Reckless

by Kimberly Kincaid

  A half second too early.

  By the time Zoe registered the increased pressure on her arms, it was gone, along with her balance as Damien shoved her backward with what had to be all his strength. Her feet left the floorboards, arms wheeling in a hard arc as she scrabbled for purchase. Vaguely, she heard clips of sound, pounding feet and voices, gruff and full of panic.

  And then her shoulder slammed into the door frame, forcing every last shred of oxygen from her chest with a hard whump.

  “Zoe!” After she made a series of foggy attempts to nail her focus all the way into place, Tina’s voice broke through the chaos in Zoe’s ears, quickly followed by a white-hot streak of pain lighting down her shoulder and into her fingertips as she tested out both her lungs and her limbs.

  “Ow.” Zoe sucked a breath through her teeth, flattening her free palm against the floorboards in an awkward attempt to find her feet, but both the heavy tingling in her other hand and the gentle pressure of Tina’s grasp halted her before she could get more than halfway upright.

  “Rochelle,” Zoe spit out, a brand-new stream of panic uncurling through her rib cage. God, there were so many people jostling around and making an unholy racket that locking in on one specific target was impossible. “We have to keep Damien away from her.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about Damien,” Tina said, catching the question in Zoe’s confused blinks before adding, “Alex just knocked him clean out, and the police are outside. The only place Damien’s going is back to the precinct.”

  Zoe sagged in relief, although the sensation didn’t last. “What about the other residents? Is anyone hurt?” Her second attempt got her to her feet, although, whoa, her legs were none too thrilled at the prospect of holding her upright.

  “Just you,” Tina said at the exact moment Alex appeared at her side.

  “Jesus Christ, Zoe. Sit down and let me look at you.” He snatched up a nearby chair, guiding her off her feet without leeway for an argument.

  Of course, she still gave one. “Alex, I need to—”

  “Do you feel any pain?” He knelt between her knees, sweeping her with a critical head-to-toe gaze, and she belatedly noticed the angry bruise blooming over the knuckles on his right hand.

  “I could ask you the same thing.” Zoe reached for his hand, but the thudding protest of her shoulder cut the move short.

  Alex caught her wince, and although his eyes flared, the rest of his demeanor remained perfectly calm. “Did you hit your head when you fell? Lose consciousness, or anything like that?”

  “What? No.” She shook her head, but the gesture felt oddly sloppy. “Just my shoulder.”

  “Can you rate the pain on a scale of one to ten?”

  “I’m fine, I just—ouch!” The ache along the back of her arm went full throttle under Alex’s touch, and he pulled his hands back as if her involuntary protest had burned him.

  “Rate it, Zoe.”

  “It’s a bump, Alex.” It might be a nasty one, but still . . .

  “Really, barely even a four. Can I please stand up? This is my soup kitchen, and I need to make sure everyone’s okay. I don’t want Rochelle and Kenny to hear the commotion in here and get frightened.” The poor woman and her son had been through enough.

  Tina and Alex exchanged a look loaded with unspoken communication. She said, “I’ll have Millie and Ellen go check on them, but, honey, you need to let someone check on you.”

  As if conjured by the words alone, a uniformed police officer arrived beside Alex, taking careful visual inventory of all three of them before politely interrupting.

  “Hey, Donovan. Your perp seems like a gem according to the two witnesses my partner just got a brief statement from, but we’ve got him in custody. The rest of the scene is secure.”

  Alex nodded. “Thanks, O’Halloran. You and Mackle-more got here damn fast.”

  “We were only about six blocks up,” the officer said, tipping his dark head at the dining room windows facing the street. “I know I don’t have to tell you the neighborhood can get a little tough.” He swung his gaze toward Zoe, indicating the badge pinned to the front of the black Kevlar vest strapped over his uniform shirt. “I’m Brett O’Halloran, Fairview PD.”

  “Zoe Westin,” she said, lifting a brow in Alex’s direction.

  “Let me guess. You guys skydive together. Or is it rock climbing?”

  The officer’s lips twitched in the suggestion of a smile as he shot a glance at Alex. “No, ma’am, just softball. How are you feeling, Ms. Westin?”

  “Oh, just Zoe, and I’m fine, thanks. I’ll be even better if you tell me that asshole is going back to jail, though.” She trapped her tongue between her teeth too late, but if Officer O’Halloran was shocked or offended by her brassy statement, his expression sure didn’t betray him.

  “If you’re up to telling me what happened, we might be able to work on that for you.”

  “I’d be happy to.” Zoe gave the officer a succinct rundown of events, with Tina peppering in some of the details that happened after Zoe had been knocked down. After a handful of follow-up questions, Officer O’Halloran flipped his notebook closed.

  “With all three of your corroborating statements and a room full of eyewitnesses, this looks pretty cut and dried, especially if this guy’s record checks out. Did you want to pursue assault charges?”

  Zoe rolled her shoulder, the move hurting like hell. “Yes. Absolutely.”

  The officer dipped his chin in a nod. “Okay. We’ve got paramedics on the way to give him the all-clear before we take him downtown to process him, just in case.” He paused, splitting his dark brown gaze between Alex and Zoe. “I can roll another ambo out here if you want. It might not be the worst idea to go to Fairview Hospital and get that shoulder looked at.”

  “No!” Zoe’s mouth went dry at the same time her palms turned damp, and Alex, Tina, and Officer O’Halloran narrowed their eyes over her in unison. “What I mean is, I feel fine, and I’d really like to stay here and make sure the residents are okay.” Plus, the last thing Zoe needed was the chance that Station Eight’s paramedics would catch the call. If her father heard so much as a peep about this, he wouldn’t ease up on her until she was ninety.

  “Zoe, I really think . . .” Tina started, but Alex stepped in, his most charming smile taking over his handsome features.

  “Why don’t I just take her to the outpatient clinic over on Broadmoor? It won’t be nearly as crowded as the Emergency Department, and the docs can give her the all-clear just the same.”

  “I’m sitting right here, you know.” Zoe scowled, but somehow, she couldn’t put much force into it.

  Tina, on the other hand, had enough high-test for both of them right now. “Yes, but Alex is right. You should be sitting in front of a doctor.”

  Zoe got halfway to crossing her arms over the front of her gray button-down top before her shoulder gave up a definitive not today, sweetheart. But she was quickly running out of steam to fight, and letting Alex take her to urgent care was definitely the lesser of two evils. Between him and Tina, she knew better than to think she’d skate by on her own recognizance. “Fine. But only after I get lunch squared away.”

  “I’ve got lunch squared away. You go, and don’t come back without a doctor’s note,” Tina said, her tone brooking no argument. “Officer, I’d like to take care of the residents if you don’t need anything else right now . . . ?”

  “No, ma’am. We’ll be in touch.”

  Tina turned, giving Alex’s forearm a squeeze. “Thank you.” She added one last promise that she would make sure Rochelle and her son were well taken care of before quickly stepping off to take charge of the crowd, leaving Zoe with Alex.

  “Thank you for not calling the paramedics.” With the easy-does-it way he’d suggested the outpatient clinic over the hospital, Alex had to realize that a couple of bruises were really no big deal. Hell, he’d probably sustained worse in any given sports junkie session.

  Which was wh
y it shocked Zoe right down to her Danskos when he looped his arm around her, leading her out of her chair and toward the door with nothing but dead-serious intention in his eyes.

  “I might’ve gotten you off the hot seat with Tina, but you will get every inch of yourself checked out by a doctor. And you’re not leaving my sight until you do.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Alex sat back against the hospital-grade chair in the exam room, trying like hell to ignore both the bruises peeking out from beneath the sleeves of Zoe’s gown and the brows-up I-told-you-so taking over her pretty face.

  At least her moxie was easier to handle.

  “Are you happy now?” she asked, holding up the doctor’s release form and the disk containing her X-rays. “I’m one hundred percent fine and cleared for work.”

  “Tomorrow,” he corrected. “The doctor said you should take it easy for the rest of today.”

  Zoe smiled. “Right. I should’ve known you’d have an in at urgent care, too.”

  “I know a couple of people on staff here, yes. . . .” He was a firefighter with adrenaline issues. Of course he was on a first-name basis with a doc or two. “And I might have particularly strong people skills. But come on, Zoe. As good as I am, I can’t finesse a medical diagnosis.”

  “Fine,” she sighed, her shoulders rounding beneath the loose blue cotton of her gown. “But first thing tomorrow, we’re back in the kitchen.”

  Alex’s gut shifted with unease, but he put it on hold. Arguing with Zoe right now wouldn’t get him farther than frustration, and anyway, she looked about as worn out as he felt. “Yeah, about that. If it’s okay with you, I can make up for my lost community service by coming in on Saturday.”

  Her forehead creased into a delicate V. “You haven’t lost any time, Alex. Not only did you bring me here to get checked out, but you stayed for two hours while I got the all-clear. I know I fought you a little, but you still didn’t have to do any of that.”

  A smile tempted Alex’s lips, and he gave in to it, if only halfway. “You fought me more than a little, Gorgeous. But you let me stay to make sure you were okay, even during your exam, and you definitely didn’t have to do that, either.” He’d made it clear that while personally walking her through the door was nonnegotiable, he’d wait in the reception area while she talked to the doctor, but she’d shocked him by turning him down.

  “It didn’t bother me to have you stay; plus, I knew you probably wouldn’t take my word for it when I turned out to be fine. And”—Zoe broke off, twisting the floppy sleeve of her gown between the thumb and forefinger on her opposite hand—“I guess it was nice not to be alone.”

  “Oh.” Eloquent, Donovan. Real suave. So much for his freaking people skills. “Well, in that case, I’m glad I was a pain in the ass.”

  “Me too.” Her soft laugh loosened the tension on her face, and the sound prompted his thoughts into words without pause.

  “Since I’m batting a thousand at being bossy today, what do you say I aim for the fence and insist on driving you home?”

  “Won’t that leave you stranded in my neighborhood?” Zoe asked. But it didn’t escape his notice that she hadn’t said no, and screw it. He’d never been good at dancing around the truth.

  “Yeah, but you live pretty close to the fire station, which means I can either hitch a ride home or hop on the subway. I know you can take care of yourself.” Alex pushed up from his chair, impulse and endorphins and something he had no name for moving him in front of her with mere inches to spare. “It’s just that right now, I don’t want you to, okay?”

  Zoe’s eyes went warm and wide, but she didn’t pull back. “Okay.”

  He slipped past the curtain hanging down from the ceiling, making sure the door was shut all the way so she’d have enough privacy to get dressed before going to wait for her in the lobby. She joined him a few minutes later, and although they didn’t say much as they traded the building for the parking lot, then the parking lot for her car, the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. In fact, by the time Zoe had guided him through the fifteen-minute drive uptown, Alex had gained back most of his easygoing calm.

  And as long as he replaced his thoughts of Zoe’s bruises with the satisfaction of having knocked the man who had given them to her into next week, he just might keep it, too.

  Zoe reached into her messenger bag, her keys ringing softly as she pulled them from the dark blue canvas. With a quick turn and click, she led the way past a pair of sturdy oak and glass doors, then through a brightly lit lobby lined with metal mailboxes and bulletin boards. A few dozen steps had them in the elevator, and a few dozen after that, she slid the key into the lock on a glossy black door marked 4B.

  “I can’t guarantee that there aren’t any dust rhinos or unfolded laundry lurking about, but this is me.”

  Alex’s curiosity jumped, but he covered it with a half shrug as he followed her past her tiny foyer and into a cozy, sun-filled living room. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel anything other than relaxed right now. Shit, she’d probably burned through her monthly allotment of adrenaline the minute she’d barked out Damien’s name from the door frame of the shelter.

  Don’t think about it. Do. Not. Think about it.

  “Dust rhinos, huh? Sounds pretty ferocious.”

  Zoe lowered her bag from her unhurt shoulder, and bingo. Her smile slipped out. “Occupational hazard, I guess. Hope House keeps me pretty busy, and in the off hours that I am here, I’m either in the kitchen or asleep.”

  “Didn’t anyone ever have that whole all work and no play conversation with you?” he teased, but even off her game, she was still razor-wire sharp.

  “What, you mean the same way someone should probably have the whole pot, kettle, look who’s talking conversation with you? Come on, Alex. I think it’s pretty clear we’re both devoted to our jobs.”

  “Yeah, you definitely proved that point this morning,” Alex said, the words crowding out before he could stop them. Zoe tensed, halfway across the carpet, and ah, fuck. Even though he meant every inch of what he’d said, calling her out after the morning she’d had was a pretty sizable dick move. He opened his mouth with every intention of telling her to forget it, but she spoke first, beating him to the punch.

  “Before you read me the riot act, I know.”

  Wait... “You what?”

  She knotted her arms over the front of her gray button-down, which had to hurt under the circumstances, but still, she didn’t flinch. “I avoid being reckless the way most people avoid sinkholes and hand grenades. Believe me, I get that baiting Damien wasn’t the most well-thought-out plan.”

  “No,” Alex agreed, slow and deliberate. “It wasn’t.”

  Zoe’s chin lifted, just enough to broadcast the flash of determination in her amber-colored eyes. “But what was I supposed to do? That’s my kitchen, and when the residents are there, I’m responsible for taking care of them. No matter what.”

  He crossed the floor, lowering his gaze to put her in his direct line of sight. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t have stood up for your residents, Zoe, or that you shouldn’t have taken a risk in order to do it. Hell, I’d have done the same exact thing.”

  “You would?” she whispered, confusion sliding over her features. “But I thought you were mad that I tried to stop Damien.”

  “I’m mad that you got hurt,” Alex qualified, inhaling past the tightness in his jaw. “But to answer your question, instead of trying to take on the world all by yourself, what you were supposed to do was let me help you.”

  “Oh.” The word collapsed past her lips, a thin wisp of hair fluttering forward as she dropped her eyes. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m not used to having anyone in my corner like that. Not at Hope House, anyway.”

  Alex paused, taking in the sweep of her lashes as she blinked, the barely there sigh behind her exhale. He’d thought Zoe’s brazen side was beautiful, but her mettle was really just the flip side of her tenderness.

  God help him
, he wanted her. All of her.

  And if he couldn’t have her, the least he could do was have her back.

  “Well, get used to it. It might only be for the next three weeks, but for as long as I’m at Hope House, you’re not going it alone.”

  Zoe stood utterly still, her feet glued to the living room carpet and her heart doing a bang-up job of trying to break free from her chest. Her emotions had been through the blender today, she knew, but with Alex standing here in front of her with those impossibly blue eyes and even more impossibly enticing words on his lips, she didn’t just feel comforted.

  She believed him.

  “Thank you,” Zoe whispered. She tilted her face up, so close to Alex’s lightly stubbled jaw that one forward move from either of them would erase the space entirely. Her breath threaded through her lungs, shallow and hot. But at the last second, Alex squeezed his eyes shut and took a step back.

  “You’re welcome. I really should go so you can get some rest.”

  “No, please don’t.” The protest tripped out without her consent, but hell. Too late to pull it back now. “I mean, um. You’re not keeping me from anything. After all the drama of this morning, I doubt I’d be able to relax enough to take a nap. So, you know. You don’t have to go. Unless you want to.” Sweet God in heaven, she was botching this. But honesty was Alex’s number-one policy, and screw it. He’d already said he had her back. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to be alone, and I’d really like it if you’d stay for a little while.”

  “Oh.” Alex’s brows slid upward. “Okay, sure. Are you hungry? I mean, our cooking lesson got cut short earlier, so I’m still not much good in the kitchen unless you want coffee or something microwaveable. But I can order something.”

  “You know what, coffee sounds great, actually.” She motioned toward the kitchen, turning to lead the way with only a handful of steps. Crossing the threshold, she settled in at the stretch of slate countertop next to the fridge, tugging open the cabinet over the coffeepot to unearth a stack of tissue-thin filters from the shelf.