The Bodyguard's Return

“All right,” he relented after a moment’s hesitation. “I’ll do some checking into these deaths. I’ll get the accident reports and look them over.”

“Thank you.” She smiled and he felt a jolt of heat sweep through him. She had one hell of a smile. She grabbed a sheet of paper and scribbled something then handed it to him. “That’s my phone number at Winnie’s and my cell phone number.”

He took them reluctantly, having no intention of calling her except to tell her he’d done as she’d requested. Something about her unsettled him and the less interaction she had with him the better he’d feel. “It should just take me a day or two.” He stood, eager to be away from her with her sexy scent and heart-stopping smile.

She handed him the papers she’d printed off and he folded them and stuck them in his back pocket. “Why did you decide to come back to Cotter Creek?” she asked, also rising. “Meredith told me you’d been doing quite well in New York.”

I ran back home like a dog with my tail tucked between my legs. I screwed up with a relationship that turned more than ugly. The thoughts flew through his head, bringing with him the sense of failure that had ridden his shoulders since he’d made the decision to return home.

“I missed my family. When you’re used to being surrounded by people who care about you, a place like New York City can be pretty lonely.”

She eyed him wryly. “I doubt if a man like you had too many lonely nights.”

“There’s a difference between being alone and being lonely.” He gestured toward the door, uncomfortable with the personal turn of the conversation.

“Must be nice to have a loving family,” she said as she gathered her papers, then joined him at the front door.

“You aren’t close with your family?” he asked. She stood close enough to him that he could again smell her scent, a heady fragrance that put all his nerves on alert.

“It’s just me and my parents,” she replied. “I don’t think my mother ever recovered from the shock of not birthing a perfect blond, beautiful miniature of herself, and my father was mostly absent while I was growing up. He had to work long hours to keep my mother in baubles and bling.”

She turned out the light, locked the door and they stepped out of the building. Night had completely fallen, but the illumination from a full moon cascaded down, painting her features in a soft, becoming light.

“I can’t thank you enough for meeting me here tonight and listening to me.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” he warned. “You haven’t convinced me that there’s anything ominous going on.”

She nodded, her curls dancing with the gesture. “How are Jessie and Judd?”

Joshua thought of the two dogs he’d brought home from Charlie’s place. “Initially they were confused and seemed depressed, but they’re beginning to settle in just fine. Smokey wasn’t thrilled that I’d brought them home.”

She laughed, a low throaty sound. “Is that man ever happy about anything?”

He grinned. “Smokey’s bark is definitely louder than his bite. After my mother’s death I’m not sure my father could have coped with six small children without Smokey’s help.”

“How did that happen? I mean, where did he come from?”

“Smokey worked as a foreman on the ranch until a terrible fall from a horse crushed his leg and left him with permanent damage. He’d just about healed from his wounds when my mother was murdered. Smokey stepped into the house as if he were born to the job.”

“I’d love to interview him for my column. Actually, I’d love to interview you, you know, something about the return of the prodigal son.”

“No way, I’m not interested in being interviewed. And good luck with Smokey,” he added drily. At that moment a loud bang resounded and almost simultaneously the picture window just to the right of them exploded.

Without thought, acting only on instinct, Joshua dove toward Savannah and tackled her to the ground.

Chapter 4

Savannah hit the pavement hard, the back of her head connecting with the concrete with a dull whack that momentarily created whirling stars in her brain. Joshua’s body covered hers as shards of glass rained down around them.

For a moment she was frozen, unable to think. The back of her head throbbed from the blow. She opened her eyes and winced. “What happened?” she asked as the initial shock began to wear off.

“Shh.” He shushed her sharply. She could swear she felt his heart pounding against her chest, but then wasn’t sure if it was his or her own beating so frantically.

In the moonlight she could see his features, taut and dangerous-looking as he gazed at the darkness across the street.

What was he looking for? What had just happened? A dog barked in the distance, the only sound in the otherwise silent night. “What’s going on? Do you see anything?” she whispered.

“Where are your keys to the office?” His voice was like hers, just a whisper.

She dug her hand into her pocket and withdrew the keys. He took them from her. For the first time since they’d fallen to the pavement, he looked down at her. “I’m going to open the office door and when I do, I want you to crawl inside. Whatever you do, don’t stand up.”

His eyes gleamed more silver than green in the moonlight. Dangerous. He looked so dangerous it frightened her. “What happened, Joshua?” she asked again, her fear evident in her voice. “What’s going on?”

“Somebody just took a shot at us.” His eyes narrowed as he once again looked across the street. “And I don’t know if the shooter is still there waiting for us to make a move or not.”

A shot? Somebody had shot at them? Fear swelled inside her. Her head throbbed with nauseating intensity. “I told you something was rotten in this town.” Her voice rose in volume. Surely this was proof. “I must be onto something and now somebody is trying to shut me up.”

“How about you shut up right now until we get inside and can call the sheriff.”

She would have been offended by his words if she hadn’t been so busy trying to process the fact that apparently somebody had just tried to kill them.

As he started to get off her, she had the crazy need to wrap her arms around his neck and keep him in place so close to her.

Don’t go, she wanted to say. But, she didn’t. She held her breath as he slowly eased up into a crouch and quickly made his way to the office door.

She tensed, waiting for another gun report, praying another bullet didn’t come careening out of the night toward him. She released a sigh of relief as he reached the door, unlocked it and shoved it open.

“Keep low,” he said.

Keep low? She’d crawl on her belly like a worm if it kept her alive. And that’s exactly what she did. As she moved, she was aware of the grit of the sidewalk beneath her, the shards of glass that littered the way.

Tension made her feel like throwing up. Somebody had shot at her. Somebody had pointed a gun and pulled the trigger. Her head pounded with the horrifying knowledge. Apparently somebody wanted her dead.

She made it to the doorway and slid inside. Joshua sat on the floor next to Raymond Buchannan’s desk, the phone to his ear. As she crawled up next to him he hung up. “The sheriff is on his way. Are you okay?”

“My head hurts and my clothes are ruined, but other than being positively terrified, I think I’m fine.” But, she wasn’t fine. A trembling shuddered through her as she thought of the window exploding and the bullet that had caused it.

He nodded, then rising to a crouch once again he moved away from the desk and to the edge of the broken window where he peered outside. “I don’t think our shooter is out there now.”

“How do you know that?” Even though she wasn’t at all sure she liked Joshua West that much, what she wanted to do more than anything at the moment was curl up in his arms. There was no doubt in her mind that the bullet had been meant for her.

He turned from the window and glanced back at her, his eyes glittering darkly. “If the shooter was still out there, there’s no way we would have been able to make it back inside to call the sheriff. He would have fired again to try to prevent us getting help.”

“What more proof do you need that something is going on? Somebody just tried to kill me and it can only be because I’m digging into things somebody doesn’t want uncovered.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” he replied tersely. “And when the sheriff gets here let me do the talking. If you come off like a half-hysterical female, he won’t listen to either one of us.”