So the last thing he wanted to do was wipe that smile off her face.

She jumped up and made her way to him, calling, “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said when she got to him.

She put her hand to his abs and tipped her head back.

He didn’t miss her invitation, or the opportunity to accept it.

He bent and touched his mouth to hers.

When he lifted away, he muttered, “Can we talk in your room for a sec?”

That was a thing he got from his father.

Porter Sadler was not a man to give over to negative emotion about anything.

But one thing Porter openly hated was procrastination.

It had been drilled into Boone from a young age that you got shit done. And if some of that shit was more uncomfortable, onerous or annoying than other shit, you did that first.

Regardless, it was getting late and Ryn would be thinking about dinner and getting to work soon, and since she had no work to get to, she needed to know.

Her gaze was moving all over his face, and when she finished doing that, she nodded.

He took her hand and led the way to her bedroom, hearing Pepper whisper, “What’s going on?”

“Later,” Lottie said.

It was impossible for Ryn not to hear them, but that wasn’t the only reason, after he got her in her room, she instantly asked, “What’s going on?”

He moved to her, put his hands on her hips, and pulled her closer.

She took his hint and lifted her hands to put them on his shoulders, but other than that, she kept distant.

She’d moved on.

It was a little crazy, and a lot strong, that she’d had the day she’d had, from start to murdered man on her back deck, and she was with her girls, drinking tea and experimenting with makeup.

He had a feeling Kathryn Jansen had been forced to just move on from a lot in her life.

But shit was about to get extreme.

And he felt a jolt of pure fury race through him that she was going to have to suffer yet another blow.

With no small effort, he shook that off and decided to do this quickly so they could get to the part where she moved on.

But this time, he’d be there to help.

“Right. Cisco shared there’s been a campaign to try to force him to come forward and take a rap for a killing he didn’t commit. They’re focusing on women in his life that mean something to him. First, they targeted his sister. A stalker. So bad, she quit her job and moved to Alaska. You know about Corinne. And now it’s you. They’re using ex-cons to do this work, we don’t know how, we can guess why. And the guy they sent after you was a sex offender.”

She sucked in breath.

Boone quickly kept talking.

“So there’s a reason behind the extremity of Cisco’s reaction to someone trying to break into your house. I still don’t condone it and wish you didn’t have to live through it. But it’s arguably a valid reason. He might not have known what that guy was intent to do, but he knew the ante was being upped.”

“Oh my God,” she breathed.

“As I said, these guys are only targeting women in Cisco’s life. No clue why, but I figure we don’t need more evidence they’re assholes,” Boone went on.

“No,” she whispered.

She was freaked, not hiding it.

Goddamn it.

He squeezed in at her hips.

“We’re on it, baby,” he assured her. “Hawk, the guys. Eddie and Hank. Slim and Mitch. Malik. Chaos is in. Sebring will keep his ear to the ground if he doesn’t wade in full throttle. This won’t last long, and I’ll do a damn sight better looking after you from here on out.”

She shook her head and squeezed in at his shoulders, saying, “It’s not on you, Boone.”

“It isn’t but it is.” He shifted closer and explained, “We’re new, but you’re still mine. Mine to eat onion rings with, mine to fuck on the bathroom sink and mine to protect.”

Either she knew Doms enough to know she didn’t speak against that, or she knew guys like him enough, because she didn’t reply.

“Talked to Smithie. There was a discussion with him, me and Dorian. Smithie decided you’re on a hiatus until all this blows over,” he finished.

Though, he was going to say more, but her change in expression made him stop speaking.

“You talked to Smithie?”

“He needed to know,” Boone pointed out the obvious.

She pulled away from his hands and asked again, but added more words this time, and on the last words, jerking a thumb at herself, “You talked to Smithie? My boss?”

“Ryn, I can see you not thinking clear after what went down, but that guy who tried to break in today was intent to do you harm that is not as final as death, but you don’t have to live with death because you’d be dead. Not a good scenario by any stretch, but only a little less bad than that, you’d have to live with whatever that guy did to you for the rest of your hopefully very long life.”

Her eyes narrowed in a way no man wanted to see on the face of his woman.

“Not thinking clear?”

“Kathryn, a man was murdered while you hid in your bathroom. You heard it happen. You’re gonna react to that and I’m seeing you’re reacting to that by not gettin’ the situation you’re in.”

“Okay, Boone, but Smithie is my boss. And I have to work.”

“Smithie is going to cover you.”

“Do you know how much Smithie has covered over the years?”

He didn’t, but he reckoned with Smithie’s heart, and the crap that seemed to swirl incessantly around his girls, he’d had his bookkeeper create a line item for that shit.

She continued, “I’m not one of those girls. I show up. I get on with it.”

“You don’t just get on with this,” he stated.

“Okay about that too, but maybe I’d get a say in how my life was handled. I don’t know, one word, maybe two. You think?”

Truth, it occurred to him that he should have gone to her first, and not Smithie.

Also truth, he didn’t know her well (yet), but he knew her enough to know that would have been futile because she was a woman who life slammed up against hard, but she shook it off, and moved on.

He also knew she wasn’t unaware she was this type of woman, but at this juncture, she obviously wasn’t putting it together that this was not one of those times she could simply do that.

And more, she now had people who were not only willing, but in his case wanted to look after her, including Smithie, but mostly Boone. She’d said that her damned self just that morning and made it clear it meant a lot to her. And now she’d apparently forgotten it.

Which brought him to the place where it was obvious she was pissed at him for doing nothing but looking out for her and that was in no way cool.

Which was why he returned, “There’s no reason to be pissed at me.”

“No reason…?” She shook her head in disbelief. “You went and talked to my boss who made a decision about my life and my time and my job not only without my input, but also before I even knew the fullness of what was going on.”

“Smithie’s had some experience with this, Kathryn, and he’s acting for your own good.”

“Does anyone think that maybe I know what my own good is?” she snapped, then drawled, “I mean, I don’t know, but my guess is, I’m the best judge of that.”