Read Online Her Rancher Bodyguard by Brenda Minton - Free Book Online Page A

Which wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish.
    Because breathing meant noticing. When she inhaled, she caught his scent. He smelled good. He smelled of the outdoors, clean soap and spicy aftershave that reminded one of spruce trees and autumn. She turned her attention to the window and listening to the twins discuss a horse. Allie wanted to team rope. Essie was the aspiring model. They were compromising. Both would team rope. Both would enter the beauty pageant in San Antonio.
    They were sisters the way she hoped she and Samantha would become sisters. They were on their way to that kind of relationship. Even if they were twenty-some years late to the game. This past summer they’d painted Sam’s kitchen together. They’d been together when their mom had gasped her last breath and went on to whatever eternal reward might have been hers.
    That death had hit them both hard in different ways. Sam had felt abandoned by their mother, Sylvia. Kayla had as well, but she’d been fortunate to have found her mom sooner. And for a short time she’d been the daughter, the one person in Sylvia Martin’s life who knew her and loved her and felt loved by her.
    With her passing, Kayla had been forced to take a long, hard look at her own life.
    The rewind hadn’t been pretty to view.
    â€œKayla, do you think emerald or ruby would be perfect for our gowns?” Essie asked from the backseat.
    Kayla smiled back at the girls. “Either. Or maybe both. You don’t have to match, do you?”
    The girls looked at each other, eyes widening. “Perfect,” they said in unison.
    â€œToo easy,” Boone grumbled. “Don’t expect it to always be like that. They came out of the womb tugging hair and screaming at each other. Mom said if I’d shared a cramped space for nine months, I’d be a little testy, too.”
    The twins disagreed. “We love each other. We just have different opinions,” Allie leaned forward to explain.
    While the banter continued. Kayla’s phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket and read the text.
    Poor little Kayla, her daddy didn’t believe her and thought she was crying wolf. Maybe we should tell the world and then someone might believe you. Your bodyguard, for instance.
    She went cold and her lungs wouldn’t draw in a breath she desperately needed. The twins were still talking, although the conversation buzzed from far away. Boone said her name, not once but several times. She rolled down the window of the truck and threw the phone, watching in the rearview mirror as it bounced along the pavement of the country road.
    â€œOh, boy,” one of the twins said in a low whisper. “So maybe just drop us off at Oregon’s shop. We can get a ride home.”
    â€œGood idea,” Boone said.
    They got to town and he pulled onto the main street of Martin’s Crossing. He parked in front of Oregon’s. The sign in the window said it was open. The twins bailed out the back, quiet as mice.
    â€œWe’re going back to get that phone.”
    â€œNo.” She shivered in the air-conditioned cab of the truck. “No, we’re not.”
    â€œWhat was it, then?”
    â€œI don’t want to discuss it with you. It’s a private matter between my father and myself.”
    â€œWe need that phone. That’s our only link to this guy. If he keeps telling us what he’s thinking, we might be able to catch him. He might slip up eventually and give himself away.”
    â€œYou’re a bodyguard, not a cop.”
    â€œHoney, I was the toughest of cops. I’ve policed the world and hunted down terrorists. I promise you, I’m more than a bodyguard.”
    She shrank inside herself, wanting to be alone. She wanted to get away from him and the temptation to tell him all of her sorry secrets. Because he might believe her. He might. But what if he didn’t? The little girl inside her still cried for someone to