Page 25 of A Rogue Cowboy's Kiss

“Dylan’s on it. He’s got his whole team. It’s what he does. You won’t know more than he does.”

Falcon hit his fist on the steering wheel. “I’m the one who has to do it. It’s my fault?—”

“Your fault? You don’t even know if it has anything to do with you. You’re just making stuff up because you have a hero complex.”

He blinked. “A hero complex?”

“Yes. You spent twenty years hunting down one man. Was it worth it? To give up your life? And now you want to do it again, when you don’t even know if it has anything to do with you, and Dylan is working on it?”

He gripped the steering wheel. “I don’t want to go hunting again?—”

“Then don’t. Start living, Falcon. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

“If something happened to you?—”

“Because you didn’t run off to the mountains and look for some shadow? How about if something happens to me because you did run off, and I refused to go home and I got chopped up by Freddie or Jason or a vampire?”

He started laughing. He couldn’t help it. “Freddie?”

“You think I can fend off Freddie myself? He’s literally been in a thousand horror movies. He never dies.”

“I do think you could handle Freddie, actually. You’re a badass.”

She paused. “All right, I do, too, but Brody doesn’t. I honestly think he’ll kidnap me. Will you help me?”

He sighed. Who was he trying to lie to? The thought of being invited to be by Bella’s side 24/7 was…hell, yeah.But it was a loaded situation. He stared at the cars of families headed to the beach. “I have to be honest, Bella, first.”

She paused. “What?”

“I haven’t fallen out of my ten-year obsession with you in the last five minutes. If I’m your bodyguard, I need to be within protector reach of you 24/7. And that’s going to be tempting as hell.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, for me, too. Now that it’s out on the table, it’s harder to ignore.”

He let out his breath. “Hell, Bella.”

He heard her take a deep breath. “It’s fine. We can do it. Neither of us want to be broken for the rest of our lives. I’ll pay you, and we’ll keep it professional. What do you say?”

Bella believed that if they got together, it would leave them both broken for life?Wow.That was a statement. Was she right?

“Falcon? Can I call Brody back and tell him you’ll be my bodyguard? Please?”

He heard the desperation in her voice, and something inside him softened. She couldn’t go back to the ranch right now, and she knew it. Maybe, just maybe, if she took her space now, if she found her identity now, there could be a ranch in her future. Kids.

If Falcon walked away now, there would never be a future for them, because this was their window. He knew it.

If he stayed…maybe there was a chance.

He’d give anything for a chance. Not to leave her broken for life, but for the happiness neither of them had ever found, and they both deserved.

Being by her side would be tempting as hell, for both of them. He wouldn’t break her trust…but what if trust could be healed? It was worth everything to take this chance that he’d been given. He had to know what could have been, and if there was anything to fight for now.

“Falcon?”

“Call Brody and tell him I’ll do it.”

ELEVEN

As Bella hungup with Brody, barely securing his promise not to land the plane on the beach in front of her cottage and kidnap her, she knew she had to be out of the house today.

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