by Susan Stoker
“You must call us tomorrow morning after you leave the hospital. I want to know how you’re doing, Kara.”
“I will. Goodnight, Father.”
Cade held the man’s hard look in his direction. He could see Jud wanted to say something to him, but had second thoughts. Knight turned on his heel and stormed out of the room. He couldn’t he even kiss his daughter or hug her goodbye? Was this how Kara had lived for eighteen years under his roof? The thought chilled Cade. Now he was seeing her family dynamics up close and personal. It left a very bitter taste in his mouth. He knew Pamela Knight. She was the soul of kindness and had passed it on to her daughter. It was a good thing her mother was there for her. Cade could see the devastation in Kara’s eyes from that confrontation with her brutal, unfeeling father.
The room became silent once more.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Kara whispered, giving him a look of regret.
“Has he always been that way with you?”
“I’m afraid so.” She struggled and managed a weak smile. “He often told me the only way marshmallows—that was me—got toughened up was to treat them like they were in boot camp.”
He fought down his disgust for Kara’s sake and walked over to her bed. Gently, he asked, “Is there anything I can get you before I leave?”
“Could you close the door for a moment, Cade, please? I need to share something with you.”
Surprised by her request, but keeping his game face on, Cade shut the door. What was this all about? As he turned, he brought over the nearby chair and sat beside her bed. He knew he was tall and sometimes looked threatening to many people with his uniform on, so Cade sat down. “What’s going on?”
She moved her hand nervously across the front of her gown. “Cade, would you…could you stay with me tonight? Here?” Her voice grew strained. “One of the nurses told me earlier they could roll another bed in here because it’s such a large room. You could guard me just for tonight, couldn’t you? Because I feel like this animal wants to kidnap me or do something awful to me if he catches me again…”
Chapter Three
‡
Cade tried to hide his surprise, but his heart rose for a moment, sensing there was hope that he could, in fact, be the man to support her. He reminded himself that Kara’s tentative request wasn’t about intimacy—she was simply terrified and saw him as protection. He was, after all, a deputy sheriff. Trying to tamp down his need for her on a personal level, keeping all his rising hopes at bay, he rasped, “Yes, I can do that.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m finished with my shift. I’m on overtime right now because of your case. If you feel this perp is still around, I’ll stay and bunk in with you so you can get a decent night’s sleep here.”
She offered a thin smile. “No one sleeps well in a hospital.”
Unable to resist a grin, Cade got up and rolled his shoulders to get rid of the tension. “That’s true. I’m going to go talk to the night staff, Kara. I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, relieved. He resisted the urge to reach down and gently pull her into his arms. He knew this was what Kara needed more than anything—just to be held by another human being. This wasn’t about sex. It was about care of another person when they needed it the most.
He had noticed how she tended to hold herself with her arms wrapped around her waist. He was adept at reading facial expressions, body language, and tonal variations, and this one gesture told him that Kara felt raw and unprotected, believing the world around her was threatening. Holding herself like that also meant she was struggling to keep her emotions at bay.
Cade wanted to give her what she really needed, but couldn’t. It would be too easily interpreted as an intimate gesture, crossing a line that should never be crossed between a law enforcement officer and someone being assisted.
Moving quietly out of the room, Cade went over to the nurse’s station, where two women were on duty for the overnight shift. His emotions were still raw thinking about Knight’s behavior toward his daughter and Kara’s strong intuitive belief that the perp was still around.
He knew the hospital had set up excellent security measures because he’d worked with the staff six months earlier, putting them into place. Out of habit, Cade’s gaze swept the quiet, nearly darkened area. The main double doors to the ward were closed and he tested them to make sure they were secure. They were.
He introduced himself to the two new nurses who had recently come on for their shift and shared with them Kara’s unease. Both older women gave him a look of understanding.
“It could be she’s still in shock,” one suggested.
“I know Kara,” the blonde nurse spoke up. “She’s very psychic—almost scarily so. She warned me one time that my son, Timmy, should be careful where he rode his bike the next day. Darned if she wasn’t right. Timmy had an accident and ended up with a broken toe. I believe if that’s how Kara feels, Deputy Patterson, you’d best believe her.”
The other nurse grimaced. “Well, we need to stay especially alert tonight, then, Olivia.”
“I’ll get up and make rounds about once an hour,” Cade reassured them. “And if you hear, or see, or sense anything out of the ordinary, come and get me in Ms. Knight’s room.”
“Oh, good,” Olivia said. “We don’t need a monster like that trying to get into our hospital.”
“No,” Cade agreed, “we don’t. Can you dial me security, Olivia? I want to talk to whoever’s in charge of the night shift. I want them on their toes about this situation, too.”
By the time the two nurses rolled the visitor’s bed into Kara’s room, she was lying down. In no time, they had the bed prepared for Cade. After they left, he made sure the door was slightly ajar, wanting to acquaint himself with the normal sounds within the ward. He turned and saw that Kara had opened one eye. The other was swollen shut, and he wished he could take away her pain.
“I’m going to sleep,” she mumbled. “I feel so tired.”
He walked over, pulling the covers up to where her hands rested at her waist. Cade had to struggle not to get too personal with her. “Stay warm, okay? I’ll be up and down all night, so don’t be alarmed if you wake up and hear me moving around. The doors to this ward are locked. Security downstairs knows about the potential threat, so everyone here is on high alert.” He slipped the bedspread into her waiting hands. “You’ll be okay, Kara. Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Cade watched as one corner of her mouth hooked faintly upward. She was lying on her right side, the puffiness and swelling on the left side of her cheek making it impossible to take any other position unless she slept on her back or belly, which he doubted she would do under the circumstances. Her hair, even in the low light, gleamed with amber threads among the sable strands. An ache began in his chest and, without thinking, he touched her hair as he watched her quickly drop asleep. Right now, Kara was frightened and in need of a sense of protection. Cade could give her that. He wanted to do that for her.
Another part of him was filled with deep anger as he silently moved away from her bed. Flexing his hands, he wanted to plant a fist into Jud Knight’s smug face. Now he was getting a taste of what Kara had lived with daily as she grew up in that dysfunctional ranch family. How Pamela Knight could love someone like him was beyond Cade’s understanding.
His bed was about six feet away from Kara’s, and he loosened his belt, placing his holster and pistol on a rolling tray that sat nearby. He would keep his boots and clothes on in case there was trouble. All he’d have to do was grab his weapon.
There was a sliver of light cascading through the partly cracked door, enough for him to see easily, should he have to get up and maneuver around Kara’s bed. Glancing over at her shadowy form, he saw how the blankets, pulled up to her shoulders, delicately outlined her body. Hungrily, he noted the curves and valleys of her silhouetted profile, appreciating her flared hips and the outline of her long, slender legs.
Kara had been a skinny little girl in grade school and had started to fill out in junior high. By high school, she was a beautiful, but untouchable young woman, bursting with promise. As Cade lay down on his back, punching the pillow into place beneath his head. In grade school, Kara had always loved to put her long brown hair into a set of braids. Cade remembered that every day, she would wrap a velvety, colorful ribbon around the end of each one.
Closing his eyes, sliding his hands behind his head, he felt his body begin to relax for the first time today. Cade had learned to tell by the color of the ribbons how Kara was feeling. He’d never talked to her, but observed her from afar.
When she seemed very sad, she seemed to choose blue ribbons. Had that been a day when her father had taken her to task by deriding her and making her feel bad about herself? Verbal abuse by calling her a “marshmallow?” Or something worse and shaming?
On the days she wore red ribbons, she was ebullient, smiling, laughing, and more outgoing. Were those days when her father was out of town, perhaps away from the ranch, giving her respite from his daily dark shadow?
He had so many questions for Kara. The shock of seeing her suddenly after so many years was still flowing powerfully through him. Cade was sure it was going to take time before he got over the jolt of that unexpected meeting. Dreaming about Kara was one thing. Seeing her in person was, Wow!
Sighing, Cade felt the first evidence of exhaustion, which had been stalking him since Kara’s assault. He had one ear keyed to Kara’s soft breathing while the other ear registered the noises outside the room at the nurse’s station.
And miraculously, Kara was only six feet away from him. Six feet! He knew that for the next week, Kara would be feeling pretty much out of balance, dealing with the shock of being attacked. That black eye and her swollen cheek would be painful. He wondered if she’d try to teach school on Monday. Knowing Kara, she probably would.
If nothing else, she was a devoted, passionate person and the Delos Home School had been her vision from what his mother had told him. Kara had manifested it on behalf of the people of Clayton. At least, that was the word from his mother, who thought she was truly an angel come to earth to help the less fortunate.
When the sheriff’s department hired him a year ago, after graduation, he was told all about the local businesses. His heart had leapt when his supervisor mentioned that Kara Knight was the administrator for the Delos Home School, and from that moment on, Cade had fought going to see her. He couldn’t face the possibility of rejection, and he figured she was probably married or had a boyfriend.
That was another shock—to discover she had neither in her life. Did it leave room for him? For them to explore the possibilities? He’d loved her from afar from the moment they’d met in the first grade until he’d graduated from high school and gone into the Marine Corps. And even then, Kara had stayed in his heart, though she’d never realized it.
Because of his black ops background, Cade didn’t allow himself to sleep deeply. He automatically woke up an hour later and lay there, waiting and listening. Maybe by morning, Kara would feel better. It bothered the hell out of him knowing her assailant might still be around, waiting, watching. Why had he attacked her? Was it a robbery gone wrong? Had the perp thought everyone was gone from the school and been surprised by Kara being there?
There were a lot of robberies around Clayton, mainly because it sat so close to the Mexico border. Undocumented workers coming through weren’t likely to steal from Clayton, but the Gomez drug cartel was right across the Rio Grande in McCall, Texas, which was only thirty miles away from Clayton. The town suffered because a main, less-used highway, stretched between it and Sarita, a favorite of drug soldiers trying to bring drugs into the U.S. He had no answers, just a lot of damned, unanswered questions. Kara was probably collateral damage on a robbery gone wrong. From the description she gave of her assaulter, Cade was fairly sure he worked for the Gomez cartel.
*
Kara felt drugged when she awoke the next morning. The clock on the opposite wall read nine a.m. With a start, she sat up. She’d never slept so late before! The door was closed and she saw the other bed was rumpled, but Cade was gone. She touched her swollen cheek and to her relief, it felt slightly better, not as fiery. The throbbing had reduced a lot.
Dragging herself out of bed, she put on the pair of socks the nurses had given her and went to the bathroom. Her bloody clothes had been placed in a plastic bag and she had nothing else to wear. She wrinkled her nose, smelling the dried blood on her white blouse as she opened it up. The blue hospital gown was chafing her sensitive skin and she wished for the silk, knee-length nightgown she wore at home.
After taking a shower, Kara reluctantly pulled on her clothes from yesterday. She wished she could hide the blood all across the front of her blouse, but she couldn’t. She did feel better after getting her teeth brushed, her hair washed, and taking a good, hot shower.
She decided she looked pretty ugly as she studied the left side of her face, but at least now her eye wasn’t completely swollen shut and she could see out of it. She noted how pale her skin was as she used the dryer on her hair.
Her heart turned to Cade. How badly she had yearned for him to come over and wrap his strong, caring arms around her yesterday. She swore she saw longing in his expression, but she was afraid to trust her inner knowing. She’d been so shocked by the assault that she was beginning to question her own intuition. And her sense that the man who assaulted her was still hunting for her, was probably only her overactive imagination because her emotions overrode her normal logic and common sense yesterday. Cade had taken her at her word and for that, Kara would be forever grateful to him for remaining with her so she could sleep deeply last night.
Just as she was stepping out of the bathroom, she spied Cade entering her room. He hadn’t shaved and the darkness of his beard gave a dangerous, masculine cast to his face.
But that didn’t scare Kara. Instead, her whole body responded purely on a feminine level to him, woman-to-man. His black Stetson sat low on his brow and he looked official, on guard, his gaze locking and holding with hers.
She, on the other hand, felt disheveled.
“Hey,” she said, “is everything okay out there?”
Cade halted, quickly perusing her from head to toe, then returning to her eyes. “Everything’s quiet. How are you feeling, Kara?”
Her skin flushed beneath that gruff question. Yes, her dormant sexual self was coming online. He wasn’t trying to hide behind that game face he wore last night. This morning, for whatever reason, Cade looked vulnerable, just as she desperately needed him to be with her.
“Better. My cheek isn’t as swollen,” she said, barely touching the area with her fingertips.
“Are you in pain?”
That was a loaded question and one she didn’t want to answer here. Maybe never. “No. There’s just a bit of throbbing, but not much. Not like yesterday.” Managing a slight upturn of her lips, she added, “At least I can see out of my left eye now. It’s opened up a little. That’s progress in my book.”
“Good,” he murmured. “In another day, it will look even better. The worst is over.”
“Says the guy who’s had a black eye before. Right?” she teased, seeking the warmth entering his expression. What would it be like to be bold enough to walk up to Cade, wrap her arms around his neck, and draw him against her? The thought was filled with possibilities and Kara didn’t try to dodge the feelings that were growing by the second for him.
The man was a babe magnet, no question. His youthful features had filled out, his body had matured, and to her, he looked beautiful in a very alpha male sort of way. Even now, she could feel a twinge deep in her body, a signal that it too, was interested in him on more than a casual friendship level.
A sour grin tugged at Cade’s mouth over her question. “Yeah, I’ve had a few black eyes in my day. I’m practically an expert on them. Are you ready to sign out? Your doctor just c
ame in to make her rounds and she wants to see you. I can drive you to your home afterward if you’d like.”
“Yes, I would appreciate that. Thank you, Cade.”
Cade became serious. “What I’d like to do, if you feel up to it, Kara, is to get you home so you can change your clothes and get something to eat. Then, I’ll drive you to Sarita to see if you can identify your assailant from our identification database. Afterwards, I’ll take you to the Delos Home School so that you can pick up your car and go home. How does that sound?”
“Wonderful.”
“Are you dizzy at all? You were yesterday.”
Shaking her head, she said, “No, I feel much better today.”
“It’s the fine care you got here by the folks at the hospital,” he agreed.
No. That wasn’t the total reason, although the hospital staff had been caring and wonderful. The other reason was Cade. But Kara wasn’t about to tell him that. She had no idea how he’d react to her honesty. “Everyone has been very kind to me here.”
“They’re like that. I see you slept long and hard.”
“How much sleep did you get?”
Cade shrugged those capable shoulders of his, her fingers itched to slide across them and feel the power within him.
“Enough to keep operating today. I’m sure tonight I’ll crash and burn in my own bed.”
“You live in Sarita?”
“Yes.”
Kara wished he lived in Clayton. There was twenty miles between the two largest towns in the county.
Studying her, Cade asked, “Are you still feeling that the perp is around this morning?”
Relieved that he respected her intuition, Kara said, “Yes, and I wish I didn’t, but I do feel it…feel him. And I feel so violated…” Giving him a rueful look, she added, “Sometimes, I think I’m making it up because of getting hit yesterday. Normally, my intuition is good.”