Protector: Doms of Mountain Bend Book 1 by BJ Wane (reading books for 7 year olds .txt) 📗

looking toward the side of the house where he’d built the shepherds’ dog run. “I see and hear them, and I’m so glad you’ve finished a safe outdoor space for them while you’re away from home. Walk over there with me so I can get going faster, and tell me about the pretty blonde.”

“I knew you would ask. Oddly enough, she’s someone from my past, was another kid Father Joe stepped in to help. She’s only in Mountain Bend until the end of the school year, so don’t get any ideas.”

Sending him one of her secret smiles that hinted she wasn’t buying that was all there was to it, she unlatched the gate and he moved quickly to make sure the exuberant dogs didn’t jump on her. She might appear sturdy, and look a decade younger than her sixty-four, but he wouldn’t chance her getting knocked down. Curly and Mo had taken to her as fast as they had Lisa.

“If you say so, dear. Hello, boys.”

Ten minutes later, Miss Betty looked up at him as she settled behind the wheel again, her hand on the door handle and eyes twinkling. “Bring your girl over for tea and cookies sometime. I’d like to meet a protegee of the good priest.”

She closed the door then drove off with a wave, leaving Shawn to question why he hadn’t corrected her when she’d called Lisa his girl.

****

Other than pushing her for more than she thought was wise to accept, Lisa was looking forward to spending more time with Master Shawn. She drove home after dinner with giddy anticipation, thinking he was right, now that the secret was out about their brief past, she could stop fretting so much and enjoy the next few weeks, maybe extend her stay if she was needed for summer school. By then, surely her stalker would have forgotten all about her.

Her burst of positive thinking lasted until she returned to her duplex bungalow, through a long hot shower, and while she mulled over what to wear. As she chose a simple ivory camisole to pair with her one denim skirt, her phone beeped with an incoming text. Thinking it might be Shawn, she snatched it off the end table, her eagerness to hear from him changing to a cold knot of dread as she read the message from the one person she never wanted to hear from again.

I’VE FINALLY FOUND YOU. DID YOU MISS ME AS MUCH AS I’VE MISSED YOU?

Hand shaking, she tossed the phone down and cast a frantic look around, as if he was in the room with her. It wasn’t until she searched every corner of the entire house and scanned the street for a suspicious vehicle or loiterer that the fear tensing every muscle eased enough for her to take a much-needed breath. She still didn’t want to but saw no other choice than to ask Shawn for help, and his protection, even though she cringed imagining his reaction.

Tears pricked her eyes, and she sank down onto the sofa, putting her head in her hands. The distant clap of thunder heralding an approaching storm startled her enough she jumped, raised her head, and searched the shadows in the room. Regardless of what Shawn thought about the nine-year-old girl he once protected showing up in his town twenty years later needing his safeguarding again, she was out of options. She couldn’t tell him at the club, though, humiliating herself in public. Even if she had to sleep with one eye open here on the sofa, she could wait one more day to enlist his help.

Returning to the bedroom, she picked the phone up and sent him a quick text, saying only she couldn’t make it and would talk to him later. Her gaze landed on the camisole and thong she’d planned to wear tonight, and a spurt of anger shoved aside her fear for a moment. She’d been looking forward to being with Master Shawn again, to submitting to whatever he commanded. He’d come to know her needs well in the short time since they’d reunited, and it grated that she’d finally reached the point of risking further heartache by going for everything she could get only to have the chance stolen from her.

Lisa strode back into the living room, cursing this unknown person who had upended her life. Following her mother’s death, she’d been given few choices about her immediate future. The foster family Father Joe recommended had been welcoming and supportive, but she’d missed her mother’s love, that extra mile a parent was always willing to go for their child. She’d learned to fend for herself at school, never complain or ask others for help out of fear of ridicule for being a foster kid. Working two jobs and burning the midnight oil for four years to put herself through college had left her too tired or with not enough hours in the day to make friends, date, or party. She’d graduated without forming any close bonds like most college kids did and had been fending for herself for so long, she’d gotten used to not relying on others for help.

A jagged streak of lightning lit up the midnight sky outside the window, the ensuing thunder boom striking much closer and bringing with it a driving downpour. Her nervousness returned, along with the fear, and, to keep herself busy, she retrieved a flashlight, blanket, and pillow and settled on the sofa with the television turned low. Telling herself there was a good chance her stalker had been bluffing and didn’t really know where she was, helped calm her anxiety, but the night couldn’t pass quickly enough to suit her.

****

Shawn put his beer down to glance at the text from Lisa, his annoyance with her tardiness escalating to anger. Pissed off didn’t begin to describe his reaction. Fuck this. He wasn’t about to let her get away with