Isaiah
It had been over a year since Isaiah’s accident, six months since he left the fire department, and just as long since he started training with his cousin Moe. He was just now getting ready for his first assignment.
“This is bullshit,” AJ said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you’re doing this. I gave you the perfect job to keep you away from this kind of dangerous shit, and you’re seriously choosing this?”
“I’ll keep handling your stuff and do this,” Isaiah explained as he finished zipping his bag. “I just can’t stand sitting around anymore. You know a desk job is not my thing. If I could stand it, I’d still be with the fire department. They said it might only take a few years of rehabilitating this damn knee for the docs to sign off on me getting back on unrestricted duty, and even that I couldn’t wait for.”
“So you put yourself through months of training for this instead?” AJ countered, just as disgusted as Isaiah expected him to be when he told him about this.
“He learned how to handle a gun and some self-defense,” Moe said with a smirk. “Relax, AJ. It’s not like he’s even gonna need it. It’s just all part of the state requirements to be licensed to do this kind of work. I’m telling you this is all babysitting work. But it’ll get him out of the house and away from that desk he hates so much for a little while.”
“Exactly what will he be doing—” AJ’s stopped mid-sentence, his eyes going wide, and Isaiah could’ve kicked himself for pulling his gun out so nonchalantly. “Why do you need a gun?” He turned back to Moe. “I thought you said he’ll just be babysitting rich brats.”
“He passed on that one,” Moe explained. “I had the perfect one for him in a small hick town, babysitting the daughter of a client of mine. He just wanted someone to keep an eye out for his reluctant daughter, who doesn’t even think she needs a bodyguard. The job was safe, but this one thought it was too boring.”
Isaiah closed his eyes as he continued to pack, knowing his younger brother was about to go ape shit on him. “You’re looking for something more dangerous?”
“Not more dangerous. I just have no desire to go from a desk job to hanging around some small cow town in the middle of nowhere.”
Moe walked away when he got a call he said he had to take, and Isaiah explained the job he had agreed to. “I’ll be driving this guy around, escorting his paranoid ass in and out of events and such around Los Angeles because he thinks someone’s out to get him. Moe says these guys are almost always way off with their paranoid fears. But c’mon, if you had a choice between Los Angeles and some cow town out in butt fuck nowhere New Mexico, which would you choose?”
AJ shook his head just as Moe walked back into the room. “Change of plans,” he said with a frown. “We’re too late for our guy in Los Angeles.”
“Too late?” Isaiah asked, confused. “I’m not even due out there until tomorrow.”
“I mean he’s gone. They found him dead this morning.”
“You see!” AJ pointed at Isaiah then at Moe. “Not dangerous, my ass. Can you imagine if you’d been there with him? You’re not going anywhere.”
Isaiah rolled his eyes at his brother but at the same time felt the exasperation of having to spend yet another day sitting in front of a computer. He’d been so ready for the change. Moe explained more about how it turned out the guy in Los Angeles was killed by his own wife.
“I guess the asshole was having an affair. So it seems what he claimed was probably just paranoia wasn’t so much. The woman he was cheating with was also married.” He shrugged. “You’re gonna play; you’re gonna pay. The guy was probably worried about what his mistress’s husband would do to him if they got caught. Little did he know it’d be his wife who popped a cap in his ass.”
Moe chuckled as he continued scrolling through his phone, shaking his head. AJ was still glaring at Isaiah.
“Oh,” Moe said suddenly. “Looks like our cow town girl is a feisty one. She fired the guy I assigned to watch her. Her dad’s asking for a replacement ASAP.”
Isaiah groaned, sitting down on his bed. “Take it,” AJ urged. “If it were up to me, I’d say don’t do any of this shit, but if you’re gonna insist and I know you are,” he added with an annoyed frown, “take the safer assignment, man, at least your first time out.”
“Yeah, you may not even be there long if she fires your ass too.” Moe laughed again. “But if you want it, I can get you on a plane there today. It shouldn’t be too bad. Iggy said she was hotter than shit too. Maybe that’s why she fired his ass.”
“You see.” AJ turned to Isaiah, his expression softening a bit. “You might even get laid.”
“Who’s getting laid?” Nathan asked as he strolled into Isaiah’s front room.
“No one’s getting laid,” Moe said to Nathan then turned back to Isaiah, “at least not by Cow Girl anyway. Kind of a conflict of interest. But if it happens,” he added with a wink, “don’t ask don’t tell has always been my policy.” Then he pointed at him with his phone. “Seriously though, this guy wants someone on her ASAP. You want it or not? Otherwise, I have to get someone else on it. There’s contracts and shit I need to redo.”
AJ explained to Nathan about Isaiah’s L.A. job being cancelled as Moe gave Isaiah the rest of the info on this new assignment. This would be a lot different from Los Angeles. He’d be flying out to a small town in New Mexico. “It’s one of them little towns where everyone’s up in everyone else’s shit,” Moe explained. “This girl doesn’t want anyone knowing she needs a bodyguard, so you’ll have to pretend you’re family or a friend or something. She’ll let you know what she wants you to say in case anyone asks when you get there. You won’t be staying in a hotel room either. I mean there are a couple in town, but it’d get too many tongues wagging since she has a three-bedroom place all to herself.”
Moe scrolled through his phone again and tapped a few things then started reading some stuff off to all three brothers, whose attention he now had.
“Raquel Stimpson recently widowed and lives alone.” Moe stopped reading and glimpsed up at them. “Ha! She works at the local dairy farm.”
“Why’s her dad so adamant someone be assigned to watch her?” AJ asked, as suspicious as ever.
“All I’m at liberty to say—”
“Bullshit!’ AJ was quick to protest. “What do you mean all you’re at liberty to say? If Sai’s gonna be watching her ass, he should know everything.”
“Hey, her dad worries,” Moe said with a shrug. “Guess she had a bit of a breakdown after her husband passed away last year and moved out to the middle of nowhere to”—Moe lifted his fingers making air quotes—“find herself. He said it’s just peace of mind for him to know she’s okay.”
“So how long is this assignment?” Nathan asked then turned to Isaiah. “How long you gonna be gone?”
They all turned to Moe, since any of their guesses was as good as Isaiah’s. “Few weeks. Month and a half tops,” Moe said. “Her dad just wants to be sure she’s gonna be okay out there on her own. Since she’s protesting the whole bodyguard thing, he’s not expecting her to go along with it for too long. But like I said Iggy wasn’t even there three days before she sent his ass packing. So it could be a lot shorter.”
Having no choice and not really looking forward to unpacking all his crap, Isaiah agreed. By that afternoon, he was on a plane to Santa Fe, New Mexico, the closest commercial airport to Deep Valley Acres. He still had an hour and a half drive to anticipate going through nothing but flatlands until he started up a canyon.
He passed a few tiny towns he sincerely hoped were smaller than Deep Valley Acres. “How the fuck do people live out here?” he muttered as he drove through the town that appeared more like a ghost town and took him all of ten minutes to cover the whole thing.
Why the hell had he been so stubborn? He thought of the huge home he’d left back in Point Bliss. He could be there now, ordering Chinese and throwing back a few cold ones with one or both of his brothers. Instead, he was on his way to what would likely be an awkward introduction with Cow Girl, someone he already knew resented Daddy’s bodyguards.
Something suddenly dawned on him. Did this chick even know he was coming? She up and fired the last guy. What if Daddy didn’t even tell her he was sending someone new?
“Great,” he muttered, shaking his head. “This just may turn out to be one colossal waste of time.”
With the sun starting to fade behind the mountains, the lights up ahead looked a little promising. The town wasn’t nearly as small as some of the others he’d passed. According to the map on his phone, she lived just outside of town on the other side. So he’d get a chance to take in the little dairy town as he drove through it.
It was actually a lot bigger than the little speck of towns he’d driven through, and that was a relief. It had a quaint little main street with a bunch of little shops, banks, and small restaurants. A big church in the center of town was having some kind of little fair or farmers’ market.
This hardly seemed like a place anyone would need to be worried about his daughter’s safety. It was one of those towns Isaiah had only seen on TV and in movies. He almost expected to see Opie crossing the street with his fishing pole.
By the time he reached the driveway of the little picturesque house just outside of town with the wraparound porch, he’d snapped out of his annoyed mood. He was even still whistling the theme song to The Andy Griffith Show as he walked up the stairs of the porch. He stopped whistling once he knocked.
No one answered, but he’d seen a car parked all the way up the driveway, and he was told she lived alone, so he knocked again—this time a little harder.
The knob finally rattled, and Isaiah held his breath, not sure what to expect. The door opened slowly at first then swung open all the way. Even though the screen door still between them shrouded his view, he could still see her fairly clearly, and he thought he recognized her. The moment their eyes locked there was no denying who he was staring at, and they both froze.
No fucking way.