Page 50 of Mine to Protect

“Nothing,” I responded without a second thought, because Ineverhad plans. But the second the word was out of my mouth, I remembered promising something. “Wait, I have a somewhat girls’ night tonight with Sarah.”

“You don’t sound too excited about it.”

I sighed and rested my forehead against his chest. “I’m not good at the girl stuff, or friend stuff in general. Just really out of practice.” I chuckled, remembering the morning’s craziness. “I’m so terrible at it that this morning, I thought she was stalking me.”

Fingers beneath my chin, he forced my gaze up. “Why?”

“She showed up unannounced to check on me after last night. John sent her. He thinks I’m in over my head here, too emotionally connected to the case, blah blah blah. He told me I should go home for a couple of weeks. Can you believe that?”

Fine lines appeared around the corners of his eyes as he smiled. “He cares about you, and I already know what he thinks about me. As misguided as it is, he’s just trying to look out for you.”

“Stop it with that logic stuff,” I grumbled and turned to the door. “Just let me be pissed, okay?”

Cas’s chuckle reverberated beneath the small covered porch. “Whatever you say, Lady.”

17

Alta

Inside the freezing cabin,I beelined to the small stone fireplace and began stacking kindling into a miniature teepee.

“Can wenotwith the suffocating heat today?” Chandler groaned as he strode out of his room in shorts and a T–shirt.

“Don’t you two ever get cold? It’s freezing in here.” I sat back on my heels and glanced between them. “That wasn’t a rhetorical question, boys.”

“We’ve had our balls nearly frozen off. This isn’t cold, Birdie,” Chandler said after plopping on the couch. “You think it’s always hot as hell in a fucking desert, but let me tell you from experience, it’s not.”

Relenting on the fire—this was their place, after all—I rotated on the balls of my feet to sit on the hearth. “Cas said you wanted to talk about the case?”

Both his light brown brows shot up his forehead as a smirk appeared. “Aren’t you suspended?”

“Wha… how…?”

“Your boss called while Mathews was out tracking you down.”

“Right,” I sighed. “I’ll be going, then.”

“What did you do, anyway?”

Cas leaned against the door and crossed his arms, officially barricading me from leaving. “Disobeyed a direct order to not run into the mountains alone where there was a reported armed poacher on the loose.”

Chandler tipped his head back and his laugh rumbled around the room. “Seriously?”

“He shot Darla,” I whispered and nibbled on the edge of my thumb.

“Who’s Darla?” Chandler questioned.

“A deer. Darla the deer. She names the animals,” Cas said with a more sympathetic tone than I would expect from someone like him.

“Of course she does. The depth of your innocence is unreal. But why do women do that?”

“Do what?” I groaned. The whole conversation was slightly funny, but with me as the butt of the joke.

“React on your emotions, like you did last night.”

I shrugged and fell into the chair opposite of Chandler. No point in standing when who knew how much longer the conversation would last. “Because we’re emotional creatures. And what’s so wrong with that?”

“The second you react with emotion, you lose control.” I swiveled in the chair to stare at Cas. “Facts and a plan get you in and out safely. Emotions will get you killed.”

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