Читать книгу Beneath the Badge - Rita Herron - Страница 10

Taylor’s heart raced. Surely the ranger was wrong. None of her friends would actually harm her. Although neither she nor Caroline had thought that Carlson Woodward was dangerous and they’d been mistaken.

And what about Miles? He’d always been jealous of her and had done some underhanded things when they were younger, but he’d never been violent.

Not until recently. But lately she’d seen a spark flare in his eyes that scared her.

His substance abuse and gambling problems had escalated, making him seem desperate at times, and…frightening.

A knock sounded at the door, and suddenly Margaret Hathaway rushed in, her face stricken with concern.

“Oh my God, Taylor, I heard what happened. Are you all right?”

Taylor clenched the sheets as Hayes gave Margaret a feral look, a look that nearly froze Margaret in her rush to hug Taylor.

“I’m fine, Margaret,” Taylor said, although tears blurred her sight. She could hold herself together in the face of Hayes’s brusqueness, but her best friend’s tenderness unraveled her calm facade. Although Margaret was old enough to be her mother, they had bonded as soon as they had met. The one person in the world Taylor trusted, the one who loved her unconditionally, was Margaret. And Taylor felt the same way about her friend. Not only was Margaret smart but kindhearted, and she’d faced her own share of problems and pain, although she hid them well from the prying eyes of the public.

Margaret bypassed Hayes and swept Taylor into a hug. “God, this is awful, Tay. What happened?”

Taylor relayed the short version of the story, well aware of Hayes’s scowl.

“Who in the world would want to hurt you, honey?”

“I don’t know, Margaret.” Taylor sighed. “But Sergeant Keller saved my life.”

Surprise registered on Margaret’s face, then she gave Hayes a curious look and smiled. “Sergeant, thank you so much for rescuing Taylor. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to her.”

Hayes’s dark eyes turned icy. “Just doing my job, ma’am. Where were you this evening?”

“Sergeant Keller, you’re out of line,” Taylor said sharply.

“Like I told you earlier, Miss Landis, your attacker could be one of your friends.”

“It certainly isn’t Margaret,” Taylor said between clenched teeth. “She would never hurt me.”

“That’s right,” Margaret said, obviously insulted at the thought. “Taylor and I are best friends.”

“Then you won’t mind answering my question,” Hayes said in a lethal voice.

Margaret tightened her jaw, and Taylor gripped her hand. “I told you she wouldn’t hurt me.”

“I had dinner with Taylor, then met my fiancé, Devon Goldenrod, at his house,” Margaret said. “You can ask him.”

Hayes arched a brow. “Right, the golden boy who’s vying for votes in the next City Board election.”

Taylor grimaced at the disdain in Hayes’s voice. She’d heard he’d had a rough life but he didn’t have to take his attitude out on her and Margaret.

Then again, for a moment, pain had flashed in his eyes when he’d seen Margaret hug her. Kimberly had mentioned that he’d been adopted, that there were some things he refused to talk about.

Margaret folded her arms. “Sergeant, what are you doing to find the person who attacked Taylor?”

His lips thinned into a deeper frown. “I’ve processed the crime scene and will be investigating everyone in Miss Landis’s life for motive.”

“What about keeping her safe?” Margaret asked.

An evil grin slid across the ranger’s face. “Well, ma’am,” he drawled mockingly, “I’ve got that covered.”

“How?” Margaret asked.

“I’ve been assigned as her bodyguard day and night.”

Taylor’s stomach sizzled with nerves yet she pressed her fingers to her lips, remembering how gentle he’d been when he resuscitated her. How in the world was she going to endure being near this man when he obviously hated everything about her?

HAYES BALLED HIS HANDS into fists to control his temper. Dammit, Taylor Landis looked all soft and needy. And she’d touched those luscious lips and looked up at him as if she was remembering his mouth on hers when he’d brought her back to life.

Hell. He couldn’t think about that. Couldn’t touch her mouth or any other part of her body again.

So he lashed out at her by taking perverse joy in taunting her rich friend. Maybe it was payback for all the taunting he’d received as a kid.

Margaret narrowed her eyes. “For some reason that doesn’t make me feel any better, Sergeant.”

He threw his head back and chuckled. “Don’t worry, Ms. Hathaway, I won’t let anything bad happen to the little princess.”

“You’d better not.” Margaret’s eyes flashed with emotions that Hayes refused to allow to get to him. “Because she’s going to be my maid of honor at my wedding, and I don’t want her showing up in a cast or on crutches.”

Or not showing up because she was dead, Hayes thought, although he refrained from comment. “In light of the fact that someone tried to kill you tonight, Taylor, you shouldn’t put yourself in the limelight right now.”

Margaret’s face blanched with fear, and Hayes’s gut tightened.

“He’s right,” Margaret said. “I’ll postpone everything until after the police find out who did this to you, Tay.”

“No, you won’t,” Taylor said, shooting Hayes a harsh look.

“But I don’t want to take a chance on you being hurt,” Margaret argued.

“She’s right, Taylor,” Hayes said. “You need to go into hiding until we find the man who attacked you.”

Anger sizzled in Taylor’s sky-blue eyes. “I refuse to run and hide. I’m not going to let some creep scare me from living my life.”

Hayes glared at her. “Then you’re a fool and asking for trouble.”

She turned a saccharine sweet smile on Hayes that was so fake it fueled his temper. “But, Sergeant, you’ll be with me day and night to protect me.”

He met her gaze with a sinister stare, but she smiled again, and focused on Margaret as if he was her minion.

Rage ripped through him. That was how she saw him, and he couldn’t forget it.

AS SOON AS MARGARET LEFT, Taylor fell into an exhausted sleep. Fitful images of the attack drove her awake several times, but when she opened her eyes, she saw Hayes Keller sitting in the chair in the corner watching her. She shouldn’t have found comfort in having him close by, but his big masculine presence soothed her nerves, and she rolled to her side and drifted back to sleep.

The last time she woke, sunlight streamed through the hospital window, and she checked the chair. He was slightly slumped, his head having fallen sideways in sleep, and his massive chest moved up and down with his breath. Catching him off guard in sleep seemed somehow intimate.

She noticed the fine dark stubble along his rugged jaw, the way his thick lips formed a constant scowl, the little curl in his dark hair that made her want to run her hands through it. His jaw was broad, his nose blunt and slightly crooked as if it had been broken and his eyebrows were full and thick, arched to frame his eyes in a way that added to his intensity.

The sound of his breathing floated toward her, a coarse whisper just as masculine as his face and body.

Somehow in that moment, he looked almost…human. And approachable.

He suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze meeting hers, and a tingling started low and deep in her belly. Lord, he was potently sexy. Like a cowboy hero in a Western.

No, no, no. She couldn’t allow herself to fantasize about him.

His eyebrows lifted slightly, and a heartbeat of silence stretched between them, fraught with tension.

She must be insane because at that moment she wanted him.

Then the door swung open and the doctor walked in. “Good morning, Miss Landis. Let’s see if it’s time to dismiss you.”

Hayes pushed to his feet, his boots pounding as he walked to the door. “I’ll be outside. Let me know when you’re ready to leave.”

She nodded, although her throat was too thick to speak. She could count on her hand the number of men she’d actually been this attracted to over the years.

Why did Hayes Keller have to be one of them?

HAYES PACED OUTSIDE TAYLOR’S hospital room. What in the hell had just happened?

After endless hours of being tortured by watching Taylor toss and turn, of wanting to crawl in bed and comfort her when she’d cried out in terror from her nightmares, he’d finally dozed off, only to have his own demons haunt him.

He had been five years old, locked in that damn closet where his adopted parents stuffed him anytime they needed to go out. Or when they just needed some peace and quiet.

Or when they wanted to punish him for being bad. And according to them, he was bad all the time so he’d spent half his young life in that tiny dark closet.

He still had claustrophobia. Hated dark closets, basements and crawl spaces.

Hell, he was a grown man now. Had his own life. A nice little cabin he’d built himself on a small ranch with tons of light where no one could bother him, where he’d never be stuck in that dark place again.

And he wouldn’t…not even in his mind.

He had escaped and had a job to do, and he’d damn well do it without allowing Taylor to get under his skin like she had earlier.

He’d survived that hellhole of a family. He could survive being assigned as her bodyguard.

All the more reason to find her attacker quickly, though, so he could leave Cantara Hills.

The door opened and the doctor appeared, Taylor’s chart in hand. “She’s dressing, then she can go home.”

He nodded. Margaret had brought Taylor an overnight bag. A nurse appeared with a wheelchair, and he went and retrieved his SUV from the parking garage, then pulled up in front of the hospital. Taylor climbed in and fastened her seat belt, and he maneuvered into the early morning traffic and drove to Cantara Hills.

“If we’re forced to spend time together, we should get to know each other,” Taylor said, filling the awkward silence.

He glared at her. “I intend to learn everything about you.”

Her blond brows rose, eyes sparkling. “Really?”

He pressed his mouth into a frown. “Yes, and all your friends.”

The light left her eyes. “Then tell me about yourself. About your family.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I’m here to do a job, Taylor. My personal life is off-limits.”

For a brief second, hurt tugged at her expression.

He turned away from her, refused to feel guilty. “I need to go by my room at the country club and pick up my duffel bag.”

“Excuse me?” she said quietly.

“I told you I’m your bodyguard. That means I’m moving in.”

She shivered and hugged her arms around her waist. “I certainly hope you find whoever did this quickly.”

He chuckled. She obviously didn’t want him around any more than he wanted to be with her. “That’s the plan. In fact, I’d like to clean up and then I want to talk to your brother and Kenneth Sutton.”

She stared out the window, her expression pained. “I just can’t believe one of them would try to kill me.”

He clamped his mouth shut. She was too damn innocent. Just because these people were related to her or acted as if they were her friends, didn’t mean they didn’t have secrets or a motive for murder.