COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1) (15 page)

"Why would you do something like that?"

"Because I'm a nurse and I took an oath to care for people. You say you can't stay in the hospital, but you're not well enough to go running around on your own, and you're certainly not well enough to be shacked up in some roach motel with healing lacerations."

"And what if I'm dangerous?"

Erin lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

"I'll take the chance. Besides..." She met his eyes. "You try anything and I'll put a bullet through you. And that's not a joke."

His eyes widened a little.

"No," he said. "It doesn't sound like one. But I'm not going to try anything. I can promise you that."

He looked over at her, and his expression was grave.

"It would be a poor thank you for your help if I hurt you. But it would also be a poor thank you if I let someone else hurt you, and that's why I can't go with you. It's too dangerous."

"Too dangerous?"

"There's more to the story than you know, and I'm not going to turn your house into a target."

The waiter knocked on the door of the car, and Erin rolled down the window to take the bag of food from him with a thanks and a tip. She saw him glance curiously at the shirtless, bandaged man in her passenger seat, but he didn't ask any questions, just turned and went back inside.

"I don't really care about too dangerous," Erin said, handing the bag over to Devlin. "And I'm not going to take no for answer. Where would you go? If you're worried about other people getting in the way of something you've got going on, going to a hotel is going to put people in danger too."

He looked down at the food and didn't speak for a moment. She knew he was considering what she'd had to say.

"I suppose you're right. Just drop me off on the edge of town, then." He sounded a little breathless, and Erin looked over at him as she started the car, concerned by the new color in his cheeks. It wasn't a healthy color. Under the tan and the flush his skin had a greenish tint, and the hectic spots of pink across his cheekbones concerned her.

"Are you out of your mind?"

He looked startled, but before he could answer he slumped against the seat, eyes rolling back in his head. Erin swore. Loudly. Well, if he was going to pass out, she wasn't going to dump him on the side of the road. She took the turn toward her apartment.

Getting him inside was not easy. The man was heavy. Erin had some experience hauling patients around, but he was nearly twice her size. At least she didn't have to cart him up stairs. She woke him enough to get him on his feet – glad he could wake at all – then half-carried half-supported him into the lobby and then the elevator. He leaned against the wall as it went up, and she staggered them both out into the hall and up to her door.

Once in the apartment, she dropped him onto the couch and stood over him, panting a little. The sudden loss of consciousness worried her. He wasn't losing any blood, and he shouldn't be getting worse, but he was. His forehead was far too hot. He looked up at her through glazed, bleary eyes.

"Tell me what's going on," Erin demanded as she pulled a cloth from the cabinet and wet it with cold water, laying it over his forehead. "This isn't the kind of reaction you should be having at this point. Your injuries are sutured and bandaged." She lifted the gauze to check, then turned him onto his side to check his back. "And none of them have broken open again."

"Dirty," he said, voice rough in his throat, and Erin shook her head.

That shouldn't even be a problem. They’d cleaned and disinfected the lacerations before they were sutured.

"We took care of that," she said.

He shook his head back at her. Strands of his hair were clinging to his damp forehead.

"There is a... It's because of the claws."

Claws. And boot prints.

"We knew it was probably claw marks. That's why we cleaned them so thoroughly.”

She turned the cloth over so that the cooler side rested against his skin, and he sighed softly.

It made absolutely no sense. There was sign of infection though, she decided when she looked down at the wounds again. The cuts were warm to the touch, looking inflamed around their edges. It was exactly what neither of them needed. At least she had a weekend off to deal with it.

With a sigh of her own, Erin set to work disinfecting the lacerations once more.

Chapter Three

A day and a half into it, Devlin was driving her completely insane

Trying to keep the man in bed, despite his obvious pain and almost debilitating injuries, was nearly impossible. The infection had mostly healed. The lacerations were no longer red and hot around their edges, though they were just beginning to scab over, and the bruises on his ribs were fading into yellow green smudges that didn't hold the crisp outlines of boot prints. Erin was going to have to let him go soon.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," she said as she took a seat at the end of the couch next to his feet, a bowl of ice cream in one hand. He was eating his own with some alacrity, more interested in the ice cream than he'd been in listening to her otherwise.

"As am I," he answered, pausing to swallow a mouthful of ice cream before he spoke. "I can get out of your hair tonight."

Erin sighed.

"If you insist," she said. "I would like you to stay for one more night, considering your injuries, but I'm not going to make you."

"You couldn't make me if you tried."

She looked over at him. "Couldn't I?"

His expression went a little uncertain, and Erin laughed as she went back to the frozen treat sitting in front of her.

"Thank you," Devlin said after a moment. "For helping me. It was kind of you to give up your days off to nurse someone sick.”

Erin lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "I don't mind. You needed help."

"All the same," Devin said. "It was a selfless act, and I appreciate it."

She hadn't really minded having him around all that much, she admitted to herself. Despite his annoying habit of constantly trying to escape the couch, he was funny, and a good conversational companion. And, if she was being honest, it was nice to have someone around the house. She hadn't shared her space with anyone in a long time.

"If you really appreciate it, you could do me a favor and hand me the remote."

He laughed as he handed it over, and she flicked on the TV. They settled into watch whatever movie was showing on Fox for the night. It turned out to be something decent, lots of explosions. It seemed to hold Devlin's interest, at least.

"I should be going," he said when the movie was over.

She'd picked up a shirt for him, so at least he had that.

"Where will you go?"

He turned to smile at her.

"Home, actually. It's far enough away that I'm glad you helped me out. I don't know that I could have made it in the state I'm in. But I'd like to get back there, and I feel guilty about taking up your couch and your time."

"I don't mind," she said again. "Honestly. Don't worry about it."

"I’ll find a way to thank you,” he said, rising from the couch and slipping his wallet into his back pocket. "For real."

Erin nodded. Though she wasn't sure she expected him to follow through with the promise, and she got up to take the ice cream bowls into the kitchen.

That was when the door smashed open, crashing against the wall. She spun to stare as three men, all of them easily as big as Devlin, stalked into the room.

"There you are," the tallest of them said, a smile curving his mouth. "I was beginning to worry you'd gotten away from us."

Devlin immediately put himself between Erin and the men entering, settling into a fighting crouch despite his injures. He took a step back and so did she, around the edge of the couch and toward the hall that led back to her bedroom, her heart beating hard against her ribs. She tasted metallic fear at the back of her tongue, swallowed it down and clenched her teeth. If these assholes thought they could just march in and attack her patient on her watch, they had another thing coming. It wasn't a long hall. She could make it down the length of it in a few seconds if Devlin could hold them off.

"And who is this?" one of the others inquired. "Looks like you found a nice way to pass the time."

"It was nothing like that, Riff," Devlin answered. "Why don't you three get lost?"

"Come on, Devlin. You know why we're here."

Devlin made a sound like a growl, low in the back of his throat. Erin took another step back, then a third. They didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her.

"We can take this outside," Devlin said. "She's not involved."

"Isn't she, pretty boy?"

Their leader had a crooked nose, a break healed badly. He looked like a fighter. All of them were bulky with muscle where Devlin was lean and corded. She didn't really like his chances.

"We'll do you a favor and save her for last though, if you like. That way you don't have to watch."

Devlin flung himself forward with a noise that was definitely a snarl, and Erin spun and ran for the bedroom, locking the door behind her. It wasn't going to do Devlin much good, but some backup might. She opened the door of the nightstand and pulled out her pistol.

It took a matter of moments to load. She’d practiced.

She'd never actually shot a person before, and she thought with a sick twist of her stomach of the oath she had taken to do no harm, but these men weren't her patients. Devlin was. She could hear them rolling around in her living room, and hoped some of her neighbors had the sense to call the cops already. Gun loaded and held out in front of her, Erin pulled the chair away from the door and stepped out into the hall.

She saw the two others before she saw Devlin and the leader. Devlin was fighting, and for the moment he was holding his own, but she knew that those ribs were disadvantage, and she heard him yelp as he was thrown into the back of the couch.

"Back up," she said sharply, holding the gun out in front of her. "Now."

Chapter Four

For an instant, all four men went still.

“Looks like your girlfriend’s got some brass ones,” the man with the broken nose said. He turned his head toward the one Devlin hadn’t spoken to, who was blond and scarred and wearing a dirty white t-shirt. “Take care of it.”

Abruptly, movement started again.

Devlin pushed off the couch and lunged, his hands closing around the leader’s throat, and the blond launched himself forward. Then, in his place, there was an enormous tawny-colored wolf. Erin stumbled backward a step, almost fumbling the gun.

A wolf. Erin didn't really have much time to think about it, except a brief moment in which 'what the hell' crossed her mind several times. But he was still leaping, and she lifted the hand with the gun in it, pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit him square in the shoulder and he fell back with a cry, hitting the ground on his side. The other man, Raff, snarled, and jumped, and in seconds he too was a wolf, but he was black, big and heavy. Erin pulled the trigger again, and then again when the first bullet didn't seem to slow him down. The second caught him in the leg and he stumbled. The leader snarled, but Devlin still had him by the throat, holding him down against her now bloodstained carpet. The landlord was going to love that. And if the neighbors hadn't called the police already, they were sure as hell going to when they heard the gunshots.

Devlin slammed the leader's head back against the floor, hard enough that Erin heard a crack, and she winced. The other two were getting to their feet. Devlin sprang to his feet, and in a single long stride he was across the little space of the room and in the hall with her, grabbing her by the hand and hauling her toward her room.

"Come on. Do you have a fire escape?"

She nodded, but he seemed to see it, and he hastily pulled them both through the door and shut it behind them, locking it.

"Okay. Come on. There's no time to grab anything. Do you have your car keys with you?"

"Yes." They were in her pocket.

"Good. Keep the gun. We'll come back here later, but right now we've got to get a move on, so shake it out."

He was already pulling the window open, ushering her through, and Erin thought the world might be blurring around them. She couldn't quite catch up to what they were doing or the speed they were moving with.

Down the fire escape they ran, feet clattering on metal, and Devlin sprang ahead to lift her down from the last step, grabbing her wrist again to pull her along to her car. Erin's feet were bare. She stumbled on the rough cement, and cried out when her foot came own on something sharp. Devlin snarled something that was probably a swear word, and gathered her up into his arms.

"You shouldn't lift this much weight," she protested, even as her own arms went around his neck for stability. "You'll hurt yourself."

"If I don't get us both out of here, it will be a lot worse than that," he shot back.

As they came around the corner, she clicked the button on her keys and the car beeped its acceptance of the unlock command. Devlin slid her into the passenger seat, then ran around and got in on the other side.

The car started easily, and he hit the gas, pulling out into traffic dangerously close to another car. The driver laid on the horn. Devlin ignored it, settling them in with the rest of the cars, though he swerved around some of the slower moving vehicles when he pulled onto the highway. Erin took a deep breath.

"Explain," she ordered.

He turned his head just enough to look at her out of the corner of his eye.

"You guessed part of it," he said. "Before. I almost thought you knew."

"You're telling me those guys were werewolves?"

He nodded once, curt.

"That's ridiculous."

"You saw it with your own eyes," he answered. "And as you may have also guessed, I'm one too."

She supposed that made sense. Werewolves fighting other werewolves. But why were they fighting?

"What's their issue with you?"

"They're a new pack in the area, and they seemed to think they had the right to encroach on my territory. I chased them out, and they didn't take it well. They waited until I was alone and ambushed me. That's what happened the night I was brought to the hospital. Now they're after me again, and unless I make it home before they catch me, I don't think I'm going to escape them a third time. My own pack will be waiting for me, but they didn't know where I was."

"So you're, what, the leader of this pack?"

"The Alpha?" Devlin grinned, though he didn't look at her. "Yeah. I am."

Well that was just fantastic. She was stuck in a car with the leader of a werewolf pack who was currently being chased down by several other werewolves who apparently didn't care that she was just an innocent bystander.

"So you're taking me to your home?"

Devlin nodded. "I'm sorry about it, but that's the safest place for you to be right now."

Great. Just great.