Navy SEAL Rescuer Read Free

was waiting to be interviewed. It was taking too long.”
    “You can’t do your grandmother any good if you’re dead.”
    “I’m not, so it’s a moot point,” she said, her cheeks heating,
her eyes flashing.
    “It doesn’t pay to take chances.” He tried to keep the
exasperation out of his voice as he followed her down the stairs.
    “I need to get to the hospital.” She grabbed keys from a small
table in the foyer and shoved them in her pocket, her hand shaking.
    She put on a good show, but she was terrified.
    “You’d better let the police know that you’re leaving.”
    “They’re smart. I’m sure they’ll figure it out.” She walked
outside, and he followed, ignoring her dark look. “Thank you for your help,
Mr....?”
    “Osborne. Darius.”
    “Catherine Miller, but I’m sure you already knew that.”
    “I’ve seen the news stories.”
    “Who hasn’t?” She smiled, her eyes empty and quiet. “You saved
my life, and I don’t take that lightly, but I’m fine now, and I need to get
going.”
    So did he. He’d planned every minute of his two-week vacation.
Paint the house. Strip and refinish the hardwood floors. Fix the leaking kitchen
sink. Get the house he’d bought three months ago in order so it seemed more like
a home and less like a place to stay.
    But the bruises on Catherine’s face, the welts on her neck, the
quick beat of her pulse in the hollow of her throat made him hesitate. “How
about you let me give you a ride to the hospital?”
    “I have a car.”
    “So do I.”
    “What—”
    “The police are here.” Darius cut her off as a police cruiser
parked on the cracked and crumbled driveway. A tall dark-haired officer got out.
Darius knew him. Deputy Sheriff Logan Randal. They’d run into each other on a
couple of cases, and Darius had liked the guy.
    “Catherine!” Randal called. “You were supposed to stay inside
and wait for me.”
    “I told you my grandmother needed to be picked up.”
    “I can send an officer for her.”
    “And scare her to death? I don’t think so.”
    Randal sighed and took off his hat, running a hand down his
jaw. “Osborne, you were there when everything went down?”
    “I heard Catherine’s screams, but I didn’t see the perp. No
sign of him here, either.”
    “I need to leave.” Catherine sidled past, and Randal grabbed
her arm.
    “Whoa! Slow down, Catherine. I can’t let you walk away
unescorted. We don’t know who attacked you, why he did it or where he is
now.”
    “Neither do I, and Eileen is waiting.”
    Obviously, they knew each other.
    Even more obviously, Catherine didn’t care about the connection
or Logan’s authority as an officer of the law. She seemed bound and determined
to leave.
    “I’ll escort her to the hospital.”
    “I don’t need an escort.”
    “Yeah. You do.” Darius followed her down the porch steps and
around the side of the house.
    She ignored him, not glancing over her shoulder, not telling
him to leave. Just walking, sunlight pouring over her bright red hair and
casting shadows beneath her eyes.
    He could go back to his renovation work, go back to his first
day of vacation and let Logan deal with Catherine and the person who’d attacked
her.
    He could, but he followed Catherine
to a rickety garage, anyway, because following her was a whole lot better than
going home to his silent house. His boss and friend Ryder Malone had insisted
that four years was too long to go without a vacation. He was probably right,
but vacation without family didn’t feel like much of a vacation. All it did was
remind him of what he didn’t have.
    Catherine hefted the garage door, but he pulled her back before
she could walk into the dank interior.
    “Let me check things out, first.”
    He expected her to argue, maybe tell him to go home, but she
stepped aside, staring out over the golden-brown fields, silent, stiff and
expressionless.
    He had the impression of careful control and deep emotion.
    That made him want to