Protectors (2 page)

incredible skill, Tyler wouldn’t last much longer.

“Oh, fuck. Oh, Gage, that’s... Fuck, I’m gonna…”

Tyler’s hips bucked up, pushing his cock to the back of his lover’s

throat. A couple more thrusts and he exploded into Gage’s greedy

mouth. Tyler’s head made a soft thump as it dropped back against the

seat.

“Fuck, baby, that was amazing.”

“Mmm, I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Gage replied. “Because I’m

sure as hell going to enjoy your tight ass as soon as I get you home.”

“Promises, promises.”

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Samantha Blair

“Hey! Have I ever broken a promise to you?”

“Never.” Tyler captured Gage’s mouth with his own, the flavor of

his own seed still on his lover’s tongue. “God, I love you.”

Gage hummed in agreement.

Both men jumped apart as an unknown object slammed into the

side of the truck. The whole cab shifted, and a dull thump echoed

through the quiet night.

“What the fuck was that?” Gage asked.

“I don’t know. Deer maybe?”

“There’s a flashlight under the seat.”

Digging under the seat, they eventually found the flashlight. Gage

got out of the truck first, Tyler sliding out the driver’s side door right behind him.

“I don’t see it,” Gage said. “Do you think it ran off?”

“I’m not sure. I was looking the other way. I didn’t see anything at

all.”

Whatever had hit them made impact on the passenger side. They

moved around the truck hoping that the deer, if that was what it was, hadn’t done too much damage. The beam of the heavy Craftsman

flashlight illuminated the length of the embankment beside the road.

“Oh my God,” Tyler breathed.

A young woman lay curled on the ground beside the truck. Her

hand was pressed to her forehead, and there was blood running down

her arm. She was still moving, but she was clearly hurt. Her light

summer dress offered little protection, and one of her flip-flops was missing.

What in the hell is she doing out here?

Tyler ran to her.

“Hey, can you hear me?” he asked, crouching down beside her.

She groaned in response.

“Don’t move. We’ll call an ambulance.”

“No!” she cried. “No hospital. He’ll find me. I have to hide.”

“Hide? From who? Is somebody after you?” Tyler asked.

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13

“Help me, please,” she begged. She tried to stand, but wobbled

severely on her feet.

Tyler put his hands under her arms and pulled her back against his

chest to steady her. She looked so small in his arms. Gage felt every protective instinct within him kick into full gear. Something was very wrong here.

The noise of a loud exhaust coming down a dirt road caused them

all to look up.

“I have to hide,” the woman repeated.

“From that truck?” Gage asked.

She nodded.

“Get her in,” Gage said. He ran around to the driver’s side door,

pulling it open so that Tyler could hoist the woman into the tall cab.

Gage was sure that Tyler would be worried about her injuries, and

upset about moving her, but the more immediate danger seemed to be

whatever was coming down the driveway in their direction.

Gage turned the key in the ignition and floored the accelerator.

They were two hundred yards up the road before he even thought to

flip the headlights back on.

* * * *

Tyler turned, looking over his shoulder and out the back window,

watching for the other truck. He spotted the old rust heap when it

stopped at the end of the road. A big man stumbled out of it. The

headlights of his own truck briefly illuminated him well enough for

Tyler to see him throw up his hands in obvious frustration.

Gage rounded the next corner putting the man out of sight.

“I think we lost him.” Tyler sighed before turning his attention to

the trembling woman in his lap.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Tyler asked gently. He pushed the

woman’s hair back out of her face so that he could see her. Her wide

brown eyes were as terrified as they were enchanting. There was a big
14

Samantha Blair

gash on her forehead, which was still bleeding pretty heavily, but she otherwise seemed to be okay.

She seemed familiar, but it took a moment before he could place

her. Her name was Sara, he thought. They’d spoken a handful of

times at the library and passed each other in the grocery store, but

she’d always been on the skittish side, never staying too long and

always looking over her shoulder.

Tyler unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off.

“What’re you doing?” The woman shrank back from him as if she

was expecting to be assaulted.

“Your head is bleeding,” he answered. He pressed the soft cotton

of his shirt to the side of her head to absorb the blood.

“Oh, but you’ll ruin your shirt!”

“Are you kiddin’ me? Your head is bleeding, we just escaped

from some psycho who was obviously after you, you are missing a

shoe, your legs are all scratched up, and you’re worried about my

shirt?”

She started to cry as if the reality of the situation finally hit home.

“How bad is it, Ty?” Gage asked. Tyler lifted his shirt and blotted

the blood away.

“It’s bad enough. She needs to go to the hospital.”

“No!” she pleaded. “Please no. Don’t take me to the hospital. Just

take me to a motel. I’ll be fine.”

“We’re not taking you to a motel. You probably have a

concussion. We need to call the police.”

“No! You don’t understand. He
is
the police. You can’t call them.

Please.”

The two men eyed each other from across the cab of the truck for

a long moment, considering.

“I think I can patch her up with the supplies we’ve got at home,”

Tyler said.

Gage made a U-turn in the middle of the deserted road and nosed

the truck onto the lane that would take them back to the ranch.

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15

“I’ve been looking for a reason to try out that security system

anyway.”

16

Samantha Blair

Chapter 2

Sara couldn’t seem to get control over her trembling limbs, so

Gage carried her into the house and set her on the counter in the

master bathroom. Tyler went to the cabinet and started pulling out all of their first aid supplies.

“Do you need anything from the barn?”

“I don’t think so,” Tyler responded. “Let’s see what we can do

with what we have here.”

Sara was still crying, but the sobs had turned to sniffles, and she

was now more overwhelmed than anything. She had imaged this night

ending a couple of different ways, but this particular escape scenario had never crossed her mind.

“Don’t worry, honey,” Tyler soothed. “We’re going to take care

of you.”

She didn’t know them well, but everyone in town knew who the

men were. Most often referred to as “the gay ranchers,” Tyler and

Gage had caused quite a stir in the local gossip when they moved to

town and bought the Big Sky Ranch. For the most part, people spoke

very highly of them, when they weren’t making wisecracks about

their sexuality.

Sara raked her gaze over each of the men. They were both in their

late thirties, maybe early forties, she guessed, but the similarities stopped there. Physically, they were very different from one another.

Standing about six-four, Gage had dark hair that was cropped

military short. The tight black T-shirt that he wore accentuated his

broad shoulders and enhanced his thick biceps. Sara was instantly

afraid of him, although he seemed gentle enough. A man of that size

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17

and build could do a lot of damage with his fists. She knew this from personal experience.

He doesn’t have any reason to hurt me. He’s trying to help me.

Tyler was his polar opposite, blond and fair. His hair was unruly,

falling into his blue eyes and covering the tops of his ears. He, too, was tall—maybe six-one, but he seemed dwarfed by the larger man.

Tyler was naked from the waist up, as his shirt was still pressed to

her forehead. She could see his strong abdominal muscles and the

little line of hair that trailed down into the waistline of his jeans. His hipbones made an unbearably sexy V shape, and a hot flash of desire

raced through her. Although she’d never admit it, she had noticed his handsome figure as she’d passed him in town. Seeing it up close took

the attraction to a whole new level. She wanted so badly to press her lips to the sweet spot just below…

“Sara?”

“What?” she asked, wrenching her gaze away from Tyler’s six-

pack. When her eyes met Gage’s, she realized that the men had one

more thing in common. Gage’s eyes were also blue, an icy, striking

blue that seemed to look right into the heart of her.

Tyler took his shirt away from her and tossed it into the oversized

bathtub. He replaced it with a damp towel, gently blotting her head to clear the blood away. Sara was pretty sure that he worked as a large

animal veterinarian, and as a vet, Tyler probably spent most of his

time caring for animals, but it was obvious that he was good at

nurturing people, too. He had very gentle hands. Sara winced at the

sting, but tried to hold still.

Tyler stroked her cheek, his thumb brushing across a bruise. She

resisted the urge to press her face into this hand. It’d been so long since she’d been touched this way, so tenderly. Sara relaxed. She

wasn’t sure why, but she felt uncommonly safe with him.

“Can you tell us what happened?” Gage asked softly. “I don’t

want for you to be afraid, but I think we need to know what you’re

running from if we’re going to keep you safe.”

18

Samantha Blair

“My boyfriend…
ex-
boyfriend. That’s who was in the truck. He gets kind of mean when he drinks.”

She saw anger flash in Gage’s eyes and instinctively backed away,

pulling her knees up to her chest on the counter.

* * * *

Tyler looked up to see what had startled the poor girl.

“You’re scaring her, Gage. Take it easy.” He turned his attention

back to the trembling woman. “I know that he looks intimidating,

honey. It’s all that manly brawn, but I promise you, he’s not going to hurt you. You don’t need to be afraid of us. We’re going to help you.

Okay?”

She nodded and let him resume caring for her. The bleeding had

pretty much stopped, and thankfully, the cut wasn’t as bad as he’d

originally thought. Head wounds had a tendency to be deceiving

because they bled so much.

He put an antiseptic on a cotton ball to disinfect it. “I don’t think I need to give you any stitches, but this is going to sting a little.” That was the understatement of the century. She hissed through clenched

teeth as he applied it.

“Shhhh,” he soothed, blowing softly on her forehead to relieve the

sting. “You’re gonna be all right. It’s almost over.” He applied a clean bandage to the cut, making an effort to keep the sticky backing out of her hair.

One cheek was sporting a large bruise. It was bound to be ugly

and purple by tomorrow. Tyler was fairly certain that someone had

punched her in the face, but he chose to keep that information to

himself for the time being.

“I’m not sure if you know who we are,” Gage said, “but I’m Gage

and this is my partner Tyler. You’re on our ranch.”

“Yeah, The Big Sky Ranch. I know who you are,” she replied,

“but I don’t think we’ve officially met.”

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19

“We’ve talked a couple of times at the library, if I remember

correctly,” Tyler interjected, turning her neck to check for scrapes. “I recall wishing that you’d stay to talk longer, but you always seem to be in a hurry.”

“Jeremy didn’t approve of my talking with you, said that you

weren’t good company to keep.” She blushed deeply, and Tyler could

feel her embarrassment.

“Why’s that?” Gage asked. Tyler already knew the answer.

“He wouldn’t have approved, of um…” Sara’s gaze flitted back

and forth between the two men.

Gage growled. He didn’t care much for some of the judgmental

assholes in this town.

“I’m not judging you,” she clarified. “I don’t share his point of

view.” Her expression was changing from embarrassment to shame.

“He knows that, sweetheart,” Tyler said. “He just doesn’t like

people who get all prejudiced about shit they don’t understand. Who’s this Jeremy guy? The ex?”

“Yeah.” She lifted her eyes to Gage as if asking to be forgiven for

a sin that she didn’t commit. “Do you know him? He’s the sheriff.”

“Sheriff Jeremy Granger. How could I forget?” His eyes traveled

to Tyler. “He was a real piece of work. Dropped in to meet the new

neighbors, couple of days after we moved in, I guess. Took one look

at you out in the corral, and told me that they didn’t take kindly to faggots in this town. I politely told him to get the fuck off my

property. He’s sneered at me a couple of times when I’ve passed him

on the street, but for the most part, he’s left us alone.”

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” Tyler asked.

“I didn’t see any point to it. We’d just gotten here, and the last

thing that you needed was a welcome like that. It’s not like that was the first time I’d been called a fag, and you know it won’t be the last.