Page 17 of The Fear (The Hillers of Barratt County #7)

Every Hiller brother was fiercely overprotective over their sisters.

Just like Hudson was over her. Of course.

Grady felt he wasn’t good enough because of what happened to Greer.

Damn the men who had done it—the repercussions of their actions would be felt by the Hiller family for the rest of their lives.

It wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t right. Grady didn’t deserve to hurt that way at all.

“But how do we reprogram Grady?” Hala asked as the puppy version of him nipped at her ear. She just cuddled him close, halfway in love already. “I hate that he thinks this. That he’s hurting like that. And has been for years.”

“The only reason he didn’t get me away from them and Gunn got Genny away that day is because Grady was in the barn, taking care of the horses while Gunn was inside making dinner.

Grady was just too far away. I’ve always known that.

I was in the yard, and Genny on the porch.

I was closer to those guys. It was just…

happenstance. Random. I can talk to him,” Greer said.

“Make him understand it was never his fault what happened.”

“Gene told me something similar. He said he was angry with himself for not somehow getting out of the way. If he’d pulled over or something, they wouldn’t have hit him that day,” Chantal said, putting an arm around Genny’s shoulders.

“And then Greer wouldn’t have been thrown.

But…something even worse could have happened instead. ”

“Wrong,” Greer said, wiping tears. “They saw Gene coming and aimed for him on purpose. Said we’d all go out in a blaze of glory, and they’d take whoever was in that truck out with us.

I thought it was my mom and dad and Gia.

But I knew…it had to be someone I loved .

And I could see Grady coming up behind us through the back window.

And I knew…Grady was my hope that day. He rode in the ambulance with me, holding my hand, and I knew I’d be okay because he was there and not one of them .

I will never forget waking to see Grady next to me during the scariest moments of my life. That doofus butthead.”

Grady had had a first-row seat for the accident that could have killed his youngest sister, and his brother Gene. That…she would always remember what that had felt like, when her own parents and her baby sister had died. Always.

Oh, that bonehead…Hala fought tears as she imagined how he would have hurt all this time.

“So,” Gia asked, hugging Greer close. “How are we going to fix him?”

“Well, if he thinks no decent woman deserves him, a decent woman is going to have to just show him differently,” Chantal said, Dog Gene trying to nurse on her finger.

That puppy was all over her. Fitting, really, since Man Gene usually was all over Chantal now, too.

But…Chantal was eyeing Hala with intent here.

“I think Hala just needs to seduce him—then when she has him in her clutches, reprogram him. Show him a decent woman is exactly what he deserves. Hiller boys can be reprogrammed, you know,” Ronnie said, bluntly.

She was very wise—usually. “It’s just…sometimes they have to be re-reprogrammed.

It’s a lot of work…to…maintain…a Hiller boy.

Any of you ladies getting involved with one of those Hiller boys—you need to be prepared, and know exactly what you are getting into. This really is a full-time commitment.”

Well. Hala didn’t know if she was ready for that, honestly. The idea of seducing a man—even Grady—was absolutely terrifying. And a full-time commitment—yeah, wasn’t that jumping too far ahead, here?

“We should get back up there,” Genny said. “Someone is going to notice we’re missing.”

“Very true. And then they are going to come looking. Who knows what kind of trouble they will get into in the meantime,” Ronnie added. “You have to watch them carefully, too, you know.”

“How am I supposed to do that, though? The whole seducing him thing? If I decide to do that, I mean?” Hala asked. She needed to think.

This…was a massive step for her. How did she even know she was ready to even be thinking about it?

“Well, I don’t think you were having too much trouble a few minutes ago,” Gia snarked at her, as Hala kissed Dog Grady on his fuzzy little head.

He was a very affectionate little puppy.

She was already in love. She needed to see how much the pet fee was at her apartment…

it might be worth it. This puppy, exactly.

“When you were trying to get him naked in the barn and everything.”

“Ah! No more details, please!” Greer said.

Genny patted Hala on her head, before putting her own puppy namesake in back with their mama. “Just keep doing what you are doing, Hala. Guys are rather easy to seduce when you work at it. I’m going to go find my man and seduce him again tonight, too.”

“Not listening,” Chantal said. “There are some things a sister does not want to know.”

“No kidding, Chantal, No kidding. I heard you and Gene. I heard you last night. I have been scarred for life.”

Hala kissed her puppy one more time before putting him back with his brothers and sisters.

Why did guys have to be so complicated?

But one thing was clear. She wasn’t going to let him go on thinking he wasn’t good enough. That just wasn’t going to happen. Grady Hiller was a good man. It was time he saw that, too.

She and Gia were the last ones out of the barn. Gia looked at her, a considering look in her eyes. “You’re seriously okay?”

“Yes. It’s the weirdest thing. He gets me all twisted up in knots, and I get shaky, and hot, and—I haven’t felt this way about a man in years, Gia.

And yet, when he was holding me, I didn’t feel afraid, at all.

How can a guy make you feel like the world is shaking apart around you…

and safer than you’ve ever been in your life—at the exact same time? ”

These were questions she wouldn’t even feel comfortable asking Greer and Ayla.

But Gia…was different. Older, for one thing.

And her experience almost three years ago with Jason Clarke was far too similar to Hala’s.

Clarke had nearly choked Gia to death that day.

But Hala and Greer and Genny had interrupted him and saved her.

Hala and Gia had grown so much closer since that night.

Hala…it had happened to her over a year before Gia.

They had sort of clung to each other as they’d healed ever since.

“That is a question I have yet to answer. But…let’s get back out there. I have a feeling we’ve been missed.”

“Thanks, by the way. For saving my bacon with my brother. But…what were you doing that far away from the crowd with Hudson anyway?”

“That is a question I have yet to answer.”

Well, that required some investigating too.

Later…much later. She had to come up with a plan for Grady Hiller.

Somehow.

Without screwing everything up.