His Obsession Next Door (In the Line of Duty)

by Cathryn Fox

  Dedication

  To my faithful Lab, Jersey…always my protector. And to all the military working dogs who help keep us safe.

  Chapter One

  “What’s gotten into the puppies tonight?” Veterinarian Gemma Matthews asked her assistant as she finished securing the last howling pooch into its kennel.

  Victoria gave a mock shiver and shot a nervous glance toward the shelter window. “It’s the moon. It’ll be full tomorrow night.”

  Despite the uneasy feeling mushrooming inside Gemma, she laughed at her assistant and followed the long column of silver moonlight illuminating a path along the cement floor. She reached the front lobby of her clinic, now eerily quiet after a demanding day of surgeries, and turned to Victoria. She gave a playful roll of her eyes, and said, “You’ve seen too many scary movies.”

  Victoria dabbed gloss to her lips, smacked them together and countered with, “Hey, it could happen.”

  Gemma arched a brow, humoring the young girl she’d hired straight out of veterinary college. “You think?”

  “Sure.” Victoria’s long, blonde ponytail flicked over her shoulder as she gestured to the no-kill shelter attached to the clinic. “That’s why the dogs are barking.” Her green eyes widened and her voice sounded conspiratorial when she added, “They can sense the big, bad wolf out there, ready to shred a human’s heart into a million tiny pieces.”

  “I hate to break it to you, Victoria,” Gemma said, grinning at her assistant’s antics, “but werewolves don’t exist.” Even though Gemma didn’t believe in the supernatural, there was nothing she could do to ignore the jittery feeling that had been plaguing her all day. The truth was, the dogs weren’t the only ones feeling antsy and out of sorts on this hot summer night.

  Her assistant held her arms up and jangled the big, silver charm bracelets lining her wrists. “Well I’m not taking any chances, which is why I’ve armed myself with silver.”

  Before Gemma could respond, the office phone started ringing. As Victoria turned her attention to the caller, Gemma dimmed the lights and made her way to the front door to stare out into the ominous night. She stole a glance skyward and took in the mosaic of stars shimmering against the velvet backdrop. Even though the Austin night was calm, with not a cloud to be found in the charcoal sky, deep inside Gemma could sense a strange new ripple in the air. It left her feeling ill at ease. She placed a hand over her stomach, unable to shake the feeling that all was not right in her world.

  Honestly, she had no reason to feel apprehensive or troubled, considering she finally had everything she ever wanted—her own clinic in the city, a no-kill shelter to help re-home animals, and an upcoming banquet that would hopefully raise enough funds to expand her animal sanctuary before she had to start turning pets away.

  Swallowing down her edginess, Gemma set the deadbolt and was about to switch the sign from Open to Closed when a tall, dark figure stepped from the inky shadows. She sucked in a quick breath and felt a measure of panic as the very male, very familiar figure came into view.

  Speaking of the big, bad wolf.

  “Oh. My. God,” she rushed out breathlessly.

  “Is everything okay?” Victoria asked from behind the counter.

  Instead of answering, Gemma’s shaky hands went back to the deadbolt, certain she had to be hallucinating. The bell overhead jangled as she pulled the door open and the second she came face to face with the man from her past, the same man who’d rebuffed her seduction days after her seventeenth birthday, she feared nothing would ever be okay again.

  Moving with the confidence of a man on a mission, he came closer, the long length of his powerful legs eating up the black sidewalk in record time. Even in the dark she’d recognized that hard body of his, developed from hardcore military training rather than endless hours in some sleek gym. Her gaze took in the leather motorcycle jacket stretched over broad shoulders before traveling back to his chiseled face. Dark, penetrating eyes—harder now from having seen too much carnage—locked on hers, and the raw strength of the impact hit like a physical blow.

  He came barreling through her front door. “Gemma,” he rushed out breathlessly. The urgency in his voice had the fine hairs on the back of her neck spiking with worry.

  “Cole,” she somehow managed to say around a tongue gone thick as she stumbled backward. “What…how…?” She choked on her words as she glanced past his shoulders to see where he’d come from. She’d been positive that after the funeral last year she’d never set eyes on this man again, and if she did, their chance meeting wouldn’t go down like this.

  Worried eyes full of dark concern cast downward. “Gemma…it’s…it’s Charlie…he’s hurt…” Cole’s fractured words fell off and that’s when Gemma’s gaze dropped.

  Her heart leaped into her throat and she instantly snapped into professional mode when she caught the silhouette of the Labrador Retriever bundled in his arms. “Follow me.” Jumping into action she turned and found Victoria rushing down the hall toward Exam Room 1, already a step ahead of them.

  Gemma moved with haste and worked to quiet her racing heart. “Tell me exactly what happened.” She kept her tone low and her voice controlled in an effort to calm Cole and minimize his anxiety.

  Keeping pace, he followed close behind her, his feet tight on her heels. “We were out for a run in Sherwood Park,” he began. “A squirrel sidetracked him, and he veered off the beaten path. He was jumping a log and didn’t see the sharp branch sticking up.”

  She stole a quick glance over her shoulder and when dark, intense eyes focused on hers, her stomach clenched. “It’s going to be okay, Cole. I promise.” She drew a breath and gave a silent prayer that it was a promise she could keep. Gemma pushed through the swinging door and gestured with a quick nod toward the sterile examination table while she hurried to ready herself.

  Understanding her silent command, Cole secured the whimpering dog onto the prep counter. Gemma’s heart pinched when he placed a solid, comforting hand on the animal’s head and spoke in soothing tones while Victoria went to work on preparing the pre-surgical sedative.

  Gemma scrubbed in quickly and put on her surgery gear. She gave the dog a once-over before she dabbed at the blood to assess the depth of the wound. Angling her head, she cast Cole a quick glance. “Why don’t you take a seat in the other room. This could take a while.”

  “I’m staying,” Cole said firmly, their gazes colliding in that old familiar battle of wills.

  Uncomfortable with the idea of him watching while she worked, and fully aware that he was a distraction she didn’t need during surgery, she urged, “It could get messy.”

  “I’ve seen blood before, Gemma.” With his feet rooted solidly, he folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not leaving him.”

  “Cole—”

  “I’m fine.”

  Not wanting to waste time with a debate and knowing Cole was a bomb expert who’d seen his fair share of blood in the field, she gestured toward the chair in the corner. Once Cole stepped away, she cleansed the animal’s wounds and continued her assessment.

  She checked temperature, pulse and respiration before evaluating Charlie’s gums. She shot Victoria a look as her assistant secured the blood pressure cuff and waited for the go ahead on the pre-surgical sedative.

  “He’s already trying to crash,” Gemma said. “We have to go straight to surgery.”

  Working quickly, Gemma hooked the dog to an I.V. catheter and induced anesthesia while Victoria began the three-scrub process to shave and sterilize Charlie’s skin.

  Once the dog was clipped and scrubbed, Gemma reassessed. “He’s lost a lot of blood, but I’m no
t seeing any visible organ damage. We’ll have to flush the cavity to clean out the debris before we stitch.”

  As Gemma sprayed the area with warm saline, Victoria called out, “Pulse ox dropping, heart rate down to forty-five.”

  Damn, this was not good. Fearing she was missing something, she sprayed the area again and gave the cavity another assessment. That’s when she noticed the tree had nicked a vessel on the liver. Gemma’s heart leaped and worry moved through her as she exchanged a look with Victoria. Keeping her fingers steady and her face expressionless for Cole’s sake, she worked quickly to tie the vessel off before it was too late. Once complete, she rinsed the area, and when the bleeding came to a halt, she exhaled a relieved breath.

  She turned her attention to her suture. A long while later she glanced at the clock, noting that more than an hour had passed since Cole had first stepped foot in her door. Gemma secured the last stitch, wiped her brow and stood back to examine the dog.

  “Vitals are good,” Victoria informed her. Gemma gave a nod and took off her surgery garb. She quickly washed up and let loose a slow breath, confident that the dog would recover.

  “Will he be okay?” Cole whispered.

  Gemma’s skin came alive, Cole’s soft, familiar voice sending an unexpected curl of heat through her tired body. She turned to him and he stepped closer, the warmth of his body reaching out to her and overwhelming all her senses. As he looked at her with dark, perceptive eyes that knew far too many of her childhood secrets, she jerked her head to the right. “Let’s go into the other room.”

  She pushed through the surgery doors and Cole followed her into the lobby where she could put a measure of distance between them.

  “Is Charlie going to be okay?” Cole asked again, raking his hands through short, dark hair that had been cut to military standards.

  Gemma rubbed her temples and leaned against the receptionist’s counter. “He’s lucky you got him to me when you did.”

  For the first time since stepping into her clinic, his shoulders relaxed slightly. “He’s going to be okay?”

  “Yes. He’s going to be fine.” She drew a breath and stared at the man before her, hardly able to believe that he was here in her clinic. Shortly after her botched seduction some ten years ago he’d enlisted in the army and had gone out of his way to avoid her.

  As she considered that further, she decided to brave the question that had been plaguing her since he’d darkened her doorway. She waved her hand around the front lobby. “Why did you bring him here? There are other clinics closer to Sherwood Park.”

  Silence lingered for a minute, then in a voice that was too quiet, too careful, he said, “Because you were here, Gems, and I wouldn’t trust Charlie’s care in anyone else’s hands but yours.”

  Her throat tightened at the use of his nickname for her, and while her heart clenched, touched at the level of trust he had in her, her brain cells made the next logical leap. “You’ve been back for a while, then,” she stated in whispered words.

  An expression she couldn’t quite identify flitted across his face as he said, “A week now.”

  “Oh.” Gemma shifted slightly, trying not to feel wounded that he’d been home for seven long days and hadn’t even bothered to say hello.

  She averted her gaze to shield the hurt but when he added, “I wanted to come sooner,” she knew she could never hide anything from him.

  She held her hand up to cut him off. “I understand how difficult this must be for you,” she assured him, her mind going back to the last time they’d seen each other. Even though he’d been in a tremendous amount of pain at Brandon’s memorial service, suffering as he said good-bye to his lifelong friend and fellow soldier, Cole had tried to console her, watching over her and taking care of her the same way he used to when they were kids.

  It warmed her heart to know her brother hadn’t died alone in the line of duty and that Cole had been there to care for him until the end. Her gaze panned his face. She took in the dark smudges beneath even darker eyes and couldn’t help but wonder, who was taking care of him?

  His eyes clouded as they stared blankly at some distant spot behind her shoulder. Hating the unmasked hurt on his face, as well as the awkwardness between them, she touched his arm. The air around them instantly changed. Cole flinched, his entire body tightening as if under assault. Gemma snatched her hand back, his rejection all too familiar. Even though she was all grown up now, a woman who wanted him as much today as she did all those years ago, he’d never see her as anything more than his friend’s kid sister.

  Just then the puppies broke out into a chorus of howls and Gemma couldn’t help but wonder if they were on to something. Maybe the big, bad wolf did exist, and maybe she was staring at him. Perhaps she should heed Victoria’s warning and arm herself with silver. There was no doubt that if she wasn’t careful the man looming close could shred her heart into a million tiny pieces.

  The second Gemma had touched his arm she lit a dangerous fuse inside him. Cole had immediately disengaged, knowing it could only end up backfiring and blowing up in his face. He hated the familiar hurt in her eyes when he recoiled, hated that he’d put it there—again—but he knew nothing good could come from the firestorm inside him, one that had been brewing since their youth. Gemma had tried to hide the pain, the hurt on her face, and she might have succeeded with someone who didn’t know her the way he did.

  “Gems,” he whispered. He clenched his fingers and fought the natural inclination to pull her to him and comfort her like he did when they were younger. But if her body collided with his—one part in particular—she’d know how she affected him. And he couldn’t let that happen. He had to stay strong.

  Instead of acting on his needs, he took that moment to pan her pretty features, noting the way she’d tied her long, chestnut hair back into a ponytail. His gaze left her face to trail over the supple swell of her breasts as they pressed against her V-neck top. He shifted, uncomfortable as he perused her slim waist and the way her sensuous curves turned a pair of green surgery scrubs into a Victoria’s Secret spread. Christ, she was even more beautiful now than she was when they were kids. But no matter what, and no matter how he felt about her, when it came to Gemma, there was a line he wasn’t going to cross.

  Her assistant came out from the back room. “He’s stable and ready to go to ICU.” When her words met with silence, her gaze tennis balled between the two, a sure sign that she felt the tension in the room every bit as much as Cole did. “Ah…Danielle will be here shortly. If you guys want to go, we can finish up.”

  Gemma exhaled slowly and pushed off the counter. “Thanks, Victoria. I’ll come in early to check on him.”

  Cole stiffened. “He has to stay the night?”

  “He needs to be monitored for at least twenty-four hours.”

  “Then I’m staying.”

  “It’s not necessary. My night assistant will be here shortly, and I’m on call twenty-four seven. He’s resting soundly and by the looks of you, you should be doing the same.”

  After a long moment, he gave a nod of agreement and Victoria slipped into the back, leaving them alone once again. Cole turned his full attention to Gemma and stretched his neck, working the night’s tension from his shoulders.

  Moving with an innocent sensuality, she walked around the counter to grab her purse from the drawer. Cole became fully aware of the woman standing before him and exactly what she meant to him. He shifted on his feet and tore his gaze away, looking for a distraction before his mind took him back to that hot summer night when she’d lured him into the barn nestled at the back of her old homestead. Christ, it had taken all his effort not to lay her onto the soft bed of hay and take what he wanted.

  But at seventeen she was a kid, as well as the younger sister of his closest friend. Of course, those weren’t the only things stopping him from acting on his urges. No, when his own parents had been emotionally absent—too busy looking for happiness in the bottom of a bottle—her folks had
practically taken him in. Cole would never be disloyal to the family who’d treated him like a son by sleeping with their only daughter.

  “It’s late and it’s dark. Why don’t you let me walk you home,” Cole said, breaking the uncomfortable silence hovering like the sharp blade of a guillotine.

  In typical Gemma fashion, she straightened her shoulders in that old, familiar way that let him know he’d hit a soft spot. “I’m capable of walking home by myself.” She lifted her head a little higher. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m all grown up.”

  Oh, he’d noticed all right.

  She opened her mouth to say something else, but he countered with, “It’s on my way, Gems.”

  That gave her pause. Her head jerked back with a start and he didn’t miss the accusation in her tone when she said, “Let me get this straight, you know where I work and where I live?”

  “Yeah,” he said, for lack of anything else.

  Her big blue eyes narrowed. “Why is it you know so much about me yet I know nothing about you?”

  “What do you want to know?”

  Without hesitating she asked, “If walking me home is on your way, where do you live?”

  He gestured to the motorcycle parked at the curb outside. “For now I’ve got a cot in the back of Freedom Cycle.”

  Perfectly manicured brows knit together as she angled her head curiously. “You’re staying with Jack?”

  “You remember Jack?”

  She nodded. “Ex-sniper. Brandon always liked him.” At the mention of her brother she rubbed the back of her neck and a contemplative look came over her face before she began again. “When I moved into one of my parents’ downtown apartments during college Brandon told me—” she paused to do air quotes before saying, “—Jack of all trades was my go-to guy if I ever needed anything. I’ve run into him a couple of times since the funeral.”

  Cole paused for a moment before saying, “He takes in ex-soldiers and gives them work until they get back on their feet again.”