Protective Instincts

by Shirlee McCoy

  “He’s not my man!”

  “Then why was he carrying you out of the hospital?”

  “Because...I was upset. I heard a little kid crying, and it brought back a lot of stuff that I wasn’t ready to deal with.”

  “Oh, honey,” Destiny said with a sigh. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Me, too.” She pulled on the jeans, managed to button them and still breathe. The sweater was soft and just a little loose, and it was so much easier to think about that than to think about Matt and Joseph. “Okay. I’m set.”

  “You don’t have any shoes,” Destiny responded with a sly smile. “I guess I’m going to have to ask that hunk of burning love to give you a lift.”

  “Don’t you dare,” she responded, but Destiny already had the door open.

  “Hey, Jackson! Raina needs you!” she called.

  “I don’t—”

  Jackson stepped into the room, his hair a little mussed, his jaw dark with a beard. His gaze skimmed Raina’s face, dropped to the pink sweater, the tight black jeans, settled on her feet.

  “Shoe problems?” he asked with a half smile.

  “I forgot to bring her some. Not that it would have done any good if I’d remembered. The girl has feet the size of—”

  “I have perfectly normal-size feet, Destiny,” Raina cut her friend off, her cheeks hot, her heart beating just a little too fast.

  “You’re right,” Jackson said, moving so close Raina could see the fine lines at the corners of his eyes, smell the subtle scent of soap that clung to his skin. “They do appear to be just about perfect.”

  “That doesn’t solve the problem,” Destiny huffed.

  “It’s not a problem. Not yet. Raina can’t leave until Officer Wallace speaks with her. He just called to tell me he’s in the lobby and he wants us to wait here.”

  “Officer Wallace?” Destiny snorted. “My brother is a control freak. I never listen to him.”

  “He’s your brother?” Jackson asked, looking as surprised as most people did when they found out the connection.

  “Half, but we don’t count that as any less than the whole thing.” She tapped her finger against her lips and smirked. “Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t want to annoy him. You two wait here. I’ll go make sure he knows the way up here.”

  “You don’t have to do that.” Raina grabbed her friend’s hand, but Destiny just smiled and pulled away.

  “Of course I do. Sit tight. I’ll be back in ten,” she said with a wink that Raina was sure Jackson noticed.

  She stepped out into the hall, offering a jaunty wave as she walked away.

  “Well,” Jackson said, that one word stretched out into so many syllables Raina couldn’t help smiling.

  “What?” he asked, taking her arm and leading her to the exam table.

  “Your Southern accent is showing.”

  “Isn’t it always? If not, my poor Southern grandmother will roll over in her grave.” He smiled, lifting her onto the table.

  “You really need to stop doing that.”

  “What?” He sat beside her, leg pressed to leg, arm to arm, and she wanted to smile again, because the room didn’t feel so much like a triage room when he was in it. It felt more like...home?

  She frowned. “Picking me up. You’ll hurt yourself.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” He laughed.

  “No. I’m not kidding.”

  “I’ve carted two-hundred-pound men through enemy territory. I don’t think picking you up is going to cause me any irreparable harm.”

  “That doesn’t mean you should make a habit of it,” she grumbled, and he laughed again, his arm settling around her shoulders, his palm resting on her upper arm.

  “What if I want to?” he asked, all his amusement gone.

  “Why would you?” She brushed lint from her jeans, her gaze on the floor, the wall, the ceiling. Anything but him.

  “Because I think you’re the kind of woman who’ll understand what I do and why I do it,” he said quietly, his fingers tracing a line along the inside of her arm.

  She shuddered, a longing so deep, so undeniable filling her so that her heart ached with it. “Jackson—”

  She wasn’t sure what she planned to say, didn’t know if she really had anything she could say. She’d never know, because Kent stuck his head in the open doorway, his gaze jumping from Raina to Jackson and back again. “Am I interrupting something?”

  “No.” Raina jumped off the table, her head throbbing with the movement. “What are you doing here?”

  “I got a call that you’d been hurt, and I came to check on you.”

  “A call from whom?”

  “One of the nurses. Are you okay?” He moved into the room as if he owned the place, washed his hands as if he planned to exam Raina. Jackson didn’t know much about medicine, but he didn’t think Kent was going to find anything more than the E.R. doctor had.

  He stepped between Moreland and Raina, offering a smile that he didn’t feel. “It’s nice of you to come check on her, but she’s already been examined.”

  “I’m sure she’d like my opinion.” Moreland frowned, his gaze settling on Raina.

  She looked tired, her skin pale against the bright pink of the sweater she was wearing. A blue bruise peeked out from under the bandage on her forehead, and dark bruises marred her neck. The guy hadn’t just slammed her head into a tree—he’d choked her. Jackson’s skin tightened, anger burning hot in his gut.

  “Would you like his opinion, Raina?” he asked.

  She bit her lip, obviously uncomfortable with the situation.

  Why wouldn’t she be?

  The guy was her boss. If she said she didn’t want his opinion, that could cause problems.

  “Raina?” he prodded, and she shook her head.

  “I think I’ve had enough of doctors for the day. I’m sorry, Kent. It’s nothing to do with you. I just—”

  “No need to explain,” Moreland said, his voice sharp. “I get it. I’m going to check on a patient who was admitted last night. If you change your mind in the next hour or so, give me a call.”

  He stalked from the room, his back ramrod straight, his steps brisk.

  Jackson met Raina’s eyes. “Hopefully, he won’t hold that against you.”

  “He won’t. He’s not that kind of guy.”

  “What kind of guy is he, then?”

  “Very focused. He loves his job, and he wants to help people.”

  “And what kind of guy is he to you?” he asked, because Kent was giving off all the signs of a guy whose territory was being infringed on.

  “I already told you, Jackson. He asked me out a few times. I wasn’t interested.”

  “When did he ask you? Before or after you went on the mission trip together?”

  “Before. Why?”

  “Just curious.” And just thinking that Kent Moreland was a little too interested in Raina’s life, that he spent a little too much time hanging around a woman who said she wasn’t interested in him.

  Andrew had his sights set on Destiny’s boyfriend. Jackson thought maybe he should turn his attention in another direction.

  “What are you thinking?” Raina asked, shifting so that she was facing him. Her eyes were the oddest color. Not quite blue. Not quite purple. They hid nothing. Not her sorrow, her fear, her curiosity.

  “He seems to be spending a lot of time chasing after a woman who said she’s not interested.”

  She shook her head. “He has just about every unattached woman in town chasing after him. I doubt he’s that concerned with the one who got away.”

  “And yet he showed up at your house early yesterday morning, came to the hospital this afternoon. He said a nurse called to tell him you were here. Why?”<
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  “Because he’s an on-call doctor here, Jackson. He probably spends as much time at the hospital as he does at the clinic.”

  “Is this where you met him?” he asked, not sure if it mattered, but suddenly needing all the information he could get. Something was off about the doctor, and he planned to find out what it was.

  “Actually, yes. He moved here from Wisconsin after his wife died. That was six or seven years ago. He started working as an E.R. doctor and opened the clinic a few years later. I met him my first day of work. We mostly just passed each other in the hallway, but after Matt and Joseph died...” She shook her head.

  “What?”

  “I guess he knew what it was like to lose someone. When I quit my job here, he offered to hire me at the clinic.”

  “And you’ve been working there ever since?”

  “Actually, no. After the accident, I just wanted to hide away in my house with all my memories.” She smiled, her eyes so sad Jackson touched her cheek, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  “You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

  “I don’t mind, and there’s not much else to tell. One day, Destiny walked into the house and opened all the curtains and shades. She told me to take a shower and get ready, because she was bringing me to her church for a potluck. I was too tired to argue, so I went along with her. Kent attends the same church. He saw me, asked if I was ready to return to work.”

  “And were you?”

  “I didn’t think I was, but Destiny nagged me for a month, and I finally accepted the job.”

  “And went on a mission to Africa with Kent a few months later?”

  “That was part of the church outreach program. I was sick of feeling sorry for myself and thought it would be a great opportunity to do something for others. It turned into more of a nightmare.”

  “You made it through, though, and you’ve brought Samuel here.”

  “Yes.” She frowned. “I hope it works out. The visa is only for a year. I’m hoping someone from church will step forward and offer to adopt him. So far, people seem a little...worried.”

  “Because of his background?” he asked, glad that she’d thought beyond the year. Samuel deserved permanence and stability. Not just a year of wonderful living.

  “Yes.”

  “Maybe once they meet him, they’ll change their minds.”

  “I hope so. There’s nothing for him in Africa but hardship, and he deserves a lot more than that.”

  “You could do it,” he suggested, knowing he was stepping into something that he probably shouldn’t and not really caring.

  “No, I couldn’t,” she said simply.

  He wanted to ask why not, but she’d closed up tight, her expression blank.

  Whatever she was feeling, whatever she thought about offering Samuel a home, he wasn’t going to get it out of her.

  Yet.

  Eventually, he would. When the time was right. When she wasn’t so exhausted and broken.

  Voices drifted from the hallway, and Jackson turned to face the doorway, expecting Andrew Wallace to appear.

  Instead, a tall, dark-haired guy with an attitude peered in. The slightly shorter redheaded guy who stood behind him looked a little too amused for Jackson’s liking.

  A bad day had just gotten a lot worse.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, stepping back so his brother could enter the room. Daniel Boone Anderson sauntered in behind him, an annoying smirk still planted on his too-pretty face.

  “Well, it’s like this,” Chance responded, his gaze settling on Raina. “Boone got a call from Stella. She said you were being questioned by the police. We left D.C. three hours ago and drove straight here.”

  “Because?” he asked, knowing it would annoy Chance and amuse Boone.

  “HEART has a reputation to uphold, Jackson. You can’t be dragged into the police department in every town you visit.”

  “And yet, he has been,” Boone cut in, his grin spreading into a full-out smile. “How you doin’, man?” he said, crossing the room and giving Jackson a smack on the back.

  “I’d be better if you’d talked my brother out of coming.”

  “Hey, I just got back from Turkey. Been traveling three days. I can’t be blamed for not thinking straight.”

  “Can we get back to the point,” Chance interrupted. “How much damage has been done? Are you going to be arrested?”

  “The officer in charge of the murder investigation will be here in a minute. Why don’t you ask him?”

  “Murder? Are you kidding me?” Chance looked as if he was about to blow a gasket, and Jackson decided to have pity on him.

  “Don’t worry, bro. I’ve already been cleared.”

  “Thank the good Lord for that.”

  Chance had barely gotten the words out when Wallace waltzed in as if he owned the place. Four grown men in a small triage area was about three too many.

  Jackson would have volunteered to step out into the hall, but he wasn’t going to leave Raina.

  “Looks like you’re having quite a party in here, Raina,” Wallace said drily.

  “I—”

  Her response was cut off by a screech so loud it drilled its way straight into Jackson’s skull.

  “Fire alarm!” Boone shouted over the din. He glanced into the hall. “Smoke to the east. Let’s move!”

  No need for a plan. No need to discuss things. This was what the team did best, get people out of tough situations.

  Jackson grabbed Raina, dumping her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as Chance ran into the hall. He followed, racing through acrid air and hazy smoke, heading west along the corridor, Chance a few yards in front, scooping up a little boy and clapping an arm around the kid’s mother. Boone had taken up the rear. Jackson didn’t have to look to know he was there. He could feel him like the air, the smoke, Raina’s hands on his back.

  He sprinted into the parking lot, set Raina down next to his brother.

  “Keep an eye on her,” he barked, and then he ran back inside.

  THIRTEEN

  The sun had set hours ago, the waning moon creeping above the trees and settling there. Raina had been watching its slow march across the sky, counting as the minutes ticked by on the grandfather clock that sat in a dark corner of the room. She’d tucked Samuel into bed an hour ago, kissed his cheek because it seemed as though he needed someone to do it. To her surprise, a tear had slipped down his face, dropping onto his dark blue pillowcase. When she’d tried to wipe it away, he’d turned onto his side and covered his head with the blanket.

  She’d wanted so badly to pull it back and tell him everything was going to be okay. She just hadn’t known how to say it. Not to a child who’d lost everything, who’d been taken from everything he’d known and dumped in a new country with nothing but an old backpack and a few tired pieces of clothes.

  She’d put her hand on his shoulder and left it there, listening to his quiet sobs until he finally fell asleep.

  Now she was at loose ends, waiting, wondering, worrying.

  “Staring out the window isn’t going to make any of them come back sooner,” Stella commented. She’d stretched out on the couch, the quilt Matt’s grandmother had made as a wedding present draped over her knees. A book in one hand, a bowl of popcorn in her lap, she looked completely relaxed and unconcerned.

  “According to the news, three people were injured in the fire.”

  “Injured running out of the building. Not in the fire. There’s a big difference.”

  “Either way, it could have been one of the men.”

  “Nah. I would have heard something if it had been.” She stuffed a handful of popcorn into her mouth, held the bowl out. “Want some?”

 
“No. Thanks.”

  “Starving yourself isn’t going to help, but suit yourself.” Stella went back to her book, and Raina went back to the window. Across the street, Larry’s lights were on, one glowing in the lower level of the house. Two in the upper level. That wasn’t like Larry. He was a stickler for keeping lights off, eating at home rather than out and saving money any way possible. He might not have been the most neighborly guy, but he was more than happy to share his opinions about things. Before Matt’s death, he’d come over a couple of times to warn about the folly of leaving an outside light burning in the middle of the night.

  “I should probably go check on him,” she said. Not that Larry would appreciate it, but she needed something to do, and she really did want to make sure he was okay.

  “Jackson doesn’t need checking on. He knows how to take care of himself,” Stella responded without looking up from her book.

  “I was talking about my neighbor. He’s been having some memory lapses lately.”

  “That’s too bad, but you’re not leaving the house.”

  “Says who?”

  “Me.”

  “It’s been a long time since anyone has tried to keep me from going out at night.”

  “You’re misunderstanding, Raina,” Stella said, finally looking up from her book. “I’m not trying to keep you from going outside. I am keeping you from it.”

  You and what army? nearly slipped out of Raina’s mouth, but she didn’t want a fight. Even if she did, she had a feeling Stella could take her down easily. “Fine. How about you go over and check on him?”

  “I’m not supposed to leave you here alone.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says Jackson.”

  “When did you speak to him?”

  “I didn’t. He texted me while you were tucking the kid in. Said they should be back in a couple of hours.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You didn’t ask.”

  “Are you always this irritating?” Raina finally snapped, frustrated with Stella and with herself because she’d been pacing around worrying about someone who apparently didn’t need it.