Page 67 of Deadly Evidence
“I can’t be at every door and window here as a bodyguard, twenty-four hours a day. When it’s over, you’ll be safer here. But not now.”
She glared at him. “I can’t leave. If I have to fire at someone threatening my family and property, so be it.”
“Anna—”
Her coffee sloshed over the rim of her cup, burning her hand, but she barely noticed. “By Texas law, I have a right to defend what’s mine.”
He moved across the room and took the cup from her hand, set it on the counter, and gently rested his hands on her upper arms.
“This isn’t the Old West. It isn’t some movie where the good guys never miss and the bad guys always do. This is real, and it’sdangerous.”
She ignored the disapproval in his eyes. “I’m well aware of that. I also know what I’ve lost to people like this, and I’ve hadenough.”
Suddenly weary of it all, she leaned into him and rested her forehead against his hard chest, wishing that there was an easy way to make everything right...and be safe once again.
He curved his arms around her and drew her closer, tucking her head beneath his chin. “The important thing is for you to think about protecting the people here. And starting a gun battle isn’t the way to do that.”
Beneath her ear she could hear the steady, powerful beat of his heart. Feel the reassuring warmth of him and smell the clean, masculine scents of soap, aftershave, and laundry starch in his black oxford shirt.
He was a safe harbor for these few and precious moments, but she’d had to stand on her own two feet and take charge for too many years now, and she knew he’d soon be gone.
The only person she could ever truly depend on was herself.
Pulling away, she looked up at him, memorizing the angles and planes of his face. The warm golden flecks in his dark eyes. The dark sweep of eyelashes longer than any guy had a right to own.
“I understand what you’re saying,” she said slowly. “But you’ve got to understand this—I lost my first love to drugs and Lacey lost a father she’ll never meet.”
“Anna—”
“And I’d stake my life on the belief that my dad’s death was no accident. I think he was gunned down when he stumbled across drug runners and tried to fight them off. I’ve lost too much to run away now.”
He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. “So don’t risk anything more. Please.”
A premonition of terrible danger and heartache stole through her thoughts, sending a chill deep into her bones.
“So far, I’ve only had problems in the outlying areas of the ranch. At the first hint of danger around here at the home place, I’ll send Lacey away to my friend Linda’s house in Houston,” she conceded. “And I’ll make sure Mia gets on the bus for New York. The men here can make their own choices. But I’m staying.”
“Anna—”
She took a deep breath. “I have a bad feeling about all of this. If I leave and something awful happens, I will never forgive myself.”
He tilted her chin up with a forefinger, looked into her eyes. Then lowered his mouth to hers.
His kiss was tender, gentle. Reassuring.
It wasn’t enough.
She pulled him into a longer kiss. Longing for an affirmation of life and love amid all the chaos that her life had become.
He held back, his hands trembling. And then he drew her into an embrace. “Stay safe, Anna. Promise me.”
She tossed and turned, trying to fall asleep, then finally went out to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Her breath caught in her throat when she glanced at the back door and realized that Brady’s jacket, western hat, and boots were gone.
He’d gone back out into the night for his routine surveillance. Only now, she’d sampled some of the danger he faced, and none of it seemed so routine anymore.
And this, she knew, would always be his life—long hours, days, maybe even weeks away, facing unknown dangers, while a woman who loved him would be left behind to worry and wait, and wonder if this was the time he wouldn’t make it home.
