Hunted Love (A Dangerous Kind of Love Book 2) (12 page)

“I see.”

“It was strictly business.” She fell silent. When Ashton didn’t say anything, she added softly, “You can’t make someone love you, just because you love them.”

“But you’d like to.”

Sarah closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t want to talk about Jamie Murphy anymore. He’s not my future.”

Ashton brightened. “Good.” She motioned to the door. “Let’s—”

“Casey’s not my future either.” Sarah tore the job application in two. “Nor is teaching Pilates.”

Ashton’s hand fell as she sighed in disappointment. “Then what is?”

“There’s a dance studio not far from here. I’ve been thinking about applying for a job there.”

Ashton’s eyes lit up. “That’s wonderful.”

“Don’t get excited. I said I was thinking about it. I haven’t done it yet.”

“Well, good. It’s about time,” Ashton said, glancing at the clock on the wall. “How much longer are we going to be here? I’m starving.”

“I haven’t even had my lesson yet. You’ve been taking up Casey’s time.” She pushed open the door and led her sister back to the gym. “Another hour at least.”

“All right, pipsqueak,” Casey said, “you ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Sarah turned back to her sister. “How about this? You go get dinner and come back in an hour. I should be finished with my lesson and gotten cleaned up by then.”

Casey glanced over at Ashton. “You’re not going to stick around?”

Ashton looked around the gym. “I don’t suppose you have a smoothie bar around here or maybe a sauna?”

“I have weights and punching bags,” he said.

Ashton patted Sarah’s shoulder. “Have fun.”

“Why don’t you stay?” Casey asked. “Maybe I could teach you a few moves too.”

Ashton made a point of showing off her heels. “I don’t think I’m appropriately dressed.”

Casey made a show of looking her over. “You look fine to me.”

Sarah’s eyes widened in surprised as her gaze flickered from Ashton to Casey and back again, wondering if he was flirting with her sister.

She glanced back at Ashton who wore the same look of surprise on her face as she stared at Casey.

Casey circled her. “I’m betting that’s the kind of outfit you wear most and if you’re ever attacked, it’s unlikely you’ll be in workout clothes. Come on. You never know, maybe I could teach you something.” He smiled down at her seductively. “Besides, I’m offering a free lesson here. How can you say no to a free lesson?”

Sarah pressed her lips together in amusement. While not much of a flirter, he was a good salesman.

A slow smile crossed Ashton’s face. She unbuttoned her jacket. “Okay, I’m game.”

Casey’s face broke out into a grin as he led them both to the center mat.

“So, what are we doing today?” Sarah asked.

“Ground fighting.”

Ashton frowned. “Isn’t the point of self-defense to keep your attacker from bringing you to the ground?”

“Most fights end up on the ground,” Casey said. “If a man comes at you, it’s more than likely you’re going to end up on your back at some point during the attack and you need to know what to do when that happens. So, having said that . . .”

*  *  *

Fifty minutes later, Sarah stood underneath the shower in the gym’s locker room, letting the warm water wash over her tired muscles. She pushed thoughts of work, her sister, Casey, Jamie, and especially Jamie, away, as she stood under the water, letting her mind drift.

She stirred a few moments later, when she heard the sound of a curtain sliding open and the shower next to her coming on.

“Is that you, Ashton?” she called out as she reached for her shampoo.

Heavy footsteps passed her shower before the shower on the other side of her turned on.

Goosebumps ran up and down her arms, as slowly, one by one, all the showers came on.

With that many women in the ladies’ locker room, she should have heard chatter but no one was speaking.

There was nothing but the sounds of footfalls, the curtains being moved and then water hitting the tile. She quietly set the shampoo back and quickly reached for her towel, wrapping it around herself tightly before tentatively pulling back the curtain a few inches, trying to be as quiet as possible as she peeked out.

Whoever it was in here was hiding. But where?

She had two options, she decided. She could run to the door to her right, leading to the main hallway or to the door to her left, leading to the pool.

She glanced up at the curtain rod. If she could get out without making a sound, maybe she could make it to the door to the hallway. Once there, she could run straight for the gym. Keeping the water on, she reached up and gripped the curtain rings, keeping them in place as she stepped out from behind the curtain.

She froze as the lights went off, plunging the room into darkness.

“
Cinderella
,” came the sing-songy voice from somewhere in the room.

Sarah’s breath came in at a gasp and she froze, not sure in which direction to run.

“You left your shoes at the party. I brought them back for you, but you didn’t thank me. That’s not very nice.”

Unable to see anything, she hesitated, not sure what to do.

“I can see you. Can you see me?”

She let out an ear-piercing scream. The showers were in the back of the building, far from the gym. She knew the likelihood of anyone hearing was small but if there was someone in the hallway, they might be able to hear and get help . . . If one of the women in the gym was coming back to collect her things . . . If her sister came looking for her . . . If . . . If . . .

She let the scream die off and waited for help to come.

He laughed. “Looks like it’s just you and me.”

There was movement to her left as something brushed past her.

She raised her hands up, desperately trying to remember everything Casey had taught her in the last couple of weeks since he began teaching her.

Just then, one of the showers went off and then there was another brush of fabric against her skin as someone moved past her.

She swung out blindly, hitting empty air.

Another shower went off, then another and another. Each time, he moved past her in the dark, brushing against her.

A few times, she managed to hit an arm, his chest, some part of him, but more often than not, she hit nothing but air as he quickly dashed past her.

She tried moving towards the doors but each time she did, he was there pushing her back into the middle of the room as he went from one stall to the next turning off the showers.

When the last shower turned off, she waited with a sick feeling in her stomach.

The seconds ticked by with no sound.

When the seconds turned into minutes, she relaxed her arms.
Did he leave?
She wondered, praying that he had.

She took a tentative step to the side, reaching out blindly as she tried to get her bearings.

Her hand hit something, her mind immediately recognizing the feel of leather underneath her fingertips.

“Sarah!”

He shouted it against her ear before wrapping something wet and heavy around her upper body, trapping her hands and arms, preventing her from using all those moves Casey had painstakingly taught her the last few weeks.

Panic set in. She began kicking and screaming and then suddenly, she found herself falling face first.

Stars burst behind her eyelids as her head connected with the hard tile.

The next thing she heard was the sound of a door opening and her sister’s voice calling out her name.

Then running feet.

Another door opening and closing.

Then light filtered through the shower curtain covering her face.

Closing her eyes tightly, she screamed in terror, lashing out in a panic, fighting for life as the curtain was suddenly torn from her body.

Her eyes popped open as someone grabbed her wrists and held them out and away.

She looked up to see Casey kneeling next to her. Behind him was Ashton staring at her with a worried look.

Sarah burst into tears of relief, reaching for Ashton who shoved Casey out of the way and knelt down next to her sister, quickly covering her body with the discarded curtain.

Ashton pushed Sarah’s hair back away from her face, her eyes widening in horror as a trickle of blood ran down Sarah’s forehead.

CHAPTER TEN

Jamie hurried through the first set of automatic hospital doors. He clenched his fists to keep from hitting the second set when it didn’t open fast enough. As soon as there was enough room, he slid through the opening and hurried toward the elevator doors.

Once on the elevator, he pulled out his phone and started punching out a message. When the door opened on the fifth floor, he continued down a long corridor, made a couple of turns and then stepped in an empty waiting room.

He slid into a chair to wait, his legs moving up and down, as his gaze kept travelling to the clock on the wall, watching as the second hand slowly moved.

When ten minutes had gone by, he began to pace. When the second hand reached a quarter to midnight, he reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone again and began typing out another message. He was just about to send the text he had written when Brian finally walked in.

“About time you got here,” Brian said cheerfully before Jamie could say the same thing to him.

“How is she?”

“We’re just keeping her for observation. If everything’s okay in the morning, we’ll let her go home.”

Jamie closed his eyes in relief. “What happened to her?”

“Some guy attacked her.”

Jamie clenched his fingers until his knuckles turned white. “Did . . .” He swallowed hard. “Did he—”

“No,” Brian said with a shake of his head. “Scared her pretty badly. We’re treating her for shock.”

“I want to see her.”

“I thought you might,” he said motioning for Jamie to follow him. “Don’t wake her. She’s resting comfortably and we don’t want to disturb her.” He paused when they reached the door to Sarah’s room. “Now listen to me. If she wakes up, whatever you do, don’t upset her. I’m serious about that. We want to make sure she’s comfortable.”

Jamie’s face paled. “I thought you said she’d be fine.”

“She will be. She’s getting the VIP treatment. Did you know her sister’s a lawyer? We know her sister’s a lawyer. You know how we know her sister is a lawyer? Because Ashton’s pretty much told everyone here that she’s a lawyer and that Sarah is her baby sister, so we better take real good care of her. Have you met Ashton yet?”

“No.”

Smiling, Brian slapped him on the back. “Oh, I can’t wait for you to meet her. She seems like a fun one. I have no doubt you two are going to hit it off.”

Jamie started to reach for the door but hesitated. “Is there anyone in there with her? A guard or—”

“A guard?” Brian snorted. “The police took a statement and left an hour ago. They told her to call them if there’s any more trouble.”

Jamie ground his teeth together. “Where’s her sister?”

“Home, hopefully. Visiting hours ended hours ago. I wouldn’t normally be such a stickler in this kind of situation but Sarah needed the rest and . . .” He looked at Jamie thoughtfully. “Well, I thought you’d want to be alone with her. If the police aren’t going to watch out for her then . . .” He trailed off as Jamie nodded.

“Thank you,” Jamie said tightly, his voice rough with emotion.

Brian motioned for Jamie to be quiet as he opened the door.

They stepped inside the dimly lit room.

Sarah lay on her back, sound asleep with her head turned toward the door. The light on the wall above the bed shined down on her pale face.

Jamie took a shaky breath as he walked toward her bed. He gently pushed back her bangs to reveal a white square bandage covering her right temple.

“Does she have a concussion?” He glanced down at his shaking hand and curled his fingers into a fist. “Shouldn’t you be keeping her awake? If she has a concussion—”

“Are you her doctor?”

Jamie started to throw his own question back at him, but turned his attention to Sarah as she murmured something in her sleep.

Brian stepped closer and lowered his voice to the barest whisper. “She’s been crying out your name in her sleep.”

Jamie looked at him in surprise.

Brian raised his eyebrows. “Probably just the pain meds we gave her. Still…I heard her sister say something about her nursing a broken heart and Nathan told me that she hasn’t been acting like herself since New Year’s. Strange things have been happening around here, Jamie. Phoebe and Kristen have both received threatening Valentine’s Day cards and someone followed Sarah from Bellemeade to her apartment the other night. It’s probably the same guy who attacked her at the gym.”

Jamie gently caressed her cheek before turning his attention to the ugly black and blue bruises on her arms. “What happened to her?”

“She went to take a shower after her workout and while in there, someone turned off all the lights, wrapped a shower curtain around her head and upper body and threw her to the floor. He then left her screaming in the dark.”

Jamie closed his eyes, his fists clenching and unclenching.

“Ashton said that if she had fallen a few inches to the right, she would have struck her head on the sink. I heard her tell the police officer that she couldn’t see him but he could see her. He must have been wearing night vision goggles or something. Sarah was pretty upset when they brought her in. She didn’t want us to turn off the lights.” Brian looked over at Jamie in concern. “Are you okay?”

“Did they catch the guy?”

“No, they don’t have any idea who he was.”

A muscle in Jamie’s jaw began to jump. “I’m going to find whoever did this to her and I’m going to kill him.”

“I thought you were retired.” At the look in Jamie’s eyes, Brian raised his hands in surrender as he backed toward the door. “Just making an observation.”

As soon as the door closed, Jamie pulled the single chair in the room closer to the bed and sat down.

This wasn’t supposed to happen
, he thought, staring down at her. He had done the right thing this time. He stayed away from her so she would be safe. He took her hand into his, his thumb lightly caressing the back of her hand.

*  * 
*

Sarah woke up to a pounding headache. She rolled over on her side, only to groan in pain, coming fully awake. The pain in her body brought back the memories of the night before with sudden clarity.

She opened her eyes, her gaze traveling past the dozen pink roses on the bedside table near the window to the hospital blinds. Slivers of sunlight peeked through the slats and hit her in the eyes, causing her to wince.

Everything hurt. Even lifting her hand to rub the sleep out of her eyes caused pain to shoot up her shoulder. Her fingers bypassed her eyes to trace along the bandage along her forehead. She was lucky to be alive.

She didn’t feel lucky.

She felt numb.

Tired.

Alone.

She pushed the negative thoughts away, deciding to focus on the positive.

She was alive and safe.

For the moment
, her traitorous mind whispered.

Her eyes drifted shut only to pop open a moment later.

She stared at the pretty pink roses, only then really noticing them.

Raising her head off the horrible flat hospital pillow, she squinted at the roses wondering who brought her roses.

Ashton probably
, she thought automatically, though it didn’t seem like something her oh so practical sister would do. She started to sit up when she felt a hand gently grip her shoulder and push her down.

She turned her head, her eyes widening in surprise. She looked at Jamie in open-mouthed shock, wondering if she was dreaming.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time, or the last time that she dreamt about Jamie Murphy.

Suddenly, she noticed how different he looked, still breathtakingly handsome but healthier, stronger.

Her gaze travelled from his blue eyes up to his sandy blond hair. “You’ve cut your hair.”

He smiled and she felt her pulse pick up. She glanced at the heart monitor in annoyance as it telegraphed her excitement. She struggled to sit up.

“Don’t,” he cautioned softly as he stood up, turned, and sat on the side of the bed, hovering over her.

She pushed her hair off her face, her fingers self-consciously running through her hair, trying to comb out the tangles, intensely aware of how close he was to her and how she must look. She continued to fuss with her hair, afraid that if she didn’t, she might pull him closer and not let go.

Smiling down at her, he took her hand in his. “I was wondering if you were going to sleep all morning.”

Her gaze shifted to the flowers. “You?” she asked returning her attention back to him.

“Pink’s your favorite, right?”

“Yes.” A smile started to tug at her mouth but she bit her bottom lip to keep it from happening. “What are you doing here?”

He pushed her bangs off her forehead. “I heard what happened and came to see you.”

“I see,” she said pushing his hand away and sitting up, trying not to wince as she did. She pulled at the neck of the ugly hospital gown bringing it up over her shoulder. “That was awfully sweet of you. I’m surprised you bothered. Thank you, they’re lovely.”

He blinked at the formality in her tone and leaned back.

“I suppose Brian told you what happened?” she asked.

He nodded gravely.

“He swore he had no idea where you were,” she said with a scowl.

“I told him not to tell anyone that I was staying—”

She lifted a hand. “No, please,” she said cutting him off, “I don’t want to know. If I had that information, who knows what I might do with it?” She furrowed her brow. “Why I might camp outside your place, serenading you as you sleep.”

He let out a deep sigh.

“Follow you around all day long,” she continued. “Maybe do something truly disturbing like carving Sarah loves Jamie in all the trees.”

The corner of his lips began to turn up.

“No, you were right to keep your location a secret. I’m unstable.”

He rolled his eyes before lightly shaking his head.

She turned her gaze to the ceiling. “Oh, you know what I would have done with it? I could have sold it to the highest bidder. I would have made a mint. I could’ve probably retired.” She tapped a finger against his chest. “Do you know how many people are looking for you right now?”

“I take it you missed me,” he said, cupping her hand against his chest.

Pulling her hand away, she let out a bark of laughter. “Hardly.”

“No? Then why are you mad at me?”

She crossed her arms. “Because you were rude to me.”

“Rude?” he asked his brow furrowing. “How was I rude?”

“I thought we were friends. You didn’t have to sneak out in the middle of the night like a thief, you know. What did you think I’d do to you? Tie you up. I’m not crazy. If you don’t want anything to do with me, fine. I don’t care.”

“You don’t?”

“No, I do not. You can come and go as you please, Jamie Murphy. I don’t know why you felt you had to run away. Maybe you’re a little crazy.”

“Maybe,” he murmured. “So, you didn’t miss me at all?”

She shook her head. “Not a bit.”

“I . . .” He hesitated for a moment before admitting softly, “I missed you.”

“Well—” She bit her lip.

“I’ve been thinking about you a lot.”

“Yet, it took someone attacking me to get you to come back home.” She looked at him. “Brian’s been telling people you wouldn’t return until I left. Is that true?”

Jamie’s gaze fell to her hands. He ran his fingers over her knuckles. “He wasn’t supposed to say anything.”

“So, it was true.”

“Yes,” he admitted softly, “at the time.”

Tears started to form. “Why?”

“Because I didn’t want you—”

“Oh well.” She glanced up at the ceiling, blinking back her tears. “Well, I guess that answers that question.”

“Would you let me finish?”

“No. I get it. I’m glad you finally said it.” A tear slid down her face and she hastily wiped it away. “Ugh, look at me. I’m still so upset about last night,” she said with an embarrassed laugh. “It’s all right.” She looked toward the roses, her embarrassment growing. “I understand. Really I do.”

“Sarah, look at me.”

She kept her gaze focused on the flowers. “I still need your help. Your protection. I’ll pay you, of course, but you don’t have to worry—”

He pressed both of his hands to her head, stopping her in mid-sentence and bringing her attention back to him. “I didn’t want you to waste your life on someone like me.”

“Please,” she said with a snort.

“I thought if I left that you’d move on. Maybe find another job. Open up that dance studio or something. I stayed away because I knew it wouldn’t work out between us.” He searched her face. “I figured it was best to leave before things got too serious and someone got hurt.”