Double Threat, page 2
She found she did and it eased her fears to a dull roar. He withdrew his touch before she could answer and she didn’t know how to articulate what she felt now anyway. After he opened the truck she hefted herself into the passenger seat. She decided she wouldn’t argue with him over the ankle. She lifted her boot-clad foot. In short order his hands made quick work of unlacing the ankle boot and slipping it off.
She caught him staring at her, somehow trying to gauge her reaction. When she didn’t cry out in pain he touched her ankle, fingers gentle and competent.
“Any sharp pain?” he asked.
“No. I think it’s a minor sprain.” Nervousness danced in her stomach but she didn’t know if it was the horrific situation around the shooting or the fact he was touching her.
“Can you wiggle your toes and rotate your foot?” he asked.
She did. “Still a dull ache. Honestly, it’s okay.”
“I think you’re right. My guess is you might have some swelling. Not sure if you should put that boot back on but if you don’t your foot might freeze. We’ll talk to the paramedics when they arrive. At the least they can give us an elastic bandage.”
She liked the deep tone of his voice and his masculine assurance. She stared at him, fascinated and disturbed by her reaction to him when she sure as hell didn’t want to be attracted to a military man. Hell no.
“What’s wrong?” he asked when she kept staring at him.
She shook herself out of the trance. “Nothing. I’ll put the boot back on.”
He helped her slide it back onto her foot but she didn’t lace it tightly. He pulled out his smartphone and started to work on the keyboard. His fingers flew over the screen. Before he could finish texts started to come in one after the other. He smiled.
She leaned forward. “What is it?”
“Matt has Melanie. They’re in a unisex bathroom. They’re safe. Kathleen’s with Jake in a supply closet with a bunch of other people. They’ll stay put until S.W.A.T. can get them out of this mess.”
Relief flowed like liquid inside her and she smiled. Hope and happiness removed some of her apprehension. “Thank God.”
He returned her enthusiasm, his self-assured smile blossoming and growing wider as he sent texts. “Kathleen and Melanie will be happy to know you’re out here. I’m sure they were worried about you too. When I first heard the shooting I sent Matt a quick text telling him I was going after you. I wanted him to know what I was doing and where I was going.”
“Where were you when the shooting started?”
“The sporting goods store. I’d ducked inside less than thirty seconds before I heard the shots. I directed the people inside the store to get the hell out.”
Curiosity made her ask, “Why did you come after me instead of leaving?”
He glanced up from his phone. “You really need to ask?”
Feeling a little breathless, she said, “Most people run from danger.”
Confidence filled his eyes but so did another emotion she couldn’t quite pinpoint. “I couldn’t live with myself if I ran out on my friends.”
There. He’d given her a good idea where she stood. He was an honorable man who wouldn’t leave his brothers and other people to fend for themselves in the face of danger. Rick had done the heroic thing but she somehow knew he wouldn’t take kindly to being called a hero.
She managed to speak, though her throat felt tight with emotion. “Thank you anyway.”
One corner of his mouth lifted and heat flared in his gaze for a quicksilver moment. “You would have saved yourself. You seem like a damn resourceful person.”
“Thanks. I try.”
“That’s all any of us can do. Don’t worry. Matt and Jake will keep Kathleen and Melanie safe. I guarantee that.”
She wanted to tell him that nothing was guaranteed in this life. She knew that only too well. He tore his gaze away from hers and she drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. A trembling started deep inside her and she took another sustaining breath to stabilize herself.
For the first time Lena realized her handbag still lay draped over her right shoulder. As she relived running from the store and falling on her side, she recalled making a last-moment move to snatch the purse off the floor when Rick had lifted her into his arms. She dug through her purse but there was no sign of her cell phone.
“Damn it.” Frustration made her jaw tighten.
“What?” he asked as he stopped texting.
“My cell is gone. I can’t contact Kathleen or Melanie.”
Fear returned full-force, the feeling oily and thick and threatening. She rejected the fear. Losing control wouldn’t help her friends.
“It’ll be all right,” he said as he finished his texts.
She craned around in the truck seat and couldn’t see the mall entrance very well. She slid off the seat and headed for the tailgate.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he placed his cell phone in his coat pocket.
“I’d like to sit on the tailgate. I can see better what’s going on. Good thing you parked far away from the mall.”
“Yeah. Good thing.” He pulled down the tailgate and she scooted onto the edge. “Sure you don’t want to sit inside the cab? It’s cold and it looks like it’s going to snow.”
She pulled up the hood on her parka. “My grandmother sent me this coat last Christmas. Guaranteed for twenty below zero.”
He smiled and the effect was dazzling. Those eyes sparked with a moment of genuine amusement but quickly went serious. “Here’s to Grandma. Think she could order up a quick fix on this situation?”
Lena thought of her stoic grandmother and how the seventy-year-old woman would operate. “If she were here she’d be directing the S.W.A.T. team.”
Rick’s attention stayed pinpointed on her. “Oh?”
“She was a cop in Arizona long before there were many women in law enforcement.” She took a shaky breath. “She’s one tough lady. My dad followed in her footsteps.”
In a few respects anyway. Lena’s stomach sank as she thought of her father and old wounds threatened to resurface.
“Maybe she can come up to Alaska, work in the Coast Guard and help us kick some butt.”
She laughed softly. “She probably could.”
Before he could say anything two cops approaching the area stopped by the little group who’d been in the gift shop.
“I’ll see if I can get any information,” he said and walked toward the cops and the gift shop group.
Lena released her death grip on her handbag and tried to relax. She knew with absolute certainty that Matt and Jake would do everything in their power to keep her friends safe and that gave her a measure of confidence. She heard her father’s cynical voice in her head, lambasting her. Shit still happens. Bad things still happen. Ever the pessimist, he’d always seen the bad side of every situation. If she had said the icing was creamy goodness he’d have said it had too much sugar. She’d fought long and hard to curb her tendency to see the dark side everywhere she looked. Then again, her father had been the definition of a self-fulfilling prophecy. As she watched the scene at the mall unfold, she couldn’t remove the lead ball rolling around in her stomach. She closed her eyes and centered herself with a meditation technique she taught the military vets who came to her clinic. She reminded herself that in the here and now she was safe. Her breathing steadied as she allowed her chaotic thoughts to drift out of her head, absorbing only the here and now. Even sirens and urgent voices couldn’t rattle her. Time dissolved as she reached a place of calm at her core. She found peace there.
A touch on her shoulder made her jump and her eyes flew open.
Rick kept his hand on her left shoulder. “You okay?”
“Doing meditation. It centers me.”
He withdrew his touch but was still close. “I’ve tried meditation. Doesn’t work for me.”
His firm statement made the counselor in her take note. This man had a definite stubborn streak. “Really? When did you try it last?”
“About ten years ago.”
“Uh-huh. You only tried once?”
Challenge flared in his eyes. “What does uh-huh mean?”
“You should try it again.”
He shook his head and stuffed his hands in his coat pockets. “Nope.”
“Maybe you haven’t tried the right method for you.”
Cynicism darkened his eyes. “Yeah? I don’t know about that.”
She always chose her battles but this one seemed imperative. “If we all get out of this mess in one piece, I’ll teach you. It works wonders on a lot of…”
“Yeah?”
“Uptight military guys.”
Rick leaned in closer and he not only met her challenge, he one-upped it. His voice lowered and those amazing eyes flooded with undeniable male interest. “You think I’m uptight?”
“A little, around the edges.”
“Then you don’t know me very well.”
“We both don’t know each other well.”
He didn’t respond to that, his attention still centered entirely on her. “What makes you think you can teach me?”
She knew he meant meditation but his soothing voice wrapped around her with sensual overtones. Despite the place and time, her libido stood up and took notice. Her loins went warm recognizing his male strength. The closeness where they connected in this time and place made her lean into his space the slightest bit.
She said the only thing that came to mind. “It’s my job. That’s how I know I can make sure you can meditate.”
“All right…it’s a deal.” His easy capitulation surprised her, then he said, “There are conditions.”
“Like what?”
“You have dinner with me after this is all over.”
Alarm bells went off. “Dinner?”
“Yeah.”
“Like two people surviving nasty times having a celebratory meal?”
“A little more than that.”
He stubbornly pushed back. “As in a dinner date? You’re seriously trying to ask me out when we’re in the middle of a crisis?”
“Yeah. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s to not play games. I’ve wanted to have a date with you from the moment I saw you again.”
Flabbergasted, she sat there with her mouth slightly open. Okay, so her intuition hadn’t been wrong—she hadn’t imagined those hot looks he’d thrown her way. He hadn’t been slimy or too verbal about his interest in her. Still, she couldn’t do it.
The word shot out of her. “No.”
All the heat went out of his eyes and suddenly he was the professional—the Coast Guard guy who rescued people from the ocean.
“All right.”
“Look, Rick, I…” She licked her lips. “All right. I’ll have dinner with you when this is over. But as friends. Not a date. As long as you try the meditation. Deal?”
She held out her hand.
He took her much smaller palm in his, his handshake firm. “Deal. Just friends.”
His fingers drifted over hers as she released his grip and the way his warmth felt against her skin made her think of a deliberate caress.
“I heard you work with a lot of vets,” he said.
“Yes.”
He sat on the tailgate with her. “You see that many in Constitution?”
“A few.”
“How many is a few?”
His quick questioning caused her to push back. “Why do you want to know?”
“I’m trying to figure out if you don’t like vets.”
That threw her off her game a second and her mouth popped open as surprise vied with an instinct to make a snarky comeback. “Of course I like veterans. I wouldn’t counsel them if I didn’t.”
“Right.” He rolled his shoulders, as if loosening his muscles or tossing a burden off his mind. “Never mind. This isn’t the time or the place. We can talk about this when we have that dinner.”
He shot out some more texts and she finally said, “Maybe we should call Danelle and Patrick.”
“They’ll just worry.”
She admitted to herself immediately she wasn’t fond of his quick way of talking, as if he didn’t consider much before making a decision.
His attention dropped to her mouth for a few seconds. Not too long but enough to stoke primal female needs. She understood these physical reactions. He’d possibly saved her life and there was no denying he turned her on sexually. She’d tried to deny her attraction to him from the beginning but there it was, the writing on the proverbial wall. Maybe if she had dinner with him she’d learn other things she didn’t like about him and the physical reaction would evaporate.
Before they could say another word two police officers walked up and started questioning them about what happened in the mall. A paramedic was summoned and quickly went to work wrapping her ankle. She stared at her ankle, swathed in elastic bandage, and her athletic sock stretched over it. Good thing she’d worn a coat, jeans and a warm sweater or she’d be freezing her ass.
Sergeant Morales, a tall, thin cop with a well-lined face, asked efficient questions with a no-nonsense attitude. The younger cop, a small man whose name tag said Beder, eyeballed Rick.
“That kid over there in the blue sweater knocked you down?” Morales asked Lena. “He said you bullied him into leaving the store. Putting him in danger.”
Surprise closed up her throat a moment but she quickly found her voice. “What?”
“That’s crap,” Rick said with a straight, matter-of-fact tone. “He pushed her down and just kept going. I’d like to rearrange his face.”
Morales’ gaze narrowed on Rick. “No need for that, sir. We’re taking care of this.”
Beder said, “Mr. Frasier, you saw him deliberately push her down?”
Rick took a deep breath and some of the tension in his face eased. “I saw him looking behind him and he ran into her. He knocked her down and fell on top of her. He scrambled off and ran away. He didn’t stop to help her.”
“What is your occupation again, sir?” Beder asked Rick.
“Master Chief Petty Officer in the Coast Guard. I’m a rescue swimmer on Kodiak,” Rick said.
Beder’s eyebrows went up. “Alaska?”
“Yes.” Rick’s tone stayed even and patient.
“Thank you for your service.” Morales’ expression warmed. “I had my four years in the army but I have a ton of respect for guys who can jump into freezing water to save other people.”
Lena thought she knew the cop’s motivation for praising Rick. He might admire Rick’s military service but he’d seen Rick’s aggravation and wanted to ease him down.
It worked, as Rick smiled. “I appreciate that.”
“Back to the task at hand,” Morales said. “What’s your side of the story, Miss Williams?”
She shivered as a gust of wind blew through her hair. She brushed off discomfort and gave them the full story from standing inside the engraver’s gift shop until the moment Rick picked her up and hauled ass outside. Her heartbeat quickened when she thought about how close they’d come to danger. She rubbed her forehead and took her gloves out of her coat pocket. She slipped into their warm fleecy comfort.
“You weren’t verbally abusive with the gentleman who knocked you down?” Morales asked.
“Dickwad wasn’t a gentleman.” Rick’s voice rumbled with sarcasm.
Lena threw Rick a quelling look. “No. It’s not my style to verbally abuse people.”
Beder said, “We’re just trying to establish the facts.”
“It’s clear you’re upset, Mr. Frasier.” Morales placed his gloved hands on his hips, his stance authoritative. “But I think from the details we have here, your girlfriend isn’t in the wrong.”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” Lena said, then wished she hadn’t been so adamant when all three men eyed her curiously.
Morales threw his partner a knowing look and Lena’s cheeks heated with embarrassment. Why the hell had she blurted that out?
Morales smiled. “Clearly the guy should have helped you after he knocked you down. You could press charges against him.”
Incredulous, she shook her head. “Of course not. It was an accident. We can’t arrest people for being jerks.”
“Unfortunately.” Rick mumbled his statement.
Beder stifled a chuckle. “Jail would be overfilled in Constitution we did.”
Morales questioned them again and he realized Rick’s brothers were in the mall with Lena’s friends.
“Your brothers,” Morales said as he looked at Rick, “they aren’t likely to start a war in there, are they?”
Rick scowled slightly. “Hell no. They know better than to engage this enemy. They’ll only fight if they have no choice.”
“If you two can stay around until this is wrapped up, we’d appreciate it,” Morales said.
“Of course. We aren’t leaving until everyone is safe,” Rick said.
The officers left.
Lena shifted on the hard tailgate and watched the mall entrance. She tensed, worry returning.
“They’ll be all right.” Rick’s voice came from nearby and he hefted himself onto the tailgate to sit beside her.
“Anything else is unthinkable. So let’s not think of it.”
She turned her gaze on Rick. His mouth was tight and she could feel his grim mood. He might be optimistic on the outside but she sensed something bugging him.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I’m living in the moment right now. Not thinking ahead too much.” His gaze landed on her, his eyes warming. “Talk to me.”
“About what?”
“Anything. Because as much as I trust my brothers to get themselves out of this damn mess…”
A warmth spread inside her. In his eyes she saw a need she’d never expected. A desire for reassurance.
Rick swallowed hard, his heartbeat picking up as Lena grinned. He saw a difference in her he hadn’t noted before. Understanding and friendliness he didn’t expect. He’d seen her smile but often it was a brittle grin. Any pleasure in her eyes she reserved for Kathleen and Melanie and maybe a good joke.
She stuffed one hand into her super short, somewhat spiked platinum-blonde hair. She reminded him of an angel with her pretty eyes and beautiful mouth. She was small, with a dainty look that belied her steel-like resolve. Even when she’d given him that disapproving glance for being late today he’d reveled in her attention. God, he had it bad, and he hated it. Women never got the jump on him in the relationship department, making him want them so much he could barely stand it. No, he always controlled those passions. He’d figured the more he came to know Lena Williams the less he’d desire her. That wasn’t proving true. When the shooting started she’d come into his mind first, along with his brothers. But he knew his brothers could handle a firefight and he’d charged forward to locate Lena. When he’d seen that bastard knock her down and then run without helping her, he’d wanted to twist the guy’s head off. Instead he ran to Lena, her safety first priority, above ripping assholes a new one. Reaction set in as his body shivered suddenly—he felt as if he’d just completed a rescue swim.
