Damaged Billionaire Daddy Bear - Leela Ash Page 0,3

life for himself and other shifters to allow some potential Sherlock-wannabe to come along and blow their cover wide open. Chances were they would have no idea that half or more of the animals were actually shifters. Why would they? But they had to be careful.

He would keep a very close eye, indeed, on all of them, and if anyone gave the slightest inkling of being more trouble than they were worth, he would toss them out on their rear.

Chapter 2

Jessica Harris bit her tongue so hard, she had to stop and collect herself as she fought back a torrent of angry swear words that were just itching to burst past her parched lips. It wouldn’t do for her impressionable children to hear Mommy use the F-word, the A-word, or any other swear word in-between, she told herself for the umpteenth time.

Jessica shot a harried glance at where her daughter, Arizona Harris, was making car driving noises with her brother, Kal, in the backseat of their rundown car. At nine years old, Kal was deep into cars and his six-year-old sister, Arizona, was going to at least make an attempt at being into whatever Kal was into. So they played with their toy cars, oblivious to the fact that they were in a broken-down vehicle in the middle of nowhere.

Arizona’s car overtook Kal’s on the back seat and he gave her blonde ponytail a small yank in protest, making her yowl.

“Kal, don’t pull your sister’s hair, or you’re gonna be in time-out for a week!” Jessica grated, frustration giving her voice a hard edge.

Her tone induced a stunned silence, and her kids jerked their gazes toward her. They knew to pay attention when her voice hit that tone. She sighed when she saw the uh-oh look creep into their eyes. Yes, she was in a foul mood, but it bothered her that her kids were coming to recognize that mood, more and more, and getting wary of it, and of her. She was tired, sweaty, and dusty, and she was solely responsible for herself and two tiny humans. And she was worried. But she wasn’t going to let herself become her ex-husband and make her own children afraid of her.

Thinking of the sorry bastard tripled her frustration, and Jessica ground her teeth. If she continued like this, she would probably send her blood pressure through the roof, and in this heat, odds were, she would keel over right there by the side of the road. Then what would become of Kal and Arizona?

“I don’t even know this area. I probably should have stopped at that last service station. I knew the engine didn’t sound right,” she mumbled, flinging her phone onto the driver’s seat of her car with a worried sigh.

“Mom, what’s wrong with the car?” Kal asked.

“I’m not sure, sweetie. It just stopped,” she told him.

The kids stared at her with wide eyes filled with childish innocence.

“Are we gonna be okay?” Arizona piped up in that uncanny way children had of voicing one’s secret deepest fears.

Jessica’s heart twisted afresh in her chest. They were stuck on a lonely patch of road, with no houses in sight for miles and nightfall was only about four hours away.

Swallowing, she nodded and thrust up her chin, as she assured her daughter with a calm she was far from feeling, “Yes, we’re gonna be okay, sweets. I promise.”

Just then, a large truck rumbled up toward them, and she hurriedly dashed into the center of the road, waving her hands frantically above her head.

The truck came to a shuddering stop, its driver scowling from behind the wheel, his bushy, graying eyebrows pulled together in a frown over his long beak-nose and jowly chin. He climbed out of the truck, his cowboy hat shoved back off his forehead. His face was flushed a deep red, indicative of his temper, and his bloated mid-section jiggled as he marched toward her. The sun was definitely still hot but it really seemed to be taking it out of him, she thought.

But he sure was a pleasant surprise, she thought, taking in his spurs and his ambling stride. He even had one of those bolero string ties and a number of flashy rings. One ruby, in particular, glinted at her in the sun. She hadn’t expected to find a bona fide cowboy in Angel Springs, Florida.

“What the hell is wrong with you, lady? You tryna be road kill? Listen, if you wanna off yerself or somethin’, that’s yer call.