“It sure is. I’m starting to think my Great-Grammy caused some trouble that wasn’t warranted. If the rest of the family is anything like Layne, I think we’ll get along just fine.”
Gavin stopped talking as he made his way down East Bay Street toward the Ravenel Bridge. It was hard to put his trust into someone he didn’t know, but Layne Davies was a person Walker could trust with his life. Only this time he was putting it to the test.
* * *
“Luke, you wouldn’t believe the infection. Can you imaging hitting your leg with an axe and not getting treatment? I prescribed a physical therapy routine, but the old man may never walk without assistance again,” Layne said, shaking her head as she took a sip of sweet tea. Luke had waited in the restaurant, and Layne had found herself lying easily to the man who no longer held any appeal for her.
“Do you want to come out to dinner with us tonight? There’re a couple of great people I think you should meet,” Luke asked, no longer wanting to talk about Gavin Faulkner.
“I don’t think so. I’m exhausted and talked out,” Layne smiled as she took another sip of her drink. “I didn’t know conferences were so taxing. I’m kind of glad tomorrow is the last day. However, I will miss Charleston. I have fallen in love with it here.”
Luke smiled and jumped at the opening she’d inadvertently given him. “Then you must come back to visit me, er, here. Next month is restaurant week. If you think the food you’ve had so far is good, it’s nothing compared to all the restaurants trying to outdo each other for local awards.” Layne’s stomach agreed, but it wasn’t fair to lead Luke on when her mind hadn’t been able to get the image of Walker Greene standing in front of her out of her head. Piper, Reagan, and Riley, three of Layne’s cousins back home, had teased her that all her pent-up sexual frustration would cause her to do something rash, like hit on a priest or an unknown cousin. Right now she agreed with them. Layne was having a very difficult time not thinking of all the things she wanted to do with Walker Greene.
“What is it?” Luke asked.
“Hmm?”
“You sighed out loud. Sad about leaving me, er, Charleston?”
“Oh, I was just thinking of the long drive back home. Maybe I’ll leave tomorrow night to break it up.”
“You can’t do that! You’ll miss the Medical Ball.”
Luke may have been horrified at that prospect, but Layne thought it sounded pretty good. Out of the corner of Layne’s eye, she saw Gavin talking to someone in the lobby. He must have just gotten back, but he looked irritated. The man he was talking to didn’t look like a doctor. Instead he looked like someone from the military, presumably looking for Walker.
“If you’ll excuse me, Luke, I want to make it to the two-o’clock panel.” Layne hurried from her table and straight at the man obviously bugging her cousin.
“I told you, I’ve been here all day. I just got out of a panel on wound care.”
Layne pretended to trip and as she fell, she latched onto the man bugging her cousin. He was tall, lean, and had military police written all over him. Although, what was interesting was that he was older than the typical MPs.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Layne said, pulling the man’s wallet from his pants pocket and slipping his business card from it before silently dropping his wallet to the ground. “Is this yours?” she said, bending to pick it up. The man looked at her suspiciously as he opened his wallet to make sure everything was still in it. Layne didn’t pay him any more attention.
“Dr. Faulkner, what did you think of that last panel? Your question on wound packing was something I was wondering about, too.” Layne looked seriously at Gavin as if she hasn’t spent the afternoon with him.
“Thank you. I was just telling this man about the panel.”
“Dr. Faulkner was in the previous panel, you say?”
Layne looked at him confused. “Yes. And he asked an excellent question.” Layne turned away from the man and back to Gavin. “Are you attending the next panel, Dr. Faulkner? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.”
“Excuse me,” Gavin said to the man before turning toward Layne and opening the door to the conference room.
“I think you may want to skip the last day of the conference,” Gavin whispered as they took their seats.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
* * *
Walker stared out over the ocean as the sun set behind him. His game plan had been to recover and get revenge. Now that he had the recovery part planned out, he turned his mind to revenge. He’d found a tablet and a laptop in the house but couldn’t crack the security on either one. Instead, he’d been forced to turn on the 24-hour news stations. He’d spent hours listening to them. As he clicked through the stations, he found Jud doing everything from interviews on the news stations to daytime talk shows to appearing on one of the late night shows.
Jud had signed a multimillion-dollar book deal and it was rumored the film rights had already been snatched up for another couple million. He’d gotten the fame he wanted, but what had happened to the shipment of goods that disappeared? The crew of the ship had been found locked in a hold after it had been cleared out of some of the gold. Some platinum, all of the diamonds, and other gems were missing, too. All told, the ship’s owner filed an insurance claim for one hundred million dollars. What had Jud done with the goods? Who was he working with? Couldn’t be the pirates since he killed them all.
“How’s your leg feeling after walking in the sand?”
Walker turned around and found Layne standing there in a violet bikini with a pair of black shorts on. She dropped two towels and a bag onto the sand next to him. “It’s sore,” Walker admitted.
“There’s a study that shows exercise, especially low impact, helps cut down the time for wounds to heal.”
“Does that mean we’re going for a run?” Walker grimaced at the idea.
“Nope. It means we’re going for a swim.” She reached into her bag and tossed him a pair of navy-blue swim trunks with little green palm trees embroidered on them and turned around. “Put those on, and let’s start getting you feeling better.”
The house was on the end of the Isle of Palms in a private community. At this time of evening, everyone was inside having dinner. They were the only ones on the beach as Walker stripped off his pants and boxer briefs and stepped into the swim trunks.
“Do they fit?”
“Yeah, thanks. I don’t really have any clothes with me.”
Layne turned around and pointed to the bag on the sand. “I picked you up a pair of jeans, some athletic shorts, and a couple T-shirts. I guessed your size, but if the swim trunks fit, I think you’ll be good.”
“Thank you. I was getting tired of wearing the same thing,” he said as he pulled off the worn and dirty T-shirt Costa had given him. He smiled to himself as he caught Layne staring. “So, what’s first?”
Layne reached into her bag of tricks and stuck a waterproof bandage over his leg and smiled. “We swim. Doesn’t have to be hard swimming, just enough to get the blood flowing.”
Layne slipped her arm around his waist without saying a word. Walker felt foolish for leaning into her, and it wasn’t because of his leg. He’d had his fair share of women. There were bars in Virginia Beach crawling with Frog Hogs, women who enjoyed the hunt of discovering and sleeping with SEALs. He couldn’t disappoint them, after all. But the feeling of Layne’s hand resting on his waist was more erotic than any of the stripper-like moves the Frog Hogs pulled off. Walker wasn’t one to fall in love, but he could admit he was lusting for his cute physical therapist. Especially when the side of her breast brushed against him, making him think about slowly removing that bikini top and . . . Walker leapt into the water to cool his thoughts.
7
“Don’t be such a baby,” Layne said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s a king-sized bed and you need good rest after the workout I gave you.”
They had ended up swimming for an hour, and then Layn
e had helped Walker back to the one-bedroom cottage she was renting. She’d stretched and worked the muscles of his leg, cleaned the wound, and put a compression wrap on it. She’d also argued with him when she’d handed him a pair of crutches. Ultimately she’d gotten her way. Especially when she told him he didn’t have to use them all the time. Only when his leg needed rest. But now it was time to go to bed and the stubborn man was trying to sleep on a couch that wasn’t long enough for him.
“Are you a virgin? Is that why sleeping in a bed with me scares you?” Layne asked, knowing she was pushing him. The only other option was for her to sleep on the couch and, really, she would much rather sleep in a bed with a sexy man and pretend he desired her.
“A virgin?” Walker sputtered. “I was trying to be respectful.”
“No, you were trying to be stubborn. Now, get into bed.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Walker said as he hung his head. Wow, this could really damage a girl’s ego, Layne thought as she slid into bed and rolled onto her side, facing away from him.
“Goodnight,” she said as she reached for the light and turned it off.
“Goodnight, Layne.”
Layne practically groaned. A voice like that should be outlawed. Now she understood the panty-dropper hitting Keeneston who was mysteriously leaving panties all around town. But if Walker spoke sexy words to her in that deep, smooth accent, then her panties would drop, too.
* * *
That night Layne dreamed of Walker, his words, his voice caressing her, his rough hands cupping her breasts . . . Layne’s eyes shot open. She wasn’t dreaming. Or at least she wasn’t dreaming about Walker’s hand on her breast.
Walker had her tucked tight against him. Her head was on one of his arms and the other arm was flung over her side and cupping her breast. She also felt something very insistently pressing against her ass.
“Walker? I need to get up,” Layne said even as she snuggled closer to him. She rubbed against his erection and his hand tightened over her breast, his fingers playing with her taut nipple.
“Hmm? Crap!” Walker yelled as he pushed her away. Layne shrieked as she rolled off the bed and landed with a thud on the ground. “Damn, I am so sorry.”
Walker’s head appeared over the edge of the bed and looked down at her. “That’ll give a girl a complex,” Layne muttered. “Wait, have you talked to my dad?”
“What? No, I don’t even know your dad.”
“Have you gotten an anonymous message threatening castration for touching me?”
Walker’s brow creased, and he looked at her strangely. “Did you hit your head?”
“You mean when you were so horrified at finding yourself touching me that you shoved me out of bed without receiving a single threat? No, I didn’t hit my head. But I now wish I had,” Layne muttered as she stood up and darted into the bathroom, completely humiliated.
* * *
Well, he screwed that up. Walker listened as the shower ran and flopped back against the pillows. He didn’t want Layne to think he was taking advantage of her. That’s why he pushed away from her. He didn’t mean to push her off the bed. He felt like a complete idiot. But what did her dad have to do with it?
Walker pulled his knee to his chest and then straightened it out. He began the exercises Layne had taught him to do four times a day as he thought of a way to apologize. The door opened and Layne darted out wrapped in a towel.
“Sorry, I forgot to grab my clothes,” she mumbled as she grabbed a dress from a hanger and ran back into the bathroom.
“Layne,” Walker called out as he grimaced as he stood up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just surprised.”
The door was flung open and Layne walked out in a beautiful dark pink dress. Her wet hair was tied up in some sort of twist thingy. “I’ll make an appearance at the conference while you swim in the pool. No ocean swimming when I’m not here. I don’t want you to cramp. I’ll be back in a couple hours, and we’ll be on our way to Kentucky by lunchtime. Okay?”
“Sure,” Walker said, slightly defeated. Layne wasn’t about to forgive him and maybe that was a good thing. He needed to focus on healing and his plan to take Jud down, not the completely breathtaking woman who caused his heart to speed up and other parts to, um, throb.
“Great,” Layne said with a fake smile as she practically ran from the cottage.
“Hey! Can I have the password to your tablet? I want to do some research,” Walker called out as he wobbled after her.
Layne spun around, grabbed the tablet from his hands, pulled something up, and started typing before shoving it back at him. “There. You can get on the internet, but everything else is password protected.”
“It’s like you don’t trust me.”
“Said the man who shoved me out of bed.”
Walker took the hit as Layne slammed the car door and was already a mile down the road before he could say anything. He was going to have to try to explain himself better when he saw her that afternoon. Walker sighed and took the tablet inside. After making a fresh batch of coffee, he sat down and began searching the news.
What’s the matter? Why did you take down your password? Have you been hacked?
What? Walker looked at the messages popping up on the screen and then suddenly the green light turned on and a video call popped up.
“Who the hell are you?”
Walker stared at the older man who must have been the one sending the messages. “Who are you?”
“The dad.”
Oh, this was starting to make sense. “I’m the patient.”
The man’s eyes narrowed, and Walker shivered. It was as if the man could reach through the screen and choke the life from Walker without blinking an eye. This man was scary.
“My daughter doesn’t have any patients in Charleston. And you’re not in Charleston; you’re in Isle of Palms. And according to the IP address I just traced, you’re at my daughter’s house. Put Layne on now.”
“She’s not here, sir. She’s at her conference,” Walker gulped.
“Then what the fu—”
“Miles Davies! Get off your daughter’s computer right this second!”
A woman with hair the color of Layne’s appeared on screen, only hers was streaked with a little silver.
“But he’s looking up—”
“I don’t care what he’s looking up.” The woman turned to the computer and flashed an apologetic smile. “I’m so sorry, young man. My, what a handsome man you are. Anyway, we’ll let you get back to it.”
The man and woman glared at each other, but the woman won out when the man gave Walker one last snarling glare before hanging up. Walker was left staring at the tablet wondering if Mr. Davies were going to pop back on. He was already tracing what Walker was looking up, which worried him enough to set down the tablet. However, with resignation, Walker realized it was better for Mr. Davies to know what he was researching than anyone else. And if something did happen to him or Layne, at least her father would know where to point the investigation.
With resolve, Walker picked the tablet back up and began looking over Jud’s schedule, his social media accounts, and digging around his connections to find a link between Jud and the man Layne had discovered was private security.
* * *
“What are you still doing here?” Gavin hissed as they walked through the lobby toward the morning panel together.
“Luke is creating a fuss, and I didn’t want him to make such a big one that Mr. Snyder took notice to my absence. I’m leaving after this panel,” Layne said, making sure to smile and wave at the people around her.
Gavin looked back to where Darrel Snyder, the private security Layne pickpocketed, stood in the lobby, watching the comings and goings as if Walker would just magically show up at a medical conference. “You’d better not be seen with me anymore.”
“My contact info is in the program. Feel free to call me anytime. I’m really glad we got to meet, Cousin Gavin,” Layn
e said with a wink before waving down a doctor she’d met the first day.
Layne made sure she talked to as many people as possible before the panel started. Luke made sure to sit next to her as the panel began. Right on cue, her phone buzzed with a text message from her cousin Piper. She’d called Piper and ordered the emergency text.
Really bad traffic predicted for tomorrow. Some festival in Charleston. You may want to leave early.
Layne leaned over to Luke and showed him the text message. “What festival?”
“It’s this big tour of homes. People come from all over the South,” Luke whispered back.
Layne let her face fall as she looked worried. “I have a patient tomorrow afternoon that I can’t miss. I’d better leave today.”
“Today? But—”
“I’m so sorry, but I’d feel better if I did. Want to do an early lunch before I head out?”
“Sure,” Luke said, the offer of lunch placating him.
* * *
Layne ignored Gavin for the rest of her time at the conference. She ate a quick lunch and tried not to appear too eager to leave. She promised Luke she’d stay in touch and pretended to leave reluctantly.
By noon, she was driving up the small driveway to the cottage to pack for the trip home. Layne was confident in her skills. She knew she’d be able to help Walker heal his leg, but she’d also been around enough soldiers at the VA to know that the mental trauma of having your team killed in front of you by a trusted leader was going to have a bigger impact on him. Right now he was focused on hunting Jud and healing his leg, but when all that was done, Walker was going to have to face his nightmares. Layne wondered if he’d let her be the one to help him through this trauma after he shoved her away from him.
* * *
She turned off the car and looked at the cottage. The door opened and Walker came to stand on the deck. He smiled tentatively at her and Layne wondered if he was trying to play nice so she’d treat his leg or if he really felt bad about kicking her out of bed.
Forever Devoted Page 5
