Tempted by Love

by Jennifer Ryan

  She looked forward to their date, but was she doomed to a life of bone-chilling worry and heartbreak? She enjoyed his company, the off-the-charts sex, and the easy way she felt around him. While he might make time for her now, he’d been so dedicated to his job, he’d never gotten married. At his age, she’d expect at least one ex-wife.

  If he didn’t want a wife and kids, then whatever they were doing together was going nowhere. At least not where she wanted a relationship to go. And the relationship she imagined wasn’t the reality of life with a DEA agent who spent most of his time in the field, not sitting behind a desk.

  She liked Jay. A lot. Maybe more than she should without really knowing him. But wasn’t that a precursor to knowing the relationship could be something more than what they’d already shared?

  She vowed to spend more time on their date talking to him than kissing him.

  Though she really liked kissing him.

  “Thanks for everything.” June, the event coordinator, walked out with her.

  Alina pulled her purse strap up on her shoulder. “You’re welcome. I’ll call you next week about doing this again and expanding the content.”

  June beamed with her bright smile. “I appreciate your enthusiasm.”

  “It tends to get away from me sometimes.” Like when she jumped into bed that first night with Jay. And planning to immerse herself in the county’s drug crisis. “This is a worthy cause that needs all the attention I can give it.” So was sleeping with Jay, though she needed to make up her mind about what she really wanted with him. Obviously, she couldn’t get him off her mind.

  Alina waited for June to lock up.

  “Drive safe.” June waved goodbye and headed left to her car on the other side of the empty lot.

  Alina took a moment to breathe in the cool night air and appreciate the glimmering stars overhead. She loved nights like this. Quiet. A soft breeze. The enormity of the night sky making her feel like there was so much more out there to discover.

  And some things here she should open herself up to and enjoy.

  She needed to call Jay.

  Dutifully, she’d wait until she got home safe and sound.

  The short walk to her car gave her time to find her keys buried at the bottom of her bag. She hit the button on her key fob and the doors unlocked. A car engine started on the street behind her. She didn’t pay it any attention, though she did think about walking across the street to see if the frozen yogurt shop was still open, but changed her mind. She’d save her treat for a job well done tonight for a glass of wine at home while she called Jay.

  She slipped behind the wheel and pulled out of the lot and onto the quiet street. Not much happening in this part of downtown on a Wednesday night. The south end restaurants and bars bustled, but down here, most of the shops closed early. She thought about stopping again, but dismissed it when a dark SUV pulled out behind her. Close. Too close for her to abruptly slow and make it into the lot next to the shop.

  The car behind her backed off, but followed her down the two-lane street. Alina turned on the radio and let the day go. She wondered if Adam enjoyed pizza and movie night with Jay. He missed his mom and dad. They’d be home this weekend. She had a few more precious days with her nephew all to herself.

  She made the turn toward home, singing along to Billy Currington’s “Do I Make You Wanna.” Jay definitely made her want to “let her hair down” and “act just like you don’t care now.” So she bounced to the beat and sang along, thinking yes, I wanna with Jay.

  Maybe she could have a sleepover with him and Adam.

  Bright headlights blinded her in the rearview mirror a split second before a car slammed into her back end. Her head whipped forward, then back as the car lurched. She checked her initial reaction to slam on the brakes, but she did take her foot off the gas. As her car slowed, the car behind her hit again. Metal crunched and tires squealed as the car pushed hers into a spin. The car overturned, locking the seat belt against her chest and shoulder as she went upside down, the airbag hit her in the face, glass shattered and sprayed across her, then her head whipped from one side to the other as the car rolled and landed back on its tires and rocked to a stop.

  Dizzy, streetlights and the stars spun in her blurry vision a few seconds, then everything went dark.

  Chapter Nine

  Jay checked the time on his watch again. Alina promised she’d call when she got home. The event ended at eight-thirty. He’d given her until nine before the first inkling of worry wound its way into his tight stomach. At nearly ten-thirty and four unanswered calls, he paced his living room and tried not to let his dark thoughts spin out of control.

  Maybe her phone battery died.

  Maybe she went out for coffee to talk to someone who attended the seminar.

  Better not be another guy. He didn’t want to think about her laughing and talking and . . . and nothing. She wouldn’t go off with some guy she didn’t know. Well, okay, she’d gone off with him. But she knew him. Kinda. And since she was seeing him, she wouldn’t start seeing someone else. Not when they had a date planned.

  Not when she’d promised to call him tonight.

  He made one more circuit past the dining room, down the hall to check on Adam sleeping peacefully in the spare room, and back to the living room that felt like the walls were closing in on him. Ready to put himself out of his misery, he scrolled through his contacts for a local PD guy he worked with on a task force a while back. He’d check accident reports before he started calling hospitals.

  Or went extreme and contacted her brothers with his worries.

  His phone rang with a Billings Clinic number. His stomach dropped and his heart stopped.

  “Bennett.” He barely got the word past his clogged throat.

  “Agent Bennett, this is nurse Andy at Billings Clinic Hospital. Alina Cooke asked me to contact you.”

  A dozen nightmares flashed through his mind and stopped his heart. He barely choked out, “Is Alina okay?”

  “Yes. She’s been in a car accident. Her injuries are varied but not severe. She asked if you could pick her up. She should be ready for release soon.”

  He had a million questions, but the only things that mattered right now were that she was alive, okay, and he needed to see her with his own two eyes before his heart started beating right again.

  “Tell her I’m on my way.”

  “She’s in cubicle four in the emergency room.”

  “Thank you for calling.” He hung up and hit the speed dial for his mom. Someone had to stay with Adam. He didn’t want to wake him up and scare him in the middle of the night. Alina’s condition might not be serious enough to keep her overnight at the hospital, but he didn’t know the extent of her injuries and didn’t want to traumatize Adam if he saw his aunt looking anything less than perfect.

  “Hi, monkey. What you doin’ callin’ so late?”

  Jay dismissed the nickname she’d never given up calling him since he was a baby. “I need you to come over and watch a friend of mine’s kid.”

  “Is it a girlfriend’s kid?”

  “No.” The last thing he needed right now was her meddling in his love life. He’d kept that to himself since he was a teenager. He didn’t want to start sharing now. Not to her. But he was about to bring home a woman who meant more to him than . . . anything right now. He needed to get to her. “Get here fast. Someone’s in trouble and I need to get on the road.”

  At minimum, the drive into Billings from his place would take half an hour breaking every speed law along the way. Which he would and use his badge if that was what it took to get to her as soon as possible.

  “I need a minute to dress, monkey, but I’m on my way.”

  With her just across the property in the guest cottage, she’d be here in less than ten minutes. Which gave him time to check on Adam one last time, grab a mug of instant coffee—not his favorite, but it worked in a pinch—unlock his gun from the safe, clip on his badge, and snag his car key
s off the hook on his way to the door. He opened it just as his mother glided up the path wearing one of her favored floral scarf skirts. The silky material danced around her legs as she walked. The dark pink flowers on the skirt matched the simple T-shirt and her painted toes. The rhinestone flip-flops completed her bold outfit. That was Mom.

  “Where you headed, monkey?”

  “Hospital. A friend got in a car accident.”

  “Is she okay?”

  Way to ask a double question, Mom. “She is fine.” I hope. “I’m watching her nephew tonight. Beck’s son.”

  “He still on his honeymoon with his movie star wife?”

  “Yeah. Adam is asleep. I don’t know how long I’ll be.”

  “Happy to help as long as you need me, monkey.” She tilted her head.

  He bussed her cheek with a quick peck and headed for his SUV.

  “Hope your girl is okay.”

  He wanted to say, “She’s not mine,” to get his mother off his back, but couldn’t make the words come out of his mouth. Not when the gnawing ache in his belly and pressing need to get to Alina overwhelmed everything else.

  The long drive usually gave him time to relax and think, but tonight it amped his anxiety. The dark roads leading into Billings seemed longer. Every light in town seemed to be red. He blew through a few when there were no cars in sight. Parking his car in the lot instead of leaving it outside the Emergency doors took time he didn’t want to waste, especially when his patience wore out halfway to town.

  He’d been to this emergency room on numerous occasions after he’d been injured on the job, to see coworkers who’d been hurt, and to question suspects. He’d never felt this kind of insistent need to be sure someone was really as okay as the nurse assured him on the phone. He had to see her with his own eyes, so he bypassed the reception desk and jogged down the corridor past busy nurses and doctors tending to other patients, threw back the curtain at cubicle four, and stopped in his tracks when he saw Alina lying with her eyes closed on the gurney. The bright red scrape and bruise on her cheek, white neck brace, tangled mass of hair, and sling on her left arm told him she’d been through the wringer.

  With a heavy heart, he went to her. Afraid to touch her, but needing the contact all the same, he placed his hand lightly on her stomach, the other at the top of her head, and leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Jay.” She sighed out his name but didn’t open her eyes.

  He kissed her on the head again and pressed his forehead to hers. “Are you okay?”

  Her eyes opened and the pain dulled her normally bright blue-gray eyes. “I will be. Right now, I’m one big throbbing ache.”

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t really know. The police think someone targeted me.”

  Jay pulled back, planted his hands on either side of her shoulders, and leaned over her. “What? Why?”

  “I’m not sure. I left the community center and a big SUV pulled out on the main road behind me. I didn’t think anything of it. They followed me, but at a distance. I thought we were just going in the same direction. I was singing to the radio and thinking about getting home and calling you. I thought I might go to your place and have a sleepover with you and Adam.”

  Jay softly brushed his thumb over her chin, then leaned down and swept his lips over hers. “Looks like you get your wish. I’m taking you home with me.”

  Her lips trembled and her eyes glassed over. “Good. Because now that you’re here, I realize I’m still a little shook up.”

  He cupped her cheek and held her face. “You’re safe now, Alina. I swear, we’ll find out who did this to you.”

  “That’s just it, I have no idea who would want to hurt me.”

  “We’ll figure it out. How did you get hurt?”

  “It happened so fast. One second they’re several car lengths back, just driving along like me, and the next they’re speeding up and hitting the back of my car. It stunned me. I tried to think what to do, but before I did anything, they hit me again, kind of on one side, pushing my car into a spin. I rolled once.”

  Jay stepped back with the blow those words evoked in him. “You rolled the car?”

  “Yes. It landed back on its tires with a violent bounce side to side. That’s how I hurt my neck and shoulder.” She pulled the paper gown down to show him the bruises from the seat belt.

  “Damn, sweetheart, that looks really bad.”

  “The doctor said it will look worse in a couple of days. Nothing is broken. I’ve got whiplash. The airbag hit me in the face. It could have been so much w-worse.” She broke down and tears cascaded down her cheeks.

  He leaned in close, his cheek pressed to hers, and held her in a light hug. “Don’t cry, baby. You’re okay. I’m going to take you home, tuck you into bed, you’ll be safe with me.”

  Her fingers combed through the back of his hair and held on. “They wanted to keep me overnight. I need to get out of here. I have to get out of here.” The terror in her voice inflamed the protective streak growing inside him. She didn’t know who did this to her or why but feared they’d come back to finish the job. “I’m sorry to drag you into this. If my brothers were home . . .”

  “I’m here, sweetheart. I’ll take care of you and get to the bottom of this. I’ll talk to the cops, see what they found at the scene.” No need to wake Caden and Beck on their honeymoons in the middle of the night. With the different time zones, he’d be waking them in the wee morning hours with little to no information. He’d call them in the morning.

  “I’m sorry. I know you’re covering for them at work, helping out with Adam tonight, and now you have to deal with this.”

  He pushed up and stared down at her. Her gaze dropped away from his. “Alina, look at me.” He waited for her to do so. “Work is work. Watching Adam is a favor for a friend. You needing me here because you want me to comfort you, that’s between us. I’m glad you called me. I can’t stand to see you like this. Whoever did this to you will pay. I won’t let them get away with it.”

  “How are you feeling, Alina?” A nurse came up behind him.

  “Ready to go.”

  “I see your ride arrived.” The nurse gave him the once-over, his gaze landing on the badge and gun at Jay’s waist. “Your very own police escort home.”

  “I’m DEA. Is she ready to go?”

  The nurse held up a white paper bag. “Your meds.” He handed them to Jay, then checked Alina’s chart. “We gave her pain medication an hour ago. She can take one to two pills in three hours if she needs them. Every four to six hours as needed for the next several days. Keep the neck brace on for at last five days to give your neck time to heal, then take it slow. No sudden movements. Ice several times a day for your neck and shoulder. After a couple days, you can alternate ice and heat.”

  “I’ve got it.” Alina pushed up. Jay helped her sit and swing her legs over the edge of the bed.

  “There’s a refill on your prescription if you need it.”

  “Thank you.”

  The efficient nurse consulted the tablet one last time to be sure he’d covered everything. “Do you need a doctor’s note for work?”

  Alina tried to shake her head, then hissed in a breath when the movement hurt. “No. I’ll take tomorrow off and see how I feel from there.”

  The nurse rolled the wheelchair he’d left nearby into the cubicle, close to the bed.

  Alina slid off the mattress. The small movement stiffened her frame. Jay held on to her arm to steady her and helped her slowly sit down in the wheelchair.

  “I’ll run out and pull my car around.”

  Alina held his hand in her trembling one for a moment before she reluctantly let him go. The fear and hesitation in her amped the rage in him. Someone took this vibrant, fun, outgoing, and independent woman and made her afraid to be alone. They made her feel vulnerable.

  They’d pay for that.

  Jay wouldn’t stop until he had them behind bars and knew exactly why
they’d go after her.

  He worried this may be some sort of retaliation for a case Caden or Beck worked, but couldn’t know for sure. It didn’t feel like a threat from the cartel. For one, they’d have stayed at the scene and put a bullet in Alina’s head to be sure she was dead if they wanted to send a message.

  The sickening thought stopped his heart.

  If Caden or Beck worried someone was coming after them, they’d have said something. This, coming out of the blue with no warning, took dangerous to a whole new level.

  He needed to contact Caden and Beck and find out if they could shine some light on a reason for this threat and violence.

  He hated to interrupt their honeymoons, but they needed to know about Alina. Jay needed to know what he was up against and if this was an ongoing threat and he needed to get round-the-clock protection for Alina and the rest of the Cooke family.

  He’d get Alina home and settled, then make some calls. First to the cops to see what they got from the accident scene.

  He checked the parking lot for anything or anyone suspicious, got his SUV, and pulled it around to the front of the ER. Alina sat slumped in the wheelchair. The nurse beside her held a plastic bag of Alina’s possessions, hospitalization papers, and meds. Alina’s feet were bare.

  He jumped out and ran around the car. The nurse stowed Alina’s things in the backseat. He took Alina’s hand and pulled her up. She walked right into his chest and wrapped her good arm around him. He held her close, pressed his cheek to her head, and thanked God she was going to be all right.

  “Feel better, Alina.” The nurse pushed the wheelchair away.

  Alina held on for another moment before she stepped back and looked up at him. “Thank you for coming. I know that what we have has been totally . . . impulsive—”

  “What we have means I’m here in the middle of the night and ready to take care of you and give you whatever you need right now.”

  She leaned in and pressed her forehead to his chest. “I need to sleep, but I don’t want to be alone.”

  “You’re not. You won’t be.” He nudged her toward his car and helped her get settled in the seat and buckled. “Rest. Let me worry about the accident and what happens next.”