Wyoming Cowboy Bodyguard Read online

  Her bodyguard was murdered.

  Will she be next?

  Following her scandalous divorce, fans turned on country music “bad girl” Daisy Delaney. Now someone wants her dead. But former FBI agent Zach Simmons isn’t letting this violent psychopath get any closer to Daisy. Because the bodyguard will do whatever it takes to protect the bad girl he’s falling for...

  “Does the calm, bland, bored facade ever get exhausting?”

  Zach didn’t care for how easily Daisy saw through him. “Who says it’s a facade?”

  Her mouth quirked up at one side. “You weren’t so bland or bored when I was rifling through your stuff.”

  Even now the reminder made his jaw clench, even more so when she full-on grinned and pointed at him. “See? Underneath that robot exterior, there is a man with a living, breathing heart.” She looked down at the guitar in her lap and frowned. “Believe it or not, Zach, I’d rather have a man with a heart on this case over a robot.”

  “Believe it or not, Daisy, I do what I have to do to keep you safe. Robot exterior included.”

  She pursed her lips together, as if she took it as some kind of challenge.

  Lucky for him, he was not a man to back down from a challenge—any more than he was a man to lose one.

  WYOMING COWBOY BODYGUARD

  Nicole Helm

  Nicole Helm grew up with her nose in a book and the dream of one day becoming a writer. Luckily, after a few failed career choices, she gets to follow that dream—writing down-to-earth contemporary romance and romantic suspense. From farmers to cowboys, Midwest to the West, Nicole writes stories about people finding themselves and finding love in the process. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two sons and dreams of someday owning a barn.

  Books by Nicole Helm

  Harlequin Intrigue

  Carsons & Delaneys: Battle Tested

  Wyoming Cowboy Marine

  Wyoming Cowboy Sniper

  Wyoming Cowboy Ranger

  Wyoming Cowboy Bodyguard

  Carsons & Delaneys

  Wyoming Cowboy Justice

  Wyoming Cowboy Protection

  Wyoming Christmas Ransom

  Stone Cold Texas Ranger

  Stone Cold Undercover Agent

  Stone Cold Christmas Ranger

  Harlequin Superromance

  A Farmers’ Market Story

  All I Have

  All I Am

  All I Want

  Falling for the New Guy

  Too Friendly to Date

  Too Close to Resist

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  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Zach Simmons—Former FBI agent, currently partnered with Cam Delaney in a security company called CD Corp that offers protection for those in danger. Zach’s brainchild is a ghost town used as cover for a thriving protective community.

  Daisy Delaney/Lucy Cooper—Famous country singer Daisy Delaney’s real name is Lucy Cooper, and she’s been stalked for the past year, culminating in her bodyguard’s murder. Worried that her brother’s family will be in danger if she stays in Texas, she agrees to go to Wyoming to be protected by CD Corp.

  Vaughn Cooper—Lucy’s brother, a Texas Ranger who arranges all her security after her bodyguard’s death.

  Cam Delaney—Zach’s business partner in CD Corp, also engaged to Zach’s sister. They take turns being lead on cases, so he’s only doing research on Daisy’s case.

  Hilly Adams—Zach’s sister, who grew up apart from the family. She’s the assistant at CD Corp and helps with running errands.

  Jordan Jones—Daisy’s ex-husband, also a famous country singer. He’s been attempting to make Daisy look bad in the press since their divorce, which she instigated.

  Stacy Vine—Daisy’s manager and friend since she was a teenager.

  For the female songwriters in country music whose songs make up the bulk of my book soundtracks, thank you for the inspiration.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Killer Investigation by Amanda Stevens

  Chapter One

  Tom was dead. She’d been ushered away from his lifeless body and open, empty brown eyes thirty minutes ago and still, that was all she saw. Tom sprawled on the floor, limbs at an unnatural angle, eyes open and unseeing.

  Blood.

  She was in the back of a police cruiser, moving through Austin at a steady clip. Daisy Delaney. America’s favorite country bad girl. Until she’d filed for divorce from country’s golden child, Jordan Jones. Now everyone hated her, and someone wanted her dead.

  But they’d killed Tom first.

  She wanted to close her eyes, but she was afraid the vision of Tom would only intensify if she did. So she focused on the world out the window. Pearly dawn. Green suburban lawns.

  She was holding it together. Even though Tom’s lifeless eyes haunted her. And all that blood. The smell of it. She was queasy and desperately wanted to cry, but she was holding on. Gotta save face, Daisy girl. No matter what. Never let them see they got to you.

  It didn’t matter the name her mother had given her was Lucy Cooper. Daddy had always used her stage name—the name he’d given her. Daisy Delaney, after his dearly departed grandmother, who’d given him his first guitar.

  She’d relished that once upon a time, no matter how much her mother and brother had disapproved. Today, for the first time in her life, she wondered where she might be if she hadn’t followed in her famous father’s footsteps.

  She couldn’t change the past so she held it together. Didn’t let anyone see she was devastated, shaken or scared.

  Until the car pulled up in front of her brother’s house. He was standing outside. She’d expected to see him in his Texas Rangers uniform of pressed khakis, a button-up shirt and that shiny star she knew he took such pride in.

  Instead, he was in sweats, a baby cradled in his arms.

  “You shouldn’t have brought me here,” she whispered to the police officer as he shifted into Park.

  “Ranger Cooper asked me to, ma’am.”

  She let out a breath. Asked. While her brother was a Texas Ranger and this man was Austin PD, Daisy was under no illusions her brother hadn’t interfered enough to make sure it was an order, not a request.

  When the officer opened the door for her, she managed a smile and a thank-you. The officer shook hands with Vaughn, then gave her a sympathetic look. “We’ll have more questions for you, Ms. Delaney, but the ones you answered at the scene will do for now.”

  She smiled thinly. “Thank you. And if there’s any break in the case—”

  “We’ll let you and your brother know.”

  The officer nodded and left. Daisy turned to Vaughn.

  “You shouldn’t have brought me here,” she said, peeking into the bundle of blankets. She brushed her fingers over her niece’s cheek. “It isn’t safe having me around you guys.”

  “Safety’s my middle name,” Vaughn said, and there wasn’t an ounce of concern or fear in his voice, but she could feel it nonetheless. Her straitlaced brother had never understood her need to follow their father’s spotlight, but he’d always been her protector. “You didn’t tell me you’d come back to Austin.”

  She’d thought she could keep it from him. Keep him and Nat from worrying when they had this gorgeous little family they were building.

  Daisy had been stupid and foolish to think she’d be able to keep anything from Vaughn. She couldn’t afford to be stupid and foolish anymore. Though she’d lived in fear for almost a year now, she’d believed it would remain a nonviolent threat. Her stalker had never hurt her or anyone she’d been connected to.

  Now he’d killed Tom. The man Vaughn had hired to protect her. It wasn’t her own failure. Rationally, she knew that, but kind, funny Tom, who’d done everything in his power to protect her, was dead.

  “Come inside, Lucy.” Vaughn slid his free arm around her shoulders and the first tear fell over onto her cheek. She couldn’t let more fall, and yet her brother’s steadiness, and the name only he and Mom called her, was one of the few things that could undo her.

  Well, that and murder, she supposed. “Tom...”

  “We’ll handle the arrangements,” Vaughn said, squeezing her shoulders as baby Nora gurgled happily in her daddy’s arms. “He was a good man.”

  “He shouldn’t have died protecting me.”

  “But he did. He signed up for that job. You’ll have time to mourn that. We all will, but r ight now we need to focus on getting you somewhere safe.”

  She wanted to say something snotty. Vaughn could be so cold, and though she knew it was his law-enforcement training, it grated. Except he held his baby like the precious gift she was, and Daisy had watched years ago as his voice had broken when he’d made his vows to his wife.

  Vaughn wasn’t cold or heartless. He just had control down to an art form. And his concern was her. Daisy felt like such a burden to him, and yet there was no way to convince him this wasn’t his problem.

  “Nat’s got coffee on and Jaime is on his way over,” Vaughn said, locking the door behind her then leading her up the stairs of his split-level ranch.

  “What’s Jaime got to do with this?” Daisy asked warily. “You can’t get the FBI involved. I—”

  “I’m not getting the FBI involved. I’m using my FBI connections to find a safe place for you while we let the professionals investigate.”

  “And by professionals you mean you.”

  “I mean anyone and everyone I can get on this case. With our connection, I’m not legally allowed to be part of the official investigation.”

  Which meant he’d launch his own unofficial one. No matter how by-the-book Vaughn was, he’d always break rules for his loved ones.

  Nat came out of the kitchen as they crested the stairs. She pulled Daisy into a hard hug. “How are you?” she asked, brown eyes full of compassion.

  Daisy had no questions about how Vaughn had fallen for Natalie, but she did have some questions about the reverse.

  “Unscathed.”

  Natalie pursed her lips. “Physically. Which wasn’t all I meant.” She eyed her husband. “Coopers,” she muttered with some disgust, though Daisy knew—for as little time as she managed to spend with her family here due to her crazy touring schedule—Nat spoke with love.

  The doorbell rang, Nora fussed and Nat and Vaughn exchanged the baby and words with the choreographed practice of marriage. It caused a multitude of pangs in Daisy.

  Her divorce had started the press’s character assassination—thanks to Jordan’s team, who were desperate to keep his star on the rise.

  Then the stalking had started, and everything had become a numb kind of blank.

  But she could still remember marrying Jordan with the hope she’d have something like Nat and Vaughn had. That had been a joke.

  “Sit down. You want to hold Nora for me? I’ve got to go check on Miranda.” Nat was maneuvering her onto the couch, placing tiny Nora into her arms and hurrying off to check on their other daughter as Vaughn and his brother-in-law ascended the stairs.

  “Ah, the cavalry,” Daisy said with a wry twist of her lips.

  “Good to see you again, Daisy,” Jaime Alessandro greeted. An FBI agent, married to Natalie’s sister, Daisy had met him on a few occasions. He was more personable than Vaughn, but the whole FBI thing made Daisy uneasy.

  “Let’s get straight to it, then,” Vaughn said, taking a seat next to Daisy on the couch. Jaime settled himself on an armchair across from them.

  “I’m sure you know how concerned Vaughn’s been even before the murder.”

  Daisy eyed her brother. “No. You don’t say.”

  Jaime smiled. Vaughn didn’t.

  “We’ve been looking into some options, along with the investigation. As long as the stalker continues to evade police, the prime goal is keeping you safe. To that end, I have an idea.”

  “That sounds ominous coming from an FBI agent.”

  “How do you feel about Wyoming?”

  “Cold,” Daisy replied dryly.

  “I have a friend I was in Quantico with. He has a security business. I talked to him about your situation and he came up with a plan. It involves isolating you.”

  “I was isolated before. The cabin—”

  “Is isolated, but not completely off the grid,” Vaughn said of their old family cabin that had been vandalized during her last hiding stint. “It was traceable, and you’ve been easy to follow. We’re going to take extra precautions to make sure you aren’t followed to Wyoming.”

  Daisy wanted to close her eyes, but she shifted Nora in her arms and looked down at the baby instead. “So you want me to secretly jet off to Wyoming and then what?”

  “And then you’re safe while we find this guy. This is murder now. Things are escalating, which means everyone else’s investigation is going to escalate.”

  “We can have you there by tomorrow afternoon,” Jaime said. “They’ll be ready for you.”

  Part of her wanted to argue, but Tom’s lifeless body flashed into her mind. She didn’t want to die. Not like that. And more, so much more, she didn’t want Vaughn or his precious family in the crosshairs.

  “Just tell me what I need to do.”

  * * *

  ZACH SIMMONS SURVEYED the town. It looked like every picture of a ghost town he’d ever seen. Empty, windowless buildings. Dusty dirt road that would have once been a bustling Main Street. You could feel the history, and the utter emptiness.

  It was perfect.

  He grinned over at his soon-to-be brother-in-law and business partner. “Still worried about the investment?”

  Cam Delaney eyed him. “Hell yes, I’m still worried.” He scanned the dilapidated buildings and the way the mountains jutted out in the distance, like sentries, in Zach’s mind. This would be a place of protection. Of safety.

  “This job’s a big one for your first.”

  Zach nodded. He was under no illusions this wasn’t a giant challenge. Tricky and messy and complicated. He couldn’t explain to Cam, or anyone really, how thrilling it was to be out of the confines of the FBI’s rules and regulations. He wouldn’t take his time back as an agent for anything, but it had been stifling in the end.

  So stifling he’d ended up getting himself kicked out.

  This was better. Even if the first job was with some spoiled country singer star who’d gotten herself in a mess of trouble. Probably her own doing. But she was in trouble, and Zach and Cam’s security company was getting paid, seriously paid, to keep her safe.

  “Laurel come up with any connection to you guys?” Zach asked, hoping Daisy Delaney’s last name was a coincidence. Not that he’d tell anyone, but all the Carson and Delaney coupling worried him a little.

  He was technically a Carson, though his mother had run away from her family at eighteen and only started reconnecting this year. He told himself he didn’t believe in curses or the Carson-Delaney feud the town of Bent, Wyoming, was so invested in.

  So invested, Main Street was practically split down the middle—Carson businesses on one side, Delaney businesses on the other. Then there was the curse talk, which said if a Carson and Delaney were ever friendly, or God forbid, romantic, only bad things would befall Bent.

  But over the course of the past year Carsons and Delaneys had been falling for each other left and right, and while there’d been a certain uptick in trouble in Bent, everything and everyone was fine.

  Which his cousins and their significant others had turned into believing it was all meant to be, and went on and on about love solving things.

  Zach didn’t buy an inch of either belief—but still, the idea of a Delaney under his protection gave him a bit of a worried itch.

  “She’s still researching. It’s giving her something to do now that she’s on maternity leave. Baby should come any day, though, so I’m not sure she’ll come up with any answers one way or another. You can always ask the woman.”

  Zach shrugged. “Doesn’t matter either way.”

  Cam chuckled. “Sure. You’re not worried about what might happen if she’s some long-lost cousin of mine?”

  “No, I’m not. I’m worried about keeping Daisy Delaney safe from her stalker, assuming there really is one.” Because the Daisy Delaney case would set the tone for what he wanted to offer here. On the surface it would look like a ghost town. But below the surface it could be a place for people to find safety, security and hope while the slow wheels of justice handled things legally.

  If he believed in life callings, and these days he was starting to, his was this. He’d been a part of the slow wheels of justice. He’d failed at protecting because of it. Now he’d do all he could to keep those entrusted to him safe.