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

relationship, despite his possessive, caring attitude of late, not even when Clayton had given him the perfect opening the other day.

“If you say so. Just remember, I’ve known Shawn a long time, and I’ve never seen him so taken with anyone. And believe me, he’s had his choice since high school.” Jen parked in front of the deli and grabbed her purse. “Come on. All this talk about guys has my stomach growling.”

“For food?” Lisa asked as they entered and veered toward the only vacant table left.

“I’m always hungry for other things, but, yes, food. Oh, good, Hattie made her German potato salad today.”

Jen went to get their order while Lisa held the table for them, greeting people she knew as they came in and walked by. Every time she went someplace in Mountain Bend now, she recognized townsfolk she’d talked to or become acquainted with in the last month. She was even getting good at picking out the visitors: who was a tourist passing through as opposed to a year-round resident. The slower-paced way of life in small-town America had grown on her, so different from maneuvering through traffic to work and shop in a city as big as Phoenix, the population too large to offer many chances for a random meeting with a friend.

She’d grown closer to Jen in this short time than she’d bonded with anyone else, either at the Phoenix club or school, maybe because she’d never cultivated a friendship with anyone in the lifestyle. She liked having someone she could hang out with and not have to watch everything she said, someone who understood why submitting worked for certain people and didn’t judge.

Lisa thought of Father Joe and how much she missed him, then imagined how much she would miss Shawn when she returned home. With a pang, she realized her feelings for her childhood rescuer were already entrenched deeper than was wise.

“What are you thinking about that makes you look so sad?” Jen set a tray down and took a seat.

“Nothing other than wishing whoever is after me would get tired of his game.” Jen and Drew were the only ones she’d told about her stalker, and that was because she had to let them know why she wouldn’t be at the house for a while, and that they should keep an eye on their property. She’d expected Shawn to mention it to Dakota and Clayton in case the trouble followed her out to their ranch. “I really appreciate you and Drew taking off for me today.”

“You bet. We’ve got your back, girlfriend, but I have no doubt Shawn will find this perv. Now, perk up and try that potato salad, you’ll love it.”

The Rueben and salad did help, and Lisa managed to put aside the melancholy that threatened her mood by the time they left to meet Drew.

****

Bruce couldn’t believe his luck had finally changed when he happened to see Halldor exiting the deli up the street from where he’d parked in front of the gun shop. It had taken a week of furtive, limited surveillance to figure out she was staying at the sheriff’s ranch, and what a huge kink that put in his plans. From what he’d seen, and learned about Deputy Sheriff McDuff, he wasn’t a man to mess with. He’d spent time mapping out the route they took from her school and the station and the drive to the ranch, unable to come up with a way to get to her. With his patience shot to hell and his temper a hair-trigger away from exploding, he made the snap decision to follow her when he didn’t see her watchdog anywhere around.

Malicious glee filled him as the two women drove past the city limits, but he held back from running them off the road with all the traffic. When they pulled into a parking lot down by the river, and he noticed the old buildings, he groaned in frustration. Now I have to wait while she plays tourist? Yet one more delay to piss him off further, his anger increasing when a man joined them and they walked toward the entrance of the old mining town together. If he had his way, Lisa Halldor would join the ghosts haunting the one-hundred-fifty-year-old buildings today.

****

What was I thinking? Shawn gave up trying to fill out reports in favor of listening to his sixth sense that always told him when something wasn’t quite right. Since everything here at the station was calm and quiet, and his uneasiness began at noon when Lisa called to say she was with Jen, as he’d asked, he heeded his instincts. Striding out to his cruiser, he whipped out of the parking space and sped out of town, toward the river ghost town.

Lisa followed Drew and Jen out of the century-and-a-half-old saloon, sipping the last of a sarsaparilla as they walked down the boardwalk toward the exit. Touring the old mining town had been a fun diversion from worrying about a crazy person. The buildings alone spoke of the history without a tour guide reciting a prepared monologue. She didn’t need to see or even believe in ghosts to get a chill when Drew led the way through the incredibly preserved buildings, telling her about the terrible confrontations that had erupted between the miners and mining companies, many ending in violence and death.

“So, you learned all that in high school history, and actually remember everything? I’m impressed,” she told Drew as they wound through the parking lot toward their cars.

“Don’t be. He’s a history buff and continues reading everything he can get his hands on, especially books about Idaho’s past.” Jen tossed her bottle into a recycle bin as they reached the back row.

“What can I say? It’s a lot more interesting than current events.”

The loud rev of an engine caught her attention as Lisa stepped away from