As Paige gave Bronx a last hug, Ben leaned a hip against the SUV.
“Mister Ben?”
Ben looked down into bright blue eyes. “You don’t need the Mister part—Ben is fine. You got a question for me?”
“You’re a man. Aren’t you supposed to protect Miss Anne?”
Having expected a question about Bronx, he took a moment to recover. “Yes. I’ll always protect her. But she didn’t need my help with the as—uh, with…today.” He smiled slightly. “Did just fine on her own, didn’t she?”
The child’s eyes were swollen from crying, but very, very alert. “So even though she knocked my father down, you still like her?”
Ben simply laughed. “Damn straight.”
“Paige.” Anne stood a pace away. She gave Ben a glance filled with amusement. “Honey, you need to go on in now.”
The child kissed Bronx’s nose and hugged Anne. “You’ll come and see me? Please?”
Ben could only stare as the most sadistic Mistress in the Shadowlands turned into jelly.
Yeah, he’d found his woman.
Chapter Nine
As Ben drove Anne’s vehicle back to Uzuri’s, she regarded him. He seemed unfazed by Jane’s tears and terror, the husband’s anger, or the fight. His attention was on the traffic, his fingers keeping time with the radio’s music.
Country-western, unfortunately. But, for him, she’d put up with the music.
For him, she’d put up with a lot.
She was still trying to get her head around the way he’d watched her take on Jane’s husband. Her brother Travis would have argued and eventually have backed off. Harrison and her father—never.
But Ben hadn’t tried to throw his weight around at all. He’d let her handle it; damn, he pleased her.
“You do that stuff often?” he asked. “Picking up women?”
“Now and then. I spend most of my volunteer time with the girls in the shelter. The teens, especially, are pretty angry and confused.”
“I saw you with Andrea’s crew. You’re good with kids. But the shelter stuff—why that?” He gave her a concerned glance. “Did you have a violent husband or boyfriend in the past?”
After a second of feeling insulted, she realized his question arose out of concern. “No. But as a military brat, I saw a fair number of abusive husbands.” Like her best friend’s mama, who’d been married to a captain. The woman had concealed her black eyes and bruises with makeup. Had made excuses to her daughter and everyone else. “I fell down.” “I’m so clumsy.” “I bumped my head on the cupboard.”
He winced. “Yeah. Seen that. I get you.”
Anne had hated that captain with all her childish might. Had kicked him one day when he’d hit Tracy…and that had gotten her father involved. The captain had been drummed out of the service, but then Tracy and her mother had moved away.
The ache of losing someone never disappeared entirely.
Anne returned to the conversation. “As a police officer, well, I had to handle domestic violence calls.” Those involving children still haunted her dreams. Babies should be protected.
“I thought you were a fugitive recovery agent. You’re a cop?”
The surprise in his eyes was delightful. “I was. Olivia thinks that because my father tried so adamantly to shelter me, I naturally joined the Marines and then the police force.”
“I can see that.” His laughter filled the car, a heartening rough roar. Still grinning, he said, “In that case, I’m glad I stayed out of the fight.”
She snorted. “Funny man. Really, I think my family has a protect-and-serve gene, even if my male relatives refuse to acknowledge its existence in the women.”
“But you’re not in law enforcement any longer? What happened?” His voice was casual, but his fingers tightened on the steering wheel.
“Nothing particularly ugly, Ben. I simply didn’t appreciate the bigotry against female officers.” Between the climate there and the domestic violence cases, she’d started to hate everyone with a dick.
She added, “Later, I discovered my station had a reputation for misogyny, and I should have transferred. Instead, I bailed into bail bonds.”
He smiled at her feeble pun. “No husbands in the past? Serious men in your life?”
Snoopy submissive. But under his quiet interest, she didn’t mind sharing. “No husbands. Nothing serious.” She’d had a few guys in her younger days who…maybe…she might have loved. And in college, the man she’d loved had been vanilla, so that relationship had crashed and burned. And hurt.