“You can make a public statement that your fiancé wasn’t prepared for life in the public eye, and you parted amicably.” Amanda sighed. “Or you just admit you needed a bodyguard. No one will hold it against you.”
Liliana stared at her friend for a long time without uttering a word, as if working through the two scenarios.
“If you choose to have our protector as your bodyguard, wouldn’t you have the same issue you’d have if he was your aide?” Kyla pointed out. “Wouldn’t the press make something of your bodyguard staying in adjoining rooms and sleeping in your house? You’re a target of the press as much as you are a target of whoever is behind the attacks.”
“Kyla’s right,” Stone said. “You can’t think of it as lying to the public. You’re guarding your reputation and life by having your protector go undercover. When the campaign is over, you can own up to that fact. Your voters will understand.”
“And if your protector is your fiancé and not a highly-trained former special operations fighter, whoever is targeting you might get sloppy and expose himself for the sneaky bastard he is, and you’ll have your fiancé to take him down.” Amanda clapped her hand on the table. “So, who’s Liliana’s lucky guy?”
Stone glanced around at the men seated at the table as if sizing up each man as a potential fiancé for the congressional candidate.
His chest tight and blood pumping through his veins, Dax waited for Stone to decide. Stone, himself, had a fiancée in Kyla. If someone from West Yellowstone saw them on the news, they might out him. Same went for Bubba and Carter. They had fiancées, which left Dax, Moe and Hunter.
Dax glanced across the table at Liliana Lightfeather with her sleek dark hair and deep brown eyes.
Moe and Hunter might fall in love with the pretty congressional candidate and have a problem when they’d have to break up.
Having spent his life avoiding matrimony, Dax was the woman’s best bet. He could walk away like he had so many times before. His deep distrust of the feminine gender would make the separation painless. And he’d find it challenging to go undercover and play the part.
He frowned at Stone. What was taking him so long to make up his mind? The longer the man deliberated, the tenser Dax grew. Finally, he laid his palm on the table. “I’ll do it,” he said at the same time as Moe said, “Send me.”
Stone frowned. “We have two volunteers.” He turned to Dax, drew a deep breath, and let it out. “You sure you can pull it off?”
Dax lifted his chin. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Moe laughed. “You’ll have to shower, for one. Can’t go on the campaign trail smelling like a horse.”
“Might want to shave the beard,” Stone suggested.
Dax’s Marine father had made him iron his shirts and jeans and maintain a clean shave and haircut. Dax knew how to look good in a uniform and civilian clothes. “I clean up well,” he said. “I’ll trim the beard.”
“I clean up well too, and I don’t have a beard,” Moe insisted. “And I would have no problem pretending to be Miss Lightfeather’s fiancé.” He winked at her. “That would be the easy part.”
Stone met Dax’s gaze. “I admit, I had Moe in mind for this assignment, but given the potential to go undercover as Miss Lightfeather’s fiancé, I think it should be the congressional candidate’s choice who gets to be her fiancé.” He turned to Liliana. “Who would you like to represent you as your fiancé? Will it be Daxton Young,” he tipped his head toward Dax, “or Morris Cleveland?” Stone turned toward Moe.
Moe sat straighter in his seat, trying to appear taller than his five-foot-ten-inch height. “What I lack vertically, I make up for in huge personality.” He grinned.
Liliana’s gaze darted from Moe to Dax and back to Moe.
Dax’s fingers curled into fists, and his breath caught in his chest. For some incomprehensible reason, he wanted her to choose him.
He tried to tell himself it was because he was tired of waiting for work, but it was more than that. It was the deep, dark brown of her gaze that had captured him when he’d walked through the door and her desire, beyond her own safety, to be truthful to her constituents and do her best to represent all the people of her state.
For a long moment, her gaze rested on Moe, and her mouth softened into a smile. “Thank you both for volunteering to protect me. And Morris, as much as I appreciate your…personality…I’ll go with Mr. Young.” Liliana turned to Dax, her smile fading. “When can you start?”
Dax let go of the breath he’d been holding. “Immediately.”
Her lips quirked, and her nose wrinkled. “And by immediately, I assume you mean after you shower.”
The men around the table burst out laughing.
Stone clapped a hand to his back. “Dax, I believe you’ll have your work cut out for you. We’ll give you thirty minutes to shower and shave. Then you’re on assignment until Miss Lightfeather is sworn into her position as Wyoming’s newest congresswoman.”
Dax pushed to his feet and nodded toward his new client, a rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins. “I’ll only be fifteen minutes, tops.”
“No hurry,” Stone said. “There are enough of us here to keep her safe while you get cleaned up. And if you need reinforcements at any time during your assignment, we’ve got your back. All you have to do is call.”
“That’s right,” Carter said. “It took this team and Hank’s to face the drug cartel when Amanda needed us most. We’ll be there for you, too.”
“Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” Dax looked around the table at the men he considered his brothers. “But it’s good to know you have my six.” His gaze went to his fake fiancée. “Miss Lightfeather,” he said with a nod.
“Liliana,” she corrected. “We can’t be formal if we’re supposed to be engaged.”
“Liliana.” He let her name flow across his lips, liking the way it felt and sounded. “You can call me Dax. No one calls me Daxton.”
She nodded. “Dax.” Her lips twisted again. “We don’t have much time to get used to this charade. I’ve never been engaged, but surely it won’t be too hard to pretend.” Her brow wrinkled.
“That would make two of us.” His lips quirked. “We’ll learn together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go wash the horse off me. I won’t be long.” He hurried away, wondering what the hell he’d just volunteered for.
What did he know about being engaged?
Absolutely nothing.
CHAPTER 3
“I told you they’d come through for you.” Amanda hooked her arm through Liliana’s as they moved the meeting from the barn to the lodge dining room.
Liliana wasn’t feeling quite as confident as Amanda. “Do I really have to pretend I have a fiancé? Is it necessary?”
“I think it’s the most logical choice for your safety and reputation,” Amanda insisted. “You know the press and your opponents have been watching, looking for dirt on you. All they need to see is a man, not your husband or fiancé, going into your hotel room, and they’ll make you out as loose or accuse you of sexual harassment for taking advantage of a male employee.”