Protecting His Beautiful Lover (Southern Soldiers of Fortune 3)

Her grin was brighter than the sun outside. Tara nodded, then squealed as he swept her up into his arms and held her tight. She buried her face in the side of his neck, her breath warming him from the inside out. “I do.”

“I promise I’ll do better this time,” he whispered into her hair. “I won’t use work to shut you out. I’ll be here for you and Ashley. I’ll change my priorities, my focus. I had it all wrong before. I thought my job was the most important thing, but it’s not. The most important things in the world to me are you and Ashley. I won’t ever forget that again.”

Tara cupped his cheeks and pulled him in for a long, deep kiss, then rested her forehead against his and met his eyes, smiling. “And I promise to let you know if you ever forget that promise.”

He laughed and put her down, but didn’t let her go, locking his hands behind her lower back. “Sounds like a plan.”

“It does.” She smoothed her palms down the front of his T-shirt. “Now, let’s go plant a garden.”

22

Tara kept hold of Clint’s hand as they walked out the sliding doors to the backyard, the perfect weather reflecting the perfect turn her day had taken. She still had a hard time believing what had just happened, that Clint had walked into her house and offered her basically exactly what she wanted more than anything.

He loved her. She loved him. Fairy tale ending achieved. And sure, life wasn’t always perfect, but it sure as hell felt like it at that moment.

They walked over to the corner where she’d set out the stuff for the butterfly garden. Ashley had already gotten started on following the directions that came with the garden supplies. She had dumped out the bag of soil into one of the raised beds and was smoothing it out with a hoe.

“Daddy, we need more dirt,” Ashley said. “It says two bags, but there was only one here.”

“Oh, darn it. I thought I got enough,” Tara said.

“I can go get more.” Clint pulled out his keys. “Anything else we need?”

“No,” Ashley said, watching them now. “Are you guys friends again?”

Tara grinned as Clint leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Yep, we are.”

“Yay!” Ashley clapped, then started hoeing again. “We can start putting in the seeds next.”

“Be right back.” Clint kissed her once more, this time on the lips before jogging back toward the house. “Don’t start planting without me.”

“Deal,” Tara called and picked up the instructions to read them. “Did you find all the seeds, kiddo?”

“Yep. I laid them out on the table over there.” She pointed toward the table on the patio and Tara walked back over there to check them out. She hadn’t had a lot of time to garden for a while, though she always enjoyed it. There was something about weeding and digging in the dirt that was good for the soul.

After checking out the diagram in the instructions about how far apart to place the seeds, she pulled out her phone to check her emails. Her digital edition of the local paper had arrived, and Tara took a seat at the table to scroll through the news articles. One of them focused on the climate change legislation and the battle she’d fought the past few months to get it passed. Most of it was things she already knew, except for the last few paragraphs. Those were about the opposition to the bill and how one company in particular stood to lose millions because of the new law—Bartlet Energy.

Huh. She’d guessed that the company’s bottom line would be hurt by her legislation, but she’d never imagined they had so much to lose.

As if on cue, the doorbell chimed and Tara frowned. Maybe it was Clint with the dirt. It seemed awfully fast, but the store was only a block away. She put down her phone and called over her shoulder to Ashley, “Be right back, kiddo. I need to answer that.”

Inside, it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dimness as she walked across the room to the front door. She opened it, then stared at the person on the other side, her stomach plummeting to her toes as she took in the gun in his hand, pointed at her heart. “Jacob, what are you doing here?”

“Waiting for your boyfriend to leave so we could talk,” he said, motioning with the weapon for her to step back. Jacob closed and locked the door behind him, then moved forward, forcing her to retreat. “I’m sure you’ve figured out it was me behind the attacks by now. You’re a lot of things, Tara Crumb, but stupid isn’t one of them. Too bad I can’t say the same for the men I hired to take you out. I guess if you want something done right, you really do need to do it yourself.”

Her mind whirled as she tried to think of a way to keep herself and Ashley safe until Clint returned. Why did she have to send him off to buy dirt? Oh yeah, because she didn’t know a psycho with a gun would show up on her doorstep, that’s why. She swallowed hard and inched back toward the kitchen, thinking maybe she could grab the garden shears she’d laid on the island earlier to protect herself. “You don’t have to do this, Jacob.”

He laughed without amusement, the gun in his hand shaking ominously. “Actually, I do. Because of you.”

“Me?” She inched back farther, grasping the edge of the island in a white-knuckled grip. Please hurry, Clint. If she could just keep this guy talking, maybe she’d have a chance to survive. That’s what they did in the movies, right? Then Tara made the mistake of glancing at the gun in his hand again and her throat dried. Oh God. She didn’t want to die. She’d just found the love of her life. And Ashley…

Tara’s heart tripped. The little girl was in the backyard. She didn’t know what was going on.

Fierce determination flared inside her.

Must protect Ashley.

When Jacob didn’t answer, she kept prodding him, desperate to keep his attention focused on her and not the backyard. “Is this about the bill?”