Page 61

She stepped out of the bathroom just as Brett walked in the front door. He wore a thick jacket, red flannel pajama pants, and work boots. He shrugged out of the jacket and hung it on the rack by the door. Blankets and a pillow lay on the couch, ready for their nighttime bodyguard.

“Hey, I figured you’d be asleep already.”

The gray T-shirt he wore hugged his chest and back in all the right places. She definitely liked the relaxed look on him. “I was headed that way.”

He toed off his boots by the door and stuck his hands in his pockets as he approached her. “Good night. Sleep tight.”

“Good night,” she whispered back as she turned and hobbled to her bedroom.

With the door shut behind her, she rested all of her weight against it. A quiet peace settled around her. Shewouldhave a good night, all because Brett was standing guard right outside her door.

She’d prayed for help, and the Lord had sent her a protector–one she didn’t deserve.

Chapter14

Brett

Brett’s alarm vibrated against his hand under the pillow. He’d turned off the sound, afraid he’d wake Thea and Hadley before the sun. He’d always been a light sleeper, and thankfully, there hadn’t been a single sound in the night.

Rolling over, he turned off the alarm and rested his arm over his eyes. Tommy wouldn’t give up easily, and Brett wouldn’t either. Thankfully, Hadley’s couch was new and pretty comfortable. It had served him well the last two nights.

He took a few minutes to thank the Lord for another day, pulled on his shirt, and folded the blankets. After slipping on his jacket and boots, he faced the frigid morning. God really knew how to sprinkle the fluffy white stuff on Wyoming. They got their fair share, that was for sure. Winter wasn’t his favorite time of the year, but maybe it would allow him to spend some time with Thea.

He pulled up at his cabin and found Linc already making coffee in the small kitchen.

“Morning, sunshine,” Brett said as he took off his jacket and boots.

“Morning. All quiet on the western front?” Linc asked.

“All good. I think we’ll at least have a few minute’s heads up thanks to the security system Jameson put in. Tommy isn’t the brightest bulb in the box.”

Linc raised his mug of coffee. “It’s not smart to underestimate your enemy.”

Brett crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the counter. “I hate that I have enemies. It’s stupid. I haven’t spoken to my family in years.”

“Comes with the territory,” Linc said.

“What territory? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You inherited a lot of hate. It’s kind of stuck on you.”

“Yeah, my parents weren’t winning any awards for kindness. Mom was as mean as a snake before Dad died. She was worse after.”

His dad had been the breadwinner, working long hours for a trucking company based in Cody. His mom had been free to sit at home and stir up trouble. When Brett’s dad died, she moved in with her sister, who spouted enough hate to turn his mom’s callous heart completely to stone.

Brett huffed, still ticked at his mom after all these years. “She didn’t try to put on airs and pretend she was a good mom or even a good person. She hated everyone, and Dad was the same. They were the perfect pocket pair. It took a lot to get over all that anger. My anger at them. Their anger at the Howards and everyone else they decided to team up against.”

Linc sipped his coffee. “Makes me glad I didn’t have parents.”

Linc was Brett’s opposite. He was stern, quiet, and didn’t go out of his way to be friendly. But there was a heavy second where Brett actually envied the guy. Would it have been better to be orphaned and at the mercy of the state or grow up being beaten and hated by his parents? Was that the reason Linc pushed people away? Probably.

Jess had dealt with their parents’ abuse a whole lot differently than Brett had. She’d held in the anger until they were safely away from their parents before she lashed out on someone or something else. Brett had silently endured it, repressed everything, then hid the darkness behind a wall of humor. It beat giving in and letting the sadness take over.

“I don’t know which one is worse, having terrible parents or no parents at all,” Brett said.

“I didn’t need any help being a screw-up. I did it just fine on my own.”

That was another difference between Brett and Linc. Brett still had hope that he could be better than all the bad he’d seen. Linc talked like his fate was sealed.