by Jayne Blue
“Those are stories for another day, Maura.”
“I’ve never had that,” she said. “What you did today.”
I reared back. “What are you talking about? What did I do?”
“You just ... you took care of everything. You showed up like some knight in shining armor. But on your Harley, not a stallion. That’s not ... I’m just ... I’m not used to it. It makes me uncomfortable.”
“I know,” I said. She slid her arms up my chest, resting them on my leather cut.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a while,” she whispered.
“Oh?”
“You’re hard,” she said, biting her lip. I’ll admit, my jeans felt a hell of a lot tighter having her this close to me, but I hadn’t lost complete control yet.
“Washboard abs,” she said, explaining herself. I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing. “It felt good today. On the back of your bike. I didn’t think it would. I was scared.”
“You shouldn’t be. Not of me. Not ever. I told you, I’d never let anything happen to you.”
Maura’s eyes flicked upward. A tiny pulse hammered in her temple. God, I wanted to kiss her. Fuck. I did.
I slid my fingers along her jaw and placed the softest kiss I could on those lips. She opened for me like a flower. She craned her neck and sank into me. I felt her hunger pulsing along with my own. It would be so damn easy to just shut the door, shut out the world, and take her then and there.
“Please,” she whispered. “Oh God. Oh Angel.”
She slid her arms up, circling my neck. I felt her nipples harden beneath her thin silk blouse. She tasted so sweet. Just like honey. I wanted so badly to taste all of her.
I couldn’t. Not here. Not like this. I circled my fingers around her wrists and gently pulled her away from me.
“I should get you home,” I whispered.
“I want you,” she said. “I shouldn’t. But I do.”
“And you’re a little bit drunk,” I said.
She came back into herself and stepped away from me. “Yep. And you’re right. You should get me home. I’m sorry. This wasn’t one of my finer moments, I’m afraid.”
I smiled. “Yeah? Well, I think you were pretty damn fine, Maura.”
“Is my sister still out there?” she asked.
I looked over her shoulder. As I did, Maura’s phone buzzed. She’d left her purse on the table. “Not sure,” I answered. “Mo might have called her a cab. I don’t see her anymore.”
Maura answered her phone. I turned to her. Her face had gone ghostly white and she put a hand over her mouth. I went to her.
“I understand,” she said. “Thanks for calling me. If she comes to, just tell her ... tell her I’m on my way.” She clicked off.
“What’s wrong?”
Maura shook her head. “I’ve got to get to the hospital. It’s ... God. It’s one of my clients. I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything. I just need to get to the hospital.” She blinked wildly, her eyes filling with tears.
She didn’t have to tell me anything. I already knew. “Come on,” I said. “I’ll make sure Mo sorts your sister out if she hasn’t already. We can’t wait for a cab. I’ll drive you there myself.”
Chapter Ten
Maura
Tonya Corley was lucky. Though it wasn’t easy to think so as I sat by her hospital bed. Three days ago, she’d been brought in with four broken ribs and a hairline fracture to her cheekbone. She had ten stitches there and though the plastic surgeon did amazing work, she would bear a small scar on the left side of her face forever. But she was alive. She was safe. And I was going to make it my mission to keep her that way.
“It doesn’t have to be perfect,” I said as she tried to grasp the pen in her hand. Her shoulder was stiff from where she hit the floor. She attempted a weak smile then signed her name.
“There will be a no contact bond as part of Lee’s bail conditions, if he can meet them. But the restraining order we got will give you a more permanent recourse. And I’ll get this custody motion filed today.”
There was more to be said, but I’d said it all a dozen times. Her restraining order was merely a piece of paper. She had to be aware of her surroundings at all times. Under no circumstances could she agree to meet with Lee. And if he did show up or try to contact her, she needed to call the sheriff every single time.
“Thanks,” she said. “And thanks for coming out here. You didn’t have to do that. They’re letting me out today. I could have met you at your office.”
Smiling, I slipped her paperwork into my messenger bag. “Just part of the service I provide to one of my favorite clients. What about Cooper? Is he situated? You know that second packet I had you sign is a separate restraining order to protect him. Everything I told you goes for him too.”
“I got it. Truly. I know I was naive to think this time would be different. Maura, I don’t know what I’d do without you. I should have listened to you sooner.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “You’re listening now. I’ll have these orders signed by the end of the day. There’s a room waiting for you and Coop at the safe house. One of the deputies is going to make sure you get there without any trouble. And it’s only temporary. The social workers there are going to help you find something more permanent. It’s going to be okay.”
I just prayed with all my heart that it would be. Tonya, like many of my clients, was financially tied to Lee Corley. It would be a long, slow process, but I knew Tonya was strong enough to make it out the other side if she wanted it.
“I know,” she said, trying to smile. She brought a hand to her face to try and stop the pain. I touched her knee.
“Now you just concentrate on feeling better. I’ve scheduled an emergency motion on the underlying custody issue. Though you know I can’t promise you an outcome, I’m pretty confident Judge Saul will revoke Lee’s visitation completely. Depending on a lot of things, he may go for supervised visitation but we’re a long way off from that. And Lee’s got bigger legal problems to deal with first.”
Tonya nodded. I could see she was getting tired. I reassured her one last time, then left her alone to get her rest. The next few days would be the hardest for her.
As I made my way out of the hospital and out to the parking lot, my cell service kicked back on and a dozen messages dinged from my phone. I slid into the driver’s seat. Most of the messages were from Beverly, shifting my schedule around as I’d asked her to. Two were from my mother. Bailey had tried to move back in with her after our fight at the Wolf Den. Finally, I had one message from Angel. I hugged the phone to my chest as I tried to decide what to do about it.
If I hadn’t gotten that call from Bev about Tonya’s situation, what might have happened last weekend at the Den? Like every other night, thoughts of Angel and how good he looked and felt populated my dreams. Hell, the real deal had been better than any dream. And I’d been so close to giving into it.
He’d been right about some things, though it was hard to admit it. I didn’t like needing him or anyone else to come to my rescue like he did at the side of the road. Even now, as I turned the key and started my loaner car, I had him to thank for that too. Josh, the probie, had delivered it to me yesterday morning just in time for me to leave for work. He’d also left a very reasonable two-hundred-dollar invoice for the service they were doing on my car along with a note from Angel that read simply, “You’re welcome and I’d love a rain check.”
Could I trust myself to spend time with him again? We’d never gotten around to talking about the security contract I knew he wanted to offer. The easiest thing to do would be to just walk away. Except I still had the same problem. Security at the clinic was of even greater importance now. Lee Corley might just be the tip of the iceberg. Especially if the college made good on their promise and ramped up their marketing efforts. I had another call to return to my liaison there. She was expecting a proposal from me with those on-site security options.
I tapped
my fingers on the steering wheel and finally pulled up my recent calls. I’d keep it professional. All business. This was no time for me to get careless with my feelings. Rather than calling Angel’s direct line, I punched in the number to the Wolf Den.
Before noon, I knew the bar itself wasn’t open. I recognized Ford’s voice answering on the second ring.
“Hi there,” I said. “This is Maura Denning. We met the other day out on Brewster Road?” I smiled, trying to keep my tone light. This was a business call, nothing more.
“Hey, Maura,” he said. “Your loaner wheels running okay?”
“They are. Thanks again for all your help. Truly. I was wondering if Angel might be available. We never got to finish our business meeting the other day.”
Ford made a throat-clearing noise. “Uh, he isn’t here right now, Maura. We tried to call you.”
My heart thumped. Call me? Whatever was going on, Ford sounded uncomfortable. “He ... I’ve got a missed call.”
“Yeah,” he said. “That was probably Josh using his phone. He asked us to …”
“Ford? What’s going on? Is something wrong?” My tongue felt dry, like I had ash in my mouth.
“They took Angel to the emergency room about an hour ago …”
He said other things, but his words seemed to jumble in my mind. I had just reached the security gate leading out of the hospital parking lot. Without even thinking, I slammed the car in reverse and parked at an odd angle in the nearest spot. My pulse racing, I headed right back through the front doors.
The Green Bluff Hospital emergency room was located on the main floor. I weaved through a throng of staff and wandering patients then pounded the silver button to open the double doors. Other than Tonya’s drama the other night, I’d been here a few times when Bailey was a kid needing stitches, and one awful night when she was twelve years old and her appendix nearly burst. One of the receptionists called after me, but I ignored her, heading straight for the trauma curtains.
“I’m looking for Avery Bishop,” I said to the nurse sitting at the desk. I felt like my brain was two steps behind the rest of me. I wasn’t family. Angel wasn’t even ... my ... what?
A blonde nurse wearing blue scrubs stood at the other end of the counter. She looked up from the tablet she was using and shot a look to the nurse I’d just addressed. She gave me a quizzical smile and put down her tablet.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Can you tell me who you are?”
She was pretty, with light skin and pale blue eyes. Scandinavian ancestry, probably. Her ID badge read “Ava McClain.” The name registered. McClain. I already knew Dex McClain was the vice president of the Great Wolves M.C.
“I’m ... uh ... I’m Maura,” I said. “I’m a friend of Angel’s. I just called the Den and they told me …”
“Ah,” Ava said. She put a gentle hand on my arm. “Come with me.”
My high heels clicked on the tile floor as Ava led me to a curtained area at the end of the hall. She peeled back the divider. Angel sat on the bed holding an ice pack to his left eye. Another club member stood at his bedside. The guy was huge, with a wolfish face. Dark hair, two days’ worth of gruff stubble and streaks of silver at his temples. His face lit up when he saw Nurse Ava. She shot him a warning look. His patch identified him as Dex McLain himself.
“Maura?” Angel sat up and pulled the ice pack from his face. He had an ugly, purple welt beneath his eye. When he tried to get off the bed, Dex pushed him back.
“Hold still and keep that ice where I told you,” Ava commanded. “You’re getting that CT if I have to tie your ass down to make you.”
Dex’s eyes twinkled as he looked at his wife. There was naked lust in his expression that made even me blush.
“What happened?” I asked. Now that I was here, I felt awkward. I didn’t belong. I barely knew this guy. And yet, the second Ford said he’d been hurt, it was like my body, my heart wasn’t mine anymore. I had to see if he was all right.
“Come on,” Ava said to Dex. “As long as Angel promises not to get out of that bed until I tell him he can, let’s give him some privacy.”
Angel crashed his head back against the pillow in exasperation. Satisfied she’d made her point, Ava led Dex out of the curtained area. Now that we were alone, I had no earthly clue what to say.
“I ... I was just upstairs,” I said. “Visiting ... someone. I called, they said you …”
“Come here,” Angel said. His eyes flashed that same brand of desire I’d just seen Dex direct toward his wife. It made my heart beat a little faster.
I should go. This was crazy. And yet, Angel managed to pull me in like he had me under some kind of tractor beam. I came to the side of the bed and slowly sat in the chair Dex had left.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “Just a bump on the cheek.”
It didn’t look like an ordinary bump. I could see the faint, straight, reddened outline of whatever he’d been hit with.
“Don’t tell me you just walked into a door,” I said. “I’ve heard that one before.” I reached for the pack of ice and put it against the worst of the swelling. Angel made a hissing sound but I wasn’t budging.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” he said.
“Right. Just part of the life you lead?” I asked. “You gonna tell me again how you’re just an ordinary businessman?”
“I never said I was an ordinary businessman, baby. This was just a rare mistake on my part. A sucker shot.”
“From whom? No. Wait. Don’t tell me. I probably don’t want to know,” I said.
“Probably not. But I do have to say it’s not what you think.”
I pulled the ice away. “And what do I think?”
“You probably think I got in some dumbass bar fight.”
I shook my head. “At eleven o’clock in the morning? No. I don’t think that.”
“Right. Yeah. Anyway. I’m glad you’re here. Nice to know you care.” He winked at me and dammit all to hell, it got my blood pumping. I could blame the bourbon for the other night. But now, I was stone cold sober.
“Let me guess,” I said. “Just part of the guardian angel gig, right?”
“Something like that,” he answered. “And it is nothing. Ava just worries too much.”
“I’ll bet she’s had plenty of reasons to with you guys.”
He laughed at that. Then he reached for my hand, covering it with his. His touch seared through me. I had the nearly overwhelming urge to kiss him where it looked like it hurt.
“I should go,” I said. “Like I said, I just happened to be in the hospital. I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Maura …”
There was a commotion from the other side of the room.
“Fucking crazy son of a bitch!” a man yelled. I recognized the voice. “I’m pressing charges!”
“Yeah? I think you’re just going to sit your ass in that bed and keep quiet,” another man said.
I peered around the curtain. Directly across from us, one of the sheriff’s deputies blocked my view of the screaming patient on the other bed. My memory clicked into place along with a puzzle piece. I started to get up but Angel grabbed my arm and held me back.
“Stay right here,” he whispered. “If he …”
“Angel,” I whispered back. “Is that Lee Corley? Jesus. Are you the crazy son of a bitch he’s talking about?”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. His tight-lipped expression told me everything I needed to know. He knew Tonya was the reason I left the Den the other night. He knew Lee had been the one threatening her from their altercation in front of the clinic.
“Angel, what did you do?”
He started to answer and I put up a hand. “No. Don’t. I shouldn’t know.”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a five-dollar bill. My mouth dropped open as he handed it to me. I hesitated, but then I took it from him and slipped it into my bag.
“Fine,” I said. “Consider this your one and
only legal consultation. That buys you about five minutes.”
“I only need one,” he said, smiling. “And it’s nothing you need to worry about. I just don’t like bullies and deadbeats. And I also know a restraining order is just a damn piece of paper. Your client deserves better.”
“So you’re just going to go around beating people like Lee Corley up?” I was still whispering.
“Probably not,” he said. “Probably just him. But I’ll tell you one thing. That asshat got the message. He’ll think twice about going near that girl or her kid again.”
I shook my head in frustration. I couldn’t help that a small, dangerous part of me still wanted to kiss him. Guardian angel, indeed.
“And what about this?” I asked, making a circular gesture around his eye.
“I told you, sucker punch. Chick he was staying with came at me with a pipe wrench when I turned my back.”
“A pipe wrench!” Angel shushed me as my voice rose above a whisper. “Angel, she could have caved your skull in. You could be ... she ... I don’t …”
He hooked his hands behind his head and smiled, enjoying my exasperation. I took a steadying breath. “I straight up don’t know what I’m going to do with you,” I said, slipping the strap of my messenger bag over my shoulder.
“Well, don’t expect me to be sorry for enjoying watching you figure it out. In the meantime, I want to see you again. We have some things to talk about. Tomorrow night? I’ll pick you up after work. Five o’clock?”
I should have said no. I should have said anything. Except my need to see him again burned through me. It equaled my desire to throttle him. Before I could say anything else, his smile melted me and I found myself nodding yes.
Chapter Eleven
Angel
Sly was pissed. The worst part was, I knew he had every right to be. He called me into his office the second I walked back into the Den after Ava’s E.R. doc cleared me.
“I swear on my patch, Sly,” I said. “This had nothing to do with the trouble at the new warehouse. This was personal.”