Page 17 of Guarded By the Mountain Man

“You're fired,” Corbin snaps at him and then turns to face me. “You have no idea what you've put in motion. Get. In. The car.”

“The answer is no, Corbin. It was no in the church too, but you just never asked me.”

And because he’s stupid, his hand shoots out and closes around my arm, hard, and pulls.

I hear Holt before I see him, a deep growl in his chest that I feel through the soles of my feet. Then there's a blur, no punching or shouts, just Corbin's wrist peeled off my arm and folded up behind his back. Suddenly he’s bent over the hood of his expensive car with his cheek pressed to the frost, gasping, held there by one hand and a knee. Holt isn't even breathing hard. He leans down close to Corbin's ear, and I only catch the end of what he says.

“...touch her again, and there isn't a family on earth rich enough to buy you back. Nod if you understand.”

Corbin nods.

Hawk walks over and crouches down. “Rotmere will be very interested to hear how you’ve been siphoning off their money into your shell companies for the last six years. I hear they make people disappear when they find out about fraud.”

Corbin makes a whimpering sound. “They don’t need to know.”

Holt’s voice is steady. “Then leave Juliette alone. Nobody knows she’s here.”

Corbin nods, his face squished against the car.

“Stay down. It's the best deal you'll get today.”

Somewhere behind me, calm as a woman reporting a pothole, Mary from the inn says into her phone, “Morning, Joe. You'll want to send a car up to the inn. Disturbance up here.”

When the sheriff arrives, he takes Corbin down the mountain in the cruiser. Dane shakes Holt's hand before he leaves. Hawk drinks the coffee Nora brings out, then swings back onto the bike. "Thanksgiving. Me and Taryn’ll be expecting you. Both.”

“Walk me through it,” I say, once Mary’s gone back inside and Holt and I are standing there alone.

He looks down at me. “Through what?”

“All of it. You had a plan this whole time, and I thought you didn’t. I’m sorry for not trusting you.”

He shakes his head. “That works both ways. I should have told you sooner, but I was worried I’d put you in more danger, or you’d run. There's a tracker on the phone I gave you. I’ve had eyes on you the whole time you’ve been here.”

I stare up at him. “Here's my one rule, Holt Newell, trust me. Tell me what the plan is, okay?”

“It’s a deal.”

“Now kiss me, and take me home.”

He kisses me right there on Main Street, one arm wrapping me clean off the sidewalk, and I forget everything else for a long time.

EPILOGUE - JULIETTE

Eight months later

The case cards at Latte Da! have my name on the cinnamon rolls now.

Nora added a tiny heart underneath. Working here delights me, coming in before the town is properly awake, tying on my apron and making something from scratch. I love experimenting with new fillings and pretending not to notice when Holt appears at the counter ten minutes before closing because he was apparently just ‘passing by’.

Eight months, and the sight of him filling the doorway still makes my stomach flip.

Life is quiet up here, and that’s wonderful when you get to choose it.

Corbin left me alone, exactly as promised. The possibility of the Rotmere Corporation discovering just how creatively he handled their money was apparently enough to cure him of his desire to control my life. My father lost the merger, the Vance money, and, according to Daisy, most of his golf partners.

Daisy came to Wildwood three weeks after I did to collect her car. She took one look at Holt standing behind me with his hand settled possessively on my hip and Six sitting beside him and burst out laughing.

“Jules. You absolute legend. You ran away from a wedding and straight into a romance novel.”