“Charlie, what I’m going to tell you is confidential. If you don’t think you can work for us after hearing me out then you’re still welcome to stay the night. We’ll pay you for your time and also put you up in a hotel in Wishingbone until the agency finds you another job.”
“That’s really kind of you.” She looked shocked, as though no one had ever shown her kindness before.
He glared at his brother. What the hell was he doing? She wasn’t going anywhere.
“But we don’t want to hear of you spreading any rumors about our life here, understand?” Kent added in a firm voice.
Charlotte’s eyes grew wide but she nodded.
“I’d like to hear a verbal agreement,” Kent said.
“Yes, sir,” she whispered. “I would never spread any rumors.”
“Good. I expect you to keep to your word.” His stern look faded as he smiled at her. “The only reason we went to an agency to hire a cook was because we needed someone straight away. And yes, you were supposed to be a man. We haven’t taken on anyone new in a while. I run Jenson Security International. Our headquarters are further up the hill—”
“And is somewhere you’ll never go,” Clint interrupted. He ignored Kent’s frustrated glare.
“I won’t?” Her eyes widened at his tone.
“No. I don’t want you wandering around and getting lost. Do you know how to ride?”
“Um, no, I’ve never really been near a horse.”
“Where do you come from?” he asked her.
She shrugged. “Here and there.”
“That’s not a satisfactory answer.”
“It’s necessary to know where I’ve lived for me to do this job?” she asked incredulously.
“No, it’s not,” Kent told her with a smile. “However, life on the ranch can mean long hours, cold nights and it’s easy to get lost out here if you wander away from the main area.”
“So, no going to the stables alone,” Clint told her. “No wandering off. And no leaving the ranch without permission.”
She blinked at him. “I’m a prisoner?”
“Of course, you aren’t,” Kent soothed. “What Clint meant to say is if you wish to leave the ranch, we’d just like to know where you are going and when you’ll be back. It’s for your own safety. If you wanted to leave and there was a snow storm coming, then we might ask you to wait.”
“Ask?” he muttered.
Kent just shook his head.
“I can see why you do the human resources stuff,” she told Kent.
“Not sure anyone would ever work here if I didn’t,” he told her ruefully.
“What does Jensen International Security do?”
“We have some Government contracts. But most of our work comes from private businesses who hire us to provide security for their employees when they travel into dangerous territory. We also do some bodyguard work here in the states. But Clint is right. You have no reason to go up there. We often run training ops in the woods and it isn’t safe to wander around.”
She nodded; her eyes wide. “All right then.”
“So, back to our hiring criteria. We have never hired a single female. The only women who live here are either married, or they live with a male family member, like Eden.”
“Eden is the woman from earlier?”
“Our sister,” Clint told her, noting for some reason that she seemed relieved by that. Strange.