Sneak Peek At Timberwolf on the Mountain!
Chapter One
The little girl trembled in her seat as the six big men walked through the door. Their faces looked stern and unforgiving as they filed past her one by one, each making sure that she knew without a doubt they were there for her. The last man stopped and knelt in front of her, bringing his face to her level. He looked into her eyes as her bottom lip quivered. He took her hands in his—big and rough and warm.
“We’re here, Laurie. When you go up to sit by the judge, you keep your eyes on us, on me,” Gabe O’Neil said. “You don’t need to look at him. What is he, Laurie? Do you remember?” His eyes moved to her lips as she spoke, watching every word.
The little girl’s voice quavered as she said, “He’s a worm.”
“Yes he is, sweetheart. He’s a worm. And worms are food. And you are a brave little bird who’s going to feast on him today. You’re going to sing out the truth, and you’re going to help put him in a place where he can’t hurt anyone else. This isn’t all on you though, baby, you remember that, too. A lot of people let you down, but we’re not going to. No matter what happens today, we’ve got your back. He will never come near you again.”
Laurie looked down. She murmured something that he couldn’t hear or make out. But the tear slipping down her cheek told him volumes.
Gabe gently tilted her chin up until she was looking at him again. “You are so brave, Laurie. Someone like you should never have to be this brave, but here you are.”
“I’m not brave. I’m scared.”
“You are brave, Laurie. Brave is being scared and doing the scary thing anyway. You are the bravest person in this room right now, do you know that?”
He couldn’t hear her whispers but watching her lips Gabe thought she said, “As brave as you? As brave as Bear?”
“Braver than me and Bear put together on our scariest day.”
Gabe felt his mouth go dry as a memory flashed through his mind, a brutal reminder of their scariest day. He glanced up at his friend, Jon Behr, who’d filed in with the rest of them. Bear met his eyes and stood up.
And up, and up.
Bear was one of the biggest men Gabe had ever known. Underneath all that height and muscle beat a huge and gentle heart of gold—unless you were his enemy or threatening someone he cared about, then God help you. Bear sat beside the other contender for biggest man Gabe knew, and the unofficial leader of their team, Benjamin “Moose” Massey. Ben looked almost comical trying to scoot back on the bench to let get Bear past him, like two freighters in a narrow canal.
Bear lumbered over to Gabe and Laurie. The sound of people talking in the courtroom increased at the sight of the two big men with the star witness. Gabe frowned, wanting to adjust his hearing aids. They were new ones and he was still getting used to them and sometimes couldn’t block out all the ambient noise. But he didn’t dare touch them in front of Bear, who still held on to the idea that he was responsible for Gabe’s hearing loss.
Laurie watched Bear as he dropped to his knees in front of her.
“Everything all right, Piglet?” Bear asked. He pointed at the stuffed animals on Laurie’s lap—a Pooh Bear and a Piglet. Gabe and Bear gave her the stuffies when they’d met a few weeks ago to try and gain her trust. The men knew they could be big and intimidating and Laurie was already afraid of most men, thanks to the walking scum who hurt her. They hoped Pooh and Piglet would help her feel safe when she cuddled them at night and remind her to be brave during the day. They’d told her that Piglet was small, but fierce and brave and loyal—just like her. The nickname Bear gave Laurie stuck, and the little girl smiled every time he called her that, including now. She had the sweetest smile, complete with a missing front tooth she’d traded for ten dollars to the Tooth Fairy a few days ago. The guys had wanted to give her more, but Laurie’s mother refused, saying they’d already done so much to help.
Laurie nodded and clutched Piglet closer.
“You look at us, Piglet,” Bear said, echoing Gabe’s words. “And if that’s too scary, you just look down at old Pooh Bear and Piglet when you talk.”
“Judge’ll let you bring them up with you, so you won’t be up there alone,” Gabe said. That at least was certain. The judge had let other kids bring their stuffed animals and security blankets up with them and Laurie’s lawyer made doubly sure that was one of the conditions of her testimony. She had agreed to it.
Gabe just wished everything else was as certain. The scumbag’s family had hired the best lawyer in the state of Colorado to defend Jesse Tobison. The lawyer had a reputation for finding loopholes and for intimidating young witnesses like Laurie to make sure his clients never saw the inside of a prison. Sadly, he had a successful record. Even if the lawyer had never directly hit or touched a child himself, Gabe thought taking on abusers like Tobison on the regular made him ten times worse than the criminals he represented. It killed Gabe to think that Tobison might go free after what he’d done to Laurie and to other children.
He needed more faith that it wouldn’t happen today. For Laurie’s sake.
The courtroom grew louder, taking away Gabe’s chance to hear Laurie’s response. He tried not to grimace and risk Laurie thinking he was upset at her. He smiled instead. Bear put his hand on Gabe’s shoulder—a warning that Tobison had just walked in with his lawyer.
Gabe squeezed Laurie’s hands one last time. “You aren’t alone. And we won’t let him near you.”
“Look at us,” Bear said, getting to his feet.
Gabe followed him back to the bench where the rest of his team sat. They weren’t a formal team, but brothers in spirit, with a self-directed mission to protect people like Laurie from predators who slipped through justice’s fingers. They all hoped that today would be different, that Tobison would remain in custody so that he couldn’t threaten Laurie. He’d already violated a restraining order which was what prompted Laurie’s mother to get in touch with Mountain Division. Ben had received that call from one of their contacts in a local school that a little girl needed protection from a monster. They answered right away, meeting Laurie and reassuring her that at least one of them would guard her around the clock until Tobison was back in jail.
It took three days before the bastard showed his face at her house. But they’d kept her safe, both physically and emotionally. She didn’t even know he was outside, restrained by Gabe while Bear was inside reading her a bedtime story. Gabe had wanted to kill him outright, but that wasn’t how it worked.
At least not yet.
Now it was time for her to testify and Tobison—and his bastard lawyer—would use every psychological trick in the book to keep her from talking or to trick her into sounding unreliable.
Repulsive.
The judge entered the courtroom and asked that everyone be quiet. That was a relief to Gabe. Now he could make out individual voices.
Tobison’s lawyer spoke first. “Your Honor, I’d like to ask for the witness to leave the stuffed animals behind when she testifies. They are a distraction.”
Son of a bitch. He was already starting in, trying to make sure Laurie was as uncomfortable as possible. He’d already managed to prevent Laurie from testifying by closed-circuit television, causing her to appear in person in the same room as her abuser.
“Request denied,” the judge said. Her expression looked neutral but even Gabe could pick up on the disgust in her voice. “Laurie, can you come up here now and testify, please?” Her voice had softened and Gabe felt some relief. He’d listened to other judges talk over the heads of their young witnesses and that only led to confusion. This judge seemed to know how to talk to kids. Things were looking up.
Laurie held her head high as she approached the witness stand accompanied by her adult attendant.
That’s my brave girl.
God, she looked so small, so fragile as she climbed up into the chair. She clung to her stuffed animals like a life raft. But she looked straight at Gabe and Bear who both gave her thumbs up.
She smiled back and refused to look at either the lawyer or at Tobison the entire time. She kept her gaze on the team of men who she knew would take a bullet to defend her.
“My name is Laurie,” she began, and kept going from there in a strong, sure voice.
***
“You were amazing, Piglet,” Bear told her on the sidewalk in front of the parking lot afterward. Bear, Gabe, and Waylon waited with Laurie while Ben and Elias escorted her mom to get her car and Shane went to get a surprise for the little girl. The three men stood blocking her from the door, forming a protective circle around her, even though Tobison was still in custody. The rest of his family was there, and they were—weird to say the least, intimidating for sure. She didn’t need them coming up to her. Gabe thought Laurie looked so much better now that the day was done. Not happy exactly, but more relaxed. He wanted it to stay that way.
Laurie’s mother Diane drove up with Ben, and Shane was right behind them in a Watchdog SUV. Watchdog was where Shane worked as a security expert. They also trained dogs for police officers and for the private sector to be service dogs and for personal protection. He got out of the truck and went around to the back. Gabe smiled in anticipation as he watched Laurie’s face and he wasn’t disappointed. The little girl lit up like the Fourth of July the second she saw the dog.
“His name is Pete but I call him Peetie,” Shane said, giving the black Lab a scratch behind the ears. “He’s Peetie the Sweetie, right? Loves pets, loves treats, loves to be spoiled rotten by kiddos like you.” He knelt down beside the dog. “Go ahead. Give him a scratch.”
Laurie reached out and scratched Pete’s ears. The dog groaned and leaned against her. The men laughed along with Laurie’s mom. The girl was too enchanted with Peetie to notice.
What Shane didn’t tell Laurie was that if anyone came near her, Peetie would not be so sweet. Peetie would turn into a barking, biting, attacking machine.
Much like the men.
Peetie licked Laurie’s nose, making her laugh.
“You like him, huh?” Shane asked.
“I do. He’s cute.”
“Well, he belongs to my boss, a man named Kyle. And when Kyle heard that there was a little girl who needed a friend to protect her, he told me to bring Peetie to see you. And he also said that if you wanted, you could take Peetie home for the night. Like a sleepover. How does that sound?”
Laurie looked at Shane in awe. “Really? You mean it?”
“Absolutely. I’ll come and get him in the morning. He’s got some training to do tomorrow, but he’s all yours for the rest of today and tonight.”
Laurie beamed as she looked first at Pete, then back at Shane, then Gabe, Bear, and finally her mom.
“Is it okay, Mom?”
Diane nodded as she sneaked a finger behind her dark glasses—undoubtedly to wipe away a tear. “We already talked about it and it’s fine with me.” She smiled at Shane as he stood up and handed her a small duffel.
“Got all his food, treats, and a couple toys right in here.”
Laurie flew at Shane and hugged him fiercely. Gabe watched Shane’s eyes mist over—through the mist in his own eyes. Bear cleared his throat and looked away, the big softie, while all the other guys shuffled their feet.
Laurie gave Bear a hug, then it was Gabe’s turn. He knelt down and squeezed her tightly.
“You did good today, sweetheart, We’re all proud of you. Go on home and play with Pete. I’ll see you in a couple of days when I stop over to keep an eye on you at the house, okay?”
“Okay.” The little girl pulled away. “And Gabe?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“I love you.”
Gabe let out a surprised breath. His voice cracked just a little as he said, “I love you, too. We all do.”
“Let’s get you home,” Diane said, her voice choked with emotion. “Could you—”
Before she could finish speaking, Ben had the minivan’s door open and was helping Laurie and Pete get settled into it. She turned back to Shane.
“Thank you. Can I…?” She reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet.
“Nope, nope, nope.” All the men backed away, palms up, as if she’d pulled out a live rattlesnake.
“We don’t take money,” Elias said. He pulled his coat back and plucked at the scrubs underneath. “We’ve all got jobs. We don’t do this for a living.”
“I know, but, for the dog at least? I know a trained dog is expensive.”
“No way, Diane,” Shane said. “Kyle specifically told me this is on the house.”
Another thing Shane didn’t tell Diane. The money for Pete’s services came from something Kyle called The Widows and Orphans Fund. That was started by Kyle’s old boss back in Los Angeles, a man by the name of Lachlan Campbell. It wasn’t because Diane was a widow or Laurie was an orphan. It was because if someone qualified for it, Watchdog created widows and orphans on behalf of the beneficiaries. Tobison wasn’t married or had kids—thank God—but everyone who knew about him would be happy to remove him from the face of the earth and that included Kyle.
Diane put her wallet away as she looked from one man to another. “We’re just so grateful.”
“This is…this is just what we do,” Shane said.
“Because it’s right to do it,” Gabe added.
“Yeah,” Bear said, nodding. “Let’s get you home. I can stay as long as you and Laurie need me today.”
Bear had a woman named Ellie who owned some land and a sweet cabin up in the mountains. He’d helped her fix it up when she had no other home but needed a place to hide from her terrible family. They’d all known her as kids, but she’d been gone from Colorado a long time. When she came back, Bear had fallen hard for sweet little Ellie and she adored him. Bear hated to be away from her, but he didn’t hesitate to take a shift to make sure that Laurie felt safe after such a hard day, and Ellie even encouraged him to help out. She understood better than any of them what it was like to be attacked by filth like Tobison.
Bear got in the car and they all waved goodbye to Laurie, who finally looked happy to Gabe. It was good to see. Now, all he wanted was to get out of Denver. The place made his skin crawl.
Shane tapped him on the shoulder. From his expression, Gabe knew he hadn’t heard the man say something to him and Shane was trying to get his attention. One more reason to head back home; things were much quieter there.
“Riversong?” Shane asked, a hopeful spark in his eye. They often went there after carrying out their work, to relax and debrief.
But Gabe knew Shane had ulterior motives.
***
There were times when Gabe looked at his hearing loss as a blessing. Riding with Shane to Riversong Coffee after the courtroom was one of those times. Gabe had been glad to get out of Denver. The place was too loud and big and always made him feel like it was about to swallow him whole. He much preferred their little hometown of Lyons to the big city. Now Gabe just wanted to grab a coffee and maybe go for a brief walk along the St. Vrain river that skirted the town. It was quiet there. Peaceful. And Gabe wouldn’t have to listen to Shane, who was riled up from their morning in court.
Then again, Shane always got this way when they went to Riversong.
It was bad enough when Shane was drumming along with Van Halen on the steering wheel and droning on about the merits of eighties hair bands. It got worse when he started talking about the woman in the window.
Gabe made a show of turning off his hearing aid.
“Dude! Come on, seriously?”
Gabe could still make out Shane’s words, so the man must have been shouting.
“You know I’m right,” Shane went on. “You need to make your move.” He stopped at the light right before the shop and glared at Gabe until he turned his hearing aid back on.
“Yeah, because all that non-stop flirting you’re doing with April is getting you so far.”
“Hey, at least I’m talking to April instead of just moon dogging at her.”
“What the hell does moon dogging even mean?”
“Dude, go look in a mirror while you’re thinking about Little Miss Window Seat and you’ll know.” Shane pulled an exaggerated face—he tilted his head, his mouth slowly dropped open, and his eyes grew wide.
Gabe resisted flipping Shane off and pointed out the windshield instead. “Green means go.”
Shane went through the intersection and pulled into Riversong’s parking lot. Gabe’s chest tightened as he couldn’t resist looking at the window on the far-right end of the coffee shop.
There she was, same as every day at this time, sitting in the window seat and reading, her back to one of the bookshelves bracketing the padded bench. He knew she’d have a laptop sitting on the table beside her, and the minute he got his coffee and headed for a nearby table, she’d quickly set her book down, open the laptop, and start typing away.
“Why don’t you just go introduce yourself and ask her out?”
“Because she always looks busy, that’s why,” Gabe said.
Pointedly busy the second he got up his nerve to say hi.
They got out of the SUV and walked to the door. April was finishing up with a customer, giving him a smile and a cup of joe. Her smile disappeared when she saw Shane—turning into something a little snarkier—though her sweet smile reappeared for Gabe.
“Morning,” she said, and without waiting, immediately dumped two spoonfuls of sugar into the bottom of a ceramic mug. Next she would pour in coffee and one shot of espresso—just the way Gabe liked his coffee.
“Good morning, beautiful,” Shane said, leaning on the counter. “I’ll have my usual.”
“Oh, of course you will. What was that again? I don’t keep track.”
Gabe tuned out the rest of their banter and glanced over at her. The beautiful woman in the window. Brunette, not too thin, thick eyelashes, cozy cardigan in all kinds of weather. He never knew what she was reading because her book was covered in brown paper. Was she embarrassed about what she read, or was there another reason? Gabe was dying to know.
He was dying to know anything about her.
She lifted her pointer finger to her lips and her tongue darted out, wetting it, then she turned the next page. The gesture was completely unselfconscious and at the same time, extremely sexy. Gabe had to turn away before he embarrassed himself.
April had finished making his coffee and was starting on Shane’s drink. Gabe pulled out his wallet.
April grinned and put her hand up. “Your money’s no good here today, my friend.”
What? Did he misunderstand? It must be the all the ambient noise. I need to get these things checked.
“Sorry, I don’t think I heard you right. It’s free?” he ventured. He watched her lips carefully.
She pointed at his coffee. “That one’s already been paid for,” April said a little louder.
“You don’t need to buy me coffee, April,” Gabe said as he continued to open his wallet, feeling like maybe he was somehow the butt of a joke Shane was playing.
April reached across the counter and put her hand on his. He looked up. “I didn’t buy it for you. She did.” Then April discreetly pointed over his shoulder. Shane’s eyes widened as did his smile, but April’s face was dead serious.
Gabe turned to find the woman in the window seat looking shyly up at him through her gorgeous black lashes. She set her book aside and this time, she didn’t touch her laptop. The sweetest little smile graced her lips.
“I’ll just get my coffee to go,” Shane said, looking back and forth between April and Gabe.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Gabe said, suddenly remembering that yeah, there were other people in the world and one of them was his buddy there for a debriefing.
“Are you kidding?” Shane grinned. “Unless I can hang around up here at the counter—”
“No chance, bucko,” April said as she rolled her eyes. “You’ll scare off the rest of my customers.”
“What?” He grinned wickedly and placed his fingertips against his chest. “There is nothing at all scary about any of this.”
April shook her head then pointed her chin at Gabe’s coffee. “That’s getting cold. Better go drink it now, know what I mean?” She glanced at Shane. “And you can vamoose.” April turned away, done with both the conversation and Shane, but Gabe caught her fighting back a smile as she walked to the other end of the counter.
“See you, brother. I’m taking a walk by the St. Vrain.” Shane toasted Gabe with his to-go cup and headed for the door.
“What about having my six?”
“Brother, me leaving right now is having your six.” And with that, he was out the door.
Gabe grinned. It was true. He’d been wondering how he could approach the shy, gorgeous woman without scaring her off. If she wasn’t interested or already seeing someone, he didn’t want to chase her away from the coffee shop, which she obviously loved, to avoid any further awkwardness. No way was she single, he’d told himself. He also told himself no way would she be interested in him, especially early on while he suffered the growing pains of adjusting both to civilian life and his hearing loss. But that was months ago, and Gabe was becoming more comfortable with his new life every day. Sure, there were still challenges and frustrations, but yeah, things were getting better.
Especially right now.
Gabe picked up his coffee mug and walked toward the woman, who looked down at the table, now doubly shy. He hoped she wasn’t regretting her decision.
She wasn’t curled up on the window seat today but had her feet on the floor. The winter sunlight coming through the window directly behind her gave her a soft, glowing halo. This close, Gabe could also smell her perfume—something faintly vanilla, papery, but with a touch of polished wood.
She smells like books. Like a bookstore or a library. Only sweeter.
“Hi,” he said when he got to her table, He hoped his voice wasn’t too loud. He was still getting used to adjusting the volume. “Thank you,” he added, lifting his cup. “Mind if I sit down?”
Her eyes went round as he sat in the wooden chair. She opened her mouth and took a breath as if she were going to speak. Then she closed it again and blinked rapidly.
Oh no. What did I do? He wondered if it was his voice. Was he too loud?
She tried again. “This wha…was…” She shook her head as she stood up and practically threw her things into her tote bag. “A mi...mistake.”
“Wait!” Gabe jumped to his feet. “I’ll leave you alone.”
But she was already moving past him, her gaze fixed on the floorboards, and headed for the door. April looked distraught.
“Rochelle, wait,” she called after the woman, but she was out the door. April looked at Gabe.
“I didn’t mean to frighten her,” he said. Gabe walked back up to the counter.
April’s expression turned apologetic. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed her.”
“Her name is Rochelle?”
April nodded. “She’s been coming in for a while now. I’ve been trying to coax her out of her shell.” She looked at the front door. “I just hope I didn’t break it.”
So did Gabe.
