Free Somewhere Montana by MJ Platt

vehemence.
    “Why? Because I don’t have a penis?” she asked. Mac looked at her in shock.
    “You will not talk to your father like that!” came an angry feminine voice over the wire.
    “Why not, Mother? He knows I have all the necessary credentials, except for his prerequisite appendage. Is he ashamed of me because I graduated with only a 3.98 GPA and made the Dean’s list every semester? He’s blackballed me from getting any job at any of the hotels. If I’m not wanted now, why did you have me in the first place?” The line went dead. She threw the phone to the other end of the couch and curled up with her arms wrapped tightly around herself.
    Mac slid in behind her and lifted her onto his lap, cradling her head between his neck and shoulder. He encircled her shivering body gently with his arms, allowing her room to push away if she so desired. Instead, she burrowed in closer. His anger was evident in his firmly compressed lips and snapping, whiskey brown eyes, yet his hold was tender. He lightly stroked her back with his palm. Now he would more fully understand her motivation for acting the way she did all those years ago. He probably hadn’t truly believed her and thought her stories were only the imaginings of a troubled twelve year old.

Chapter Six
    Mac watched Sage across the breakfast table. She ate sparingly of what Little Mouse placed in front of her, not raising her eyes from her plate. His lips firmed as he thought of a few choice words he would like to say to her father. Just because Sheldon Burnett was the biggest idiot that ever walked the earth didn’t give him the right to treat his daughter like she didn’t exist.
    Mac’s protective instincts leaped to the fore. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and promise nothing would hurt her again, but he knew that was a fantasy. She hadn’t let him hold her very long after the phone conversation with her parents. She had risen from his lap, her eyes empty, her expression blank, and then walked from the room and up the stairs without a word to anyone. He had wanted to follow her, yet felt he couldn’t. She needed to process what was, and wasn’t, said in her own way, probably not for the first time.
    He wanted her to open up, let him in. Unable to stand the silence any longer, he coughed and set his coffee mug down with a resounding thunk . That brought her eyes to his.
    “What are you thinking?” he asked.
    “That I should go to work for the opposition and put him out of business,” was her forthright answer.
    “No doubt, in time, you could accomplish it. You have the motivation. But he has a head start on you with years of experience, probably with a ruthlessness and cutthroat attitude on his side.”
    “It’s just my throat he’d like to cut. Although he most likely wouldn’t bother. I’m nothing.”
    “Sage, don’t. Don’t demean yourself that way. You are an important person.” Especially to me. Someday, in the not too distant future, I hope to be able to show you how much. He wanted to remove that haunted look from her eyes. Make her smile. Put some peace back in her life like she had when she attended the survival camps, until he undid that, too.
    “In what way?” Her look dared him to give her one good reason.
    In for a penny, in for a pound . Might as well jump in with both feet. “How good are your business skills? Willing to put them to the test?”
    “I’ve done pretty well, so far,” she said cautiously.
    “Work with me. Take over the office here. I won’t have time to handle that and the survival camp we have coming up in two weeks. Plus we have three cabins to get ready for the five men taking part in it.”
    He caught Two Feather’s gaze from the corner of his eye, but he didn’t take his eyes off Sage. He could see the glimmer of interest taking shape. Carefully he schooled his own expression to one of unpremeditated interest. His stomach clenched and his heartbeat skipped awaiting her answer.
    “Shouldn’t be