Page 29 of Her Guarded Hero

“He was taking precautions before he left. That’s why he hadn’t gone into town. That’s why he extended the hours of Hal and Erwin.”

“Well at least now I know why I wasn’t allowed to sit on the porch swing,” Aurora said wryly.

Dalton lifted an eyebrow.

“I’d bet my bottom dollar that Granddad has his rifle hidden underneath the seat cushion.”

He winced. “Yeah, well I’m thinking that might not be the best hiding place.”

“Ya think?” She scooped up more apple mixture, eyed it, then dumped it back into the bowl. “I don’t even think this is going to make me feel better. Dammit Dalton. What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know. But we’ll keep you safe.”

“I don’t care about me, I worry about my grandfather.”

Of course, she would. “I think him going to Sacramento is the best thing for him.”

“But what about when he comes back?” she asked worriedly.

“Sunshine, this is probably about something that happened in your past. I’m going to want to go through your employment records for the last five years.”

“Those are confidential.”

“I spoke to Hal and Erwin, both of them said it was great working here, but that you’ve had to let at least two people go since they’ve been here at Valhalla.”

“It was for cause,” she sat up straight in her chair, her eyes bright.

“I didn’t doubt it for a minute,” he assured her. “But a disgruntled former employee is definitely different than some kid who you chased away from throwing rotten apples at your barn, don’t you think?”

“Neither one of the made a stink.” She jammed her spoon into the mush of dessert. “Not that they had a chance to,” she qualified. “They should feel damned lucky they got their final paychecks. As far as I’m concerned they should have been run out of town on a rail.” Aurora stirred the apple mixture so hard that some of it flew onto the table.

Dalton put his hand over hers. “You can stop now, I think you’ve killed it. It deserves to be buried in the garbage disposal.” He pulled the bowl away from her and picked up the melted carton on the table in front of him and took both to the sink. When he came back to the table, he pulled his chair close to hers and sat back down.

“Tell me what happened with the two men that were fired. Did you terminate them, or did Gunnar?”

“I did,” she bit out. “I didn’t want granddad to know what happened. If he did he would have gotten out his shotgun and plugged their asses. Especially Darryl.”

He didn’t like the sounds of that. “Tell me.”

She rubbed her forehead, then winced in pain. “I keep forgetting about the bump on my head,” she admitted with a half-smile. She continued to probe the bruise.

There was nothing about this that he was finding amusing. He tugged her hand away from her head and then stared at her bruise. “You could have been killed that day, you do realize that, don’t you? This isn’t a game.”

* * *

She liked the feel of his fingers against her skin. She liked it too much. There wasn’t anything about this man that she didn’t adore, and it had only been three days. Shit, was she staring again? She saw a flare of fire in his eyes. His fingers trailed down her cheek to her jaw. Who knew that she was an erogenous zone?

“Tell me about Darryl.”

Well that stopped all the tender feelings.

“It was nothing.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth she saw him scowl and knew she was in for an argument.

“Aurora.” Nothing more, just her name.

“Dalton.”

“Enough with the bullshit. Tell me what happened.”