His Safe Keeping (The Safe Series)

by Tina Bass

  “Stop, if you’re going to start with…” She lowered her voice to mimic his. “You need to lock yourself in your house twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, never to be seen by the light of day.” She then resumed speaking in her own voice as she continued. “Blah, blah, blah. I really, reallllly,” Krista dragged out the word, “do not, and I will not, hear it again!”

  Christ, he almost wanted to laugh. This tiny thing stood in front of him, standing up to him, mimicking him. It would be funny if her safety wasn’t an issue. So, he tried again. “Look, I’m a cop.” Kade was trying to be very patient.

  “Yes, a cop who broke into my house.” She had interrupted him again.

  Okay, that was it. He stepped up close to her, bent down face to face, their noses all but touching. “There are sick fuckers out there who will hurt you!” Kade roared.

  “I know that!” Krista yelled right back at him, in his face. “Trust me, I know what’s out there, but I’m not living my life in fear anymore,” she stated, then turned to walk away.

  Kade reached out, grabbed her arm and spun her back to face him. “What did you say?” he demanded. Had someone hurt her? He would kill anyone who ever thought to lay a hand on this woman.

  Krista belatedly realized what she’d said. She didn’t know why this man was reminding her of a past she’d left long ago. There was no way she could go back, not now, not after all this time. She was fine. Everything would be okay. “Look, I’m exhausted. I just want to lie down and rest. Can we talk about this later, please?” All of a sudden she was so very tired. All she wanted to do was lie down and sleep the rest of this day away. She watched as Kade’s face softened and the intense look in his eyes faded away.

  “Yeah, baby, you go lie down while I finish this up and then I’ll get you something to eat.” He sounded so sweet, but right at that moment she just wanted to be alone.

  “I’m not hungry, and if I try to eat anything, it will just come back up.”

  He let go of her arm and reached up to cup her face, rubbing her cheek with his thumb while his eyes roamed her face. When his gaze came back to hers, he bent slightly, touching his lips to her forehead, and whispered to her, “Okay, baby.” Then he kissed her forehead again, dropped his hand, and went back to work on her door. She stood there for a few beats just staring at this man, this stranger she had only met…today? Really, had it only been a day? Kade didn’t feel like a stranger, he felt safe and comfortable. Looking at him, she could see he was twice, if not three times, bigger than her. He could break her into a million pieces, yet she felt no fear of him, even when he got that scary look on his face and yelled at her. Somewhere inside her, she just knew he would never hurt her, not physically at least, but her heart might be a different story. She’d already had her world torn apart by men. One who physically hurt her, one who killed her childhood, and one who broke her heart. What would this man do? Did she really want to find out? She just didn’t know.

  Chapter Four

  Krista awoke late the next morning. In fact, it was so late, it wasn’t morning anymore, but she was feeling…good! Wow, Dr. Miller said this round of treatments would be a little different. More intense. That’s why she was only having five this time instead of the usual eight. An experiment, he’d said. Shoot, her whole life had been an experiment which began when she was three years old and the doctors discovered her rare blood type. Yeah, yesterday had been bad. Really bad. When Kade had stopped to check on her, it had been the third time she’d had to pull over to the side of the road. The first time she felt dizzy, too dizzy to drive safely. The second time she became so nauseated she couldn’t see straight. By the time she’d stopped the third time, her body was racked with pain, from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Her blood had turned to fire, or at least that’s what it felt like. Like her whole body was burning from the inside out. Then she’d gotten sick.

  Now…now she felt good. So good in fact, she thought she would bake a batch of brownies and take some to her ‘old as dirt’ neighbor. She giggled. She liked spending time with Mrs. Worley who was so sweet, and she loved to talk about ‘the good ole’ days. Krista could sit and listen to her for hours, talking about her life, her kids, grandkids, even great-grandkids, but most especially, her late husband. The love they’d shared was something Krista never tired of hearing about. It always reminded her of her mom and dad, before. Well, before everything had changed so drastically in just a moment of time.

  Shaking off that thought, Krista took a quick shower, pulled her hair back with a clip, and fixed not just one batch of brownies but two, just because. Well, maybe she would wrap some up for Kade as a thank-you for everything, and maybe a peace offering. After all, he’d written her the sweetest note when he left yesterday. Grabbing the note, she couldn’t help but reread it yet again.

  “Krista, please take care. I only want you safe. Kade.”

  Maybe after her visit with Mrs. Worley, she would drive over to the station with the brownies. She knew his name. His whole name. Krista giggled again at the memory of learning that fact. How hard could it be to find him? But first some Worley time. Grabbing her mp3 player, ear buds, and a plate of freshly baked treats, she started walking to Mrs. Worley’s house to spend a couple of hours.

  Kade was sitting at his desk in the station house, going over mindless paper work. He was ready to retire. At thirty-five years old, he’d moved up the ranks pretty quickly. He knew his military training had helped with that. Joining the ROTC his junior year and then the Air Force straight out of high school had a lot to do with it. Now all he wanted was to be home working his ranch himself. Yeah, he had men, good men, who kept his ranch going. They were making him some damn good money, but he wanted to be a larger part of that, not just checking in every evening with his foreman or getting a small taste of ranch work on his days off. He wanted to spend his days riding his horse, and running his cows. Between the hell he’d been dropped into while in the Air Force and all the shit he’d seen as a police officer, he needed the peace he could only get from his land. Kade wanted to take Krista there, wondering if she’d ever ridden a horse. He wanted to take her riding over the ridge and down by the creek. Wanted to drive his old 4X4 and take her muddin’ down by the river where he and his buddies liked to go.

  Krista. He had thought about her most of the night. By the time he’d finished putting the new locks on her door yesterday, she had fallen back to sleep and he didn’t want to wake her up again, even though he still hadn’t found out what was wrong with her. Why the treatments? The question was consuming his thoughts. So when it was time for him to go, he’d written her a note, covered her up, made sure her doors were locked, and headed home.

  Now he was trying to get some of this paper work caught up. Just a few more weeks and his career in law enforcement would be over. He would be a full time cowboy, as the guys on the force liked to call him. Chuckling to himself, he thought, hell. He’d been a cowboy for the past seven years, or at least that’s how long he’d owned the ranch. He got lucky, buying a working ranch from old Mr. Peterson. He had spent many a summer, when he was a kid, working for Mr. Peterson. Most of his childhood was spent there. From the time he was four, Mrs. Peterson would watch him while his mom worked. As he grew, Mr. Peterson introduced him to the ranch and the older he got, the more work he was allowed to do, all the way up to his senior year of high school. Then he joined the Air Force. When he got out of the military and came back home, he went right back to helping Mr. Peterson on his ranch whenever he could and had the time. Some days, when he had days off from the force, he would spend whole days at that ranch. Mrs. Peterson used to tease him about having dirt in his veins.

  “Once you get ranch dirt in them veins boy, you’re never going to be completely happy anywhere else.” She must’ve said that same thing to him hundreds of times. He stood there, shaking his head at that thought.

  “Gu
ess she knew what she was talking about,” he mumbled to himself. To say he was surprised when the Peterson’s wanted to sell the ranch would have been an understatement. But Mr. Peterson explained it all to him.

  “We were never blessed with kids of our own, and you’re about the closest we’ve ever had. I know how much you love this land, son, so if you want it, it’s yours.” Simple as that. And he did love that land and the life that went with it. That’s what he wanted and now, finally, he’d have it. The ranch had been his dream, one he never really let himself dream, ever since he was four years old.

  Wonder what Krista’s dreams are. Just thinking about her made him smile. “That’s it, I’m outta here.” He wasn’t getting any work done and it was close enough to the end of his shift. He wanted to see Krista again. Wanted to make sure she was feeling better. Maybe take her out to eat or something. Maybe go for a drive, or hell, he’d even take her to the movies, and he hated theaters. But, for her, to spend time with her, he would go see a show. He was just getting ready to leave when his former partner stepped into his office.

  “Hey, Kade, you going off shift?”

  “Hey, Velgada, yeah, done for today. How’s your wife doing?” Velgada’s wife had been sick and that was the reason Kade had taken the transport yesterday as a favor, so he could be with his wife.

  “She’s doing much better, thanks. It turned out to be her damn appendix. I got her to the hospital and they removed it before it burst. Really, man, thanks again for taking my transport. Did everything go okay? I mean, I know who was being transported and I would have never asked, but—”

  Kade interrupted him. “It went fine.” Thinking of Krista, he knew he might never have met her if not for taking Velgada’s transport. “Good, really.”

  Velgada just looked at Kade. “Good?” he asked with wonder in his voice.

  “Yeah.” Kade was thinking of Krista again, and he couldn’t seem to hide his smile.

  “Okay, man, there has got to be a story here that has nothing to do with that shithead you escorted to his new and permanent home.” Velgada was fishing for information.

  “Probably, but seeing as I’m out the door, you won’t be hearing it today.” Kade grinned as he headed for the door. Velgada stepped back into the hall as Kade walked past. “Glad to hear your wife is doing good, man. See you later.” Kade stepped past Velgada and kept on walking until he reached his truck. Now he was on his way to Krista. Today he was going to talk, really talk, to her about those damn treatments. Was she done? Would she have to have another one? If so, when? He would take her. Just the thought of her on the side of the road, sick, in tears and alone, felt like a punch to his gut. Yeah, he had a lot of questions, and he damn well was going to get some straight answers.

  He relaxed now as he drove, with random thoughts popping in and out of his head, and was glad he didn’t have to change clothes. He was tired, past tired, of wearing a damn uniform at this point. Between the military and law enforcement, he felt like he’d spent most of his life in one type of uniform or another. Now he was done. Unless something came up, like an unexpected transport, he’d never have to wear a uniform again. Jeans and T-shirts would be his new uniform and neither one required ironing. He relaxed even more as he turned onto Krista’s road, ready to see her, spend time with her, talk with her, and maybe more if she was feeling up to it.

  Just thinking about those full sexy lips, which damned near begged to be kissed, oh hell, just thinking about kissing her was making him hard. He felt like a horny teenager all of a sudden, getting an erection just from thinking about kissing a girl. But this is not just a girl, this is Krista, he thought as he pulled up to her house, parked behind her car and got out with a smile on his face. Walking up to her door, he knocked. She’d like the idea of him knocking, rather than using the key he now had to her place—for emergencies, he told himself. Kade had taken one of the four sets of keys from her new locks. He waited, then knocked again and waited some more. Listening, he heard no music, no movement. Nothing.

  He tried the door. “Fuck,” he muttered as the door knob turned in his hand and the door opened. He stepped inside. Silence. “Krista?” he called out her name. There was no answer so he walked into the house and called out again. “Krista?” Still nothing. Picking up his pace, he quickly checked the bedroom and bathroom. Empty. Walking back outside and around the house to the back yard, he called her name, louder this time. “Krista?” Where the hell was she? Had something happened to her? Did she have to go back for another of those mystery treatments? “Krista!” he boomed. Walking back to his truck he looked more closely at her car. It hadn’t moved from where it was put by the tow truck yesterday. So, if she wasn’t home she had to have gone somewhere with someone. So, at least she wasn’t alone. “Who the hell is she with?” Kade asked the question aloud, to no one. Should he go looking for her? Hell, he didn’t even know where to start! He didn’t know much of anything about her. “Well, that sure as hell is about to change.” Still muttering to himself. “Just as soon as I find her I’m going to sit her down and find out everything.”

  Kade walked around his truck because he didn’t know what else to do and continued thinking out loud. “I could put out an APB, have her picture out in less than an hour.” Wait, he didn’t have any pictures of her. Damn! He should’ve taken at least one picture with his phone yesterday. Phone! Yeah, I could call her, he thought, as he reached for his phone. Well, hell. He didn’t know her number. Didn’t get that yesterday either. “Good thing you’re retiring, Kade, you’re shit for a cop.” He berated himself. Pacing in a circle around his truck, he looked back up her driveway, which cut through the woods and he saw her…dancing? What the hell? Dancing? As she drew closer, he could tell. Yea, she was fuckin’ dancing around, not paying any attention to her surroundings, in her own little world. “She’s going to be the death of me, I swear for Christ!” Kade started stalking toward her.

  Chapter Five

  Krista was…happy! She was walking back home, okay, half dancing, to the music blasting through her ear buds. After her visit, which had gone on longer than she’d planned, but whatever. She loved spending time with Mrs. Worley, but today when she was talking about her late husband and how overprotective he was, how bossy, and how he would yell at her when he feared for her safety, Krista couldn’t help but think of Kade. How he was so set on her having better locks and yelling at her for not locking her doors. Did she lock her door when she left? Shrugging her shoulders, she let that thought pass since she would much rather think about Kade. She wondered if he would still be at the station, because she still wanted to take him the brownies she’d baked. Maybe he would kiss her. She paused in mid-step. Kiss Kade? Oh wow, she’d never thought about kissing a man before, and Kade was most definitely all male. And yeah, she thought maybe she would like to kiss him. But, did he even think like that about her? She doubted it. Really, what would a man like Kade ever see in a girl like her? Although he did say she was beautiful. She smiled at that thought. Lieutenant Lawson McKaden thought she was beautiful.

  Doing a little jig, she threw her hands in the air, spinning around, a big smile plastered on her face. Head tossed back, Krista continued on her way, only to all of a sudden smash into something hard. She would’ve fallen back if not for two strong arms wrapping around her waist. Krista looked up and right into the face of a very pissed off Kade. His mouth was moving, but she couldn’t hear anything he was saying. She tried to reach up and pull out the ear buds, but when she tried to move her arms, he slammed her whole body up against his. Wrapping her in his arms, holding her to his chest, she could hardly breathe.

  “Irish, I can’t breathe.” Krista wheezed, maybe a little too loudly, over the music. He loosened his embrace but took ahold of both of her arms with his hands as he took a step back. Looking down at her, he started talking again, or at least his lips were moving, those lips that she now knew she wanted t
o kiss. She stood, shaking her head and the thoughts of kissing him away. “Stop talking, I can’t hear you,” she yelled as she once again tried to reach for her ear buds. But this time his hands got there first, and yanked both out at the same time.

  “What the hell is the matter with you? Where have you been? Didn’t I tell you…” He paused, leaned into her and finished, “To lock the fuckin’ door?” He roared the last in her face and for a moment, she was speechless. She was feeling good, she was happy. Heck, she’d been thinking about kissing him and giving him brownies. Now, not so much!

  She took a step back, then a deep breath. Looking up to the sky, then down at the ground, she slowly let her breath out. Staring back at him she stated what she wanted to say to him calmly. “I woke up today feeling good, in fact very good, better than I’ve felt in a very long time. So, I thought I’d make some brownies and take some to Mrs. Worley, which I did. I do admit I stayed longer than what I’d planned. But, then again, I do tend to lose track of time when she’s telling me one of her stories. As for the door, I forgot to lock it, which turns out to be a good thing since I didn’t bring a key, and, therefore, would have been locked out of my house.” Krista paused in her speech, but before he could say anything, she continued. “Although…she tilted her head to the side and looked up at him. “I do know a cop who apparently has skills and a reputation for breaking into women’s houses.” She ended there with a big smile on her face.

  “Fuck me,” Kade mumbled. He looked down at the ground, then back at her. Shaking his head, he started striding back to Krista’s house. He had only taken a few steps when he stopped. Going back, he grabbed her arm, then started walking again.