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The woman took his breath away every time he saw her.
Although she and Rocco were cousins, they were remarkably different. Rocco was big and imposing, with dark hair and brown skin thanks to his native Hawaiian heritage on his father’s side. While Charlie had a creamy porcelain complexion, white-blond hair, and a slender yet athletic figure, though she still managed to be equally intimidating. Her personality was a force of nature.
But tonight, she looked as though she’d been the one put through the wringer. His gaze slid over her disheveled hair, which had grass and splinters of wood in it, down her mud-spattered T-shirt and dirty leggings, but then whipped back up to the fresh scrapes on her arms and chin.
“You’re bleeding.” He reached out to touch her face.
Charlie slapped his hand away and stroked the spot he was referring to. She glanced at the drops of blood on her fingertips. “It’s nothing.” Straightening, she looked back up at him. Even though she was five-nine, he still had a good four inches on her. “I told Rocco thatyouwere the last person on earth I wanted him to call.”
Brian let the sharp-tongued remark roll off his back. Something he was good at. Most survivors were.
He gripped the brim of his Stetson and tipped his hat at her. “Nice to see you, too.” Undeterred by her thick veneer of cool disdain, he mustered a smile, determined to kill her with kindness. “May I come in? It would be better to discuss things inside, ma’am.”
Her scowl faltered as she rocked back on her heels. “Don’t ma’am me. I’m not a gazillion years old. I’ve told you before it rubs me the wrong way.”
“I assure you that is not my intent. But if you want to tell me how to rub you the right way, I’m all ears.” Her eyes narrowed to slits at that, and he thought it best to fill in the awkward silence before she slammed the door in his face. “My use ofma’amandsiris an old military habit that’s hard to break. My apologies.”
“You’re prior service, huh.” Her face softened, a little. “What branch? What did you do?”
“Army. Intelligence Support Activity. A Special Operations unit.”
“Were you Special Ops or did you support them?”
“Both.” It was hard to explain to civilians, but from the skeptical grimace on her face, he needed to try. “My old unit and our counterparts, SEAL Team Six, Delta Force are all considered Tier 1. You don’t hear about ISA in the news, and they don’t make movies aboutThe Activity,” he said, as they were often called, “but if not for us, Delta and DEVGRU—the SEALs—would have a tough time being successful.” That was pretty much it in a simplified nutshell.
“Why did you quit Spec Ops to become a cop?” she asked, makingcopsound like a dirty word.
He thought he was the one who was supposed to be asking the questions. Was she screening him to see if he was fit to assist? “This really isn’t relevant.”
“It is to me.” She folded her arms across her chest. “You don’t step foot across the threshold until I get an answer that satisfies me.”
Brian tamped down the sigh rising in his chest. “My dad got sick. My mom couldn’t handle the ranch on her own and couldn’t afford to hire someone. So, I chose to stop doing something that I loved.” He was no quitter. “To help the ones that I love. Joining the force was the closest fit for my skill set. But two years after I came back here, my father suffered a massive stroke. I had to put him into the Silver Springs Senior Living center. My mother couldn’t bear to be away from him and moved in there also.”
He’d given up his career for nothing. His specialized skills were going to waste. In the end, he had to sell the horses to pay for the exorbitant fees at the special care facility for both his parents.
Now, he was stuck. Back home. In Wyoming. As a cop. Living alone on land that he had no idea what to do with. Only thing stopping him from selling that, too, was his promise to his parents that he would hang on to the Bradshaw legacy.
The one good thing to come out of it was getting assigned to the joint task force.
“Satisfied?” he asked. This time when he smiled, he didn’t try to hide the sadness behind it. Not just for himself, but also for his father’s tragic decline.
At least his parents were together. To this day, they made him believe in true love. Not in finding a soulmate, which he doubted was real, but in connecting with someone who understood you, whose faults you could tolerate if not appreciate, who brought light into the other’s darkness, and vice versa.
“Not entirely, but enough,” Charlie said, after a long moment. She stepped aside, letting him in. “How long have you been acop?” Once again, contempt laced the word.
“Four years.” The short period of time made him sound green, which he wasn’t. She wouldn’t be dealing with a patrol officer. “But I was fast-tracked to detective two years ago because of my military background.”
She frowned when he’d thought she would find that reassuring. Obviously, he was missing something important.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” she said, shutting the door. “Just because Rocco trusts you doesn’t mean that I do. Got it?”
Man, she was tough.
One more reason to like her.
“Fair enough.” He removed his hat. “But you need to remember that I come in peace. To help you. In any way that I can.”
“We’ll see about that.”
