Page 54 of Protected Hearts

With each day that passed, a bit more of the strain around Shiloh’s eyes faded. When he finally slipped out of her bed and stood staring down at her beautiful sleeping face, he saw a settled quality on her that he never expected to see so soon, if ever.

She’d been through an ordeal, just like Decker. While she didn’t have physical captors standing sentry outside herapartment door, keeping her locked inside the way Decker had been in that hole, it was the same. She’d suffered in her own way.

In Oaks’s life, two major events had changed him. One was when his best friend and fellow SEAL, Eric, decided he could no longer face life. The second was the day he and a reconnaissance team rescued Decker. Both those men were the reason Oaks was so passionate about helping his fellow brothers-in-arms.

Now he pondered if a third event was affecting him just as much as the others. Only this one seemed different in a brand-new way. When he married Shiloh in order to save her, he hadn’t questioned what he could have done different; like he did with Eric and Decker.

When it came to Shiloh, he had no regrets.

His buddy finished rinsing the bucket and walked past him with a nod of acknowledgement. He disappeared back into the barn, leaving Oaks outside, staring at the house.

Knowing that a threat had come so close to Shiloh left him with a knot of anger in his gut. He’d managed to get her away from Vanya and all the way to Wyoming in one piece, yet someone had come too close to her with that drone.

The bastards would pay. Oaks no longer cared about a black stain on his soul. The minute he had her asshole ex in his sights, William would be a stain on the concrete.

He walked back into the barn and draped the blankets over their respective stalls. Decker stood at the back, just beyond the double doors that were thrown open to air the place out. He always wore his hat tipped low enough to conceal his eyes, but Oaks realized with a start that he’d nudged it up and was gazing out at the pasture.

Oaks drifted down the long aisle between stalls to join him. In the distance, several horses grazed against the backdrop of the mountain.

“You know, growing up, I never realized what the ranch really can mean to a person. When I left the military, I wasn’t excited about moving back home. But Carson asked for my help, and family’s always meant something to me.”

Decker stood at his side, silent but steady.

“Over the past year or so, I’ve come to see the kind of peace the place offers, and not only to me. You may have heard that I got married unexpectedly and brought my bride to the Black Heart.”

His friend nodded.

“In a few short days, I saw the magic this place worked on her too. She’s a hunted woman, and she felt safe here with me. Then something happened that frightened her. Now…I’m not sure I’m right about the ranch healing my…my wife. I’m not sure I can keep her safe.” He met Decker’s stare for a heavy heartbeat before turning back to the view.

The jagged peak of the mountain pierced the pale gray sky. The snow-dusted summit was wreathed in clouds. Down here, the breeze was crisp and scented with pine, but up on that mountain, it would be cold, cutting.

“I’ve always thought of that mountain as a guardian.” He shook his head slowly at his own fantastical thought.

“Me—” Decker’s voice was guttural and grainy. His wide eyes met Oaks’s as they both realized that for the first time since their team got him out of that hole and the screaming stopped, he’d spoken.

Heart racing with excitement, Oaks gave him a nod of encouragement.

Decker opened his mouth and tried again. “Me…too.”

Tears burned at the back of his eyes and stung his nose. He didn’t dare let one drop in front of a man who’d made ahugeleap today. Decker deserved that much respect.

Oaks ducked his head. His friend turned and walked back into the barn. He didn’t say anything else, but he didn’t need to.

As they continued with the chores, his mind drifted again and again to his friend’s breakthrough. When Decker saw someone else needing help and support, he pushed through the walls he’d formed around himself and reached out to Oaks in a show of solidarity. Maybe he’d only needed the lure of helping Oaks through his struggle to break down his own walls.

Last night, Oaks felt like he’d broken down some of Shiloh’s walls too.

For those precious seconds they shared, the glow in her eyes lit up his whole world. The passion in their coupling forged a deeper bond between them.

Judging from the expression in her smoky blue eyes, his feelings were not one-sided. She felt the shift in their relationship too.

What would happen after this was all over? Would she rebuild her life while he returned to the grind of work on the ranch and as a bodyguard or would she stay and build a life with him?

He gazed at the house. Behind those walls was a woman who’d barged into his life and taken it over.

A step on the plank floor sounded behind Oaks. Decker stepped up next to him.

“She changed me, Dutch.”

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