Page 10 of Her Three Rangers

I opened my mouth to tell him he could just call me Grace, but my grandmother’s pointed look stopped me. Her eyes flicked between me and Ty.

“My granddaughter is the best animal doctor in a hundred miles,” she said. “She has a heart of gold, especially when it comes to taking care of others—animals, people, doesn’t matter. Tell me, though—Ty, was it?—what brings you and your friends to Grey Ridge?”

“We have some business to take care of near here,” Ty said, as everyone in the room turned to him and listened. “But we didn’t really plan on staying here in Grey Ridge, to be honest. If it wasn’t for your granddaughter, though, I’m not sure what I would have done. She saved my dog’s life.”

“Your dog is in good hands,” she said. “My Gracie will make sure he’s taken care of. Just know that not everyone else in town is quite as trusting as she is.”

Ty cocked his head to the side like he was going to ask a question, but didn’t speak. The other two men, Cody and Jaeger, exchanged glances behind his back.

And even though I was pretty sure nobody in the room could have mistaken my grandmother’s words for anything other than a thinly veiled warning, I was also pretty sure none of us were going to call her on it.

I sure wasn’t.

Mainly because she was right. There really wasn’t much chance of them finding someone else around here who would trust them the way I had. I still couldn’t explain—not even to myself—what had made me leave the clinic unlocked for them.

They just seemed like good guys. Rough around the edges, sure. But good.

I really, really hoped they were, anyway.

I was the first one to leave the break room after we finished eating. The food was amazing, as always, but the undercurrent of tension in the room was a little too much for me.

And even though I knew my grandmother had the best intentions in the world, her not-so-subtle warning hadn’t helped calm anyone’s nerves.

I loved her for it anyway. I knew I would never have a better advocate than her. She had always been my biggest cheerleader, and I hoped she always would be.

Just… maybe not so much today.

I walked out of the break room and down the hallway to the recovery room where Rambo was resting. The moment I walked in, my eyes fell on the medicine cabinet across the room.

Had I left it open yesterday when I’d given Rambo his pain meds? That wasn’t like me, but I had been tired—was still really tired, in fact.

Normally, I wouldn’t think twice about it, since Jenny and I were usually the only ones who had access to this part of the clinic, but now? With three other people—three strangers, as my grandmother had taken care to remind me—going in and out?

I sighed. Had I really been that careless to leave it open? Granted, there wasn’t anything too strong in there—the controlled medications were kept locked up in another part of the clinic.

It was probably just me being careless and too tired to notice.

Probably.

Right?

I walked over to where Rambo was sleeping and reached down to scratch behind his ears, but my eyes kept wandering over to that cabinet.

My legs carried me across the room before I could really think about it any further. It didn’t look like anything else had been disturbed, but the bottle of painkillers was sitting out—had I left it off to the side like that?

I took the cap off and emptied the bottle to start counting them when I heard a snort behind me. I looked over to Rambo first, thinking I might have accidentally woken him, but then I saw Jaeger standing in the doorway shaking his head.

“Rambo is sleeping,” I said, nodding in the dog’s direction. “I was just coming back here to check on him.”

“I see that,” Jaeger said, a smirk spreading across his face. “But now I’m more interested in what you’re doing.”

My face flushed hot at his words, and I was more aware than ever of his eyes on me, looking me up and down, taking everything in.

Watching.

Waiting.

“I, um…” I swallowed hard, feeling self-conscious and vulnerable as he continued to look and smirk. “I was j-just… checking some things.”

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