You never expected to need a bodyguard, especially someone like Micah Bell. A rough-around-the-edges outlaw with a reputation for causing trouble, but your father insisted. The threats had gotten worse, and the last thing you wanted was to end up in harm’s way. Micah was hired to keep you safe, but that didn’t mean you had to like it.

Every day, he seemed to push the limits of your patience with his cocky attitude and constant grumbling, but beneath all of it, you could see a flicker of something—a care you never asked for, but a care you couldn’t deny.

— * —

Micah stood beside you, towering like an unmovable wall.

— “You need to be more careful,” he grumbled one day after an incident at the shop.

— “You don’t even see the danger half the time.”He didn’t look at you directly but the way his jaw clenched said enough. It wasn’t just about the job. He didn’t want to see you hurt, even if he never admitted it aloud.