Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three

JJ

“I don’t know that bringing someone here is a good idea,” JJ pushed back on their plan.

He didn’t want to bring any danger near Amelia. Hiding a woman here as part of a witness protection thing was a bad idea.

“She’s a great woman, nothing on her record,” Carter explained. “She’s even an elementary school teacher, which would be great for Amelia. The only problem was her witnessing something. Wrong place, wrong time.”

“Do what you want, this is your place, but I don’t want a stranger around Amelia.”

“We were kinda hoping she could stay with you,” Ashley said. “It’s the perfect cover and means she won’t be seen by many people.”

“This isn’t what I agreed to.” JJ clenched his fists as he contemplated how to get out of this.

“You signed on to Guardian Legion to work missions. Nothing else was specified,” Ashley countered.

“This—”

“I understand your hesitation. I really do. How about we bring her here to stay with us for now, until you get a feel for her? It’s only a few weeks until she can testify. If it works out and you agree she’s not a threat, then we can revisit things. But, we need you to commit to helping keep her safe while she’s here.”

No, his whole body wanted to scream. “Fine.” He didn’t have much of a choice here.

Signing up with Guardian Legion had been an interesting turn of events for him. He thought he’d just work the farm forever, but his father had decided not to leave after retiring and had hung around to be with Amelia.

That had turned into him doing even more around the ranch, until it had been clear that JJ wasn’t actually needed here. Carter had approached him about working with him instead, and JJ had jumped at the chance.

He wanted to stay there and have a stable home for Amelia, and this allowed him to do that. What he’d never expected was to bring that job home and have it impact Amelia.

“I can stay up here most of the time if that’s what’s needed.” If it kept this woman away from his daughter, he’d do what he needed to.

“Works for me,” Carter said.

“I have one demand from here on out, and I’ll leave if we can’t work it out, but never again do I want this job to impact Amelia. She’s not a tool to use to hide someone, and that’s not what I signed up for.” He wanted to stay but would walk if this happened again.

Ashley nodded solemnly. “I understand. I’ll have a contract drawn up that states as much just so you know we’re serious that it won’t happen again. I’m sorry we didn’t think of how you might feel about it.”

“I think you should put yourself in my shoes next time because you’re about to have a baby and it’ll be different then.”

“Hey.” Carter’s sharp command drew his attention. “Don’t talk to my wife like that.”

“That’s enough.” Ashley went to him and placed her hand on his arm. “He’s right. We didn’t think it through, just ran with it.” She rubbed her rounded stomach. “What if our daughter was here? Would you be willing to let Brenna stay with us?”

Carter tensed, and that was all the answer JJ needed. He trusted it wouldn’t happen again.

JJ would treat this woman like any other mission he’d been on and keep her away from Amelia. He ran through how that would work in his head.

It was almost time for Amelia to go back to school, and that meant he’d have to be available to take her and pick her up.

“Who’s working this with me?” JJ asked, trying to figure out who he would need to work with on schedules.

“Me,” Carter answered.

“The goal was to make life change as little as possible around here. If she blends in, people will notice her less, and that’s what we want. Bringing someone else up here would be too much,” Ashley explained.

“I need to be around for Amelia, and school’s about to start.”

“I’m aware.” Carter took a seat. “Send me her schedule and I’ll do my best to make sure I’m here when you need me. If I can’t be, then Ashley said she’ll take care of Amelia.”

“I want to be the one to do it.” JJ didn’t like the way this was being forced on him.

“This would be for a one-off situation, not for every day or even close to it.” Ashley also sat back down. “Just for contingency planning.”

“Fine. I’m going home unless you have any other things to tell me about how my life is going to run?” He was pissed.

“Next time, we will bring you in sooner. I’m sorry for running with this idea before we talked to you,” Ashley apologized.

JJ didn’t acknowledge her; he was too angry. He walked out of the office and stormed off to the barn, looking for something physical to do to get his mind off this mess.

He couldn’t go home to his dad and his daughter because he wasn’t in the right frame of mind. A little physical work would help clear that, and he’d be home by dinner.

He and his father hadn’t had a good relationship for most of his childhood. His mother had kept him from visiting often, even though he’d wanted to.

After he’d graduated, he’d looked his father up and spent some time with him before hitting the circuit and becoming pretty well-known in the Pbr. Then, one drunken night had led to a child with a one-night stand and JJ had changed his life to be there for his daughter.

The woman wanted nothing to do with Amelia, and while it had been hard, he was happy not to have to fight with anyone for custody or time to see his child. He’d taken a job at a ranch where he could live with his daughter.

But that job hadn’t lasted long, and he’d bounced from place to place with Amelia in tow. One night, his father had come up with the idea of retiring and handing his job over to JJ.

That wasn’t what happened, but he’d been excited about it. So, he’d packed everything up and had moved Amelia out here. Then, the trouble had started.

The house he’d been meant to live in had burned down because of the man who’d been after Ashley. His father had extended the time he was staying on until Ashley and Carter’s wedding, and they’d all lived in the same house.

Only in the last month had the house been ready for them to move into. This whole thing hadn’t been what he’d expected, and he was reminding himself constantly that he didn’t regret it.

Regrets didn’t solve anything, and he knew better. All he needed to do was be somewhere that Amelia could grow up and live a good life. He’d always loved the ranch when he’d come to visit his dad, so this was great.

Amelia was great, too. Sure, he was biased, but she was an easy child who was easy to love. She made everyone around her fall in love with her right away.

She seemed to like being on the ranch, too. She loved getting to spend time with her grandfather and having girls’ nights with Ashley. They were so welcome here that JJ got something he hadn’t had since she’d been born, a break.

Tonight, his father had Amelia and they were doing a movie night. JJ was supposed to be up here talking business, but he was too pissed for that. Instead, he wandered around outside aimlessly, trying to find out where he fit.

That was the crux of the problem. Everyone seemed to have a place here except him. He had the Guardian Legion stuff, but nothing really felt like it was for him, like he belonged.

His dad loved having him here and he got that. No one complained about him being around, but he also didn’t do much that supported anyone.

“JJ,” Carter called.

He stopped and waited for Carter to catch up to him.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I don’t know what I was thinking about asking you to help Brenna like that. I swear she’s a nice girl, but I understand what you were saying.”

“Thanks,” JJ brushed it off.

“Seriously.” Carter sighed. “I talked with Ashley, who reminded me that we should get your opinion first. Do you think that when you’re done doing this, you’d like to come up and take a look at what we have in mind for this op and give me some opinions?”

“Nice of you to try to include me, but I don’t think that’s really what I’m cut out to do. I’m just a follow instructions kind of guy.” That was how he felt.

“Shut the fuck up,” Carter snapped. “You are raising a child, on your own up until you got here. I don’t think that’s following instructions.”

JJ shrugged. “Didn’t really have an option there.”

“You did. You always could have given her up for adoption or found a woman to jump into a relationship with to raise her. Hell, you could have hired any number of nannies to help. But that’s not what you did. You took charge and raised her.”

“Doesn’t qualify me for this.”

“Not much does for anyone until they do it. We’re a team and we all help each other. I’m asking for your help on this.”

Low blow. “Fine,” he muttered. “Lead the way.”

“No.” Carter shook his head. “Go clear your head and then come back up when you’re ready. No judgment, my preferred method is to go on a ride because I don’t have to think about where I’m going.”

JJ blew out a breath. “I’m good. I just needed a second. Show me what you have.”