Page 12 of Bryson's Treasure

Chapter 5

“I love that little girl.She’s doing amazing with the horses, but you need to get her into a child therapist soon.” For the past week, Hannah had talked with Azadeh each day.

Bryson wanted her to settle in. President Tucker had come to the rescue when he helped push her paperwork through faster. Her green card was on its way. When things settled down, Bryson would look into adopting her and officially making her his daughter. He had considered her his the second she’d helped him escape the torture chamber in Afghanistan.

He rested his foot on the stall. Lynn’s horse, Midnight, walked over and pushed at his hand, looking for a treat. His lips twitched at the gentle creature as he gave the horse a carrot from his pocket.

“With her paperwork coming in, I feel more comfortable reaching out to someone for her to talk to. Thank you so much for doing it in the meantime. I know a few psychiatrists in Bozeman I plan to call. I’m worried she’s hiding the worst of what happened to her. Her parents died three years ago. Her uncle is cruel. I think I should take her to a doctor also, but I don’t know how she’ll react.”

“She hasn’t opened up much about her time living with her uncle. She’s only talked about her parents and how much she loved them.” Hannah shook her head. “And you, she worships the ground you walk on. Azadeh is strong, but if you leave her, she will fall apart.”

Bryson narrowed his eyes at Hannah. “I won’t leave her.”

“You don’t need to get your feathers in a bunch. I’m just telling you what I’ve observed from talking with her.”

“Sorry. Have you talked with Lynn yet, or is she still in denial about someone coming after her?” It wasn’t necessary for Bryson to stay at Brighter Days while Hannah talked with Azadeh, but he told Taz he wanted to help out around the ranch since they refused to take his money. The real reason was to spend some time with Lynn. He found her doing something new each time he showed up, but he always caught her looking at him when she thought he wasn’t paying attention.

Hannah’s eyes narrowed. “You like her.” It wasn’t a question. She was stating the obvious.

“Yes.” Bryson glanced out the door where Azadeh and Lynn were playing in the snow. “She’s hiding something.”

Hannah nodded. “Besides the day we told her she was in danger, she hasn’t said anything else about her past.” She jerked her head toward the front of the barn, where Taz stood. “I talked with Taz the other morning, and he agrees. If she doesn’t open up soon, we’re going to take a look into her background. It’s not something we wanted to do. We were hoping she would tell us.” Her brows drew together. “But we have to think about the men and women at the ranch. I’m not saying we won’t help her. We just need to know what we’re protecting her from because it’s not the cult. Every person is locked up or dead, and if they aren’t, her hiding stuff is not going to look good for her.”

Bryson narrowed his eyes at Taz. “If anyone’s going to look into her background, it will be me.” Something about letting someone else look into Lynn was unsettling. He wanted to wrap her up in a blanket and put her somewhere nobody could hurt her.

“Yeah?” Hannah studied his every move. Bryson knew she was looking for something. “You know if she finds out you looked into her background without permission, she might not forgive you for invading her privacy. If we have one of Hank’s men do it, she’ll be mad at us not you.”

“I don’t know Hank’s computer guy, and I can find the info just as well.” There was no way he planned to let anyone else look into her.

Hannah drew in a long breath. “No matter what I say, you aren’t going to listen. I’ve seen the way you watch her with Azadeh. She does the same to you. My advice is to get to know her and let others work on figuring out what’s going on. She might be on the shy side, but she has a hidden temper, and if she finds out you dug into her past, Lynn might cut off your balls.”

Laughter drew his attention from the conversation to the open door. For a December morning, the temperature wasn’t too bad—well, not bad for Montana. Anywhere else it would have been fucking cold out. He watched as Azadeh packed a snowball and threw it at Lynn. A chuckle escaped his lips as Lynn collapsed to the ground, acting like the snowball had taken her out.

The ranch reminded him of the one he’d grown up on outside of Denver. A tall shed stood in the background, filled with tractors and other farming equipment. Next to it was a long bunkhouse for the employees at Brighter Days. “How long do most of the patients live here?”

“They aren’t patients,” Hannah growled. “They’re guests, and until they’re ready to leave. Each person takes a different amount of time.”

Bryson nodded. “You’re doing an amazing job with this place. I wish more people would do things like this.”

“Hospitals and therapy work for some, but unless the soldiers can get out and do things, they start to get into their own minds.”

“After my dad died, I realized how much time had passed since I enlisted. Grayson called to say he and Noah were getting out. I knew it was time to start thinking about it. The only thing for me is that it happened quicker than I originally planned. I wanted to have work lined up. When everything with Azadeh is settled, I’m going to have to find something.”

“I’m sure Hank Patterson has a job for you, if you wanted. From what your brothers said about you, he would hire you in a second.”

Noah and Grayson hadn’t even heard about all his missions. Bryson had taken on many missions that weren’t even on the books, some led by Ricky, and now he wondered how much of the mission was for the government or for Ricky to line his pockets. “I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do. My background is IT, and Hank already has one on his team.”

Hannah snorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see you and your brothers open your own company one day. If I was a betting woman, I’d say a slew of people owe you and your brothers a million favors.”

She was right. Bryson had called in quite a few of them to get everything lined up for Azadeh even with President Tucker’s help. He didn’t want her to be in the US illegally, and he had the correct papers now. At first, he worried she could be tracked with her name. Bryson didn’t know when, but he figured her uncle would come looking for her eventually. Each night he looked to see if someone had placed a reward for someone to find her. The same bounty for his head stayed on the black market: fifty thousand dollars, dead or alive.

“Honestly, with everything going on, we hadn’t talked about it. I know Noah is enjoying fixing up the ranch, and Matilda is working her butt off with him. Grayson and Kara are back in Denver, so I don’t know how we would work anything out.”

Midnight pawed at the door to his stall. “You’re not getting enough attention?”

Hannah snorted. “Lynn slept in that pile of hay right there last night. This horse is spoiled rotten.”

They kept the barn heated, so it wouldn’t have been that cold inside.

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