SEALed With Love (DiCarlo Brides book 2) (The DiCarlo Brides)

by Heather Tullis

  Joel and Sage stayed in town for Trudy for one more day before returning to Colorado. They took the red-eye and after the long drive up the mountain, arrived home in time to shower and change for work.

  It was a long day for Sage with treatments, checking paperwork from the previous two days, and preparations for the next week. She didn’t have time to take a lunch break, but Joel showed up at her door in the early afternoon with a salad from the restaurant.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey, I noticed you haven’t taken a minute to eat yet. I thought you might like something,” he said.

  She saved her spreadsheet and shifted the keyboard out of the way. “What did I do to be this lucky?”

  He grinned. “I can think of a thing or two.”

  “Yeah?” Sage slid the chair out from behind her desk and came around to greet him as he shut the office door. He set the tray on her desk, she tipped her chin up and accepted his brief kiss. She touched his arm, wanting to pull him into a comforting embrace when she saw the grief in his eyes. “How are you doing today?”

  “I’ll live.” His eyed flashed over her desk. “It looks like you’ve been busy.”

  “Yeah. It’s been a bit crazy. We have a full slate of clients all afternoon and evening, but I finish up here after my last appointment ends at five-thirty.”

  “Then I’ll be back to pick you up.”

  “Good.” She gave him another too-quick kiss and said goodbye. She sat to eat her salad, and ignored the curious looks Wendy shot her through the office doorway, though heat crept up her cheeks. Joel still hadn’t talked about his past, but he was being more open than before in little ways and she hoped when they had a chance to catch up after their trip, he would start to talk. He was sticking closer than ever now that they were home.

  A shiver passed over her skin and her mind changed instantly to her stalker. He hadn’t made a move since Mr. Sunshine, but something was coming soon. All the more reason to stick to Joel’s side.

  Joel whistled as he entered his office a few minutes later, though that stopped when he found Mick sitting at the desk, leaning back in the chair and chatting on a cell phone as he stared at the video monitor.

  Mick jumped up in surprise and backed out of the space. “I have to go. Call you later.”

  “Did you need something?” Joel asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “No, I’m good. I was just getting off my feet for a minute.” Mick looked nervous, shuffling toward the far end of the little room, as though he thought he would be out of arm’s reach there.

  Joel tracked him and wondered if Mick knew how quickly he could be dead if Joel wanted it—without the use of his gun, or any spilt blood left behind. It was laughable that the weasel thought the corner of the room would be safe if Joel wanted to hurt him.

  But while he considered firing Mick for laziness—the man had been caught “resting” or goofing off too often to be ignored—he had no desire to hurt the man. He’d send Harrison a note about looking for another candidate for the position, though. He didn’t want to fire him until there was a replacement—his current staff was overtaxed as it was. “Did you check on the conference in the past half hour?”

  “Yes, just came from there.”

  “Good. Lana said things could get a little crazy tonight after their dinner and drinks. Make sure to pass the word to Lars.” Joel shifted his gaze to the video monitor and smiled as he saw Sage munching on her salad. He flicked his gaze back to Mick. “You can go now.”

  “Right. Of course.” He backed out of the room.

  Joel tried not to roll his eyes as he pulled up his email and sent the note to Harrison.

  Sage was running out of clothes and mentioned that she needed to pick up more things, so Joel swung by the girls’ house on the way home that night.

  They went into the house and greeted Rosemary, who was stretched out on the sofa, looking like a truck ran over her. Sage ran up the stairs and Joel walked to Rosemary, his hands in his pockets. “Rough day?”

  “You have no idea. I had to fire someone today. I hate being the boss. I can’t wait until the year is over and I can go back to cooking full time again. What was Dad thinking putting me in charge?” She had an arm over her eyes, blocking out the light.

  “That you needed to stretch yourself and try new things,” Joel suggested.

  “Yeah, I’m stretching, all right. And now I have to tell Harrison to put out a job opening, which means I’ll have to interact with him. That will be worse than actually having to fire Sarah.”

  “What did she do?”

  “What didn’t she do? I swear her credentials were forged. She burned several dishes today, got orders wrong and I found her tipping in the cooking sherry this afternoon—right from the bottle. That was the absolute last straw.”

  “I’m surprised you put up with her for six weeks.” Rosemary didn’t strike Joel as being that understanding.

  “She only started on Monday. I hired her to replace someone who got another—not nearly as good offer—in Denver, but it was closer to his home. Sarah was the best of my pathetic selection of applicants. I swear living in the back of beyond is the biggest curse Dad ever saddled us with.” Rosemary sat up, pushing her legs off the edge of the sofa. “No, just a minute. Harrison is the worst curse ever.” She stood and straightened her clothes. “I guess I should go send him an email. With any luck I won’t have to carry on an actual conversation with him.” She seemed to brighten at that suggestion and headed for the stairs leading to the basement bedrooms.

  Joel smiled as soon as she was out of sight. He checked his watch and wondered how long Sage would take, then decided it could be a while. He pulled out his phone and began checking email messages.

  After a moment he came across another one from the sender ‘Your Future Husband.’ He tasted bile in his mouth as he opened it and scrolled through the message.

  Dear sweetheart,

  I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to find out you’ve hooked up with that Watts guy. I knew you were friendly with him, but I kept telling myself that he didn’t matter, that you would always be true to me. And you could hardly be blamed for his interest in you.

  Now I’m going to tell you that his fascination could turn really unhealthy for both of you if you don’t get rid of him. Especially for him. I saw you touching him and your hands belong to me, like your lips and your body belong to me. I won’t tolerate you spending time with any other man. What happened to the cat was a warning; you better heed it.

  The time is drawing close when we’ll be together always. Until then, stay away from the rent-a-cop.

  Your future husband

  Joel’s stomach curled in protest and his hands formed fists. Now the guy was coming after the right person—Joel. He could take the guy on and come out on top. “I’m ready for you, sucker. Come and get me.”

  Sage wouldn’t come to his place if she read that email. Instead she’d run as far and fast as she could. Joel crossed the room and fished her cell phone out of her shoulder bag. He scrolled through her email and deleted it. He was putting her phone back when she came down the stairs.

  “What’s going on?” She adjusted a bulging canvas bag over her shoulder.

  “More stalker mail. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” He reached out to her and she slid her hand into his. “I deleted it from your account. I know how the last one bothered you.”

  “It creeps me out when he writes.” She shivered and allowed him to take her bag.

  He was relieved when she didn’t ask to read it—there was no way he’d let her see that the stalker was planning to come after himself. “You don’t need to worry about it.” The man had upped the ante and Joel was ready to take him on.

  “Wake up and get moving. We’re going for a run.” Joel nudged Sage in bed and dropped a workout outfit onto the covers. It was a shame to wake her: she was so cute when she slept, but he needed exercise and he wasn’t leaving her here alone.

&
nbsp; She rolled over and looked up at him, squinting in the bright overhead light. “A run? Are you crazy? There’s snow on the ground.”

  “We’re going to the hotel. I let you be lazy until now, but you wanted to stay here, you get to deal with my schedule. I’ll go easy on you this time.” He cocked a grin.

  “Then let me go back to sleep,” she grumbled. “I don’t have to go into work for,” she looked at the clock, “over two hours.”

  Joel sat beside her and combed the hair back from her face, teased the lines of her neck, the length of her arm, her fingers. “Come on, I can think of plenty of things you’d rather be doing than sleeping right now.” He filled his voice with suggestion, picking at her weak spots while she tried to pretend she didn’t notice. When his finger trailed over the shell of her ear, she shivered. He did it again, loving that such a gentle touch could get a reaction out of her.

  “Fine,” she turned and reached for him. “There are things I’d rather be doing.”

  “Great, if you can do those, you can run.” He stood and moved toward the door. “I’ll see you downstairs in a few minutes. Don’t forget your good shoes.”

  The pillow smacked the wall as he headed down the stairs, making him smile.

  He entered the kitchen and put on hot water for her morning tea. She wasn’t being particularly quiet about her feelings about the exercise, but he didn’t mind. Sounds of her moving around, getting dressed filtered to him, and that was all that mattered. He slid wheat bread into the toaster for her and poured himself some coffee.

  Fifteen minutes later they were moving from where he stopped his car in the back of the full parking lot, walking to the hotel. “We could have stayed at your place and lifted weights,” Sage protested. “I hate running.”

  “You’re such a wimp. Come on, you can do it.”

  “How far do you usually run in the mornings?” she asked.

  “At least five miles, but don’t worry, you can stop sooner.” He looked over and saw her flushed face and grinned. She was cute when she was cranky. “You know, if you drank coffee in the morning like the rest of the world, you wouldn’t be so cranky this morning.”

  “I’m not cranky because I’m caffeine deprived, I’m cranky because you’re going to make me run and the sun’s barely up.”

  “You’d rather do it mid-day?”

  “I’d rather do Zumba,” she muttered.

  “You could do Zumba if you stayed with your sisters. You chose to stay with me instead.” He grinned when her scowl deepened, but thought maybe he needed to pick up an elliptical or something for his place if she stayed much longer. Then they wouldn’t have to leave. Then again, it might be harder to get her out of bed if she didn’t have to leave the house.

  “Why would you do five miles a day? Why torture yourself?”

  “It’s only torture if you do it under duress. I happen to like running.” He squeezed her hand. “Besides, you don’t think I stay in shape by sitting around eating donuts, do you? When I was in the SEALs I ran—on the sandy beach, which is much harder—swam miles, and lifted weights every day. I feel like a slacker now that I only manage a run and a few weights most days.”

  “Oh, yeah, you’re a slacker. Everyone says so.”

  He tugged on her ponytail. “Come on, short stuff. You’re going to like this.”

  They did their workouts side by side on treadmills. She groaned and complained, but managed to keep up a steady pace, though nothing like his.

  As they left the hotel, after the run, he asked, “So, how are you feeling?”

  “Aside from the uncontrollable desire to whine like a five-year-old, surprisingly okay.” She puffed out breaths between her words, working for air. “Ask me when we get home and I know if I can still walk.” But she didn’t let her stride slacken, keeping up with him.

  She was so strong, determined, he couldn’t help but admire her inner fighter. “You’re tougher than you think.”

  “You better be making some of those pecan waffles when we get home. I deserve it after this.”

  “Deal.” The sky was getting lighter, but everything was still dark. He loved this time of day in the mountains and already missed his morning runs outside. “I found some real maple syrup when I was in Denver last week. Not stuff processed with chemicals, either.”

  “You never cease to amaze me.” Love and appreciation shone from her face, making his chest ache with wanting to be the kind of man who really deserved such adoration.

  Joel kept his senses tuned to the sounds of morning birds—far less numerous than they had been a few weeks earlier. Then unease prickled along his spine. He heard the sounds of tires on asphalt and turned to see headlights flash over them.

  Joel turned, pushing Sage out of the way behind another car, already taking evasive maneuvers before he saw the dark sedan heading right for him. His instincts kicked in and he dove to the side, tucking under to roll across the icy asphalt, twisting his knee when his foot slipped on the ice as he fell. It threw him off and his face scraped across the gravel.

  He had his gun out of its shoulder holster and a bullet in the chamber before he stopped moving. The car squealed as it moved away and Joel tracked it, pulling the trigger twice, shooting out the left tail light and leaving a bullet hole in the license plate—which he couldn’t read in the semi darkness.

  Sage slid across the ground to him, calling his name. “Joel, are you okay? Please say you’re fine. I can’t believe that happened.” She reached him and a few expletives snuck into her monologue—something he’d never heard from her before.

  “Hey, settle, I’m fine.” Joel’s knee hurt bad enough he wondered if he’d ripped his ACL again. That would be just perfect—exactly what he needed right now. He sucked up the pain and pushed himself to his feet, biting back a groan as he accepted Sage’s help. Everything ached, but he didn’t think anything was broken. Then again, he’d known guys who walked on broken legs before—the adrenaline was still pumping through his system and could easily be masking some of the sensation. How would he protect her if he ended up in a cast? Would he have to find someone else to watch her during the day?

  Sage babbled in shock, “Hold on, baby.”

  He slung an arm around her shoulder and tested the bad knee. He would need an x-ray to make sure he hadn’t done any serious damage. His mind was already thinking of contingency plans as he tried to figure out how to protect her while he was hurt. Moving was agony.

  “We need to get out of sight. What if he comes back?” Sage said.

  Joel reoriented himself and saw the top of his SUV. “I’m parked on the next row. You’ll have to drive.”

  “I don’t know how to drive a stick shift. I’ve never driven a stick before.” Her voice took on an edge of hysteria.

  “I’ll guide you through it. Once we get going, you’ll be fine.” His rig might not be, but he’d deal. “There’s not much traffic yet, it’ll be fine. It’s not as hard as people make it out to be.”

  “You need a doctor.”

  Joel clenched his jaw. “I know. With any luck the ER will be slow this early in the morning.”

  Sage ground the gears as she shifted at corners and pulled into the hospital twenty minutes later. Every jerk of the vehicle shot pain through him, but he clenched his jaw and tried not to yell at her to be more careful.

  His wish was granted and the daytime hospital staff—who were only on call at night—were all arriving when the SUV shuddered into the ER delivery area. They were in to x-ray and back at his curtained cubicle in no time.

  “Now we wait,” Sage said, handing over a Styrofoam container to him from the cafeteria. “I brought us breakfast since I figured you were going to use this as a lame excuse to get out of making me pecan waffles.”

  The eggs smelled good and his stomach growled. They had given him morphine so the pain was bearable now. “A man can hardly be faulted for reneging when he’s in the hospital. Be nice—I’m an invalid.”

  She snorted. “
If you were really hurt, you’d deny it as your blood pumped onto the ground. You must be fine if you’re looking for special treatment.” But her eyes flitted back and forth over him, looking for any signs that he wasn’t okay, and her hands kept tucking and smoothing his blanket.

  “Don’t worry. You’re right, this is inconvenient, but it’s not the end of the world. Everything’s going to be fine.” He snagged her shoulder and reeled her in for a quick kiss, then looked at his plate again. The food looked good on his empty stomach and he dug into the eggs. They were reconstituted, but still better than some of the egg substitutes he’d eaten in the Navy—and the load of cheese on top always helped. “Thanks for breakfast. I appreciate it.” He didn’t want her to worry about him, though he still wondered how he would keep her safe now. He didn’t think she would accept him hanging out in the spa with her all day.

  “You’re welcome.” Looking somewhat reassured, she turned back to her fruit.

  A deputy came into the ER a moment later, asked the woman at the computer something, then turned in their direction when she pointed them out.

  Sage recognized him, calling him by name. “Deputy Peacock, this is getting to be too much of a habit.”

  His eyes flashed over her as recognition crossed his face. “Tell me about it. What happened?”

  Joel told what he remembered and the deputy turned back to Sage. “And you, Miss Parker? Anything to add?”

  “It happened really fast, but it couldn’t have been an accident, not unless the driver was stone drunk.”

  “You keep calling him a he,” Joel prodded. He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Did you see who it was?” He knew who it was—at least in the general sense. Who but her stalker would try to run them down? But he didn’t want to assume anything.

  “It was too dark out, but he wore a cowboy hat. I could see the silhouette against the side window.” She shivered and Joel wished he could pull her onto his lap and wrap his arms around her until she felt safe again, but how could he now? She’d trusted him and they almost been run over. How could he protect her if he was letting himself get so wrapped up in the joy of being with her that he didn’t notice the car?