Still Mine (3 page)

“How…? What did you say?” Jolene was in desperate need of the answer to that question, but her eyes showed her a dizzy picture of Tait as one of his hands landed on her leg to stop her from fighting to be free of the bedding. She stared at his hand, stupidly trying to understand why she was so upset by a blanket.

“Jo, you’ve been shot. Just take it easy until the anesthesia wears off. The surgeons had to put you back together. Locke will explain.”

She transferred her attention to Tait and stared at the shoulder harness around his chest. The polished butt of his pistol reflected the hospital lights. His suit jacket was hung neatly over the chair next to her bedside. The brown leather of his shoulder harness was glaring proof that she was dealing with more than just a bad-luck accident.

“Sure.”

Tait nodded approval before he stood and left the room. She caught a glimpse of a uniformed guard standing outside in the hallway before the door swung closed. She tried to think but only ended up with a bolt of pain shooting across her forehead. Rubbing at it, she swept the room again, trying to pick up details.

Shot? Jolene tried to force her brain to work. Her left shoulder was heavily bandaged. Try as she might, Jo couldn’t recall anything but scattered images.

The door burst inwards, and her boss flashed her a smile. The expression helped clear her mind because you learned fast that Ross Locke didn’t smile unless he was on to something. The man was happiest while on the trail. The cheerful expression was downright scary.

“So, you finally decided to join the living again. About time, Benate. I’ve got better things to do than wait for you to get your beauty sleep.”

Ross Locke ran a practiced eye over her as she battled the grogginess still clouding her head. Pushing herself up straighter, she tried to make sure her chin was level in the face of her boss’s study. If she’d messed up on the job, she couldn’t remember it.

“Just who did I tick off anyway?”

Locke’s face settled into a grin. “You mean the two dead guys? I’d say you let them off a little easy, but I hate getting shot. Pisses me off too. Guess I can understand why you’d shoot them, since it looked like they were trying to abduct you and they didn’t mind putting a hole in you while they were at it. Eyewitness says you fired second.”

Her boss’s brassy humor suggested she was going to live. Jo gave him a slightly twisted smile as her wound burned painfully through the last of her slumber. Whatever pain medication she’d been given, it was wearing off fast. A hazy memory filtered through her brain of her car crumpling into the back of that truck. Little pictures rose from her memory as she recalled that moment when the sting from a bullet had torn into her flesh. A shiver rippled over her body in reaction.

Shit…she had fired second.

“I’ll work on that duck-and-cover thing.” Her mouth was too dry and her words came out mumbled. Shock raced through her mind, waking her up as she tried to tackle the idea of being someone’s target. She’d known it could happen, every deputy did. But that didn’t lessen the impact.

One of her boss’s eyebrows rose. “You do that.”

He lowered his frame into the chair next to the bed. Ross Locke wasn’t an easy man to read. He looked older than his years, his face settling in deep folds of leather, but she didn’t make the mistake of thinking him old. The man was as sharp as a cougar and just as unpredictable. At the moment, though, Jo felt she had a rather good idea what was on the senior deputy’s mind. He was going to ship her off to secured custody. The certainty of it showed in the man’s eyes, and it set Jo’s teeth on edge. In all fairness she couldn’t blame him. But that didn’t mean she liked it. He ran a warrant squad, not a protection team. It was a personal favor that she had woken up with Tait next to her instead of a stranger.

Reality sucked at times.

Becoming part of this team had been a goal that had driven Jo for four years. They were her family. Ross Locke never gave up, but he knew how to move the players on the board in order to set up a good win. One man was not sufficient to protect her. It wasn’t fair of her to place her teammates at risk by refusing protective custody. She had to give Locke the room to set the board up in his favor. That meant the prize had to be secured while he did it. She had no doubt he’d be on the trail in her defense, but for the moment, she was going to have to be locked up tight. The deputy in her knew the logic behind it, but the rest of her was royally pissed off.

“I just hope there’s a kitchen wherever they take me because I’m not going to live on junk food. I won’t be able to chase a grasshopper if I dine on cheeseburgers and pizza day in and day out.” The men on her protection team could get away with eating garbage because their metabolism burned it off a whole lot faster than hers would. Mother Nature was a bitch for designing females to be fat-storage machines. Just smelling pizza too long could make her hips expand.

The grin on Locke’s face widened. He nodded his head with approval, the sort that she’d learned to enjoy earning. Today she wasn’t pleased to see that expression on her boss’s face.

“The doctors want you here another night. I’ve got the entire place locked down tight so don’t go taking any walks.” He pointed to a small tray on the bedside table. “The nurse left you some of the good drugs to help you sleep.” Locke stood to leave, but stopped for a second. “Don’t worry, Benate, I won’t let Rutten fill your slot on my team.”

The door swung shut as Jo took in her superior’s parting comment. Rutten was Locke’s superior. The man was ten years Locke’s junior and Rutten rarely forgot that fact. It was painfully clear that if Ross Locke showed even a glimmer of interest in Rutten’s position, it would be his in a heartbeat. Jo didn’t think it would ever happen. Deputy Ross Locke wasn’t made for the boardroom; he had been born to hunt. Her boss avoided promotion like their convicts tried to avoid Locke’s team.

Shifting herself about in the bed, Jo attempted to find a comfortable position. Now that she was awake, her shoulder burned incessantly. She inspected the bandaging once again. The white gauze was thick and pristine clean. She guessed that it really didn’t matter just how bad the damage had been. What mattered now was recovering her strength. Someone out there had some rather unpleasant plans for her, and she needed to be prepared to defend herself in the event that another attempt was made.

At least her dreams had been pleasant. Reaching for the cup of water sitting on the bedside table, she lifted it to her lips. Tait’s jacket was still on the chair, telling her he’d be back. It chafed but there was no arguing, at least not from her. That was another thing she’d learned from Locke, the team mattered. She wouldn’t put them at risk by hanging around.

Her lips twisted as she considered the jacket again. Knowing that Tait was going to keep her company didn’t even make her nipples hard. No, only a six-year-old dream of her husband did that. Looking back at the table, she picked up the little plastic medicine cup waiting with a couple of capsules of pain medication. She tossed them into her mouth and used the rest of the water to swallow them. Since Tait wasn’t turning her on, she might as well indulge in a little medicated dreaming of Paul. For the moment it was the best she was going to get.

The protection team would be a lineup of love ’em and leave ’em deputies who never called you once the job was finished. They were adrenaline junkies who needed a hot case to make them come alive. They’d cheerfully indulge in a little stress-reduction sex but you were a fool if you thought it was anything that might extend past the moment when the perpetrator was caught. Even if the department frowned on it, you just couldn’t hold back the human instinct to seek comfort. Between adults, that always took on a sexual edge. All the policy in the world couldn’t erase that human need.

Nope. No thanks. She’d take her dreams over that. She might be getting desperate to escape her late husband’s grip on her, but not enough to play doormat for a protection guard.

Not yet anyway. Besides, maybe she’d miss Tait.

***

“That is not an option, Doctor.”

“Incorrect. Adjust the options.”

The sergeant stood his ground with the assistance of ten years of military training to aid him. Somehow he couldn’t quite remember feeling this much doubt before, even during boot camp. The man currently facing him down was furious in his determination to impose his will. The doctor watched him with a pair of cold eyes. A tiny bead of perspiration appeared on the sergeant’s head. The doctor’s gaze locked onto the physical sign of weakness.

“It is the only option that I will consider. I suggest you inform the general that we need to speak. Because those orders are about to change.”

The sergeant made the accustomed reply of “yes, sir”, but he might as well have saved his breath. The doctor dismissed him, leaving the office on silent feet. Raising his hand up, the sergeant rubbed it across his forehead before picking up the phone that sat on his desk. This was one situation that he would be more than delighted to turn over to his commanding officer. Let the man with the brass on his shoulders deal with the stress.

***

Setting her face into a serene expression, Jo surveyed the four deputies who stood in her hospital room. Each one was prime beefcake but oh-so-predictable in their attitude.

Running her gaze over the faces, Jo had to fight to keep her amusement to herself. It was abundantly clear the four men expected her to be trembling in fear as well as grateful for their strong manly presence.

“Ms. Benate—”

“Deputy Benate.”

One dark eyebrow rose in disbelief as the rest of the group swept her from head to toe. It was a complete assessment of her physical condition. Jo stood her ground with complete confidence. She’d earned her badge just as much as any one of them. Getting that fact straight was essential. The door to the room swung open and Locke stepped inside. He took in the scene in a quick yet efficient glance. He cast a frown in Jo’s direction.

“I see you’ve all met.” Locke extended her gun and badge to her. “Now, Jo, be a good girl and don’t shoot any of these fine boys. I’d hate to see their mothers wearing black in this nice spring weather.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind, boss.”

Tucking her holster into her waistband, Jo lingered over the task of placing her badge into the front pocket of her shirt. She was wearing the garment like a jacket over a tank top so that the ends of it draped to her mid-thighs to cover her sidearm. Jo locked gazes with the lead deputy. The look she received in return was grudging. Most men in this field didn’t accept female deputies well. Fewer still actually respected them. His arms bulged with muscle as he propped his hands onto his hips and considered her gun.

“Fine by me.” The deputy shrugged before pointing to the members of his team.

“Lee, Wilson, Moline and I’m Kent.” He didn’t bother to list more than their last names. He extended a hand towards the door in clear invitation.

Pushing herself away from the bed that she’d been leaning on, Jo stepped through the door. The group fell into place like a well-choreographed dance. Every man knew his spot and responsibilities to the team. What grated on Jolene’s nerves was the fact that she knew her spot too well. Becoming the goal of the team didn’t mean she had to also transform into the weak link. Jo cast a last glance at Locke before she and her escort turned the corner. The look on her boss’s face held an ironclad promise. It was hard to swallow just how much she needed that reassurance. Sure, standing on her own sounded good, maybe noble, but everyone needed to know they had a place to call their home.

Being separated from it now made her hindsight kick in, allowing her to see how much she enjoyed the everyday grind. In her case, her job was all she had. It defined her in too many ways to just let it slip away without a struggle. Being dumped back into that pit of not knowing where to go made her shiver. She shrugged off her melancholy thoughts as Deputy Kent opened the door of a nondescript sedan for her. The badge in her pocket was a nice hunk of reassurance because she had earned it. It was more than a job—it was a reflection of herself. All the money in the world couldn’t buy it. Her position on Locke’s team was another shining example of her worth.

Senior Deputy Ross Locke always kept his promises. So that meant she could forgo the pity party. She’d be back. No one and nothing was going to keep Jolene Benate away from her chosen path. This wasn’t the first time her life had caved in. She’d survive, that was something she was good at. Maybe it was the wake-up call she needed. That swift kick in the pants that would see an end to her clinging to Paul’s memory. She caught a brief glimpse of Tait as he watched her car pull away from the curb. Fury drew his features taut. The emotion touched her. Inside him was a man that cared. He didn’t just want to bang her on his way through countless other girls.

She was going to believe that, no matter how much logic tried to remind her that adults were attracted to each other and love didn’t always follow in passion’s footsteps.

Paul was dead.

So, she was going to think about just how much she missed Richard Tait.

It was possible she just might learn to believe it.

***

“This issue was closed six years ago.”