by Elle James
She laughed and pulled her hands from his. “That was ages ago. After a little physical therapy I was fine.”
Dustin’s shot a narrow-eyed glance at Adam. “Why didn’t I hear about this?”
“I tried calling you, but you’d been deployed. By the time you got back, Mom was well on her way to recovery. Besides, what could you have done?”
“Did you know about this?” Dustin asked Houston.
Houston nodded. “Adam contacted me, but Mom insisted she was fine. I couldn’t have come if I’d wanted to. I was stepping on the plane for a mission.”
His mother held up her hands. “Now, you two stop worrying about me and your father. We’re going to be just fine. You can’t live your lives around ours. Poor Adam does enough of it for all three of you.”
Guilt gnawed at Dustin’s gut. “I should be here for you.”
“You’re a Navy SEAL, and Houston is part of Delta Force.” She cupped Dustin and Houston’s faces and smiled at them. “You do more for the good of our country, and I’m so very proud of my boys.” She backed up, dropping her hands to her sides. “All of my boys.” She reached for Adam’s arm and hugged it. “Did you know Adam received a letter of commendation from the mayor of Waco for saving the lives of a woman and her baby being held captive by her ex-husband?”
Dustin shook his head. “I didn’t know that.” He didn’t know a lot about his family. He’d been away so long, to various missions and training exercises, he hadn’t kept in touch as much as he should have. Ten years in the Navy was a long time, especially when it was as a SEAL. He’d seen more battle than most seasoned soldiers and killed his share of the enemy. “Mom, maybe it’s time for me to quit the Navy and come home.”
“Oh, sweetheart, as long as you love what you do, keep doing it. We’ll get along fine.”
“Yeah, but I could find a job at something closer to home and be nearer in case something like this happens again.”
His mother’s lips pressed together. “Let’s hope and pray nothing like this happens again. I’ll admit, I never felt so helpless as when your father went down and I could do nothing.”
Houston slipped an arm around his mother. “Dustin and I would quit the military tomorrow and come back home to help out.”
“And your father would have a conniption. He’s so proud of you three, he can’t stop talking about you to his cronies at Casey’s diner.” Their mother patted Houston’s arm. “I’m going to make a trip to the ladies’ room. When I get back, I don’t want to hear any more about you two quitting the military.”
As soon as their mother left the waiting room, Dustin turned to Adam. “How bad is it? Do we need to come home for good?”
Houston stood beside Dustin.
Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “As long as I’m here, I’ve got it covered.”
“Yeah, but that isn’t fair to you, taking on the full responsibility of looking out for Mom and Dad.”
“I’m happy here and doing what I love, chasing bad guys and helping in hostile situations. Besides, what would you two do if you came back to Waco?”
Dustin shoved a hand through his hair and shook his head. “I don’t know. Join the police force, go back to college, something.”
“And you’d hate it. You both thrive on action. Fitting into the slow pace of civilian life would kill you.”
Houston nodded. “Every time I’m home on vacation, I’m itching to get back to my unit. Lazing around in the sunshine is only good for a couple days, a week max.”
Dustin knew exactly what that felt like. Too many of his buddies who’d walked away from active duty had troubles assimilating into the civilian life. From being shot at, having rockets exploding around you and always having to look around corners for the enemy, they’d gone slowly crazy. He didn’t want to turn out like that.
“A buddy of mine left the service last year and started his own private investigative and bodyguard service,” Houston said. “If I leave the service anytime soon, I’d do that. I’d be using my combat training and skills as a marksman.”
Dustin considered Houston’s suggestion. “How much of a demand is there for that kind of thing?”
“More than you think,” Adam said. “A man from Dallas approached me not too long ago about just such an organization. Wanted me to go to work for him.”
“Why work for someone else,” Dustin said. “Why not set up our own business?”
Adam snorted. “Do you have connections with people who have the money to afford such a business?”
He had a point. “I guess it would be good to let someone else do the paperwork. I never was one for reports and finances.”
“I’ll see if I can find the man’s card,” Adam said.
In the meantime, Dustin walked over to the television and hit the on button. He hadn’t seen a news report in the past week. For all he knew the Hutus and the Tutsis, Ugandan genocide, could be at it again, the Somali rebels could have completely overthrown the government and the Iranians could be lobbing nuclear bombs into Israel or vice versa.
The local station had a special report playing.
“We have this report from earlier this morning from our own reporter, Jenna Turner.”
“What the…” Dustin turned up the volume.
Jenna stood with her back to a small cottage in a rundown neighborhood, a microphone held to her lips. God, she was gorgeous in her black skirt and kelly-green jacket, her auburn hair curling around her face.
She was saying something about a hostage situation and there were police cars between her and the white clapboard house.
A police officer approached her and forced her to move. The video cut and came back at an elevated vantage point, overlooking the same house and the SWAT team moving in on the house.
“I would have been there this morning, if I hadn’t taken off today,” Adam said, over Dustin’s shoulder. “I’m surprised they let the reporter that close for so long. We usually keep civilians, even the news crews, far enough back from crisis situations. I’m surprised the chief let the Turner woman report that close.”
“Hey, isn’t that the girl you dated in high school?” Houston asked. “I remember you bringing her out to the ranch several times.”
Dustin chuckled, while his gaze stayed glued on the screen. “Yeah, you were a pest, following us around. No matter what we did, we couldn’t shake you.”
Houston grinned. “I know, I caught you kissing her behind the barn a couple times.”
The video continued with a bird’s eye view of the house and the action surrounding it. A man fell out of a window and came up shooting, his weapons pointed at the police until he was shot in the chest. He jerked backward and continued to fire, this time, the guns were aimed every which way. All the while, Jenna ran a commentary, her voice rising, excited.
The sound of breaking glass cut her off, and she exclaimed, “Ouch!”
Dustin stepped closer to the television, wishing the camera would swing to the woman, but it didn’t. A moment later, the gunman lay still on the ground and the video cut back to the anchorwoman in the news studio.
“Hey, Dustin, are you all right?”
“Damn.” Now he knew why Jenna had come to the hospital. “Jenna was hit by one of those bullets.”
“What?” Adam stared at Dustin. “How do you know?”
“I ran into Jenna in the hospital lobby on my way in. She had a bandage on her head from a gunshot wound.”
“I swear that woman has a suicide wish. Every time we turn around, she’s there. I think she has a relative on the force, or she’s listening in on a police scanner. She’s been at every major police or SWAT team event—sometimes before the police get there.”
“She always liked more adventurous pursuits,” he muttered.
“The local station usually has her do the social reports, weddings, fund raiser events, that kind of thing. She covers the shoot outs on her own time as a freelancer,” Adam said.
Dustin shook hi
s head, his protective instincts on full alert. When he could, he’d have a talk with her. Why the hell was she throwing herself into the line of fire? Covering a story wasn’t worth getting killed.
Houston’s eyes narrowed. “You still got a thing for her?”
“What?” Dustin feigned disinterest. “I barely know her. It’s been ten years.”
“Good.” His younger brother’s lips curled in a devious grin. “Then I guess you won’t mind if I ask her out while I’m in town?”
“Don’t push it,” Dustin warned. “I said I barely know her. I might pay her a visit though, while I’m here.” What would it hurt? And maybe he could talk some sense into her crazy head.
“Pay who a visit?” Their mother strode through the door and headed for the coffee maker.
“No one,” Dustin answered.
“His old girlfriend from high school.”
His mother poured cup of coffee and turned to face Dustin. “Jenna Turner?”
Dustin frowned. “Yeah. You remember her?”
“I’m your mother. How could I forget how brokenhearted you were when she dumped you?”
“I wasn’t brokenhearted,” Dustin insisted. “And she didn’t dump me. We parted ways in mutual agreement. She wanted an adventurous life, and so did I. We knew we wouldn’t get that as a married couple.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Your father and I have had our share of adventures.”
His lips curling on the corners, Dustin said, “Face it, Mom, your sense of adventure is taking a different route home from the grocery store.”
She raised her steaming paper cup of coffee to her lips and sipped carefully, grimacing. “You don’t know how much adventure we had before you boys were born. Why I can tell you stories about our cross-country trip across the U.S. with nothing but a couple of backpacks, the clothes on our backs and our love.” His mother’s gaze softened and shifted toward the door. “I hope he’s doing okay.”
Dustin refocused his attention on his family. When his father made it through surgery—and he would, the man was too stubborn to kick it this soon—Dustin would knock on Jenna’s door and tell her what he thought of her chasing crime and nearly being killed.
THE NEWS PRODUCER at the station had been impressed with Jenna and Toby’s coverage of the hostage crisis and promised to look at anything she came up with in the future. Unfortunately, tornadoes sweeping across the southeast trumped her local hostage crisis, and the report never made it to national news.
If all went well with Dustin’s father, Jenna would execute Operation Get-Dustin-Out-Of-My-System. She planned on luring the SEAL to her apartment for the night and making sweet love into the wee hours of the morning. That should be enough to give her a taste of the new and improved Dustin Ford. It would also prove to her that her teenage infatuation with the man was only that…an infatuation of an immature mind. In the morning, he’d go his way, she’d go hers, and she’d be over him for good.
A shiver slipped down her spine at the thought of Dustin in her apartment…hot and naked, lying in her bed, or on her living room rug, or standing in her kitchen, ready to take her on the dining table. She practically felt the cool wood beneath her bare bottom, and another shiver slipped across her skin.
Her body heated, and she switched the thermostat lower. On her way to the store, she’d gotten Adam Ford’s number from her cousin at the police station, and from Adam she’d gotten Dustin’s number, claiming she had something he dropped earlier in the lobby of the hospital. Adam told her he would pass on the message, but she insisted she wanted to speak with Dustin herself. She’d asked about their father, who’d still been in surgery at the time she called.
“I’ll keep him and your family in my thoughts and prayers.” Damn, his father must be in bad shape to be in surgery that long. Instead of heading back to her apartment, she returned to the hospital and parked in the huge lot, tucking the little pink bag of naughty undergarments between the seats in case Dustin rode home with her.
Inside the medical facility, she learned Mr. Ford had been moved to Cardiac ICU. That was good news. He was in recovery.
Jenna let go of the breath she’d been holding and took the elevator to the correct floor. When she emerged, she headed for the waiting room, sure that not all of the Fords would be allowed to enter the CICU so soon after surgery. She’d find one of them there.
Three men looked up when she entered. All three had dark hair and brown eyes and were tall, ripped with muscles and could easily intimidate the weak with their fierce warrior-like personas.
Not Jenna. She’d known them as teenagers, growing up wild on a ranch outside of town. Granted, they were much more filled out and powerful-looking now. But only one stirred her blood. The one in the middle. Dustin.
He stepped forward, holding out his hand. “Jenna, what are you doing here?”
Jenna took his hand in hers. “I was worried about your father and wanted to come lend my moral support to his speedy recovery.” For a brief moment, she glanced up into Dustin’s eyes and fell into their dark depths. The intensity of his gaze burned through her and made her afraid that this experiment to get him out of her system might just backfire. As quickly as their gazes connected, she looked around him to his brothers.
Dustin tugged her closer and slipped his arm around her waist. “Jenna, you remember my brothers, Adam and Houston.”
Warmth stole over her and she fought to keep from leaning into Dustin’s hard body. She focused on the brothers as, one by one, she shook hands with them. Then she asked of all three, “How is he?”
“The doctor said he made it through surgery just fine,” Adam said. “The next twenty-four hours will be critical.”
“The CICU nurses will keep a close watch on him,” Houston said. “They’ll take good care of Dad.”
Adam nodded. “Mom’s going to stay the night here at the hospital in the waiting room.”
“What about the rest of you? Are you staying in town or going back out to the ranch?” Jenna asked, her heart fluttering, as she braced herself for their response.
“I’m heading back to the ranch,” Adam said. “Mom asked me to collect a few things for her, and I want to check on the foreman and see if he needs help with the animals.”
“I’ll probably ride with Adam.” Houston rubbed hand over his chin. “I could use a shower and a shave. Then I’m coming back here to be with Mom for the night. But there’s no use in all of us sleeping in the waiting room.”
Which left Dustin.
She cleared her throat and smiled at Houston. “I have an apartment not far from here, with a spare bedroom if you need a place to stay close to the hospital.” Heat rose in her cheeks and she willed it away. “You don’t need to spend money on a hotel if you want to stay closer to your mother and father.”
“Thanks,” Houston said. “I really need to go to the ranch. I didn’t bring much with me. I’m hoping to borrow some clothes from Adam or Dad as well as a razor and shaving cream. And when I’m not hanging out with Mom here at the hospital, I’ll stay at the ranch.”
Her heart thumping hard against her ribs, Jenna turned to Dustin. “What about you?”
He hadn’t said a word since she she’d offered to let them stay at her apartment. His gaze bored into hers with the power to make her entire body burn. “I’ve been awake over forty-eight hours. I could use a real bed, but I’d like to be closer to the hospital in case Mom needs me in a hurry.”
Butterflies erupted in Jenna’s belly and heat rose into her cheeks.
Houston commented. “There’s a hotel across from the hospital.”
“I’m a couple blocks away. You could be here almost as fast,” she said, her voice wavering, her courage shrinking under Dustin’s enigmatic look. When he didn’t answer immediately, she chickened out. “Look, the offer stands for any of you. You need a place to stay in town. You’re welcome to come stay with me.” She pulled a card out of her purse, jotted her address on the back and handed it to Adam sinc
e Dustin wasn’t responding.
At that moment, her cell phone vibrated in her purse. She grabbed it like a lifeline to keep her from looking again into Dustin’s eyes. A text message flashed across the screen from a number she didn’t recognize.
I need your help. Can you meet me at the farmer’s market at closing time? Rebecca
Her stomach clenched and her attention shifted from the men in the room to her own family issues. She dug her spare key out of her wallet and handed it to Adam as well. “That key will get you in.”
With a quick glance Dustin’s way, she hurried out of the room, embarrassment making her feet move faster.
Had she misread his interest from when he’d plowed into her earlier? When she’d broken off their engagement ten years ago, she’d been pretty harsh, knowing the only way to get him to follow his dreams was to cut his ties with her and their hometown. Had she been too effective?
Convinced he was completely over her, Jenna jabbed at the down button on the elevator, her vision blurring through a rush of tears. She missed, blinked and tried again.
A hand descended on her arm and turned her around.
She knew without looking up that Dustin stood in front of her.
“Why?”
Jenna swallowed hard in an attempt to force down the lump lodged in her throat. “Why what?” she whispered.
“Why did you offer your apartment?”
She shrugged refusing to look up. “I know how hard it is when your family is in the hospital. Staying in a hotel is so…impersonal. I would have offered a place to stay for any of my friends.”
“Yeah, but we’re not friends,” he said, his voice tightening.
She lifted a shoulder and let it fall, her chest so tight she could barely draw a breath. “Yeah, but I had hoped you would have forgiven me by now.” Her voice faded off.
Dustin’s fingers dug into her arm, and he lifted her chin with his other hand. “You were pretty clear ten years ago that you didn’t want anything to do with me. Have you changed your mind?”
She shook her head. “No.” And it was true. She hadn’t changed her mind, because she’d never stopped loving this man. Hell, this experiment was going to blow up in her face and reopen all the emotion she’d felt at the time she’d pushed him away so many years ago. “Forget it. I thought you and your brothers could use a little help. If it’s uncomfortable for you because of our past relationship, no worries. You can put the key in the mail. Now, I have to go.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she jerked away from him.
