Page 31 of Her Guarded Hero

“Aurora, you wouldn’t be human if something like that didn’t affect you.”

She shook her head. Again, her hair went flying, and she grabbed it up in a tight fist, enjoying the slight bit of pain. “Anyway, I finally got her dad’s number, and called him home. He was great with her, but no matter what I said they refused to call the sheriff. As soon as I was sure he handled it. I went straight to the sheriff’s office. I wanted this asshole locked up, but because Mr. Henderson wouldn’t come forward because he didn’t want Renee upset any further, I was…what did you call it?” She looked up at Dalton.

“Shit out of luck.”

“Exactly.”

“So, what did you do?”

Aurora thought back to that day and a feral smile passed her lips. Seriously, she hadn’t wanted her grandfather anywhere that mess, because she knew that whatever he did would end up be reported to the sheriff.

“It was the good luck to be a Friday. He always hung out at this dive in town. I called Erwin and said that he should suggest that he and Hal should invite Darryl out that night. I also said that should make sure the booze kept on coming.”

“I think I’m going to like how this ends.”

“I pulled in two of my Dressler cousins. One was a tight-end another was a blocker. I told them what had gone down, and they met me at midnight out behind the bar.”

“Except for the part that you were there, I’m really liking this.” He pried her fingers apart, so she wasn’t gripping her hair, then held her hand so that their palms were pressed together. “Tell me what happened. I’m assuming your cousins held their own.”

“Suffice it to say, that in under two minutes, Darryl was screaming for mercy. He promised never to touch another girl or woman against her will. Hal and Erwin eventually came and took him back to the cabin he was staying in. I was pounding on his door the next morning at dawn.”

“You had back-up, right?”

She loved how concerned he was, for some reason his worry felt like caring and didn’t chafe like when other men said something like that.

God, she really was one of those psycho broads.

She knocked her head against Dalton’s chest.

“Ouch,” she yelped.

“Ah, Sunshine, don’t hurt yourself.”

“Yes, I had back-up,” she looked up into his eyes. “Erwin and Hal were both with me. I stood over him with my shotgun while he packed up his cabin and we followed behind him until he was off the property. But it still didn’t stop him from hurting some other girl.”

“That wasn’t on you.”

She gritted her teeth so hard she thought they might shatter.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Dalton reiterated. “You did everything you could. Hell, even the police’s hands were tied. You couldn’t very well follow him around every day, now could you?”

“I about died the day Brody told me. Apparently, the assistant DA in California who was handling the case called Brody to find out if there were ever any problems that didn’t get reported. To find out if there was some kind of pattern. The attorney wanted to get an idea of what kind of sentencing to go for.”

Dalton nodded for her to continue.

“When Brody found out Darryl was successfully put behind bars, he told me. He wanted to make sure it was a done deal, before he told me.”

She curled her left hand, the one he wasn’t holding, into a fist and hit him half-heartedly on the chest. “Logically I know it wasn’t my fault, but Dalton, it just kills. You know?”

* * *

He looked into her brown eyes that shimmered with tears that she was holding back. Fuck yeah, he understood. He cuddled her next to his heart and looked off into space. It took him far too long to pull himself together, but eventually he did.

“Tell me about the other guy.”

“Ned Little. He only worked for us for two weeks. Again, I checked his references, but it turned out that he had us call a cell phone number that didn’t belong to the ranch where he’d had worked. If I had talked to them, I would have found out he had been tossed out on his ear. Instead I was totally duped.”

He heard the weariness in her voice.