Ranger Redemption (Brotherhood Protectors Colorado Book 3)

by Elle James

  “I got a goddammed ticket as I was driving in today. I was only going five miles per hour over the effing speed limit. It wasn’t like I was driving recklessly.” Jason snorted. “Idiot cop.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Emily took a steadying breath and plunged in. “Is there anything else bothering you that you’d like to talk about during this session?”

  He looked up. “As a matter of fact, there is.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I really need to get past this PTSD bullshit.”

  Emily forced a light laugh. “Well, that is why you’re here.”

  “Yeah, well it’s kind of ruining my life.”

  “Do you want to explain that to me?” she prompted.

  “You know I have the nightmares, I jump at loud noises and I’m angry all the time. My wife ditched me because she couldn’t handle it and, since our divorce, I’ve been trying to move on with my life. Now, I’m interested in a girl, and she just looks through me as if I’m not even there.”

  Emily tensed. “Maybe she doesn’t know how you feel.”

  “She has to know how I feel,” he said.

  Emily clutched her hands together in her lap to keep them from shaking. “How does she know?”

  “I’ve dropped hints all over the place, like giving her flowers and other gifts.”

  “Flowers and gifts might not be enough. Have you tried talking to her?”

  Jason shrugged and looked away. “Not actually.”

  “Really?”

  He sighed. “I’m kind of a big guy. My size sometimes intimidates women. They think just because I’m big, I’m mean.”

  Emily found herself nodding. She was intimidated by the man’s bulk. “It’s true. Women can be intimidated by a man’s size. You have to remember that women are more vulnerable. They aren’t always as strong as the men they might consider going out with or even the men they pass on the street. They have to be careful and not get themselves in a situation where they can be easily overpowered by a man who is much stronger and larger than them.”

  “Yeah,” Jason said. “I get that. Men can be bastards and beat up women, but I’d never hurt this girl. She’s the nicest girl I’ve ever known. She’s really pretty and nothing like my ex-wife.”

  “What do you mean?” Emily asked.

  “She’s kind, she’s honest and she would never do anything to hurt others.”

  Emily narrowed her eyes. “And your ex-wife wasn’t kind and honest?”

  “Hell, no,” Jason said. “She lied to the police, telling them I abused her, when she actually beat up on me. She had me slapped with a restraining order. I couldn’t even get into my own house. All I wanted was my own shit. I told her she could have all the furniture, she could have the car, she could have the goddamn house. I just wanted my clothes and the coin collection my father left me. She even got all that. I had to start all over with my clothes, and she put my father’s coin collection up on eBay and sold it. She almost made me give up on women…until I met this girl.” His face softened. “Do you want to see a picture of her?”

  Emily sucked in a breath. In her gut, she couldn’t believe that the girl he was talking about was her. She nodded. “Yes, I would like to see it.”

  He pulled his cellphone out of his back pocket, thumbed through his photographs, brought one up and leaned across to show her.

  Emily let go of the breath she’d been holding when she saw the photograph of the young woman in the picture. She had sandy-blond hair and blue eyes. “If she doesn’t know you exist, how do you have a photograph of her?”

  His cheeks reddened. “I pulled it down off of her Facebook page.” He cringed. “Does that make me creepy?”

  “Maybe a little. You really should talk to her. Make sure it’s in a neutral environment that doesn’t frighten her. Because like you said, you are big. That could be scary to someone. You can ask her on a date, but I’d start with asking her out for coffee or a donut or something. That way she doesn’t have to commit to a whole dinner date. Just ask her out like a friend.” She laughed. “I’m supposed to be helping you out with your PTSD, not your love life.”

  “Yeah, but Doc, you’re the only person I can talk to. You don’t know how much I appreciate it.”

  “Jason, just do yourself a favor. If she’s not interested in you, don’t pursue her. You’ll come off more like a stalker, and that won’t win anyone over.”

  He raised his hands. “Oh, I wouldn’t do that. If someone doesn’t like me, I’d be wasting their time as well as mine.” He looked down at the picture on his cellphone. “But I sure would like to take her out.” He looked up at Emily. “Do you think I have a chance?”

  “You never know until you ask, but be upfront about it. Secret admirers can be creepy.”

  He frowned. “You know, I never thought about that.” He straightened. “Thank you, Dr. Strayhorn.”

  She laughed. “You have another thirty minutes on this session. Don’t you want to stay and talk about your PTSD?”

  “We can next time. Right now, I just want to go ask her out for some coffee. Life’s too short to miss an opportunity to be happy.”

  “That’s a healthy way to think. Good luck, Jason.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Strayhorn.” Jason left the session room, ending Emily’s day early.

  As soon as the outer door closed, the inner one opened.

  Cage stepped through and pulled her into his arms. “I like the way that guy thinks. Life is too short not to do the things that make you happy.” He claimed her mouth in a kiss that left her completely breathless. When he came up for air he chuckled. “I take it the picture he showed you wasn’t yours?”

  “I have to tell you, I almost didn’t want to look. Had it been me, I think I might have lost it.”

  “He could have been playing you, showing you a picture of some girl he didn’t even know.”

  Emily shook her head. “No. He appeared to be on the up and up. I don’t think he’s our guy. We still have Jimmy Rhodes in the group session tomorrow, and I’ll spend some more time looking through my list when we get to the lodge.”

  “I’ll feel better when I can sit in the same room with you and your potential stalker.”

  “We can make that happen tomorrow,” Emily said. “The good thing is, it’s not at the end of the day. It’s my group meeting right after lunch.”

  They left the hospital, climbed into the rented SUV and headed for Lost Valley Ranch.

  Emily hadn’t received any more gifts in her purse, in her office or on the seat of the car. The one person she had an appointment with that day, who could possibly have been the stalker based on his initials and his police record, didn’t appear to be their guy. She almost wished it would have been. At least then, the search would have been over, and she wouldn’t have another night of worry to live through.

  On the other hand, whenever they caught the stalker, that would end her need for a bodyguard and their need to stay in the cabin in the mountains. If, during their group session tomorrow, Jimmy Rhodes ended up being the stalker, all the drama would come to an end. She hoped that didn’t mean that her relationship with Cage would also come to an end.

  Cage was glad the day had ended on a high note and that Emily had not been harmed. They arrived back at the ranch early enough that Gunny had just started cooking dinner. The guys were out at the barn taking care of animals. RJ and JoJo were cleaning rooms in the lodge, preparing them for the guests to arrive the following evening.

  Emily opted to change out of her work clothes into more casual clothes that she could wear riding up the mountain on an ATV. She came out of her bedroom in jeans and a sweatshirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked more like a teenager than a highly educated psychologist.

  Cage held out his hand. She slipped hers into his palm, and they walked downstairs together.

  “Let’s see if they need any help getting supper ready,” she said.

  Cage nodded and walked with her to
the kitchen.

  Gunny had a huge pot of chili on the stove. The scent of hamburger and onions filled the air. He was mixing cornbread batter in a large bowl when they walked in the door. He poured out the batter into a greased, cast-iron skillet.

  “Whatcha making, Gunny?” Emily asked.

  “Chili and cornbread for dinner,” he said. “Something easy and hearty.”

  “Smells good,” she said. “Can we help?”

  He shook his head. “Got it all ready. Just has to cook for a while.”

  “In that case,” Emily said, “I think I’ll go downstairs and get to work on hunting down my stalker.”

  Gunny shook his head. “So, you didn’t get him today, huh?”

  She gave him a crooked smile. “No, not today.”

  “Well, maybe tomorrow.”

  Swede was in the basement when Emily and Cage came down the stairs. It only took him a minute to bring up the databases that Emily needed. She plugged in her flash drive and went to work identifying potential candidates.

  While she worked, Cage brought Swede up to date on what had occurred during the day.

  “I really hope your stalker reveals himself tomorrow,” Swede said. “Hank and the others are all flying in Thursday night. I’d rather the case be resolved before they arrive.”

  “You and me both,” Cage said. “I’ll be sitting in on the session tomorrow. If her stalker is in that group, and he recognizes me, it might set him off.”

  “At least you’ll be there if he loses his shit,” Swede said.

  At dinner, Emily picked at her food again. She assured Gunny that it tasted great, but she wasn’t hungry. Afterward, she and Cage helped with the dishes. Then Emily claimed she was tired, and they were going to head up to the miner’s cabin early.

  JoJo and Max provided their escort to the halfway point, and they went on from there. They spent the first part of the night making love and then holding each other. Cage could tell the stress was getting to Emily, and he wished he could solve the case for her. He hoped the next day would prove to be the last for the stalker, and that he would be caught and sent to jail.

  Catching the stalker would bring such a sense of relief. At the same time, it would leave him wondering where he would go from there. Jake would find him an assignment, and Emily might possibly move back to her apartment.

  Cage stared up at the rafters in the cabin, realizing he’d miss this little place where it was drafty and cold and smelled of wood smoke. Being alone with Emily in the cabin made him want to be with her every night and wake up with her every morning. Was it possible to fall in love with somebody in just a few short days? If it was, he was well on his way.

  Chapter 15

  On Wednesday morning, Emily was up first. She was already dressed when Cage rolled out of bed and slipped into his jeans.

  “How’d you sleep?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I didn’t. I kept thinking that this could be the day we’ll find out who the stalker is. The searches on Swede’s databases didn’t reveal any other finds. If Jimmy Rhodes isn’t our guy, I don’t know who is. That’s the only other JR that matched both the criminal database and the military database.

  Cage pulled his sweatshirt over his head and then stepped up to Emily, pulling her into his arms. “Are you sure you’re up to this today?” he asked as he held her close.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to his chest. “You’ll be with me. I’ll be fine,” she said. “It’s just all the stress of not knowing and waiting. I feel like I’m holding a bomb, and I don’t know when it’s going to go off.”

  “You kind of are holding a ticking timebomb. This guy is unstable. If it comes time for the session, and you decide you don’t want to do it, don’t.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t live like this, wondering every day if this will be the day he comes after me. We have to find him, preferably before the grand opening when everybody will be here.”

  He kissed the top of her head then tipped her chin up and claimed her lips. When he brought his head up again, he stared down into her eyes. “Are you ready?”

  She shook her head. “No, but I guess we’d better go.”

  Like they had the previous two days, they descended the trail to the lodge, showered, changed, grabbed their food and left. Emily sat silently in the passenger seat all the way into Colorado Springs.

  This could be the day. Having Cage in the therapy session could be the trigger that would set the stalker off. She hoped that nobody else in the session would be harmed and that Cage would be able to subdue the man quickly if he tried anything.

  As the hour approached, she skipped lunch and paced her office, waiting for the one o’clock session to take place in the large conference room, instead of her individual session room.

  Ten minutes before one, she glanced across at Cage. “Let’s do this,” she said, and led the way through the building to the conference room where she arranged chairs in a semi-circle, moving the tables out of the way.

  One by one, her patients arrived and took seats. Some talked with others, and others sat quietly waiting for the session to begin.

  Reggie Smith took a seat next to Milo Tate, and they talked softly to each other. A couple others walked in.

  Emily ticked them off on her list of names. She was watching for Jimmy Rhodes when Jay Slater walked in, and she remembered he liked to be called JR. She hadn’t even looked him up on the crime or the military database because his initials weren’t JR; they were JS.

  He sat in the center of the semi-circle and stared straight at her, which wasn’t uncommon, considering all of them looked to her to guide the session. The last two in the door were Nathan Small and Jimmy Rhodes.

  Cage had slipped in halfway through the influx of people and claimed one of the seats. Jimmy’s eyes narrowed when he noticed the new guy in the room. But he didn’t say anything, instead taking his seat on the left edge of the group, placing him closer than the others to Emily.

  She studied him in her peripheral vision. Was it her imagination or were his eyes bloodshot? And were the dark circles under his eyes more pronounced? When he sat in his chair, he rocked slightly back and forth as if nervous or strung out. His criminal record had tagged him with selling drugs. A lot of pushers did drugs themselves. His medical record had also indicated that he had done drugs in the past. For most of the group sessions, he had appeared to have kicked his habit, but today it didn’t seem so. But did a bad habit make him a stalker?

  She glanced from Jimmy Rhodes to JR Slater, and then her gaze slipped around to where Cage sat quietly observing those around him. Normally, this group session went well, with each person sharing his thoughts with a little prompting from Emily.

  But in this particular session, the men were leaning forward. JR’s leg bounced nervously. Milo drummed his fingers on his knee. And the usually good-natured Nathan stared at the floor, frowning. Maybe they sensed her tension and were reacting to it.

  With two men in the group who could potentially be the stalker, Emily struggled with some method to bring him out. If he’d been watching her, he knew that Cage was the man she had been with for the last few days. Surely seeing him in the group would anger him. If she made him jealous by showing favoritism toward Cage, it might trigger him to reveal himself.

  Emily drew in a deep breath, smiled directly at Cage and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. Then she looked from right to left at each person in the group and asked, “How was your week?” She waited for anyone to respond, knowing they wouldn’t. After three long seconds, she turned to Milo. “Milo, did you get the new tires on your vehicle?”

  Milo nodded. “I did, and I nearly had a heart attack at the tire shop when they let the air pressure out of the tire. It made such a loud noise, I thought I had incoming artillery. I dropped to the ground and made an idiot of myself in front of the guys fixing the tires.”

  Emily shook her head. “Don’t feel bad about that. If th
ey were prior military, they’d totally understand.”

  Milo’s lips pressed together. “They were a couple of kids, probably still in high school.”

  “Then they wouldn’t understand, and they won’t until they join the military. Loud noises are going to bother you for a while. Don’t worry about what other people think.”

  Milo snorted. “That’s easy to say but not easy to do.”

  Emily looked around the room for the next person to call on. She pulled in a breath and decided to jump in with both feet. She turned to JR Slater. She captured his gaze. “JR, how was your week?”

  Cage looked toward JR, frowning.

  JR shrugged. “It was okay, I guess,” he said. “I got a job.”

  “That’s good. What kind of job?”

  “I’ve been working lots of hours at a bowling alley. They’ve been paying me overtime, so I haven’t had time to practice those meditation techniques. I haven’t been home much, but when I am, I just fall straight into bed. I’m exhausted.”

  “Good for you, getting a job.” If the man was working a lot of overtime, he didn’t have time to leave her gifts and bash in windows.

  She turned to Jimmy Rhodes. “What about you, Jimmy?”

  His head jerked around, and he looked at her as if he just realized she was in the same room. His slight rocking motion became more pronounced. “What?”

  “I asked how your week went,” she repeated.

  “It sucked, like every week has sucked since I got out of the military. Good for JR getting a job,” he said in a condescending tone. “Every time I get a job, I get laid off within a week. Your meditation techniques don’t pay the bills. My unemployment ran out last month. I’m sick and tired of everything. I’m sick and tired of coming to these sessions.” He lurched to his feet. “If I’m sitting here, I’m not making money. If I’m not making money, I can’t afford the shit I need.”

  He staggered toward Emily. “The only one getting paid in this room is the pretty doctor. Maybe that’s what I need. I just need to find a pretty doctor to support me. That’s it, that’s what I want. I want you, Dr. Strayhorn.”