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  “Afraid not.” He couldn’t allow her to stay here at all. Infatuation or sympathy aside, his responsibility was to the ranch.

  “Why should I trust you to do the right thing?”

  “Do you have a choice?” Her gaze dropped to the scarred plank floor and he felt like a jerk. “You don’t have to tell me everything,” he added quietly. “You aren’t hurting anyone out here and no one needs to use this place. But you’re isolated. I’d rather not come back to find someone hurt you.”

  “I really can’t tell you anything.”

  “If not your dad or your ex, what other man has the resources to drive you to this?”

  Her shoulders hunched and she cuddled her son closer as her bravado vanished. “Not a man,” she said. “A woman. A woman with influence and access to far more resources than she deserves.”

  Chapter 2

  Frustrated, Mia looked to the doorway and the stick she’d thought to use against Jarvis Colton, Triple R ranch hand. He hadn’t tossed the stick aside or out of her reach; he’d placed it inside the open door. He looked like he’d walked straight off the set of a modern cowboy photo shoot. He might resemble a model, the type of man she used to deal with on a daily basis, but he wasn’t. She had to remember he was a stranger and posed a very real danger to her plan.

  Plan. What she had in mind so far barely qualified as an actionable concept. And now there was a witness to her current incompetence. She wanted to pull at her hair, this entire mess was so embarrassing. She tucked Silas back into his car seat so she wouldn’t upset him if she got emotional again. And she didn’t want to be at a disadvantage if Jarvis tried to force her out of the tiny cabin.

  He had a powerful build and the dark T-shirt he wore revealed strong, sculpted arms. She wasn’t exactly a lightweight, but he posed a clear risk, physically and logistically. When she’d started modeling, her agent had suggested she study self-defense. The skills she’d learned hadn’t been tested in years and she’d prefer not to test them now.

  “Mia.”

  The kindness in his voice nearly reduced her to tears. It wasn’t fair that this chance encounter should make her feel less alone. Since escaping yesterday, Regina had sent her one threat after another. She’d sent pictures from Tamara’s neighborhood as well as the courtyard in front of her ex-husband’s condo. A night of worry and nightmares interrupted by her restless son hadn’t helped Mia figure anything out. Unfortunately, Jarvis was right about this place. She didn’t see good sleep coming anytime soon and Silas needed her at her best.

  “I didn’t know I was on the Triple R,” she said. She caught herself working the gold band she wore on her thumb as her weary brain tried to get ahead of this stalemate with Jarvis so she could return her focus to the stalemate with Regina. “I thought I’d found an old hunting cabin.”

  “You basically did.”

  “Well, the good news is my problems shouldn’t find me here.”

  He removed his hat and raked his fingers through his dark hair. “Let me get you to a better location,” he said. “Somewhere up-to-date and safe.”

  He had no idea how much the idea tempted her. “There’s no such thing as safe right now,” she said. “My stepmother, Regina, is gunning for me.” She glanced at her phone, resting at the top of Silas’s diaper bag. Thank goodness the woman didn’t have real guns. “This spot is only safe because it’s run-down.” Jarvis frowned. “She thinks I’m too spoiled to rough it to this degree.”

  “You’re not.”

  “No,” she replied, though it hadn’t really been a question. “We’ve never gotten along. The Graves family is a walking cliché. We have the trophy wife and the bitter, resentful daughter of a wealthy father determined to overlook any unpleasantness in favor of building his business.”

  While she vented, he’d stepped close enough that she couldn’t ignore the scent of sunshine on his skin. This place might suit her and the baby temporarily, but he took up more than his share of the space.

  “What happened?”

  “What didn’t?” She spared him the gory details of years of bickering and snide remarks and cut straight to the current issue. “Being newly divorced by the end of my first trimester, I talked with my dad about career options. Real estate felt like the right fit, so I took the classes. When I passed my state exam, he offered to let me handle the sale of his country house once I was ready to get back to work.”

  “Your stepmother doesn’t want to sell the place?”

  “I have no idea what she wants aside from wanting me out of Dad’s life.” Mia was too tired for this. “The house is an asset. If Dad’s selling it, he’ll buy her something better.” Mia pushed at her heavy hair. Why couldn’t this have gone down during cooler weather instead of this presummer heat wave? She wanted to change her clothes and freshen up, but she couldn’t do any of that with an audience.

  “Tell me what I’m missing,” Jarvis prompted.

  She reached for her bottle of water and drank deeply while she debated how much to share. She wanted to believe the sincere concern in his gaze, but in her experience, voicing anything negative about Regina blew up in her face. “Yesterday I learned Regina has been using the country house for an affair. Probably not her first,” she added. Her father was several years older than her stepmother, but not by so much that he couldn’t claim they were happily married. It made her stomach pitch. “My marriage wasn’t perfect, but we were loyal to each other,” she muttered more to herself than the cowboy waiting for the rest of the story. “Long story short, I inadvertently caught her and her boyfriend in the act when I was there taking video for the online listing.”

  “Let me guess—you told your dad and now they’re both mad at you.”

  “I wish it was that simple. I will tell him,” she said. As soon as she figured out how. “As it stands, I can’t tell anyone. Yet.” She was so ashamed at how poorly she’d handled the moment. “If there was a chance to press an advantage, I missed it,” she confessed.

  In his car seat, Silas gurgled and kicked his feet. She’d let him down and now she was backed into a corner. “The man she was with saw me first. He thought I was there at her request.”

  She caught the wince on Jarvis’s face, assumed her expression at the time had mirrored his. “Agreed.” The ew factor had been off the charts. “So there I am, video rolling while my stepmother and a much younger hottie are all over each other. Naked, in case there was any doubt about their intentions.”

  Her son yawned, and love, protective and fierce, surged through her. She would find a way to get past this nonsense and give him the stable life she’d planned so carefully. “I ran out of the house and headed straight for Dad’s office. Then the first call came through. Regina offered me money.”

  “Which you don’t need,” Jarvis said.

  The quip made her smile. “Correct, but Regina goes for the easy out first. Every single time. I stopped answering her calls, determined to reach my father before she did. Then he called. Naturally, I picked up. Before I could say a word, he asked if I’d meet him and Regina for lunch to celebrate my first day. He said it was her idea and I knew I’d been outmaneuvered.”

  “How so?”

  She stared at him. It was such a challenge to admit that the mistakes she’d made as a heartbroken teenager were still impacting her life today. “If I told him what I saw without any proof, he’d only be disappointed and lecture me about being too old for games.”

  “You’re serious.”

  The way Jarvis studied her, she felt more exposed than she had on lingerie shoots, and more regret and shame than she’d ever felt as a kid when communication had completely broken down. “I did try to break them up. After they married, I put zero effort toward a smooth transition.”

  “What kind of effort did your stepmother make?”

  No one, not even her husband, had ever asked that. To be fair, sh
e’d been out on her own for years before she’d met and married Roderick Hodges. From the start, her ex had more important things on his agenda than delving deep into the rocky parts of her childhood. She’d happily left the house and those years behind. Until she’d accepted her father’s invitation to move back in.

  “That’s all water under the bridge these days. Things are civil now. Or they were. I asked for a rain check on lunch, disappointing my father in the process, but I wasn’t sitting through a meal in a public place while she gloated about getting away with it.”

  “What changed?”

  “She threatened Silas,” Mia said. Just thinking about that phone call and the text messages that followed brought angry tears to her eyes.

  “What?” He frowned as if he’d misunderstood.

  “You heard me. She told me that if I tattled on her to Dad or the police, my baby wouldn’t wake up from his nap. Her words.” It was too fresh, the fear too close to the surface. She swiped at the tear that spilled down her cheek, then hugged herself because she was too distraught to hug her baby. “I wanted to call the police, but what could I say? It would be her word against mine and my father sides with her.” Every time. She brushed away another tear. “So I ran,” she said in a whisper.

  Jarvis swore.

  Silas turned toward his voice and Mia bit back a request for him to watch his language. Her son was way too new and still far too young for it to make any difference.

  “Of course you ran,” he said, “But here?”

  “Regina has always seen me as prissy and spoiled. Entitled, because Dad and I were so close. As if that was abnormal after Mom died.” Mia deliberately unclenched her jaw at the memory of those old insults spoken when her father was out of earshot. “Despite everything I’ve done on my own in my career, she’d never expect me to hide out alone, definitely not in anything less than a five-star hotel.”

  Mia would love to hide with Tamara, where her son would have the best backup. But her mother’s friend would be one more pressure point Regina could use against Mia. And while a resort vacation sounded perfect, she didn’t have enough cash for that and using a credit card made it too easy for Regina to track her down.

  “What about a guest room down at the house?” Jarvis suggested. “The place is massive, and almost no one would know. Everyone’s distracted with Payne’s recovery.”

  She shook her head. “I’ve been to the main house,” she said. “As Mrs. Norton Graves, Regina runs in the same circles as the Coltons. She might be there right now, pretending to comfort Genevieve. She and Selina Barnes, Payne’s second wife, are friendly competitors in all things of wealth and privilege.” She smiled down at her son. “You’ve heard him cry. If we’re within earshot of anyone, we’ll be discovered within a day.”

  “But you’d be safe.” He moved closer, filling the small cabin even more. “There’s a chef and housekeeping. Hotel amenities without a credit card trail. You’d be able to care for him and yourself properly.”

  “Properly?” She bristled. How dare this cowboy come in and question her ability to care for her son? “Out. We are not your problem.” Her primary concern was whether or not he would become a problem for her. “All you have to do is forget you saw me.”

  “As if.” He folded his arms over his chest.

  Unless she went on the attack, there would be no budging him. She looked around and started to gather the items she’d brought in from her car, stuffing them into the diaper bag. Within a minute she could be out of here. But where could she stay without drawing notice?

  “Mia, stop. Let’s assume you are out of her reach here. Have you sent the video to your father?”

  She wanted to snap at him, this stranger who thought he knew her and was so sure he had all the answers. “Please leave me alone.” Contrary to Regina’s belief, Mia didn’t beg anyone for anything. “I don’t need you to solve this. I just need you to go.”

  “I could take the video to the police for you.”

  “Infidelity and sleeping around isn’t exactly a criminal offense.” Mia tugged at her hair. “She has the upper hand right now,” she added, her chest tight. “Just, just look.” She pulled out her phone and pulled up the text messages.

  Having memorized the entire string of threats and pictures, she watched Jarvis’s face as he scrolled through. He stopped, eyes narrowed, and she assumed he’d found the first set of pictures.

  First, at the restaurant her father had suggested for lunch, Regina was pouring red wine into two glasses, her showy wedding set obvious. The next picture was a sickeningly sweet selfie of Regina and Norton, cheek to cheek, glasses touching.

  The text that followed posed a question regarding Norton’s medications and alcohol consumption.

  “Is there an interaction risk?” Jarvis’s query confirmed her assessment of where he was in the sequence of messages.

  “Upper hand,” she repeated. “There is a risk, but it’s low. She wouldn’t put an outright death threat against him in writing.”

  He swore again, this time under his breath. “She certainly didn’t hesitate to threaten your son via text.”

  “No, she didn’t. Knowing her, that means she has a plan to cover her tracks if it comes up.”

  “So what’s your plan? You can’t hide here forever.”

  She didn’t appreciate the challenge in his tone as he returned her phone. “Of course not.” She needed space to breathe and think and come up with a way to expose the woman who had, as of today, effectively shoved her out of the life she’d known. “I’ll think of something.”

  She would find a way once she was sure her father and son wouldn’t pay the price. Her father had been her rock, her idol throughout her life. She hadn’t agreed with him on everything, particularly not his latest marriage, but they’d found a way to maintain their relationship. They weren’t as close as they’d once been, but close enough. For years, Regina had been undermining that relationship. Jealousy, selfishness... Her reasons didn’t matter. Mia knew she was wallowing out here, but she felt entitled to the time. Silas was safe. She could manage out here for a few days while she made up her mind how far and how soon to push back.

  “If you could ignore us for a couple of days, I’ll be out of your hair.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, then his gaze dropped to her son before cruising over the cramped cabin. “I can’t ignore you.” He settled his hat on his head. “I’ll pick up some supplies for you.”

  “That’s not—”

  His mouth flattened and a sharp head shake cut her off. “It’s necessary.” He walked to the door. “No one will know you’re here.”

  “Thank you.”

  He paused, halfway out the door. “My brother is a sergeant with the police department. If you decide you want his help, you’ll get it.”

  “My pride isn’t worth risking my father’s life,” she replied.

  His eyebrows flexed over those warm brown eyes again. “You really think she’d do it? Kill Norton?”

  “No doubt in my mind. She’s gotten her way from the moment she married my dad, probably years before that, too.”

  “All right. Relax. I’ll be back with some gear to make this doable.”

  “Thanks,” she called after him.

  There was no point wondering what lies Regina was spreading about why Mia didn’t make it home last night. Her father hadn’t called to check in, so she knew it had to be bad. And there was no point involving anyone, not even a police officer, until she could be sure the truth would be seen and believed.

  Only when Regina was effectively discredited could Mia come out of hiding.

  When the sounds of the horse had faded, she cuddled Silas until he fell asleep. Confident he was safe and content, she ducked out to the car she’d hidden in the brush to take care of herself. She shouldn’t trust Jarvis so easily, but something in his
gaze put her at ease. Not when he’d looked at her as if they’d met before; they hadn’t. She would’ve remembered a man with that perfect combination of hard body and kind eyes. No, it had been the way he’d looked at her son after she’d told him about Regina’s threat.

  He might be the first person to immediately take her side on the whole “wicked stepmother” situation. Not that she’d broadcast her frustrations everywhere. That would have backfired more than the occasional comments she made about Regina’s spending habits.

  Even her husband had encouraged her to ignore Regina’s antics. A sickening thought occurred to her. What if Regina had seduced him, too? The highly unlikely but not impossible scenario was completely irrelevant now. She and Roderick were through and she was better for it. The divorce settlement had been generous and swift since he preferred to pay one lump sum to get rid of the child he never intended to meet and the wife who’d let him down.

  She had a knack for disappointing the men she cared about most. That trend would stop now, with Silas. Nothing would keep her from being the mother he needed.

  The real-estate endeavor wasn’t precisely necessary right now, but she’d hoped to put the bulk of the divorce settlement into long-term investments. And despite loving motherhood—and Silas—more each and every day, her mind had been ready for a challenge.

  Well, she had it now, didn’t she?

  She cleaned herself up a bit and finally changed into clean shorts and a soft tunic top that were better suited to the rustic conditions. There was a spark of hope that she’d get through this, and the only cause was Jarvis. How curious that one awkward and unsettling encounter with a handsome cowboy could make her feel a thousand times better during the lowest moment of her life.

  She’d know soon enough if she’d made a mistake by trusting him, and while Silas napped, she set things up for a quick escape if it proved necessary.

  * * *

  Jarvis hoped like hell she’d still be there when he got back. His search for Isaiah’s proof forgotten for tonight, he rode hard back to the stables and bunkhouse where he’d been living since Asher hired him.