Protection

Chapter 4

Grace also said that her mother had a side of mystery to her. She had apparently lived a very different life before she met Daddy and made a home with him. No one really knew how she was back then except for Daddy and Grace, and they never spoke of her life before marriage.

The bad thing was that Bliss had always really wanted to know.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the front door bursting open.

“There’s a rider coming,” Colt’s voice said.

“Go get Daddy. He’s in his office,” Bliss said, jerking up to her feet.

They rarely got visitors out where it was a three days’ ride from town, so that could mean that the visitor could only be one person.

Clint Slade.

Her heartbeat quickened as she rushed outside onto the front porch of the house. Walking to the end that faced north, where the rider was coming from, Bliss leaned against the porch railing and steadied herself.

She pictured him having cold, hard eyes that could pierce a soul in one glance, wearing a black hat low over his eyes and a long dark brown leather duster that concealed a well-used gun. She anticipated seeing if he matched the picture in her mind.

The rider rode up to the hitching rail in front of the house and dismounted just as her father came out onto the porch.

“Sherman Cooper?” the rider asked.

He had a deep, smooth voice that resonated with authority and bade an answer to everything he asked. A voice that would make his enemies cower in fear of what the owner of that voice was capable of.

“Yes, sir. You must be Clint Slade.” Daddy extended his hand to the man, who took it and shook it hard and quickly.

“That I am,” the rider said.

Bliss took a few steps closer to the men and got a good look at Clint Slade. He looked some like she thought he would, but not entirely. His eyes were a steel grey color, framed with thick lashes and defined eyebrows. They were as cold and hard as a block of ice. His face was completely made up of planes. His square, chiseled jaw was set determinedly and the line of facial hair that traced it gave him the smallest trustworthy air. His wavy brown hair fell nearly below his ears, the front nearly covering his eyes. His brown Stetson didn’t set as low as she had imagined. As for the rest of him, he was as big and brawny as the newspaper journalists had described him. He was positively intimidating. He didn’t wear a duster as she had thought he would, but who could stand one as hot as it was today? He wore a faded brown shirt that he had rolled halfway up his deeply tanned forearms and a black leather vest, dark blue pants and then there was that well-worn gun that every man feared. It slung low on his hip to make for a quick draw; every slot in his gun-belt had a gold bullet in it, all the way around. Every fiber in Clint Slade’s appearance demanded respect and obedience.

“This is my daughter, Bliss.” Daddy’s voice broke through her musings.

Bliss looked at Daddy, then at Mr. Slade.

“She’s the one I called you out here to protect,” Daddy explained.

Clint’s eyes took one quick sweeping gaze over her and when they reached her eyes again, she didn’t see a hint of emotion in him. Whether he approved of the person he was going to see all day every day was something he wasn’t going to reveal.

“Th-This is your daughter?” he asked,

*****

Clint stared at her. This wasn’t a little girl he looked at. He had come across the country to protect a child, not a… a woman. What had he been thinking?

“Yes, this is my daughter,” Shannon Cooper draped an arm over his daughter’s shoulders.

Clint couldn’t decide whether he liked the change of plans or not. Women weren’t his forte, no matter what the dime novelists said. Every time he spoke to one he ended up making her mad.

“Something wrong, Mr. Slade?” Miss Cooper asked him.

“No ma’am. It’s just that I was led to believe that you were much younger in your father’s letter,” Clint replied.

Miss Cooper looked up at her father with annoyance behind her eyes. “Sounds like him.”

Mr. Cooper was obviously ready to change the subject.

“Let’s go inside, shall we?” he said with a smile, motioning toward the door.

“I’d like to tend to my horse, first,” Clint said.

“Oh, that’s fine. I’ll have Colt handle it,” Mr. Cooper told him.

Clint nodded and followed the man and his daughter into the house.

She was indeed something to behold. She had platinum blonde hair that the kept up in some contraption that women put their hair in these days. Her skin was slightly tanned but not bronzed, which made it contrast against the pale green dress she wore that seemed much too fancy for someone way out where they were. Her warm, brown eyes gave away every emotion she felt, and that was something that Clint didn’t consider a virtue. She was slightly too thin for his liking, but Clint knew that she wasn’t made for his liking or anyone else’s but her own. Overall, she didn’t hurt his eyes any.

“Colt, will you take care of Mr. Slade’s horse for him?” Mr. Cooper asked.

A young cowboy looked at Clint and nodded. He seemed trustworthy enough for a first glance.

Mr. Cooper sat him at the table if his inviting kitchen. His daughter sat directly across from Clint, keeping her eyes that were obviously trying to figure him out on him at all times.

The woman should really learn how to hide things with her eyes.

*****

Bliss watched as Mr. Slade leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table and intertwining his fingers.

“Tell me the situation,” he said.

Daddy took a deep breath. “As you know, we’ve been receiving notes threatening Bliss’ life. We have no idea who these men are or what they want from her, and that’s something we hope that you can help us with.”

“I’m no detective, Mr. Cooper,” Clint said.

“You’ve tracked down men before, haven’t you?” Daddy asked.

“Yes, but I know who they are. You give me nothing to go on.”

“But you’re like a bounty hunter, aren’t you?” Bliss asked.

Clint looked right at her, fixing those cold hard eyes completely on her. “I’m paid to kill. There’s nothing more and nothing less to it.”

Bliss gulped.

Clint looked back at Daddy. “Here’s what I do. I stay with your daughter. Where she goes, I go. If these men happen to make an appearance, I take care of them. I don’t track them down.”

“I want these men found and killed, Mr. Slade. A private detective can’t use a gun like you can. You’re the only option we have,” Daddy said, nearly begging.

Clint looked at the table, a muscle in his jaw twitching as the thought.

“How does five thousand sound to you?” Daddy offered.

Clint looked over at him, one emotion finally showing in his eyes. One that Bliss couldn’t interpret. He thought about it a moment longer.

“You’ve gotta understand that hunting down men I don’t know is not my specialty. I can’t make any promises. You do have my word that if I find them, no one will hear of them again.” Clint’s voice was quiet and determined.

Daddy nodded and held out his hand. “As long as you do your very best. Do we have a deal?”

Bliss watched as the two men shook hands.

She felt her last bit of liberty crumble and slip out of her fingers in a second’s time.

　Tell me what you think!