by Elle James
Her mouth formed a tight smile. “Sometimes, I wonder if you’re not the stalker I need to worry about.”
His grin faded, and he gave her a stern look. “I’m just concerned. Even though I know you can stick up for yourself, I like to know that you get home safely.”
She opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. After a long pause she said, “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
He tried not to show his surprise. The man in the vehicle the previous night must have scared her. Frankly, the incident scared him, too. Why would somebody be sitting outside her apartment most of the night? And was he the same person who had attempted to break in? “I’d sure feel better if you’d just stay here tonight.”
She sighed. “I didn’t bring any clothes, and I already told RJ that I wasn’t staying.”
“We can go to your apartment, get your clothes and come back. You can tell RJ that you felt like she’d really need the help in the morning. She doesn’t have to know that you had a stalker last night outside your apartment.”
“She’s my friend. I hate to lie to her.”
“Then tell her the truth—that you’re going back to your apartment to get your stuff because you had somebody lurking outside your apartment.”
JoJo’s lips twisted. “She’d have me moved in here permanently.”
Max cocked an eyebrow. “And is that such a bad thing?”
JoJo frowned. “I’ve always been surrounded by people. I need to learn how to live on my own.”
“Why?” Max asked.
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I just do. I can’t be afraid to go to sleep at night.”
“Well, when you have somebody trying to get into your apartment, you better damn well be afraid.”
She chuckled. “Okay, I’ll go get my clothes and come right back, but you don’t have to follow me.”
“The hell I don’t. Better yet, why don’t you ride with me? That way, whoever is watching won’t know it’s you until after you’ve gotten your stuff, gotten back into my vehicle, and we’re on our way back to the lodge.”
Her lips twisted. “I hate relying on you.”
“I hate that you hate that.” He crossed his arms over his chest, “So, what’s it gonna be?”
She said, “I’ll go with you.”
“Great. Come on.” He held her car door for her. She climbed out, and they walked together to his truck.
Max helped her up into the passenger seat.
JoJo laughed. “I need a ladder to get up into this monster.”
“I can’t help it that you’re short.”
“Watch it, buddy. I might be short, but I’m tough.”
He grinned up at her. “Boy, don’t I know,” and he rubbed the back of his neck with a grin.
“I said I was sorry,” she said.
“Hey, I’m gonna milk it for all the embarrassment it caused me.”
“Seems I hurt your ego more than I hurt the back of your head.”
“Got that right.” Max climbed into the driver’s seat, started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot and into the road headed toward Fool’s Gold.
It didn’t take long to reach her apartment.
“I’ll only be a few minutes,” she said.
He shook his head. “Nope. I’m going with you.”
“I think I can gather my own clothes. I don’t need any help to do that.”
“And what if whoever tried to get into your apartment last night succeeded today and is waiting for you?” Max raised his eyebrows and waited for her response.
Her frown deepened. “I’ll hear him and, if I have to, I’ll shoot him. My gun’s in the nightstand and my mace is on top of it.”
“Do you have your concealed carry?” Max asked.
She nodded. “I do.”
“Why aren’t you carrying?”
“I didn’t think I’d need it out at the lodge, just in my apartment at night.”
“You should have it on you at all times.”
She bit her lip and stared at the road ahead. “I hate it when you’re right.”
He grinned and walked with her up to her apartment.
Max inspected the doorframe, where it appeared someone had indeed taken something sharp to the wood around the lock. Fortunately, the deadbolt had held true.
“Let me go in first,” he said.
“I went to basic combat training, too,” she said.
He sighed. “But was that your job in the Army?”
“It could’ve been. Motor pool mechanics have to clear a building.” Her lips twisted. “Fine. You go first.”
“Thank you.” He pulled his weapon out from beneath his jacket.
“Whoa,” JoJo’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know you were carrying.”
“I have my concealed carry, and I use it. This baby goes with me everywhere. Open the door and then wait here. I’ll be right back.”
JoJo unlocked the door then stood to the side.
Max pushed open the door and started to step inside when the smell of rotten eggs hit him. His hand froze on the doorknob, and his heart stopped for a full second. “Get back,” he said.
“What?” JoJo frowned. “I still need my clothes.”
“Get back now,” he said, his tone harsh. “Go back down to the truck.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Gas.” He eased the door closed, careful not to make the metal strike the metal latch.
JoJo ran out into the parking lot, pulled her cellphone out and called 911.
As Max stepped away from the apartment building, a huge explosion erupted, flinging him to the pavement.
Chapter 10
Max hit the ground hard enough that it knocked the breath out of him and made his ears ring. Debris rained down on him, and he covered his head with his hands.
As soon as he could breathe again, he got to his hands and knees and looked for JoJo. She was flat on her back on the ground, her cellphone lying a few feet away. Max’s ears rang, and every sound came to him as if from the end of a very long tunnel. He crawled across the pavement to JoJo.
“Hey, JoJo,” he said, his voice echoing in his ears. “JoJo, sweetheart.”
She blinked her eyes open and stared up at him. “What happened?”
“An explosion. Stay here. I want to make sure there aren’t other people in the apartments next to yours.”
“It was in my apartment?” She pushed to a sitting position and reached for her cellphone.
“Yes, get in my truck and stay there.”
She shook her head, and then swayed. “No, I’m going with you. If there are people in there, we need to get them out.”
Knowing he couldn’t hold her back, Max held out his hand, drew JoJo to her feet and made sure she could stand before he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and dialed 911.
“I was doing that when my apartment exploded.” She rubbed the back of her head. “Now, I know how you felt.”
He gave the information to the dispatcher then ran toward the building. He headed for the apartment next door to JoJo’s. Before he reached the door, a man jerked it open and staggered out, wearing nothing but boxer shorts, his hair dusted with sheetrock.
“What the hell happened?” he said.
“Gas leak explosion,” Max responded. “Is there anyone else in your apartment?”
The man shook his head. “No.”
“Stay out of the building while I check the rest of the apartments,” he said.
JoJo joined him as he went to the door of the apartment on the other side of hers. “Last I knew, this one was empty,” she said. “I haven’t kept up to make sure.”
Max banged on the door. No one responded. He banged again. Sirens could be heard in the distance, the volume increasing as fire and emergency vehicles neared the apartment complex. Max tried kicking in the door. He couldn’t do it with his bum leg, but he had to balance on his bad leg if he wanted to kick with the other one. He just didn’t
have the strength to break the door in with a kick.
By then, the other residents of the apartment were coming out of theirs, farther away from JoJo’s unit. They emerged in the dark, wearing their pajamas or bathrobes. An officer’s vehicle pulled up, followed by a firetruck and an ambulance. Max met the sheriff as he got out of his vehicle and explained what had happened.
“You guys need to see the emergency medical technician and make sure you’re okay and don’t have concussions.” The sheriff pointed to the waiting ambulance. “Go.”
Max nodded and took JoJo over to the ambulance where the EMT checked them out. He said they didn’t appear to have concussions. However, they would be well advised to go to the local hospital anyway and have an emergency room doctor check them out. He told them he’d gladly load them in the ambulance and take them there.
JoJo shook her head. “No, I don’t need that. I’m going to go back out to the lodge.”
Max said, “You really need to go to the hospital and have them check you out. You landed hard on the back of your head.”
Her lips pouted. “I just want to get out to the lodge.”
“Will you do it for me, please? I promise I’ll take you there and take you back out to the lodge immediately after.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “If my head didn’t hurt so bad, I’d say hell no, take me to the lodge now. Fine. I’ll go to the hospital.”
Max helped her into his truck. He told the sheriff where they’d be after they were finished at the hospital, and then they left. When they arrived at the emergency room of the little hospital in Fool’s Gold, he parked at the entrance and walked her in. Max handed her off to the nurse, and then went to park the truck.
He was back as quickly as he could manage. But by then, they’d already taken JoJo back to an examination room.
“I’d like to see Ms. Ramirez,” he said.
“Are you a relative?” the clerk at the desk asked.
He frowned. “No, I’m not.” He just wanted to see JoJo.
The woman shook her head. “I’m sorry, sir, you can’t go back.”
“But I brought her here,” he said.
“I’m sorry, sir, those are the rules.” The clerk raised her eyebrows. “Now, if you were her fiancé, we would be able to let you back.”
“In that case, I am her fiancé,” he said.
The nurses eyes narrowed. “And if I ask the young lady if she has a fiancé, will she say she does?”
Max started to nod, and then shook his head. “Mmm maybe not, because I haven’t popped the question yet. If you’ll let me go back there, I will.”
The woman tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing. “Mmm, I don’t know.”
“Please,” he said, “all she has to do is say yes, and she’s my fiancé.”
“Why am I just not buying this?” the woman said.
“Please. Let me give it a shot,” he said.
“First, answer a few questions.” The clerk tapped a pencil on the clean white pad of paper. “What’s her favorite color?”
Max almost gave up then, instead, he said, “Blue.”
“Her favorite football team?”
“Dallas Cowboys.”
The clerk rose from her desk and went through a door behind the counter. “Give me a minute. I’ll go ask her if she wants you back there. And if her answers to those questions are right, I’ll let you come back and do your proposal. It’ll be our first in the emergency room.”
Max paced as the clerk went back. He imagined what JoJo’s response would be to the questions and to the idea that he was her fiancé. All he wanted was to make sure that she was okay. He needed to see her, to know for certain. Then he wouldn’t leave her alone for a second.
A few minutes later, the restricted doors opened, and the clerk waved toward him. “You can come in.”
He hesitated. “Seriously? I got the answers to the questions right?”
The nurse shook her head. “No.”
“Her favorite color isn’t blue?” Max asked.
“It’s orange. The color of the sunset,” the nurse said, “And her favorite football team is the Denver Broncos.”
Max frowned. “Then why are you letting me go back?”
“Because when I asked her if she had a fiancé, she looked surprised.”
“Again, why are you letting me go back?”
“Because when I told her that you were going to propose back here, she smiled. When I asked her if I could bring you back, she said yes, and she wants to see you get down on your knee. So, come on Romeo, the entire staff is waiting for you to ask her.”
Max almost turned and left, but he was more concerned about seeing that JoJo was okay. If it meant he had to go down on one knee and propose, so be it. She’d likely say, oh hell, no, and the nurses would boot him out. But at least he’d have seen that she was okay. So, he followed the clerk and found what seemed like the entire staff of the hospital lining the hallway outside an examination room.
A nurse waved her hand toward the door. “Ms. Ramirez is waiting.”
When he stepped inside, Max found JoJo sitting up on the hospital bed, a smile playing at her lips.
With his audience watching and some of them with their cellphones out taking video images, Max did the only thing he could. He got down on one knee. “JoJo, sweetheart, you’re an amazing woman. So brave, so mechanically talented, and beautiful…” Under the pressure of a dozen eyes watching him, he took a deep breath and asked, “Will you marry me?”
Her eyes widened, and she whispered, “I didn’t think you’d actually do it.”
He frowned and glanced right and left at the different people standing watching them. “That’s not much of an answer. They’re going to kick me out if you don’t say yes.”
“In that case, Max, I’ll be your one and only mechanic.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that was the answer these people are looking for and neither am I.”
“Fine,” she said, “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“Kiss the bride,” the clerk said.
“I don’t know,” Max said. “She’s been injured.”
“She’s not so badly injured if she can say yes. You can at least kiss her very gently if nothing else,” a nurse said.
The half a dozen people standing around watching clapped and cheered.
A man in a white coat came into the room. “Did I miss something?”
The nurse grinned. “Only our first proposal in the ER.”
“Is that right?” The doctor grinned. “Let me guess, head injury?”
JoJo frowned. “Yes. Why do you say it that way?”
He turned to Max, “Don’t be surprised if she has no memory of this proposal tomorrow.”
“Ya think?” Max said.
“Well, if she wanted it, she’ll remember it. If she didn’t want it, she’ll conveniently forget.” He winked at JoJo. “And if you need a doctor’s excuse to forget, just let me know.” He shined a light into both of her eyes, checked the lump on the back of her head and told her to get some rest. Otherwise, she was released from the hospital.
“Thank you, doctor,” JoJo said. As she started to get up off the bed, the doctor held up his hand. “Sorry, you can’t walk out on your own. You have to go out in a wheelchair.”
“But I feel fine,” JoJo insisted. “I can walk. See?”
“Hospital rules,” a nurse said as she wheeled a chair into the room. “Consider yourself lucky you get to go home tonight.”
JoJo slid off the table and into the wheelchair.
Max almost laughed at the disgusted look on her face. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. It won’t be long before you’re home.”
“I’m counting on that,” JoJo said.
“Come on, my little fiancée, let’s get you out of here.” He strode alongside her as the nurse pushed the wheelchair to the exit. Max left her at the door as he went to get the truck and pull it around in front of the ER. He parked and got
out to help JoJo up into the seat.
As he helped buckle her seatbelt, he whispered, “Are you doing okay?”
She nodded. “I am.”
“Let’s get you back to the lodge before Gunny sends out a posse to find you. Knowing his network, he’s probably already heard about the explosion at your apartment building.”
“I hope not,” JoJo said. “He’ll be worried. I have to admit, I’m worried.”
“I can’t believe that was an accident,” Max said.
“You think someone set it up to explode?” JoJo asked.
“Based on the fact that somebody tried to get into your apartment sometime early this morning, and then to have your gas have a leak on the same day…?” Max shook his head. “It’s too coincidental. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
JoJo looked down at her hands then back up at him. “If you hadn’t come with me tonight, I could’ve been dead. Why?” JoJo asked. “Who would want to kill me?”
“The question is, who have you pissed off? All I can think of is Roy, but I can’t imagine somebody like Roy going to the trouble of creating a gas leak in your apartment. I don’t think he’s that smart. Have you made anybody else mad recently?”
“No,” she said, “but I have an idea.”
Max waited. When she didn’t expand, he said, “And that idea would be what?”
“It’s not something I want to discuss,” she said.
“If it involves risking your life, I would hope that you would discuss it with me or somebody else who can help you.”
She nodded. “And I will, when I’m ready.”
“Well, I hope you’re ready before this guy gets to you and kills you.”
“Me, too,” she said. “Me, too.”
Chapter 11
JoJo had vowed that she would never rely on a man again but, if not for Max, she would be dead. Since she’d met him, he’d been nothing but a gentleman. He had been protective without being possessive, but mostly, he’d been there when she’d needed him. And though she hated the fact that she needed him, she didn’t hate him.
When they arrived at Lost Valley Ranch, the place was lit up like the Fourth of July. Lights streamed from inside and every porch light shined brightly. Max had barely parked the car when everybody came out of the lodge at once, RJ leading the way. She engulfed JoJo in a huge hug, holding her as tightly as she could.