Shelter from the Storm

by RaeAnne Thayne

  “You would do that? Put up a fuss, just so you can keep your town clear of the riffraff?”

  He didn’t think he had ever seen her so angry. Hurt, yes. Devastated, definitely. When he and the chief of police had showed up at her big, ornate childhood home to tell her and her mother about R.J.’s suicide in jail, she had been desolate with grief.

  Now, she was just pissed. He couldn’t quite understand it.

  “Why is this so important to you?” he asked. “You’ve treated other crime victims, plenty of them. I’ve brought more than my share to your clinic myself. You always treat them with compassion and professionalism, but not to the point where you want to take them home with you. Why are you so invested in Rosa’s situation?”

  He thought he saw something flicker in her eyes, something murky and dark, but she quickly veiled it.

  “She’s my patient,” Lauren said briskly. “Beyond that, Rosa is a courageous young girl who has survived a terrible ordeal. I want to help her. Right now, this seems like the best way I can do that. With the clinic closing next week, I have plenty of time to spend with her. It works out all the way around.”

  Daniel knew Lauren was devoted to her patients, the kind of rare doctor who was available in case of emergencies 24/7.

  This was the perfect example of her dedication, that she wanted to go so far, possibly put herself in harm’s way for the second time in a week, to help a young girl she had only met a few days earlier.

  “You should be taking a vacation, not babysitting a patient. What were you planning to do before this came up?”

  Lauren shrugged. “I thought about following the sun and going to southern Utah for a few days to visit my mother,” she admitted. “But I can do that anytime, really. Over a long weekend, even. I couldn’t go right now and have a good time, knowing that I left Rosa huddled in some cold, impersonal hotel room with strangers who probably don’t care what she’s been through or how much strength it took for her to come forward and report what happened to her.”

  She tempered her tone. “You’re the one who said you wouldn’t turn her over to the FBI unless they had a good placement for her. They don’t and so I’m coming up with my own.”

  In a twisted kind of way, the idea did make sense. Moose Springs was completely off the beaten track, a quiet little town no one would ever suspect as the safe haven for a key federal witness in a human smuggling case.

  He had to admit, Rosa would probably do better if she spent her first few days out of the hospital with someone who could watch her carefully for any signs she might be overdoing things—and she would definitely do better with people who cared about her than distant FBI agents more concerned about their case than a young girl’s bruised psyche.

  He sighed heavily, already regretting what he was about to do.

  “All right. If you want to go ahead with this crazy idea. I won’t stand in your way. On one condition.”

  “What condition?” she asked, her voice wary.

  “I’m part of the deal.”

  She stared at him, shock widening her eyes. “You what?”

  “You can call it chauvinism, you can call it machismo, you can call it whatever the hell you want. But I’m not letting the two of you stay out at your place alone when Rosa has already twice been targeted for murder and you’ve been injured. You want to take her home with you, fine. But I’m coming, too.”

  Chapter 7

  Several hours later, Lauren stood just inside her storm door, watching in the light cast from her porch light as Daniel helped Rosa out of the backseat of a nondescript sedan she didn’t recognize.

  It wasn’t his, she knew. On his personal time, Daniel drove a big white pickup truck that only served to make him seem more darkly gorgeous behind the wheel.

  Maybe it belonged to the sheriff’s department. Or perhaps the FBI had provided transportation, since they weren’t able to provide much else in the way of support.

  What had she done? Daniel Galvez was coming to stay at her house for at least a day or two, possibly longer. He would eat at her table, he would use her shower, he would fill every corner of her little house with that huge presence.

  She hadn’t really planned out her impulsive offer for Rosa to stay at her house back at the hospital this morning. The words had escaped her mouth before she had fully considered the ramifications.

  If she had taken the time to think it through, she might have anticipated that Daniel would insist on stepping forward to provide protection for Rosa—and for her.

  If the thought had even crossed her mind, she probably would have rescinded her suggestion and consigned poor Rosa to a hotel.

  No, she thought as she watched them make their careful way up the walk she had just finished shoveling. She still would have demanded Rosa stay here. She just would have been better prepared to tell Daniel all the reasons his presence was not required—not required and certainly not at all good for her sense of self-preservation.

  She watched him lift Rosa over a rough section of sidewalk, the solid bulk of his shoulders not even flexing at the effort, and her insides ached.

  She held the door open for them, giving Rosa a wide, welcoming smile. She did her best to keep that welcome on her features when she faced Daniel, but she guessed some of her reservations must have filtered through when his mouth tightened and his dark eyes grew cool.

  “Come in,” she said in Spanish. “I’m so pleased you are here.” Lauren tried to include both of them in that statement, even though that self-protective part of her nature wanted to shove Daniel back onto the porch and lock the door behind him.

  “Gracias,” Rosa said quietly. She looked tired, Lauren thought with concern.

  “Come. Sit,” she urged, and led them both to the open living area off the kitchen. In the rare hours she was home, this was the space she tended to utilize the most.

  A fire crackled in the fireplace and the room was several degrees warmer than the rest of the house. She settled Rosa in her own favorite chair by the fire and tucked a blanket around her.

  “How was your drive?” she asked Daniel.

  “Long. We traded vehicles three times in case anybody followed us and we took the most complicated route possible.”

  “Did you see anyone?”

  “I never saw a tail, except Gage and Cale. They followed us to Park City and then turned around. I don’t think anyone saw us leave. We borrowed an ambulance for the first leg of the journey and sneaked her out in that.”

  Worry creased his features. “Just because we made it here safely doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet, though. This whole situation makes me itchy.”

  “I know.” The gravity of his expression gave her pause. She prayed she wasn’t putting Daniel in harm’s way. She couldn’t back out of this now, no matter how much she dreaded several days of enforced intimacy with him.

  She turned her attention to her patient. “Rosa, how are you feeling?” she asked in Spanish.

  The girl tried to smile, but Lauren could see the circles under her eyes and the strained exhaustion tugging down the corners of her mouth. She murmured something in a low voice that Lauren didn’t quite catch and pointed to her head, but the doctor in her didn’t need the words to know what her patient was communicating.

  “Your head hurts? I can give you something for it, something safe for the baby. I’ve made some dinner for you, but I think you should rest first until you feel better.”

  “Sí.” Relief flickered in her dark eyes. “Gracias.”

  Lauren helped her from the chair and showed her to the small guest room she kept ready for her mother’s visits.

  Since Janine had plenty of reason to hate coming back to Moose Springs and usually avoided the place as if everyone in it had a highly contagious form of leprosy, the room had rarely been used. As a result, it was rather sparsely decorated, just a bed with a pale lavender floral bedspread, a plain dresser and a bedside table.

  Rosa gazed around wide-eyed, as if she
were walking into the posh suite of a four-star hotel. Tears formed in her eyes and she whispered her thanks in Spanish several times.

  Lauren’s heart twisted for what this poor girl had endured. Impulsively, she hugged her. “I’m happy you’re here,” she murmured again in Spanish. “Rest. I will bring you something for your headache. The soup will wait until you’re feeling better.”

  With a relieved sigh, Rosa nodded and sat on the edge of the bed. Knowing it would be a difficult task with the cast on her arm and the pain of her cracked ribs, Lauren knelt and helped her out of her shoes. She wore shiny white tennis shoes with pink stripes and Lauren wondered where they had come from.

  All her clothes—even her parka—looked new and Lauren was embarrassed she hadn’t thought about what Rosa would wear from the hospital since the girl’s own ragged clothes had been ripped and bloody after the attack.

  She wondered if the FBI agents had the foresight to provide them, but some instinct told her exactly who had been thoughtful enough to remember such an important detail.

  Daniel.

  Her stomach gave a funny little flip when she pictured him in a shoe department somewhere picking out white tennis shoes with pink stripes on the sides.

  Pushing away her silly reaction, she settled Rosa into bed, drawing the fluffy comforter around her, then went in search of her medicine.

  When she returned from giving it to Rosa, she found Daniel in the entryway stamping snow off his boots and carrying a large dark duffel in one hand and a small blue suitcase in the other.

  “This is the rest of Rosa’s stuff.” He handed over the suitcase.

  “Did you buy it for her?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.

  He shrugged. “There’s not much in there but I tried to think of everything she might need. Toothbrush, a nightgown, socks, that kind of thing. One of the nurses helped me guess the sizes.”

  She imagined the nurses would help him with anything he might ask when he looked at them out of those sexy dark eyes that seemed to see inside a woman’s deepest desires…

  “Where do you want me to stow my gear?” he said.

  “Oh. Right.” Flustered, she drew herself back to the conversation. “I have a small room I use as an office, right next to Rosa’s. It has a couch that folds out. It’s not the most comfortable bed in the world but I’m not really set up for a lot of houseguests. I’m afraid I don’t have anything else.”

  Except for my bed.

  The thought whispered through her mind with an insidious appeal she found both horrifying and seductive.

  She was in serious trouble here if she couldn’t go ten seconds without entertaining completely inappropriate thoughts about the man.

  “I’m sure I’ve slept in worse places,” he answered. “It will be fine, don’t worry.”

  Easy for him to say. He wasn’t the one who couldn’t seem to focus on anything else but the way his broad shoulders filled her small entry, how his size and strength seemed to dwarf all the perfectly normal-sized furnishings in her house.

  “You’ll have to point the way.”

  She blinked. “The way?”

  “To the foldout couch.”

  “Oh, yes. Of course. The office is the second door on the right. The first one is Rosa’s room. Mine is across the hall and there’s a guest bathroom next to that. I’ll show you.”

  She led the way down the short hallway and opened her office door. He set his bag inside and she showed him the bathroom across the hall.

  “It’s a little small,” she apologized, wondering if he would even fit in the shower.

  As soon as the thought entered her mind, she shoved it away quickly. She did not need to go there.

  “I’m sure it will be fine.”

  “There’s room in the medicine cabinet for anything you need to put there. Razors, your toothbrush, whatever.”

  For some ridiculous reason, her face heated at that. It seemed terribly intimate to have a man here. How pathetic must her love life be if she could blush at having a man in her bathroom?

  “Thanks,” he murmured, and she had the oddest feeling he didn’t find this whole situation any easier to handle.

  “I, uh, fixed some soup earlier if you’re hungry,” she said after a moment. “It’s all ready. Chicken and black bean.”

  “Sounds great. Thanks.”

  They returned to the kitchen and Lauren quickly went to the stove to stir the soup, then reached into the cupboard for a bowl.

  “There is silverware already on the table. Just sit wherever you would like and I’ll dish it for you.”

  He stood in the doorway. “You don’t have to wait on me, Lauren. That wasn’t part of the deal.”

  “You’re a guest in my home,” she said. “You might be an uninvited one, but you’re still a guest.”

  He laughed a little abruptly at her tartness. “I guess that’s plain enough.”

  “Sit down, Daniel. You can have some soup, even if you are on guard-dog duty.”

  A muscle twitched in his cheek. “Well, if you want the truth, I haven’t had time to eat all day and whatever you’re cooking smells delicious.”

  “I’m not much of a cook,” she confessed, “but I do have a few good soup recipes.”

  He finally complied, though he didn’t look happy about it, and she filled two bowls with the steaming soup, flavored with cilantro, lime and jalapeño peppers.

  “Here you go,” she said, setting both bowls on the plates she had already set earlier. She gestured to the garnishes already on the table—shredded cheese, tortilla strips, sour cream, more jalapeños and cilantro. “You can put whatever garnishes you want in it. It’s kind of a flavor-your-own deal.”

  “It looks great. I’m sorry you went to so much trouble.”

  “It wasn’t any trouble.”

  It did look delicious, she had to admit. Just the thing for a snowy Friday night. She put a little grated cheddar in hers and a few baked tortilla strips, but she wasn’t at all surprised when he piled on the jalapeños.

  He seemed so close here at her small square table, huge and overpowering. She was acutely aware of the broadness of his shoulders and the blunt strength in his arms and the scent of him, leathery and male.

  So much for enjoying the soup. She couldn’t taste anything, she was far too twitchy just being this close to him.

  This certainly wasn’t the first meal they had ever shared. Moose Springs was a small town with very little in the way of entertainment except the annual Fourth of July breakfast and the August Moosemania celebration. Everybody turned out for those, and over the years she and Daniel had almost certainly shared a table.

  They had many of the same friends in common—Mason and Jane Keller, Cale and Megan Davis. But even those times they had attended the same dinner parties or barbecues, there had always been others around to provide a buffer.

  She couldn’t remember ever sharing a meal with him alone like this. For some reason, it had all the awkward ness of a blind date—something she made it a practice to avoid at all costs.

  “I was wrong,” he said after a moment. “Your soup isn’t delicious. It’s divine.”

  She mustered a smile. “Thank you.”

  “This is the perfect thing to warm the blood on a cold winter night,” he said, then winced at the inanity of his conversation. Not only was it a banal thing to say, it was patently untrue.

  His blood didn’t need any more temperature spikes. He only had to sit within a few feet of Lauren to be plenty warm. Before the evening was done, he was very much afraid he would be sweltering.

  He was doing his best to focus on the meal in front of him and not on Lauren, with her soft blond hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and her slim feet in fuzzy socks and her skin rosy and flushed in the warm kitchen.

  It was an impossible task. Even with the bandage on her cheek, she was so lovely here in her house, sexy and soft, and with every taste of soup she took, he wanted to whip the spoon out of her mou
th, throw it against the wall and devour those lips.

  His body ached just breathing the same air. How ridiculous was that? He had always known he had a thing for her, but these last few days had just demonstrated it was far more than a little unrequited crush.

  He was powerfully attracted to her. He couldn’t remember ever reacting this way to a woman, this wild heat in his gut. Every nerve cell in his body seemed to quiver when she was anywhere around and he couldn’t seem to focus on a thing but her.

  She sipped her water, and when she returned the water goblet to the table, a tiny drop clung to her bottom lip. He couldn’t seem to stop staring at it, wondering what she would do if he reached across the table and licked it off.

  “What do you usually eat?” she asked.

  He blinked away the unbidden fantasy, harshly reminding himself he was here to do a job, to protect Lauren and her houseguest, not to indulge himself by wishing for the impossible.

  He forgot what she had asked. “Sorry?” he managed.

  “We keep the same kind of hours and I know you don’t have much more time than I do. I just wondered if you eat every meal on the run or if you take time to cook a decent meal once in a while.”

  “I’m not a great cook but I do try to fix a few things on my days off. Whenever I can, I cook extra so I have things to warm up during the week. I think my deputies and Peggy and the other dispatchers think I live on nothing but cold cereal and frozen dinners. They must feel sorry for me, because it seems like somebody is always inviting me over for dinner.”

  “Like the department stray dog?”

  He smiled. “Something like that.”

  She returned his smile. Daniel stared at the way it lightened her features, made her look not much older than Rosa. His breath seemed to catch in his throat and he did his best to remind himself of all the reasons he couldn’t kiss that soft mouth.