee into the mugs, the aroma helping to bring her more into the present. “They just kept saying there was nothing concrete to move on.”

Ty finished with the toast and brought the plates to the island. “Last night will put everything on the books, but I don’t think they collected a lot of actionable evidence.”

Her frustration with the police department didn’t have the same bite it used to. Ty was there, bringing Frontier Justice from outside the system. “Cream and—” Her phone rang. The screen indicated it was her insurance agent and she answered immediately. “Thanks for calling back so early, Brenda.” The woman’s concerned voice was just waking up, but she was diligent in explaining the next couple of steps and agreed to meet Mariana at the store within an hour. Mariana related all this to Ty after she hung up.

He nodded with understanding, drinking his coffee black and making mental calculations. “I won’t be there for that. The fewer official reports I’m on, the better.”

She threw back some of her coffee, hoping it would ready her for whatever was coming this day. “You’re only here for the action.”

“Until you tell me to leave...” He found a pad and pencil on a counter and scrawled a number. “I’m never farther away than a phone call.” Bringing her the piece of paper closed the distance between them. Her body drank in the heat of his intensity. “Usually, I’m much closer than that.”

She took the paper and stepped away to enter the number in her phone. Now that she knew she had to meet Brenda, the clock ticked on the day. She and Ty gathered their things and headed out. Hearing and believing what he’d said had taken the cold edge away from being alone in this fight. But as she drove to town followed by Ty, an unsettled question burned into her. How much closer did she want him?

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