Protective Lawman (Warrior Peak Sanctuary), page 5
She didn’t reply. She wasn’t going to take orders from him, and she didn’t feel like arguing. He wasn’t her boss or even her friend, anymore. Nobody who really cared about her could ever have done something like he did, no matter the reasons.
But, as she felt the warmth radiating from his body, she knew she didn’t have it in her to ask to be left alone. He was the reason she had come to this place. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she needed him. It would have been a whole lot easier if she could just forget about him, but that was never going to work.
“You mind if I sit with you?” he asked, and she shook her head.
“No.” She sighed. She missed this, his closeness. There had been a time when they had known everything about each other—or so she’d thought.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
Her shoulders slumped slightly. “About as well as I can be, given that I was just beaten up by a bunch of dirty cops.”
She felt the air shift between them at once. Was he expecting her to say that? Hoping she wouldn’t? She didn’t have a clue. She stole a look at him out of the corner of her eye, wishing she could just ask him what was going on in his head, but she had to be more careful than that. She had let this man close to her once before, and it had ended with her getting burned. She wasn’t going to hand him the chance to do that to her again.
“What happened?” he asked her.
Rubbing her hand over her face, and trying to ignore the sharp twinge in her ribs, she reasoned with herself. She came to this place to find him, ask for his help. She had to tell him at some point so she could get answers. So, why not here? Why not now?
Chapter Six
Aaron’s mind was reeling as he took in what she had just said. Dirty cops? The same ones he had dealt with? They had to be, right? There was no way she could have encountered anyone else. His skin crawled when he thought about what they might have done to her, but the best he could do right now was listen.
“I… I finally got out from under the curse you put on me,” she snapped back. She was still defensive, but at least she was talking. It was a start.
“What do you mean?”
“When you got me sent out to the middle of nowhere to be stuck behind a desk all day?” she reminded him sarcastically, as though he might have forgotten. “I just spent the last six years there. Trust me, I’ve been counting every day.”
The bitterness in her voice was obvious, and he hated hearing her so angry at him. But she had a right to be. He needed to give her the time to come to terms with it, because six years still hadn’t been enough.
“I finally worked hard enough to convince them to put me back out in the field,” she explained. “And there was only one place I wanted to do it. Kings Mountain.”
His heart sank. So she had walked right back into all of that? With no warning? And he was sure Ziegler and the others would have gotten bolder with what they were doing, willing to push the boundaries even further than they had when he was there.
“I got a warm welcome, let’s just say that,” she remarked. “From Ziegler in particular.”
Aaron felt a flare of rage in his system, as he thought about how vulnerable she must have been, and how quick they had been to make a move on her.
“How long were you back before it started?”
“It was the first night,” she replied. “I wasn’t set to work until the next day, but I was excited to be back. Dropped by the station to check in and say hi to everyone. They were the first ones who greeted me and asked me out for a drink to celebrate my return.” She paused, and shivered like she was reliving it in her mind.
He clenched his fists at his sides to keep from reaching for her. “What happened?” he asked again.
“Everything was fine, at first. Then they started talking smack about you. It caught me off guard and when they turned the questions to me…how far I was willing to go to keep my job, stuff like that… I panicked and rushed out. They didn’t hold back. I thought they were going to kill me,” she whispered.
She paused again and wrapped her arms around herself, her gaze distant. Aaron slid closer to her, offering his warmth and silent support.
“I barely remember the attack,” she murmured. “They had followed me out of the bar and ganged up on me in the parking lot when I was trying to leave. I had just made it to my truck when they shoved my head into the side of it. I vaguely remember hands tugging on me, someone yanked my head back, I think. The glint of a knife…” She trailed off and shuddered. “I woke up in a lot of pain and bleeding on the ground.”
Aaron winced but didn’t say anything, allowing her to continue.
“When I regained consciousness, I jumped in my truck and took off. I didn’t even really know where I was going. I just wanted to put as much distance as possible between myself and those guys.” She took a shaky breath and shrugged. “I drove home, threw some things in a bag, then I ended up here looking for you…and you know the rest.”
“I’m so sorry this happened to you, Bailey,” he said softly.
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “You knew about it, right?” she asked.
He nodded. No point in trying to hide it now. The truth was out, and she was in danger. No matter how much he wished he could undo what had happened to her, there was no walking away from this.
“Yeah, I did,” he replied apologetically. “I was looking into them, trying to collect evidence to take to the captain. Apparently, they had their own suspicions about me and confronted me. Anyway, I’m glad you found me, but how did you know where I was?”
“Because they knew where you were. Lee specifically mentioned this place. That’s how I knew where to come. They must have searched for you after you left.”
Those words hung in the air for a moment as he processed them. They knew? For how long? Why hadn’t they come to find him yet?
“Right,” he murmured. He had no idea what to say to that. Whether she knew it or not, she was admitting that he was in danger—that both of them were. This wasn’t a safe place for him anymore. The thought of Warrior Peak being compromised, of bringing more danger to the door of the people who had offered him sanctuary when he had needed it most made him feel sick.
“I’m going to stay here as long it takes me to get back on my feet,” she told him, stretching her arms above her head and wincing. Her shirt rode up, revealing the bruising on her sides, and he clenched his fists when he thought about who must have done that to her. All of them ganging up on this woman? Four big men against one small woman. It was totally disgusting. She was lucky to have made it out alive, though he was sure he didn’t need to remind her of that.
“And then I’m going back, and I’m going to bring them to justice,” she added, narrowing her eyes. “Just because you could ignore it for six years, doesn’t mean I can.”
The jab stung. He had only left that place without doing more to stop them because he had known how much danger it would put her in, but he didn’t know if she was ready to hear it. Or if she would even believe him if he told her. He wished he could just get her to trust him somehow, but he had broken that trust before and he wasn’t sure what it would take for them to put the pieces back together again.
She rose to her feet, or at least tried to. She needed to lean heavily on the porch railing to get herself back upright, and he stood up and offered her a hand.
“You need some help?” he asked her, and she fired him a look and snorted.
“You really think I need help from you?” she demanded, raising her eyebrows. “All you’ve ever done is cause me trouble.”
“All I’ve ever done?” he echoed.
Something in her face shifted as she looked away. “Not…not all you’ve ever done,” she admitted, lowering her gaze to the ground. “When we were working together, Aaron, that was the happiest I’d ever been. I know I was young, but I…the connection we had, it was real. And then for you to turn and do that to me, without any warning, without giving me any chance to stand up for myself…” She trailed off, her eyes shining with tears for a moment. “I just didn’t get it.”
She shrugged, her eyes becoming guarded again. He wanted to reach out and take her hand, tell her that he had felt the same way about her, but he’d had to make a hard choice to try to protect her. And that he would have done anything he could to not hurt her, but the situation was so complicated.
“I looked up to you so much,” she admitted. “And I wanted you to notice me as more than just a rookie, you know?”
Aaron knew exactly what she meant, and he wished he could tell her that he did—he had seen her as so much more than just her job. He had gotten to know her deeply, and the bond they had shared—beyond just a professional connection—was something he had never found since. She paused for a moment before she kept talking, her mind clearly racing.
“I would have believed you, you know,” she told him, shaking her head. “I would have believed you if you’d come to me and told me what was going on in the department. I don’t know what you were trying to protect me from, but you didn’t need to do all of that to look out for me.”
A million words were on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t find a way to get any of them out that would actually make a difference. He knew she was mad at him. She probably would be for the rest of her life. They had worked so closely together, and now she was being faced with the reality of what had driven them apart. She didn’t know every detail yet, but he was sure she would insist on getting to the bottom of it.
She hobbled toward the door and went inside. Aaron thought about going after her, but he knew it wouldn’t have led to anything good. She still wasn’t in a place where she could talk to him, but it looked as though she was going to be sticking around for a while as she got back on her feet. Maybe they would get a chance to talk while she was recovering.
Even though he was tired, he sank back down on to the porch seat and stared out into the forest beyond. The news she had given him, that they knew where he was, changed everything. He was going to have to find some way to protect himself, and this place.
Soon enough, he’d have to tell Xavier and Lawson about it, even though he wished he could find any way out of that damn conversation. He knew they were going to all but put this place on lockdown, and the thought of bringing that kind of stress to their door just didn’t sit right with him.
But he didn’t have a choice. Even if it would change this place that had been his safe haven. It had been so long, he had gotten comfortable—stopped looking over his shoulder and started to actually feel like he belonged here. He never expected his past to put the lodge—and the people who lived here—in danger. And he definitely never expected to see Bailey again after what had happened.
When he thought of what Bailey must have been through, he couldn’t help but feel guilty. He had left her to that, whether he had meant to or not. He should have known that she would work her way back on to the streets again—she was too good to sit behind a desk. One negative report from him wasn’t going to be enough to get the people around her to ignore the work she did. She had never been the kind of person to leave something unfinished, so he should have known she’d want to go back to Kings Mountain. He’d completely left her unprepared for what she’d face if she did.
But back then, he had hardly been able to think past getting her out of there. Thinking about her at all had been too painful for him, so imagining what would have come next for her was something he couldn’t even let himself do. He had hoped she was safe, that she was happy, that she didn’t hate him. But since she had walked back into his life, it was clear that none of that applied.
She’d admitted that she had feelings for him when they were first working together, and his head was still spinning as he tried to wrap his mind around it. He had never imagined she would have looked at him that way. Would he have acted on it then, if he’d known? He wanted to believe he was better than that, but his attraction to her had been intense.
It still was, if he was honest with himself. Even when she was as beaten down as she was, she was still fiercely captivating. She was still the woman he remembered from all those years ago, but this time, more sure of herself, with more life experience behind her.
And, when she was faced with danger, she still came looking for him. After all this time, she still sought him out. Obviously, even if she didn’t seem willing to admit it right now, some part of her still felt safe with him.
He hoped he could do that part of her proud.
He had made peace with the fact that she was going to hate him after he wrote that report. But now that she was back in his life, he didn’t know if he could live with it. He didn’t want her walking around here, loathing him for his betrayal, when it was so much more complicated than that. Look at the state she was in now—it would have been even worse if they had launched this attack on her when she had been a rookie, without him there to cover for her.
The moon was high in the sky, bathing everything around Aaron in a bright glow. It was peaceful out here for now, but that was all going to change soon enough. Now that they knew where he was, his days of peace and quiet were over.
And he had to be ready for whatever came next.
Chapter Seven
Bailey eased herself out of bed, not wanting to move too quickly. She knew she had to give herself time to rest, no matter how tempting it might have been to just force herself to get back out there and pick up where she had left off.
After nearly a week here, she finally felt like she was getting her feet back under her again. Though she had mostly kept out of the way of the people milling around, she had been getting to know the horses that lived out behind the main lodge in the paddock. Hannah had told her that they were a relatively new arrival. They helped some of the people who had a hard time dealing with other humans. Bailey could see exactly what the appeal was—she didn’t have to hide herself or worry about what she said around them, she could just relax.
She had formed a particular bond with Wheatie, an old palomino mare who had been taken in by them when her old owners had gotten too frail to care for her. She was incredibly gentle, and had started rushing up to the fence whenever she saw Bailey getting close, clearly not willing to let her get away without seeing if she had an apple tucked in her pocket for her first.
In fact, that was exactly where Bailey was headed right after breakfast. She tried to arrive at the cafeteria a little after everyone else, so she didn’t have to worry about too many questions, and it was nearly empty by the time she got there today. Good. She hadn’t seen Aaron in a few days, and she wasn’t ready to talk to him again, not after their last conversation. She just needed a little more time to shore up her defenses before facing him again. That’s why she’d been avoiding him.
She knew she had laid too much on the line, right there on her first night. She should have been more careful, held a little more back, but she couldn’t stand the thought of him not knowing how much she had cared for him back then. He hadn’t trusted her with the truth, but she would have listened to him—she wouldn’t have shut him down or told him he was crazy. And she would have worked to bring those corrupt cops down right alongside him.
Confessing her once deeply held feelings for him felt like a risk she wasn’t sure she should have taken. What was he going to think of her now? Had he felt the same way? Even if he’d had feelings for her back then, he had still betrayed her. Her heart still hurt when she thought of what he had done to her, and the fact he was capable of it. She didn’t know if she could trust him again, but she knew she’d have to try.
Once she’d had breakfast, she headed out to the paddock, carrying her weight on her uninjured leg. The pain was still there, but it had improved a whole lot. River had tried to convince her to get checked out at a local hospital, but she had turned her down, not wanting to leave a paper trail so she could be tracked. She was sure the cops who had done this to her would be searching for her already, and she didn’t need to make it any easier for them than she already had.
She had been convinced by Hannah to see Carter, one of the physical therapists. Carter’s brother, Cade, had made sure to give him a glowing recommendation and passed it along to Hannah and the guys saying how much Carter had helped him when he first came to the lodge.
She reached the field and saw Wheatie trotting over to greet her, her mane bouncing with every step. Bailey couldn’t help but grin, but the smile soon faded from her face when she spotted Aaron working on a fence at the edge of the paddock.
He glanced up and saw her coming before she could turn to leave, and he waved her over. Wheatie diverted her attention to him, nuzzling her head into his shoulder, and he reached over to stroke her nose.
“How are you doing?” he asked Bailey.
“I’m fine,” Bailey answered, even as a bolt of pain traveled up the length of her leg. Ugh, she hated this. She wished she didn’t have to deal with him right now. Being around him was so damn confusing, her head going in a million different directions at once. And she was embarrassed that she had been so vulnerable with him on her first night there.
“You sure about that?” he asked, watching as she leaned on the fence to take the weight off her leg.
She nodded. “Sure. You know, I never asked what you do around here.”
He smirked slightly at her sudden change of subject. He paused for a moment, debating whether to let her off the hook before replying. “I got hired as Warrior Peak’s handyman. Kind of a jack-of-all-trades, help wherever’s needed.”
“Ah, so how long you been up here?” she asked, directing her attention back to the horse.
“Been here around six years. A friend in the department had used this place to recover after he suffered injuries in an undercover sting operation. Said it was a good place to contemplate and re-evaluate life choices. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.” He paused for a moment before he continued. Let her read into that what she will. He still didn’t think she was ready to hear everything yet. “So…what do you know about Ziegler and the rest of the guys?”
