Made for You Read Free Page B

throb. “I’m on it. I will find them.”
    Kelley looked away and stared out the window. Again she looked like she might be holding back tears. After a long moment, she turned back to face him. “Find the bastard,” she said, a fierceness in her voice.
    “I will.” He put his hand over hers. “You can count on it.”
    Warmth so deep touched Kelley clear to her soul. She’d worked with Reese for almost two years and she’d never experienced anything like this before. She cared for him, would give her life for his, but this was something more.
    Had it always been there? Or was she feeling it now because of the fact that she had come so close to death? A couple of inches to the right and the bullet would have entered her heart. Was that why she had these crazy feelings inside her for Reese that she couldn’t control?
    Or it could be the fact that her brain was addled with morphine even though the effects were starting to wear off and pain was shooting through her shoulder. Still, maybe the residual morphine was the cause of these funny feelings she was having around Reese.
    He released her hand and she immediately missed his touch. “I’ll head down to the station and get to work finding Taynor,” Reese said. “Your job is to get better. Understand?”
    She didn’t want to give in. It wasn’t in her nature to sit on the sidelines and not be a part of something so important. And finding Taynor and his daughter were more than important. It could even mean the little girl’s life or death.
    “Yeah,” she finally said. “But when I get out of here—”
    “You’re going to work on healing and getting into form,” he said, cutting across her words. “I want my partner back.” He squeezed her hand one last time before letting go. “I’ll see you again before you’re released.”
    “I don’t plan on being here that long,” she muttered.
    He smiled and met her gaze for one long last look. His light brown hair was a little out of place and he had a day’s stubble on his jaws. His vivid blue eyes held hers and she didn’t think he’d ever looked more handsome than he did at that moment. He was muscular with an athlete’s build and he filled out the T-shirt he was wearing in a way that made her heart pattering harder.
    It had to be the morphine. She mentally shook her head as he turned away and headed out the door. She watched him as he left, feeling strangely bereft without him there.
    She sank against the pillows and looked at the ceiling. Being in the hospital with this injury was definitely addling her brain. Of course she would feel something for her partner after all this time, and not in a romantic way. She cared about him as much as she did because of all they’d been through together. This was just another facet of their partnership. They had been through a lot.
    And now this… She was barely conscious of rubbing the pale thin scar on her chin as everything whirled through her mind. She hated this helpless feeling when she should be out there chasing after a murdering bastard, where she belonged.
    Men who treated women as less than equals infuriated her. But men who hurt women, men who killed women, put her into a rage so great that she knew she had to keep a tight rein on herself. After what her father did to her and her mother—
    Before she could stop them, memories of the past flashed through her mind.
    Her mother’s screams and Kelley’s own cries rang in her ears…from the time she was a little girl until she ran away from home as a teenager, her father had beaten both of them. Memories assaulted her of all of the tears she’d cried as she’d watched her mother being knocked around by her father…and then how her father had whipped Kelley with a belt when her mother wasn’t there to take her father’s punches.
    When he wasn’t beating them, he would tell them how worthless they were. He’d say a woman’s only uses were to have babies, and to cook for and clean up after