by Liz Johnson
Sabotage. Somehow that was a much safer topic.
“I don’t know who’s after me.”
He pulled off the mountain road onto a city street and stopped at a red light. Her seat belt pulled snugly across her chest, and she gasped as it set off a chain of mini explosions. Groaning as she hunched forward, she squeezed her eyes closed against the pain where she had slammed into her own seat belt not even an hour before.
“What about that guy at your office today?”
“Gary?” she asked, even though there was no question who he was talking about.
Luke nodded. “You never finished telling me about him and Camilla.”
And she didn’t have any plans to. Ever.
Instead she steered the conversation into safer waters. “Until a few days ago, I just thought someone was trying to make my life miserable. I could believe that someone would be angry enough to steal my identity and try to get my license suspended.” She’d been staring out the window but turned to stare at him when she asked, “How crazy does someone have to be to try to kill another human being?”
A muscle in his neck twitched, his gaze never leaving the road. His jaw worked in slow motion, as though he was chewing on his words before speaking.
Her insides did a total flip, and a boulder filled her throat. Had she really just said that to a navy SEAL? To someone who had undoubtedly been on the shooting end of a gun and maybe even on the receiving end of a bullet? Yes. Yes, she had. This was not safer waters.
“I am so sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up into a crooked grin. “I know what you meant. I’ve seen this kind of thing before.”
“Cut brake lines?”
“Crazy people.”
Somehow, despite the constant ache in her midsection, throbbing at her temples and her foot lodged firmly in her mouth, she managed to match his smile.
“I got this knee a couple weeks before the end of my third tour. That was more than enough time to see some crazy. Like men who kidnap and threaten aid workers.” He glanced her way, and she turned toward him, leaning into his story. But he stopped cold.
Mandy’s friend Staci Sawyer had been a prisoner in Lybania only a couple years before, detained for passing out Bibles while running a clinic for women and children. Had he been part of the SEAL team that rescued her?
“Staci?”
His lips pursed to the side, and she knew he wasn’t going to confirm. He didn’t have to.
“Listen.” The timbre of his voice dropped as he pulled into her neighborhood. “It’s not easy aiming a gun at another person. It’s certainly not easy to pull the trigger. But I made peace with God about that a long time ago. What I do isn’t about greed, ego or passion. I do it to protect as many innocents as possible. But some people are just looking for revenge or so filled with hate that they can’t see beyond their own pain. Those are the ones you’ve got to watch out for.”
“That’s my place.” She pointed to the small blue bungalow in the middle of the block.
He pulled up to the curb and parked the car, but Mandy made no move to get out.
After a long pause, she asked, “How do you know who to watch out for?”
“The ones who cut your brake lines and disable your emergency brake—within steps of your office—those are the dangerous ones. Those are the ones who think they have nothing to lose.”
FIVE
As Luke smacked the rubber heel of his crutch against the front door of the clinic, he caught only a glimpse of Mandy across the lobby. If the bags beneath her eyes were any indication, she hadn’t been sleeping very well since the car accident four days before. Flushed cheeks and an unusual shuffle in her step revealed her exhaustion, but she disappeared down the hallway before he could call out to her.
Tara sat behind the counter, her face pulled tight as she watched Mandy walk away.
“Tell my next patient I’ll be ten minutes.” Mandy’s voice barely stretched into the reception area, and it carried a note of weariness. Tara opened her mouth to respond, but the door swung shut behind Mandy.
“She doing okay today?” Luke asked as he signed his name to the sheet on the clipboard.
“Only if semi-comatose is considered okay.” Tara shrugged, and he cringed. “She’s running on autopilot. Has been for a few days.”
Luke pursed his lips and stared at the closed door as if he could see through it, see what was really going on in Mandy’s mind. He wanted to know, needed more information to begin to help her. But he didn’t have any idea how much she’d told Tara. He couldn’t begin asking personal questions if Mandy hadn’t shared anything with her office manager.
Instead he leaned an elbow on the counter and turned up the wattage on his smile. “So, tell me. What’s a guy got to do to make her smile?”
Tara’s grin slowly grew. “Depends. What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. Something to let her know she has a friend. Flowers?”
With a quick shake of her head, she stopped that train. “Her favorites are white roses.”
The memory of Gary’s bouquet and Mandy’s pained expression when she’d seen them made the back of his throat burn. Flowers were definitely out.
“Does she collect anything?”
“Diplomas.”
He snorted. He’d seen the impressive lineup of degrees displayed on her office wall. “Listen, if you think of something…”
Tara scribbled something on a sticky note and tucked it into the beach bag at her feet. “I’ll think about it and let you know.”
He tipped his head toward the bag. “Been going to the beach?”
Her gaze darted in the same direction, and she nodded quickly. “I like the solitude. I’m always looking for the perfect spot, just a quiet place to read.” She reached down and pulled out a dog-eared romance novel before tossing it back into her bag.
“I miss the water. Just the sound of it.”
Tara’s mouth turned into a strange frown, and Luke cleared his throat and laughed. No need to get quite so sentimental. He’d get to go back someday. Just not until his knee was fully healed.
And maybe not for any more training.
“Before I officially started the SEAL program, I used to go to this beach all the time to run a couple miles. It’s a pretty narrow section of surf, but the shore felt like quicksand on my boots.” Just the memory of those runs made his legs ache. “But there are rocks surrounding it, so it’s not great for surfing. I was usually the only person out there.”
Tara sat up a little straighter. “Really? It was empty?”
He shrugged. “Most of the time. Especially in the evenings.”
“Sounds right up my alley.” Her smile revealed a previously hidden dimple, and her eyebrows disappeared under the orange fringe of her bangs. “I don’t suppose you’d want to share your secret hideaway with a fellow beach lover, would you?”
“Sure.” After all, if he couldn’t use it, someone should. He scribbled a few directions on a sticky note. “It’s north of Mission Beach but not quite to La Jolla.”
Tara’s smile began in her eyes. “Thanks.”
“Tara, is Luke here?” Mandy’s voice filled the entire office.
“That’s your cue. Do you need help with the door?”
“Nope.” He leaned awkwardly on one of his crutches and clambered through the opening with a belated word of thanks.
The empty workout room greeted him at the end of the hall. He’d passed Mandy’s office, but her door had been closed. He did a slow, clumsy circle just to make sure he hadn’t missed her.
Sure enough, she stood in the corner closest to the hallway, her back flush against the wall, hands flat on either side of her legs. Her khaki pants looked as if they’d spent a week crumpled up on her bedroom floor. Her lips were drawn tight, and the color he’d seen in her cheeks before had vanished. Her eyelashes fluttered as she opened them, managing a wan smile in his general direction, but she didn
’t make eye contact.
He moved a step in her direction. “Mandy, are you— You don’t look very—”
“Good to see you.” Her tone said it was anything but. “Hop on up on the table and take your brace off.”
“Doc?”
She grabbed an exercise band from a wooden peg next to the wall of windows. “We’re going to do some more stretching, and I’m going to show you a couple exercises I want you to do at home this week.”
He didn’t get on the table. Didn’t take off his brace.
Instead he stared at her. Hard. “It’s just the two of us here.” He dropped the volume of his voice a notch. “You don’t have to pretend with me. I was there. Both times.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She turned away from him, putting her shoulder between them like a wall.
“Are you sleeping at all?” Pressing a hand to her back, he leaned in.
She jumped at his touch and jerked away. When she swung around to meet his gaze, her eyes flashed with something close to anger, but it was mingled with terror. “I said—” her voice lethal “—I don’t want to talk about it.”
Luke dropped his hand to the grip on his crutch and took three steps back until he could lean against the exam table. Letting his foot rest on the floor, he crossed his arms and waited for the shock on her face to wear off. But she just stood there, her eyes wide, eyebrows raised and mouth open.
He fought the grin that wanted desperately to sneak into place. Her outburst was a good sign. An indication that she was healing. He’d much rather she lash out at him than keep her pain bottled inside.
But she didn’t need to think he was laughing at her, so he bit his lips until he got the urge under control.
After three slow heartbeats, Mandy slapped a hand over her mouth and shook her head slowly. Her big brown eyes never blinked, and he could read every regret there. “I’m sorry.” A muscle in her neck jumped. “I didn’t— I shouldn’t have spoken—”
The slightly wicked grin he’d been fighting before disappeared entirely, replaced by a warmth in his chest and a desire to protect this woman. Arms still crossed, he bent at his waist and gave her an encouraging nod.
“I’m just—” One of her hands fluttered about her head. “There’s so much… Sometimes it just feels like too much. And I promised I’d volunteer at the Pacific Coast House fund-raiser this weekend.”
The carnival. When Luke returned from his tour early, his best friend, Will, had invited him to go to the event in support of the shelter for women who had suffered domestic abuse. There would be a bunch of SEALs there, and Luke had zero desire to face them while still on crutches. Even if he couldn’t ever rejoin their ranks, he could choose when he’d see them again. And it was not going to be hunched over and weak.
Completely unaware of his drifting mind, Mandy still chattered away. “But I can’t even drive home without totaling my car. It’s all so out of control. I mean, not just the car. And then he called, and all I can think about is what if he’s right. And my patients deserve better than half of my mind, but I’m so distracted all the time. And…” She looked around, apparently only then realizing she was still rambling. “And I’m still talking.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Well, you clearly had something on your mind.”
“I suppose so. But you don’t deserve to be yelled at like that.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve been yelled at.” She blinked slowly, confusion crossing the features of her face. “SEAL training isn’t exactly kindergarten.”
That was the understatement of the century. Those weeks had been filled with mental and physical demands like he hadn’t imagined possible. All while being chastised by an instructor who had thought Luke was the weakest link in the class.
Yeah, he could handle a little frustration from Mandy. And he’d do so with a smile.
At least he had a mission. An assignment.
He’d get her through this.
“I’m sorry.”
“Because you yelled at me or because my instructor did?”
She dropped her hands from her face, and a tiny dimple appeared in one of her cheeks. “Both?”
“Don’t even worry about it. I’m here for whatever you need. We’re in this together. If you need to blow off some steam, do it. You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”
Twisting the exercise band in her hands, she nodded. “Thank you.”
“So, tell me what set you off. You said someone called. Who was it?”
*
Who was who?
Mandy blinked rapidly, trying to rein in her wayward thoughts, which seemed intent on skipping down a path that was clearly off-limits. But when Luke had so adamantly pronounced that he wasn’t going to leave her to face this all alone, her insides had done a little cha-cha. And suddenly the baby face under unruly whiskers didn’t seem quite so young. Suddenly he wasn’t a kid or nearly as unassuming as he sometimes seemed.
When he wasn’t saving her from hit-and-run drivers, rescuing her from runaway cars or letting her yell at him, he came across as just another easygoing kid. Except there was an intensity in his eyes, and right now it was making her feel… Well, she wasn’t quite sure what it was making her feel.
Or at least, she didn’t want to give those feelings a name. They weren’t safe, and they sure weren’t professional.
“Doc?”
Her stomach lurched, and she pressed a hand over it, wishing she could control her response when he called her by the nickname. None of her other patients had latched on to her title like that, and she’d never really let them call her anything but Mandy. Only, Luke wasn’t like her other patients. In fact, he wasn’t like any man she’d ever met.
“Who was on the call?”
The call. Right.
She’d much rather think about his grin, or the way his eyes burned with a passion for life when he looked right at her.
But pretending she hadn’t received it wasn’t going to change the facts. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and dipped her chin before meeting his gaze again. “The detective—Fletcher—called just a minute ago.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed, and his jaw tightened. He said nothing.
“He can’t find Camilla.” Even her name tasted bitter. “He said she hasn’t been keeping her regular schedule. She hasn’t been at work, and she’s missed picking up a prescription refill.”
“Prescription?” he asked.
“Gary—” just his name gave her a full-body shiver “—said she’s been on medication that keeps her from having violent outbursts. But she might have stopped taking it.”
“How violent?”
“Enough to trash a waiting room.”
“Enough to try to run you over?”
“I don’t know.”
A silence hung over them as realization settled in. Camilla was the most likely culprit, and no one knew where she was or her next step.
Luke uncrossed his arms, the muscles in his forearms bunching as he pressed his hands to the table. “A few days ago you said she thinks you tried to steal her husband. Why would she believe that?”
The words were at the back of her throat before she could help it, but Mandy clamped her mouth shut to keep them from spilling out. The back of her eyes burned, and she tilted her head back and blinked rapidly.
It would be so easy to answer him, to confess to her own stupidity. After all, what kind of fool fell in love with an engaged man, a man who was a liar and a cheat?
But if she started, she might tell him all of it—the whole, terrible truth. The part that still broke her heart. The part she still saw and hated every time she looked in the mirror. Even after she’d suspected Gary wasn’t free to love her, she’d stayed with him. Even after friends had warned her that he was in another relationship, she hadn’t pushed for answers. She’d loved him and wanted him to love her so much that she’d turned a deaf ear to reality.
And she’d hurt Camilla in the worst possib
le way.
Telling Luke about Camilla meant also telling him her worst mistake. And that was something she absolutely could not do. That crossed too many professional boundaries. She was already in dangerous territory with him. He knew more about her current situation than anyone besides her best friend, who had just moved to the other side of the country.
Luke knew where Mandy lived. He knew how to protect her. And she was starting to rely on him.
Oh, she was in deep.
The wall had to start here. Now.
At least Gary had taught her that. There was no going back when the line had been crossed.
No matter how appealing Luke made it seem.
With a sad smile and a slow shake of her head, she pointed to the exam table. “Hop on up. We need to get to work.”
Luke looked as if he was going to argue, but he stopped short, acquiescing with a little jump. The gray padding on the tabletop dipped under his weight and squeaked as he scooted into position. After rolling up his workout pants over his brace, he peeled it off, letting out a small sigh of relief.
With a grin, she put her hands around his calf, massaging her fingers into the muscle there. “That better?”
He nodded. “Sometimes that brace feels like it’s made out of sandpaper.”
She ran a finger down the skin next to the elevated scar that ran across his kneecap. It was healing nicely. Time to step up their routine. “You’re going to wish you’d never taken it off today.”
Thirty minutes later, Luke turned to her. “Why do you hate me?”
She laughed as she pointed to the parallel bars that ran the length of the far side of the room. One end had a full-length mirror for patients learning to use prosthetic limbs. Luke had been lucky. He didn’t need that. But that wasn’t going to make the first pass any easier. “Walk the bars.”
He looked down at the new knee brace she’d given him. This one allowed him some mobility but still kept him from overusing the healing ligaments. “I’m not sure.”
“Then it’s a good thing I am.” With a hand on his back, she propelled him across the room. The slow clack of his crutches sounded like a countdown, but she wouldn’t let him fall. “You can do this. And I’ll walk with you.”
