Chapter Thirteen

  “Can you help me with these?” Hannah asked, holding up a bunch of flowers so big she could barely see out over the top of them.

  Bailey couldn’t help but smile at how ridiculous she looked, but she nodded at once.

  “Of course I can,” she replied, scooping a few of them from her hands. “Where are these going?”

  “We’re planting them up next to the paddock,” she explained. “Aaron’s done such great work there, and now that he’s finished, we want to add a splash of color to finish it off.”

  “Sounds awesome,” Bailey replied, perking up as soon as she realized it meant she was going to be able to see Wheatie again. And maybe Aaron, too. It had been only a couple of days since their night together, and she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. But it wasn’t the same confusing mess of emotions she was used to dealing with when it came to him. Instead, it was excitement, the thrill of a new romance, and the incredible heat of their chemistry.

  She and Hannah headed out toward the paddock, where the sun was beating down on the fresh green grass sprouting up around the new fences Aaron had put up. They both kneeled down at one corner, laying out the freshly uprooted flowers, ready to replant them—or they would have been, had it not been for Wheatie cantering over to see what they were doing.

  “Wheatie, no!” Bailey exclaimed as the horse dipped her head down to take a chomp out of one of the flowers. She chewed thoughtfully for a moment, as though trying to decide whether she liked them or not, and then dived in to take a few bites out of the rest.

  “Shoo! Shoo!” Hannah yelled, waving her hands at Wheatie to try and chase her away. But it was no good—the horse had already decimated at least half of the flowers.

  “Wheatie, go away!” Bailey told her, but she couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous this situation was. Wheatie could fit her head easily through the fence, and as soon as she had laid eyes on the flowers, she had seen her lunch.

  “Look, I’ll try to lead her away,” Bailey told Hannah, and she scrambled over the fence, trying to gently direct the horse out of the chaos she was currently causing, but Wheatie just politely brushed her off, as though she was nothing more than an annoyance. Hannah burst out laughing, shaking her head.

  “I think it’s a lost cause,” she told Bailey. “Don’t worry about it, we can get more flowers. We just need to have a better defense system against Wheatie next time around.”

  “She’s…a lot to handle.” Bailey laughed, shaking her head. “Maybe we could ask Aaron to put up something, a blocker of some kind, just a temporary one to keep her out.”

  As though she had summoned him with just the power of her words, she glanced around to see Aaron leaning on a shovel, watching the two of them. She felt a flush to her cheeks when she realized he had been staring, but she didn’t mind.

  “He’s been watching you since you got out here, you know,” Hannah said wryly.

  Bailey raised her eyebrows. “Has he?”

  “You didn’t notice?”

  “Nope,” she replied, shaking her head. She felt like she would have been able to feel his eyes on her, but she had clearly been too distracted by Wheatie’s mischief.

  “Damn, girl.” She laughed. “You should pay more attention when hot guys are checking you out.”

  “Hot guys?” she teased right back.

  Hannah shrugged. “Hey, I’m not trying to jump in on your territory,” she replied. “But he’s cute. And it’s clear he likes you.”

  Bailey shrugged. Aaron lifted a hand to wave at her, and she waved back. A flicker in her chest reminded her of just how attracted she was to this man. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to go talking to Hannah about it. No, whatever was going on between them, it was just between them.

  “The two of you have a history, right?” she pressed, her eyes widening with interest.

  Bailey shrugged. “I guess,” she replied, keeping it as vague as possible. Hannah was a really sweet woman, but it was going to take a long time for Bailey to totally trust anyone again.

  Especially Aaron.

  “Well, I think you should go for it,” she told her, leaning forward and lowering her voice conspiratorially. “You don’t want to leave him single for too long.”

  “Has he been dating other women? Since he got here, I mean?” she asked, hoping her voice was convincingly unbothered.

  “Not that I’ve ever seen,” Hannah remarked. “He’s mostly kept to himself, actually. Nobody really knows a lot about what was going on with him before he got here.”

  Bailey watched Aaron as he headed back inside one of the sheds to finish his work. That made sense. It would explain why he didn’t know a huge amount about Xavier or Lawson, even after living on the property and working here for as long as he had. She felt a little pang when she thought about that—that he had been holding back so much about himself, probably worried it was going to put either him or her in danger. No matter what he had done to her, he didn’t deserve to live looking over his shoulder every moment, unable to be honest with anyone.

  “Right,” she replied.

  “But you guys…it’s clear there’s something going on,” she continued.

  “Why do you think that?” Bailey replied.

  Was it really that obvious to everyone else? She had hoped she might be able to keep it under wraps, at least for a little while, but it looked like the secret was out.

  “Because he’s always hanging around,” she replied, nodding over to where Aaron had just been standing. “Come on, you must have noticed it, too. He used to hide out in his cabin most of the time unless he was working, and we would just see him at meals. But I feel like whenever I’m with you, he’s there, too.”

  “Maybe,” Bailey replied, but she couldn’t help but smile. Aaron had been looking out for her—just like he had done when she was a rookie. There was still so much of that dynamic between them, even if it had been twisted and nearly destroyed by what he’d done to her.

  “He likes you,” Hannah told her, and Bailey couldn’t help but laugh.

  “I’m not sure about that.”

  “Well, I am, and I’m never wrong about these things,” Hannah replied matter-of-factly, and her confidence made Bailey giggle again.

  Or perhaps it was just the thought of Aaron really liking her that had her all kinds of excited. She didn’t know for sure what was going on between them right now, but she knew the night they’d spent together had been amazing.

  “Aaron’s a good man with a good heart,” Hannah continued. “I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but whatever it was, you shouldn’t let it get in the way of whatever you feel for him now.”

  Bailey didn’t reply, chewing her lip as she gathered what remained of the flowers before Wheatie made her way through them, too.

  Hannah and Bailey headed back to the main building. Much to Bailey’s relief, Hannah dropped the conversation about Aaron. Bailey wasn’t sure how much longer she would have been able to throw Hannah off the scent, and the other woman didn’t seem like she was good at keeping her mouth shut. Bailey could imagine her spilling the secret before she was ready, and it was hard enough to settle into this place without people wondering what was going on between the two of them.

  Back inside the lodge, Bailey headed in for a quick shower. There was dirt all over her from the flowers, and she needed to clean herself off before she helped out with anything else. More importantly, she needed a minute to herself, because she was starting to feel all kinds of flustered about what was going on with her and Aaron.

  She closed her eyes as she stepped beneath the rush of the warm water, letting out a breath she didn’t even realize she had been holding. Her mind drifted back to their first kiss. The feel of his fingers skimming across her skin, the way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her like she meant so much to him.

  She had craved that from him for so long. Craved his touch, craved his approval, craved those precious words he had spoken to her. But it was all so wrapped up in their messy past, she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to make it out the other side in one piece. Could she really forgive him? He had sent her away, and he had left those corrupt cops in the department without telling anyone. Even if he had had his reasons, even if it had been to protect her, it still didn’t seem right.

  But if she could end this—if she could expose those men, and bring a close to their reign of terror over that department—the past wouldn’t be such a problem any longer. The problem right now was that they were still out there, and the danger was hot on their heels. Neither of them could relax and focus on the moment.

  Well, maybe once. When they were lying in bed together the other night, she’d looked over at him and it had been like she was seeing him with clear eyes for the very first time. Like all their history had just vanished, and all that mattered was the man lying beside her—the man gazing at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world. She couldn’t think of anything that mattered more than the feeling in her heart right then, the warmth of it flooding her whole body.

  She sighed as she stepped out of the shower. She wished she could go back to that moment, just for a second, just to feel the way she had felt then. One day, she would be able to. But for now? Until they could make their move on the dirty cops who had done this to them, they were stuck in this strange limbo, and she wasn’t sure if she could handle it much longer.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I think you should sit down,” Xavier told Aaron, nodding to the seat on the other side of his desk. On either side of him, Cade and Lawson stood, flanking him like they were in formation.

  “Yeah, thanks.” Aaron sank into the seat and tried to gather himself. He had come here for a reason, and they were as aware of it as he was.

  “So, what’s going on? Why did you want to see all of us together?” Xavier asked, clasping his hands on the desk and giving him a serious look.

  When Aaron had asked for a meeting with the other men earlier that day, he had known they could tell that something was up. He never tried to spend extra time with anyone here. Not that he didn’t like them, but it just seemed safer to keep to himself.

  But he needed their help. More importantly, so did Bailey. They had some serious skills if they were former military, then also adding Lawson and Xavier’s former CIA experience. They could probably make good use of them in their quest to bring Ziegler and his crew to justice.

  “I’ve been talking to Bailey,” Aaron explained. “And we…a lot went on in our past. I already filled you two in on some of it.” He nodded between Lawson and Xavier, and then looked to Cade. “To keep it short and simple, Bailey and I worked together before. I was a police sergeant for a town similar to here in Blue Ridge, and Bailey was a rookie at the time—training under my supervision. We were in a small department with a handful or so of other guys. We handled mostly small-town stuff, nothing too serious for the most part, but we kept on top if it.”

  Lawson and Cade exchanged a glance when he paused.

  Xavier nodded at him to go on. “And?”

  Aaron filled them in on the rest of the story, how he had discovered some of them were corrupt, and they had beaten the hell out of him, and then threatened to come after Bailey if he didn’t leave. The report he had written to get her removed, and the six years they had spent apart in the meantime. How she had come back, only to be faced with the same betrayal he’d been through all those years ago, and how she was determined to take them down.

  The men fell silent for a moment when he was done, taking in the enormity of what he had just told them.

  “That’s why you’ve kept to yourself all these years.” Cade hit the nail on the head with that one guess.

  Aaron nodded in agreement. “I was really messed up from everything when I first got here, and just wanted to forget about it. Plus, I thought if I talked about it to anyone, I might end up drawing them to me somehow and something worse might happen. It just felt safer to stay out of the way and keep my head down.”

  “Now, I’ve heard a lot of stories from people who’ve ended up here,” Lawson remarked, finally. “But that has to be one of the wildest.”

  Xavier chuckled, and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help with it,” he replied. “Bailey’s been leading the charge so far, right?”

  “Trying to…so far,” Aaron replied. “I’ve tried to get her to slow down, but she wants to finish this.”

  “I can’t say I blame her,” Cade chimed in. “Sounds like she’s committed her life to the force, so of course she wouldn’t want to let that corruption go.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to be involved in this anymore,” Lawson added.

  Aaron raised his eyebrows. “You don’t?”

  Good luck telling her that.

  She had never been good at hearing no, especially when it was a case she felt personally connected to. And this one was about as personal as they came.

  “She’s got too much on the line not to get distracted,” Xavier agreed. “And besides, if she does want to get back to work eventually, she’s not going to want to have a history of working with people off the books.”

  Aaron grimaced. He hadn’t even thought of that. Bailey was so focused on dealing with this in the immediate, she hadn’t thought about how it might impact her career in the future. She had so much potential, even after being stuck behind a desk for so long, and he didn’t want her to risk putting all of that on the line.

  “You’re right,” he agreed.

  “We need to get all the details she has to combine with yours, but I think it’s best if we handle it from here on out,” Xavier assured him. “And of course, we’ll keep the two of you updated every step of the way. But it’s better for her in the long term if she holds back from this.”

  “We can find somewhere else for her to stay so she’s not tempted to get involved,” Lawson added.

  Aaron felt a twist in his chest at the thought. Losing her again, when she had only just come back into his life? It didn’t feel right. But their help would be invaluable to bringing this to a close, and Bailey would surely recognize that.

  He hoped, anyway. And he hoped her leaving wouldn’t put an end to what the two of them had just started to share after all these years.

  “Yeah, I agree with these two. It’s too dangerous and could cause more problems down the line if she’s involved in this. We’ll come to her for information, if needed,” Cade agreed. “But she can’t be involved with the actual operation. I’m sure she’ll be safer somewhere else, too.”

  “Yeah, apparently they know I’m here,” Aaron admitted, and Xavier jerked his head back in surprise.

  “You could have told us that sooner,” he replied. “If they know you’re here, there’s every chance they know she’s here, too. We’ll need to lock down any information coming in and out, make sure we don’t have any leaks.”

  “Agreed,” Lawson replied. “Aaron, we’ll get started on this today and start working out a plan. You can tell Bailey what’s going on and we’ll get with you both later to confirm information. We’ll also find somewhere else for her to stay as soon as possible.”

  “I’ll talk to her and fill her in,” Aaron confirmed. But he had a bad feeling about this.

  He had made a decision for Bailey before in the past, and he was pretty sure some part of her still hated him for it. He doubted she was going to take this well, no matter how sensible it was.

  “Uh, one more thing, guys,” he said hesitantly. He hoped what he was about to say wasn’t going to have a negative impact on anything they’d be planning. “Bailey and I spoke with Sheriff Willis the other day in town, and she filled him in on some of it, hoping he could search for information for her.”

  The guys all exchanged glances, sharing unspoken words within those looks.

  “We’ll check in with Willis and see if he’s made progress up to this point. Let him know we’re on it now,” Lawson told him.

  “We’ll talk to you later today,” Xavier replied, rising to his feet and opening the door for Aaron. “And Aaron, thanks for coming to us with this. We haven’t known a lot about you or your past up to this point. We didn’t want to push and make you feel like you had to defend yourself to stay here. We wanted you to know you were welcome, regardless of your past. You know you can trust us, right?”

  Aaron nodded. “I know. And I appreciate it. I should have made more of an effort before to open myself up and get to know all of you, but I was…scared, I guess. That I’d bring trouble if other people knew, and I just wanted to forget it all and disappear. And I thought I was doing right by Bailey at the time. I didn’t have time to think it all through properly. I never expected her to come back after everything that happened.” He paused, suddenly thinking his words were getting too heavy. “Anyway, thank you. For everything.” He nodded at them all, then turned to leave.

  He meant it. He knew he needed to start putting more trust in these guys. They had been there for him when he had needed it most, even if he hadn’t told them the truth about what had brought him to Warrior Peak until now.

  Now, he had to go tell Bailey the news. And he got a feeling she wasn’t going to take it well.

  It was another beautiful day outside, and Aaron knew exactly where Bailey would be—out at the paddock, hanging out with Wheatie. The bond she’d made with the old mare was downright adorable to him, bringing out this softer side of Bailey she didn’t always show. He hoped she would be in a good mood when he got there, something to soften the blow of the news he was about to share with her.

  He followed the path out to the paddock, and sure enough, she was standing with Hannah and River, the three of them laughing as they tried to shoo Wheatie away from the flowers they wanted to plant there. He paused for a moment, and couldn’t help but smile.

  She didn’t see him yet, and the way she was interacting with the other women reminded him of how well she was settling in here. She might not have come to this place under the best of circumstances, but it was clear she really belonged. He had never really had much of a chance to see her outside of work before, and this relaxed version of Bailey was one he was really falling for.

 

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