Page 5 of Mine to Protect

“Ah. The mechanic.” She smiled.

“He also does some work for me,” Rhett said.

“Isn’t there a lawyer and a firefighter, too?”

“I’m impressed. You remember.”

Her cheeks heated. She remembered everything about those three weeks in Key West. It wasn’t just because Rhett had given her a way to deal with her worry over her brother; he had filled her heart with pure joy and passion. It was something she’d never experienced before, and because of her family life with her brother and father, she hadn’t had the opportunity for it to ever happen again.

Her therapist had told her that before she knew Rhett, she’d chosen men who left her feeling unfulfilled. She picked guys that, while kind and good men, could never feed her emotions the way a relationship should.

And after she’d experienced Rhett, her standards became impossible. No man could ever live up to what she wanted. Therefore, all her experiences ended before they even began.

“But you never told me you had a brother,” he said.

There were many things she hadn’t told Rhett about her life during those three glorious weeks. She hadn’t wanted to ruin what they had with deep, intense conversations about things that would bring tears to her eyes and dampen all the excitement over the things she’d never been exposed to before. All she wanted was time to escape, and Rhett had given that to her in spades.

He’d shown her around Key West, took her fishing, sailing, snorkeling. Anything that could be done, they did it.

And the sex had been mind-blowing. She’d had no idea that she could be that sensual or wild between the sheets.

However, the truth of the matter was that she’d left all of that—and her heart—in Key West.

It had been the only time in her life when she’d given herself permission to be selfish. Love wasn’t something that came easily to her, but she’d fallen in love with Rhett as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do. To this day, Rhett came and visited each time she closed her eyes at night. She remembered every tender touch. Every sweet kiss. Every kind word.

“I didn’t tell you a lot of things,” she admitted. “And you never called, even though you said you would.”

He tapped the center of his chest. “I guess I deserve that.”

“I didn’t mean for it to be a competition. What we had was a long time ago, and it was a fling. We were never meant to last.” The words might have rolled off her tongue with ease, but a sudden burn churned in the center of her chest. Not a day had gone by since her trip to Key West that she hadn’t thought about Rhett. She’d even gone so far as to search for him on the internet. A bit out of curiosity, and in part because she wanted to know if he had a good life. That was important to her—for all the people she cared about.

It was something her therapist told her she needed to do for herself.

She’d found a few articles. Images. And some stories about his family. She’d savored every single one, and when her father had taken his last breath, the memory of Rhett had eased her soul and brought her comfort in her darkest hour.

Unfortunately, that never took away her heartache for the man she knew she loved but could never have. Of course, never in a million years did she think she would see him again. And, yet, here she was, sitting next to him on a bench in Lighthouse Cove, Florida. It stirred all the same feelings deep in the pit of her stomach. Her fingers itched to touch him. Her lips were desperate to kiss him.

But that would never happen again.

That ship had sailed a long time ago.

Rhett glanced toward the hotel room. “Do you have any idea how your brother got a hold of counterfeit money?”

“I wish I did.”

“What about his girlfriend? What’s her name?”

“Jackie Staub.” Shelby tried not to trip over the last name. There were a couple of rumors around town that Jackie’s uncle had ties to some local mob family—the Mortellis. Shelby had checked it out on the internet, but not much had come up. Only a couple of articles. At first, she’d been concerned and brought it to her brother’s attention. He’d blown it off as people making trouble where there was none and explained that her uncle and parents had grown up in New Jersey in a tough neighborhood. After her parents had been murdered, and the case went unsolved, her uncle had been concerned that it might have been mob-related, so he moved Jackie to Florida.

But the rumors followed them. And then there was the fact that her uncle had struggled financially at first and might have taken a loan from the Mortelli family. But that was all water under the bridge. He’d made a business for himself and turned it all around.

So, she googledthatand didn’t find much of anything. She didn’t know Jackie well, but what she did know, she liked. And her brother was happy and healthy and doing great.

Until six weeks ago, when everything changed.

“Does she have any of the same issues your brother has?”

“Not that I know of,” Shelby said. “They have been dating for about six months, and she seems like a really sweet girl. Thanks to her, Chris was able to get a job in her uncle’s company as a manager. And Chris felt it was a career opportunity—or at least that’s what he told me. But the second he took the position, everything got weird.”

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