Falling for Her Bodyguard--A Clean Romance

by Amy Vastine

  Donovan took her at her word and left her alone. The stalker never called back. Let down, Kelly felt like she had been so close to getting more information out of him. If they hadn’t been interrupted, maybe he would have said his name.

  Minutes before his show, Jax showed up and strolled into the studio without a care in the world. What Kelly wouldn’t do to feel like that again. She waited for him to ask who all the extra people were, but he refrained. She could only imagine the amount of gossip going around the office.

  Lyle cued her that she was on. Kelly signed off and turned things over to Jax like it was any other day. Only it was far from it.

  Before she took off her headphones, Lyle cut in. “Hey, there’s a call for you. Not him but someone else. Line three.”

  Kelly picked up the line. “Hello, this is Kelly Bonner.”

  “Hi, ma’am. This is Officer Holmes with the Nashville Police Department. I have a young man here who says he belongs to you.”

  There was only one young man who would get in trouble and call her. “Graham? Is he okay? Did something happen?”

  “He’s fine, ma’am. He said you are his guardian, that his parents are deceased. Is that true ma’am?”

  “Is he under arrest?” She held her breath, waiting for the answer.

  “No, ma’am, but he was in a fight and we need you to come get him.”

  “Where are you?”

  Officer Holmes gave her the details, leaving her to figure out how to get to King’s Ice Cream without telling Donovan. She slipped into the control room.

  “Do you think you can do me a favor?” she asked Lyle.

  “Anything.”

  “Can you get me the keys to the station’s van?”

  “Why would you need that?”

  “I need to get out of here for a minute. Alone,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t ask any more questions.

  Lyle frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. You were just on the phone with your stalker. You have a gaggle of cops huddled together in the conference room, trying to figure out how to catch him.”

  “Perfect timing if you ask me. They have work to do and I will be back before they miss me. If anyone is looking for me, tell them I’m in a meeting.”

  Lyle wasn’t convinced. “You’re going to get me arrested.”

  “They can’t arrest you. Helping me isn’t against the law. Having a bodyguard is...” An independence stealer, messing with her head, more than she asked for—Kelly could think of quite a few ways to finish that sentence. “A perk of having a police officer uncle,” she finished. “Don’t worry.”

  As much as she was falling for her bodyguard, she was still the same person she’d always been. She was willing to help out a friend when they needed her. She appreciated Donovan’s protection but wished she could see him every day because she chose to spend time with him rather than being forced.

  “Fine, but if you get busted, I had nothing to do with this.”

  Kelly used her finger to cross her heart. She wouldn’t get busted. She could grab Graham, take him home and be back before Donovan even noticed. She knew why Graham had called her and not his uncle. She wished she had had someone to call when she was a teenager who could have saved her from the wrath of her overprotective and overreacting parents. Donovan wouldn’t give Graham the benefit of the doubt. Even if he had a perfectly good reason for getting into a fight, Donovan would come down hard on him. Graham knew that and so did Kelly.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  DONOVAN FELT BETTER about the way things were going in this case. They didn’t get a name or a location, which would have put an end to all of this, but he was confident this guy would be in touch soon. When he did try to contact Kelly again, he would let something slip. They were going to catch him and put him away for breaking and entering as well as stalking.

  “If he doesn’t reach out again by phone, we need to be ready for him to make an appearance at the farmers market. He was listening, so he’ll go there if he wants to show himself to her,” Hermann said. He looked at Donovan. “That means you can’t be there.”

  “What? I’m not sitting this one out.”

  “You are if we want him to approach her. This guy knows you. He’s seen you with her. If you’re there, he’s not going to make contact.”

  “Isn’t it going to be suspicious that she suddenly doesn’t have a bodyguard?” Donovan argued.

  “Not if they just talked about how she didn’t want one. How it was because of her uncle. Maybe she dropped you because he pointed out that it made him feel like a bad guy. It could be her way of telling him she wants to meet him.”

  It made sense logically. Donovan was having a hard time thinking logically when it came to Kelly, though. He was too close and Hermann knew it.

  “I want to be there. I don’t have to be with her, but I want to be on location. Undercover.”

  Hermann shook his head. “If he spots you anywhere at that market, it’s over. You can’t be there. You have to trust that we’ve got this.”

  “I can be in a van.” He needed to be close enough to get to her when she needed him.

  “Listen, I get it. You and her, you’ve got a thing going. But I need you to be a cop here, not her boyfriend.”

  “I’m not her boyfriend,” Donovan fired back. This blurring of the boundaries was not good.

  Hermann dared to smirk. “Whatever you want to call it or not call it, the point is you can’t be there on Friday. You will put her in more danger. I don’t need to call your captain about there being a problem, do I?”

  The last thing Donovan needed was for Hermann to call Captain and tell him that he was interfering in the case because of his feelings for Kelly. Donovan’s partner had been clear about how Captain felt about anyone even thinking about his niece that way. Why had he let himself get into this mess?

  “Of course not. This is your show.”

  “Great.” Hermann clapped his hands together and got to his feet. “I think we’ve got it from here. We will come back tomorrow and Friday, see if he calls back during her show. If need be, we’ll put things into place to catch him on Friday at the market.”

  “Great.” Donovan stood, as well. It was clear he was no longer needed. The only thing left for him to do was get Kelly home safely. Not home. Not her home. Why had he obliterated the boundaries so immensely? She had somehow managed to get him to completely forget there needed to be boundaries. He couldn’t do his job right if they didn’t have them. Hermann had pointed that out quite clearly.

  Donovan’s feelings for Kelly were affecting his judgment. Hence why he hated talking about feelings, thinking about feelings, having anything to do with stupid feelings. Had he been in charge of things, he probably would have ruined everything by placing himself at the farmers market and scaring off the suspect. Why? Because every cell in his body wanted to protect her. It had to be him. No one else could do the job correctly because they didn’t care about her the way he did. That kind of muddled, overly emotional thinking would have been his downfall.

  Donovan walked the other detectives out before searching for Kelly. He checked her office, but she wasn’t there. She wasn’t in the break room or in Nancy’s office. He looked for her in Lyle’s office, but she wasn’t there, either.

  “Any idea where Kelly is?” he asked Lyle, who usually seemed to know what was going on around the station.

  The man looked as if he had seen a ghost. His face paled and he swallowed hard. “Kelly?”

  “Yeah, Kelly.”

  Lyle stood up and rubbed his hands on his thighs. “Kelly. Hmm...that’s a tough one. I’m not sure. Maybe in a meeting.”

  “Maybe in a meeting? With who?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Caroline,” he said with a shrug, his voice rough.

  Something was going on. “Was she supposed to have a m
eeting with Caroline?”

  “I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”

  Donovan stared at him for a minute, waiting to see if he would crack and tell him what was going on. Lyle just stood there frozen. He was no help.

  If she was meeting with Caroline, there was no way he could interrupt. He decided to wait in the lobby with Juliette.

  “Well, if it isn’t my favorite detective.”

  “Are you sure about that? I’ve had some competition today.”

  Juliette pursed her red lips. “I thought about it and you’re still my favorite.”

  She made him smile. “Good to know. Any chance you know Caroline’s schedule for today?”

  “I know a lot of things,” she replied. “That might be one of them.”

  “What time is her meeting with Kelly supposed to end?”

  Juliette’s brow furrowed. “Meeting with Kelly?”

  “Isn’t she in a meeting with Kelly right now?”

  “Kelly ducked out of here about...” She glanced at the time. “Oh, my, twenty minutes ago. Said she was stepping outside for some fresh air. I thought you gave her the okay.”

  Donovan felt his blood pressure rise. “Twenty minutes ago? She’s been gone twenty minutes?”

  Juliette nodded. “You don’t think...?”

  Donovan didn’t want her to finish that question, nor did he want to answer it because he surely thought it was possible that the stalker had come here to talk to her and found her outside unguarded.

  He skipped waiting for the elevator and took off down the stairs. He made it down to the ground level and didn’t find her anywhere in or outside the building. He called her cell phone but got her voice mail. Not a good sign. He went back to the stairs and went down to the parking garage level. He didn’t find her by his truck and she wasn’t hanging out around the valet stand.

  “Have you seen Kelly Bonner?” he asked an unfamiliar-looking valet.

  “Who’s Kelly Bonner?” the man asked.

  “She works in the building. Dark hair, blue eyes. About five eight.” Donovan held his hand up to show him how tall that was.

  “This is my first day, man. I have no idea.”

  “Where’s Miller? Or the other guy? Dark hair, lanky.” They both knew who Kelly was and would be able to tell him if she had been down there.

  “Carl? He’s parking a car. I don’t know who Miller is. Like I said, this is my first day.”

  Carl, thankfully, came jogging back to the valet station.

  “Have you seen Kelly Bonner down here recently?” Donovan asked as soon as he was close enough.

  “Kelly? I saw her a little while ago. Took off in the station van. Why?”

  Donovan’s heart stopped. “What? Took off, like drove away?”

  Carl had a puzzled expression. “Yep. Drove away all by herself.”

  “No one was with her? No one seemed to be making her go anywhere?” He had to be sure she wasn’t taken before he blew his lid.

  “She was by herself as far as I could tell. Said hello when she walked out here.”

  Donovan didn’t even bother to thank him for the information. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and called her. How dare she take off like this. Where in the world did she need to be and why would she risk going alone?

  It rang four times before she picked up. “Don’t be mad,” she said.

  “Don’t be mad? That’s how you’re going to start this conversation?”

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes. I had to run an errand for the station and you were busy with the other detectives. I didn’t want to bother you.”

  “You didn’t want to bother me?” He let out a humorless laugh. “That’s rich. You are my responsibility, Kelly. If you need to leave the premises, you need to bother me so I can do my job.”

  “Listen, I can’t talk right now. I’ll be happy to hear about how mad you are when I get back.”

  “Tell me where you are,” he demanded.

  Instead of answering, she hung up. When he tried to call her back, it went to voice mail. Mad was an understatement.

  If something happened to her, how was he going to explain this to his captain? Telling him that she was missing would be worse than telling him that they were in a relationship. He waited in the parking garage for her to return. This was where feelings had got him. Nowhere good.

  “You all right, man?” Carl asked.

  Donovan rolled his shoulders. “I’m fine. Just waiting for Kelly to come back.”

  “You’re a cop, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I thought so,” Carl said with a nod. “Miller thought you were like her boyfriend or something.”

  Boyfriend. There it was again. “I’m not her boyfriend. I am her bodyguard, though.”

  “You’re her bodyguard? How’s that working out for you?” Carl snickered.

  “Not as well as I’d like.” Donovan checked his phone. She had ten more minutes and he would call her again.

  “Too bad Miller quit the other day. I’m sure he’d be relieved to hear Kelly is still single.”

  After weeks of working out this puzzle of a case, it was like Carl had handed him the missing piece that had been giving him the most trouble. “Why would Miller care if Kelly was single?”

  Carl rolled his eyes. “Dude had the biggest crush on her. Always talking about how they were going to be together someday. I was like, ‘Bro, you’re a car valet and she’s on billboards. You don’t have any chance.’ But he acted like because she was nice to him that meant he had one. Poor guy didn’t realize she was nice to everyone.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me or the other detectives about this?”

  Carl stepped back and held his hands up defensively. “You asked me about seeing anyone out of the ordinary or guys showing up with deliveries. You never asked me if I knew anyone who had a crush on her.”

  He wasn’t wrong. All this time, the guy they were looking for had been right under their noses. He had access to her car. He had access to her keys. He could have found her address on the car registration. He saw her often but not every day.

  “What’s his last name? Miller what?”

  Carl had to think about it for a second. “Miller Green, I think.”

  Donovan bolted upstairs to find Juliette. If she could confirm one thing, he’d be able to hand Hermann his suspect. Once in the lobby, he had to wait for Juliette to get off the phone. Seconds felt like hours. As soon as she hung up, he pounced.

  “The delivery guy. The one you said looked familiar, but you couldn’t place him. Any chance he was one of the valets down in the parking garage?”

  Juliette snapped her fingers. “That’s it! Oh, my gosh. He’s one of the valets! How did you figure it out?”

  Donovan didn’t have time to discuss anything more with Juliette. He needed to get this information to Detective Hermann. They had their man. All Hermann and his partner had to do was go pick him up.

  He called it in and was left with nothing else to do but wait for Kelly to get back. It would have been easier if he didn’t have tons of adrenaline flowing through his body. He could run ten miles without breaking a sweat right now.

  Antsy, Donovan went back down to the parking garage to wait for her. As soon as he got there, the station van pulled in. His emotions were all over the place. Anger, relief, frustration, hope that this would all be over tonight.

  “I know you’re mad. But I’m fine. Here I am, totally fine,” she said as she got out of the van.

  “Miller. Miller the valet. He’s the guy.”

  Confusion fell over her face. “Miller?” She shook her head. “No way. Miller?”

  “He’s had a crush on you for a while, apparently. He had access to everything. Juliette identified him as the man who delivered some of the gifts.”

>   She clearly was trying to make sense of it all. Looking over his shoulder in the direction of the valet station, she asked, “Did they arrest him?”

  “He quit a couple days ago. Hermann is looking for him now. I’m sure we’ll hear something soon.”

  Kelly leaned back against the van and placed a hand on her forehead. “Miller.” She closed her eyes. “It was his voice. It was him. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it.”

  “You’ve been under a lot of stress. It’s understandable that you didn’t recognize his voice when he called.”

  Before he could stop her, Kelly threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

  “It’s over. It’s really going to be over.”

  As much as he wanted to hug her back, he couldn’t forget that she had run off without him. The fear he had felt, the anger. These were feelings he wanted nothing to do with. They were inevitable when he let someone get close, though.

  “Where were you?” he asked. She pulled back and bit down on her lip. “Don’t tell me station business because no one in the station knew you were gone.”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  He could add frustration to the list of the ways he hated to feel. “Why?”

  “You’re not my keeper, Donovan. I am sorry I didn’t tell you I had to leave, but I have the right to go where I want when I want with or without you.”

  She was right, but something about her attitude rubbed him the wrong way. “You know what? I’m not your keeper. Maybe you should stay with your uncle until you find a new place. Now that we know who we’re looking for, there’s no reason for you to be in hiding.”

  “You don’t want me to stay with you anymore?”

  “I think you should return your keys so we can get out of here. The sooner I get you to your uncle, the better.”

  Kelly opened her mouth but shut it. Without a word, she stepped around him and into the building. He was being a jerk. He knew it, she knew it. Being a jerk was another thing he was good at. It was the only way he knew how to deal with all of these negative feelings.

  They walked to the truck in silence. The air between them was thick with all the things they wanted to say but wouldn’t. It was better this way, Donovan kept telling himself.