Page 6 of Guarded Knight

Anton taps his fingers on the dash, considering me. “Then why do you look like you just swallowed glass?”

I exhale through my nose. “It’s a job, Ant. She has an ex who needs to learn a lesson. It’ll be a lot more fun than this.”

“Uh-huh.” He studies me like I’m a puzzle he’s not done solving yet. “How close were you to her?”

Head over heels close.

Out of my mind close.

But Anton doesn’t need to know any of that.

“We grew up in the same small town,” I say, gazing back out the window at the house. “She was like a sister.”

There’s complete disbelief on his every feature. “Right. And I’m sure she thinks of you like a brother, too.”

My jaw clenches involuntarily, and of course, Anton picks up on it.

He whistles. “That’s what I thought.”

It’s not going to be easy to keep this professional, but I have to. Not that I’m worried about being able to do my job. Taking down Cameron? I had much more complicated assignments in the SEALs.

Protecting Lara isn’t the problem.

Surviving it is.

2

Just two daysafter confessing the past month of drama to Xander, I said goodbye to what was an amazing run in one hell of a town.

We left Santa Fe in our small U-Haul at the crack of dawn, and I hardly slept in our hotel overnight, wondering if Cameron followed us and if I shouldn’t have done what the heroines in myromance books do... go somewhere nobody knows them. Then again, trouble always catches up with them anyway.

The second day of driving was brutal. By the time we spot the sign for Echo Valley, most of my resistance to this move has been eroded by the desperate need to get out of the seated position.

The first thing I see when we pull into town is a giant Tack and Feed store, and it gives me all the Starlight Canyon flashbacks. I might have needed to get out of my small town to live more fully, alleviate my loved ones from the constant worry over my health and life in general, but one thing is certain. You can take the girl out of the small town, but you can’t take the small town out of the girl.

When we turn off the main road leading into Echo Valley and onto the Main Street, the quaint boutiques and lack of chain stores, along with the fact that I can just about make out where this main drag ends, gives me the cozy feels I love about small-town living.

I loved Santa Fe, but people can hide in cities. There are too many shadows and dark corners. I don’t know where I’ll go once this shitstorm has settled, but I’m thinking population five thousand max.

Freya squeals, and her black bouncy curls jump as she points at a man in a cowboy hat. “I didn’t know there would be cowboys in California!”

I thought the same thing, but I remember Xander telling me about Santi starting a ranch here and I learned there are quite a few. “Apparently, the cowboy capital of the world is Oakdale, just an hour or so from here. But never use that title in Starlight Canyon. I’m sure those ranch boys wouldn’t take kindly.”

Her perfect brown skin wrinkles around her eyes with a smile. “Noted. I like having your mom and dad on my good side. Best blueberry pie and whiskey sours, respectively.”

She focuses on the road again instead of those ass-hugging blue jeans we passed. I’d rather her keep staring than focus on her new boyfriend. Kevin is not only her new beau but also our boss, and sadly, I’m not a fan.

Especially since I discovered some shady movement of the funds that I worked damn hard to raise. There’s something fishy going on at Scarlet Hope and that, along with Kevin’s deck shoes, do not make him a good fit for my best friend.

She sighs. “I’m glad you decided to leave. And everything I see here is making me damn happy I came with.”

“I wish you never had to deal with all that.”

“What? You mean trade Santa Fe for walking onto a Hallmark movie set? I haven’t seen a cowboy since we were last in Starlight Canyon and I’m due a hit.”

I quirk an eyebrow. “Let’s hope it’s more Passionflix than Hallmark.”

“My eyes shalt not stray…” she jokes with a stoic tone.