The Private Bodyguard

by Cowan, Debra

“Okay. Use the second throwaway phone I bought in Texarkana to call her, then turn it off. We’ve been testing our luck with the personal phones.”

  “All right.”

  He reached over to the bar on the wall and snagged a towel, holding it open for her.

  After a hesitation that had his jaw clenching, she gave him a small smile. “I’m still not ready to get out.”

  Gage fought the urge to reach down and pull her wet, slippery body right out of there. She wasn’t ready to get out. She wasn’t ready to talk about giving them another chance. What the hell was she ready for? If it had to do with him, apparently not a damn thing.

  The watchfulness in her blue eyes told him whatever she felt about last night hadn’t settled a part of her the way it had him.

  Did she regret sleeping with him? He sure as hell wasn’t asking, but why else would she act this way? He knew what they’d shared meant something to her. It wasn’t like Meredith to sleep with him just to scratch an itch. Or at least it hadn’t been her way before he’d hurt her, he reminded himself harshly.

  She hadn’t hinted that she was thinking about what he’d said last night, but he hoped she was. He had to figure out a way to convince her he was in it for the long haul this time.

  If the body discovered by the Attorney General was Julio, Gage was glad the bastard had been eliminated as a threat, especially for Meredith’s sake. But as she had pointed out, he could possibly have just lost his last connection to Larry James.

  Gage had made no progress on the case or with Meredith. He hoped he hadn’t lost his last chance with both of them.

  He was getting to her. Meredith had known he would and she was prepared. Sort of. Though she was jittery, so far she had managed not to give in to the hope that things could be different for them.

  The sex was as good as ever, although now there was an added poignancy. Every time he touched her, it was as if he thought it might be for the last time. And it might be. The closer the trial got, the stronger the possibility grew.

  Because Gage’s SUV could be recognized by the still-unidentified man who’d followed them in Broken Bow, they’d decided to leave it at the lake house, returning to Presley in Meredith’s Thunderbird.

  When Meredith had called to ask her friend for a place to stay, Robin had agreed immediately. She’d also said she knew something weird was going on and wanted Meredith to fill her in when she arrived. There was no way Robin would guess Gage was at the center of that something weird.

  A sense of sadness had swept over Meredith when they left the Greens’ cabin. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the uncertainty about the upcoming trial or because she had realized how difficult it was going to be to walk away from Gage again.

  While secluded with him, there had been no choice except to live in the moment. And Meredith thought she was handling it fine until late that night as they stood on the wide wraparound porch of Robin’s century-old farmhouse. When her longtime friend answered Meredith’s knock, doubt sizzled through her.

  With her dark hair pulled up in a ponytail and wearing flannel pajamas, Robin Daly looked more like a teenager than a decorated detective. She opened the screen door and pulled Meredith into a hug. “I’m glad you made it without any problems. I was starting to wonder. Come on in.”

  “I didn’t tell you everything.”

  The other woman laughed. “You can tell me inside. It’s cold out here.”

  “I’m not alone.”

  Robin frowned, looked past Meredith’s shoulder to the circular gravel drive beyond. “Okay.”

  Gage stepped silently out of the deep shadows to Robin’s left and she spun toward the movement.

  “Hey, Robin,” he said quietly.

  For two heartbeats, the petite brunette looked nonplussed, then her classic features slipped into a polite unreadable mask. Her cop face. “Gage Parrish? Wow.”

  Despite Robin’s reputation for being practically unflappable, Meredith was surprised at how quickly her friend regained her composure upon seeing a supposedly dead man. She was probably already sizing up the situation.

  “Witness protection?” she asked evenly as she ushered them inside and closed the door.

  Meredith exchanged a look with Gage as he confirmed the other woman’s guess. It was a good thing he’d already decided to tell Robin everything. His main concern was Meredith’s safety and even if her friend was furious with him, he believed she would keep quiet for Meredith’s protection.

  Robin crossed the living room, the large area warmed by a fire burning in a gray stone fireplace. The space was updated with dark furniture, wood flooring and cheerful rugs in a deep red. Family portraits in antique frames, an old grandfather clock and a rocking chair in the corner integrated the old with the new. “Put your stuff down somewhere in here. Y’ all want something to eat?”

  “No, thanks.” Meredith draped hers and Gage’s coats over the back of a taupe ultrasuede sofa and followed their hostess into the kitchen.

  “How about something to drink—Okay, I have to sit down. This is too wild.” She plopped into a chair at the light oak dining table. “I knew something was hinky when I talked to you, but I never figured this.”

  Meredith had only seen her friend this rattled one other time and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. “How did you put together so fast that he’s been in the Witness Security Program?”

  “His death was obviously faked and the trial for the arsonists he busted is coming up. Makes sense the prosecution would want to protect their witnesses. I guess none of the other task-force members are really dead, either.”

  “The last I heard, they weren’t,” he answered somberly as he pulled out a hard-backed dining chair for Meredith then eased down into the one next to her. “But that was a year ago. I don’t know about now.”

  The same dark flooring carried over from the living area. The dining table was centered in the big room finished with dark blue counters and white cabinets. A large picture window gave the kitchen an airy, open feel. Meredith noticed her friend’s holstered gun and badge on the nearest counter top.

  She hadn’t been sure how Robin would react to seeing Gage. The policewoman had always made clear that she thought he was a bonehead for letting Meredith get away.

  Meredith glanced over at Gage. “This okay?”

  “Sure, if it’s okay with Robin.”

  A slight frown gathered on the other woman’s brow as she looked at them both. “Of course, you can stay. Meredith, did you know about this? His being alive?”

  “Not until several days ago.”

  “It was a big surprise to her, too.” Gage linked his fingers with hers.

  At his touch, Meredith stiffened, but didn’t pull away. Nor did she respond when he gave her a sideways look. “That’s an understatement. I nearly passed out when I saw him bleeding over the sink.”

  She related how Gage had believed the Borens lake house to be empty and had gone there for medical supplies.

  “Gunshot wound,” he offered. He described how he’d been shot by Marshal Nowlin, about how he and Meredith had been caught off guard when the marshal and an Hispanic man showed up at the lake house.

  Robin’s eyes widened as she looked at Meredith. “You shot the marshal?”

  “Good thing she did or I’d be dead,” Gage said. “She’s saved my life twice.”

  Robin stared hard at Meredith. “Damn, girl.”

  “Tell me about it,” she muttered.

  Gage continued, “We plan to lay low until the trial.”

  “Which is supposed to start in two days,” Robin said.

  He nodded. “I called the Attorney General on our way up here. He wants us to identify the body of a man matching the description of the intruder who shot at us in Broken Bow. And we both have to be deposed about the marshal.”

  “You can stay here as long as you want.”

  The offer was sincere, but Meredith could see the frost slowly gathering in her friend’s eyes and in her manne
r toward Gage. Robin hadn’t completely forgiven him for the way he’d hurt Meredith.

  “I’ve been working the break-in at your house,” Robin said. “But haven’t gotten anything new. Didn’t find any prints, not even a smudge. Do you think it was this Julio guy?”

  “Very probable,” Gage said. “We never found any prints at the arson fires we think he started.”

  Meredith recognized the glint in her friend’s blue eyes. Robin was about to burst with questions—for Meredith, not Gage.

  He finally caught on, too, and stood. “I’m outta here so y’all can talk.”

  Their hostess indicated the hall on the other side of the living area. “There are two guest bedrooms. Take your pick.”

  “Thanks.” Gage lightly squeezed Meredith’s hand before starting into the living room.

  “Be careful with your shoulder,” she cautioned as he scooped up her bag along with his. She watched him go, feeling a mix of uncertainty and longing and regret.

  Robin muttered something under her breath and pushed out of her chair. “Parrish?”

  Meredith’s gaze shifted from Gage to her friend on the other side of the table. Uh-oh. She had seen that give-me-a-reason-to-shoot-you look before.

  Turning, Gage paused in the archway. “Yeah?”

  “Because of what happened at my ‘wedding that wasn’t,’ I’ve made it a point to stay out of other people’s business.”

  His big frame tensed and he waited. At Robin’s mention of being jilted at the altar, Meredith frowned. Her friend hardly ever talked about that horrible day anymore.

  The brunette nailed Gage with a look. “But if you hurt Meredith again, that will become my business. Got it?”

  “Robin!” Meredith exclaimed, but neither her friend nor Gage looked at her.

  His eyes narrowed and Meredith could practically see sparks shooting off both of them. One second stretched into another. Even though Robin’s gun was still on the counter, Meredith’s heart began pounding hard. Robin started to stand.

  “Got it,” Gage said.

  Startled by his response, Meredith drew in a breath. She felt surprise from Robin, too.

  With a half grin, he raised one hand in the air as if surrendering and said in his best John Wayne imitation, “I don’t want any trouble. I’m gonna walk out of here real slow, Detective.”

  It broke the tension and Meredith smiled. Robin’s mouth curved slightly.

  His gaze shifted to Meredith. “See you in a bit.”

  “Okay.”

  Robin remained standing until Gage disappeared from sight then she plunked down in her chair. “Good grief! Seeing him had to be a huge shock.”

  “It was.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. The first couple of days weren’t so good.”

  “I wish we could tell Terra about this,” Robin said. “Just what all happened down there? Are y’all back together? What are you thinking?”

  Meredith drew one foot under her. “Which question do you want me to answer first?”

  The brunette made a face. “Well, I don’t want to know exactly what all happened down there, but are y’all back together?”

  “For now.”

  “For now,” her friend repeated. “Not forever?”

  Meredith shook her head. “Last time, I didn’t know things between us would end. This time, I do.”

  This past week, she and Gage had come close to being killed. She had killed someone. If anything had been hammered home to her, it was that all you had was the moment.

  “If the guy who shot at us and trailed us around the lake is dead, that means Gage has lost his last chance to find something incriminating to nail the mastermind behind the arson ring.”

  “So even if those on trial are convicted, his life will still be in danger and he’ll have to disappear again.”

  “Yes.”

  “Meredith, this could really happen. Are you sure you want to let him that close?”

  She started to say she’d gone into this with her eyes open, that she knew what she was doing, but she didn’t know. The only thing she felt certain of was she couldn’t handle more pain like that of last time. “I won’t let him hurt me again.”

  “How can you help it? You’re still in love with him,” her friend asserted quietly.

  The comment caused Meredith’s stomach to fall to her feet, but she didn’t deny it. “This isn’t about love—it’s about commitment. To each other first, then our jobs. He still has the drive, the single-minded focus he had before, but he seems to genuinely regret how things ended.”

  She explained how Gage had apologized, how he had taken responsibility for what had happened to break their engagement. “And he’s been acting differently. More…thoughtful toward me.”

  “That could be because he hasn’t seen you in a year and a half,” Robin pointed out wryly.

  Meredith nodded in painful agreement. “I’ve thought about that. Before, he didn’t value our relationship enough to put me ahead of his job. What’s to say he would give it any more priority than he ever did?”

  Compassion and understanding darkened Robin’s eyes. “I don’t want him to break your heart a second time.”

  “It’s not high on my list, either.” The memory of last night swept over her. His tenderness, his refusal to make the sex as casual as she had wanted. His sincere desire to go back to the way things were. Her heart squeezed. “I’ve never felt this way about another man, but I don’t trust him not to hurt me again.”

  “So, what about after the trial? What will you do if he doesn’t have to go back into the program?”

  “I don’t know.” She couldn’t think in terms of the future. Gage might believe he could reclaim his life, but Meredith didn’t. She couldn’t afford to. “I just don’t know.”

  Annoyed and impatient, Gage lay on the fluffy queen-size mattress in the bedroom closest to the kitchen.

  He’d caught snatches of Meredith’s conversation with her friend, enough to remind him how deeply he’d hurt her. As if he needed reminding.

  He would never forget the raw pain in those blue eyes—pain he had caused—when she’d broken off their engagement and he wondered, not for the first time, if she could ever get past it.

  The women’s voices dropped to murmurs and he heard them say good-night. The kitchen went dark, leaving a lamp glowing from the living room to throw light into the hall.

  He heard the soft scuff of shoes against the carpet, then Meredith paused in the doorway, blocking the light. For a long moment, she stood in silence outside the half-open door. Her hesitation to enter the room set off a burst of anger inside him. Damn it!

  She still didn’t trust him. He didn’t blame her—she had plenty of reason not to. But, hell, what did he have to do?

  She may have gotten naked with him last night, but she had been skittish ever since. When he’d taken her hand earlier, she’d gone as stiff as a tow bar.

  Mounting frustration and deep regret snarled his gut into a knot. He knew he couldn’t pressure her even though every cell in his body strained for her to come to him. So he waited. And hoped.

  Chapter 10

  Gage’s irritation about the case and now Meredith edged into anger. If he clenched his jaw any tighter, he was bound to break some teeth. He was surprised enamel wasn’t shooting out his ears. The next morning, he and Meredith drove south on Hefner Parkway from Robin’s house.

  He’d eagerly accepted her offer to let him drive the fiftieth-anniversary-edition car, but tension still vibrated between them as it had since they’d eaten, dressed and started this trip to the Oklahoma City morgue to identify the man suspected to be Julio.

  Meredith’s light, luscious scent taunted him as did the tousled blond curls she’d tamed into a neat twist. He wanted to sink his hands into her hair and mess it up, touch her petal-soft skin. But her blue eyes kept him from doing anything. They were distant, a reminder she wasn’t his and might never be again. As if he needed a re
minder after last night.

  After long moments of standing outside the bedroom door last night, she’d finally come to bed. She had slept against him, but she hadn’t really been there. Just like now.

  She was with him, but not with him.

  She wouldn’t let him in past a certain point and he had no idea what to do about it. Force the issue? That would be suicide, but ignoring it bugged him, too.

  She was the first to break the silence. “Maybe we’ll learn something at the morgue.”

  “That would be nice,” he said tightly.

  “Do you have a plan for after this?”

  He didn’t know what the hell it would be. Do his part at the trial and hope someone else found something to incriminate Larry James so Gage could get his life back? “Not really.”

  “I’m sorry. I know how frustrating this is for you.”

  “That isn’t the only thing frustrating me.” He wasn’t fazed by the sharp look she gave him. His discontent about their relationship—about her—was no secret.

  She opened her mouth as if to say something, only to be interrupted by a burst of song from her cell phone. After a quick glance at the call screen, she looked at Gage in surprise. “It’s my neighbor Sarah.”

  “It’s okay to take it.”

  “All right.” She answered, then grew eerily still. “Wait, slow down.”

  At the shock on her face, concern shot through him, then surprise as she reached for his hand.

  Meredith held on tight, grateful Gage was with her. A buzzing had started in her ears at her neighbor’s first words. She managed to reply to the other woman calmly, but her nerves wound tighter and tighter. After a few moments, she hung up, feeling ill and detached.

  Gage squeezed her hand. “Baby?”

  Reeling, she shook her head. “Sarah said there’s been a fire at my house.”

  “What!”

  “She saw the smoke and called 9–1-1. The fire department got there quickly and the fire’s out now, but she doesn’t know how much damage was done.” Her voice thickened. “She said it’s still standing. That’s good. Maybe it isn’t too bad.”