by Liz Johnson
She pointed toward the glass door to her office. “Let me just lock up.” She dashed up the stairs, her movements fluid and graceful. All four of his older sisters had taken ballet when he was a kid, and he’d been forced to sit through endless recitals. Somehow, watching Mandy’s easy motion reminded him of those hours.
Jealousy surged deep in his belly. He might never move that freely again.
He’d always been so stable on his feet. So sure of his footing. Now he needed a shoulder to lean on just to stand.
Getting back on the teams was a pipe dream. At best.
So what was he supposed to do with all of the free time suddenly laid out before him?
The lights inside the office flicked off, and an instant later, Mandy exited, locking the door behind her. Shoving her keys into a small tote bag, she flipped a wild curl out of her face. With little more than a smile, she led the way across the lot to the sidewalk and then down to the light so they could use the walkway.
She didn’t say anything as they crossed the street, but her foot hesitated as she checked each direction three times before setting out. He pushed his chair behind her, the muscles in his arms aching at the new movements. He was panting by the time they reached the far side of the street, sweat trickling down the back of his neck.
At this rate, he didn’t belong anywhere near the SEALs.
Inside the crowded red-and-white diner-style fast-food joint, she got into line. “What’s good here?”
“You’re from San Diego, work right across the street, and you’ve never been to an In-N-Out Burger?” Luke couldn’t keep the snicker out of his tone.
Mandy shrugged one shoulder before turning back to the menu board. “I’m from Colorado.”
“Uh-huh.” That explained nothing. Maybe she was a health nut who refused to enjoy the greasy goodness of the Southern California staple. Luke was all for fitness. All for staying in good shape. He was also one for enjoying a stack of steaming beef covered in melting cheese when the day called for it.
And a near hit-and-run definitely called for it.
His stomach rumbled at the smell of the best burgers on the West Coast.
“Your options are pretty much a burger or a burger and fries,” he said.
She shot him a snarky grin, but ordered a burger and fries when she got to the counter.
They found an empty table, settled in and were halfway through their dinner before he came up for air.
Mandy stared, her gaze unfocused, at a glob of ketchup on her fries. She hadn’t done more than pick at her burger, but she didn’t seem eager to chat.
He didn’t really want to start a conversation, but something about the tightness of her chin—as if she was trying so hard to hold it still—made his chest hurt. “You want to talk about what happened back there?”
Her gaze shot up, and she looked surprised to see him there. “I’m sorry. I was just… I guess I just zoned out for a second. What did you say?”
“Back in the parking lot—” He tipped his head toward her office. “That wasn’t an accident. You want to talk about it?”
As the words rolled out, he knew he meant them. It was more than idle curiosity. He was tired of being unproductive. Maybe he could help her. Talking about it might help her deal with the experience.
He hadn’t had a mission in weeks. And he was months away from another. Just the idea of giving her a hand brought the side of his mouth up in a smile.
“Um. No. It was nothing. Just an accident, probably.”
Nope. That wasn’t true.
Her gaze jumped to the left, then down at her hands in her lap. Her shoulders squirmed, and she bit the corner of her mouth. She knew it wasn’t an accident or a distracted driver. Someone had intentionally tried to kill her.
“I doubt it.” He shrugged as if they weren’t discussing life and death. Perhaps if she didn’t think about what was on the line, she’d open up about it. “Who’d you tick off? Someone not get the results you promised?”
Her nostrils flared, and her eyes narrowed. “I didn’t tick anyone off, thank you very much. I’m a professional, and there are no guarantees in medicine.”
The bright pink spots in her cheeks were so cute that he couldn’t help but goad her a little more. “Come on. You can tell me. What’d you do? Break too many hearts?”
Her gaze fell to the table, where she twisted a straw wrapper into smithereens. Forehead wrinkled and neck stiff, she let out a tiny sigh before squaring her tense shoulders and forcing a half smile. Another chink in her armor. But she was determined to keep from showing it to him.
His middle jerked with regret. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed.” He stabbed a hand through his shaggy hair while she still looked anywhere but at him. “You’re in trouble.” He didn’t ask a question because it would have been too easy for her to deny it again.
After three years on the teams, he couldn’t walk away from someone in need.
He’d never been able to. That was why he’d wanted to be a SEAL in the first place. That was why he wanted to go back.
“I’ve got it under control.” Her chin didn’t so much as quiver, and she met his eyes with a steady gaze.
“What else has happened? Is this the first time someone’s tried to run you over?”
“Nothing’s happened.” She shook her head, but her eyes lost a hint of the mettle that had just been there. “Everything’s fine. I’ve got it under control.”
He’d believe that when the stars quit shining. “Have you talked to the cops?”
She nodded, looked away and toyed with a French fry, dunking it in ketchup before using it to doodle on her burger wrapper.
Apparently she had it under control, but she had still gone to the cops. She was scared. She was in over her head. And she was a sitting duck.
“What are the cops doing?”
“A detective is looking into it.”
“Into…” He let his voice drag out, hoping she’d fill in the blanks because there were still a lot of them in her tale.
Brown eyes, narrow and uncertain, met his gaze, and he could see the battle just beyond them. There was more to tell, but she barely knew him.
Someone had threatened her life, and opening up about that wasn’t easy.
Luke hadn’t talked to anyone except the navy chaplain about the suicide bomber who had nearly blown off his leg. And Bianca, of course. Back when she’d been his girlfriend. That conversation had started with him laying it all out on the line—an uncertain future, months of PT, maybe never returning to active duty—and had ended with her walking out of his life for good. After that, he hadn’t talked about his leg, even with his swim buddy and best friend, Will Gumble—Willie G. to his teammates. Putting his pride on the line was riskier than walking through a minefield, so it was easier to just keep it inside.
Except the memories gnawed on his insides like a hungry dog, leaving him raw and sore.
Whatever haunted Mandy probably warred within her, too. To talk about it or not to talk about it. It was a lose-lose situation.
*
Mandy crumpled her hamburger wrapper around the last bite, her stomach suddenly not at all interested in finishing the meal. There was something else chewing at her, an urge to tell Luke what was really going on.
His gaze dipped to her hands, and he watched her fingers work the crinkling paper into a ball for a long second. “You don’t have to tell me anything that you don’t want to. I get it. I’ve been there.”
“I’d guess you’re still there.” The words popped out as soon as she thought them, and she clapped a hand over her mouth.
A wry grin curved the corner of his lips, and he shrugged one shoulder. “You might be right. Looks like we have more in common than we thought.”
Maybe it was the knowing spark in his eye or the understanding in his tone. But something made her snap, the truth—all of it—spilling out before she could overanalyze the reasons why she should keep her distance.
“About two years ago, I realized that my identity had been stolen. Nothing that a thousand others haven’t dealt with. Credit cards taken out in my name, debt racked up. That kind of thing. I reported it to the credit bureaus and law enforcement, but it just seemed to get worse. And then someone tried to hijack my professional license.”
Luke’s eyebrows pulled together, but the rest of his face remained even. A slow nod encouraged her to continue.
“I only caught that because it was time for renewal, and I had turned in my paperwork a bit early. Two days later they received another renewal with my name but a different address.”
“And that address…”
“Was a fake.” Mandy put her elbows on the table and leaned a little closer to Luke so she could keep her voice low. “It’s like there’s a phantom after me. No name, no address, no face. They’re always three steps ahead of the police.”
“And they’re doing a pretty good job of making your life miserable.”
Her gaze snapped to meet Luke’s. “Yes.”
He narrowed his eyes, the skin above his nose wrinkling. “And…”
“How did you know? That there’s more?”
“Identity thieves don’t usually jump to attempted murder in one leap.”
Murder.
The word made her tremble, and she closed her eyes, only to find headlights bearing down on her once again. Gasping a strangled breath, she looked up just as his hand rested on her fist. Jerking away, she squared her shoulders and forced her back ramrod straight.
Yes. That had been attempted murder just an hour before. She knew it. So did he.
“Why do you think the two are connected?”
She inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled, like she perpetually told her patients to do. “Someone’s been in my home.”
His mouth dropped open. “Did you report it?”
“I couldn’t. I didn’t have anything to report.” The questions in his eyes didn’t require words, so she continued on. “It wasn’t a blatant breaking and entering. Nothing was broken or taken. But things were moved, just enough to let me know that someone’s been in there.”
“What are you doing to protect yourself?” His voice was firm, almost demanding, and his broad shoulders stiffened. Suddenly his boyish face turned stern, strict. “It’s not safe for you to be there alone. Not if someone is getting in and out without trashing the door or breaking windows.”
She offered him a half smile for his concern. “I know. I had an alarm system installed as soon as I realized something was off. The alarm hasn’t been triggered, and my stalker hasn’t been back.”
“Who else knows the alarm code?”
“Just the guy who installed it.”
Mandy gave herself a mental pat on the back as Luke’s muscles began to relax, his clenched jaw easing into a more natural expression. She was doing everything she could do to keep herself safe.
“Have you thought about a dog?”
Well, almost everything she could do. “I’m allergic.”
“Who’s watching your six?”
“My six?”
“Your back. In the SEALs we don’t go anywhere without a buddy. You can’t see behind you at your six o’clock, so you need someone who can.” When she didn’t immediately respond, he gave her hand a gentle nudge. “Do you have family nearby or a good friend?”
“I…” Her voice trailed off as a coolness settled over her. “My family is all back in Colorado. And we’re not very close, so when I came out here for school, I just stayed.”
“A friend, then?” His eyes were filled with hope as deep as the Pacific, and she wanted more than anything to give him the answer he was looking for.
She shook her head. “It—it takes a lot to get a business going. I have friends at Pacific Coast House—”
“Ashley Waterstone,” he interrupted, a little grin spreading across his face. “She made me come to see you.”
“I know.” Mandy pursed her lips to the side at the memory of Ashley’s call. She’d been nearly as intimidating as her six-foot-two SEAL husband when she’d told Mandy that she had a friend in need of help. Mandy just hadn’t planned on the man sitting across the table from her, his crooked grin and boyish charm a little too disarming. A little too much like Gary’s.
She’d made the right decision turning Luke away.
She had.
She was certain.
Almost.
Luke’s head bowed as his shoulders rose and fell in an even rhythm. He almost looked as if he was praying, until he glanced up without moving his head. “I think we both know that Ashley, Staci, Jess and the others at Pacific Coast House can’t afford to get mixed up in this situation. They have families to think about.”
His tone was filled with as much compassion as she’d heard from him, but it didn’t take away the sting of his words. The truth of them. She pulled her hand from where it still rested beneath his and hugged her arms around her middle.
She was going to have to face this alone.
Do not be afraid.
The words rang through her, true and clear, and she knew in that instant that she could face whatever was coming.
His mouth quirked to the side. “Of course, that wouldn’t stop them. I get the feeling they like you a whole bunch.”
A tear tried to force its way out, and she blinked it into submission, swallowing the lump in her throat. “I like them, too. And I’d never ask them to put their families in danger for me. I can do this. On my own.”
He tapped his long tan fingers on the table where her hand had been, and she suddenly missed the reassurance of his touch. But the warmth in his eyes wrapped around her heart.
She could face this. Whatever it was. Whoever it was.
“So here’s the thing. Those ladies, they’re like my big sisters. And their husbands, they’re my bosses and friends. If I let anything happen to you, I’m pretty sure they’d take out my other knee.” He chuckled at the half joke, but the truth about his injury kept his jaw tight.
“What are you saying?”
He shrugged. “I’m available.”
She knew what he meant, what he was offering. She just wasn’t ready to give him an answer. Accepting him meant allowing him into her life, and her track record with that had led to her very worst mistake. Even if this wasn’t a romantic relationship.
But refusing him left her out in the open, unprotected.
Neither was a good option.
So, instead of responding to his offer, she asked a question of her own, forcing her smirk back into place and hoping to make him squirm. Just a little bit. “Are you trying to ask me on a date?”
Without missing a beat, he winked and replied, “Whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
With a shake of her head and a low chuckle, she sighed. He was far too charming for his own good. For her own good. But his proposal was too important to ignore. “Don’t you have something better to do?”
“As a matter of fact, I don’t.” He thumped the brace on his leg. “I’m supposed to be resting my knee when I’m not in physical therapy. My life is looking pretty dull from where I’m sitting.”
“A SEAL without a mission…”
“About the worst hand a guy could be dealt.” There was truth in his tone, a longing in his voice to return to a life of significance.
Except…well, she wasn’t sure a guy in his condition could keep her safe.
As soon as the thought crept in, she laughed it away. He’d saved her from a speeding car while using crutches and carrying his dinner. And he’d kept his cool the whole time. He was capable, even with his injury.
But letting him help her also meant allowing a man back into her life. It meant being reminded of another relationship that had turned sour, that had turned her into someone she hated.
Do not be afraid.
She could handle this. She would handle this, by setting up the boundaries from the start.
“Just so we’re clear, I was joki
ng before about you asking me out.” He raised an eyebrow in question. “There’ll be no—” she waved her finger back and forth between them “—dating.”
He winked again, that saucy grin falling back into place. “Whatever you say.”
Her stomach swooped and tightened, and she leaned toward him, needing him to understand, to agree. “That’s a nonnegotiable. I don’t date patients. Period.”
Both of his eyebrows went up this time. “So, I’m a patient now?”
She was as surprised as he looked. When had she decided to take on his case? She hadn’t. Not consciously anyway. But…
“I suppose so. I spend most of my time at the office, and if you’re going to be around, you might as well be getting your feet back under you.”
His smile turned from playful to appreciative. “I won’t let you down.”
She wasn’t going to overanalyze whether he was referring to her situation or his healing. Either way she was stuck with him now. At least it would be on her terms. “All right. But no dates.” His Cheshire grin never wavered, and she had a sinking feeling that his flirting was going to play a prominent role in their relationship.
It was worth it.
Because maybe, just maybe, he could help her stay safe long enough to figure out who was trying to kill her.
THREE
Mandy spent the entire night before Luke’s first appointment calling herself every name in the book. She was a special kind of crazy to take him on. If she had half a brain, she would have found a way to put as much distance between them as she could.
Except she hadn’t had a choice.
And his eyes had spoken volumes across the table two nights before. He could help her. And as much as she didn’t want to need him, she did. The exact kind of professional help he could offer.
But the more she thought about having Luke around, the more she recalled the other man in her life. The one who had wormed his way into her personal life and into her home. Who had made her miserable.
Chills raced down her arms, and she hugged her knees into her chest, pushing away all thoughts of someone else being in her house.
Suddenly being alone was too much, and she threw back the covers on her bed and ran for the bathroom. Slamming and locking the door behind her, she got ready in record time. Her hair was still damp as she raced down the road to her office.