Safe.
I don’t feel safe. But I know how to be safe for someone else.
Henry meets my eyes. “Shay wants her protected. Nothing more.”
My ribs ache—not from the cold or the scar tissue, but from the way this is already rearranging something inside me.
I stare at him. “You want me to… buy her?”
Henry shakes his head. “It’s not ownership. It’s a contract that guarantees her a safe landing place with a vetted man. No pressure. No obligation. Not binding. Just… protection.”
“You’re asking a lot.”
“It’s what Angus and Tom did for Shay last year. And look how that turned out.”
Tank grins. “Happily ever after with a baby.”
Tex nods. “And a goat. Don’t forget the goat.”
Henry, Angus, and Tom Sutton—all ex-SEALs—are the reason Tank, Tex, and I are here. Aside from being a working ranch, Havenridge is home to the veterans’ program—a safe place for former military men struggling with PTSD, injuries, survivor’sguilt, and the harsh reality of returning to a world that no longer feels like home.
I rub a hand over my face. “I’m not looking to take care of anyone. Not in that way.”
Henry meets my eyes. “We’re not talking marriage. Just safety. A way out. A place to breathe. Shay will feel better knowing her friend isn’t alone.”
And then he pulls the one card guaranteed to hit bone: “She doesn’t need a hero. She needs a shield.”
It lands somewhere deep and bruised inside me.
Tank says, “I’m going. You going, Tex?”
“Hell, yeah.”
I scowl. “Don’t?—”
Tank claps my injuredshoulder. “Wyatt’s going too.”
“No.”
Tex smirks. “He’s going.”
“Absolutely not.”
Tex leans his hip against the fence and folds his arms. “Wyatt. Buddy. Pal. Brother in arms. Miserable bastard we tolerate out of habit?—”
“Not going.”
Tank nods seriously. “Emotional blackmail it is.”
I blink. “Excuse me?”
Tank raises an eyebrow. “Brother, we literally dragged your bleeding carcass through gunfire.”
“And you apologized while you were dying,” Tex adds.
“I wasn’t dying,” I mutter.
“You were definitely dying,” Tank says. “You said, and I quote, ‘Tell my houseplants I’m sorry for abandoning them.’”
