Page 13 of My Cowboy Bodyguard

Her sobs finally peter out and she raises her head, her lips curving into a smile, her eyes lighting up. “Alex.”

The name sobers me. Alex is the name of a boy who did dark things so he could keep breathing.

I roll from the bed. “It’s Leo. Alex is gone, honey.”

I can’t do this. I can’t touch her knowing what she’s endured. I can’t touch her knowing I failed her.

I snatch my shirt from the floor and yank it over my head. I’m halfway to the door when she launches herself from the bed and throws her arms around me.

“I don’t care what name you go by now.”

She would care. She’d care if she knew what I had done, and she’d cringe in revulsion.

Her lips caress the back of my shirt over one of my deepest scars. “I want to finish what we had started.”

“I won’t add to your pain,” I say.

“You wereneverpart of my pain.”

I don’t say anything because I can’t and finally, her arms drop away from my body. “I understand. I’ll wait for you.”

I close the bedroom door behind me, take two steps, and my knees buckle. I slide down against the wall.My angel is okay. She made it.

Now someone is after her again, wanting to hurt her. Making her scared. I found her that way years ago and I was too little to fight back. All I could do was take the blows for her.

But I’m not a little kid anymore. I’m a man who knows how to descend into hell to free an angel.

Chapter 5

Amanda

I slept hard. I’m guessing it’s because I wore myself out from crying. Finding Alex…no…Leo and knowing he’s okay means the world to me.

Back at the Home, he sheltered me. He gave me food, he bandaged my wounds. He stood up for me. He taught me how to read when the staff said I was too stupid to learn.

He never laughed at my mistakes, and I knew…I knew then that he was and always would be my best friend, my love. My boy and now my man. Forever. Because I am not letting anything separate us.

Flinging off the blankets, I quickly put on a pair of stretchy shorts I accidentally grabbed instead of my denim ones and my favorite t-shirt, then scurry from the room. I nearly fall over Leo who’s sitting by the wall beside the bedroom door.

At first, I thought he was asleep, but then he stands.

“Hungry?”

I nod, and he turns away toward the stairs.

“Are we going to talk about last night?”

He starts down the first step. “Yes, but in the barn when we’re alone. My brothers are up.”

Someone made bacon and eggs and set them on a platter on a farmhouse table. A stack of pancakes and maple syrup are beside them. My stomach growls.

“Morning.”

His brother Flint doesn’t smile when he greets me, but his eyes are friendly enough.

“Morning,” I say as I take a seat.

A shirtless guy walks in, yawning and rubbing his hair. “Did I smell bacon?”

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