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“The sheriff hates me. His niece, Kelly-Anne, is pregnant with my dead husband’s child or say she says. She seems to think that the house should fully be hers because of the baby, and she made up false allegations about Ammo assaulting her to get him thrown in jail. And she and her cousin and sister just walked into my house yesterday as though she owned it. She said Charlie had given her a key. The sheriff always sides with her. He’s not going to give me any protection.”

“That’s all right,” Ammo said. “She doesn’t need police protection, and I wouldn’t trust anyone else. I’m going to take care of her.”

“You have a background in this sort of thing?” Branson asked.

“I work for a private security company. I was also in the Navy and a bond enforcement agent for years.”

“All right. That’s good. If you can protect Aimee that means we don’t have to deal with a sheriff who might hinder things rather than help. I’ll need a way of contacting you. Will you be sticking around here?”

“I don’t know yet,” Ammo said. “I live in Colorado; it would probably be safest for us to go there.”

Aimee shot Ammo a look. “We’re going to Colorado? But I have to sort out everything here.”

“Might not be safe to stay.”

“What about the cats? The house? My job at the Emporium?”

“We’ll sort out everything. But your safety is the most important thing.”

After that, both Aimee and Ammo gave the special agent their phone numbers before he left, promising to keep them in the loop.

Ammo turned to her. She kept her gaze on the ceiling, not looking at him, because if she didn’t look at him, then she wouldn’t see how much trouble she was in.

He leaned in, his lips close to her ear. “Still think that you aren’t going to earn yourself any spankings?”

Uh-oh.

45

Ammo wasn’t sure he’d ever been this angry in his life. She’d been threatened and she hadn’t told him. Yeah, he’d heard her say that this asshole had threatened to hurt both him and Kirsten if she said anything. But she had to know that he could take care of himself, and that he could take care of her and Kirsten too.

It wasn’t acceptable for her to keep things like this from him. If she’d told him earlier, then he never would have left her on her own, no matter what she’d tried to tell him.

“Did you try to send me away to protect me? Because of this threat? Were you trying to get rid of me because you thought I might get hurt by these guys?”

“I can’t pay the money, Ammo,” she told him quietly. “You know that. And he said if I told anyone they’d hurt you or Kirsten. I also think he might have left me a couple of threatening notes that I didn’t keep.”

“So what was the plan?” he said, anger building inside him. He did not like that she’d been trying to protect him. “What were you going to do?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Leave town maybe? But then they might have retaliated by hurting Kirsten, so I probably wouldn’t have done that.”

“You do realize what I do for a living? You do know that I was once in the Navy. Why would you think that I couldn’t protect myself, you, and Kirsten?”

“But why would you?” she said. “Why would you sacrifice yourself for me?”

He leaned in closer. “Because I love you.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know that then, did I? You didn’t even know that you loved me until just now.” She started to cough again and winced in pain.

Shit, this wasn’t the time for this conversation. She was looking so pale that he was actually a little bit worried. This had all been too much for her.

He had no idea what his next move would be. He wanted to take her away from here. Hide her back at the compound in Colorado. But was she strong enough for such a long trip?

He had to find the assholes who threatened her.

“Right. Okay. From now on, things are going to change.”

“They are?” she asked.