Читать книгу Bodyguard Under Fire - Elle James - Страница 11

Chapter Two

Chuck’s instinct had been to leap over the railing and chase after the black-clad attacker and pummel him into a bloody pulp for terrorizing his neighbor. As he’d bent his knees to do just that, pain ripped through his bad leg, reminding him that he couldn’t and shouldn’t drop fifteen feet to the ground if he wanted to keep the leg to walk on. Even if his leg survived the landing, he wasn’t up to running full speed yet.

Defeat rode heavily on his shoulders as he swung back to the woman pulling herself to her feet in the doorway.

She shifted in the shadows, and the overhead light illuminated her sandy-blond hair.

Chuck’s heart burst into a gallop, pounding against his ribs. The throbbing pain in his bum leg faded to the back of his mind as joy filled him at the sight of her. He stepped forward.

Her eyes widened and she stepped back. “Chuck?”

“PJ?”

And she crumpled to the floor.

Had he been able, he’d have caught her before she landed. His injury-induced limitations hampered him in his rush to get to her.

Chuck gathered PJ into his arms, his heart plummeting to the bottom of his belly at her reaction when she’d recognized him.

The entire time he’d been in the oppressive heat and constant dust of Afghanistan, he’d pictured her coming to greet him upon his return, arms wide, a smile of happiness lighting her eyes. In the back of his mind, he’d known it was only a dream.

The stark reality of her standing in front of him, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides, her face blanching before she passed out, shattered those silly dreams.

She was no happier to see him return than she had been to see him leave. Shock best described her response.

Crushed, Chuck held her, cherishing every second he could feel her against him. He examined the bruising around her throat, anger firming his spine, pushing aside his deep disappointment. Who would attack a lone woman like that? Why would anyone want to hurt PJ? Since he hadn’t spoken to Cara Jo yet, he couldn’t be certain, but he’d bet his right arm that this was the employee Hank wanted protected.

Chuck had walked into this assignment blind. Hank had assured him Cara Jo would fill him in on what his duties were and, when he had met the employee, he could go to Hank with any unanswered questions.

Chuck had a few, and the sooner he got his answers the better.

After only a moment, PJ’s face stirred against his chest and her eyes blinked open. “Chuck, what are you doing here? I thought you were still in Afghanistan.” She pushed to a sitting position.

His lips tightened. Had he not been a loose cannon and acted on his own, he would still be in Afghanistan for another two months, fighting with his unit. Instead he’d gotten himself shot in the leg and medically discharged out of the army. “The army didn’t need me there after all.” It wasn’t a lie. The army didn’t need broken soldiers.

“Oh.” Her gaze traveled across his naked chest, her cheeks reddening. “Why are you half-naked?”

His lips twisted into a wry grin. “I just hired on with the resort as the handyman. I live down the hall.” He frowned. “Why are you in this apartment? I met a woman here a little while ago named Donna or Dana or something like that. She had a baby.”

The baby whimpered from inside the bedroom as if emphasizing Chuck’s question.

PJ’s face paled at the sound, her gaze shifting to the crib against the wall inside the next room. She pushed his hands aside and rose to her feet. “I live here.”

Chuck straightened, heat rushing up his neck into his head. Like a zombie, he trudged toward the bedroom, his fists tightening, a sharp pain pinching his chest. “Then who is...?” In the dimly lit room, Chuck peered down at the baby with a tuft of silky dark hair, and his world crashed in around him as he remembered what Dana had said. “She called her Charlie,” he said, his voice raspy, uneven.

PJ entered the room, switched on a lamp and leaned over the crib, running her fingers over the baby’s face and body. “She seems to be okay.”

The baby slept through PJ’s touch, a soft smile curling her little lips, as if she knew she was safe and in good hands. “I named her after her father,” PJ whispered.

“Charlie.” Chuck’s fingers curled around the crib rail so tightly his knuckles turned white. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

PJ sighed. “You were in Afghanistan. What could you have done? From what I know, the army doesn’t grant leave from a war zone just so a man can be there when his baby is born, unless under dire circumstances.”

“I had a right to know.” His words came out sharper than he intended, but hell, what did she expect? A man didn’t learn he had a daughter every day. The news had his belly flipping into knots.

“So, now you know.” PJ brushed her fingers over her daughter’s hair and stepped back. “You have a right to be angry. But I didn’t know what else to do. We didn’t part on the best of terms.”

A muscle jerked in his jaw, and he had to breathe several calming breaths before he could speak again. “Call the police.”

PJ passed through the small living area and into the kitchen. Her purse lay strewn across the counter. She dug her cell phone out of a side pocket, hit three buttons and then walked back to the threshold of the bedroom, her gaze on the baby in the crib. “This is PJ Franks at the Wild Oak Canyon Resort. I need to report an intruder attack.”

When she’d given details to the dispatcher, she hung up and glanced at Chuck. “They’re sending a unit.”

Chuck straightened and crossed to her, his fingers reaching out to touch her throat. “We should have asked for an ambulance, as well.”

Her eyes filled, but she shook her head. “No. I’m fine.” She raised her hands to the bruising around her neck and gulped. “I was so afraid.” PJ’s head dipped.

Chuck pulled her into his arms. No matter how mad he was, he never could stand to see PJ cry, and after seeing a man choking the life out of her, now was no different. “He’s gone.”

“Yeah, but why was he here in the first place?” She pushed away from him and wandered back into the living room.

Chuck followed. “Is anything missing?”

She checked her purse, thumbing through her wallet. What few bills she’d had were still there, along with her credit card and identification. “The items were scattered across the counter, but nothing seems to be missing.”

“What about the rest of the apartment?”

“I don’t have anything of value. Just a few keepsakes and used furniture. As a waitress, I can’t afford much.” PJ continued around the room, her fingers skimming across the top of the old couch Cara Jo had given her. She ducked into her bedroom and came back out, holding a photo frame, a frown denting her forehead. “This photo is the only thing out of place. It was standing on my nightstand when I left for my shower. I just found it lying on its face.”

“The intruder could have knocked it over.” Chuck reached for the frame.

PJ handed it over. “It’s a picture of me and my birth mother.”

A woman looking remarkably like PJ held a child in her arms and was smiling for the photographer. Her eyes were shadowed, but the love for her little girl was clear in her expression.

“She died when you were little, didn’t she?”

PJ nodded. “I was six. My adoptive mother, Terri Franks, pretty much raised me. We moved to Wild Oak Canyon before I started high school.”

Chuck remembered the pretty young PJ hanging out around the stables, talking to the horses. She’d been more comfortable with the animals than with people.

A knock on the door was followed by a man’s voice. “PJ Franks? Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Owen. You called?”

PJ hurried to open the door for the officer.

He took her statement, in which she described the attacker, what he wore and which direction he’d gone.

Chuck searched the apartment, analyzing everything he saw for clues as to who had broken into PJ’s apartment and why. All the while he fought to process the miracle of the baby in the next room. His child.

When Owen finished with PJ, the deputy asked Chuck a few questions and then tucked the pad of paper into his pocket and sighed. “Since the man was wearing gloves, I don’t see a need to dust for prints. I’ll have a look around outside to see if there are any footprints on the ground, but—”

“It’s been dry, and the chance of a footprint showing up is slim to none,” Chuck finished. “Thanks for trying.”

After the deputy left, Chuck made a round of the apartment, checking the windows and sliding glass door locks.

When he’d deemed them secure, he met PJ at her open apartment door.

“It’s getting late,” she said. “I need to get some sleep before I hit the day shift at the diner.”

“Will you be all right?” Chuck stepped into the door frame and gripped PJ’s arms, his gaze capturing hers.

“I’ll be fine.” The shadows beneath her eyes spoke of her exhaustion and the lingering fear.

Fine, humph. Chuck wanted to hold her so badly, it hurt to drop his grip from her arms and walk out into the hallway. “If you need me...”

“You’re just a yell away.” She gave him a half smile.

Chuck nodded toward the interior of her apartment. “She’s beautiful.”

PJ’s face reddened, and she nodded. “We’ll discuss Charlie tomorrow.”

“Yes, we will.” Now that Chuck knew he had a daughter, he was determined to be a part of her life, whether PJ wanted him in her life or not.

PJ closed the door behind him.

Chuck waited until he heard the click of the lock being engaged. Then he hurried down the hallway to his room, grabbed a sleeping bag and a pillow and returned to bed down in front of PJ’s door. As he stretched out on the floor and worked the kink out of his leg, he reminded himself that it beat sleeping in a foxhole. And he refused to let anything happen to PJ and his precious baby daughter, Charlie.

Once he was settled, he grabbed his cell phone and hit the speed dial number for Hank Derringer.

The older man answered on the third ring. “Derringer,” he said, his voice scratchy and slurred with sleep.

“Hank, Chuck here. Tell me my assignment was just some sick joke on your part.”

Hank sighed. “I take it you met PJ?”

“I did. You didn’t tell me I’d be protecting my ex-fiancée.”

“If I had, would you have taken the job?”

Chuck wanted to tell the man he would have, but truth was, he probably would have told Hank where to go with his job and assignment. “No.”

“And now?” Hank asked.

With a sigh, Chuck answered. “You know damn well I can’t walk away.”

“I take it you met your daughter, Charlie?”

Chuck swallowed the lump forming in his throat. “Yes.”

“Beautiful baby girl, isn’t she?” Hank chuckled. “Looks like her father.”

“How did you know?” Chuck asked.

“Let’s just say I make it my business to know as much as I can about the people I hire. And I have a special interest in PJ that I won’t go into at this time.”

“Now that I’m here and know who I’m supposed to protect, maybe you can tell me why someone tried to kill PJ tonight.”

* * *

AFTER PJ LOCKED the door behind Chuck, she’d leaned her head against the cool, wooden panel, telling herself to breathe.

Chuck still had too much of a hold on her, even after almost a year’s separation. She thought pushing him out of her life had been the best decision at the time. Now she wasn’t quite as convinced. Breaking their engagement had been only a part of it.

Even if Chuck hadn’t insisted on volunteering, PJ suspected she’d have found another way to push him away. They’d gotten too close. She’d fallen too hard, and it scared her.

What was she afraid of? Why had she been so hesitant to allow him past the barriers she’d built around herself and her heart?

All her life, her adoptive mother had kept her from playing with others, refusing to let her out of her sight for long. She’d instilled in PJ a lack of trust in people and a determination to live a life independent of others. PJ had found companionship in the horses she loved at the resort stables, volunteering to muck out stalls and exercise the animals.

Chuck had been there, working quietly around her, his love of the animals equal to her own. Over time, he’d overcome her shyness and they’d gone riding together and talked. He’d taught her how to laugh again, something she thought she’d never do. And PJ had fallen in love with the big ex-football jock cowboy, breaking her self-imposed rule not to invest her heart in anyone but to rely solely on herself.

She’d gone so far as to accept his proposal of marriage and actually started dreaming of a wedding and happily ever after.

Until Chuck’s National Guard unit had asked for volunteers to deploy and Chuck had raised his hand.

PJ’s world had caved in around her. She’d been heartbroken that Chuck would want to leave her and go to war. All she could see in her future was how alone she’d be. Her adoptive mother wouldn’t be around forever, her health having deteriorated over the past several years.

She’d been so upset, she’d thrown his ring in his face and told him she never wanted to see him again. Looking back, she realized how childish she’d been.

She hadn’t been there to see him off when he’d left for predeployment training. Hadn’t told him that she’d missed her period and suspected she was pregnant.

For a short time, PJ thought she could handle being a part of another person’s life. But then Chuck had left. Not long afterward, Terri Franks died of a heart attack, leaving her alone in the world, without money or a home to live in. She’d been saving money for years so that someday she could afford to start college online and study animal husbandry. When Terri died, all the money had gone to pay for Terri’s funeral.

Terri had been renting the house they lived in. When she’d passed, PJ had gone to work instead of college in order to pay the rent. But the rent had been too much for the meager earnings she’d gotten from the odd jobs she was able to get around town. Without family or a degree and any formal experience, she was destitute and alone. Everyone she’d ever loved was gone, making her promise herself never to get too close to anyone, lest they die and leave her.

Then Charlie came along....

A voice outside her door brought her out of her sad memories and across the room to press her ear to the door. From the deep timbre and pitch, PJ could tell it was Chuck. She peered through the peephole but couldn’t see him.

Something shuffled against the outside of the door. What was he doing?

She pressed her ear harder against the door and listened.

“She had a scare, but she’s all right,” Chuck was saying to someone.

Who was he talking to?

“Whoever broke in tonight won’t try again. He’ll have to go through me to get to her.”

PJ smiled, feeling better about going to sleep now than she had a few moments before.

Apparently Chuck planned to sleep in front of her door.

“We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Something bumped softly against the door, and all went silent.

PJ pressed a hand to the door. Chuck was on the other side. So close, and yet a huge chasm stretched between them. She’d kept knowledge of his daughter from him.

Even if he forgave her, she wasn’t sure she could let him back in her life.