Page 12 of Lumberjack DADDY (Yes, Daddy #55)

ELI

“ C an I ask you a question?”

I glance at her as we walk along the trail home and feel a familiar sense of dread grip me.

Whenever somebody starts with “can I ask you a question,” they inevitably want to ask about my time in the service.

Most want to know if I killed anybody and if so, what it felt like.

The answer is that yes, I’ve killed before, and there is no way to describe the way it felt.

It was horrible. Taking a life, even in service to your country, is never easy.

Nor should it be. The deaths I’ve caused have left indelible scars on my soul.

But she looks at me with such guileless eyes and open curiosity, I can’t help but want to answer her questions.

There is something about Emery that’s touched something deep inside of me.

A piece of my heart that’s been dormant so long, I’d honestly forgotten it even existed.

But Emery found that old door inside of me and opened it with an ease that shocks me.

And as I get to know her, I find that I want to know more.

I want to know everything. What is more unsettling to me, though, is that I want her to know everything about me, too.

“Sure,” I say.

“Why don’t you ever talk about your time in the service?”

A dark shadow crosses my heart, and my lips curl down. “It’s… difficult. Unless you were there, you wouldn’t understand it.”

“Maybe not. But I do know that keeping it all bottled up inside isn’t healthy for you either,” she says. “Keeping your trauma inside is like poison to your soul.”

“When did you switch your major from art to psychology?”

She laughs. “Stop. Seriously though. If you ever want to talk, I just want you to know that I’m here to listen without judgment.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Of course.”

As we walk the trail, I slip my hand into hers on impulse. She smiles as our fingers intertwine, and she lays her head on my shoulder. There’s an ease between us I don’t think I’ve ever felt with anybody before. It’s an odd feeling. And yet at the same time, it feels… right.

I place a soft kiss on the crown of her head. “The men in the picture you were looking at the other night?” I start. “That was my old unit. They were like—no, they were my brothers. We went through some real shit together.”

“What happened to them?”

“We were on a mission, chasing a real bad guy. We got some bad intel, and we walked into an ambush,” I say. “and Hicks I are the only ones who made it out alive.”

Her hand tightens on mine. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry.”

“We were both wounded pretty badly. But we were the lucky ones,” I tell her.

“We got patched up and we got back into the fight. It took some time, but we finally tracked down not just the bad guy we were after that day, but the one who fed us the bad intel. The one who walked us into that trap. After that, I was done. I rotated out when my tour was up.”

As we walked, I continued to open up to her.

I shared my most horrible, heart-wrenching moments overseas.

But I also shared some of the good memories I carried from that place.

I told her about my unit—my brothers. I’ve never spoken to anybody about any of this before, but with Emery by my side, it just felt natural.

And she listens. She asks questions here and there, but she mostly just listens without reservation or judgment.

As I share all this with her, I feel my heart grow lighter somehow.

I don’t understand this effect she has on me.

I don’t understand how she’s gotten me to open up like this.

How she’s managed to kick in doors I thought I’d sealed shut forever a long time ago.

It’s like she has the key to the locks I thought I’d thrown away after I came home.

It’s like she’s had them all along, and I was just waiting for her to find me.

“It sounds like you’ve been through a lot,” she says. “A lot of terrible things.”

I nod. “Yeah. I’ve seen some shit.”

“But you’ve also seen a lot of good, too, it sounds like. Not just with your unit, but with some of the people you were over there protecting.”

A faint smile touches my lips, and I shake my head.

Before Emery, I can’t remember the last time I smiled.

In the last few days, I’ve smiled more than I think I have in all the years of my life combined.

But she brings it out of me with the same ease that got me talking and sharing all these stories and memories with her.

“I’ve never shared any of this with anybody before,” I say.

She smiles. “I guess I’m special then.”

I turn and hold her gaze as I nod. “Yeah. You really are.”

Her cheeks flush, and she pulls me down into a soft kiss that’s sweet, tender, and promises so much more.

I find myself anxious to get back to the cabin.

This girl has made me insatiable. She’s unlocked desires inside me I never even knew I had.

And I can’t get enough of her. I want her so bad, I’m half tempted to take her again right now, right here on the trail.

Before I can do anything, though, my phone chirps with an incoming text. With a sigh of irritation, I pull it out and frown when I see the alert notice on the screen.

“What is it?” she asks.

I open the link, and the view from the cameras I activated this morning appears on the screen.

Staring at them for a moment, I don’t see anything and start to think some animal wandered by and set off the motion sensors.

But then, movement from one of the cameras draws my attention.

I zoom in on the view and feel my jaw clench.

“Son of a bitch,” I mutter.

“Eli, what is it?”

“Call the police,” I tell her. “And stay here.”

“Eli—”

“Do it, Emery. Now.”

Sliding my phone back into my pocket, I take off at a sprint for the cabins.

I’m not too far away, so I’m not worried about him getting away before I get there.

I round the bend in the trail and come up behind cabin B, then slow down, moving as quickly but quietly as I can.

I come around the western wall of the cabin and find him standing on a box, peering through the window.

“You just don’t learn, do you?” I say.

Startled, Travis recoils and nearly falls off the box. He saves himself and jumps down, landing awkwardly but upright.

“Dude, I was just?—”

“I told you to never come back to my land again. Didn’t I?”

“I just wanted to talk to her. There’s been a misunderstanding?—”

“Bullshit,” I growl. “You got one chance to turn around and get the fuck out of here, or I’m going to make sure the only way you leave my property is in an ambulance.”

His eyes shift to something over my shoulder, and he waves, a goofy smile and lovesick expression crossing his face.

“Emery,” he says. “Tell him there’s been a misunderstanding.”

I cut a glance over my shoulder and see her standing a few yards behind me, arms folded over her midsection like she’s protecting herself with an expression of genuine fear on her face.

Seeing the fear ignites the fire that burns out of control inside of me.

I never want her to be afraid of anything or anybody. Ever.

“You had your chance, Travis.”

“Wait,” he says. “You don’t understand. She loves me. And I love her.”

“What! She doesn’t love you.”

“She does. I saw the signals she was giving me. I picked up on them,” he says. “She wants to be with me. Ask her yourself.”

“Emery doesn’t want you. And you’ll never have her,” I say, my voice low and tight. “She’s mine. You got that? I claimed her. Not you.”

Travis’ face darkens, and his eyes glint dangerously.

His lips curl into a sneer, and he reaches behind him, pulling out a large hunting knife.

I stare at the serrated blade for a moment and chuckle.

I can tell by the way he’s holding the blade that he’s never actually fought with it before.

He has no idea how to use it. And I guarantee he’s never killed with it before.

“You don’t want to do this, kid,” I tell him.

“Emery is mine. She wants to be with me.”

I hear Emery scream behind me as Travis rushes forward, taking a giant, overhand swing with his knife.

I sidestep it easily and drive my elbow into the small of his back as his momentum carries him by.

He grunts and stumbles forward, falling to his knees.

But he jumps up again like a damn jack in the box and brandishes his blade at me.

“You really don’t want to do this, kid,” I tell him.

But he doesn’t listen and rushes me again.

As he closes in, I grab his wrist and bend it backward.

In the same motion, I bring my arm up and clothesline him, right across the throat.

He lets out a choked gasp as his feet come up off the ground.

Travis goes down hard on his back and grunts as the air is driven from his lungs.

I twist his wrist again, and the knife falls.

Scooping it up, I hold it to his throat.

“Emery, go and get me some zip ties. I’ve got some in the toolbox just inside my door,” I call out, then glare down at Travis.

“I told you to leave. Are you nuts, you got shit for brains, boy? I told you Emery is not yours, is not interested in you and will never be yours. She belongs to me, and I belong to her. You got it?”

She comes back, and I use the zip ties to secure his hands behind his back, then leave him face down in the dirt. The sound of the sheriff’s warbling sirens draws closer, and I stand with Emery off to the side. I have my arms around her, and she buries her face in my chest.

“Are you all right?” I ask.

She nods. “I’m fine. Thanks to you.”

The sheriff and a couple of deputies arrive, and they take our statements. Emery is still pretty shaken up, but she’s holding tough. She’s a lot stronger than she gives herself credit for. Sheriff Tucker comes over and shows us a bag they found in the back of Travis’s truck.

“Duct tape, rope, zip ties… he had a full abduction kit,” he says, then turns to Emery. “You’re lucky this one was with you.”

“I think she would’ve done just fine without me,” I tell Tucker. “She’s a hell of a lot tougher than she looks.”

Emery shudders and looks like she might be sick, but she offers me a weak smile. The deputies finally haul Travis to his feet and walk him toward their car. He turns to her, that deranged, lovesick expression still on his face.

“I love you, Emery. And I know you love me,” Travis calls out. “And don’t worry, I won’t hold this against you. When I’m out, we’re going to be together. I promise you!”

“You ever come back around here again, and I promise you I’ll put a bullet in your fuckin’ head,” I call back to him.

Travis glares at me, but I see the fear in his eyes.

Emery narrows her eyes and stands as tall as her petite frame allows.

She shoots him a hateful look but says nothing as they stuff him into the back of one of the cruisers.

Tucker takes his leave, and they all drive out, leaving Emery and me standing alone in front of the cabin. I turn to her.

“It’s over now,” I say. “You’re all right.”

“If not for you?—”

I laugh. “Like I told Tucker, I think you’d have beaten that boy just fine on your own.”

“Well… It’s not something I want to test.”

I pull her to me and wrap her in a tight embrace. She’s so small and fragile, but she’s tough. She’s a survivor. And she’s got a strength she doesn’t even realize she has. I can see it in her, even if she can’t. She turns her face up to me.

“Would you really shoot him?” she asks.

“I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe,” I tell her. “And as long as I’m around, I’m never going to let anything bad happen to you. For as long as you’ll have me.”

Her smile is warm and fills my heart with a lightness and a sense of joy that’s been uncommon in my life. And it’s like a drug. I’m addicted to the feelings she inspires in me.

“What if I want you for a long time?” she asks.

“Then you’ll have me for a long time.”

“You make me feel safe, Eli.”

Safe isn’t a word I’ve used much in my life. It’s a word I never really thought applied to me. It’s a word I never gave much thought to. But as I stare into her eyes, I feel that’s changing. I feel like my entire world is changing. And she’s the reason for it.

“You make me feel safe, too,” I tell her and mean it. “Safer than I’ve ever felt before.”

I lean forward and kiss her forehead, and she melts into me.

Safe. It’s a strange word.

But it’s a word that feels as good and real as Emery Pierce feels in my arms.