Page 7 of Daddy’s Fortitude

She paused and glanced around at the small town of Greasy Knob. When she’d first moved here, she’d thought it would be amazing. That there would be a sense of community, of home.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

And now she just felt trapped.

Everyone was staring at her. She could feel their gazes on her. Could hear the whispers.

Aimee braced her shoulders and tried to repel the stares and whispers. She had this. She could do it.

And she was not going to stand here on the main street of Greasy Knob and break down in tears. Nothing ever got achieved by crying. She just needed to plaster a smile on her face and keep on keeping on.

A message came through and she opened it with a frown. It was from a debt collection agency.

God. Now they were sending text messages? What was next? They’d just turn up at her house?

Tears blurred her vision as she walked down the street. She would go to her meeting with Ed, the funeral director, then go home and try to figure this out.

There had to be some way to figure all of this out.

She stepped off the curb, still trying to make sense of the message and how much shit she was actually in.

There was a loud blaring noise as someone honked their horn and she glanced up to see a large truck bearing down on her.

Oh God!

She was going to die!

3

Ammo moved without thinking, wrapping his arm around the crazy woman who’d just stepped in front of a truck.

Lifting her off the ground, he quickly moved them back onto the sidewalk. The truck barreled past without even stopping. What a fucking asshole. Didn’t he want to check that she was all right?

Instead of immediately setting her down, Ammo carried her over to a building and leaned her against it.

Then he ran his gaze over her. She was wearing a pair of loose jeans and a long T-shirt. She had a worn-looking cap on her head. She was staring down at her feet so he couldn’t see her face.

“Are you all right? Are you hurt?” he demanded.

“N-no,” she said. “I don’t think so. You got to me in time. I’m just shaken.” She held her hands up to show him that they were trembling. “That truck just came out of nowhere. Did it come out of nowhere? It did, right?”

She raised her head and stared up at him, and his breath got stuck in his lungs. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. He’d never had a reaction like this to anyone.

But there was something about the combination of her big blue-green eyes, dark hair, full lips, and cute little nose that just rocked him.

He’d seen women that were more beautiful, that were more unusual or stunning, but none of them had made his heart leap and his breath catch.

It had to be a reaction to saving her. That was all. Adrenaline or something. He quickly stepped back away from her. Some distance was probably needed.

“No, it didn’t,” he told her.

“What?” She gaped up at him, her mouth dropping open.

“It didn’t just appear out of nowhere. It was coming along the road well before you stepped out. You were too busy staring at your phone to look at where you were going. It was your fault you were nearly run over.”

Her mouth closed, then opened, then closed again, and she wrinkled her nose.

Damn, that was cute.