Page 52 of Guarding Bristol

“It happened a few years ago.”His leave had been extended by a few days so he could bury them.

She winced.“Oh God, that’s so hard.Is that why you decided to do undercover work when you joined the DEA?Because they were gone, and you felt like you...didn’t have anyone?”

Her perception was dead fucking on.He’d never let himself examine his motivations too closely at the time.“In a way.”He’d found direction, purpose and brotherhood in the Rangers.After burying his parents and leaving the military, he’d felt lost.

And, yeah, maybe the guilt had played a big part in volunteering for undercover after joining the DEA.Some part of him wanting to punish himself.

“What were their names?”

“They both went by their middle names.Teresa and Javier.”

Her gaze sharpened on him.“TJ.”

He nodded.He’d chosen his new identity as a way of honoring them.

“I think it’s a beautiful tribute.”

Was it?They were still dead—because of him.And they both would have hated the job he’d taken on.What he’d become.

A thick silence had settled between them, but was thankfully broken by the sound of a vehicle pulling up out front.He hurried to the front window, drew the edge of the blind back a fraction to look outside.“It’s Beckett.”Oh, hell.“And your stepsister.”

“Cassie’s here?”Bristol jumped up and rushed for the door.

TJ caught her arm before she’d gone two steps, stopping her and earning a surprised look.“What’s wrong?”she asked.

“Just being careful,” he answered, placing her behind him.With things so uncertain at the moment, he wasn’t taking any chances that a threat might be outside hiding somewhere out of sight.

It felt as natural as breathing to protect her, to put himself between her and any unseen threat waiting on the other side of the door.It felt right.

Beckett greeted him with a terse nod and looked past him to Bristol.Cassie stood right behind him, eyes narrowed on TJ.“You guys good?”Beckett asked.

“Yeah.”TJ stepped back to let them in, and Cassie immediately breezed by Beckett to embrace Bristol while TJ shut the door.

“Hey.You okay?”Cassie asked her softly.

“I’m okay.”Bristol pulled back and gave her a tight smile.“Kind of surreal, huh?”

“No kidding.”Cassie bent down to grab the handles of a fancy-patterned bag she’d brought in.“Here.I packed what I thought you might need for a few days.”

“Thanks.Did you bring my bat?”

“Got it,” Beckett said, handing over a battered aluminum bat.“Not sure it’ll do you much good though.”

“I just feel better having it with me.I keep it under my bed.Have since college.”Bristol stroked a hand over the barrel almost lovingly, and the sex-starved part of TJ’s mind immediately pictured her stroking something else entirely.

He shoved that thought aside, put a chokehold on his libido that seemed to go into overdrive around her.They were here because they were being hunted, for God’s sake.

Arm around Bristol’s shoulders and her body language screaming protectiveness, Cassie’s gaze swung to him, pinning him like an insect where he stood.

He didn’t blame her for her dislike or suspicion.She didn’t know him.Pretty much everything she’d been told about him so far was a lie—with the exception of his military background—and now Bristol had been dragged into this mess.

“I assume you’re armed?”she asked him in an icy tone.

“Yes.”

“So,” Beckett said, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets and rocking back on his heels.“DEA, huh?”

TJ nodded.“You verify everything?”

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